blair and maisy

September 29, 2011

Birthdays

Guess who turned 7 and 5...

Xander's party at our house.

Complete with a cotton candy machine.

Do you like the spongebob pinata I made?

Guess where Will requested for his birthday party to be?

Good old Chuck E.

There have been a lot of festivals going on right around the base, and this was one a few weeks back:

facepainting, crafts, ice cream cups, games...

and don't forget the pony rides.

As for the rest of this month, it's been pretty annoying having Blair gone up to Jackson (over 3 hours away) with only one day off a week. Each month changes, so he's back in October luckily. We decided to go up two of the weekends, and visit him. One of them happened to be over that weekend when there was a big tropical storm down here, so that was nice to be gone for it. We went to the Museum of Natural Science up in Jackson with Blair:

Playing with a turtle.

They had a big frog exhibit, which was fun to see so many different kinds.

This frog had fun flashing us. He's in between a tadpole and a frog still, as he's in water. It was the funniest thing, because he'd swim all fast looking for a hiding place, and then just freeze right in front of us for like 5 minutes. He wasn't even touching the glass, just standing perfectly still like 3 inches away from it. he did it twice!

Claire's favorite thing right now: birds. Her voice gets all high pitched with excitement and she points and says "buh, buh!" whenever she sees one.

They had some good aquariums there.

...and fun hiking trails.

...until I looked up and saw this HUGE SCARY spider like a foot above out heads, and noticed them all over the place!

So tropical storm Lee left it's mark up in Jackson too. A whole bunch of the trails were still closed a week later.

August 21, 2011

I guess it's really Goodbye... over 2 months later.

I have always hated goodbyes, and have tried to avoid them like the plague. On my mission I didn't even tell my last companion that I was going home, until the day beforehand, just so that I wouldn't lose my focus and have to talk about and dwell on it, and say goodbye to everyone and be sad. It was always a weird feeling at the end of each college school year knowing that once I left, the next year would be different with people missing, and only fading memories of the fun times we had remaining. Unfortunately I know that I have a horrible memory too, and every time I close a chapter, and a new one begins, that I won't remember things like I want to from the previous ones. I guess that being in the military isn't going to help with this either with all of the moves. Though I'm excited and anxious when there are adventures, new opportunities and people around the corner, and even sometimes eager for something new- I'm melancholy thinking of fond memories of wonderful times and friends that are now in my past, and all I can hope for is that we keep in contact, and can hopefully meet up in the future- though I don't want to admit it would be different.

Goodbye Vegas.

Goodbye water shows.

Goodbye beautiful Bellagio displays.

Goodbye affordable activity pools.

Goodbye Claim jumper and Townsquare.

Goodbye being near enough to family to get lots of visitors.

Goodbye Lied Children's Museum

Goodbye to having nearby cousins.

Goodbye camping with Vegas friends.

Goodbye feeding the carp at Lake Mead.

Goodbye pump it up, and bounce u.

Goodbye Red Rock.

Goodbye cool hikes.

Goodbye fun times with the Fairbanks.

Goodbye Vegas shows.
Goodbye houseseats where we got good deals.
Just for the record, I don't want to forget what shows we saw, so this is going to be long.

Music

Lion King

Jersey Boys

Producers

Mamma Mia

Barry Manilow

Recycled Percussion

Lenny Kravitz

Magic

Magic and Tigers of Dirk Arthur

Superstars of Magic

Super Duper Magic Show

Jackpot Bird Show

Lance Burton

Nathan Burton

Impressions

Gordie Brown

Other

Blue Man Group

Matsuri

Tournament of the Kings

Indoor Skydiving

Wax Museum

Gondola ride, Paris

Sam Boyd

Monster Truck Rally

Football Games – UNLV football and Locos football

Thomas and Mack

Walking with Dinosaurs

Cirque de Soleil

Mystere

Museums

Children's Museum

Liberace

Natural History

Spring's Preserve

Movies at the District, Red Rock, Lake Mead, Hoover Dam,

Henderson Ampitheatre, parades and events, good parks, Mt. Charleston,

Drive-in movies, Jazz at the Lake...

Goodbye school friends and get-togethers.

Goodbye Lis and Mindi

Goodbye birthday fun.

Goodbye ward friends! You guys are so fun. I miss many other SVR girls too.

Goodbye Nelsons. Goodbye free ride day at Buffalo Bill's and Christmas lights at Ethel M's.

Goodbye to our kid's friends.

Goodbye girl's dinners.

Goodbye laughing all night in St. George.

Goodbye Claudia and Ira.

Goodbye Laitinens.

So here we are, making new memories now. I just focus on keeping busy and having fun, and then I don't have time to dwell on the good old times I guess. Xander & Will both started school and preschool at the beginning of August, so that keeps me busy. I've already been to a recipe exchange, and been invited to a few girl's nights with different people, and I have a pedicure friend. We have a couple of playgroups we go to each week. Blair's Internal Medicine department had a cookout and crawfish get-together, a shrimp boil at the beach, and I guess a fish fry is next on the list :) We're lucky that we have a good ward with plenty of great church people around. We went to Baton Rouge a couple of weeks ago and stayed overnight with some friends that we knew from before. We went to the temple there, and it was great. Only 2 1/2 hours away- I can't believe that's the closest one!

Hello nice neighborhood.

Hello Mr. Turtle cutting through our front yard.

Xander & Will love their new fish.

We went to Gulf Island Water Park a few weeks ago and the kids loved it.

Check out this slide.

My sweet little Claire is walking all around now. It is the cutest thing to see her come around the corner with her little dolly that she likes to carry around and take care of.

The funnies

Will 12/14 " Mom can you please pour the milk for me because it’s almost full, and there’s a 65% chance that I’ll spill it."

11/14 Me: Why did you dump out all the toys?

Claire: Because I was trying to find something to play with

Me: What did you find?

Claire: The glow in the dark dinosaur

Me: Then why didn’t you put the other toys back?

Claire: Because I had to use the bathroom, so I just runned.

Claire 11/14 "Mom I can’t find any of my jammies, so should I bring you the sew kit so you can sew me some?"

Claire 11/14 "What do these constructions say?"

11/14 Claire: Mom Can I have this?

Me: Sure

Claire: Yes!!! Mom, thanks for asking me!

Claire 11/14 "Oh my Geez"

Claire 11/14 "I had a great dream last night. I got to see Dixie, and eat shrimp!"

Claire 11/14 "Our scarecrow fell over, but we’ll still be able to find our house because you know the numbers!"

Will 11/14 "The only good thing that happened to me today, was that Kord gave me a penny. But then I lost it."

Claire 9/13 "I love polka-dot butterflies."

Claire 9/13 " This pencil needs to get sharpt. Can I sharpt this pencil in myself?"

Claire 9/13 after pulling a piece of tape off of something successfully, "I am a great job."

Claire 8/13 "One time a dog pooped on the grass."

Me, "Why are you telling me that?"

Claire, "Because it was weally gross, PU!"

Claire 8/13 I walked in and exclaimed what a mess it was. "I didn't got that out," said Claire pointing at one little thing.

Claire 10/12 "Ehhhhh he he, ehhh he he."

Gaurd at the Airforce gate, "That sounds like a fake cry."

Me, "Yep."

Claire, "Ehhh he he, ehhh he he. It NOT a fake cwy."

Will 10/12 "Mom, could I miss school on Wednesday, because they're going to learn something really hard like minus?"

Me, "Well what would you do the next day when they were still learning more about that?"

Will, "No mom, we don't have to make up the homework when we miss."

Claire 10/12 "You not funny Will."

Claire 10/12 (almost in tears with the saddest little voice because she wanted all of the toys) "Mommy, brothers not sharing a me."

Claire 10/12 chasing her brothers around slowly with her arms outstretched says, "Bwains, bwains, bwains!" just like a real zombie.

Will 10/12 "Xander is white, and I'm white, and mom's white and Claire is white and dad's a little white."

Will 3/12 "Dad and I are getting gooder at disc golf."

Xander 3/12 seeing frozen peas in his drink that had spilled into the icebox, "Mom, there are green cotton balls in my drink."

Will 12/11 "I know something that's not a word: spit-buggar."

Claire 12/11 "Ha ha, fuh-ee (funny)"

Will 12/11 after he broke a plastic fork, "I would like to put it in recycling because that saves the world."

Will 11/11 as he rubs the carpet, "I like this house because it's hairier than the other one."

Will 9/11 "Mom, could you call my nickname 'shark' please?"

Will 9/11 in a prayer while Blair was away for a month, "Bless that we would ever see dad again, and if we drive there it wouldn't be too long."

Will 3/11 after I asked him how primary was, he said, "I was the 1st kid in class. I thought I was going to have to taught myself."

Will 3/11 "Mom, is today fast Sunday."

Me "What is fast Sunday Will?"

Will, "When we eat really fast."

Will 3/11 "Xander is saying mean things, like that I'm not the leader."

Blair told Will to go to the bathroom with him while we were out somewhere and he was doing the potty dance 3/11, "Hey I had to go to the bathroom too!"