The Tunnel

After each game the parents get together and form a tunnel for the kids to run through. They love it! Here is a snipit from last weeks game.

Nathans Big Day

Today was all about Nathan, and he loved it! We started the day with him receiving an award for a patriotic original piece of artwork, fancy talk for winning a patriotic coloring contest. His school put on a remembrance assembly today inviting the local veterans, police, fire, military and the Mayor. Nathan's picture was picked out of all of the 1st graders and he received an award for it, presented by the Mayor, which he loved! He said he has never been that close to a Mayor and was really nervous. He said he had to keep telling himself he could do it. We were so proud of him. He takes pride in coloring inside of the lines and using different colors to accent buildings and things so it was nice that he was recognized. After all the football practices/games that Kylee has had I think he was feeling a little left out so I think the praise from today helped.

Then tonight he went to his first ever Karate class. His stomach was a wreck the whole way there. Once he got in the class he loved it. He got to punch the stand up punching bags, and break a plastic plate in half...there were seams that it broke at. We signed him up through the city for a 6 or 7 week course to see if he likes it, if he does we will keep him going. Since he was asking how to earn the colored belts I think he liked it!

Here is the Mayor giving a speech about September 11th.

Here is Nathan walking up to receive his award. This is the point he said where he started telling himself he could handle it.
The lady to the left is his Principle congratulating him. The Mayor is on the right prepared to hand over his certificate.

All of the winners. Nathan looks so proud in this picture. Nathan and the girl on his left won for coloring, the older two girls won for poetry and there is a young man at the microphone that wrote an essay about 9/11 that brought tears to my eyes. He did such a great job.

Such a big smile. He was so proud of himself, as were we.

There is the certificate, it's official.

Here is Nathan at Karate tonight. He starts with a white belt. If he continues to like it I will need to go get him a Gi to wear.

This picture he is watching the older kids and his face says it all...wow!

Cowboys!!

Football season has begun for Kylee. This year she is playing on the Cowboys team and loving it. We just finished her third game and they did a wonderful job. The team they played is the best in the league from what we hear and the last two games they have scored in the upper 40's or 50's against the other team. They only scored 24 tonight against 13. Way to go defense for grabbing their flags! Kylee has been able to play offense and defense and has enjoyed the both. We are so proud of her. She also played in the NFL Pass Punt Kick and was able to take first place...now it may have helped that she was the only one in her age group:) Next stop the NFL Pass Punt Kick in Glendale. As you can see we take our football very seriously - she has her hair painted silver and blue with blue stars on each side, Go Cowboys!

I love this picture of Kylee she looks so grown up. Her eye black says "Dead Meat"

This is the football stance Kylee always does. She looks like she is ready to take off running!
I am thinking the stance is intimidating the guy on the other team...
Huddle time. The guy on the right is Head Coach Darrell, and the left is Assistant Coach Zach. They have done a great job teaching the kids this season.

She is running so fast it made the picture blurry...hehe.

Mid-play looking for the ball.

She has so much fun playing.Here is her hair after getting ready for the game. Blue stripe down the middle. She has silver glitter all along the sides, with the blue stars...hoping to blind the other teams players with the glitter:) Just kidding.

Defense is ready

This picture is great! Kylee and Coach look so happy. I love it! Can't wait until the next game.

My 30th Birthday

On August 14, 2010 I turned 30 years old!!! EEK!! I have to say I had the best birthday ever this year. On my birthday I had some friends and family over to celebrate with a party. My friend Cyndi put together some fun games for us all to play, Jeopardy and The Not So Newly Wed Game. Scott and I have a wonderful group of friends to share our time with. We had an absolute blast. Scott surprised me with this lovely cake pictured below. Oh so nice of him.

Kathy, me and Cyrilla. You can only barely see it, but Cyrilla brought me a glass that says "30 and Flirty" with polka dots. So cute.
Mika, me and Cyndi.
Traci, Gail, me and Bob.
Marc, me, Beth and Jeff.

Here is the Jeopardy game Cyndi put together. She put so much work into making my birthday night a blast. Thank you!

BIRTHDAY PART 2:

Scott's gift to me for my birthday was a weekend away to Las Vegas, just the two of us. Perfect gift! With the help of Grandma, Granny and Grandpa we were able to get away for the weekend. Thank you mom for flying in and spending the weekend pampering my kiddos and making amazing cupcakes so they didn't care that we went away. And thank you Granny and Grandma for handling our little puppy - actually she is not so little anymore, she is now 50lbs!!

Scott and I hit the road early Friday morning and when we got to Henderson, NV we each got 90 minute massages which were wonderful and the perfect start to a weekend getaway. Once we arrived in Vegas we checked into the fabulous Bellagio, just as amazing as I had imagined. As we were preparing to go down stairs to dinner Scott pulled another trick out of his bag, a bottle of 1993 Dom Perignon champagne. He really thinks of everything. We toasted...well, GOT toasted and then headed down to dinner at Bobby Flay's "Mesa Grill". Here are some pictures of our wonderful weekend.

This is an actual chocolate fountain inside the Bellagio. You can see the white, milk and dark chocolates flowing down the fountain. It was quite amazing.

The Bellagio had an indoor garden which was spectacular. There were over sized planters and shovels, ants and lady bugs, and wonderfully smelling flowers everywhere.

Here is more of the garden. These mushrooms had black lights turned on them at night time to make them glow. Behind me you can see a frog that is covered in flowers.

Even more of the garden. On the last morning we ate breakfast at the cafe that overlooks this garden, we could smell the flowers while we ate.

Here are the large ants fighting. Okay I really liked the garden which is why there are so many pictures.

So I have the goofiest smile in this picture, but I was so excited to get my picture with the singing Elvis's in Vegas that I had to post it.

Mesa Grill is in Caesars so we had to pass through it. Here is Scott posing with the Gods.

We were so excited to be able to eat at Bobby Flay's restaurant. We ended up getting there around 8pm which means the wait was two and half hours, so we sat in the bar to eat. It actually turned out really nice that way. We had a little love seat all to ourselves.

Here is our dinner. We are such goobers taking pictures, but like I said we were excited. I had spice rubbed pork tenderloin with a tamale and we shared mashed potatoes. Scott had rib eye which he said was fabulous. We both thought our meals were incredible.

After dinner we walked through the forum shops in Caesars and then I had to see the fountain show outside the Bellagio. I totally felt like we were in Oceans 11:-) We were taking a picture of ourselves with the water in the background and Scotty surprised me with a kiss. I do love that man!

Here we are at the Caramel Lounge. We stayed out until 2am. That is really late for us considering I fall asleep around 10 every night. We had so much fun

The next day I was on a mission to ride in a Gondola at the Venetian. On our way we stopped at Serendipity 3. I am pretty sure they try to kill you with food. I ordered an omelet and ended up with a six egg omelet along with breakfast potatoes. Scott ordered pancakes sausage and eggs and got two hot dog sized sausage links, two huge pancakes and three eggs, oh and a side of bacon. Craziness. Needless to say we felt very wasteful when we couldn't even eat half of the food. Here is Scott in the restaurant.

There are no words....

I regret not buying these. So funny lookin'

Okay after walking forever in the intense heat we made it to the Gondola ride, behind Scott. Well since it was so hot there was no way we were sitting in the sun so we went inside to try the one through the forum shops. Well that line was at least an hour, so I got to see the Gondola ride, not actually ride it. Oh well, we enjoyed each others company during the tour of casinos on the way.

Here we are in the Venetian's lobby.

This waterfall is inside the Venetian.So beautiful!

This is the Wynn. Those are fresh flower balls hanging down. They were so pretty.

We watch Top Chef every year so we had to go eat at Tom Colicchio's "Craftsteak" restaurant. That was the best meal I think I have ever had. The food was wonderful, the service was great, and the atmosphere was perfect for a romantic night out.

Here is a picture of our food that night. I got filet and scallops and Scott got the rib eye again. And we both finally tried a risotto - with mushrooms and snap peas, best risotto we've ever had, since it's the only one we've had. So yummy, can't wait to go back.

After dinner we went to the Cirque du Soleil "O" show back at the Bellagio. I was able to snap this picture of the clown before I was told that no pictures were allowed...oops. I will tell you it is incredible what some people's talents are. That show was insane. The way they use the water and how the stage is constantly changing the water's depth was crazy. Worth every penny on tickets, the highlight of our trip!

Thank you Scott for an amazing birthday filled with wonderful surprises and some true quality time spent together. I love you more each day that I spend married to you!

And thank you Mom, Granny and Grandpa for taking such great care of the kiddos, cats and the dog so I didn't have to take the Valium after all...lol.