Vegas Baby !!!

Ok wow, how to keep this short and let it all just be about the pictures !!! What started off being a joke in January about just getting away for some fun on my 40th with maybe just one or two of my closest friends just got bigger and bigger and come March 20th, 10 of us got on a plane for Vegas ... actually not 10 of us, let me see ... there was Colleen my neighbor which turned 40 the middle of last year, she left a day before us. There were my two closest best friends, Tina that turned 35 the day before me and Pam that turned 40 the month before me, we flew together, got an early start at 5h15 wow ... and I am not a morning person. Then Denver, an old friend from the Moms Club and her closest friend Jen they flew in a little later that same day. Then two of Tina's cousins, one from New York Lisa and Monica from Arizona they were there a day or two earlier than us and last but not least, Tina's step sister from California that she had not seen in 15 odd years, Allison and her best friend Heather, they drove in together, so girls from all over the country getting together in Vegas to celebrate some birthdays together, what fun :-)

Ok this next pic is of Tina, that afternoon she and her two cousins went to the Price Is Right taping in Vegas, they had lots of fun but unfortunately no one won anything.



Then early evening we all got together for the first time at Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris Hotel, what a nice evening, sitting outside right on the strip. I think this is the only picture we got of us all together.



Not sure where I was for this one ... finally got out of a picture, wow !!! Oh yeah this was before we arrived, Pam and I that is.



Pam and I at Mon Ami Gabi.



Then a funny thing happened, someone walked by on the strip and said to a guy sitting at the table next to us, directly behind me, 'I have been in Vegas 20 years and you are only the second celebrity that I have met' and shook the guys hand. So I asked the ladies on the table who he was coz I had no idea, anyway he is Kid from the band Kid 'n Play and he was also in a couple of movies I think, House Party was one of them I think ... anyway so later when he got up to leave, I guess since I didn't know the guy I wasn't shy and asked him if he wouldn't mind coming over for pics and well I quicky turned shy when he asked who's birthday it was and they all pointed to me ... and I got to get ripped off but have my picture taken with him, he had the girls crying with laughter and well now it's funny but then I was just so embarrased but wow, what a friendly guy and I guess that was nice of him, so here are a couple of pics of him and I.



Ok and this one of course made it to everyones Facebook page ... I know ... great right ? (hehehe).



Here's Colleen, I was to her left in the picture and he sat between us as you can see.



Other people we saw in Vegas, none of which I knew, some guy from the Sopranos (which I probably spelt wrong since I have never watched the program), Flavor Flav ... sorry on that spelling too coz I just think he is gross and some sports guys, Pete Rose and Don Shula, I give up. There was a guy that looked just like the New Moon guy I wish I had the guts to stop him for a picture for Karen and her kids but he was so hot ... I passed, sorry Karen.

Here's Tina and her two cousins, Monica and Lisa.



Then on the Sunday night before Tina, Denver, Pam and I went to watch the Cirque Show 'O' most of us that were still around went to an Irish Pub in the New York New York Hotel (Gavin hope you are proud :-)) here are some pics from there.



Some of us that were around for this picture.



Pam and I.



Heather and Allison.





Ok the Cirque Show ... wow I could write an entire blog posting just on that but it's just so hard to explain, I need to try and find a video skit and put it on here. It was amazing, we didn't have great seats unfortunately but that didn't matter at the end of the day, gosh, mind blowing !!!



Some random pics ...

Where we stayed, Planet Hollywood.



Denver, Jen and Tina tried out a nightclub one evening but stayed about an hour after feeling like the oldest gals in the club (hehehe) all dressed up for nothing.



Pam and I cruising the strip one afternoon.



Some of us ladies in front of those pretty fountains.



Then the last night we had hotdogs that my mom would die for, real American / New York Hotdogs apparently the best in the States ... not so sure about that but they are renown for their hotdogs, Pinks the place is called.



This ones for you mom ...



Oh and mom look at these other desserts we found on the strip for you :-) Oh and this was just one of their display cases ... too die for stuff at too die for prices (hehehe)



On board the plane on the way home. Me and my two closest friends, Pam and Tina.



Wow all that planning and it's all over with. I know they are already trying to plan the next trip together (hehehe) and Dave is already saying ... yeah in another 40 years, now how's that fair right ? We will see only time will tell. Thank you to everyone that did anything to make this trip happen, it was a wonderful break in a place that I totally love, I am sure a good time was had by all.

A very special thank you to my husband for allowing me to go, not that I asked permission or anything (hehehe) he pretty much had no choice but thank you for not protesting the trip and putting up with two sick kids when he himself wasn't well. Gosh he got a good dose of what motherhood is all about right, you think he appreciates me a little more now (hehehe) yeah right ... Love you babes !!!

Three Birthday Pics ... The Big 40 For Me !!!

We didn't do too much for my birthday because I thought with going to Vegas with my girlfriends the following week, it was a good idea to do a low key celebration with the kids and make it more about them than me which was nice. Thank you to everyone that sent cards, called, emailed, bought presents and did everything to make my day as special as it was :-)

Amber Playing At The Lego Store.

Whenever I go over to Concord Mills now we stop in at the Lego Store so she can plan with these giant lego blocks, she loves it and is into everything, this day though there were no other kids in there to play with :-( maybe next time.

Keeping The Family Contained !!!

How am I doing keeping everyone contained (hehehe), they were all in there to keep Amber quiet while I was doing dinner but the funny thing is that no one was really giving Amber attention with Dave on his laptop and Jade playing Ds but she was happy and that was the main thing, I just thought it was funny, this big house and them all in this tiny enclosure :-)

Quick Update On Us All

Not sure when I will get another chance as things are getting hectic right now, so much coming up in the next few weeks and before we know it, it will be Summer and Jade will be finished First Grade and well Amber will turn one ... can hardly believe that.

Ok so Jade is doing well at school, thankfully because after all the family visits last year, a big move, a new school and a new sister thrown in we were having a few problems with her but now that we are in a good routine, things seem to be much better and we are hoping that it continues till the end of the school year which is the beginning of June. She loves school and thoroughly enjoys learning, no matter what it may be, having said that she says she does not enjoy Spanish class because apparently they are not allowed to speak English from when they walk into the class, that must be hard for one that talks as much as she does (hehehe). That being said I hope she pays attention because in this country, one really has to know Spanish to further oneself career wise :-) so I am glad she is doing it at school. We are still doing Gymnastics although this year I feel that her teachers have not pushed her as hard so I am a little disappointed and so who knows what the new school year will bring and if we will continue on with that, maybe we will take on something else closer to home. We are having a few teeth issues with Jade and the dentist has said that she will probably need braces when she is a little older so dad better start saving since that costs an arm and a leg here !!! More than that I cannot tell you, her hair is growing nicely again and she once again wants to do Locks of Love come Summer but I told her we would talk about it closer to the time, I know daddy would love her to have longer hair but maintaining the longer hair in Summer is a tough one so we will see.

Amber is growing up fast and is starting to eat us out of house and home now that she is eating solids, like Jade she thoroughly enjoys pasta, not sure if she chews it though or just swallows it. Like Jade too she loves cooked carrots which daddy hates so Jade used to get all his but now has to share them with Amber, she is not impressed. She totally loves bananas too. She eats tons of snack food which I have to control during the day or she would eat too much I think, we have another two month on the bottle and then we are done with that too so for now I still want her to drink as much formula as I can get in her we will see what happens then. She enjoys toast, bagels and actually any kind of bread, again something Jade is hating to share with her (hehehe). For right now she eats cereal in the morning and a fruit, in the mornings it's jar fruit for the most part, we will be giving those up soon when she has more teeth, right now she only has the one tooth, at this stage Jade had many more so it's a little different this time around. Lunch is usually her bottle then she had another bottle at 4 ish in the afternoon, dinner I try and give her something that we are eating, pasta, rice or potatoes, then she gets shaved turkey, chicken or ham and either a vegetable off our plates if appropriate or a jar vegetable. I have been making a lot of smoothies lately and she loves them too, loves them too much actually coz there is some stuff in there she shouldn't have before she is one, like citrus and honey but in the small amounts that I give her, I hope it is ok. We were giving her some fruit juice that was watered down but the pediatrician said it was not necessary so we stopped that, now she gets water throughout the day with her snacks, she drinks it herself out of a sippy cup. Its funny she can handle the sippy cup but still won't hold her own bottle which is a pain in the butt but anyway.

As for milestones, she has been crawling and pulling up on everything for a good while now but now she is starting to cruise the furniture which is really cute but obviously more of a challenge. She also likes to walk on all fours but with her butt in the air so crawling on hands and feet and not hands and knees if that makes sense. Sometimes I feel sorry for Dave coz he lives with 3 very noisy females, but Amber takes the cake, she is so loud when she gets chatty, it's funny at first but then well to shut her up is another thing especially when you are trying to listen to something on Tv or Jade is reading or whatever. She has been saying MaMa for a long time and actually says something that sounds exactly like My MaMa which upsets Jade terribly but I told Jade she doesn't know how to say that it's only a sound. She says BaBa and has occasionally definitely said DaDa but Dave really hasn't paid it much attention sadly :-( She makes lots of other sounds too but most of it is just noise right now.

Naps have been a challenge, her little 30 minute naps in the morning and evening are now a thing of the past and her long nap now has also shortened, sometimes we get lucky and get a long nap but really 90 mins to 2 hours is the norm now. She has also become very verbal about what she wants and doesn't want, if you put her down for a nap and she is not in the mood golly she lets you have it but I am just learning to switch it off and eventually she goes off to sleep. She is good otherwise sleep wise, I still spoil her and have her fall asleep with me at night while I am watching Tv but I am sure that will come to an end soon too, I am just taking advantage of it while I can, so she goes off to sleep around 9pm and sleeps till around 7am sometimes later if we are lucky. Enough about Amber ...

Dave is Dave, he just plods along like normal, loving his new car though, thank God something makes him happy (hehehe).

Me, I am still working as much as I can, I get most of the Summer off which is nice but it does mean that I need to work as many hours as I can now so that I have money saved up for Summer. Other than my trip to Vegas for 4 days which is the 20th of March, we have a trip down to Florida in Summer and I told Jade that I would take her to Disney one of the days so I need to save for that and well Summer we do so much so ... yeah I just need to save, save, save. I am still working 4 half days a week and enjoying it thoroughly, I need to get back into my jewelry though, I am missing that a lot. So yeah, Vegas ... I cannot believe I am actually going, what started off as almost a joke has now let to 10 of us ladies all leaving our kids in hopefully our husbands capable hands and going to Vegas for a well deserved vacation. 4 of us ladies turn 40 within a couple of months of each other and Tina turns 35 Friday so there's a lot to celebrate, that is for sure. Gosh this is a big celebration year really, what with me turning 40 and Dave and my 15th wedding anniversary, I wish I had something excited planned for that too but I think next year I am going to work towards taking a cruise, kids too of course so I think I will let this anniversary slide and we will do the big celebration on the cruise :-) Anyway we are taking a trip down to Myrtle Beach over Thanksgiving and that is around our anniversary so it will be nice I hope :-)

Our trip to Florida is exciting because old friends of ours from SA have moved there and well we haven't seen them for years, they have young kids which will be cool coz Jade will have someone to play with and even Amber will have a playmate since I think their youngest is like a year old or something. Obviously a long roadtrip with Amber is going to be a challenge, in fact I have no idea how I will make that work but we will see, we are just excited to go down there and hang out with them.

More excitement for me is that my brother and Gigi have moved to Ireland, they arrived there yesterday and so far so good, they are loving it, cold and all. So yeah I am excited that they have finally made this move which they will never land up regretting and well they are so much closer to us too. They have even said they would love to come and spend Christmas with us this year but I am trying not to get excited about that, it's just too far off right now and much can happen between now and then especially with them not being settled yet and Gigi still interviewing for posts to specialise. I wish them lots of luck though, moves like these are hard but so very worth it. Oh and it's a closer holiday destination for us too ... I already told Dave my first trip over there is going to be a long weekend on my own :-) something else to look forward to one day, who knows when but when Amber is old enough we can all take a trip over there but I would love to get there soon after they have settled and know what is what but the reality is, it will only be next year probably, too much going this year.

Anyway what else can I tell you, all I know is I am going to be very busy over the next while so I might just have time to post some pictures here and there but nothing too much so hang in there ok ... I will be back at some point !!! Now every time I say that I am back sooner than later but thought I best put the warning out there just in case you don't hear from me for a while. And if it is not before Easter, Happy Easter to you all.

The Girls At Monkey Joes ...

Last week I took Jade, Vincent and Amber to Monkey Joes for an hour or two, it was Ambers first time and she did great :-) I wasn't even in there with her and well Jade popped by every now and again to say hi and most of the time Amber would pull up to try and see over the thing and see if she could see Jade, too cute :-)

Three Quick Ones Of Amber

One afternoon while feeding Amber I took these she just looked cute.



I have a bunch of these headbands they are so cute but she hates them so they don't stay on too long.

So Annoying !!!

Every time I get a new template I get this annoying text at the top of the page that makes it look so ugly :-( I will have to get Dave to look into the code and see if he can take it out !!!