2015 Vacation - Las Vegas

First day of our vacation... left early and drove to Vegas.  Our drive felt like a race because my parents were a couple hours ahead of us and we wanted to catch up to them.  We finally did in Mesquite because my parents decided to relax and play the slots.  haha

 Our kids did pretty good driving for 8 hrs the first day.  I gave them a bead for every hour and let them know how many they would get in a day.  That kept the questions of how much longer and what not away.  In fact getting a bead every hour made the hours go by really fast.

We arrived in Vegas and stayed in New York New York.  The first thing on the plan was for Brian and I to ride the roller coaster.  So much fun!  Then we had plenty of time to sight see.  The goal for our family was to see some sights and to see the fountains.

Hersey Store (Brian size syrup bottle)

Walking with Grampie

Fun pics

Fun pics

M&M store.. of course we found something NASCAR

The kids loved the sights and lights

So pretty.

One of the funniest thing in Vegas was the inappropriate things.  Kimmy had asked us before our trip if there are inappropriate things in Vegas and we had to laugh and tell her yes but we won't be dealing with them (thinking of gambling, drinking, etc).  We weren't expecting for the craziness we would see.  We drove down the Blvd so the kids could see everything.  Well one of the funnies was the naked people at Ceasar's Palace.  The kids thought that was funny.  Then after dinner that night, we were wandering thru Mandela Bay and found an entire wall of naked body parts.  Oh that had the kids rolling.  Then there were all the people dressed up wanting pictures for money.  My kids saw the weirdest Mickey and Minnie.  haha.  Oh gotta love Vegas.

It was a great place to stop and rest during our trip.  My mom got to enjoy a little gambling and we got to enjoy and see some new things.

A great way to start our trip!

Catch-up post

So I have been absent for a bit on my posts but I promise we have been living life.  I was going to start my post on our vacation but looking back at pictures, I realized I haven't posted about all our happenings before our vacation.  So here goes some catch-up:

Dance Competitions and Pictures:

Here are the boys at Kim's 1st Competition... bored!

Before dance pics

During Pictures

Her team

Her favorite stunt this year.

Disneyland!

Fun Days during Spring Break and Easter:

Boondocks fun.

Time with Grammie and Grampie

Easter (yes Matthew was happy)

Treehouse Museum

Baby Animals Days

Train during Baby Animals Days

Easter weekend

Easter egg fun

Easter morning

Odds and ends:

2 teeth pulled... poor kid.

Soccer season!

Aggie Spring Football

Aggie fun

Fun Hair Styles

Matthew's Baptism Pictures

Picture fun with Nicole

Wellsville Mile

Kim proud of herself after the Wellsville Mile

 So as you can see, we have been very busy and having lots of fun!

My Hero!

After finishing a sweet love story book last night made me reflect on my own love story.

Back in High School, I experienced love and heart break.  When I think of being heart broken, I picture a heart shattered into pieces that need to be put back together.  My heart break was different.  I was so in love with this person and when our relationship ended, he actually took a piece of my heart with him.  I never felt like my heart would be whole again.  That is how I would describe my broken heart.

Many years of dating men (boys really), I started to wonder if I would just have to deal with a 3/4 heart and just be happy with whom I could find.  Then one blind date, my life changed forever.

It was a time where I lived by myself in my apartment, had my career going, and was getting set in my ways.  I was very independent and lived life how I wanted to.  The only problem was I was lonely.  Many friends and family were setting me up on dates, trying to help me find that special someone.  Unfortunately their choices were falling short of my approval.  Unlike most women, I had a list of things I did not want to see in a husband.  It was amazing to me how many men were doing my list and that did not give me much hope.

Then one day a friend at work, one whom sat back and observed my dating life, suggested a blind date with her friend.  Her reasoning for setting us up, we had NASCAR in common.  We both enjoyed the sport and loved to discuss it.  By this time, I had given up on finding someone that would be perfect for me.  I agreed to the date, figuring we could argue about NASCAR to entertain us thru the night.

My first meeting and impression of Brian was his truck.  I saw him coming down my street and I was happy to see a manly truck!  That made me think there was potential in this man.  When I opened the door, I was greeted by a cute smile and "Hi" in such an attractive, manly way.  I was happy with this set up.  The night continued on with me just happy to be having such a fun time.  Brian and I enjoyed discussing NASCAR and the different drivers we liked.  But we also found many other things in common:  softball on the same night, a love for golfing, football, and generally all sports.  He too had his career going strong and was pretty set in his ways as well.  Finally I am dating a man!  And a gentleman to boot.  He was very insistent on opening my door and making sure ladies first.  This was something I wasn't used to and was surprised that men like this even existed in this day and age.

I will admit, I was smitten after this first date.  I hoped and prayed there would be a second date.

I could go on and on about how our courtship went and how we fell in love and got engaged... maybe another post.  I can honestly say though that Brian came into my life with the missing piece of my heart.  The best part is that the piece he brought was bigger and stronger and better than the piece that was missing.  I truly found the love of my life.

My hero!

11 Years Old

11 Years ago today we were blessed with our beautiful daughter, Kimberly Nicole Peterson.  She was a little cutie.  She had the cutest birthmark on her bum (and she still has it).  She has always had an obsession with her hair.  She used to play with it while sucking her thumb as a little toddler.  She still loves to play with it.  She loves to play anything and everything, inside the house or outside.  She is a girly girl and loves sparkle and glitter.  She is my dancing queen.  Loves every kind of dance and is good at it.  We love her so much!

Kimberly at 8 months old.

1 Year old

2 Years old

3 Years old

4 Years old

4 Years old

4 Years old

Kindergarten Picture - 5 Years old

5 Years old

1st Grade Pic - 6 Years old

6 Years old

2nd Grade Pic - 7 Years old

7 Years old

8 Year old Baptism Pic

3rd Grade Pic

4th Grade Pic

5th Grade Pic

Happy Birthday Beautiful!  We love you!

Happenings

Where has a month gone?!  It has almost been a month since I posted something.  That either means we have been extremely busy or nothing exciting has happened in a month.  Believe me, it is never the latter!

There is always a couple busy events in February with Girl Scouts.  One is World Thinking Day.  This is an event that is celebrated all over the world.  Here in the valley, we hold a fun event for the entire family.  Each troop does a country... so that means we learn about that country and display what we learned.  We also get to try foods, crafts, games, etc from that country.  This is always a busy thing for the troop.  This year we just threw an email out to the families of our troop to see if anyone had a country they had an interest in and would be willing to help.  Luck have it, we had a family from El Salvador and they were super excited to share their country.  So much so, they did the entire World Thinking Day event for us.  It still was work for me but so happy to have someone else do most of the work.  Really fun event for the family.

After that big event was over, my birthday crept up again.  I swear the years are flying by now.  My family wanted to celebrate a couple of days worth.  Saturday my hubby and kids bought my favorite cake (carrot) and decorated the house and we went out to dinner with my parents (part of that was also because Kimberly had a performance that night).  Then on my actual birthday, my parents came to spend the day with me and bought me this cute Jr cake.  It was a fun day and then went out for dinner that night with my in-laws.  I do feel spoiled on my birthday, even if I don't want them to come.

 The weekend after my birthday was cookie delivery day.  This is the day that all the valley's cookies arrive.  That may not seem like a lot but when you see 3000 cases of cookies, it just blows you away.  My hubby and I love to go help sort these cookies to the troop for a couple of reasons... great exercise and we get our troops cookies early.  But that also means we have to sort cookies for our troop and each girl.  It is a busy, and exhausting day but glad to have it over.

This week was my dad's birthday.  We love to celebrate our parents bdays.  We love to spoil them and love them up.  My dad turned 65 this year and doesn't look it. He has been working really hard on his health lately and I am so proud of him.  We want him around an awfully long time.  Below are just some fun pictures of the kids and him on his birthday.  Kimberly sat on the saddle for dad at Texas Roadhouse.  Jacob was obsessed with giving pinches for Grampie to grow!

 This picture makes me smile.  Jacob's middle name is Lewis after my dad.  Jacob is seriously a little Lewie.  They have about the same quirkiness.

I wish I could say that life will slow down now but I know better.  We have been up to our eyeballs in cookies at our house.  Happy to say they are almost all delivered.

Spring is on its way and I can't wait.  I am ready to get out and walk!