A great date night!

Since living here, we have been fortunate enough to find wonderful friends and neighbors to swap babysitting with every few weeks so we can have date nights. I love them! Some nights we just go out to dinner, nothing fancy, but we just take our time, and enjoy our time together chatting and catching up after a busy week.

A few weeks ago, for our anniversary, Patrick surprised me with tickets to see this....

We went to go see it last Friday. It was AMAZING! I have seen this show before, a few times, but never the Vegas version. It is a little different, a little shorter then the original, but still amazing! The special effects and pyrotechnics are above any other Phantom show I've seen. Patrick had never seen this play before, so I was super excited for him to see it, and for me to see it again, I haven't seen it since I was in high school. I was like a little kid all day waiting to go. We decided we wanted to go eat somewhere close because we weren't sure how much time we would have, so I went online to look up what restaurants were in the Venetian (where Phantom was playing) and found this place....

Now I realize I may be behind on the times, but I have never heard of this place. It is apparently a "sister" restaurant to The Cheesecake Factory. And dang, was it good!! Not painfully expensive either like many places are on the strip. We loved it, had a wonderful yummy dinner complete with cheesecake for dessert. We are now huge fans of the Grand Lux Cafe!

Then we were off to the show!!

I had explained the basic story line to Patrick during dinner and told him which songs were my favorite, and how I was anxious to see what was going to be different in this one. We have heard nothing but good things about this show.

Once we got to our seat (which were awesome by the way! Using our "local's discount" we got such close seats {I don't think I've ever had such great seats at a play before} for barely more then the balcony price!) I felt like a kid waiting for Christmas morning, I was so excited. I was looking all around, checking out the Chandelier, and talking to Patrick more about the play.

It was a great night. We both L-O-V-E-D the show! Patrick was laughing at me because I was almost crying at the end... it was just that good! He said it was good, but not good enough to make him cry! Whatever! He's a boy!! It was that good.

Best anniversary present!!

Thanks Patrick!

It was a great night, except when we went to go pick up the kids, my friend/neighbor told us Landon screamed most the night!! I felt so bad! For both him and for her! No one wants to put up with a screaming baby, especially if it's not your own. I'm so grateful for good friends to put up with things like that! No worries, we are making her some kind of baked goods tomorrow for FHE to try and make up for the crying baby all night.

6 months...

How is it possibly possible that my baby is 6 months old already?!?! This is just flying by way too fast for me. I remember when Brayden was this age, I was SO EXCITED to see what would come next, what he would learn next. With my other 2 kids, it makes me a little sad, because now I know how fast it happens. Landon is already half way to his first birthday!

Some things about Landon at 6 months:

~he weighs 16 lbs. 4 oz. (25%)

~he is 26 3/4 inches long (50% At 4 months he was 26 inches which was the 90% I'm thinking that wasn't so accurate! I'm pretty sure he's grown more then 3/4 of and inch in the last 2 months)

~still no teeth (but they are very close to popping through) His brothers both had their first 2 teeth at 4 months... I guess Landon likes to take his time with things!

~he loves all the foods he's tried so far, and if you don't shovel it in fast enough, he'll let you know it

~he kicks his little chubby legs so fast when he's really happy, excited, or mad!

~no one can make him laugh as hard as his 2 big brothers, he thinks they are hilarious!

(here he is laughing at Conner instead of looking at me and the camera)

~he is becoming a very loud child, he has recently discovered how to make his voice very loud!

~his hair always sticks up a little. Maybe he is taking after his Grandpa Shumate! :)

(notice the hair similarities???)

~he can roll over

~he likes to roll under the couch, but then gets super mad once he gets stuck

~some of his toys get him pretty happy and excited!

~when he is tired, he snuggles his cute little face into my neck

~he likes to put everything into his mouth

~he prefers to stand on my lap, not sit on it.

~he gets super happy when he sees his Daddy

~since he has learned to roll over, he doesn't care as much if he sleeps on his side or not, but many times when I go to check on him, he is on his side

~he loves to "talk" to us

~he LOVES it when I sing "I love Landon yes sir-eeeeeeee!!!! He loves us and so you see, we are a happy family!" he laughs and smiles so big every time! (I have sung this to all my kids, and I still do, they still all love it. We will go through everyone in the family, even Maggie, the cat!) example:

~he is still quite a Momma's boy, if I'm too far away, he doesn't like it so much

~he is a DANG cute little boy! (not that I'm biased or anything!) :)

~he makes me smile everyday!

Red Rock Adventures!

Last year we went to Red Rock Canyon for the first time. (click here to read about it!) We had so much fun! We kept saying we were gonna go back. But life got busy. I was barely pregnant with Landon, then he was born, it was WAY too hot in the summer to go out there, school started again, and we just kept talking about going, but never did. So last weekend we FINALLY did! Patrick had been having a really rough few weeks at work, and was desperately needing a day of fun with the fam to get his mind off his stress and work. So we packed a backpack with snacks and water and headed out for a day of family fun.

First stop.... the new McDonald's that just opened by our house for lunch. We had no idea, but they were having a huge grand opening party that day with a radio station there and lots of giveaways and McDonald's characters.

They also had the birdy girl (I can't remember her name) but I didn't get my camera outta the car fast enough to get their picture taken with her.

It was SUPER windy that day, so we were unsure if we should really make the trip out to Red Rock, but we decided to risk it, and it totally paid off. It wasn't anywhere near as windy out there as it was up by our house. We went on the 13 mile scenic drive and made lots of stops to check out the view and let the boys climb on the rocks.

We decided to take a hike up a trail that on our visitors map said that it would lead to a small waterfall. We thought that sounded like a fun and short hike, and it was ranked as an "Easy-Moderate" hike, which we figured would be good for the kids.

So this was our hiking destination. It was just under a mile hike which we thought would be plenty long enough for the kids, all the way back into this mountain area and we should be able to find a waterfall! Cool!

So we started off.....

I must say... the trail DID start off pretty easy. Then it got a little more difficult. Mostly because I was carrying this.....

Landon loved every second of our hike. He was kicking and "talkin" and looking all around at things he has never seen before! It was cute!

Yes, he is SUPER cute, but he makes it very hard to walk across rocky terrain while being strapped to the front of me. I was terrified the whole time that I would trip and fall on him! Thankfully, that never happened!

We had to cross this to make it to the waterfall. Again, it was much more tricky with a little boy strapped to the front of me, but we all made it, and all stayed dry in the process, which I was totally shocked by!

After climbing, ducking, crossing, and balancing, we made it to the waterfall!

It was really cool. It was just a small waterfall (I'm not sure how well you can even see it in the pictures) but the boys thought it was SUPER cool! There were lots of rocks to play on and sand to play in. And they played and climbed for a while and had lots of fun!

After we had played for a while, we decided to start heading back towards the car. On our way back there was a spot that Conner saw a mouse eating an apple core in the bushes. What good eyes that kid has. It was kinda cool to see. As long as the mice aren't in my house, I don't mind them so much! :)

We got back to the parking lot where our car was and saw this sign...

I'm not sure how well you can see it, but it shows the directions for 2 different trails. We failed to see this sign BEFORE our hike, we apparently went on the harder of the 2 trails. We meant to go on the easier one! It really just made Patrick and I laugh at our mad hiking/map reading skills. Even the harder hike wasn't very hard, the boys had no problems at all. I think it was more my paranoia of people falling or tripping that was more the problem. Hey, I'm a mom, what can I say... I worry sometimes!

We had such a fun day! It totally wore the kids out! As we were driving home, I look in the back seat to find this....

...all 3 kids (you just can't see, but Landon was totally out too!) sound asleep.

We came home and made strawberry french toast for dinner, it was a WONDERFUL day!

Funny things....

My kids make me laugh all the time!

Last week during Primary, we were learning the song "Follow the Prophet", the verse about Daniel and the Lions Den.

Now lets backtrack a bit so you understand why this is funny....

A few years ago for Christmas, my oldest brother and his family gave a few of those Liken the Scriptures movies to us. One is about Alma and the other is about Daniel and the Lions Den. They are great. I like them, the boys love them, Patrick hates them... because he hates the cheesy songs they sing. I think that makes them cute! Anyways, these are usually what we watch on Monday nights for Family Home Evening if Patrick isn't home. They teach my boys something about the scriptures, and it's an easy, no brainer FHE for me. Their favorite one is the Daniel one. In this movie (if you haven't seen it) it tells the story just like in the bible, but does it in a fun way kids will understand. The part where Daniel gets put into the den with the lion's is my boys favorite part... they love lions! In the movie, the angel comes down into the den and touches each lion on the nose to make them vegetarians, so they won't want to eat Daniel. Then they sing a silly song about liking to eat veggies (now the movie is teaching 2 lessons, eat your veggies too! lol!) This is how Daniel survived the lions den in the movie. After he came out of the den, the lions went back to liking meat.

So now back to Primary last week. Again, we were learning the verse of "Follow the Prophet" about Daniel. So Brother Lea, the chorister, asks the kids how was Daniel protected while he was in the lion's den. As soon as I saw Brayden's hand go up... I knew exactly what his answer would be. Sure enough, he was called on to answer that question, and of course replied with "the Lord sent an angel to touch the lion's noses and make them vegetarians so they wouldn't want to eat Daniel!" He said it so matter of fact! It was so funny, I almost had to step out of the room from laughing so hard. It made most other teachers who heard him laugh pretty hard too. He had no clue why anyone was laughing! He was just so proud of himself for answering. Guess I should go and read the actual story to him so he knows that isn't EXACTLY how it was. It's pretty close though!

I heart that kid!

One Toothless Kid!

Over the past week, Brayden has lost his 2 top front teeth! I knew they were a little loose, but I had no idea they were THAT loose until one morning last week, he wakes up and is playing with it and wiggling it constantly. Knowing that it will most likely be a huge distraction at school, I tell him to go upstairs and show his dad and have him help pull it out. It was really just barley hanging on. So he did, and Dad pulled it out without hardly even trying. Brayden was very excited!

Then just about 4-5 days later, he comes home from school and asks me if we have any apples he can have for a snack. We didn't because it was almost time to go grocery shopping again and I had just put the last one in his lunch a few days before. He was very disappointed because he wanted to eat one to make his next tooth come out. I again told him that I bet his dad could help him to pull it out when he got home. So I went off to work to teach a class, and Patrick was home with the boys. Just before my class gets started, I get a text with a picture of my double-toothless kid! It made me laugh, it was so funny! Brayden pulled it out all by himself this time. So the Tooth Fairy had to make 2 VISITS to our house in less then a week! Geez, at this rate, the Tooth Fairy will run out of dollar bills before the kid runs outta teeth to leave her!

Oh yeah, and less then a month ago, he lost one of his bottom teeth!

Gotta love a toothless grin!

NASCAR weekend in Vegas!

Every year around this time, NASCAR comes to Vegas. Not usually a big deal for us, we are not big racing fans. But this year, a friend of ours got 4 free tickets to the Saturday race and asked Patrick if he wanted to go with one of the kids. Sure, why not... after all, who would turn down free tickets to something and it would be some good quality daddy-son time. So Patrick and Brayden headed out to the races on Saturday with Adam and Easton.

They had so much fun! I kept getting texts through out the day from both Patrick and Brayden about how much fun they were having. They even got to meet up with Patrick's dad and step-mom who come to town every year for the race. I think Brayden was in seventh heaven getting to spend the whole day doing something so fun with his dad.

They got to see some of the cars...

eat good food... ride around on Grandpa Patton's shoulders,

win prizes, meet the Air Force Thunderbirds... and they froze to death! It was kinda a stormy day on Saturday. But they had fun anyways! Brayden came home so excited to tell me all about it. He told me "Mom... that was the loudest day of my life!" Kids are so funny!

Well Conner felt a little left out... sometimes it's hard being a little brother. So I decided to make a special day for him, and we went on a mommy-son date! (Landon tagged along too!) Conner got to pick everything we did... and I mean EVERYTHING! We had a great time. I wish I had pictures but since Patrick took the camera, you'll just have to take my word for it. We started off out date with a wonderful lunch at McDonalds, complete with a Happy Meal where Conner got a Star Wars toy and tattoo, and a Dr. Pepper to drink, that is a BIG treat for my boys. Conner played a little at the playland and then we were off to Dairy Queen for chocolate ice cream cones. Conner had ice cream ALL OVER his little face! I mean it was everywhere, but he sure enjoyed his ice cream cone. Then we went to Target to look around (this was kinda for me!) but Conner ended up getting a new Hot Wheels car. Then we came home and played Wii, watched a movie, and made a cake together. It was so fun. As we were driving back home from Target, Conner says to me from the backseat... "Mom, I sure liked going on a date with you!" Oh, so sweet, that little boy knows how to melt my heart!!

It was a good weekend!

5 months ALREADY?!?!

It seems like I just posted about Landon being 4 months old! Geez, this is going by too fast for me!

Some things about Landon at 5 month:

*He loves to eat his solid foods. I can't shovel it in his mouth fast enough!

*Still no teeth, they keep trying to come in though.

*He rolls over from his tummy to his back immediately whenever you put him down on his tummy. He never spends more the 2 seconds on his tummy!

* He has rolled over from his back to tummy, then back again, but he has yet to do this for me. Only for his Daddy.

*He loves his little baby gym

*He is a huge fan of his excersaucer now. He jumps in it, "talks" to the toys on it, and tries to get them all in his mouth.

*He sleeps in his crib all the time now, not all night long yet, we still get up about 4 am for a bottle, but I'm hoping that soon he will be done with that too.

*I have just had to pack away his 3-6 months clothes and pull out the 6-9 month ones.

*He tries to hold his bottle when he eats

*He loves his Aquarium on his crib that plays music and the fish swim around.

*He talks and coo's all the time

*He still loves to smile super big at us all the time

*He still loves to play with his big brothers, and the defiantly love him

*He prefers to sleep on his side

*Is usually a very happy baby

*Makes us all so happy

We love this little boy!

Shhhh.... the baby is sleeping!

The other day I was sitting at the table chatting with one of my friends on Facebook while Brayden was playing Wii with a friend and Conner was at Preschool. Landon was happily playing in his excer-saucer for quite a while. When he started to get kinda fussy, and I realized it was probably nap time. Literally 1 minute later I get up from the table at find Landon like this....

Sound asleep in it! So cute!! He would kind of flinch a little when the flash went off, that is why his head is up more in the second picture, then it would slowly go back down. I quickly took a few pictures, and then put him in his crib. I love how babies can fall asleep in the strangest places and positions!

Valentines Day

This year for Valentines Day, Patrick and I decided to go simple! We usually do actually since our anniversary is just next month. So we went out on Saturday night to dinner and a movie... without ANY kids!! Yes, I finally left Landon! My friend said he did great! I'm so happy, I wasn't sure how he would be... he's kinda a momma's boy. Sometimes he cries a lot for Patrick when I'm not home. But she said he was great! Such a relief! We went to dinner at Chili's. Not super romantic or anything, but it's a place we both love and we didn't want to spend too much money. Then we went to see the Avatar in 3-D. I admit, I really didn't want to see it, Patrick did. But I was gonna be a nice wife and go with him... after all, I did drag him to see New Moon with me! :) I actually ended up liking it so that was an added bonus!On Sunday, Patrick woke up early with the baby and let me sleep in! Best present EVER!! All the mom's out there will agree with me on that! Once I got up, I made Patrick one of his favorite things for breakfast.... Biscuits and Gravy! Now in our 9 years together, I have tried to make this, and the gravy always turns out gross and tasting like flour. So I gave up a while ago on making this for him. He always asks his mom to make it for him whenever she comes. So when she was here at Christmas, she made it, and I realized that I could probably find a recipe for it online and then maybe I could finally make it for him. So I went to my fav online recipe source Allrecipes.com and searched it out. And this is what I found.

They turned out so yummy! Patrick LOVED it! I was so happy that I finally made good biscuits and gravy! Click here for the recipe! If you happen to want to try this yumm-o recipe, just FYI, this only made about 5 biscuits, so I doubled it and it was a perfect amount for our family.

After church, we came home and grilled steak and made crab legs. YUM!!! I forgot to take a picture of that though... we were too hungry I guess to remember! :)

Then for dessert, I made Patrick his favorite.... Bread Pudding. Neither one of us knew we liked bread pudding until a few years ago. So at Christmas time I decided to again look on Allrecipes.com and find a recipe to make my own. Again... I found a winner!!! Patrick L-O-V-E-D it!!! So I made it for him again for Valentines Day.

HERE is the recipe for that. Serve it with some ice cream and caramel sauce and it's to DIE for!!!!

After the baby went to bed, Patrick gave me a foot massage and back scratches... pretty much my favorite thing in the world! It was such a great weekend!

I was so happy to spend Valentines Day with 4 of the best Valentines around!