Las Vegas...

For my birthday this year we went to Vegas. Clayton and I both had never been and thought it would be cool to go. My parents also joined us on the trip. We stayed at the Golden Nugget downtown. The hotel was actually sold out for the weekend. We stayed in the Carson Tower and it was really nice. If we were to go back to Vegas I think we would stay on the strip.

The first thing that we did when we got off the plane was eat. We landed in Vegas about 10AM which is noon Houston time and by the time we got our luggage and rental car it was way past our lunch time. We stopped and ate at IN-N-OUT Burger. The place was crowded and people were even taking cabs to grab some lunch from here. Our meal was good, the only bad thing is that you either have to eat their sauce or eat your burger with no sauce. After we ate we went to the strip to see the M&M World and pick up our tickets for the show we were seeing that night. We had some time to kill because my parent's luggage didn't make it on our flight; we had to go back to the airport after 2 PM to pick up their luggage.

Our first stop on the strip was the M&M World, this place was huge. There are 4 stories filled with M&M stuff. We all were looking for the wall of M&Ms and finally found it on the 2nd floor.

We picked up some M&Ms and headed on

our way down the strip. We made our first Vegas mistake. There needs to be signs stating that the Strip appears to be shorter than it really is. We figured that the Mirage was not that far. Well we walked just under 2 miles. On our way we saw some interesting things. I saw a place called Fat Burger that is open 24 hours. I was trying to take a picture of Chewbacca on the street, I inadvertently also got a picture of a white Eskimo.

After our long walk to the Mirage to pick up the tickets my dad decided to grab a cab to get back to the car. We stopped by the airport picked up my parent's luggage and then headed to the hotel to rest a little before we met up to eat dinner and go to our show. We saw the Beatles Cirque Du Soleil. The show was amazing. There was not a bad seat in the entire theatre and the show was jam packed with action. Clayton and I had never seen a Cirque du Soleil performance and this one made us want to see more. There are many more shows but we decided to leave those for another time. 

 

We kept it pretty easy on our second day. We walked around Caesar's Palace and the Venetian. Both Hotels were amazing, and had so much to see and so many shops to spend your money at. As if people were not spending enough money gambling. We came back to the hotel to rest up and headed out to eat some dinner before we watched the fountains in front of the Bellagio. The show was pretty cool. I cannot imagine having the job of making sure everything is timed correctly, that would drive me insane. We also saw the talking statues in Caesar's Palace. There are two fountains and we saw the newer one, the older one was under construction. 

On our second day as we were walking around we passed by one of the fountains outside and I noticed there was a guy walking around the fountain. At first I thought he was there to clean it but upon a better look he was stealing coins. Once he realized people were looking at him, he bolted.   

 Everywhere we looked all weekend, especially Friday there were people getting married. My mom read an article that said 3,500 marriage licenses were applied for listing 11/11/11 as the date the couple will be married. Typically the county office will get 1,000 applications for a period of 60 days. Just about everyone had the same idea and wanted to get married on a special day. All I can say is, don't go to Vegas on 12/12/12. 

We had a lot of fun. I am not sure I would go back. If I were to go back it would be for the shows and the other activities around Vegas like the Hoover Dam.   

Trick or Treat Smell my feet Give me something good to eat

Halloween is Clayton's favorite Holiday. He eventually wants to have a haunted house in our home and even has the plans outlined in his head. Each year he buys a couple new items and eventually he might have enough to have a haunted house.

We decided to carve out Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas. I couldn't get a great picture but I tried my best. I also somehow picked out a pumpkin that had a very thick shell and the carve materials that we had wouldn't go all the way through so we had to bust out some of our knives to finish out the design.

Toby was not too excited about this pumpkin and would stare it down every chance he got.

Here are some pictures of the decorations around the outside of the house. Each year these decorations will  get bigger and better.

Lexi was very interesting throughout the night. She did not like any of the costumes; even the cute little kids freaked her out. Every time someone would come up the driveway she would run and hide behind our chairs. Clayton and Lexi have a special bond; they are like two peas in a pod. Here are some pictures from the evening. Toby and I were pretty calm; he slept on my lap all night even as little kids were coming up to get candy.

Lexi did guard the candy bowl. She laid here for a while until someone would come up and then she would run. It was the funniest thing.

We had a pretty calm Halloween, we were expecting more kids than we got so we had a lot of extra candy at the end of the night. Clayton brought the extra candy to work and made his station pretty happy.

Let the Painting Begin...

When Clayton and I bought our house there was a lot of painting that needed to be completed. Most of the common rooms were painted before we moved in, but there is still a lot to finish.

We decided to start with the some of the smaller rooms, the bathrooms. Clayton's parents came into town, Mona and I painted while the boys did other various things around the house. We got a lot accomplished the first day and slowly started to lose steam.

The guest bathroom was a yellow/beige color that did not go with our black/white/grey theme. We decided to paint over the yellow/beige color with a grey. I took a couple before pictures; Clayton is taking down all the hardware so that Mona and I can start to paint.

The bathroom didn't take us as long as we had originally thought. After we painted the walls we also replaced the light fixture and framed the mirror. We still have some touch up painting to do and we need to repaint all the base boards but overall I think it looks pretty good.
 

After the guest bathroom was painted we moved on to the master bathroom. Our master bathroom was multiple colors, the majority of the room was a light brown color but

the powder room was a very dark dark brown. We had to buy stain killer primer to paint over the brown so that when we came back and painted the light blue, the brown would not bleed through. 

At the end of the first day we had already put the first coat on the guest bathroom and finished most of the master. We would have to touch up a couple places in the guest bathroom and finish up the master the next day. Clayton actually picked up a paint brush and helped with the last little bit in the master.

We also changed the light fixture and framed the mirror in this bathroom. We have more to complete in the master bathroom than we do in the guest bathroom. We have to paint the cabinets and touch up a couple places here and there. We need to hang up all the hardware and put the room back together all the way but other than that it looks pretty good.

We have decided to go room by room and fix them up as we go. The next room on the agenda is to get rid of this awful yellow paint in one of the guest rooms.

1 Down... Many to go..

 

Today is Clayton and I's first anniversary. A year ago we were in the church getting married. I can't believe that a year has already passed. 

The Cake held up pretty well and it even tasted pretty good.

There were a couple pieces of frozen icing
but it was pretty well thawed out.

The picture is a little rough and a lot less
formal than the ones we took a year ago

Lately....

For Clayton's Birthday back in August we had a cookout and hung out with friends we havent seen in a while.

I only picked up the camera a few times so the pictures from the evening are slim to none.

Jenn and I were just about the worst washer players out there. Neither of us could score any points and they lowered the winning number a couple of times just so that our game would end. We had fun though!

  

 Matt and Jenn's little girl also came. Olivia is one of the best babies I know. She is content with just about everything.

 Before this picture I had tried to sit Olivia next to Chris while I flipped the ribs over in the Oven. She was not too happy about being left next to this strange guy. But a little while later she warmed up to him and even took a picture with him. Maybe next time she will Smile.

The dogs have been out of control lately. I think all the changes in the weather have given them extra energy. Let me rephrase that, Lexi has had extra energy and Toby has been dealing with her extra energy.

Most days Lexi is up in your face trying to get attention

Toby Loves to sleep the day away. Most days you will either
find him in the bean bag or in his bed in the Family room.



 

Here Lexi is trying to get Toby to play with her, but in true Toby fashion he is lying in his bean bag and playing tug of war. Most of the time he will get up and play with her but then there are other days that she has to come to him if she wants him to play.



Another instance of Lexi trying to get attention. She loves any kind of attention and she is always acting like she never gets any.  

My brother has been staying with us for the past week and Lexi has found herself a new friend.

Lexi Giving Matt the stare down.
She wants him to throw the toy for her

Matt went out of town for the weekend and
Lexi kept walking down the hall looking for him.
She decided to leave him some presents so he knew
when he got back he had a date with her.



Finally...

This morning Clayton called with some good news... I passed my last section of the CPA Exam.

The process was a long one for me, but I finally did it. Nothing can take the smile off my face today! 

Milestone

Today at lunch Clayton's Car hit an important Milestone....

Since we are talking about cars, I traded in my Maxima for this beauty...

Thank goodness its only for a couple of days while my car gets fixed...