Cirque du Soleil

Last night Pat and I went on a much needed date, to Cirque du Soleil. It was so fun! I've never been to one of their performances before so this was a first and it was definitely entertaining!! I can't even begin to describe the things we saw! Some of it was kind of random and a lot going on a once but it really was SO cool! Since we were not allowed to take pictures, I'll post some I found on the internet so you can get the gist of it :o)

 

 

The Cirque du Soleil performance was called "Quidam".

 

Here is a synopsis-

The entire show is imagined by a bored young girl named Zoé who is alienated and ignored by her parents. She dreams up the whimsical world of Quidam as a means of escaping the monotony of her life. The show's title refers to the feature character, a man without a head, carrying an umbrella and a bowler hat. Quidam is said to be the embodiment of both everyone and no one at the same time. According to Cirque du Soleil literature "Quidam: a nameless passer-by, a solitary figure lingering on a street corner, a person rushing past. ... One who cries out, sings and dreams within us all."

Little girl Zoe, her father and "Quidam"

 

 

There was also this silent clown between acts that would invite people from the audience to come up on stage and do silly things with him. This picture is of when he took a woman from the crowd and pretended to be riding in a car... they end up "parking" and the clown very over dramatically wants to "make out" with her, and so you can use your imagination on how the rest goes...it was pretty funny and entertaining!!

 

Valentine's Day

We loved Valentine's Day! Pat and I gave Alexa and Preston little gifts that DIDN'T involve sugar because I knew Alexa would get plenty of that during her preschool Valentine's Day party!! I found this super cute and frilly little girl apron for Alexa, and we got Preston a toy dinosaur.
Alexa had a party at her preschool that we attended which was pretty fun. They had a little "dance party" with a Valentine's Day song (I've never heard it but it was cute). They had ice cream sundaes and brownies and had passed out all their Valentine's Day cards the day before so they got to open their personally decorated bags with all their goodies inside. Alexa loved it!
When we got home from the party there was a whole bunch of stuff laid out on the kitchen table for all of us! Grandma and Grandpa gave Preston and Alexa a few different Valentine's Day cards with suckers and candy and some coupons for McDonalds...AND they each had a V-Day card from their cousins, Amberly and Tristan.
I also had something waiting for me.... AN iPHONE!!! WAhoO!! Pat was so nice and got me this phone which I have wanted for sometime but had been content with my non-data package, incoming and outgoing text and phone calls ONLY phone for sometime, but it was time for a change! I totally love it! I'm trying not to be glued to it 24/7, but I love that I can have my ipod and cell phone as ONE!! :o) Oh and Pat also got me some very good smelling perfume and lotion from Victoria's Secret (oh and some chocolates).
I ended up getting Pat some cologne and hair/body wash from V.S. too. It smells sooo good!

Preston and Alexa

Preston was feeling very lovey to Alexa at her Valentine's Day party. He kept giving her lots of hugs and kisses!

Preston LOVES drinking fountains and was excited to find one just his size!

The Bus Kids
Grace, Aston, Nichola, and Alexa

Silly ol' boy!

Tongue Dye...AKA "Fun Dip"

Birthday, Christmas and New Year's Eve 2012

A lot has gone on this past December so I'm just going to list the highlights of this month because I otherwise would probably write a novel...

-I celebrated my 26th birthday on December 7th by going to Mechie's Frozen Yogurt with my family and some friends from church (way fun! :o)
-I also had a little family birthday party and my mom made some delicious, from scratch, vanilla/chocolate swirl cake, with homemade frosting (yum!!)
-Alexa had a preschool Christmas party that Pat and I were both able to attend. She had been looking forward to this party for a long time and was so excited the day it came!
-We had a ward Christmas party on Dec. 15th and the theme was "The Polar Express" -(very cute!) We wore our pajamas, the kids got their "train tickets" and someone read "The Polar Express" book in Santa's big chair.
-Santa came to the ward Christmas party and Preston didn't freak out when I sat him on his lap! (he did look at him funny though!) Alexa LOVED it! Alexa asked Santa for a Cinderella dress-up dress and Cinderella the movie.
-We spent the night at my parents house on Christmas Eve so we could do Christmas together in the morning.
-Alexa wanted to make sure Santa knew where we were so he could still leave the presents in the right place so she wrote him a note and a map to where her "Nana's house" is.
-New Year's Eve we had a party with some friends from church. We played games, ate a whole bunch of junk food and watched the ball drop on TV. Alexa wanted to stay up until midnight, and was so excited to do so, but totally crashed about 11pm. I woke her up just in time to see the ball drop and it officially change to 2013, but she was so tired!! (Preston was running around like a wild child until we finally put him in his bed about 11:30pm!)

At the ward Christmas party-Kailee, Maddie, Alexa, and Charlotte

 

Alexa at her preschool Christmas party

The magic of Christmas through the eyes of a 1 year old

 

Letter to Santa and Map to Nana's house in League City

New Year's Game night-Kids Table

Alexa's sparkly New Year's Eve dress!

Halloween and Thanksgiving

I some how missed posting about Halloween this year (oops!) and also Thanksgiving, but here it is a little late...
Halloween this year was so fun! Preston had a grand old time taking candy from strangers, even though he would take a piece then want to give it back to them ;o) It was so cute!
We went to our ward Truck-or-Treat the Friday before Halloween and went to people's cars to trick-or-treat, had a cake walk, face painting and fishing for prizes. Then we went inside the church and had a costume parade for all the little ones and ate some yummy dinner. It was a lot of fun!!
This year Preston dressed up as a puppy dog because he is in Love with doggies and has a little stuffed dog that he carries around with him all the time and sleeps with every night, so I thought that dressing him up like a dog would be fitting! Alexa dressed up as a Princess because she is such a girlie girl and loves all Princesses, but she decided her favorite was Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She loved dressing up in a fancy dress, wearing her high heels, getting her hair done up, and I even let her put some make-up on! She loved it!!
Halloween night we had some friends come over to Grandma and Grandpa's house in League City where we all went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, where we went last year. It's a big loop and just the right amount of houses before the kids got too tired. Alexa's friend Maddie Smith, and Kailee Russell (and their families, including little Derek Russell, Preston's little friend) came with us and it turned out to be quite fun going as a big group!

Trick-or-Treating with Kailee and Maddie

Passing out candy after her Trick-or-Treating fun was over

Family Portrait (Lex had already taken off her Belle costume)

Carving her pumpkin (while seeing and hearing very LOUD Jets passing by, practicing for the air show the next day)

At the Pumpkin Patch

Doggie Preston and his doggie

Lex, Maddie, Kailee and Derek

Pres was lovin' the costume parade!!

 

Ready for Trick-or-Treating!

Now for Thanksgiving... this year we went to my parent's house and it turned out to be very nice and relaxing! My brother Marcus is away at BYU (he went to Washington to see my other brother and his wife for Thanksgiving) so it was my parents, Chris and us. Alexa and I helped make some yummy pies the day before and my mom cooked the turkey this year with some citrus fruits instead of stuffing and oh my Goodness! It was sooo yummy!!! I'm not a huge fan of stuffing anyway, so it really was my ideal kind of turkey!!
After dinner we played some games with Chris, while my mom took Lexi and Preston on a walk :o) So we really enjoyed the time with my family this Thanksgiving!!!

Colorado Trip

Now that the election results have died down a bit, on to more important matters... My friend Nicole Webb went through the temple for the first time last Tuesday night and I was able to be there with her!! She lives in Aurora, CO, so yes, I flew out to Colorado to see her! It was so much fun, and a much needed break! I took Preston with me because he was free to fly, and I thought that the Carney's and my sister's family, would enjoy seeing him too! I was able to hang out with my sister and my neice and nephew a lot while I was there so that was fun! Oh and I didn't tell Karena I was coming, so I just decided to show up on her doorstep when I got there, so that was a nice surprise for her! She was pretty excited to see us! We took a 6am flight (definitely not by choice, but lack of options) and got to Colorado about 7:30am,Monday, November 12th, so we had the whole day to visit....and sleep! (I didnt sleep well the night before we left, and had to get up at 2:30am to leave the house by 3am! It was nuts and I was sooo exhausted but I only had to do that once!)

Jason, My brother-in-law was out of town hunting until Wednesday, so Karena and I got to spend some nice time together while he was away for a few days, (not that it wouldn't be nice if Jason was there, but you know what I mean ;o)... We went shopping at Southlands Mall and I went a little crazy on buying stuff, but hey, I justified it as my early birthday presents to myelf! I bought a cute purse, some nice jeans at American Eagle, a cute necklace and earrings at Charming Charlie, and a cute bag that I will use for my sewing stuff! It was nice to get out and not have any kids since Pat's parents took Preston for most of the day, and Alexa was home in Texas with Nana and Grandpa Reynolds.

While I was there Jason wanted to take Karena and I to the shooting range, and at first I told him that I didn't want to go, but then I realized that I needed to do something fun and out of the ordinary, so I agreed... It turned out to be really fun, even though one of my ears became deaf for a few hours afterward (I guess my ear plug wasn't in properly)! Oh and Jason said I had a pretty good shot! At first I kept hitting the spot right above the target, and I got a little frustrated, but then he said that actually that is really good that I kept hitting the same spot over and over even though it wasn't the exact middle target. Then when our time was running out, he told me to just shoot as many times and I wanted one right after the other...so I did, and I felt a little like Jack Bauer (from '24'). It was pretty cool I will say!!

I flew standby both ways, thanks to Nicole's mom who works for Frontier and let me use a Buddy Pass, and the way to Colorado was no problem getting on...however, coming home was a different story! I was supposed to go Friday at 3pm and everything was looking pretty promising, but just as they were about to give me a pass to get on, 2 passengers came running up and apparently took the last seats, and there were no more flights to Houston until the next day, Saturday. There were 2 flights Saturday, one at noon and one at 4:30pm. So the first time I missed the flight on Friday, I called my father-in-law to come pick me up and I spent one last night in Colorado, (and I also went back to the temple with Nicole for her second time around, which was a neat experience!) Then Saturday I went to try to make the noon flight and got there in what I thought was plenty of time, 1.5 hours, but it was totally packed!! I guess the start of the holiday season... so I was a little more crunched for time than I had planned and security took forever, and they had to completely empty my backpack/diaper bag, because of some liquid they saw on the screen... come to find out it was my travel sized contact solution at the very bottom of my bag, which security didn't catch the day before OR on my way to Colorado which is a little weird, but anyway, then they had to rescreen my bag and I had to restuff my 'Mary Poppins' bag and get Preston back in his seat and ran all the way to the very bottom floor of the very end of the airport to my gate (A62). It was now about 11:50am so there were 10 mintues before the scheduled departure, and just as I reach the gate to talk to the gate agent another guy came running up asking about the flight to Houston, and the lady said, "oh... they changed the gate to A26... if you want to make it I suggest you hurry up".... I was already out of breath from going to whole length of the Denver airport with all my stuff and Preston, and I just about lost it when she said this... A26 is literally on the OPPOSITE side of the airport as I was... I was so mad, but I really wanted to go home so I just booked it as fast as I could to the other end of the airport, and yes, I got shin splints from walking/running so fast for so long with all my stuff (yeah...laugh it up!). So I get to the new gate, and people are walking off the plane, and I was so confused! Then I was trying to get out my boarding pass to ask the gate agent if this was the right gate and I couldn't find my boarding pass anywhere, so I was even more flustered, then I asked the guy in front of me if he was waiting for the Houston fight, and he said yes, this is the right gate but they are just letting people off the plane so it will be delayed... I wish the lady at A62 would have told me that!! Then after all that, I really didn't need my boarding pass since I was standby, which I was grateful for, and there were 2 standby seats open, but 5 other standbys. I was really hoping one of the other standbys would let me go on since I looked extremely flustered and had a child with me, but they went on ahead.  It turned out okay, but I just really didn't want to wait 4 hours for the next flight, with Preston and all my stuff in the airport. Well I was a little nervous for this flight no. 3 but we did make it! I was so glad to just go home! Preston and I were at the airport for nearly 7 hours! UGH! But I survived! All my thanks goes to the greatest invention EVER... my BRICA Carseat transporter (turns your carseat into a stroller/rolling suitcase). Pat picked us up from the airport and brought me flowers which was so sweet! He also let me catch up on sleep the next day and brought me lunch in bed! I slept until about 4pm! Oh and the whole week I was in Colorado I lost my voice, due to laryngitis! So all of this airport business and being sick, really took it out of me, but my wonderful husband took good care of me!

Aunt Karena, Tristan and Preston (he fell in love with Aunt Karena while we were there! He kept wanting her to hold him! :o) So cute

Matching Superman pajamas!!

 

 Superman Preston snuck back to the table for some left over grapes- which he LOVES!!

Little Pat and Little Jason... spitting images of the two??

Watching "Baby Signing Time"

End of The United States of America as we know it

The end is nigh... Obama won the 2012 Election... Heaven can only help us now :o(

Election 2012

Tonight is one of the most important Presidential elections there has been in decades! Barack Obama VS Mitt Romney! I am sitting here on my computer refreshing an election results web page (Foxnews.com) nearly every minute, for over an hour now, to see the details and it is KILLING me!! AHH!! It is so incredibly close, at this point EVERY SINGLE VOTE COUNTS! Mitt Romney was ahead by 30 electoral votes at 8pm Central time, then Obama caught up with him and it has been neck and neck for the past hour or more! Romney gets ahead, then Obama quickly catches up. I can't even do anything productive while waiting for the results! I try, then I am quickly drawn back to my computer for an update. I personally voted for Mitt Romney because I think that he a great man in general, a great role model for our country and will preserve the Constitution to its fullest degree. His plan to create more jobs like opening up the oil in the U.S. and his plan to not raise taxes on the middle class is something that is very important to me.
I know not everyone will agree with me, but I'd much rather Mitt Romney represent The United States of America than anyone else! I haven't agreed with a lot of what President Obama has been doing the past four years, and I really just want him out of the White House. Pat will be in the market for a new job/career in the next year (since he will be finishing his degree next year- FINALLY) and it is really important that he is able to find a good job that he is qualified for and pays decently. The way the economy is going right now, it doesn't look so good. So many people are out of a job, getting government assistance, and not even trying to look for a job anymore because of the frustration they have had over the past 3 years or so. My father-in-law has been out of a full-time since 2009... he is one of those effected by this horrible economy. I definitely am not an expert on the economy or how the government is run, but I really hope that we can get a new president in the White House so he can turn this country around in a positive direction! I will post who wins as SOON as I know!! GOOD LUCK MITT ROMNEY!!