Vegas- Week 1

Well, we did another big Vegas trip this month! I'm so glad I have somewhere to go keep myself sane when my husband goes on his 2 week business trips. I feel lucky that I'm able to get down to visit so often. Vegas really does feel like a 2nd home to me. We have been doing some really fun things- partly because of Jade's Christmas present, partly because of my mom's addiction to Groupon, and partly because it's just fun to be there with my family. The first few days we were down there, my Grandpa Gene was visiting, too, so we got to spend some quality time with

him, which is always special. One night he even cooked me my (and his) favorite meal- Thanksgiving dinner. We invited my Grandpa Coy and Nilda over to dinner, and it was great to see them, too. I went to visit my girlfriend Alicia and her baby Colton, who has grown and changed so much in the 6 weeks since I saw him last. He's such a doll. My mom and I took a "sexy chair and pole dance" class at a studio (thanks to Groupon), which was so fun. Cheyanne and I took a cupcake decorating class (Groupon again). We had such a good time. It was just the 2 of us in the class, so we got lots of help from the teacher and by the end of the 3 hour class, we were getting pretty good. We took Peyton to a couple little play places to keep her entertained. We went out with a few of my mom's friends to celebrate 2 of their birthdays. We had dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant in Las Vegas

(anywhere, actually) called Buon Gusto. It's a tiny little restaurant owned by an actual Italian, where the food is to die for. Then we went to BJ's Restaurant for dessert (yummy Pazooki). When we got home (around 12:15), I was greeted by Tink! Jade had surprised me and come down 2 days early! I was so glad to see the 2 of them. On the 12th, my mom and I finally cashed in on our Christmas present from Jade- we went to go see Garth Brooks! It was so good! His voice is amazing. The show was a little different- it was just him and a mic and his guitar, no

band, no crazy stage stuff. He sang songs from his past that influenced his music. Lots of them I didn't know, but the classics I knew. He sang songs off all his albums, and brought out his wife (Trisha Yearwood) to sing the duet "In Another's Eyes". It was a really great show. Jade and I got to see our friends Eric and Maddie, who were visiting town for a little vacation. We went to dinner with them one night, and had them over for dinner on their way out of town. Jade even went and hung out with them while my mom and I were at Garth Brooks- he broke his own record by staying out past 1am!

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I love sweet candid pictures. Jimmy was reading to Peyton before bedtime. She was loving it.

"Papa Gene"

My grandpa and his 3 generations of girls.

Don't we look professional?

Chey's are on the right, mine are on the left. We made 3-D baby booties, 3-D elephants, and a bunch of random designs on the tops of the cupcakes.

This was it on the stage. Pretty amazing. I wish they weren't so strict about not taking pictures during the show.

That's What I'm Doing These Days

2011 is already flying by!

Jade had his annual awards dinner for New York Life. He won 2 awards this year; Most Life Cases and the Mike Strykher award, a new award that the managing partner of the Portland office created and selected Jade for, because of his great work ethic. We got to go downtown to the Marriot on the waterfront for the awards ceremony dinner. It was pretty tasty, and always fun to get dressed up and cheer on my guy.

Jade also did a 4 week diet competition called Game On. He was on a team with Jeremy, Kristin and Marianne. They only got 3rd place as a team, but each of them did really well individually. Jade even lost 10 pounds!

Peyton is still loving ballet and gymnastics, and we actually just registered her for preschool in September! I can hardly believe it.

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Peyton got a new leotard that she picked out herself. The first day she got to wear it, she asked me to polish her nails to match. How could I resist?

Some of you will remember one of Peyton's favorite past-times; the sink-bath.

At Jade's dinner.

Getting his 2nd award.

This picture makes me laugh because you can see the focus on Jade's face as he walks down the stairs. Gone is my reckless pre-surgery husband, who would walk or [gasp] even run without a second thought. Jade is always very careful of his ankles now (especially his right one). It's just as well.

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And here are some Peyton Funnies from the last couple months:

I caught her in her crib, after waking up from a nap saying, "Hi Lace. How are you? What's up? Good. Where are you? At the party? Okay. Good. Bye." -She had her hand by her ear and was pretending to talk to Lacie on the phone.

My friend Nicole complimented me on my hair. Peyton touched her hair and said "I have hair too!" She wanted some compliments too.

We were out to dinner with our friends Bryce and Nicole. The waitress asked, "Did anyone save room for dessert?" All of us decline and Peyton yells "I do!"

"I'm awesome, mom." "Yes, you are awesome. Who told you that?" "Madeline's daddy." (One of our friends told her she was awesome when he was substituting in nursery.) Then we asked her if we were awesome. Mommy was awesome, daddy was not awesome the first time we asked, but he was the second time we asked. Tinky was awesome, too.

When counting, she sometimes counts up to the number "alerty".

She got the flu and was throwing up. I had given her a little Gatorade. A few minutes later she starts telling me, "mommy I want more gator-juice."

She was crying because I took her away from something she wasn't allowed to be playing with, and said, "You hurt my arm." "How did I hurt your arm?" "[sobs] You broke it!" (I carried her away in a cradle hold, not even by the arms.)

I was lecturing Peyton about all her messes and could tell she was losing interest. Peyton interrupts me and says "I take off me pants." Sure enough, her pants were down around her ankles. She sees me look over and starts to laugh hysterically.

Peyton J was over at our house on a playdate. Peyton said, "I love your hair, Peyton J. It's so pretty." SO cute!

"Please hit you?"

She still loves her binky. She will ask to go lay in her crib even when it's not naptime or bedtime just so she can have her binky.

"No do me hair!" - every morning when I get her ready.

She still has a mental block against the numbers 4 and 5. She goes straight from 3 to 6 every single time she counts.

Peyton and I were over at the Janeck's house one morning for a playdate. The girls kept going into the bathroom and playing, so finally Brittney told them the rule was there could only be one person in the bathroom at a time. Eventually Peyton J wandered to the bathroom again, and I could tell Peyton Coy was about to follow her. I reminded her of the rule, but Peyton J kept calling for her. She kept looking at me to see if I was watching. Eventually I reminded her again about the one person at a time rule, and so she called out to Peyton J, "You need some help, Peyton?" and of course Peyton J said "Yeah. Come help me." I couldn't believe how manipulative they were! I was honestly shocked. How did they learn that?

Peyton and I were taking a bath together, and she pointed to my nipple and siad "What's this called?" I told her it was called my nipple, on my chest. She said "Please pet it?" (That's what I've told her to ask people before petting their cats or dogs.) I was so taken aback. Later, I was reaching across the tub, and I felt a huge pinch- she had pinched my nipple! I was in shock. I couldn't stop myself from laughing, even though I knew I shouldn't be sending her the message that it was funny. But it was like she had just been waiting for the right time to pinch.

"Please hit ____________". (usually Charlotte, Lucy, Henry or Taryn. I think it's because they're the closest to her age that aren't older than her.) The funniest thing is she usually asks to hit them when they're not even around. Also once she asked me "Please hit you with a toy." Holy cow.

"You bossy mommy." "Oh, do you think I'm bossy? I'm sorry you feel that way." "You teasing me mommy." "I'm not teasing you, baby." "Daddy tease me."

Misfits

I have some pictures I love that don't really belong with any specific post, so here are my misfits...
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:Peyton has a cute little friend Carson. His mom Lisa and I are friends. She taught him to say "Peyton is my girlfriend." So adorable. This was them walking downstairs at a restaurant together. Darling.

Jade's first Mission President and his wife came into Portland and took us out to breakfast. My little girl has always been very social, but she fell in love with "Grandma Z" and "Grandpa Z" almost from the minute she met them. Right when we were all hugging, she flung herself out of Jade's arms and into Grandpa Z's. She wanted to sit by them and everything. Peyton has been loving "sink baths" again lately. I LOVE pictures with real smiles (not the usual hand in front of her face)

I just barely got this picture from my mom- it was from November but I loved it so much, so I'm posting it now.

Minute To Win It

Ever since our trip to Washington, D.C., when we were forced to watch actual TV (without DVR), Jade and I have liked the games on the show Minute to Win It. We don't really like the show itself, but the games are awesome, so we thought it would be really fun to throw a Minute to Win It party. So we threw a party for no special occasion at all, just so we could use that theme. It was so fun! We had 26 of our favorite friends/family members come over and we played 6 games, bracket-style until we had our champion. The party was so fun, and my only regret was that I couldn't compete in it! (Because that would have been like cheating since I knew all the games.)

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This was our opening round, to get on the bracket. "Face the Cookie": using only your face muscles, move a cookie from your forehead into your mouth. You had 3 tries to complete the challenge, and the fastest times won themselves a "bye" for a round. (If you're wondering why my daughter's toy tunnel was out, I did not forget to clean before the party- the "young-at-heart" guys were using the tunnel to sneak up behind people and put them into the tunnel. It was so hilarious to see- especially when Jon surprised the culprit, Justin, with a tunnel ambush. Payback!

Round 2: "CD Dominoes". This was one of my favorites, yet somehow I ended up with no pictures. Sad. The contestants were to line up 20 CD cases in a "U"-shape around a table. Once the cases were in line and spaced evenly, the contestant was to tap the first CD case, making the whole stack fall over, and the last case had to fall in a basket by the contestant's feet. Contestants went head-to-head, and whoever got the CD case in the basket first moved on to the next round.

Round 3: "Noodling Around". Using only an uncooked spaghetti noodle (no hands), contestants must pick up 6 pieces of penne pasta. If you dropped any, or if your noodle broke, you had to start over. Our contestants went head-to-head, and the winner moved on to the next round.

Round 4: "A Bit Dicey". Contestants must stack 6 dice one on top of another on a popsicle stick being held in their mouth. Contestants were not allowed to touch the stick to help with balance. Each time the dice dropped, the contestant had to start over. The contestants went head-to-head and the first one to complete the challenge moved on to the championship round!

Round 5: "Can-tageous". Contestants start out with 3 empty soda cans in one hand, 3 full cans in the other. Stacking the cans on top of each other, the contestant must switch all 6 cans to the opposite hand than they started with. This was our championship round, and the one Jade was most excited about. We tried this ourselves the day before the party, and were totally unsuccessful, but after watching several YouTube videos of people successfully completing this challenge, we thought for sure someone would get it. After 15 minutes of our final 4 trying, we decided to change the game a little and have them switch just 2 empty cans and 2 full cans. That worked better, and almost everyone was able to do it under one minute. 1st, 2nd and 3rd places were determined by fastest time.

Our completed bracket:

1st prize got a really cute little cookie, 2nd prize got Whoppers, and 3rd prize got (Milk) Duds.

Here was our winner, Spencer, showing off his prize.

A Pattern...

I looked back in my blog archives and noticed a pattern- every year I have tons of posts Oct-Dec and then not a single post until the end of January or beginning of February. I guess I'm just on holiday cool-down.

Here's what we've been up to during my hiatus...

We celebrated New Year's with the Thelin clan (minus Jerai and Phil, plus Nathan and Jessica- Jade's cousin and her husband who is also Ashley's brother). It was so fun. We started off with dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant, Juan Colorado, then we headed downtown to see an improv comedy show at Comedy Sportz. There were 6 comedians- 2 were bad but 4 were good, so it ended up being pretty funny. We got some good laughs. Then we all went back to Justin and Ashley's for dessert and to watch the countdown and have a toast. We had a great night, and we were happy to ring in the new year with each other and our family!

Over Christmas while we were in Las Vegas, our friend Bryce (who set Jade and I up) and his wife Nicole (who we set him up with) stayed at our house. They stayed after the holidays for Bryce's sister's wedding. We had so much fun with them here. We even recreated both of our first dates- at Macaroni Grill. We want them to come visit again.

After New Year's we started to get our life back to the normal routine. Peyton started her 2nd term of ballet and gymnastics. She loves going, and she talks to me about Miss Katie and Coaches Tasha and Alec all the time. It is so fun for me to watch her start to learn little things. We've been going to our favorite indoor play places- Munchkin Playland, OMSI, Pump it Up, Jr. and Bliss (for cupcakes), trying to stay busy and avoid the winter cabin fever. We've had lots of playdates with our friends. I cashed out on my birthday present from Jade and got a massage and a facial. It was so relaxing. What a great birthday present!

My girlfriends and I had a big girls' night out. We went to dinner, saw the movie Country Strong and then everyone who wasn't too tired went out afterward for a snack (of course that means me since I am such a night-owl). It was a really fun night. Jade and I went out with our friends Frank and Lacie for Jade's and Frank's birthday, which is on the same day. We went to a restaurant they both love; Outback (this is I think the 4th straight year we've gone there on Jade's birthday). There was a 13 year old boy there with his parents, sitting across from us. His parents brought a big cake from home for him to have after dinner, and when they were singing Happy Birthday to him, we all joined in, then we talked to him for a few minutes about how all 3 of the guys shared the same birthday. Later on, his parents sent 4 big pieces of chocolate cake over to our table. It was so nice of them (and the cake was good!) Last Sunday we celebrated my nephew Gabe's and Jade's birthday with family dinner at our house. It was kind of chaotic, but so fun; especially for Jade, who got his favorite German Chocolate Cake made with love by his mom.

Happy 29th birthday, honey. (I can hardly believe this will be his last year in his 20's!)

Jade and I at New Year's Eve dinner.This picture makes me laugh. It was supposed to be our "silly" picture, but no one knew quite what to do. Nathan's head was cut off in every single picture.My girl still loves to play in my shoes.I love this picture. My friend Brittney babysat Peyton for me while I was getting my hair done. She sent me this picture on my phone. Peyton and Peyton are so cute! My mom pointed out something funny: they are a lot like me and my best friend growing up- Jordan Mitchell. Jordan was blond and fair, and I was darker, like Peyton. So I looked through my pictures to find one of us close to their age. It's funny- they do remind me of us! Also, I think Peyton looks just like me (I was about 6 months younger than her in this picture).Last old picture... This was me and my daddy sharing a nap. When I saw this I did a double-take. It looks just like Peyton.There is a really funny story behind this picture. Peyton was watching me put together our 2010 blog book, and she was looking at the pictures of Jade and I in Washington, D.C. She asked me what they were, and I reminded her about Jade's and my vacation this summer. She said "I want to go on vacation." I told her we would go to see Noni soon (soon is relative). She said "Okay. I go pack me bags." I heard her roll her little suitcase past my office, thud it up every stair, and since her room is above my office, I could hear drawers opening and shutting. Eventually I went to see what she was doing, and I saw that she had indeed packed her bag. Full of books. She's a girl after my own heart. Maybe I should get her a Kindle! She also was looking in her box of too-small clothes to find the perfect outfits to bring. So cute! Now, we all know how much I love my baby Tink. What no one realizes is that Jade is just as obsessed with her as I am. He coddles her and treats her like a little princess. It is actually pretty cute, coming from such a manly-man as my husband. This is usually how she greets him when he comes home from work: with a full-on hug, lasting for about 2-3 minutes. Seriously.

Peyton is my very favorite ballerina!

Birthday Boys!

Cute Texts

I rescued my old cell phone and decided to copy some of the cute texts that Jade (and one from my mom) sent me:

Momma- I watch you mother and I am SO PROUD of you! You are a fantastic mom :) Happy Mother's Day I love you

Jade- You are the hottest mom in the world!

You are such a great mom! Peyton is so lucky! Thanks for being such an awesome mom!

You have the best smile! I love it!

Your eyes are so pretty. I can't wait to stare into them on Thursday!

You have the hottest body!

Thanks for being such a great wife!

You are amazing!

I love your blonde hair! You look so hot when you have your hair done straight!

Your teeth are so straight, unlike you. I love looking at your white teeth.

You are so beautiful!

I love cuddling with such a hot woman!

I miss not waking up next to the woman of my life!

I can't wait to give you a big hug and kiss!

You are so gorgeous!

I can't believe how lucky I am to have married a woman way above my league!

I bet all other guys are so jealous of me because my wife is way hotter than theirs!

I love it when we cuddle and hang out just like the olden days!

I can't wait for our DC trip when I can show everyone how hot my beautiful wife is!

You are certainly my trophy wife although you are way hotter and smarter than all other trophy wives!

You are so smart and I love how you have good looks to go with that!

You have the sexiest stomach I have ever seen!I love just looking at it and admiring it!

You are so sexy!

You are so stunning that sometimes I don't believe that I am married to you!

How did I get so lucky to have ended up with such an all around amazing wife?

You are the real deal! Intelligence, beauty, awesome personality, and great smile make you one incredible woman!

You are one in a million!

Hope you had a good night's sleep. You must have been in bed when I called. I miss you tons and am counting down the days to see you! I love you so much!

I miss my girls! Hope you two are having a bunch of fun! I love you!

Driving home just now I caught a glimpse of the date... Happy birthday, my gorgeous girl. I love you.

Hope you are having a great day. I can't wait to see my beautiful wife and cute little girl when I get home!

Just thinking about how hot my pretty wife is! Hope you are having a good day!

I miss you too and I love you more than anything!

Only 21 hours till I get to give you a big kiss! I love you!

You are so pretty! I love being married to a woman who is so hot!

Hope you had a good flight. I miss my girls already! I love you!