Over Already?

Phew! What a whirlwind week, and I can't believe it's over already! My mom and dad came out Tuesday night and just went home yesterday morning, and it's such a blur, it went so fast! We had so much fun, and tried to squeeze in as much as we could. Here is a little outline of our time together:

Wednesday and Thursday: Kris had to work, so we spent time with Marin and took her to the park and played and went shopping, etc. Marin at this point was starting to not feel so hot, and was throwing temps, so we hung low.

Friday: Kris took the day off and we all headed to the Hoover Dam for a tour. Kris ended up staying behind at the visitors center with a VERY cranky little girl while the rest of us went on the 45 minute tour. Then we had some lunch and headed home to change. We had a babysitter that night so the four of us went to our favorite little locals restaurant called Firefly, we LOVE it there. The mood is so vibrant and fun, but laid back, the food is delicious (it's a little Tapas place). Then we went to see Phantom of the Opera. What a treat! Kris and I had seen it before, but it was just as good the second time around.

Saturday: I finally took Marin to the doctor's office as she wasn't getting any better, and the poor bugger had bronchiolitis and an ear infection, no wonder she wasn't feeling well! We went home with some oral steroids, antibiotics and a nebulizer machine to give her breathing treatments. (She is finally feeling better today). We let Marin have a nice nap and started her meds and since it was nice outside, took everyone to the base of Red Rock Canyon for a little hike, some fresh air and scenery. Marin needed a nice distraction, and it did the trick. That night I made some yummy deep dish pizza, and Kris tok me on a quick date for some ice cream and to Wal-Mart (haha, our dates are so different now!). When we got home, I colored my dads hair and gave him a haircut, wouldn't you know, the chap looks 20 years younger!

Sunday: Everyone went home :( Ahhh well, in another 7 weeks, we will be headed to PARIS!

Here are some of the pictures from our adventures, sadly, there aren't many of Marin, she was NOT in picture taking mood last week:


Part of the inside of the Venetian, so pretty! It looks almost like the real thing, too!

The canals inside the Venetian. If you have never been, they have built a canal resembling the waterways of Venice and offer gondola rides.

Mom and Dad in front of the canal.

Another view of the canal.

Mom and Dad after we got out of Phantom.

Kris and me in front of the waterfall at the Palazzo (the Venetian's new sister resort), LOVE this pic. And for as much weight as I have lost, my face sure doesn't show it! I have the mommy face now :)

They have it decorated in the Chinese Year of the Tiger.

Hence, the tiger!

Kris and me at Firefly

Mmmmm, Firefly has the most DELICIOUS bacon wrapped dates, they are SOOOO GOOD! And here they are!

Mom and dad at Firefly.

We all had such a good time, and although Marin was not the most receptive to new faces this week, I think she enjoyed seeing grandpa and grandma. Soon enough she will be staying with them for 10 days! My big girl! We are so glad to have had fun!.

And Marin is doing much better, after two solid days of her meds, she is finally starting to look healthy again. Yesterday we thought she was ready for church and so we got all ready to go, and then we had an inconsolably crying little girl who just wanted to snuggle with mama and take a nap. Sweet baby :) She is feeling better today for sure.

Let the Traveling Season Begin!

Image by Anirudh Koul via Flickr

Today my parents will be flying in from NY, and this kicks off our exciting year of travel and so much more, I am waaaay excited! Mom and Dad will be here until Sunday morning, and we have some fun plans. We will be taking a trip to the Hoover Dam (esp. for my dad), and maybe take a picnic lunch too. We are also taking them to see Phantom of the Opera (esp for my mom), and out to one of our favorite dives for dinner, a little tapas place called Firefly. Hopefully we will have some extra time for some other fun little activities. It will be great to have house guests....I LOVE having house guests! My parents chose this time to come out so they can be with Marin and have her feel comfortable with them as she will be staying a full 10 days at their place when we head off to Paris. I am sure they are very excited to have that time with her, they certainly don't get to see her as often as they would like being 2,000 miles away. So, this week will be fun!

In 8 weeks, Kris and I pack our bags and fly to one of the most romantic cities in the world.....Paris! I....cannot.....WAIT! I have dreamed of Paris since I was young and we have been saving as much as possible. Even though we may not be 100% financially as prepped as we would like, I told Kris we need to go now before we have more kids, otherwise we won't get there until retirement! We have chosen one of our hotels already, which makes me even more excited. No chain hotel for us, we want a simple, French hotel to really get the most out of our time there. Flowery linen, windows that open up to the street or garden area, Provencal style furniture. Ahh, getting excited just talking about it! Our good friend BJ is coming with us, and seeing as he spent some significant time in Paris, he will be the perfect tour guide/interpreter, although, I will be trying out my old and very rusty French-speaking skills myself too!

JUNE=GRADUATION! OMG, what a RELIEF! I know Kris is ready for sure to be done with school, and I am going to be even more grateful for him to be done. He has been doubling up on his classes so he could finish sooner rather than in October, and poor guy has done a great job. I have the most amazing hardworking husband and I love him for being so dedicated to making a better life for his family, what a guy! June is also affording us a trip to Portland, Oregon. We are feeling that our time here in Las Vegas is coming to a close, and while we are sad about that, we are excited for a new opportunity. Our trip to Portland will be a ....well, meet-and-greet, for lack of a better term, and let us take in the city and see if maybe it might be the place for us. We will of course be going from the sunniest, driest place in the U.S., to one of the rainiest and wettest (aren't we silly!), but hey, my husband loves change! Nothing is set in stone, we are just browsing!

July is Kris's birthday, the BIG 3-0! WOW! My husband is going to be thirty! When did THIS happen?! I am sure we will be throwing a moderately (haha!) sized bash for him with all of his favorite things: golf, wings, spaghetti, yellow cake with chocolate frosting, so stay tuned!

August is of course of little Monkey's birthday, and she will be TWO? What?! Once again I am baffled at how quickly we are getting old in this house! I don't remember growing up myself, let alone when someone gave me permission to get married and make babies and let THEM grow up. What is going on around here?! August also marks our 4 year anniversary, what a TRIP, literally! What a trip it has been. Who knew 4 years could come and go so fast, I am not a newlywed anymore I guess :(

After August, who knows what our next step will be, but I am excited to have started this literal and metaphorical journey to places and events, and it all starts....TODAY!

I am momentarily missing the camera, but I have fun pictures of Marin to post soon!

Ward Conference

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday was Ward Conference and it was absolutely wonderful! The Stake Leaders have so much love and inspiration to share with us to help us and guide us, they truly are inspired leaders. I feel so blessed to have a calling with the Young Women and to have the opportunity to teach them every Sunday. What a responsibility! I would like to think the Lord has blessed me with talents that I can share with them, or even just the gift to be able to relate to them. The Young Women's program is truly needed and gives so much strength to the girls (and myself!) for the upcoming week. Save a girl and you save generations. I have a new respect for Sunday School and Primary and nursery etc. leaders. Now that my little Marin is in nursery, I am trusting that those nursery leaders are teaching her the gospel and giving her spiritual fortitude. I know the parents of my young women are trusting me to do the same and teach their precious girls the things that will keep them strong and above the rest of the world. I have such an important calling, and I pray everyday that I can help them feel the Spirit.

Last night was also New Beginnings for the Young Women. New Beginnings is usually in January or February and is a program for the 11 year olds who will be entering the YW program that year. They bring their family and we spend some time explaining the YW program, Personal Progress, and getting to know the new girls. We have 3 new Beehives moving up this year!! Hooray!! Although they aren't moving up until the end of they year, we cannot wait to have them!

I have a testimony of such a wonderful program. It was designed through inspiration from the Lord and keeps young girls strong and focused. It is a perfect program rethought every year as the world changes and Satan tries to strengthen his grasp on families. Even in homes where girls may feel lost and unsafe, the program is there to uplift and give comfort. I am so blessed to be a part of the Young Women's Program!

The Language of Love

Ahhh, Valentine's Day Weekend, what a lovely holiday, made just for the ladies! A holiday for flowers and fancy dinners, cards and chocolates and $$$$$$$, ca-ching! Knowing how expensive this holiday can get, Kris and I opted for a simple dinner out and a card exchange, no gifts. We were planning on going to the temple to do sealings, and we had a babysitter, drove all the way to the temple and I realized I had left my recommend at home! Ack! It would have taken another 90 minutes of round trip driving to get back to the temple after picking up my recommend and my head wasn't feeling cooperative, so we headed to the restaurant for a lovely, long dinner. Although Marin may not have given a tangible gift, she can say "I love you, mama/papa" and that is more than enough to make my heart full :)

On Sunday I prepared a special treat for my Young Women (as I was teaching that day) and Marin helped mama in the kitchen that morning. I made some devils food cupcakes with a Carmel melted inside, and frosted them with delicious homemade raspberry lemon frosting....pink and festive!

Mmmmm, don't they look incredible? I sprinkled them with pink sugar and they were SOOO GOOD! Click here for tips on how to make them!

Saturday we all went for a lung-clearing hike near Red Rock Canyon, we met a few couples at the top waiting for a wall (to climb) and one nice fellow took our pic. Marin fell asleep on the way back down, she was a cranky girl!

We hiked right up the middle of that crevice.

Oh, my little helper! Marin is such a big help when it comes to emptying the dishwasher. She will take the silverware (minus the steak-knives!) and put them into the silverware drawer, such a big girl! The only problem is she doesn't understand when the dishes are dirty and why mommy won't let her put the dirty silverware away, haha!

Our plans for the week? Well, I picked up an extra shift yesterday (to help with our upcoming trip!) and will work again Friday and Saturday. But the next few days will be pretty casual, playtime with my sweet baby, gym, dinner club. Have a great day!

New Trick

Marin has found a new fascination with buckling things. She likes to help buckle her car seat, and her high chair. The other night she stood in front of the high chair for twenty minutes buckling the straps and then saying "help" when she wanted them unbuckled again. Such a silly girl :) I love my sweet baby girl!

This is the look of ultimate concentration:

She will buckle both side then say "Yaaaay!" so I notice her accomplishment!

Valentine's Treats

As most of you all know, I am ALWAYS looking for an excuse to be in the kitchen, and Valentine's Day is the perfect reason to indulge in a little festive baking :) Last night while Kris was doing homework (he is feeling much better by the way), I whipped up some delicious crispy vanilla cookies and yummy banana muffins. These are not for MOI, mind you, I bundled them up into my favorite cellophane bags (LOVE THEM!) and they will be headed out to my visiting teaching ladies this week! Giving away treats is a great way to...well...not eat them myself, haha! Check them out!
Yummm, crispy vanilla cookies rolled in pink sugar (so cute!!!).

Ahhh, as I was doing some prep-work for my turn tonight for the dinner club, I was leafing through this great little cookbook. This is an amazing cookbook my Aunt Janie compiled and designed for the entire Owens family in 2003. She must have spent so much time and energy putting it together! It is a categorized cookbook of Owens family favorites, and almost every one of those recipes is one that I have great memories of.....Aunt Janie's famous 7-layer salad, broccoli casserole, Grandma's UBER famous baked beans (I STILL can't make them as well as she can!), frog's eye salad, Uncle Brian's "Bullfrog". So many recipes from my cousins and aunt's and uncle's, ahhh, I just love it!

Molar-ity

Marin's first little molar has FINALLY decided to come greet the world, barely. I poked around in her mouth this evening (we all know how much she loves that), and a corner of her gi-normous molar had revealed a little corner. Those molars have been sitting just below the surface of her gums for weeks, and they feel and look like massive boulders, poor girl! We have many more to go, but one down is a great start!

Tonight is the first night Marin has gone to bed without a bottle, and all seems to have gone well, so far. We read a story, actually one of her favorite called "Baby Dear", a 1950's story about a little girl and her baby doll and new baby sister. Then I gave her a hug and put her down with her sippy cup in the crib and not a peep! My little girl is growing up so fast :)

On another note, my poor hubby has been down and out with a nasty stomach bug, yuck! He didn't feel well Saturday night when I got home from work, and then he was up all last night. He stayed in bed today and I think is starting to feel a little better, hopefully he will keep his germs to himself though! Since Kris wasn't with me at church today, I was a bit apprehensive to go alone with Marin, but the kind nursery leader took pity on me and asked if Marin would like to start nursery a week early. Why of course! Marin happily joined her little friends and had a wonderful time in nursery, while I participated in Gospel Doctrine and a special Relief Society lesson. My oh my, how time flies!

I know I know, I need to post some pictures for you all! Hopefully very soon :)

Whoops!

I almost forgot to mention that Kris and I had a wonderful date on Saturday night! Kris has a connection or two through his students and one of them hooked us up with a completely comped meal at a great restaurant in the new Encore tower (Wynn's new sister resort). It was WONDERFUL! In order to describe how the inside of Encore looks, I have to tell you how the inside of Wynn looks. When you walk inside the Wynn, it looks like you have stepped into a luscious velvety fancy chocolate box with gorgeous, rich shades of brown and deep gold, some black, it is just incredible. Well, the Encore is like a French version of the Wynn. It has absolutely breathtaking vibrant French colors, rich fabrics, a touch of whimsy, it gave me a little taste of Paris! Anyway, we ate at a lovely restaurant called Society, and although looking at the menu made me scrunch my face and wonder, tasting the food was something else. It made me wonder why such a fancy place had, well....American food! They had taken some American classics, like Pigs in Blankets and hamburgers, and had TOTALLY souped them up, the food was incredible. We had a wonderful tomato bisque and caprese salad, pigs in blankets, I had some sushi "tacos" (ahhh, soo good!), truffle trenne pasta, peppercorn strip steak, 15 layer chocolate cake and coconut rice pudding. It sounds like TONS of food, but it was pretty small portions, well except for the steak and the 15 layer cake. Yeah, the cake, was sooo tall! It came out and I was embarrassed to have it set down at my table it was so large! And the best part, it was all totally comped (I know I shouldn't say that!), either way, the meal and the experience were one of a kind. Oh, and we did get to see a movie. Well, we saw about 3/4 of a movie, haha! We went to see "When in Rome", it was...ok. It was a last minute decision, not really something either of us would have chosen, but we were on a tight time schedule. We actually had to leave about 20 minutes before the end to make our dinner reservation, so I have no clue how it ended! I shouldn't say that, it was one of those chick-flicks, so don't we ALL know how it ends?

Tomorrow will be a wonderfully quiet day with just Marin and me. I think we will head to the gym in the morning, and then we will be taking lunch to a friend from work who had surgery last week. Hooray for good days :)