VEGAS BABY!

Okay first off, Vegas isn’t on my top 10, okay really on my top 100 places I like to visit, but an occasional stop through is okay. ESPECIALLY if it is with all my sisters and my mom. Girls trip! My baby sister, Kjersti, turned 21 and we decided to celebrate, big time.  I cannot believe she is 21… that makes me almost 31! yikes.  I love this little sis of mine.  Though there are years between us all, We are all close and love being together. This trip did not fail to deliver.  We stayed in St. George at a gorgeous time share townhome and just took a day trip to Vegas to see the one and only Celine Dion! Her performance was INCREDIBLE!!! I love her music, but the way she delivers it live is more amazing that I can describe. I loved each minute of it and hated when it ended.  We spent the afternoon shopping at the Vegas Mall and then went to the Rio for the dinner buffet. I had two servings of prime rib and way too much ice cream, but it was fabulous! Throughout the weekend we ate too much food, bought too many sweets, and had lots of laughs. We listened to girl music and sang our hearts out to way too many Broadway songs, okay no too many for me and my sisters who were raised to love them, but others may have cringed by the 5th Broadway cd. (: It was such a great, quick, get away. Thanks to Holly for being our fabulous chauffer and my hairdresser! Thank you to Dave for letting me sneak away and have this trip!

Here are some highlights (photos mostly taken by cell phones)…

 

GREATEST snow on Earth

Utah has the above slogan and last year our state did not live up to it. We even had ski passes and only got to go once on icy snow mostly made by the mountain resort.  However, this year, we love the Snow! Okay not the cold and the sickness around, but these girls like to get out and play. Even if they are out there for less time than it took to put all the gear on, it’s still a fun adventure.

Birthday Celebration @ K-Fams

We love being back close to family particularly for events like birthdays and holidays.  Anna and Kjersti share their birthday celebration when we go to the Kinnersleys. Auntie is a favorite over at Grandma’s so it’s special to share a cake with her.  I was too exhausted from the holidays and from making cookies for various things so my mom bought a cake. It was nice to not worry about it.  As the family continues to grow the table just gets longer.  Grandpa engineered his own table extension and we try to keep with the Sunday Dinner tradition and all sit together.  One day we’ll be too big, but it is fun for now. I especially love the conversations and being able to sit and eat a meal together, something I think gets lost nowadays.

Anna enjoyed the party, the presents, but mostly being with her cousins.  She got Cinderella  and Slips and Ladders from Great- Grandma, a cute homemade skirt from Auntie Holly, some clothes,new books and Tinkerbelle set from Grandma and Grandpa. What a great celebration!

 

Temple square lights 2012

Utah Tradition.  Have to go see the lights at Temple Square.  December is always crazy and finding a free night to drive down and worry about parking is always hard to come by. This year it took us until 4 days before Christmas to fit it in! But we had a good time. Temperatures were freezing, so we tried to bundle up, seems like there are never enough layers for little ones though and I think they still froze.   We thought the girls would like the experience of taking the train down, so we planned a frontrunner/trax trip.  It turns out the neatness factor quickly faded as it took us an hour to get downtown and we had to be out in the cold.  On the way home we walked for a while then had to wait for the late train to get there, our girls were freezing.  So we chalked it up to “an experience” and won’t be trying that anytime soon.  We went to the food court and accidently ran into the Curtis family.  Anna and Maddie were excited about that especially since our friends couldn’t end up making it.  They played in the Dinosaur play land for a while until it was time to go.  The rest of the night it was just us four, which was nice to have our own family time when there are so many other events going on.  I love our girls, the lights were beautiful and it was a great memory!

Whiney girl…

A little bribery Doesn’t hurt. Right?

Christmas Cookies

I was busy this Christmas trying to make some fun cookies for neighbors. I have been wanting to practice my royal icing skills. I have to say I love it, but I don’t know how people do these all the time! They are time consuming and too yummy not to eat more than my fair share! I Loved creating something fun and unique. I learned a lot, especially to make sure my water is fully mixed when I add more or they turn out drying with swirls like my Gingerbread man.