A sneak peek!

I thought I would put up a few pics from last night. We went to Kat's school carnival and then over to the church for a Trunk or Treat. I have to work tonight, but wanted to put up a few cute pictures of the girls all dressed up. More will come when I have more time to Photoshop!

Yup - I went all out on my costume this year!

Waiting for the trunk or treat to start.

Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock

Kat had another performance yesterday. It was with a few other second grade classes. The kids were split into groups and each group was a different animal. It was really cute! They sang lots of cute songs and told a story about living in the jungle. Kat was a lion! Rawr!

Kat's teacher is so cute and comes up with lots of fun ideas for the class. I am really glad Kat is having a good year this year and getting to lots of fun things that she loves!

Take a bow!

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This picture of me is so lovely, isn't it? I have no makeup on and look a bit scary! Em insisted upon taking my pic, and I was just trying to keep her occupied!

Emma's picture is adorable! She is such a poser!

The Tooth Fairy Forgot!

Kathryn lost one of her top front teeth Sunday afternoon. It took her a lot of pulling and twisting to get it out.

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Sunday night, the Tooth Fairy forgot.

I told Kat that it was Sunday and since we are not suppose to work on Sunday, that we shouldn't expect the Tooth Fairy to have to work!

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Monday night, the Tooth Fairy forgot - again!

I woke up this morning with Kat tapping on me, a sad/mad face on. "The Tooth Fairy didn't come. I think she forgot!" Being a sleepy haze, I didn't have any sort of come back to this news. I went over it in my head and just said "Yup, I think she forgot."

(I am a bad mommy!)

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Kat had been asking if the Tooth Fairy was real since she started getting that tooth to fall out. I never told her the truth, just kept saying "What do you think?" She never answered my question.

I thought about telling her the truth about the Tooth Fairy. I thought I should be honest. What happens when she questions Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny? I don't want to ruin her childhood. Nor do I want to take away that special, mystical hope that children have.

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When we were walking home from school today I told her the truth - "I called the Tooth Fairy today and she said your tooth wasn't scheduled to fall out until today! She didn't forget after all!"

Kat - "Oh! I wasn't on the schedule?"
Me - "Guess not! Told ya not to try so hard to get it out!"
Kat - "So, she didn't forget?!?"
Me - "Nope."

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I think she believes me. The Tooth Fairy is real. I think she looks a little different than Kat thinks, but she is real. And sometimes she forgets, unless you are on her schedule! :)

The poll is closed.

So, 14 of you voted, 9 of you think I should dye my hair dark brown with carmel highlights. So it shall be! Thanks for your input. I have a hard time deciding on how to do my hair, so I like having all of this input! (BTW, who voted for me going natural? I don't think I am very happy about someone wanting to see my grey hairs!)

Next poll - what hairstyle should I have?

Option #1 - The "Ashley Greene" bob. Chin length, all around. A few face framing pieces. (Twilight fans - please no bias on this one!)

Option #2 - Slight A-line bob. Long in front. No bangs.

Option #3 - The "Jenny McCarthy" short bob. Slight A-line in back. Side swept bangs.

Option #4 - The "Mormon Mommy" bob. (Don't get me wrong - I like this one a lot, but it just reminds me of the 'new' mom haircut!) Short all over. Longer layers in front around face, and long side swept bangs.

Option #5 - The "Kate Walsh". Long layers all over. Shoulder length. Face framing.

So there you have it. Vote away! I am excited to see what you all think! I can't decide, I like all of them and that is why I need your help! Thanks!

Mat changed his mind

Some of you might have heard by now. Mat has changed his mind. He has changed his major. Instead of focusing on the Travel and Tourism Industry, he will be going into Secondary Education.

Shocker! I know. Most people have been startled by the news. "Isn't that why you moved to Las Vegas?" "How do you feel about it!?!" "Why Education?" "But Mat loves to travel!"

I though maybe it would be good if I explained how I feel about all of this. Here goes. (Warning, I am not sure how long this post my end up. My apologies if you read it all and then are mad that you just spent forever reading it for no reason!)

When Mat and I started out on this journey of moving away, we were not sure exactly why. We had both had very strong witnesses from the Spirit that we were suppose to. At first, we didn't know where we would move to, only that we needed to change the direction our lives were headed. Not that anything was wrong with our life in Roy. We both just felt stuck, in a rut, like we needed a change. Somehow, Las Veags came to both of us in different ways. We knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that we were to move to Southern Nevada.

The easy answer to tell people when they asked why we were moving - school. It made sense - right? Mat loves the world, geography, travel. He would enroll at UNLV and study to go into the field of Travel and Tourism. The easy answer.

It may be part of the answer, but it is not the whole answer.

Our Heavenly Father guided us to Henderson. He guided us to be where we are. He has been the center of every decision we have made. He is the rest of the answer.

I may never know exactly why we are here. All I know is that we are happy. We are content. We love our new ward family and friends. We love the area we are in. (We love the warm weather and swimming all summer too!)

Yes, things have not happened how we hoped they would. It took Mat more than 5 months to find a job here. I have had to work more than I like. Kat had a rough start in school when we first moved here. We are struggling horribly trying to make ends meet and pay all of our bills. Despite all of that, we know we made the right choice. We are happy.

So, back to Mat's schooling. I am totally fine with him changing his major. Honestly! Yes, Mat loves the travel industry and all that it could provide for us. It could give us amazing opportunities. But, it is very demanding and crazy. His schedule would always be weird hours and very demanding. If you know Mat at all, he is a creature of habit. He likes to know what is going on well in advance and likes his days to be structured and the same day to day. To change his major to Education was a little surprising to me, but the more I thought about it the more it fits his personality and the goals he has in life. He can teach kids to love geography and the world like he does. That is his passion. He wants others to be passionate too.

Mat is changing his focus, yes. But he will still be doing what he loves - teaching others about the world. Just in a different kind of way!

We plan on staying here while he finishes his degree at UNLV (Bachelor's Degree). After that, I guess we'll see! We have a lot of praying to do and see what the Spirit guides us to next. Hopefully we will make our way back to Northern Utah and he can find a job there. Then he can finish off school (Masters) at a Utah University.

Yup, Mat changed his mind. I think he will make a great teacher!

We have a new neice!!!

Paityn Elisa was born about an hour ago!!! 6lb 5oz, 18in A tiny little thing!

Mark & Dannielle welcomed a new baby girl into the family.

Mark and Dannielle were chosen to be the parents of this special little miracle back in August. The birth mother graciously picked them to adopt. They have become very close with Elisa and her family over the past coupe of months. We are very grateful for Elisa making this difficult decision and allowing Mark and Dannielle to become parents. We love her, even though we have never met her.

We are so excited to be able to meet this little baby! We are so sad to be so far away!

Congrats Mark & Dannielle! Welcome to the world of parenthood! Try to enjoy the ride!

Anyone got any good ideas?

Mat and I have been looking for some grant ideas or scholarship opportunities for Mat to finish up school. He has received a grant, which has been helpful, but we are hoping to find some sort of additional grants.

Anyone out there have a hubby in school and have any good ideas on how to help?

Anyone in school and know of legit websites to look for info? We aren't sure which are legit and which are not.

Anyone have ideas for us?

We would really appreciate any info!!! Thanks!

Johnny Apple Seed

Kathryn's class learned about Johnny Apple Seed this year. They invited parents to a skit to show what they had learned. They each had a speaking part and learned a handful of songs. It was short and sweet! And we were treated to yummy apple crisp afterward!


Kathryn was a little upset when she was assigned her part. It was one of the shortest "Why, Thank you Johnny!" Then a high five! Most kids had to memorize a few lines. I told her it was probably because her teacher knew she was trying to memorize her part for the primary Program too and didn't want to give her too much! (Hey, a mom has to be clever once and a while! Right? Plus, she is one of the only LDS kids in her class, but her teacher is LDS, so I can use that card when I need to!)

Johnny with a 'pot' on his head???

Singing! Yup, used the 'pioneer dress' again! She insisted that she was suppose to dress like a pioneer for the skit. Notice that no one else got that memo? Oh, well.

Singing again.

Smiling at me while waiting to start!

Kat's teacher is so nice and has a lot of fun things for the kids. It makes such a difference in Kat's attitude about school! She is getting A's in all areas and has only had to change her color one time for talking (she insists she wasn't!) Now if only I could get her to enjoy PE! Then we would have no school worries!

We also went to 'Little Cesar's Pizza Palace' (that's what my girls call Cesars!) For the Atlantis show. It was traumatic for Emma and she screamed the whole time. (It wasn't that amazing anyways, it was a little anti-climatic!) Then we went out t watch the fountain show at the Bellagio, and she screamed more! I guess loud music scares her as well!

Kat took pics of the show. It was really pretty and fabulous! I enjoyed it, even trying to console a crying three-year-old!

We had a lot of fun on our girls day out! Thanks again Kara, AdriaAnne, and Beth for letting us share it with you!

Playin' in the City!

My BFF Kara and her sister, AdriAnne, came down to Vegas for the weekend for AdriAnne's birthday. They let me and the girls tag along with them and we had a lot of fun! I am so glad we got to join them around town! It has been a while since I have gotten to do something fun with my girlfriends! Thanks Kara and AdriAnne for visiting and letting us crash your birthday!

We visited the Gardens at the Bellagio Hotel. It was so amazing! They completely change it for each season! the minute you walked in it smelled like Pumpkin Pie! It was so fun! The trees talked and there were tons of pretty fall colors. All of these pics are by Kat. She asked for my camera and started shooting away!

A miniature of the hotel, complete with fountains!

There were a bunch of HUGE pumpkins! They weighed more than 800lbs!!!