New Year's Eve

It's pretty traditional for our family to go out to Chinese food for dinner either on New Year's Eve or New year's Day. This year we went to the Panda Garden in Mesquite.Thank goodness we didn't see a report on dirty dining featuring this restaurant until February!!

 

Ok we can be honest here. We really needed Christina our selfie master!!

We were a little bit concerned that the grand kids might not like the food. We needn't have worried because they were champs and tried lots of it. We got quite a kick out of watching Cooper use his chopsticks!

We ate and ate until there was nothing left. Then we loaded everyone up and went back to our house and played games together. Ashley & Benjy and the kids called it a night early. They were tired from running into Vegas early that morning for a Dr appointment. Jeff & Rachel were tired from getting up there early to babysit. We were still tired and sore from the hike. So we had a mini midnight around nine and off they went. We somehow managed to stay up until midnight but it was hard. We were pooped from all the excitement from the week I think.

Rebels! Rebels!

Since we have gone twice before it is now apparently a tradition to go to a Rebel game during the Christmas break. We encountered an accident on the freeway on the way in that about gave some of us a heart attack that we were going to be late, but we rolled in to the game with plenty of time to spare and even buy some dinner at the various concessions. It's always fun to see what everyone chooses.

Well even though we were all there in our Rebel red and pumped for the game apparently the Rebels forgot to show up! They lost in a very frustrating game. The Fresno guy up behind us was pretty excited though. ;(

Valley of Fire Hike

Wednesday we went out to the Valley of Fire to get out of the house and do something active.

 Here's proof that Mendis and I did actually go but we were tired/old enough to miss out on the climbing of the mountain for the incredible vistas portion of the afternoon.

 We just made our own trail and hiked out into what looked like a cool canyon area in the new section of the Valley of Fire and it didn't disappoint.

 

 

 

 Right about here is where the kids lost us. We went about half way up and decided we'd rather wait and see the pictures than go all the way to the top. Wimps that we are!

 Hayden & Meg's GoPro sure came in handy!

 

 

 

 

It was the perfect afternoon of exercise. Luckily we had just enough time to change our clothes and get ready for the Rebel game that night.

The Baby Shower

 It seemed like Christmas was over so fast that before we knew it it was time to get ready for Ashley's baby shower! We spent Monday cooking and cleaning so we could be ready in time for the shower on Tuesday.

The cute invitations!

I made this bow hanger that doubled as a come in sign

Megan made this amazing wreath to hang with the fabric garland I made for the nursery.

Party favors. Everyone got the EOS lip balm and chocolate popcorn and homemade soap!

 

 

 

 We picked Cafe Rio style lunch with chicken and pork, cilantro rice, beans etc. The finale was a bunch of mini desserts. Our favorite thing for a party!

 Pomegrantate/strawberry lemonade and water to drink.

 The gifts were piling up before we even got started because lots of people were unable to attend during the holidays. But they sent gifts and they looked so cute on the table.

After they were opened we made quite a display with her presents.

 So were were all ready to receive our party guests!

 

 

 

We had such fun having lunch and having Ashley open all her gifts and visiting with everyone.

My Faves!

Love this two girls!

 

 

 

It was a great afternoon. It was worth it all. Lots of work and worry but I think it went great. I know we ate well and had lots of fun together! We missed all the gals who couldn't come though. Sadly Christina had to pack up and leave right after the shower but Hayden & Meg got to stay for the rest of the holidays.

Tea Party Time & Puzzles

We filled every spare minute we had over the holidays with fun. We played games and visited. We watched lots of football. We ate. We did a couple of puzzles together.

This was a fun puzzle. It was a murder mystery we had to solve after the puzzle was put together. We actually had more fun doing the puzzle than figuring out who dunnit. Sunday night us girls decided we just had to have a tea party! We were running out of time to fit in all the things we wanted to do so we made it happen before Christina had to leave. We gathered at Ashley's so the kids could be in bed.

 We broke out the china and treats and watched the new Cinderella movie.

 Here's just a few of our tiny treats. We had such fun loading up. We had Ashley, Rachel, Christina and Alisha and I there and then Rachel Hickman came over after we were a ways into the movie so we figured what the heck and started it all over again. It was her first tea party! We stayed up way too late. I think it was about two am before we hit the hay that night.

Star Wars

It was Boxing Day and it was finally time to go see Star Wars!!

 

 

We think we may have been the last people on the planet to go. We had wanted to go to the luxury theaters but it took us so long to figure out our schedule that it was sold out by then. No problem we just went to Aliante which was much cheaper anyway so we could take everyone. Even Charlie & Alisha came with us. It was pretty exciting. The kids were so good. With all the popcorn and treats they were too busy munching to be a problem! We completely enjoyed the movie and then we went to In & Out for dinner. After we ate we headed home. But as we were going down the freeway we saw the lights at the speedway and decided since we had never been we should finally go check it out. It was a pretty cool light display. Of course the pictures don't do it justice. What a fun day we all had.