Snow Day and Some Fun LV Snow Facts!

Yes you read that correctly, a Snow Day! Crazy is the only word I can think of to describe it! I have never seen this much snow in Las Vegas! It started snowing here at our house around 11:30am and snowed the whole day...turning into rain around 5:30pm. There is still snow on the ground in our backyard! I tried to get the kids to go out and play in it...but they said it was too cold. :) Around 6pm they decided that they wanted to build a snowman but it had started to rain and they didn't want to get wet! Since Logan is home from school again, (yesterday there was no school for parent teacher conferences) we have looked up some Las Vegas winter/snow facts. Enjoy!


*McCarran Airport is the official recording station for weather in the LV Valley. Yesterday they recorded 3.6 inches of snow, setting the record for the most snow ever in December since the beginning of official records in 1937! (Henderson reported 8plus inches of snow!)

*Measurable snow has only fallen in December 4 other times since 1937!
2 inches on 12-15-67
0.4 inches on 12-5-72
1 inch on 12-6-98
1.3 inches 12-30-03

*Wondering why flights were canceled in and out of LV? Yes, because of weather conditions and poor visibility, but McCarran Airport does not have any snow removal equipment!

*This is the first snow day for Clark County students since January 1979 when a single storm dropped 9 inches of snow!

Snow Fun!

It was so fun picking Logan up from school, the field was completely covered in snow! When the bell rang kids were squealing and laughing and throwing snow balls at each other, parents were taking pictures. It was just so fun to see all the smiles and happy faces! The best part of all...it was all melted this morning...no shoveling! The mountains all around the valley are covered in snow, it finally feels like winter is here! Kody told me last night, "Santa can finally come to our house because it snowed today!"

Let it Snow!

We woke up this morning to a very cold and overcast day. The news said that we were supposed to wake up to 6-8 inches of snow...we didn't. By the time I took Logan to school it was raining slush, so I figured I should take a picture of my kids in the "snow" before it stopped. As you can tell they were not very happy, Logan kept asking why he had to take a picture in the rain, I told him that it was "snow". (Look at Kody...he is holding his hand out to see if it is really snow. I think they all are thinking that mom had gone bonkers! And no, I did not make Kody wear the Santa hat, they gave it to them at a primary activity day and he has worn it ever since!)





Well, it has been snowing ever since and it is starting to stick! I keep thinking I should run out and take another picture before it stops snowing and starts melting. Maybe we will get a few inches stuck to the ground before the end of the day!!! I sure hope they let the kids play in it at school, or that it sticks/keeps snowing until Logan gets home!

So for all of you who have ever doubted, it does snow here...rarely, but it does! Here is the proof...SNOW in LAS VEGAS! :)

It's A Girl!

We found out today that we are for sure having a girl! We haven't decided on any names for sure...Logan and Kody REALLY wanted a brother named Super Why. (One of their favorite shows is "Super Why" on PBS).



But since she is a girl, Logan thinks Twilight is a great name (I know, I have scarred my son for life) Kody was pretty disappointed that we couldn't name the baby Super Why so he wants to name her, Princess Presto (From the same show...I know he has a one track mind).



I don't think either name will make the cut,but you never know I am pretty sure Jared is secretly a Twilight fan, he's just too afraid to admit it! :)

Chirstmas

Well, it has turned out already to be a busy holiday season! I have to admit I have taken very few pictures, I know I totally deserve a Mother of the Year award. I will take tons and post them soon!

We spent Thanksgiving in Evanston with Jared's family and had tons of fun! Just about every day since we've been home either Logan or Kody (or both) re-tell me a story of something that happened while helping with Grandma and Grandpa's "new house" (their addition), or something that happened while playing with their cousins.

We have all been looking forward to Christmas, the kids especially! :) Last weekend was our ward Christmas Party/Brunch. Santa attended and all three kids were SO excited to meet him...When we walked into the classroom Santa was in Kody's eyes got HUGE and I think he might have forgotten his own name, he could hardly speak. Finally Santa got Kody to tell him what he wanted for Christmas, all Kody could get out was a smile and, "A Journal". It was pretty cute! Logan of course almost tackled Santa to the floor to tell him his list of things he wanted for Christmas. And Lucie just stared (I'm sure wondering the whole time why she had to sit on this strange man's lap) then she saw his bag full of candy canes pointed to them and said "candy" he handed her one she said "Thank You" and climbed down. There was a girl taking pictures so, when we get them I will post them!!!

Here is a picture of our three cuties at the Christmas party, someday I hope to get a picture of ALL three smiling and looking at the camera at the same time...someday :)

It's Maybe A Girl...Maybe

So today was the day! We were going to be able to find out if we are having a boy or a girl. Jared, Logan and Kody all thought it was a boy...Lucie even said "brother like mine Kody". I was even convinced that it was a boy. The results....the ultrasound tech THINKS that "it MIGHT be a girl...but don't go out and buy anything or rearrange the bedrooms" yes those were even her words! We have a shy girl..maybe girl, she kept her legs together with the umbilical cord in between the whole time! We can go back in a few weeks for a gender check...but now the suspense is killing me! This afternoon Logan said, "That lady said it's a girl but I still think I'm having a brother!"

So what do you think??? (I am hoping that one of you has some unknown/hidden talent of reading ultrasounds!:))





Already such a cutie!!!

Happy Halloween!

Hi! We hope everyone had a FUN and Happy Halloween! We sure did! There was no school due to Nevada Day, so we had a little Halloween party at my Mom's house. The kids had such a good time! Pizza for lunch, watching "Journey to the Center of the Earth" in 3D, making carmeled apples, playing out back (since it was such a nice day...low 80's!), eating Mummy Enchiladas for dinner, and finally trick or treating! Thanks for such a fun day Mom!

Be sure to scroll down to see our other fall posts! Sorry to do so many in one day!

Pumpkin Carving!

The kids had such a good time carving pumpkins! Grandma MacKay took them down and let them pick out their own pumkins. Thanks Grandma!!! They could hardly wait to carve them! Kody kept bringing his in and setting it on the kitchen table and then would ask if it was time to carve them yet. I was so worried he was going to drop it and break it before he had a chance to carve it!

Logan and Kody both wanted REALLY scary faces! Kody kept making a scary face to show us what he wanted his pumpkin to look like. Both Kody and Lucie cleaned out the insides all by themselves...almost. Lucie kept eating the raw insides and seeds. Logan didn't really want to help until Jared pulled his utility knives out of his work-tool buckets, then he wanted to do it just because we were using Dad's tools. :) They were all so proud of their pumpkins! Lucie kept telling us they were spooky...it comes out more like "poopkey"!

Logan's Pod Performance

On the 30th Logan had a "Pod Performance". At our elementary school the classrooms are set up in "pods" Kindergarten through 5 grade in each "pod" (there are several pods in the school). Each Pod has a performance throughout the year. The theme for Logan's pod was Latin American. Each grade study a different Latin American country, the 1st graders studied Brazil. All the kids sang songs from their countries and told fun facts...they all did such a good job!!! As you can tell from the pictures, Logan did NOT want me to take anymore pictures, he stood there, but would smile!

Logan at the performance!





Kody and Lucie waiting for the performance to start!
Of course I couldn't get them to smile at the same time!




Logan's Pod also had a Fiesta the day before their performance, families were invited, Kody thought that it was way fun to eat lunch with Logan at school! Logan LOVED showing us his desk and all of the fun things in his classroom. Logan's teacher also had a coloring page for the kids...Kody thought it was so cool that he got to do "school work" with Logan!

Updates, and Exciting News!

Hello! I can't believe that it has been so long since I posted...I'm sure you all have given up on us! Things have been good, just really busy, I am sure most of you are feeling the same way!
Here is our update!





Logan started 1st grade! I can not believe that we have a child that old! He was SO excited to go to school all day and to eat lunch in the lunch room...that lasted maybe 2 days, now he tells me school is too hard and WAY TOO MUCH work! He started the year with Mrs. Linde who was 9 months pregnant, (yes 9 months, no exaggeration! She had her baby Sept. 13th). He made tons of great progress in the few short weeks he was with her. Then came Mrs. Nagel the permanent sub, Logan LOVED her, but she was a little too nice and didn't keep on him about getting his school work done...so he would have 2-3 hours of home work every night. Then we receive a letter informing us that on "class count day" it was determined that our school was overstaffed, specifically the 1st grade (welcome to the lovely Clark county school district, 12 kids to a 1st grade class seemed perfect to me...but apparently NOT!) So a 4th grade teacher went to another school, Logan's teacher was moved up to 4th grade and Logan's class was distributed among the other 1st grade classes. He had quite a few problems the first week in his new class, hopefully we have them worked out and the rest of the year can move smoothly! His teacher keeps telling me that Logan is having a hard time adjusting to the new class routine...WHAT DO YOU EXPECT LADY!!! THE POOR KID HAS HAD 3 TEACHERS IN 6 WEEKS!!! Well, enough about that!





It has also been canning season, so we have spent many days at my mom's house, canning WAY TOO much fruit! At the end of each year we always say we are never doing it again, or we are going to cut back...but a new year rolls around our minds must drop by the side of a fruit stand somewhere in Utah and we start over again. This year we did 119 quarts of peaches, 65 quarts of pears, 35 quarts of Tomatoes, 31 quarts of Applesauce, 8 batches of jam, and 2 batches of chili sauce. I think we set a new record this year, we did it all in 6 days! (I told you we lost our brains somewhere in Utah...if you happen to see mine somewhere could you PLEASE send it to me?!) I am glad to have all the fruit, last year we ran out and Kody cried almost every morning, I broke down and bought some applesauce at the grocery store and he wouldn't eat it, he wanted "the kind we make at grandma's house"! Through all that Kody also ended up with Strep Throat! Luckily no one else got it!





We also have some exciting news, we are expecting our 4th baby March 17th!!! It was quite the surprise, it took us a little time to get used to the idea, but things are so far going great! Here we go! :)

I think that is all that has been going on, Jared got a new calling, he is the Cub Committee Chair, he had been the Ward Mission Leader for 2 years before that. It has been kind of sad not having the missionaries around all the time, but we do get to see Jared more often in the evenings!

A Quiet Afternoon

This afternoon Logan and Kody both went to a friend's house to play! It was SO quiet, we should have done something fun and girly, but instead we cleaned the kitchen. Lucie is my big helper, she loves to unload the dish washer, she hands you an item from the dish washer and says "Thank You" (well it's more like tank youuuuu).



She has also decided that she loves Cinderella or "Rella". I have tried getting her to say Cinderella on video several times, but this is the best I've gotten...it's much cuter and clearer in person! At the end she is saying "please", she knows she can get ANYTHING she wants from her Dad, brothers, or Grandma when she pulls out this little trick! :)
Don't forget to pause the music at the bottom of the page!

A Random Post: Sick Kids, Breaking Dawn & Refrigerator Pickles

I know, I have totally been slacking in the blogging department. There just hasn't been anything too exciting to blog about. All 3 kids have had the flu, and they couldn't make it easy by having it at the same time. As soon as one was over the vomiting and diarrhea, and I had gotten all of the nasty laundry done, the next one would get it. Yuck!

I have also finished Breaking Dawn!!! I won't spoil anything, I know there are still some of you that haven't read it yet. I REALLY enjoyed it. I thought that it was the perfect end to the series (can I just say I LOVED the end!). It did not leave me wanting for more or wondering what could happen to the characters if she were to write more. There were a few things in the middle I didn't really like, but besides that...I LOVED it! It is definitely the end, and I am kind of glad, I don't know that I could handle the waiting and anticipation of another one! :)

Also, I have been meaning to post this recipe that I found on Prudence Penny Wise. Here's the story: Back in February we were starting the seeds to plant in our garden. (I know to most of you that sounds way too early!) Kody, LOVES to plant a garden and eat the food out of it! He asked if we could plant pickles, another love of his. I told him that we could plant cucumbers to make pickles. He then asked "How do we make pickles?" So I told him, he did not like the part of having to wait MONTHS for the cucumbers to become pickled. A few days later I found this recipe, we ran to the store and bought cucumbers (I can only imagine how much better they would be with home grown cucumbers!). These are SOOO good and easy. Best of all...they only take a week! To quote Kody..."They are so 'squmtious' and 'dewishious'!" :)

Refrigerator Pickles
(from Prudence Penny Wise)

about 10 Kirby cucumbers, sliced
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
fresh dill, about 10 sprigs
6 cups water
2 cups vinegar
1/4 cup salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon black pepper

Layer cucumbers, onion, and garlic in clean glass bottles (I used about 6 quart jars). In a medium saucepan, boil water, vinegar, salt and sugar. Let cool for five minutes. Pour over cucumbers in jars to cover and refrigerate. (If you run out of liquid, just add equal parts water and vinegar.) Cucumbers will be best after one week. Good luck!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have had a hard time thinking of anything to post this week, so I thought I would post my all time favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I got this from a ward cook book and haven't made any other chocolate chip cookie since. They are oh so soft and chewy! They also make a TON, 6 to 7 dozen, depending on how much your kids like to "help" roll the dough into balls! Enjoy!



Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 cups of butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 Tbl vanilla
2 eggs
4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups (2 bags) milk chocolate chips
1 to 2 Tbl sweet and condensed milk

Heat oven to 350*, mix butter, sugars, vanilla, and eggs together until fluffy. Stir in flour, baking soda, salt and mix till dough is stiff. Add 1 to 2 Tbl sweet and condensed milk, just until it's a soft dough. Add chocolate chips and bake 11 -13 minutes.

DO NOT over bake! I remove mine from the oven when they are just starting to turn golden (usually 11 minutes or less), then I let them cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes.

Only 10 days until Breaking Dawn!!!!

Breaking Dawn

OK, so don't tell Jared that I am posting about as he calls them..."The Vampire Books". He thinks I am totally crazy, which I probablly am, but oh, well! I can hardly wait for the book Breaking Dawn to come out! Today I found these awesome prices on when you preorder the book, maybe you all already knew and I am toally behind but I thought I'd share anyway: Amazon.com: $12.64 and Walmart.com $10.94.

Sorry, this was completely and totally a random post!

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I Hope They Call Me On A Mission...

After re-reading our last post I felt REALLY bad that there were no pictures of Logan, so this post is ALL about him! He was also looking at blog backgrounds with me and he saw this one and wanted it...we just saw the "Bee Movie" yesturday, I think that's why it stuck out to him! I love you Logan!

Last Sunday while walking the halls with Lucie during Sunday School, I saw a member of our bishopric coming out of the Primary Room. He came right up to me and told me this story...

The Sharing Time lesson was on missionary work and serving missions. Sister Wardle was asking the kids questions about missions and where they would like to serve a mission. Logan raised his hand and Sister Wardle asked him if he would like to serve a mission too. He said "Yes" then she asked him where he would like to go, Logan thought for a minute and then said, "Disneyland".

Fourth of July

I know this is a little late...sorry! We had a great 4th! My family was having a reunion/camping trip outside of Parowan,UT. One sister and her husband were driving down from Idaho, and another sister and her family were coming from Cedar City. Jared and I were not able to go, I was really bumbed, but was trying to make fun plans for my kids anyway. Well, when my parents were almost out of town their air conditioner broke and they decided to just turn around and come home...so my sisters decided to come all the way down here too! I tried not to act too exicted! We barbequed...played my brother in-law's Wii..had a huge water fight...let off fireworks...and then watch the Red Rock Casino's awesome fireworks show! The kids had TONS of fun, so much fun that I couldn't get Logan to sit still for any pictures! Oh well! :)



Lucie kept pointing to her bow and saying "pretty".



Lucie liked watching the fireworks, but when we asked if she wanted to hold one she would say "owie" and hold her hand like it was hurt!




Kody was our "fireman" he stood ready to put out any fireworks that got out of control!



Kody also enjoyed the sparklers...until he thought the fire was getting to close to his hand!

Happy Birthday Kody!

Today was Kody's 4th birthday! I can not believe how fast the time has gone!

Poor Kody had to wait FOREVER to open his presents, we were trying to wait for Jared to get home from a meeting (for work) with Dr. Shah (who might I add is NOT on my nice list, but that is a whole other story!). Lucie fell asleep and Kody was on the verge, so I decided to just go ahead. Here are some pictures of his birthday. No, his shirt is not stained, he and Logan had just finished a water fight with some splash balls he had gotten.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KODY!
WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Missing Teeth and 3 Cute Kids!

We had a pretty good weekend...we missed being able to go to the "Rex Family Camp". We hope they all had a GREAT time! Logan lost his two front teeth, I think he looks way cute with out them. The rest of the pictures are of our cute kids!

Logan's Missing Teeth!


Cute Kody!


Lucie Hiding


Lucie being found!

Tag

I've Been Tagged!

Four places I go over and over
~My Mom's
~The Church
~The Library
~The (FREE) Movie

Four People who e-mail me (us) regularly
~Jared's Grandma Rex
~Jared's Mom & Dad
~People from church
~JUNK MAIL (yuck!)

Four places I would rather be right now
I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be right now...I guess anywhere Jared is!

Four People I talk to on a Regular basis
~Jared
~My Mom
~My sister Carrie
~My sister Hanna

Four favorite places to eat
~Macaroni Grill
~Cafe Rio
~Tropical Smoothy Cafe
~Panera Bread

Four Shows I would Watch over and over
~LOST
~King of Queens
~Friends
~According to Jim

Four People I tag
~Brittany
~Carrie
~Desi
~Anyone who wants to!

What Disney Princess Are You?

You Are Cinderella!

Dignified and hard working. With a gentle and soft-spoken manner you have something many people don't. Patience. Even through the moments of heartbreak you're still able to hold onto all of your hopes and dreams. Bide your time; your dream will come true.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

No Good, Horrible, VERY Bad Weekend

What is that a picture of you ask? That is a close up of this...our sliding glass door.



It was just one of those weekends, I'm sure you have all had them, or days when you wished the whole weekend/day would just end...that you could just fast forward over that little part of your life until the bad part was over. That was this weekend. When I was little, my mom would read us this story called "Alexander's, No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day" It's about this boy that just couldn't win, his brother took the toy from the cereal box, the store didn't have the cool shoes that he wanted and so on. Let's just say I wish that was the extent of my No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Weekend, but mine was worse. I won't go into all the details but let's just say the broken door was probably the least worst thing that happened!

The story...Logan and Kody were taking screws out of some electrical stuff for Jared. Logan wasn't giving Kody the screw driver that Kody wanted, I could tell Kody was starting to turn into Frankin-Kody, so I reminded him that he need to chill our or a time out would be in his very near future. That's all it took. He look at Logan...screamed his HIGH pitched squeal (he can out screech any girl) and threw a drill bit at Logan, Logan laughed and ducked out of the way of the drill bit. The bit hit the lower right corner of our sliding glass door and instantly I heard it starting to crack...it just kept spidering until the glass pane was completely covered in tiny little cracks.

Please some one explain this to me...that door has been hit with so many things, baseballs, sticks, baseball bats, and our big chocolate lab constantly jumps up against it, how could one tiny drill bit do SO much damage?

After a VERY long time out, Kody came to apologize to Logan. After saying he was sorry for throwing the drill bit, he looked at Logan and said, "Logan you should be more careful. If you wouldn't make me mad that drill driver (drill bit) would not have had to hit mom's door." Maybe someday that will be funny! :)

I am trying REALLY hard to see any good part of this weekend so here it goes, Our door is doubled paned, only one pane was broken, so we still have glass shielding us from the 108 degree temps. outside (I can't even imagine what our power bill would have been like if we would have had to run the air conditioner with out ANY glass in the door. And Jared has a friend that is part owner of a glass store...he's coming over tonight to give us an estimate...

Summer FUN!

Every summer I try to find fun, cheap things for my family to do. I always have grand plans at the beginning of the summer that tend to get pushed aside by the many other summer activities that pop our way. While we always have fun, at the end of the summer I am left looking back wishing I had done more. This summer I decided that I was going to make a plan and stick to it (as much as I could with 3 little kids). I know it has only been a few weeks but so far, so good! This summer we have tried a few new things that I wished I would have tried a long time ago! Here are a few!
1. FREE Family Festival: We have done this every summer since we have moved here, Regal Cinemas opens a little early and shows two (already out of the theater) family friendly movies every week. My kids LOVE this! and so do I because it's FREE! HERE is a link to their website...just type in your zip code to see if there is a participateing theater near you!
2. Public Library: I know...I sound like a really bad mom, I have been putting off taking my kids to the library until they were "older". I finally got brave enough about 6 weeks ago...oh how I wish I would have taken them sooner! It has been so much fun! We have checked out books on lighting, earthworms, snakes, lizards, the list could go on forever!!! Our library has a Summer Reading Program, you win prizes and other fun things, even Lucie can sign up, she LOVES handing in her tickets and getting prizes just like her brothers! Also, did you know that you can check out movies from the library? Logan and Kody LOVE going every week and picking out new movies.
3. School: Don't laugh, every afternoon we have been doing "school". Logan and Kody have LOVED doing "school". If I am running late one or both of them will ask me if it is time for school. They even have started calling me teacher (while laughing) and raising their hands to ask questions. It is SO cute! They are so proud of their work and can't wait to show their Dad all their hard work when he gets home from work!

I hope that these help someone...also, if you guys have any other summer fun activities I would love to hear them!

Chicken Noodle Salad

My sister in-law Heidi asked me for this recipe and I thought...mmmm, that's sounds good! I haven't made that in a long time, and it's a great summer salad! So I thought I'd share with all of you (since I know there are SO many of you reading this!:))So next time I go grocery shopping I am going to buy all the stuff to make it! Thanks Heidi! Sorry no picture, but believe me when I say it's delicious!

Chicken Noodle Salad
3 cups cooked chicken, diced
1 small head cabbage, chopped
2 pkgs Top Ramen Noodles (uncooked)
4 green onions, chopped
2 Top Ramen chicken flavor packets
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup slivered almonds (optional)
2 Tbsp sesame seeds (optional)
In a large bowl mix the first 4 ingredients (Break up the uncooked noodles into small pieces). Stir oil, vinegar, seasonings, and both flavor packets. Pour over chicken mixture and refrigerate overnight in airtight container. Before serving sprinkle almonds and sesames seeds on top! Enjoy!

Once I make this I will try and post a picture! ENJOY!

Logan's Kindergarten Graduation

Today Logan gratuated from kindergarten! I can't believe it! This year went by way too fast! Logan was very excited for today, he kept asking me who all was coming...we weren't sure if Jared was going to make it...you should have seen Logan's face when he saw Jared there! The multi-purpose room was kind of dark, the only lights on were pointed at the kids on the stage so our picutres didn't turn out very good, there was a ton of people there, so that also made it hard to get a good picture. There were 4 kindergarten classes (each with 25 to 30 kids) that sang songs. Each of the kids got to tell what their favortie part of kindergarten was, Logan said "What I liked about Kinderagrten was learning, playing outside, and play with the toys". He did such a good job! He didn't act nervous or anything! He stood very still, said his part and then passed the microphone on to the next kid! He has grown so much this year! We love you Logan and are so proud of you!

Below are some pictures of Logan's special day! Grandma MacKay brought over some ice cream left over from her ward's Enrichment night so we got to have a little celebration after graduation! Thanks Grandma!

Logan's Kindergarten Graduation

Kody's Preschool Party!