Vegas weekend

We spent February 12-15 in Las Vegas.

Ryan's cousin Jacob Coronado returned from his LDS Mission to Russia recently. His family was holding a ceremony celebrating this fact and invited us. Since it is the middle of February and we had nothing else to look forward to, we decided to go.



Jacob's ceremony was on Saturday from 1-4. They had music, and speeches, and snacky food. Katie and Elayna didn't make it through most of the program, so I walked around outside with them. It felt so nice! The sun was shining, and we didn't even need jackets.
We stayed at Arizona Charlie's Casino. It was a fairly central location to the families that live there. We actually spent most of the time just visiting with family, and eating.

Saturday night some of the younger cousins went "Out on the Town", thanks to wonderful, loving, supportive, and generous parents. (Thanks Irma!)

We went to the "The Freemont Street Experience". I guess it is the old strip. It was fun. We visited lots of casinos (boring and smoky. But almost everyone that gambled came out ahead, so it was good), had some deep fried Oreos (I had one bite, and it was plenty) and deep fried Twinkies (yuck. I didn't even want to try those. Ryan said it was okay. His first response was, "Um, greasy." Ugh).
We visited a Piano Bar that was playing Broadway songs that I knew, so that was fun. There is a huge screen covering part of the street that has things playing on it. Like movie stuff. And interviews, and live broadcasts of the bands that were playing.

This is the group.
Back row: Dave Penrod, Shelise Palmer, Brooke Babbitt, Dave Lee, Derek Palmer, Ryan, Marissa, random guy standing by the wall.
Front row: Serena Penrod, Amber (Kaye) Coronado, Staysi Lee.



The driving arrangements were thus:
Ryan, Derek, Matthew, and Elayna in our car.
Mickie, Irma, Marissa, and Katie in Mickie's car.
That way, the men didn't have to listen to the women, and vice versa. I think we were all happier that way. :) Except we felt bad for poor Elayna; stuck listening to movie trivia, comic stories, and an in-depth description of the latest figures to come out. (Love you Ryan!)

All in all it was a very fun trip. We were worried about going because we actually owe money on taxes this year.(Bleh) But we decided it was more important to spend time together as a family and have a vacation. It was worth it. We'll find money to pay, somewhere.

We had some random encounters. We saw my Uncle John and Aunt Lynnette at a gas station in Beaver. Weird.
Then, as we were leaving church, I saw this guy coming towards me and I thought, "No way!" It was Ty Wilkerson! One of my brother's best friends. I hadn't seen him in about 8 years. We chatted for a bit, then headed our separate ways.

The morning after we got home Katie came out of her bedroom singing, "It's morning-time, it's morning-time. The sun is out and it's morning-time." It was so adorable, it just made me laugh. Both of the girls seemed so excited just to be home.

These are the tulips Ryan bought for Valentine's Day for me while we were in Vegas. They are beautiful, and they actually made it home in one piece. Despite being kicked repeatedly throughout the 6 hour drive.

Trying to Catch Up-January

The perils of falling asleep with 2 girls at home:


Katie and Elayna were drawing while I was making dinner. Katie asked me how to spell my name. I told her M, and she wrote it down, then I had to explain what A looked like, then showed her the magnet of R and S, and she had my name all written down. Unfortunately, it was in yellow marker, so it is really hard to see:



It is still hard to understand, even if you can see the letters. It kinda looks like this:

mARI
s A
s
Only really scrunched, with some letters really big, and the S's hardly there. I was impressed.

Then Katie wanted to write her own name. As I spelled it, she got upset that there was an E in her name. "No! E is what Elayna starts with! It's not my name!" I had to explain that everyone shares letters, but she was not happy to learn that concept.

Elayna has all 4 molars coming in or already in, and possibly another front tooth on the bottom. She also has a cold, and a cough. Not a happy girl!

Elayna handed me her bottle the other night, then said, "Dis? Pls? Mk?" Which means, "Can you put milk in this bottle please?"

Katie's first week as a Sunbeam: Elayna will start Nursery Feb 7th.


Katie is a Sunbeam now! The first week, it was so cute to see those cute little children sitting so reverently in Primary. I'm sure it helped that there was a short video that they got to watch. Most of the adults were pleasantly surprised with their reaction. I didn't notice any children crying or wanting to leave. (Maybe they had already left, I don't know.) We started learning a new song called "I Know That My Savior Loves Me". Katie has about half of the first verse memorized, and loves to sing it with me.
I picked Katie up from her class the first week, and she asked me 3-4 times, as we were walking to the door to find Ryan and Elayna, "Can I have a snack when I get home? Please Mom?" There wasn't any conditioning for the children to go from Nursery, where they get a snack each week, to Sunbeams, where they don't get anything to eat. She still asks for a snack each week, but not quite so desperately.
Katie's teacher's name is Sister JoLyn Brown. JoLyn is my cousin, so Katie knows her by her first name. While at church, however, I want Katie to call her Sister Brown, out of respect. She didn't seem to understand the concept, so I started teasing her about the name.
Me-"Sister Green?"
Katie-No!
Me-"Sister Purple?"
Katie-No, Sister Brown!
The next week, Katie told me she was going to call her teacher Sister Pink, then she started laughing.

Primary is set up so that the younger children all meet together, in their classes, and have Sharing Time (talks, scriptures, lessons) and singing time while the older children meet in separate classrooms and have their lesson. Then they switch.
During Sharing Time, I noticed one little boy that hadn't been to class before. He wasn't very happy about being in Primary. Katie has been in Nursery with him, so she leaned over, and talked to him. Then she put her arm around him and told the other boy that "He is my friend".

Elayna is saying new words every day. She will repeat most of the things I say to her. Some of the things she says frequently:

duh, duh, duh (while shaking her shoulders)= Can we have some music on please?
Ps= Please
dn= Down
tk you= Thank you
Btman!= Anything that might look like, or remind her of a toy or item of Ryan's.
bk= Book
dis? (while pointing at on object)= Can I have that?

Katie will read books to herself, out loud. The funniest part to me, is that she tells a different story than the book she is looking at. She will also remember words I have read in the book, and if I'm skimming, and forget the word, she is quick to remind me.

Katie is seeing letters everywhere now, and it is fun for her. She is also understanding that words rhyme and sound the same.

Katie's first snowman:



Katie normally says "famihomeving", but Ryan has taught her to say "Family Home Evening". Three distinct words.

Katie can get Elayna down from the table, which is a big help. Actually, Elayna got herself down from the table the other day.

I went in to get the girls out of bed, and saw that Katie had brought in the box of raisins, and they were having a picnic on Elayna's crib. Raisins were all over the crib, the floor, the girls.

The other night, we heard Katie at the top of the staircase, breathing heavily. Then we heard her creeping down the stairs. She knows she isn't supposed to get out of bed after we put her in. I went to talk to her, and she started talking before I could even ask her what she was doing. "Elayna threw up, and I'm sorry I'm out of bed, but she threw up all over, and I thought you should come up" After we got everything cleaned up, we explained to Katie that throwing up is an emergency, and if it happens again, she can tell us without getting in trouble.



I was driving somewhere with just Elayna. I don't remember why. I heard her making a weird noise, so I glanced back and she had her head leaned over as though she was sleeping. Then I realized she was "snoring"! It's a fun game we play when we are pretending to sleep. GG taught both girls how to "snore". When they go visit her, there is a chair that can lean back. So the girls climb on, and then we snore for them, and they copy us. It is really cute. I was amazed Elayna was doing it by herself, just for fun.
She is at a fantastic age, except for her fits. You know, she is happy when things are going her way. Then, a monster appears when she doesn't get her way.
We love both girls so much. They bring so much happiness, joy, fulfillment, laughter, amazement, and love into our home.