De-LIGHT-ed

Ok so this is one of those things that you feel a little lame getting so excited about that you want to blog it, but I am excited and I am shamelessly lame at times so blogging about it I am.  We discovered these new light bulbs at Costco.  They are energy efficient bulbs that were labeled daylight bright and man are they ever.  We got them to replace one bulb that went out in the living room and it was approximately a 100x whiter than the rest so we needed to just replace the others.  Did I mention that they are only $4 for 6 bulbs.  Anyway...they make everything look LOVELY and WHITE all the time and we got obsessed...and went ahead and changed most of the bulbs in the house.  Here is an example of a before room and an after room.  Can't you just drink in the lovely bright whiteness.  Its like heaven on earth (although one downside is that it revels dust much more plainly now, but I still like it!)

Its a tad gross...but Hilarious!

Is anyone else worried that this might be a little too close to what MY little girl will turn out like?

A little video of from the Air Show last weekend

Tell me this wasn't a little slice of two-year old boy heaven for Taj? :)

Sleepy Head and Shower Happy

So you may or may not know this but Mark recently got a part time job at the new REI that opened in Summerlin.  He works in the bike shop building and repairing bikes.  He loves it! I repeat LOVES it.  But it has been taking up a lot of his time and makes for long days.  He leaves for his "real job" at 6 most morning and then if he works REI that night he doesn't come home again until 10pm.  Well after a few days like this he had the night off and came home to Taj and I and a home cooked meal (thank you very much!).  Well Mark walked and wrestled and threw Taj in the air a few times (since he hadn't seen him awake in a while) but within 3 minutes of his head hitting the ground (captured in the pic below) he was out cold, snoring.  I felt so bad for him I let him sleep while Taj and I ate and just woke him up about 30 mins later.  

And then on another note, I wanted to post one thing (among many) that I like about Taj.  He LOVES to shower.  He will just hang out in there for 45 mins if I let him (which I haven't but I don't doubt that he would).  I know lots of kids that flip out when water gets in their eyes, etc but this kid just LOVES being all wet.  He sings songs, stomps his feet, sometimes he just stands there and sighs (my personal favorite) with water dripping off those big ole eyelashes of his.  Anyway its handy in the mornings.  I hop in and out then Taj gets in and does his thing the whole time I do my hair and makeup. 

I just really like the men in my life!  What can I say?

Up Up and Awaiting...

So Saturday morning we woke up and decided to call our friends the Ungurens to see what they were up to.  They were heading out to the one day a year AIR SHOW at Nellis and invited us to meet them there.  Mark grew up on Air Force bases so air shows were a normal occurrence for him, this however was my first one.  It was fun!  It was worth it, but you have to commit that you are going to stick it out.  We waited in line for 45 min just to get shuttled onto the base from the parking lot and then once inside everything (except entry) costs lots of money.  Case and point: A $5 corn-dog....the exact same kind you buy in bulk at Costco (I saw the box) but for $5 a pop!  All the same...it was a fun day and here are a slew of photos to prove it.

We took this one with Grandpa Snavely in mind since Mark recalled that he served on the base in Ohio that this plane was from. 

This is Gavin giving Taj a big hug!  I took the pic two seconds too soon because right after I clicked Taj caught on to the hug idea and joined in.

However, Taj's late entry into the hug threw Gavin off his game and Taj ended up hitting the ground.  And yup!  We're the kind of parents that snap a photo of the sad (cute) face before loving him back to health. :)

Oh the Ungurens!  We are big big fans!

That's us.  I don't like this pic because all I see is what looks like a beer belly on me, but I trust the rest of the world just knows I'm pregnant...right? right?

Sweet parachuters flying overhead with fancy smoke strings to show off with.  What a job!

We ran into some friends from our ward there, which was rather miraculous by itself since there were 20 thousand other people there too. 

Did you notice that cute little baby with the giant ear muffs?  Those puppies put her out $12 but what are you going to do when you didn't realize how super loud those planes are! He's working those muffs! :)

I took this pic for Mark benefit.  He thought it was really funny that these missiles were right by the potties.  Get it?  Dropping bombs? :) (sorry mom...Mark made me!)

And this was Taj about 3 mins into the car ride home!  Always the sign of a day well spent!

(side note: why do the boys always score those kind of lashes!)

The People working on the bailout plan

Good Ole Bros

A couple of weekends ago we had a big Sunday dinner at our house with all of my old friends.  We have all been close since high school and Ramir and Amy are the only ones that don't live in Vegas so since they were in town...we threw a party!  Its fun to see how we are all growing up since we throw dinner parties and have kids and careers and all that...its weird, but good weird.  We were bummed the Jake and Jill couldn't come but they had a good excuse so we let them off the hook. 

Brooklyn and Scout.  Note Scout is even curtsying for the picture. What a lady!

Josh and Kara and their new baby Copper

Troy and Leeann

The Asians!  Amy (not so Asian but she married one so she is unofficially) Ramir and their boy Cole!

Its hard to believe but I did not alter this photo....that kid is just that cute.  Its nuts!

Ramir, Cole and Dusty (Somehow I managed to not get a shot of D's wife!  However, you should know she quite lovely too!)

Then most of the kids partying in the "play room".  We love how much our kids get along!  Its also quite nice to be staying in Mom and Dad's house where we have room to throw these wild parties! :) Thanks Mom and Dad!

Surf's Up America!

The after shots!

So Sunday morning I talked Mark into completing Taj's haircut.  Which means that everywhere we went on Friday and Saturday he was sporting the Grandpa Owen haircut but in normal little boy clothes.  It was pretty entertaining to watch people double/triple take him, but only 2 people had enough courage to laugh, everyone else wasn't sure if it was intentional or not so they didn't know how to react.   The night of the party Mark didn't think the zero setting on the clippers achieved enough of an effect so he actually took his razor to the crown of Taj's head, so if you look close there is still a little halo of shorter hair around the crown of his head, but give us 2 weeks and that will be long gone.  Small price to pay in order to be your idol for Halloween! 

This is how Taj smiles.  He even says "Cheeeese!"  I'll say!

Then this is how Taj looks after church.  Our ward meets from 1-4 right now and that is exactly when Taj normally naps so it makes for a long day.  Seriously how wasted does he look in this picture?  I on the other hand am eating it up!  He is actually snuggling and sitting still on me!  Sigh!