Day after Thanksgiving

Decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving has alway been our family tradition. Jim began the process by putting up the lights on the house last Saturday when we were experiencing wonderful weather here in Las Vegas. He added a couple of extras this year, including lights for the bushes and lit-garland around the windows. He was prepared so that the night of Thanksgiving our Christmas lights were ready to go as soon as the sun went down (light sensors -- yea! no more unplugging the lights in our pajamas when we go to bed). Once the excitement has started at our home you just can't stop it. Madsion was so eager to get all the Christmas decorations up that she cleaned my pot shelves in my kitchen and hallways. Paige also helped with this huge task and it was done in no time and ready to get all the decorations down out of the attic and in the right spots. Madison was the one who got Dad going on putting up the tree and beginning to place decorations. Parker and Paige also helped with the fun task of getting ALL the ornaments on the tree (finally pre-lit so stringing 10 lines doesn't take all day) in just the right places. Meghan just sat back in her teenage glory and kept saying, "IT ISN'T EVEN DECEMBER YET." She did finally come around when we turned on the radio and they were playing holiday music. Needless to say, it took the better part of Friday, but we got all the Christmas decorations up, the train around the tree, the stockings hung, nativity in place, and the advent calendar ready to count us down to CHRISTMAS. It is only 26 days away. We even went and picked up up a few gifts on Black Friday which we never really do. We have a good start to our holiday season and hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving and a great start to the Christmas season. Thanks to our friends the ALLENS who invited us to Thanksgiving dinner so we would not have to eat alone. We weren't able to go to our family's, so they opened their already busy home to us as well. THANKS. We enjoyed ourselves a lot.

Mt. Charleston in November

With the last two days off from school, my neighbor and I decided to take the kids (eight of them) to Mt. Charleston for a hike and enjoy cooler weather on top of it. We knew it would be about 20 degrees cooler so we prepared. We had gloves, sweatshirts, hats, food and water. We hiked for two hours up the Mary Jane Falls area but didn't get to the top to experience the cave, but we found snow to play in. It might not have been tons but it was a little that satisfied the need to play in. Take a look at our COOL pictures.

Parker climbing a tree...

Paige & her BFF Amity sitting on a log...

Meghan "posing" with Luke Celeste...

Madison staying warm in the mountains w/ gloves & scarf...

"Look, we found snow",they kept saying. They even brought a snowball down off the mountain to keep in Luke's freezer.

Japanese Brain Test

This test will tell you if your brain is as old as your body. The site doesn't know your age, but it will tell you the age of your brain power.
The website is at the bottom. Once you get there you won't be able to read the Japanese instructions, so follow these instructions
1. Touch 'start'
2. The numbers 3 then 2 then 1 will pop up on the screen. Immediately following number 1, several numbers will flash on the screen for barely one second.
3. Memorize the numbers' position on the screen, then click the circles from the SMALLEST NUMBER TO THE BIGGEST NUMBER.
4. At the end of game, the computer will tell you in years, how old your brain is.
Sounds complicated but it's really easy. Think fast.
Http://flashfabrica.com/f_learning/brain/brain.HTML

Halloween Day and Night

We were pretty busy Halloween day. The kids didn't have school due to NEVADA DAY (commemorates the admission of the state of Nevada into the union on October 31, 1864). So we went and picked up Meghan's friend, Emily, who just move back to Las Vegas. I needed to take the kids yearly pictures, so I decided to take the kids to the Bellagio and take a look at the gardens. It is pretty awesome. We usually go during Chritmas so it was a treat to see what they did for fall. Check out all the cool pictures I took. If you haven't ever seen the gardens at the Bellagio, it is worth the trip.







While we were there with awesome backgrounds for pictures, I took these pictures of the kids. I think they turned out great and I didn't have to pay an arm and a leg for professional packages. I am so glad my college education can be used for the benefit of my kids and my pocket book.











Here is what all the kids looked like Halloween night. They all looked great!!!!