Halloween 2007

Let me start by saying that Halloween on our street was TOTALLY LAME!!! Every year we go all out and decorate our garage. We have a great time doing this and normally get at least 100 trick-o-treaters. We discovered this year the down-fall to living on a cul-de-sac. No one comes down here! All that being said, we still had some great family time.

Here are some pictures from our pumpkin carving night the weekend before:

Such concentration!!!

Here is our finished product: Mine is the first one on the left, then Matt's, then Kayle's on the right.

Here are some pictures of us playing with dry ice - that stuff is CRAZY!!!

Here is our attempt at setting a cool scene in the backyard with dry ice and our pumpkins:

Here is Kayle making us dinner:

Hahahaha! Just kidding!

Here is a picture of our awesomely decorated garage:

Here are some pictures of us goofing around:

Do I look like my Brother in this picture below, or what???

The Harvest Festival at Kayle's School

Every year, Kayleigh's school has a wonderful harvest festival. There's games, and face painting, hair coloring, a haunted house, a DJ and lots of food. We had an awesome time! Here is a picture with Kayle and some of her friends from school:

The best part of the night was when Kayle and her friends were dancing and singing along with the DJ. I was able to sneak up and catch them in the act. This video is hysterical!

I gave Kayleigh and her friends such a hard time and told them I would be publishing their music video on the internet. They were all mortified! Hahahahaha!

My Birthday (October 22nd)

I had an awesome birthday this year! I took the day off of work - which was great all by itself! When I woke up, Matt and Kayle had made me a cake and we ate it for breakfast because we had plans for a big family dinner that night at the Melting Pot - YUM!

Here's my cake:

After we had cake, I got to open my presents!!! They spent 2 hours the night before wrapping them up - they did a great job!

Here's my Birthday haul: I got a fishing game for the wii - SO much fun! I got the new iPod Nano - SOOOO cool! Matt had it engraved for me too. I cried! I also got fuzzy Crocs! Holy Moly they are comfortable!

Here's me and Kayle being silly after our sugar rush and opening presents!


Finally, here's the whole group (minus Jim because he took the picture) at the Melting Pot. I have to say I think this was the best time we ever had at the Melting pot! We tried new things this time and it was awesome!!!



I also wanted to say that I really missed some important friends and family on my Birthday - Huge thank you's to Chan and Dave for the funny B-day card, to Mom and Dad Mildren for the Card and check (I bought new jeans!), and to Steve and Sara for covering my butt... I got an Old Navy gift card and bought new undees... Hahahahahaha!!!! TMI, right???

Poor Kitty! (October 15th)

It's OK! She's all better now, but we had quite a scare with her in October. Matt woke up one morning, and she hadn't moved all night and she was really feverish! I noticed she was flicking her paw and when I looked at it, it was HUGE! Matt took her to the vet and they said it was some kind of infection. They lanced it and drained it, then put this crazy orange bandage on her. She was miserable! We took it off that night before bed and she was like a whole different cat! She was running around and playing and the swelling had gone way down. She had to be on Antibiotics for 7 days.

Here she is with her bandage - such a cute picture!

She was fine for a couple of weeks, then she got sick AGAIN! We woke up on Halloween and she was really lethargic. This time her breath was really stinky and she was swollowing her food whole without chewing. We were certain she had Feline Luekemia, which is the #1 killer in cats. When he got to the vet, they took her in back to test her. While he was waiting, they put up a sign that said, "No cats today - Feline Leukemia." I was at home trying to work. I had conference calls and I had to keep muting my line because I was balling!

Oddly enough, all the tests came back negative! They gave us more antibiotics and some mouthwash because her gums were infected. Ever tried to give a cat mouthwash? It's a real blast, let me tell ya! The next day we were trying to give her medicine when something fell out of her mouth. It was a baby tooth! Later that night I stepped on another one that was on the floor. I did a little research and found that at her age, cats are loosing the last of their baby teeth and it can cause gum infections, bad breath, etc. I can't tell you how angry I was with the vet! Anyway, she seems to be doing much better now.

Mom & Dad's visit

Matt's parents came to visit a couple weeks ago. We had a great time with them and took some really good photos of the family together the night before they left:

I love this picture. It represents 4 generations.



Here's one with just the girls!


Here's the whole gang!


The picture is slightly crooked not because some drunk person is holding the camera, but because we set the timer and it was balancing on our sofa!

My Awesome Husband...

Matt's sister Martel has started her own business. Don't ask me exactly what she does becuase I do not entirely understand it, but what I do know, is that Matt pulled together a kick butt website for her this week in about 8 hours!

Check it out!

http://www.nvduo.com/

My Husband ROCKS! ;-)

Guitar Hero II

Matt's nephew Jon loaned us a game a couple weeks ago. We all got addicted to it really quickly! We even had a Guitar Hero party with our friends Dave, Sheri and Hailey - everyone got into it!







Hailey's face is classic! She got SO stressed out trying to keep up with the notes!






Kayle is doing so well she's already moving up levels! You would not believe how cute she is when she's rocking out and playing. In fact, she's so cute, I'm uploading my first video ever so you can see how adorable she is! The song she's playing was a tough one and this is the first time she made it through the whole thing - she was so proud of herself! Enjoy:

More Pictures of Roxy

If you've seen Kayleigh's Blog, you already know we rescued a Kitten on Saturday. She's been an absolute dream and hearing Kayleigh laugh when she's playing with her is priceless. She's 5 months old and so far is adapting very well to her new home.

The Master Bedroom

OK, OK! Sara called me on it - here are some pictures of the master bedroom. We just got some AWESOME new furniture and I was waiting to show it off, then I neglected to take pictures and post them. We got a sleigh bed, two night stands, and two dressers.

The sleigh bed:



The dressers:


Our Bathroom:




For most people, they would love the bathroom, but I'm a shrimp, so the sink is a little tall for me, so every time I wash my face I end up making a mess! At least the marble counter top and cabinetry are beautiful!

Our New Home

I have promised for a long time to post pictures of our home. After this, I'M ALL CAUGHT UP! So here they are:

The front of the house:

Our Awesome Backyard:

Our cozy little Kitchen:

Our Living room:

Our Office - where all the magic happens!

Kayle's Living room:

On the TV table is a wireless keyboard and mouse that operate the computer that is attached to the TV here:

Kayle's Bedroom:

Kayle's View - WOW!!!

We love our house! It's been a lot of fun having a pool. We are so close to the lake and near family and friends. Come visit us!

New Family Member

Make sure to visit Kayle's Blog to see the new addition to our family!

http://karatekayle.blogspot.com/

Summer 07 Updates

OK, so after Finland the rest of the summer was a blur. We decided to leave TX and move back to NV. It was a difficult decision. We had such high hopes and it's a shame it didn't work out for us, but I can't even begin to express how happy I am to be back in NV. We're close to everyone and everything. Kayle's school is ranked 2nd in all of Clark County and she's making friends and doing very well.

A few funnies about our move. The first day we made it from Houston to Amarillo... barely... it was midnight and we were exhausted and ready to stop. Every hotel we drove passed the parking lots were completely packed! We had quite the load - I had the truck and was towing the boat, and Matt had a Budget rental truck and was towing the Charger. We managed to park on a street behind a Days Inn. There were cars everywhere, but we got lucky. Matt went in to get a room only to find out that there would not be a hotel available within 2 hours of Amarillo due to a Jehovah's Witness conference. No... I'm not kidding. We called several places and found nothing. It was not safe for us to drive, so we decided to sleep in the cabin of the boat for a few hours and then head out early.

When I woke up it was daylight. I rolled over to check the time on my phone. 10 AM!!!! I couldn't believe we'd slept a solid 8 hours in the boat in the middle of a street surrounded by cars! Matt was surprised that it had been so quiet, he figured no one had left the hotel yet. When I stood up out of the cabin, the lot was EMPTY! No cars left... JUST US! We cracked up laughing. We were obviously very, very tired.

The rest of the trip went well.... until we got 20 miles from our new house. One of the tires blew out on the trailer that was holding the Charger. We called Budget and they said we could tow it slowly, so we dragged that thing the last 20 miles... going 30 MPR! We made it safe and sound. We were nervous because we were moving into a house that we had not yet seen in person yet.

We got SO lucky. The house is WONDERFUL!!! That's my next post!

Tallinn, Estonia

I had to stay over the weekend while I was in Finland. It was very difficult because it was the longest Matt and I had ever been apart. I missed him SO much. I decided to try and keep busy so as not to wallow in my sadness and took a ferry - more like a super-powered-garanteed-to-make-you-sea-sick ferry - over to Talinn, Estonia. What an amazing experience!!!

If you look closely at this map, everywhere you see the little black "zipper" looking lines around the whole town, are actually walls that are still standing and surround the castle and the town of Tallinn.

It was so beautiful I actually broke down in tears emailing my Mom and Matt from my blackberry while I was sitting in an out-door cafe having lunch! I took 92 pictures of this amazing city. If you are interested you can see them all on my Yahoo photos site, but here are some of my favorites:

This was the first street I walked up to enter the town:

The churches and steeples were amazing! Check out these awesome photos:

These two church towers are called "The Father and The Son"

I walked around this huge Castle and down a dirt road that I could only imagine had been there for thousands of years. It was surreal! At the end of the road I walked up many flights of steps. When I got to the top, this was the view:

(one of my favorite photos!)

There was also this really cool street that was all cobble stone. It walked along what they called "The Wall of Mis-trust." Independent Artists hung and sold their paintings here and the street went under a building with a very cool archway:

I can't explain why I love this photo so much - maybe it's the combination of the stone walls, alcoves, old brick streets and purple planters, but this is one of my most favorite photos from my trip:

Finally, what place would be complete without a Texas Cantina?!?!?!

I went inside and ordered a coke! To see more pictures of the Cantina, go to my Yahoo Photos site.

If you ever find yourself anywhere near Finland do not miss Estonia. This little town made my whole trip worth going!

Helsinki, Finland

After I passed through Amsterdam, I went on to Helsinki, Finland. It was pretty - and I was lucky enough to be there the perfect time of year. In the summer, the Finns never seem to sleep. How could they with only 4 hours of darkness - and it's not even that dark! It's more like twilight! Here are some pictures I snapped while walking around town:

I stayed here at the Hilton, which was convenient, because the client was right next door in the red brick building!

This is the capitol building in Helsinki. It is hard to get perspective from this picture, but the steps are really tall and wide. If you can catch a glimpse of the people up on top of them, you get the idea of just how big this courtyard and building were.

I have an obsession with brick-paved and cobblestone streets. Many of the streets in Helsinki were just like this one.

Helsinki is a sea-side village. This is a beautiful picture of the marina not too far from my hotel.

This is the train depot in Helsinki that can take you to any of the other cities in Finland, as well as St. Petersburg and Moscow!

Just to keep things interesting, while I was in Finland, Matt was in Las Vegas looking into a job in Computer Forensics and... house hunting in Henderson! More on that in a later post!