Tin Grin

This is not a picture of my smile. First, this person doesn't even need braces...and second, I haven't smiled in 36 hours and I don't know if I ever will again. Indeed, I have adult orthodontics. It's a good thing I made good friends here in Las Vegas before I did this, because I'm pretty sure I spit on most of them today at the park...purely accidental and purely embarrassing.

Abby has had picture day, we celebrated our nine year anniversary, I'm working a lot, the primary program is this weekend, our family ran a 5k together and we've had various parties and festivities...but I don't want to blog about any of them.

Did you notice I said nine year anniversary? I don't even have enough spare lip to kiss him decently. When I dropped him off at the office after our anniversary lunch, I said "I have to go, I'm late for fourth period." It was funny. We laughed. He went inside and I cried my eyes out. I'm a freckle faced girl with braces!

I better be so freakin' hot after this that a soundtrack plays whenever I walk into a room. For those of my friends who confessed their head gear, mouth guards and awkward moments to make me feel better- thank you. I know I'm a whiner about my 6 months of traction. If you want to bring me treats to help me self medicate the pain, feel free. Just please puree them first.

Way more vacation information than you will ever care to know...

My little family was so lucky to be able to spend 5 days in Oregon. We visited Portland and the Oregon coast with my family. And because it was the world's most awesome vacation, I must post no less than a million pictures. The above picture is a little surreal for me. Brandon and I were married in the Portland temple almost 9 years ago. The wedding photo hanging in my house was taken in front of that fountain, and here, in the same spot, is that handsome devil with the cutest little salmon spawn in the northwest!

We also went to the Portland Zoo. World's best zoo. I know it looks like Brandon is really happy to be there, which he is, but I actually told him to say "Yee Haw" for the photo. I don't think he would let me share this photo unless I explained that.

My little eagle family.

The main lady. This is my sweet mother.

3 generation shot.

A pack of wild, ice cream loving farm animals! Oh, wait...it's the Tracy family? Yep, that's my sister, her husband Phil, and his daughter Tiffany. We are at the Blue Heron cheese company. Best brie I have ever had. They ship and it is my birthday next month. I'm just saying...(I like the pepper flavor please)

The blue heron also had a petting zoo. We fed the llama flowers. Which, according to a sign we later discovered, was detrimental to his special diet. No one has ever died from dandelions though, right?

I make the northwest look good. Granted, I am the only one in sunglasses, but it's the Vegas in me.

Abby could feel her heritage taking over. She took to the tide pools at Haystack rock like the little star fish she is.

Here we are warming up for our tide pool excursion at the Seaside Aquarium. All the hesitancy in her face was quickly replaced by pure zeal. She touched everything. And I am now out of hand sanitizer.

The crew at the aquarium.

This is me being VICIOUSLY assaulted by seals. When I went through my original tree-hugging phase (which I am back in, by the way) in the 4th grade, I had a poster of seals. Loved 'em. And that is why I paid 5 dollars to feed them...the ungrateful curs...the moment I took a brake feeding them they splashed me, AND my new boots! I just screamed and chucked food in as fast I could. It was pure survival instinct that took over. My vanity was out the window.

The beast in action.

Cleaned up for a date with the hubby. We ate razor claims and saw the cheesiest local theater you can imagine.

The farmer and his cow.

You know we hit the Tillamook cheese factory, and you know we ate ourselves sick! Thank you Thompson/Tracy family for such a wonderful vacation...and if you are still reading this, thank you too!

First Day Photo Shoot

Dear Abby,
You have no idea how much I am going to miss your preschool self. I am going to desperately miss the moments when I ask to take your first day of school picture and you run off to make sure all of your favorite blankets and baby dolls are in the photo. Please, please, please stop growing. It's gone by too fast! And I only have one more year until you leave me everyday. You simply must do your best to slow down.

Love you,
Mom

Viva Lost Wages!

We had a more than exciting weekend! Starting off with the least exciting was our recent flood. We had a plumber come work on our house to repair a leaky pipe in the wall while we were doing our renovation. Well, he made the leak a lot worse. Apparently, it has been leaking for a while, but thankfully we had some guests in town this weekend which made our water use go up and it made the leak bad enough to really notice. If they hadn't have been here, it would have probably completely ruined our floor and caused a huge mold problem. Thank you for thoroughly flooding my house, Hales! I couldn't have done it without you :)

We have had these airport sounding blue fans blowing in our house all weekend long. On the bright side? I finally get to get rid of the gas station tile on my downstairs bathroom!

3 month old paint, dry wall, base mold, wood floors and doors...gone...sniff! Never been happier to be married to an attorney than I was when the plumber who did the work showed up to see what had happened...it was so very People's Court/Judge Judy/World Wrestling Federation/Pride and Prejudice. He is so my Mr. Darcy!

Now on to the good parts! This is Brandon and I at the Bellagio...and since we're from Las Vegas, we have a lot of pictures of us at the Bellagio...but none taken by the Hales family!! Our BFFs from Florida (the ones who fed us, held my hand through my first year of mothering, made us laugh, took us to the best restaurants ever, and taught me kanasta) were out on a tour of the west and stopped by to see us.

This is Abby and one of her favorite baby sitters ever- Brianna!

The Hales family! Thanks for letting us show you around our sleaze hole of a town! Glad we could do all the classics....the sign, the fountains, the buffet, the porn stuck to your shoe and the reaffirmation that we are truly on the top of the food chain of humanity.

Friday was Abby's final cheer leading performance. Proud of you little cheer star! Your teacher says you are a natural...and you know I thought you were the best!

I promise the church is still true...

Maybe I don't want to post this in the off chance that a significant number of members from the South Pointe Ward will read this...but it's probably my duty to warn (thus preventing me from future tort litigation). But yes, above is a picture of my daughter at 3pm, in her pajamas, sprinkling her bathroom cups all over our upstairs hall like they were rose petals. Intermixed are puzzle pieces, various toys, and yes, a basket of dirty laundry. For those of you keeping score, the ratio at my house is still 1:1, and yet we are able to achieve that kind of mess every day. As the new Primary President of the South Pointe Ward, you'd think I'd get my act together. Lets hope my leadership is a bit better than my laundry, eh?

In less overwhelming Leavitt Family News: Happy 4th Birthday, Abigail!!! I was so thrilled to spend such a festive week with you. We had family parties, went to dinner, opened presents from all over the country, and had the best little tea party (by little, I mean 8 sweet princesses, which is a much bigger number in reality than theory)! I'm still recovering and drinking plenty of fluids...I don't think I suffered any permanent damage. I posted pictures of the week's events below! I can't believe you're 4 already...and I can't believe you pray every night for a baby sister. Maybe if you clean up your bathroom cups? I'm just saying...

Abby's Birthday Week

Where do the months go?

I can't believe it's been an entire month since I've updated this. It was busy...not extraordinarily, but busy enough. And it seemed like we were missing blog-able events. So just a brief update on our month: Brandon started his new job (so all of you unhappily married people in Las Vegas, give us a ringle-jingle!) and loves it. Abby had a cheer leading performance that was just the best! I have mixed emotions about her being in cheer leading. She, however, does not. She walks around at least twice a day going: "Hold up! Wait a minute! Cheer Stars put some BOOM in it!" She also had swim lessons which was probably the most tortured Abby has ever been. No amount of bribes or threats would get that kid to dip anything above her chin into the water. For me, I finished my first full chapter for the book I'm co-writing/editing. It's nice to have a job again (I mean other than the one that pays me in macaroni noodles and kisses, which is still my favorite).

We also had a various amount of family events, birthdays, and family fun...and here are just a few pictures we took this month:

We finally started to hang some pictures on our walls. We also painted our gas station bathroom, but I don't have pictures of that yet....It's starting to feel like home.

We hosted an Eclipse dinner party for 20. (Team Jacob!) I had a lot of help from my mother-in-law and sister-in-law and I think it was a lot of fun. Here are our "mock-tails." (Hint, it's not really blood, it's cranberry-pomegranate juice.)

Here is shot of our table with Christmas lights above. Having a largely empty house is turning out to be not such a bad thing. Maybe I will never buy furniture?

Brandon went to work with the men-folk in his family at his grandfather's cabin for the weekend. Abby and I had a big girl's weekend while he was gone. We saw Toy Story 3 (which I found a little dramatic...Abby woke up screaming that night that the trash man was coming to get her...I think you all know what I'm talking about if you've seen the movie). We ended up sleeping together in my room both nights, which was nice. This picture was taken on day 2. After swimming all morning with our lady friends (Becky and Emma), we ramped up the estrogen and got all gussied up for a trip to the strip! We both put on dresses and Abby put every bow she owns in her hair. We headed to the Mandalay Bay to visit the Shark Reef aquarium. It was lovely. We then headed to Zabas for dinner. F-U-N.

We spent some time with Brandon's cousins...there's a few of them.

And of course there was father's day. Which was grand! Brandon got a couple of tools so that he could more efficiently hang the rest of the pictures in our home. I call that synergy...gift for him, gift for me.

July has some big things in store. I will try hard not to be so spotty and sporadic. Are spotty and sporadic the same thing? I think so. Happy 4th of July (which I also missed blogging...sheesh, I AM both/either spotty and/or sporadic)!