Stuff

Micah and I celebrated our 14th Anniversary in August. We chose to eat at a yummy Italian restaurant, Maggiano's that overlooks the Strip. We ran into a good friend in our ward and their family eating there which was fun. Dinner was delicious and we had a great time together. We were doing everything we could to not make eye contact with an older man walking around playing his guitar and singing to couples in the restaurant. When approaching our table he asked if we were celebrating, and we both lied and said no. I felt bad about lying, but I also hate those awkward singers and then you have to tip them for not wanting them to sing to us anyway. I was afraid that I would giggle and he would be offended anyway, so we lied. As we were about to leave the waiter brought out cookies with candles to wish us a Happy Anniversary. Micah and I looked at each other thinking "how did they know it was our Anniversary." We hurried and blew out the candles and hid them so the guitar singer wouldn't notice, and then the waiter came to let us know the bill was taken care of. Our kind friend in our ward had payed for our meal. Such a generous thing to do. We then walked over the the Paris hotel because we had never been there before. It was a wonderful evening, and I can't wait to spend many more years together.

We were trying to take a picture of ourselves with the water fall behind us when a man came up and about ripped the camera out of my hands to take the picture for us. That was a very nice thing to do, but I think you can tell by our positioning and the look on our faces that we were a little surprised. 

I spoke too soon about school being great. We had a rough Monday morning this week. Both Aliza and Avery were having a hard time getting out the door. I think it was just a Monday thing, because they have been fine the past few days. We officially started ALL of our after school activities this week. Aliza is still taking tennis once a week, and now has a gymnastics class on Friday's. Avery is taking a dance class with four of her friends which is fun because it includes Jazz, Hip Hop, Ballet and Tumbling. Avery has also started back with violin lessons, and we are debating on doing the orchestra and group violin classes. She doesn't really want to, but it's such a good experience it's killing me to not do them. She also tried out for the school's choir this week. Abbie is doing tennis twice a week and we are looking into a math tutor. This accelerated math class is hard for all of us. :) With homework and church activities our lives are very busy right now.

Abbie made this pillow for Ava while at my parents home this Summer. The cat likes it, but I am not too thrilled with the cat these days. She has brought us three rats this past week. We have an empty home at the top of our street that has been empty for years. Micah saw a rat on the roof last week, and now the cat is bringing us treats. Really, it's great she is catching them, but she tends to want to bring them in the house. Micah let her in the house yesterday and she had one in her mouth. He quickly cornered it and was able to throw it back outside. I was at home last week and saw the cat playing around with one in our back yard. We also had some coolers outside drying that I saw the rat climb on. I was so disgusted that I thought I would just run outside and save our coolers from the rat, but as soon as I opened the door the rat ran inside. It ran under our couch and I didn't' know what to do. I was surprised at how many screams came out of my mouth, but tears and screams were coming out. I called Micah in tears because I couldn't get it out by myself, and I couldn't leave my watch because I didn't want it to run into any other part of the house. He told me he had a meeting, but he did come home to save me. He wasn't too happy about having to come home, but I was very appreciative. I don't know what I would have done otherwise. He advised me when we spoke on the phone before the rat came in to just leave the cat and rat alone......and I should have listened to him. I will be calling the HOA today about our rat problem. YUCK!

We enjoyed Labor day by going to the Children's Museum, and then a BBQ at a friends home that evening. They opened a new Children's Museum this past February, but we hadn't made it over to see it yet. Micah had gone on an 80 mile bike ride that morning and still came with us. I was so grateful for his help considering it was very busy that day.

The new Museum was so much fun. This tornado tunnel was one of our favorites from the old Museum they brought to the new one. Aliza was brave and even did it by herself.

They had a very large art area that kept our girls attention for a long time.

Aliza especially loved the Grocery Store, Veterinarian station, and pretend Bank. They even had an ATM that you make your own code which then you use to put money in the bank and take it out.

This past week was the Iron Man Championships in Henderson. This is always a fun weekend because it brings in travelers from all over the world, and they run and bike right by our home. they start off swimming at Lake Las Vegas and make their way to our area. Micah and Aliza walked right outside the neighborhood to watch them and Aliza made them this sign. Micah was laughing because he didn't catch the misspelling until they got home. So cute!

I finally got my matching fridge I have been wanting. Our old fridge was giving us such grief. The fan kept going out which in turn would melt all the ice, then the ice would melt out the front of the fridge. We had to replace the front portion of our fridge once due to rust. We had them come fix it, but it just wasn't working well. The freezer was just building up ice because the fan would go out which then made the freezer door hard to shut because we couldn't keep up with it. Anyway, long story short don't ever buy an LG fridge. Micah convinced me to not do the ice and water in the front of the fridge which I thought would be a big deal for me to not have, but it's been fine. There is a water dispenser inside the fridge and it keeps the water so cold that I rarely get ice. This also keeps down on the water spots on the front of the fridge which is nice. Micah also convinced me to get the counter depth fridge which I was nervous about because it cuts down on so much space inside the fridge. We did put the old fridge out in our garage for now for extra space which is nice. Especially for the extra freezer space. So far I am loving this fridge and all our appliances match now. Yeah! We did order a silver cook top too, but they haven't installed it yet.  Slowly our kitchen has transformed. I love it!