Play, Play, Play!

While visiting our family in Las Vegas we had lots of time to play. Love that Las Vegas winter weather.

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Cody's famous line when recruiting gamers: "I'm in. Are you in?"

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Steve tried out his new tripod while getting some pictures of the kids by the pool.

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Love Cody's gatorade mustache...we must be at Grandma's :)

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Livy seems to like the RC Cola. She's definitely Grandpa's girl. In fact, she preferred this to any of her toys and she loved sticking her little tongue inside the can.

Cody and Kylee loved spending time with Rylee. It reminds me of when Duncan was a baby.  There is no mistake, our kids love their cousins!

Steve is going through ice cream sundae withdrawals now that we are home.

Making jewelry while Steve serenaded us. I think I came home with 10 new pairs of earrings!

Playing Settlers.

The Cramer's don't joke around when it comes to game playing. Spot It was another game not pictured that was a big favorite.

Don't worry. Cody put this on Rylee's forehead gently with his hand--not with a nerf gun.

making projects with Grandma like this little guy

and this guy too.

anyone who paints Kylee's nails is her new best friend.

Ever since we have been home Kylee has asked me when we are going to Utah or Las Vegas again. She loved all the family time we've had lately. We all did!

Video: Kylee the Composer

Kylee had a pen and paper at the piano. She would play a few notes and then stop and jot something down on her paper and then play some more. It was like she was writing a song.

I love on the video how she clicks her pen and talks in her grown-up way.  And I love how she shows off her painted nails by putting them in front of her face.

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She's a kick in the pants. 

Merry Christmas 2011

We were lucky enough to spend Christmas with some of our family. It was fun and we have a lot of pictures to prove it. The crazy part is that I am only posting about 10% of the pictures we took while on vacation! :)

Here we go....

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Happy to finally arrive in Las Vegas! It was a bumpy flight but we made it. And with only one extra diaper too. I had a ginormous diaper bag/purse filled with everything I could possibly need and somehow managed to pack only one diaper. You've got to forget something right?

It was Grandpa Airplane's first time meeting Livy in person!

In-N-Out for dinner of course! We didn't waste any time.

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Hot tubbing with Grandma and Grandpa. The kids liked playing Crazy 8's and Go Fish with the water proof cards.

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Grandpa Airplane told Cody he would give him a dollar if he jumped in the freezing cold pool. To our surprise there was no hesitation! 

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Steve jumped in too. And then he jumped out faster than he jumped in.

Cody liked making jewelry again this year for all the girls.

Making surprises...

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On Christmas Eve we each opened a present. Steve got a remote control helicopter that shoots missiles. Amazingly enough the helicopter is still in one piece 3 weeks later even after all the crash landings.

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Watching the helicopter

Livy opened a little ball that plays music. The wrapping paper was pretty tasty too.

Cody got a soccer ball.

That reminds me...when Cody was helping Grandma decorate the Christmas tree a few days before Christmas he tripped over some of the presents. Then he said, "Man! I should have brought my shin guards!" 

Pretty funny. He's been known to sleep in his shin guards :)

(because he loves them so much not because he is a crazy sleeper)

 Christmas morning! Trying to get Grandpa out of bed...

Steve got a tripod and a remote for the camera. Now we can take more family pictures!

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Kylee got tape in her stocking and she used the whole roll before the trip was over. Our kids are pretty easy to please.

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Gum! This stuff is my best friend these days. I can get 50% more grocery shopping done while the kids are chomping away.

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Coin jars that count the money as it goes in. I've already been asked to reset the counter a few times because the kids love putting their money in and watching the numbers go up.

Livy got some more toys!

Cody liked shooting his new army men down...

...with this Nerf gun that shoots discs.

Clothes and a watch for me! I also got an olive oil sprayer that I love.

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Scrabble Flash--perfect for this spelling animal. We all like this game actually.

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A camera for Kylee that holds 2000 pictures at a time and is really durable. Now she won't have to use Cody's binoculars as a pretend camera anymore.

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Another fun gift was this remote control boat for the pool.

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Cody walked around and around that pool following the boat.

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One person driving the boat plus another person shooting at the boat equals hours of enjoyment by the pool.

This is pretty much how we spent Christmas afternoon.

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And what would a pool boat be without a styrofoam raft for carrying beverages?

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On Christmas night Brady, Raquel, and Rylee came! Livy was glad to see Rylee (or her "best friend" as Cody would say).

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All tuckered out after a great Christmas day.

Once the Bleazard's arrived a few days after Christmas we did our sibling gift exchange. We gave the Hess Family a growth chart like ours. 

The Bleazard's got Settlers of Catan--a game I disliked until this trip. Thanks Bleazard's for changing my mind about this game. Cody says this is his favorite game now and is already planning on getting it for his birthday in 7 months :)


More pictures to come...