Las Vegas

Well, I finally made my maiden voyage to Las Vegas. In all of my 26 years, I've never been, and the opportunity arose and I took it. I went with Jolynne for three nights. Just us girls. It was SO MUCH FUN! We stayed at the Stratosphere hotel,



which isn't that exciting unless you ride the rides (which we didn't) but it was a comfortable place to sleep each night. We went to a lot of the classic Vegas destinations. The Belagio Hotel to see the water fountain show, lots and lots of casinos, M&M World, tons of stores and it all required SO MUCH walking. We went to FAO Schwartz in Cesears Palace and played on the big piano that was like the one in the movie "Big".



I wasn't able to play any real tunes, but it was awesome to see it.
We even were able to catch a Cirque Du Soleil show "Mystere".



It was amazing and totally made the whole trip. Those people do things that human body's aren't meant to do! We saw other shows too, but the spontaneous ones that the drunk people put on, forgetting what room they are in, passing out, throwing up and they were all FREE!



This is a picture of me in front of Trump Tower. We saw some pictures of the hotel online, and knew we had to see the inside. Unknowingly, we slipped past the employees into the area for hotel guests only. It was absolutely beautiful and amazing inside.

I enjoyed my time away, but was very excited to return home to see Cameron and Abby. And it actually was quite an ordeal trying to get home, it involved about 6 hours stuck at the airport and a delayed flight, which finally got us home at midnight.

Thanks Jolynne for suggesting this trip!

Color Me Mine!

We kind of had a day out today! We went to the mall and I have totally fallen in love with the tree house play area for kids. Abby LOVES it! She runs and really enjoys watching all the kids. Its a great FREE place indoors for her to play until it warms up enough for outdoor playgrounds. Then we went to Color Me Mine and attempted to paint a few pieces of pottery. I thought it would be something that Abby could "help" with, but it quickly turned into a disaster. Abby was tired and cranky, and I totally bit off more than I could chew. I was trying to entertain and keep Abby under control at the same time, painting. I finally put her in her stroller and strapped her in so we could get stuff done and not have to worry about Abby breaking something. Cameron painted a mug and I painted a plate for Abby to put her hand print on, which I think turned out really cute. When I finally finished and moved onto MY piece, Abby's patience had really run thin (so had mine), so I quickly painted something and we packed up and left. Although we pushed Abby to her limits, it was a fun day that we spent as a family.

My Valentine

I really wanted to do a post dedicated to my Valentine.

Cameron Alexander Monahan is the amazing man that I have been married to for 4 1/2 years. He grew up in Hemet, CA, served his mission in Minnesota,



and then moved to Provo after his mission. We met at work, and it didn't take long before I knew I wanted to marry him.



He now works at the Orem Fire Department, and also Eagle Mountain Fire Department.



He is such a hard worker, and extremely dedicated to providing for our family. It seems sometimes that he is ALWAYS working, and NEVER home, but I can't recall him ever saying a single complaint about it. Cam is such a good dad, and Abby just adores him.



Parenting came naturally to him, which I was grateful for because that wasn't the case for me. He helped me learn the basics of caring for an infant, and spent many nights up with her, feeding and rocking her. I know that our success in our marriage can be attributed to the fact that Cameron takes all his responsibilities seriously and does his best to be a good husband, a good father, a good priesthood holder, a good son, and a good brother. I truly believe I married the BEST MAN EVER!

Well Cameron works today, so we celebrated Valentines yesterday evening. We went to see the movie "He's Just Not That Into You".


It was so cute, and very funny. Lately I have become addicted to going to the movie theater. When I was in high school I worked at the local theater, and totally got my fill of going the the movies. For several years, I actually hated going to the theater. But I now enjoy it again.



I also made some Valentine cookies. I love to bake and will use any holiday as an excuse to make a sugary treat. We ate a few, then as usual I sent the majority of the cookies with Cameron to work. If I leave them here, I will eat them all, so it's best if they aren't in the house. Besides, I think the firefighters deserve a little treat every once in a while.

And, unrelated to the holiday, I attempted to make some wheat bread. I have no idea what happened, but the bread looked kind of funny. I used the breadmaker, and I'm still stumped as to what went wrong. Needless to say, I ended up getting bread from the store instead. Oh well!

Goin' Bowlin'!

Cameron signed up for a bowling tournament that Orem City put together for it's employees. So the whole family went to Miracle Bowl in support of Cameron. He bowled great! Much better than I could ever hope to do. Abby loved to cheer for Dad and was great at giving everyone high fives! They played a total of three games, and between the four guys he was playing with, he had the second highest score. Pretty good for not having bowled in over a year. He's never really even played that much. It just seems that he is good at EVERYTHING that could be considered a sport.




It was fun to go and watch, but the games lasted 2 1/2 hours. A little long for Abby to sit and watch. So she wandered all over the place (even tried to sneak behind the snack counter a couple of times). She found this arcade game that she loved to "drive".

All in all, it was a great day that our family got to spend together!

The Mullet Look

Abby's hair has always been a bit difficult for me to know what to do. She was born pretty much bald,

but as its grown in, it's gotten long in the back, and stayed short in the front. The result, is pretty much a mullet. I've tried barrettes, ponytails, and parting it in different spots. But it rarely masks the mullet. HOWEVER, I just discovered that her hair is now long enough to put into pigtails. And not just two tiny ones on the top of her head. All (or most) of her hair can be pulled back.


Before ("baby pigtails")





After (The real thing)

Funeral for a Friend

Last night Cameron and his brother Devin went to see the band Funeral for a Friend in concert. They love going to concerts together. Their interests in music are similar, luckily, because I know I wouldn't accompany Cam to see a lot of the bands he enjoys.

No Longer Starving Students!

Well it finally happened. We redecorated out family room, and have upgraded to matching furniture. Our mismatched hand-me downs have found new homes else where (granted, most of them just moved to other rooms in the house). We're grateful to the pieces of furniture we were given but it was time to move on. We bought new furniture and even painted the walls. It's been something we have wanted to do since we moved in to our house, and I am actually quite pleased with the outcome. It isn't quite finished yet because there are some items that need to be hung back on the walls and such, but for the most part we have completed our first decorating project.

There was only one small problem along the way. The furniture store delivered the wrong couch. Well actually, it was the right one technically. We though we ordered a gray couch, and a red sofa chair. But we got a red couch and a red chair. There must have been a communication error at the store. However, I liked the red couch and had actually tried to convince Cameron that a red couch would be nice, and bring a lot of color into the room. He wasn't convinced, until it arrived. I'm not sure if he really came around to liking the color, or just gave in to please me. Either way, I think he is the best for letting me keep it.

We also had a hard time deciding where and how to paint. All the rooms are so open, that there isn't really a way to only paint one room, so in the end, we painted all the rooms on the main floor. On Saturday, when Cameron was off of work, I stuck Abby and him upstairs and Rory was outback all day. I painted from about 9am to 9pm with only a five minute lunch break. The house was torn apart, but I managed to get it all done in one day. I'd love to eventually carry that paint color upstairs into the loft. But I haven't figured out how to paint the stair well. I'd love ideas if anyone's ever done that.

Going On a Head

Abby is totally in love with putting stuff on her head. Headbands, hats, and really anything that will stay up there. It's funny, because I tried all last summer to get her to wear a hat when we were outside, and she would almost immediately throw it off. I haven't even bought any of those popular headbands for little girls because I knew they wouldn't stay on for long. Now, I'm wishing I had tons of cute hats and headbands and scarfs for her to wear. I guess a shopping trip is in order!