This is what happens when I leave my stuff out...

Vegas Vacation

Lenz Financial Group gets to go to Las Vegas every year. Since I am married to a man who works there, I get to go too. Yay for me! My mom -- who is married to the big boss man -- doesn't like Vegas and doesn't like to fly. She volunteered to stay home with my crazy kids sweet little angels while I went to Vegas and took a couple days off. OMG. It was amazing. It was the most perfect weekend EVER. It has been the rainiest spring I can remember in Washington, but Las Vegas was 88 degrees and sunny. I spent almost an entire day by the pool! I woke up on Saturday morning and went straight to the pool. Luckily for me, my husband thought ahead and got us some Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast. That's a dang good way to start out a day. Then we hung out by the pool for a few hours, ate nachos and turkey sandwiches poolside, then worked on my tan a little more. Finally, we went back to our room and got dressed and went to In-and-Out for dinner. See, I told you this was the best day ever! Oh, did I mention that the pool at our hotel had a water slide? Normally I would save that stuff for the little kids, but this slide was awesome!!! The best part? It went straight through a shark tank. I know, awesome.

 Plus I get to hang out with this hottie all the time!

After dinner we went to a show at the Wynn. La Reve was a great show, even though I didn't understand most of what was going on. Still it was pretty awesome. I love taking awkward self portraits at stuff like this. So here it is:

The whole trip was great, but those were my favorite parts. I'm not sure if it's possible for me to have a more perfect day. Thanks, Dad, for taking the whole office to Las Vegas. Thanks, Mom, for keeping the kiddos, and thank you Vegas for being sunny and warm. I needed it!

Tori becomes Victoria... and she turns three

Well, I survived. Tori was the world's craziest two-year-old and I made it through the entire year. Whew. Oh wait, she's exactly the same today as she was yesterday! She's still CRAZY! Well, she's not exactly the same today. Now that she's three, she wants to be known as Victoria instead of Tori. We'll just see how long that lasts.
She looks pretty much the same as she did yesterday, but I'm always looking for excuses to post more pictures of my kids so here's some pictures of her third birthday.

We started off the day with pancakes for breakfast and then sent Tyler off to school. Mom got ready and the girls and I went too the park (oh, Baxter came too). Tori got to play with her friends and thought she was having a birthday party at the park. This is very good news for me, because I didn't throw her a party. Thanks for inviting us to the park Elizabeth!

 I'm glad I brought her some wheat thins. She sat in the swing and ate almost half the box! Then she wanted to share the rest of the crackers with the other kids. A child on a swing is a hard target to hit with a cracker.

Nicole got to play with her BFF, Megan, which absolutely made her day.
After the park, we headed home for some Chicken Fries and celery with peanut butter for lunch. Tori's choice. I tried one of the fries, they weren't bad.

We raced to the preschool to drop off Nicole and settled in for some down time. Tori wanted to watch Despicable Me while I made dinner, cleaned the house, and decorated her cake. Speaking of the cake... Tori has been going back and forth for a month on her birthday theme. One day it's Hello Kitty and the next it's Strawberry Shortcake. Yesterday she decided that she wanted her cake to look like Hello Kitty, but taste like strawberry shortcake. Yikes. No pressure. So, Ben made Dinette Cake (best. cake. ever.) and I decorated it. I had to make the bow, eyes, and nose out of chocolate (luckily I still had some melting chocolate left over from Valentine's day). The outline and the whiskers were chocolate frosting. She didn't want the cake to have frosting, but I ran out of brown chocolate so that's the best I could do. The white is whipped cream (you can't have strawberry shortcake without whipped cream!!). I think it turned out pretty dang cute, if I do say so myself.

The yellow nose is actually just a drop of yellow food coloring mixed with the whipped cream. It was sad to cut it up and cover it with sliced strawberries, but it was worth it when I took the first bite. I know that the pictures don't really look like it, but she liked her cake and she had a good birthday. She just didn't smile for any of the pictures that I took. I swear, that girl is out to get me.

Too bad I didn't take pictures of her opening her presents. That was dumb. You would think I would learn. Anyway, she made out like a bandit with clothes, play dough, my little ponies, strawberry shortcake, hello kitty, and even a pinwheel. She was so excited, she didn't know what to play with first.

I know I complain about this little girl a lot. I know some of you are probably sick of it. Some of you are probably telling me to just suck it up and deal with it. Well, you know what? She was a hard baby! And, dangit, I had a rough couple of years! But she's getting better. Every little step toward independence makes my life a little better and her a little more calm. I love my little Tori Bug. She has made me a better person and a better mom. Someday I'll wish I could just sit down and play Barbies with her or listen to her sing her funny little songs and she'll be too old. I love this little girl more than I could possibly express. So, Tori, excuse me, Victoria, I am sorry. I will try to cut you some slack and stop telling everyone that you're crazy. I love you, Baby Girl. Thanks for keeping me on my toes.

Tyler loses his FIRST tooth!

Tyler turned 7 last week and had yet to lose a tooth... until tonight! He went to bed and a little while later I heard his door open and he tiptoed out to the family room where I was watching Chuck. I don't like my time with Chuck interrupted, but the look on his face was priceless. Apparently he couldn't sleep, so he decided to wiggle his loose tooth. And the he wiggled it some more and pulled on it. Then pulled some more. Then pulled REALLY hard. Voila! No more tooth!

He called his grandparents to tell them the good news. When asked how much he thought the tooth fairy would give him for his tooth, he replied, "50 bucks." WHAT?!?! What does he think I am? Made of money?! Hopefully he'll be okay with the dollar that the tooth fairy left for him.

Lame Jokes

My kids LOVE telling jokes. Unfortunately, they don't understand most of the punch lines. So, they end up changing the jokes and then they really don't make any sense at all. Take this joke for example:

What day does a potato hate?
Friday.

They have changed it to a bajillion different things, but today Tori asked me:

"What day does a banana hate?  Tuesday!!!"

Then she doubled over laughing.

So, today Nicole wanted a "gogurt" for a snack and there was a joke on it:
Why did the strawberry leave work early:?
To avoid a traffic jam.

She looks at me and says, "Hahahahaha! A strawberry at work!? That's hilarious!"

Birthday Lunch with Tori

I can't believe my little Tori-Bug is going to be 3 years old! Her birthday isn't until April 20th (She shares a birthday with Hitler. Shocking, right? That day is cursed.) but I thought I would take her out for birthday lunch now and spread out the birthday love. She loves Old Spaghetti Factory (so do I) so we ditched Tyler and Nicole and went out. Now, when I say ditched, I really mean that they ditched us. They went to see the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie with my mom. When she found out that they were going to the movie and we were just getting some lousy macaroni and cheese, she was really upset. So, we went to Target, bought her birthday present, and finally went out for lunch. She spent most of our time at the restaurant playing with her toys. Oh well.

When her salad got here I told her to put her toys on the bench and eat her food. That didn't go over very well.

Whatever, I give up.

She actually cheered up a little when her macaroni and cheese showed up so that made everyone in the restaurant happy. Maybe next year I'll just buy her a happy meal and call it a day.

I love you, Tori. You make me crazy sometimes, but you have taught me more about myself than anyone else. Thanks for being you, Baby Girl.

General Conference

Happy Birthday to me,

Happy Birthday to me,

Happy Birthday to meeee-eeeeee,

Happy Birthday to meeeeeeeeee!

For my birthday this year, my parents gave me a Kindle (which I LOVE and use every single day) and tickets to Utah to see the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference. Hooray!!! I have never been to Conference before. It was just a weekend (thanks for staying home and taking care of the kiddos, Ben) and I had a lot to do and see in a few short days.

Friday:
I flew into SLC with Grandma Belva. My sister-in-law, Sara, picked her up from the airport and I got a ride from Annie Selander and Kim Walker. Sara and Grandma went to Provo while I spent the night in Salt Lake with Annie and Kim. We went to PF Changs for dinner and didn't leave until almost 11:00! I felt so young! Usually I'm in my pajamas reading a book that late. We went back to Annie's house and talked the night away. Kim pooped out on us about 2:00 am. Something about needing to sleep in her own bed when she's pregnant, blah, blah, blah... just kidding Kim. You know I love you. :-) Annie and I stayed up until after 4:00 until she informed me that her son had a soccer game the next morning and she should probably get some sleep. Oops! Sorry, Annie! Off to bed. (I can't believe I didn't get a single picture of us together!!!)

Saturday:
I woke up, got ready and Annie made amazing oatmeal buttermilk pancakes. It was a delicious way to start out the day. She drove me down to Provo to meet up with my brother at WalMart. I missed her as soon as she drove away. I love that girl! So, David and I went into WalMart so he could get laundry soap. While in line, I saw a 5-Hour Energy. I snagged one. Not gonna lie, I needed caffeine in a bad way. We were in the self-check out line and when we scanned my beverage, there was some kind of error. The helper lady came over to us and asked for my ID. WHAT? Seriously? They are carding me for caffeine? I looked at the girl and said, "I'm 30. Are you really going to need my ID for this?" Apparently I looked mean or crazy or something because she quickly entered a code and scurried away.
The next few hours were spent hanging out with Mom, Grandma, David and Sara. The girls went to the mall and got pedicures and then a late lunch at Ruby River. Poor Sara, her soaking water at the pedicure place was freezing. I'm not even exaggerating. This water was straight from a glacier or something. She kept asking nicely if they would change it. She mostly just got ignored. I felt bad for her, but not enough to give her my nice, toasty soaking water. She got her revenge when the girl painted a "flower" on my toenails. Yikes.

 Back to David and Sara's house for a few minutes and then off to dinner with my mother-in-law while the boys were at the Priesthood Session of General Conference. No one except Debbi knew that I was coming. It was so much fun to surprise everyone!!! There aren't a lot of girls in the Davis clan, so the dinner group was usually just me and Debbi when I was around. This year, it was Debbi, her niece, Kim, Logan (Zach's girlfriend), Michelle (Jim's fiancee), Aeryn (Michelle's daughter), and me. It was so fun! We went to Mimi's and talked and ate and had a blast. I didn't get a single picture of us together. I hate that! You know what I did get a picture of? This:

I was THIS close to an In-and-Out and didn't eat there. Sigh. Very sad for me.

After Priesthood Session was over, the boys all went to The Bombay House in Provo for dinner. If you live within 100 miles of that place, it's worth the drive for the food. Seriously. It was really fun to walk in and see the looks on their faces. I'm pretty sure I was the very last person that they expected to walk in. Zach did a triple take before he cocked his head to the side and said, "Kristi?" Everyone else looked at me... then they looked behind me for my husband. Sorry, boys. Ben had to stay home. I know they were happy to see me, but I bet they would have been overjoyed to see him. I couldn't stay long but I had a good visit with them before it was time to head back to David and Sara's house.

Sara and I were working on a project and my back started to hurt. I took one of my muscle relaxants. Let's just say I got a little goofy after that. Sara, shhh... don't tell them what happened. :-) (It certainly didn't involve covering each other with Mod Podge, squirt guns, or funny You Tube videos.) But look what we made!

Sunday:
I got up, got ready, finished Sara's message board and we were off to the Conference Center in Salt Lake. Oh, did I mention that it was 70 degrees on Friday and Saturday? It was beautiful! Sunday we woke up to snow. Crap. Not good.

We were all freezing. We had to wait outside for a little while to get into Conference and we were all wishing that we had had tickets for Saturday's session instead. Quick! Huddle together for warmth!

Once we got inside, I was amazed at how many people there were! It was so cool to know that all of these people were there to hear the words of the Prophet of the Lord. It was thrilling to feel like I was part of something so big. We waited for everyone to get in their seats and visited for a few minutes.

I kept staring at the three empty seats that would soon be occupied by the First Presidency of the Church. I was so excited to be in the same room as the Prophet! When they walked in, all 21,000 people stood up and were silent. The Spirit was palpable. It was without a doubt, one of the most memorable moments of my life. We were really far away. I couldn't see his face. But I know his face. I know that this man holds all the keys of the priesthood. I know that he was chosen for this calling. I know that whatever he says to me during this conference, I am going to do my best to obey. My testimony was strengthened just by being there. Thomas S. Monson is an incredible man and I got to be in the same room with him.

 Conference was a wonderful, uplifting, enlightening, spiritual experience. It's something I'll always remember. After it was over, we went to Sara's work (she is a journalist for the Deseret News) and had some chicken salad for lunch. After lunch, it was back to the airport and back home to real life.

So, thanks, Mom and Dad for the great birthday present. Thanks Grandma for getting tickets to Conference. Thanks David and Sara for letting us crash at your place. Thanks Annie and Kim for making me laugh and cry and for always being my friends. Thanks Debbi for the great dinner with the girls and for not telling anyone that I was coming. Thanks boys for being happy to see me, even though Ben wasn't with me.

Can we do it all again next year?