Vegas Vacation

This Memorial weekend we thought we'd take a little family weekend getaway to Las Vegas. It was a little different from our past experiences, this time having a 10 month old and all, but still a blast. The first night we stayed in St. George and took Sara swimming at the pool which she absolutely loved! As some of you know she has always loved water and she couldn't get enough of it on our little trip.

We did some lunch and shopping in St. George then headed down to Vegas. We couldn't check into our hotel when we got there so we took Sara to see the Lions at the MGM. She thought they were pretty neat and trying to get a picture of her was nearly impossible 'cause she just wanted to see them. But we finally did... Kind of-After finding out we still couldn't check into our hotel we did a little a shopping at the outlets. They told us check in was at 3:00 and we didn't end up checking in 'til like 5:00! We were a little annoyed with The Trump at first, that is... 'til we saw our room, which was definitely worth the wait.That's just a picture of the front room of our one bedroom suite. Complete with 2 bathrooms, a front room, master suite, a kitchen and dining room. Um... is this what we signed up for? I'm telling you, my husband knows how to find the deals. Can't go wrong with priceline. Come to find out our room is a $480 room which we only paid $100 for :) It was seriously so fun to have a suite and I'm so glad it was nice because with a 10 month old who still takes 2 naps in a day and has an 8:00 bedtime that's where a lot of our time was spent, walking around in the robes they provided for us and ordering "in room dining". We definitely treated ourselves right.Since we don't have a pool or even a bath tub at home we took full advantage by going swimming 3 times and probably taking 4-5 baths. Man I miss having a bath tub at home, it seems like Sara does too...

So that was our Memorial weekend. We finished it off by coming home and visiting some graves and attending Grandma's annual BBQ. I hope everyone else's was just as fun!

Wild Weekend

Well, last weekend was a pretty crazy one. We started if off by Sara learning to crawl. She is too funny and loves crawling everywhere! I need to keep a much closer eye on her now because there have been times I turn around and something is in her mouth and it usually isn't something good. I gotta keep this place clean! So, she is loving life being able to crawl and I actually don't mind it either 'cause now if she wants something she can just go and get it instead of whining for me to get it for her.

Then Saturday we thought it'd be fun to take Sara to the zoo for her first time. I know she's still young, but she absolutely loved it. As you can see in the picture on the left, she would get so excited when she'd see an animal and start making those excited noises and reaching for the animal. It really was pretty cute.

It was really nice just being able to spend the morning with our little family of three. We used to see Ryan every day during lunch, but now that he works in Layton we only see him during the day one weekday, so we really look forward to the weekends where we can spend all day with him.

So it seems we went to the zoo during the animal's nap time because the majority of them were asleep. But Sara still liked looking at the elephants, giraffes, bunnies, birds, and monkeys.

Later that day I had my friend Lindsey's shower to go to. She had her second baby girl a couple weeks ago and we all got together to celebrate. It's kind of fun 'cause last year I had Sara the same year my sister, sister-in-law, and cousin had their babies, and this year I'm having a baby with two of my best friends! So that's pretty exciting :)

So, that was our wild weekend, my wild daughter learning to crawl, visiting the wild animals, and hanging out with my wild friends.

Now what do I do?!?

Ever since I was pregnant with Sara I would get updates from babycenter.com with useful information about my baby. Well, today I got this--

Children under the age of two should not watch television, says the American Academy of Pediatrics.

What?! Sara has been watching Baby Einstein since she was 2 months old and as most of you know she now loves Super Why and Word World. I know it's sad, but there are times I use the TV as a babysitter when I need to get ready in the morning or am trying to fix dinner, otherwise I'm pretty good about letting her play with toys or snack on some food but there is only so much you can give your baby before they start to get tired of the same toys especially when she can't crawl yet. So I clicked on the link and into their site to read more and this is what I found...

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids under 3 years old not watch ANY TV at all. Watching TV at a young age interferes with the brains ability to grow and make connections. It has been linked with ADHD and childhood obesity. Even shows designed and marketed towards babies are harmful. Some parents think that they are helping their baby by parking them in front of the TV but studies show that these programs have absolutely no impact educationally on kids under 3 and lead to more incidences of ADHD once kids go to school, and obesity.

Now that scares me! Or should I not be worried? Did any of you mothers let your kids watch TV before two? I mean, it's not like she's watching it ALL day, usually in the morning and after her afternoon nap- plus they're all educational shows but apparantly that doesn't matter according to the quote above. There have been times where we can't get her to stop crying and as soon as we turn on one of her shows she's smiling away, is that a bad thing?

The things I do to keep this girl happy...

Last Family Pictures as a Family of Three

Well, last professional pictures I should say. Hopefully there will be more of the three of us before our little baby comes in December. That's right! I'm pregnant again with baby #2. Kind of crazy, but we're really excited about it. We weren't trying but we weren't preventing "If it's meant to be, it's meant to be." That was Ryan's motto and sure enough, it was meant to be!So, I thought we should probably do one last photo shoot of our little family of three before I start to get large. Does it all make sense now Stacie? My poor photographer wanted to wait 'til Summer to take our family photos but I didn't want to run the risk of having a belly so I was kind of pushing her to do them soon without any real good explanation. Didn't she do an amazing job? I want to post all of the pictures she took but I don't really have all day. I love how they all turned out though. Interested? I knew you would be. She is my friend Melissa (Weidner) Elder's sister, Stacie Murdock. I have a link to her blog titled Stacie and Dave if you want to take a peek. She really does an amazing job and I feel kind of bad advertising for her when I know she is already so busy. Thanks again Stace! And yes, to all of those who were probably wondering by my header and pregnancy countdown, I am pregnant and due December 5th!