October Update

So, it's been a little while (once again) since our last update.  Here's what we've been up to:
Rachel turned 11 months old way back a month ago and is growing and changing like crazy.  She's the busiest baby I know and she keeps us constantly going (and laughing).  She's not big into talking yet, but she does like to tell people, "Boo" and she likes to say "Tiger". 

Eden turned 5 years old on September 16 and for her birthday she wanted to go to the Rainforest Cafe and the M&M store downtown on the strip.  She had a lot of fun at both places.  I can't believe how big she is getting.  She's a really good reader and is having a lot of fun in kindergarten, making new friends and doing new things.  She's still tall for her age (her pediatrician said she is the height of the average 7 year old) and she is the youngest and the tallest kid in her class.  Her teacher is really impressed with a smart girl she is, especially for being so young.

We've had a few days of hard rain here (which was really nice) and Eden fully took advantage of it.  These pictures were taken outside our house.  She went out to see how hold the water was and ended up totally soaking herself, pouring little buckets of water over her head.  We should have just had her put her bathing suit on.

Andy promised to take Eden hiking in Red Rock Canyon for a date and they did that earlier this week.  The weather was really nice and they had a lot of fun.  Eden is a good hiker and she kept up with Andy really well.  They had a lot of other people tell them on the hike that they were surprised at how well she was doing. 

The little girls and I took a quick trip to Utah at the end of September when Andy was working to see my family for a few days.  It was a nice little getaway from the heat (still in the high 90's at the end of September) and we had a lot of fun.  I just forgot to take any pictures...
Andy's having a lot of fun a work.  He really enjoys it and comes home with some interesting stories pretty much every day.  I stay home with the kiddos and have been devoting a lot of energy to my latest project which should be finished sometime in April:

Settling In

We're currently living in a townhouse we are renting until we have found the perfect house to buy.  It's a nice place, although it is a little smaller than our house in Omaha so I don't have room for all our stuff (some of my fabric is sitting in a storage unit wondering why I don't love it anymore). Hopefully within a year we'll be in our own place once again.
We've really enjoyed Las Vegas so far. It is hot, but doesn't seem as sweltering as we thought it would, even with the temperature up above 110 for a few days. I think the dryness has made all the difference. It was so humid in Omaha that this doesn't seem so bad. We had some time before Andy started working to do a little exploring and getting to know our new city. We took a drive to the temple (on the complete opposite side of the city from us) and visited Red Rock Canyon, which is gorgeous (although I don't recommend visiting it in the middle of the day in August). We've had a chance to visit the strip and show Eden the fountain at the Bellagio and "the castle" (Excalibur). She also wanted to visit the 'Pawn Stars' store (yes, she's seen Pawn Stars. Is that bad?) and so we took a trip there.  She also wanted to see the Pirate show at Treasure Island so we went to that for part of our family night last week (and the show is not that great, so don't feel like you're missing anything!).
Andy is really enjoying working again, and I can tell he's going to come home with some quite... interesting...stories- the benefits of working in the ER just a couple blocks off the strip!
I think we're settling in quite nicely. I've located the closest Target, Costco, library and quilt store so I'm pretty much set! We've found our ward and I think we'll really like it. Eden already volunteered to give a talk in Primary and she did that today. We've been swimming just about every day since we moved in. It's a great way to wind down in the evening and Eden is getting braver and better in the water each day. Life is going pretty great for us right now!

 Eden loved the giant gila monster at Red Rock Canyon.

 Rachel was not so impressed.

 Red Rock Canyon was beautiful. These pictures don't do it justice.  Eden had a ton of fun and has asked to go back pretty much every day since we went.

 If you look really closely, you can see Las Vegas in the background.

 Eden loves to pose.

 Swimmin'

Pirate Show at Treasure Island.  After this, we went to the Mirage to watch the volcano.  Eden didn't like the volcano because it shot out a lot of hot fire, but the Japanese tourists next to us abolutely loved Rachel.  They just couldn't resist her white-blonde hair and big blue eyes.  She's going to end up in more than one Japanese photo album.