Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!

Last week at this time we were enjoying the 75-80 degree temps of beautiful Vegas. This week back home we have snow, so I will take this chance to at least escape the cold again and reflect on the sunniness of Las Vegas.

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We left on Saturday morning and drove down to Vegas to meet up with my parents who were doing a multi-state trip. This trip we chose not to stay on the strip, but instead at a casino 6 miles off the strip called Sam's Town. This turned out to be a great choice, because it was much more child friendly than normal casinos, not to mention much cheaper too. The casino had a huge atrium complete with anamatronic animals, waterfalls, and real topical trees and plants. Every night, the casino had a free laser light show, which Phoebe loved and we could watch from our room. Below is the view from our room and a bear Phoebe LOVED; she would just look at him and wave as long as we would let her.

Once Phoebe discovered the escalators is was all we could do to pull her away from wanting to go up and down on them all day long.

Phoebe unfortunately was cutting her molars on this trip which made meal times a nightmare! She screamed anytime we tried to do anything that she didn't want to do, which included eating. At one point an old couple in front of us even noticeably plugged their ears. To try and combat the crankiness naps were still an absolute necessity; however, she would only take naps in our bed, which we have never done before, but Daddy absolutely loved it.

We spent most of the trip just lounging with grandma & pa Potts, but on St. Paddy's Day we ventured down to the strip, a crazy experience! There were many in the wildest green attire they could throw together. We took the more conservative rout seeing as we weren't there to party, but to go to Phoebes' haven... M&M world. While there Grandpa Potts won a pot of gold M&Ms so we made it in and out of Mworld for free!

After the long walk to Mworld Phoebes and Grandma & Grandpa made their way back to the shuttle bus to the hotel while Cory and I stayed on the strip a bit longer. We visited another favorite spot pf mine, the Bellago. I love their flower & butterfly gardens inside, they really are amazing! These animals below are made from flowers.

After the Bellago, we made the trip to the Cesar's Palace Forum Shops, where we couldn't afford anything, even if we emptied our savings. Feeling extra poor after window shopping we wandered back to the shuttle bus and back to the hotel to relax and swim a little. The next morning we packed up and made the extra long trip home; it was extra long because we got lost for an hour when our exit was closed and were detoured down a random street. Overall, our trip was enjoyable, but I now understand why one would resort to NyQuiling their children.

Girls Day Out

Last year, the Fergy family women decided we would have an annual Girl's Day Out. This means we have activities ALL day long, and the dads take the wee ones for the day. This year Megan requested our day out coincide with the celebration for her birthday, March 7th. We started at Heidi's free make and take vinyl day where, I won the door prize, YEAH ME! As a consolation prize for Megan, we made her stand on her chair while she was given a little gift from Heidi.

After Heidi's we went to the Wood Connection to see all the cute things in stock...oh how I wish I was rich enough to do it all. After pinning over future craft projects, we headed to the Mayan for Lunch. This is a restaurant and show all in one. They have cliff divers and dancers act out a story about the ancient Mayan people which you enjoy mediocre food. Our seats this time were front and center which was great until one of the divers landed imperfectly and splashed us, at least we only had the chip appetizer out to get wet.

After lunch we ran to Ikea where I was proud to have only spent $2.99. A true success for me! After this we went back to Fergy mom's house to sit for a bit before the pizza dinner and cookie cake. After a filling lunch and a dinner that put everyone over the top we left again to walk around Target, and then to finish the day we all met at Coldstone for a bit of ice cream refreshment. By this point I couldn't eat anymore, but I knew a few who would love a little ice cream... Cory & Phoebes, so they joined us. After this, we went home to relax from the day.

Nursery Time Already

Two weeks ago Phoebe began attending nursery; she is only 16 months old, but due to the year change, there were only 1-2 kids left in the young nursery. I am sure Phoebe perfers to play with the kids rather than attend classes with us and the nursery leaders confirm that Phoebs really likes it in there and there are no melt-downs. Daddy, however, misses having his wee excuse to get out of Elders Quorum and Sunday School with him. Our little ugly bug is growing up so quickly!

I forgot to take pictures her first week in nursery, so these are from the second week.

What to do in the Winter???

As the winter seems to drag on forever, I am running out of things to do for fun. I have lately created a girls group that meets on the 3rd Tuesday of the month, for this months activities we are creating tutus and taggies blankets. I having never actually made either I decided I should give it ago.

This cute pink tutu is the one I made for Phoebs & as for the taggies I made; it turned out so cute I am going to be selling them in a boutique March 19-21st at Pioneer Hall. Sewing the taggie blankets have taken up most of my time, which is good because we running out of fun things to do inside and am resorting to less constructive activities, such as reeking havoc in my Tupperware cabinet and strewing all the bowels and lids everywhere.

Yes, that is an ice cream bucket on her head. She was holding it up so I took it as a hint and helped her put it on her head. She laughed for awhile, but when the poor thing tried to get off her head she couldn't figure it out, so hints the picture where she gave up trying and just sat down to watch her show with the bucket still on her head.

On a more positive fun note, this week I finally made a final push to finish Phoebs room. Many months ago I put up pictures in Phoebs room in an effort to create a cute nursery. The nursery only got half finished because we never had any bedding to match, only some mix matched quilts. This week I finally went to Ikea and to get Phobes some bedding and a few other cute room items, which I was successful in doing! The bedding is cute and looks so fun in her room , however, it doesn't match any of the pictures I put up. Maybe in another six months or so I will get around to fixing the pictures and it will be all done.

Free Food and the Fergys

To know the Ferguson family is know that we never miss a free meal! Last week we were blessed to have two free meal days.

Free Pancake Day at IHOP:
On Tuesday IHOP had a free stack of pancakes for a small donation to the Children's Hospital, so almost all the Fegy women were there with kids in tow. Phoebe of coarse found the food inedible, as she does with anything that is not straight sugar or milk, I however enjoyed them immensely!

Free Roast Burgers at Arbys:
Right now Arby's is promoting their newest Sandwiches with coupons for Roast Burgers free with purchase of any drink. With coupons in hand, last Thursday night our wee Fergy family went to freeload on Arby's generosity. I thought the burgers were okay as far as Arby's food can go. Phoebe enjoyed some Cheese sticks, but mainly our drinks.

Cookies and Tea Please

Ever year Grandma Fergy has an annual V-day cookie decoration party. This party is not for the weak of stomach as the nieces usually make interesting combos of treats to stack on cookies, or suck the frosting out of the same bowl or knife you were using to decorate your cookies with. Despite the blatant health code violations, we always have fun and I have been excited to finally have a wee one of my own old enough to participate. Below is a cookie I decorated for Phoebe since she didn't understand the frosting on cookie concept, also pictured are 2 of Phoeb's cousins Emma and Lily who as you can easily see understand the whole frosting and treat concept.

For president's day this year we donned on our finest and enjoyed a very lovely tea party at Aunt Amber's with all the cousins and aunts. We first enjoyed craft time where we made delicate purses out of paper and ribbon; they really did turn out cute! I don't have a good picture of them but Amber does it you are curious to see them. After our craftiness we enjoyed cookies and punch...so technically it was a punch party and not a tea party at all, Oh well. Below are all the cousins. Emma is hidden, but pictured and Aunt Ashley, in a blatant attempted to win the best aunt ever title, donned on her finest tea party attire as well.

These two ladies below were so cute all dressed up!

These two young ladies always have to cheers when we have fancy glasses out.

February Happenings

Due to some technical difficulties last week (i.e. My child thinks the card reader is a phone and carried it off to talk on it, so it was lost) I was unable to post, but things are all good again this week. Here are some of the things we have done in the last 2 weeks.

Reflux Test:
As some of you may have known our wee one has been sick a lot lately and in January they decided she not only had a badder infection, but a possible kidney infection too so we had to take our wee one to Primary Children's Hospital and get a Reflux Test. The test wasn't a pleasant one and Phoebe sure screamed a lot, but no needles were involved so it could have been worse. Luckily in the end they read the test as negative for reflux so that is great!! For a reward for the traumatizing test we took Phoebs out for an ice cream treat at Coldstone, she shared a shake with daddy.

Denny's Feeding America:
As was advertised during the Superbowl, Denny's had a free Grand Slam Breakfast for everyone in America, which included us. We had to go to 3 different Denny's before we could even get in a parking lot, but it was worth it. We waited for 2 hours before eating, but they told us to wait inside so our children wouldn't freeze, so it wasn't that bad of a wait. Below are some pictures of our outing with our cousins and Grandma Fergy.

Temple Open House:
Last week we had the opportunity to take the whole family to the Draper Temple Open house. It was a snowy Tuesday morning so the temple was practically empty. We went to a stake center to watch a video about the temple and Draper then boarded a bus to the temple. The Temple is smaller, but just as beautiful as always. Phoebe loved the bus ride!!

Hygiene is the Name of the Game

Phoebe was siting on our counter as I was curling her hair when I thought she was playing in the water I didn't notice that she got a hold of Daddy's toothbrush. She then, when I was putting the hot iron out of reach, scooted her little body into the sink as it was a little seat made just for her. She loved the mintiness of toothpaste and would eat it straight, if we didn't stop her.

As she had already defiled the brush, we continued to let her play with it, it is one of her favorite toys now.