Vegas tour of Gordon Ramsey

Gordon Ramsey's BurGR

So Jonathan and I decided it was high time we get out of town for a weekend without the kids for some much needed mommy and daddy time.  So on Friday the 17th, we dropped the kids off at school/daycare and headed out to the freeway and straight to Vegas!

We got there around 12 and had lunch and saw Star Trek: Into Darkness (AMAZING) and after that we pretty much could do what ever we wanted.  Instead of gambling and seeing shows, Jon and I decided to do a little food tour for Gordon Ramsey's 3 places in Vegas, BurGR, Steak and the Pub & Grill.

BurGR

This might have been my favorite place and we ate here first. On Friday night we went next door to the Planet Hollywood Hotel and ate at Gordon Ramsey's BurGR.  I had the mushroom burger and jon had the Farm Burger (egg, duck bacon and cheese) Both were really good.  They were just the right size as well so I was able to eat the whole thing!  We also had some sweet potato fries which are my favorite.  This was definitely a great way to start off our trip!

Paris Hotel

We stayed at the Paris hotel. I'll admit I wasn't that impressed.  I have stayed a few other places in Vegas that I thought were a lot better so I doubt I will stay here again.  They stated that you could have a Strip view or pool view, we got neither we had the roof of the building next door. Plus our room looked old and I booked a king size room and got a queen.  We weren't in the room long but still, its the little things.

Saturday morning we just laid around which was nice as we didn't have anyone waking us up needing to eat or "watch movies". So we walked around the strip for a while, checked out some new hotels that we hadn't seen before and then headed back to the Paris to prepare for our dinner at Steak!!

Mushroom Risotto

For any of you who watch Hell's Kitchen, you know that the Mushroom Risotto is always on the menu. Instead of just ordering from the main menu, we did the 5 course Hell's Kitchen menu.  We aren't ones to usually do things like this, but what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas right?  Jonathan really wanted to do it so we said, what the hell!  The Mushroom Risotto had to be my favorite.

Beef Wellington

This was Jonathan's favorite, in fact I think he is still talking about it and it was 2 weeks ago!  Gordon Ramsey's famous Beef Wellington was the main course and it really was perfect. We really ate like a King and Queen while we were at Steak.

Thank you, from Gordon Ramsey

As a thank you for dining with him, they gave us the menu we ate from and an autograph to go with it. Pretty cool if you ask me. What a great place to eat. . .once, or twice in your life time that is :)

On Sunday before we headed back down to Phoenix, we ate his Pub and Grill.  Since this was an English Pub & Grill, I did what anyone would do, have the Fish and Chips.  It was great!  And why wouldn't it be, it was by Gordon Ramsey :)

This 3 day long weekend up in Sin City was just what we needed. I felt out of place a lot of the time since Jonathan and I are big gamblers or drinkers, but none the less we had a great time eating our way thru Vegas.  Who knows when we'll head back there again but it was great to just have some quality Jon and Courtney time, which we haven't had since Connor was born.

Speaking of, I think nap time is ending, time to play with the kids!!
Jonathan and Courtney

My little Connor

My little boy.  How even when he is turning my hair gray I just want to love on him!  He is 2.5 years now (can you believe it!) and is just as cute as ever.  As you can see he has curly hair (who knew!) and has an attitude on him like his mama :P  But most of the time he is such a sweet and loving boy.

Connor's first school picture

First off, HOW CUTE IS HE!  This is Connor's first school picture.  I can't even get over how cute my little guy is.  He had a couple of others that I don't have on here but man, what a lady killer!  He is doing SO WELL in school.  He comes home singing songs, counting (not really in the right order, he can get to 10 then its a crap shoot after that) and he is learning so much!  He is such a little smart kid!  So much in fact that they are moving him up to the next class at his school.  Connor is currently in a class that is called "2s" where everyone in his class is basically 2 - 3 years old.  We they have another little one that is coming into their 2's class and they need the room, so Connor being the oldest will be moving up to the next class called "Transition" which is the 2.5-3.5 year old class, which prepares them for preschool.  His teachers aren't very happy (because they love him so much) but as they always say "its time to come, grow and go" We just love his school and his teachers.  Even though it is so hard to have to work and be away from my kids, I'm so glad that he is in a loving and caring enviorment that is teaching him things that I never could (since I'm not a teacher)

As you can see from above, he is also really good with his baby sister. But since Emma is becoming more mobile, I am noticing more "no Emma that's mine" and "no Emma don't do that" which makes me laugh because she doesn't understand and keeps doing whatever she is doing and then he gets mad.  So cute :)

Happy Mothers Day

This year since Connor is in school, he got to make something for me for Mother's Day.  He made me a planting pot with his hand prints on it and in Polish (thanks to Jonathan and Connor's teacher Bianca" it says "I love you mommy, Happy Mother's Day" and "Plant a seed, watch me grow!"

Daddy let him pick out and plant the flowers all by himself!  While I was at my mom's house with my sister for Mother's Day, Jon took care of the kids and helped him plant this plant and some other herbs.  It was a perfect Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Swimming with Cousins Caden and Shayla

Every Wednesday Connor goes to his Dziadek's house to play with his cousins.  This year Andrew got a little pool for them to play in and its perfect! (in fact we got one too!) Its got just enough water in there for them to actually swim. Which will be great because we will teach Connor how to swim in it this summer.  His first couple of times in the pool have been a little sketchy (with one instance of me jumping in the pool with my clothes on since Connor slipped and went under water) but yesterday when I came to get him, he was in the tube and he was floating!!  He'll be a swimming fish in no time!!

He loves playing with his cousins.

Stay cool this summer everyone!  I know we will with our cool pool!!

J,C,C & E

My how she grows!!

Emma 8 months

   Well as many of you know (and as my mom and sister can relate too) the poor second child really does get the raw end of the deal to when it comes to reporting things!  I thought for sure that I had a blog on here for Emma at 7 months but I clearly don't. So like a blog a few months ago, month 7 & 8 will be combined into one (at least I did one!)

Let's see, what HASN'T Emma done in the past 2 months.  Walk and travel, that's probably about all she hasn't done yet, as this girl is a moving and growing machine! Connor wasn't walking by this time either but he was already a world traveler, having been to Poland, Germany and Czech Republic all by the time he was 8 months (I had to wait till I was 34!)  Next year Emma, we'll go to Poland next year :)

Emma 7 months

Well as you can see she is still a thumb sucker, which is fine by me. Its nice to not have to search for the binkie all the time.  I hope like other kids she will stop sucking her thumb on her own, but we still have a few years before we start to worry about that.  She sleeps and eats so well, and has added carrots and blueberries to her food line up.  She doesn't seem to be too fond of plums, but I think they only ones that are in season right now are a bit tart.  Pretty soon we'll start to give her some finger foods like Cheerios!

One little tooth

She also busted out her first tooth!  And only 1!  Right now she has one sharp little tooth. I have no idea where the other one is, as Connor and a lot of other little kids that I know, pop theirs out 2 at a time but not Emma.  I keep telling her it will be less painful to do more, but she says she likes to take her time :)

Where's the baby?

Emma is also on the move, and quickly.  Not only is she ripping around the house in her walker (may need to put up speed traps) but she also has her "army man crawl" down to a science!  She has gotten on all fours but not to crawl.  As you can see from the above picture, I'm obviously doing a poor job of keeping her in her pen.  She managed to crawl out by the corner of the couch, crawled all the way over to the blue chair by the TV and fell asleep.

So far to crawl!!

 

Emma and Dziadek swimming

Emma has also learned how to sit up on her own.  She also got to play in a small little pool that Dziadek got for her.  She LOVES it.  She loves to move her hands in the water and wiggle her toes.  Connor and Emma go over to Dziadek's house every Wednesday so they can spend quality time with their grandparents and their cousins Shayla and Caden.  It also gives mommy and daddy a few hours a week to be kiddo free. Emma loves playing with her Dziadek, as you can tell, I think he likes playing with her too :)

Here is our baby girl sitting in her little pool.  She loves playing in the water.  Love you baby girl, can't believe how fast your growing!! Love you!

Jonathan, Courtney, Connor and Emma
PS  Hope this video works, been having some trouble with it :)

Happy Easter Weekend

Glow in the dark Easter Egg hunt!

 So Jonathan and I had Good Friday off so we spent the day hanging out with Emma (she had her doctor's appointment) and then in the evening we had a Friday Night Party night at the McKiernan's house.  Colette came up with another great idea to do a glow in the dark Easter Egg hunt (coolest thing EVER!)  Basically you take glow sticks and place them in plastic eggs and then hide them in the dark.

See all the lights!  Glow in the dark eggs!

As you can tell the kids were chomping at the bit to get outside and find the eggs!  They had such a great time finding all the eggs.  I'm pretty sure Waylon and Brody flew out of the house at light speed!

 

 We also decided to go to church on Easter Sunday which was great. We hadn't been to church since the kids were born and we were really glad to be back.  Connor went into a Sunday school and color his Jesus red :D  Emma went with us to the sermon and she did great. She got a little cranky towards the end but feel asleep in daddy's arms once the singing started again :)

Night night sweet baby girl

I also decided at last minute to let Connor color some Easter Eggs. Since we needed eggs for the potato salad we were making for my dad's, we decided he could color those and then we can put them in the salad. Another great idea from my sister, to put them in the wisk so that he could dunk it as much as he wanted and not lose the egg. B

Coloring Eggs

Emma colored eggs too!

Let's find the eggs!

 After church on Sunday we then went to my dad's house for Easter Sunday brunch. It was really nice as it is very low key and we just all hang out, then watch the kids get Easter baskets and hunt for eggs.  It still take Toni and Connor a little bit of time to find the eggs and we have to give Waylon a limit (for he is too fast) but just he wait, till these two are bigger and they give him a run for his money!

Papa and his grandkids
Waylon (5)  Toni (2)  Connor (2)  Emma (6 months)

So I will end with this funny picture of us. We decided to make a funny picture at the end of the day. What is so great is we took this photo about 5 times (this being the only funny one) and Leelu totally photo bombed the picture, I didn't even notice it till just now.

Happy Easter Everyone!
He Lives!!!

Jonathan, Courtney, Connor, Emma & Leelu :)

St Patrick's Day

Toni and Emma

 Happy "Green" Day!!  This might be one of Colette's favorite holidays (lol) and this year since it fell on a Sunday, we got to go to!!  As you can tell, I left Emma with Toni for 2 minutes and I come back and she has a silly hat on her head!  I love it1  These two are going to best friends I just know it :)

Pretty baby

 

 

 

 Colette is so good at doing crafts for the kids, no wonder she is a teacher.  Connor is making a rainbow bracelet out of fruit loops.  He eat is shortly after this.

Mommy and Waylon

This project turned out to be quite the trial but it turned out great in the end.  I found this on pintrest and you dip the kids hands in green paint and it makes a four leaf clover!  So we had each kid do one hand and then we gave them all to the mom's & dad, Aunt Pat and Uncle Barney and Babcia too.

My little leprechaun

 

And at the end of the day we got on Face time and chatted with Ahna and the kids in Portland. They were all celebrating Green Day as well and we all got to chat with Cooper and Olivia.  Of course I didn't get to chat much because Connor (who is in the middle of potty training) decided to have accident and pretty much flooded Colette's kitchen (ha ha)

I love these holidays, they are so much fun and especially with kids. I love that Colette and I have kids so close in age that they can grow up with their cousins like I did with my cousins.  I can't wait till they get to camping age. I loved camping with my cousins and cant wait to do it with these guys.

Till next time!!
J,C,C & E

1/2 year mark!

Emma 6 months

Can you believe it!  Baby Emma has reached the 1/2 way make to being a year old!  We must be doing something right because she is one happy baby!  She has come so far in just a month!

She had her 6 month check up on the 29th and the doctor says she is perfect.  She is almost 16 lbs and is pretty much 50% across the board in height, weight and head size.  She got her shots and did really well! Only cried for a moment! Doctor also said that she'll be busting out those teeth anytime, which we already know because she is chewing and drooling like crazy!

Emma is also rolling all over the place. I will put her down for a moment and come back to see she has moved herself to the other side of her crib :)  She is doing so well with her eating as well, her definite favorite is cauliflower.

Both Emma and Connor also made their first trip to church on Easter Sunday.  We hadn't been to church since the kids had been born and it was so nice to be back.  Emma did great! She was quite till the music stopped and then needed to go outside, when the Pastor was done talking, the music started and she fell right to sleep.

Your so beautiful little Emma.  Happy "half" birthday to you :)

Jon, Cort, Connor and Emma

good morning beautiful!

Batting practice and Railroad park

This is all you get!

So Spring Training is finally upon us!  We were so excited to take the kids to batting practice in Scottsdale to see the Diamondbacks and it was the perfect day for it! Colette and the kids came out from Peoria, we got there at 10:45 (the finish at 1) and it was going to be perfect. Lunch, baseball and home for naps.  Well the Dbacks had other plans.

They had team pictures that day, so as we were settling in to watch them practice, they cleared the field at 11. BUMMER!  A warning in the newspaper would have been awesome. Peoria is far, and lugging a 5 year old, 2 toddlers and an infant is not the easiest task. Fail Dbacks.  Next year. . .maybe

Me and the munchkins

So thankfully the Railroad park was not that far from the baseball field so we headed there for lunch instead.  it was a great day to be outside and the kids had a great time.  It was super busy so we weren't able to ride the train, Connor is STILL talking about, and how he wants to ride the train (ha ha)  But at least it was a great day out, got to play with cousins and even had the parents over for dinner later.  So even though the baseball failed, the train park came thru :)

These two could have played with their cars all day long!

Pretty Toni, playing on top of the play ground.

More coming soon! St Patty's Day aka Green Day is this weekend and then Easter is right around the corner!!  Very exciting!!