We had a great January, and I can't believe February is already here!

Natalie gave us a few scares. First she fell about six feet off a playground structure. Thankfully, she landed on the soft foamy cushion playground, and just scratched her nose. Sure scared Mommy, though!

Then one day Paul wanted us to sign up for a club card at Silverton/Bass Pro Shops, where they are running a nice promotion with coupons and freebies. The place to sign up was in the casino, and I didn't want to walk the kids through the casino, so Paul went first, then came back to watch the kids at Bass Pro while I went in to sign up. I was waiting in line about five minutes when Paul came over alone and said, "Natalie's gone." Two words a mother never wants to hear!

So Paul had Alexandra, Max and Anastasia wait in a little seating area together, and he and I split up, running all through the casino, looking for Natalie. I kept asking people if they had seen a little girl, and Paul had the security people on the look for her too. One lady pointed in a direction she had seen a cocktail waitress with a little girl. I ran that way and could see the waitress holding Natalie's hand far up ahead, walking away from me. It seemed to take me forever to run to catch up to them! I finally did and Natalie was very upset.

So we will always remember the time Natalie got lost in a casino! Ugh! Something I never imagined I'd ever say. I lost a child in a Las Vegas casino. Geez. Not a good thing! I'm just so thankfully that it happened IN the casino, and not IN a parking lot, or even a grocery store. At least there's a LOT of security people all through a casino, and they even questioned us to make sure Natalie belonged to us. I can't even think of it happening anywhere else. I'm glad too, that it happened and everyone is fine, because we are all going to be so much more careful now.

Natalie is usually very good to stick close to you, but Paul had turned his back and walked a few feet away to look at a newspaper, and I'm sure Natalie didn't see him and thought he'd left her, so she took off looking for him. She is very clingy now, and sticks really close to us. That's a good thing.

But other than that bad memory, the Bass Pro shop sure is a cool place to visit! We love all the animal displays, and the fish tanks are fascinating. They have a lady in a mermaid costume swimming around waving to you. We have a tradition: the kids pick out a moon pie and eat on their porch, sitting in rocking chairs, watching the desert mountains in the distance.

Yesterday we took advantage of a buy-one-get-one-free-buffet-coupon. We all had a late lunch at the Red Rock buffet. It was very nice! With the two little ones free, we can feed all six of us a humongous meal for $20! Not too good on the waist line, and I was feeling rather embarrassed at all the trips my kids made to the dessert bar, but a fun once-in-a-while outing for sure!

I'm sure people were marveling at how much the pregnant lady ate. I go up with the girls, then get a plate for me, go back for seconds with each of them....then dessert.....go find another spoon since Natalie dropped hers in the floor.....a trip to find more napkins.......I probably walked around so much I burnt off most of the calories I ate! ha, ha.

We have been going to parks alot too. The weather has been so beautiful! One thing I will really miss is sunshine and 65 degrees in January!


Alexandra and Anastasia are big buddies, despite their five year age difference, and play very well together. Here they were playing with puppies in the van.

Here is a view (looking south) of the skyline of the Vegas strip on a rare, rainy day. The amount of construction still happening there is mind boggling. Are they gonna be able to fill those thousands and thousands of new hotel rooms and condos in this economy??? Someone must think so.

Mingling with the dinosaurs at Fao Swartz in the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. We also went to the Cheesecake Factory with homeschool friends, and well, you can't get much better than that!!!

Alexandra and Anastasia loved the pink puppies. If I sold a kidney, I might have been able to afford to buy one for them! :)

And what fun day would be complete without a session of silly faces?

Here are Alexandra and Natalie, waiting to be seated at a buffet. Natalie drags either this dolly or her stuffed Elmo around everywhere we go. That day, she was carrying dolly around on her shoulders. It was cute.

The traditional moon pie excursion at Bass Pro shops.

The kids in front of the Bass Pro Shop.