While Daddy traveled abroad...

Bill left on Sunday, Nov 8th for a trip to Tokyo and Beijing. Yeah, lucky guy! (I was thrilled for him, to say the least.)

While he flew in this...

C-17

with this view...

had 2 mid air re-fuelings

Partook a little of this...

... and plenty of this...

Bill LOVES sushi. Fortunately he found some other guys that did too. They were brave and ate at a few restaurants where english was non-existent.

See this...

Meiji Jingu Shrine

(Japanese Shinto shrine)

Moat around the Imperial Palace

U.S. Embassy in Tokyo

Witnessed this...

traditional Japanese wedding.

And after 5 days of that, he saw this...

And did this...

Yes, he actually got to stand post on the Great Wall of China!

And went here...

Tianamen Square, Beijing, China

And here...

The Forbidden City

We did this...

Took Annie to Aaron's class for show and tell.

Tues. 11/10: Took Olivia in for her chemotherapy and a week of steroids.

(Thankfully, a rather uneventful week, as far as the steroids go.)

Had a Thanksgiving party at our friends' house on Veterans Day(11/11).

Had our first experience with the tooth-fairy.

(The tooth came loose eating a sandwich on Oct. 26th and

came out on the first bite of our "Thanksgiving lunch".)

That night I got a sitter for the kids, one night and went to the temple with our ward

and then to U-Swirl afterwards.

Friday 11/13: Met up with our friends the Chipmans from Summerlin

and had a great evening at Chuck E. Cheese's.

Brea spent the night. She and Livi were just having too much fun.

Aaron and Annie helped eachother make it through Dad's absence.

Annie discovered a love of mud.

And we discovered that Daddy is the only one who loves this...

(We've been doing a Thanksgiving countdown. Today, 11/17, we were thankful for food. and tried something new. I already had my opinion of the stuff, but the kids formed their own.)

I discovered a great ability to do Olivia's hair!

And last but not least... what a fabulous treat to have Uncle Adam visit.

The kids loved Adam's new car!

Livi's Choice

With the obedience jars being filled with brightly colored stones Olivia chose "to go to the casino". (Aaron, remember, had picked the go carts.) At first I could not figure out what she was talking about. Maybe Red Rock Casino and go bowling? "No, the casino on the strip." ??? She finally decided to expand her thoughts and explained, "You know, the one with the waterfalls and ice cream and all the flowers?!" OHHHH, the Belagio. Okay.

They had once again changed the scene at the conservatory. It was remarkable! The trees were breathtaking, with their faces and the one behind Livi even moved and "spoke"!

We thought the Asian/Polynesian inspired model of the Belagio was fun. Complete with the water show in front.

As always the colors were GORGEOUS, but perhaps my most favorite was this picture. My favorite colors and people all at once... priceless.

THANK YOU "Aunt" Cathy!

A big thanks to our friend Cathy from Chicago. She sent each of the kids some "dessert" money for Halloween. (Does she know me and the kids well or what?!) Anyway, the kids each got to pick a dessert of their choice from the Crepe shoppe. Aaron got his favorite, Gelato. This time he chose chocolate. He couldn't eat it fast enough... and hardly had any damage! (It reminded me of the chocolate of Rocky Road, very thick and fudgy. AKA very yummy.

Olivia decided to go all "Fancy Nancy" (that's for your mom Cathy) and get the "Tootie Fruiti" torte. Bill and I were both worried she wouldn't like it, but she LOVED it! We thought it was pretty dang good too. (Thanks for the nibbles kids. And thanks Cathy for the treat.)

The water show outside was fantastic. Aaron kept reminding us to not sit him on the speaker, "It's scary." (He's not a big fan of loud noise, which is strange to me considering the only volume he has is LOUD!)

It was a great day. Thankfully, all the extra time Bill put in while Clinton was here gave him an extra day off of work. So we got to do all this on Monday after Halloween which the kids had no school on because of Staff Development. Doesn't get much better than that.

Halloween

It seems to be the going trend for Halloween festivities to be putting up a pretty good competition with the celebration of Christmas. We skipped out on a several events and still got our fair share of the holiday. Thank goodness for nostalgia, Aaron and Olivia wanted to wear their pirate costumes I made for them last year. Pretty close to being way too small but they worked. (They even said they wanted them again next year... I think I'll have to come up with something new.)

Thursday, the 29th we attended the Candlelighters Halloween event. It was fantastic, as usual. This time was extra great because Daddy and Aaron got to come along. They had fun carnival games, tons of trick-or-treating (in the bottom floor of a hotel behind the strip, each room's entry was decorated

and had people in costume handing out candy), wonderful choices of food and desserts along with plenty of hot cocoa. The split second Bill and I were checking in to get our wrist bands someone brought both kids cotton candy! Talk about service. Aaron wasted no time tearing into his. We had to convince him to get rid of it so he could have dinner. Livi's favorite thing this year, as well as last, was the horse riding. Although I think the hot chocolate was a close 2nd. Aaron LOVED the horse ride as well and was so excited he couldn't sit still for the digital camera. He also loved ALL THE CANDY!

This guy was great. He just sat there staring at the kids. They didn't even notice and then all of a sudden out of his bowl jumped a mechanical hand! OOHHH those were some good screams!

Our friends, the Shiblaq's, whom we've met because their daughter was diagnosed 2 weeks before Livi, were at the event also and graciously gave us tickets to the hockey game that night. Las Vegas was stomped on by Utah. Ziad is the branch manager of the Pepsi plant in town and gave us access to their suite. We were the only ones there but it was great to see part of the game. Only Bill has ever been to a hockey game live before. It was crazy to me what the ref's allowed as far as "fighting". The kids enjoyed it as well.

Friday was "Nevada Day" so no school. A lot of time counting and organizing candy.

Friday night we joined our friends/"cousins" the McMillans for dinner and pumpkin carving. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I will never again "wait" to buy a pumpkin! Why couldn't I buy the huge beautiful pumpkin for $7. at Smith's the prior week? Why did it end up costing me $8. for a pumpkin half its size at the dang pumpkin patch?! Smith's of course was out of pumpkins... it's a conspiracy. I think the pumpkin patch people go snatch them all up!!! Anywho... It was a fantastic evening with great friends. They made chicken chili/soup and scones for dinner! I brought some gooey pumpkin bars that didn't quite turn out how I remembered them. But overall, great night.

On Halloween Livi went to a friends birthday party. I had been sewing a skirt for her to wear to church the following day and at 1:30 Bill asks me, "What time was that party?" Oh crud! "AT ONE!" Hurry and get Livi out of the street, she, Aaron and the neighbor had been making goodie bags for neighbors, get her dressed in costume and get her to the party. Only 45 min. late! She was a great sport about it. When your day starts off that much behind, you never catch up. We had invited two families over for our traditional "Rigaboney" Halloween dinner. They arrived as I put the pasta in the oven... yes, still running behind. (Everything worked out okay in the end.) So there were 6 adults and 9 kids and 1 infant in our house for the meal. It was fantastic. Bill made yummy "witch's brew" (orange cream ice cream and 7 up), and our friends brought salad and bread. With easily 10 lbs of main dish who could ask for anything more!

Afterwards we all went trick-or-treating in a neighborhood at the back of our community. It was so much fun. Lots of houses, close together, lots of people living there that we knew from church and great decorations on the houses. At one friends' house we were invited in for scones! Yumm-O! Thank you Mulliners. That was 2 nights in a row for us!!!

Our last stop for the evening was our neighbor's house down the street. When the kids knocked on the door a friend of theirs' answered and was letting them pick from their bowl of candy. Becky stole the bowl out of their hands and said, "No no no. Not for our special friends!..."

HOLY CHOCOLATE!

Happy Halloween!

CRAZY

I'm so disappointed with my lack of pictures. I guess my only excuse is that when everything is just happening one can forget that life is happening!

I did want to get this picture in here just for reference sake. Annie is getting so big so fast. It won't be long until she can no longer fit in this crate. (Photo taken on Oct. 20th.)

The middle of October brought a trip for Bill to Reno due to Senator Reid's need for political backing... enter VP Joe Biden. Friday, the 16 when he arrived home we met up with him at our old neighbor's house for a family night. Elaine and Jan had us "provide the family and games (they'd) provide the food." It was a GREAT evening. We even bought our newest family member, Annie. Instant love. As soon as we walked in Jan said, "You do know that we are your official dog sitters. If you ever go ANYWHERE we get to watch her." That won't be a problem. Annie even slept under Jan's feet for dinner and got her fair amount of snuggle/play time with Elaine. They made AWESOME quesadillas- I actually enjoyed the grilled veggie one the most. We all played "Cadoo", a children's version of "Cranium" and partook of the dessert we brought, "Million $ Dessert", or so I told Jan that's what we call it for the kids sake. On the way home it was all we could do to keep Annie off Olivia. She wanted to lay in her lap but Livi's tummy hurt. This is what seemed to work best for the both of them. (As long as Annie was touching Livi... life was good.)

The following week, on Wednesday the 21st, Annie got her first round of puppy shots and started a hard week for Livi. Because of continued chemotherapy Olivia cannot be around live vaccines... yes even dogs! Livi LOVES Annie and Annie LOVES Livi (as the previous picture shows). Livi cried when she found out she couldn't be around her for some time and asked, "Then who's going to take care of Annie and play with her?" We managed.

Wednesday, while waiting for the vet to check on the "live vaccine" thing, our friends the Williams' called and said that Sean's grandfather had been in a car accident and life flighted to Sunrise hospital here in Vegas. (That was Livi's hospital.) They came down to be with him but also to be with Grandma, they live in St. George.

Thursday my doorbell rang at noon, much to my surprise. It was my dad, whom I wasn't expecting until 4 or 5 that afternoon. Apparently when he went to sleep Wednesday night he couldn't turn his mind off and so hopped in the car and drove all night! This is not the first time he has done this. He and Angie surprised us last year for Easter by arriving at 3 or 4 in the morning instead of 9 or 10. I love my dad. It's always great to have him here but secretly I was hoping for some training help with Annie. He was just what the doctor ordered.

Thursday afternoon I made granola for everyone to enjoy, and that evening I took dinner to a friend who had just adopted her first baby and was realizing, birth or not, having a baby is tiring. Along with my dad and the Williams', we also had Sean's grandmother join us for dinner as a chance to get her away from the hospital scene. (As we know first hand how draining that can be.) I was so pleased and honored to have Sister Williams in my home, and to see that she was able to finish her dinner brought joy to my heart. It was nice to see her smile as I'm sure it was something that wasn't happening much with the current circumstances. (In speaking with Liz the following Monday we learned that Grandpa Williams had passed away Sunday morning. God bless Sister Williams and their posterity.)

Friday, the 23rd, brought Olivia's Halloween Kinder program that Dad and Aaron joined me at. Olivia makes me laugh. She once was so quite and cried uncontrollably when she sang with primary at church in front of everyone. Now!... we can hear her over the entire kinder group which was over 50 kids! She is so dominating in one of the songs she got too excited and sped everyone up by a full measure or more. I'm so happy that she was able to break out of that shell. Now we just have to figure out how to control it. After the program the kids went back to class and I took Aaron to the park with Liz and her two little ones, Kate and Dylan, while Papa hung out at the house to wait and pick Livi up from school. (I'll keep trying to get videos loaded, the site is having "technical difficulties".)

Surprisingly Aaron didn't really get into the pie contest like we thought he would. He was trying to lick it like ice cream. Papa kept trying to help and encourage but Aaron was easily distracted by the other participants.

Friday night was the school carnival, or "Bozarth County Fair" (my idea for the name). Dad went along and was a good sport. It was an incredible event with tons of games to play, food,

raffles and a pie eating contest! I talked a girlfriend of mine into doing it with me. Unfortunately we had just eaten funnel cakes and because we were adults they really piled on the whip cream. I'm pretty sure I won, and have witnesses to back me, but who could take the prize away from a 10 year old? I COULD! I WON FAIR AND SQUARE! Afterwards, Lisa and I agreed that we'd never been so close to self-induce vomiting before. (Lisa got the pics, I got the video.) Liz and Kate came but we didn't end up seeing them that much. Liz said Kate really had a good time and so did my kids.

Adam got in on the Greyhound bus that night (or Saturday morning to be exact) from Provo, UT at quarter to 2 so Dad went and picked him up.

Saturday morning was pancakes and eggs for all 10 of us with me trying desperately to get my whole wheat french bread made for the preparedness fair that morning at the church. Williams' were packed to get back home and ready to leave at about 11 when Bill finally was able to join the picture. (He had been in charge of the hotel stay for B. Clinton at Ceasar's and over the last 48 hours maybe clocked 6 hours of sleep. He got in at 4 that morning. We were trying our best to let him sleep.) It was good to have him back in our lives in time to at least say goodbye to our friends. (Liz and Sean, maybe one of these times when you visit, you'll actually be able to visit BOTH of us.)

Livi headed off to a friend's birthday party and Bill, Dad, Adam and I took Aaron on his reward outing. (We've been doing "obedience jars"... it works pretty good. If they obey or do

something good, they get a stone. They fill their jar they get to choose an outing/treat/etc.) Aaron chose the go carts. And he wanted to ride with Adam. Papa and I were along for the "ride". Then the dragon coaster and big slide with Dad. He loved every second of it until the seconds were over. "I'm not happy!" he exclaimed. Papa bribed him as only a papa can, "Aaron, do you want In 'n' Out?" A chocolate shake was a good way to end the day. Dinner was "anything is game" and homemade Carmel Pecan Crunch Apple Pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert. (Well, or dinner, whatever, it was FABULOUS!) At 10 the boys left me home on the couch to go to a creepy movie that I don't even remember the name of but it gave them great male bonding... you know the whole "just being together" thing. I'm glad they got to go.

Sunday was nice a restful day, as well it should be. A morning of football and an afternoon of church with a dinner of roasted chicken, carrots and mashed potatoes with gravy. Yum! And of course, apple pie for dessert.

Monday, the 26th Livi headed off to school with our neighbor, as usual and Dad and Adam accompanied me to take Aaron to school. He was very excited to introduce his Papa and Uncle Adam to his teacher, Mrs. Powers. (I love love love how Aaron ALWAYS calls Adam "Uncle Adam". Too cute.) We got home, Dad took Adam back up to Utah and I headed out on my bike with my girlfriend Rhonda. Later that day when Livi bit into her scrumptious sandwich she started crying about her teeth hurting... low and behold, she has her first loose tooth!!! I can't believe it!

Whew! What a crazy week!