The joy of kids growing up!

My mother raised ten children, and nine of us had braces. It is now my turn to "gladly" spend my retirement money on orthodontic work for my kids. Wow! Can you say expensive? Dominique had braces put on, and he actually has good teeth! Well, relative to me when I was his age. He will only need to wear them for just over a year. Dreyton has actually been seeing an orthodondist for two years due to an underbite, which my DNA passed down to him. He has had two mouth pieces and invisiline. As soon as he loses all of his baby teeth, he will have braces too.

Donovan and I are hoping at least one of our kids decides to go into orthodontics so that we can retire early and move in with them. At this point in time, Dreyton says he wants to be an orthodontist (mostly due to seeing a lot of "toys" some of the orthodontists we knew in St Louis had around their homes). We are keeping our fingers crossed that he continues to have this occupational aspiration!

Vegas Baby!

Each year the American Physcial Therapy Association holds a conference that Donovan tries to attend. It seems like I have been able to go with him every other year. I found out awhile ago that it was going to be held in Sin City this year, so I just "had" to go. Originally, I was going to stay with my sister-in-law, Kristen, and have some good times with some crazy girl fun, but her life changed drastically and she has since moved to Utah. I wasn't sure if I was going to go because she wasn't going to be there. But as it drew closer to make a decision about going, I decided it would be fun to go and visit other friends and spend time with Donovan. Everyone needs a vacation without kids once in a while, right? Thankfully Grandma Peterson snuck out of Utah Valley last minute to come watch our four children. It was very much appreciated! Thanks a lot, Mom!!

Donovan and I stayed in the Luxor hotel compliments of the University of Florida (gotta luv dem Gator greenbacks!).

We were able to visit with a lot of friends that have crossed our paths over the past several years. We lived in Vegas for three and a half years back in '99 to '02 . Wow! Vegas is so different now. There has been a tremendous increase in traffic and a lot more homes that have been built since we moved in Aug of 2002. The strip is still crazy, of course.

I really wanted to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, so we drove to Caesars Palace in the car we rented and had dinner there with a good friend we had not seen for a few years. Nothing like fine company and delicious food!

Donovan enjoyed his favorite dessert there, Dulce de Leche cheesecake. It was as yummy as this picture makes it look.

We "pulled a Janae" on this trip meaning we forgot to take our camera (once again!). At least we are consistent. :)

I knew this day would come!

I always knew this day would eventually come. What day is that?, you ask. It is when my children pass me up in height. Dreyton wanted me to measure his height today. Of course, we had to find out if he had finally surpassed his dear old mother's "giant" stature. Dominique and Dreyton have been neck and neck with each other, but Dominique is still slightly taller. But it is official that they are now both taller than me. **sigh** I measured the boys in the fall, but they were still a tad bit shorter than me. Since then, I knew they had grown due to the length of their pants I had bought for them increasing. Dominique didn't fit his band uniform a few weeks ago, but I wasn't going to remind them that they had probably passed me up. To keep my sons from being too puffed up, I had to remind my boys that being taller than me is not a very hard thing to do. I've been short my whole life, and it doesn't make me feel better that I'm shrinking with old age. I need all the height I can get!! It's strange not to have to bend down in order to kiss your children. I guess I'll be soon standing on my tippy toes to kiss my boys. Just as I do with my husband.

I get comments all the time. People will say, "Did you know you are short? Wow! You are short!" I think to myself, "Really...Where have you been?" I've always been short, but I don't need people to remind me of that fact. As you can see, I am feeling a little bitter of this "huge" accomplishment my two sons have met. On the bright side, Donovan is trying to have our accountant look at my decreased height as a possible tax deduction with the new Obama plan.