Live, Work, Play, in Vegas.. The Wilson Way

Our Neighborhood... Our View of the Strip... Our Development inside Mountains Edge...

Welcome to where we "Live, Work, and Play" We call southern Las Vegas home. We live about 10 minutes from the strip. For you that are familiar with Las Vegas, if you continue on I-15 as though you were heading out of Vegas we are one of the last exits before you start heading toward Jean, NV. We really looked around at a lot of different communities before we decided to move into the Mountains Edge Master Planned Community. When we were looking for homes I told Cody that I really wanted to live in a master planned community because of the troubles we had with some of our old neighbors not keeping up on their yards and different things. It really brough the value of our home down when we were trying to sell. After looking really hard at a lot of different places, it just seemed like this was where we were supposed to be. We also like how close it was to Cody's work. For to many years we traveled a lot for work and it was nice to be so close this time. We were debating on moving out to Boulder City wher my best friend Kim Cox and her family live, but the more we thought about it the more we decided it would be more logical to be close to his job. I have really enjoyed my new home and furnishing it to our live style. It helps when your husband runs a furniture store!! :> The furniture that we had in our Tooele home was getting old and it was definitly time for a change. It took KB Homes about 3 1/2 months to finialize our home, which meant many of Saturdays of Sawyer and I driving around Vegas while KyLee was at dance for two hours going to different stores getting decorating ideas. I have to give a "hey" to my friends that I made a Bed Bath and Beyond, Micheals, and The Pottery Barn. I was in their a lot wondering around and there was one girl at the Pottery Barn that would play with Sawyer while I looked around. Sawyer was definitly a trooper through all of this. I also love to shop at Family Dollar. It must be a Tooele thing! I found one by accident one day while Sawyer and I were driving around looking for fabric to make there pin boards. Some days her and I got lost in areas that aren't on the tourist attraction maps of Vegas, but we survived. I hope you like looking at our pictures of where we live, work, and on the off chance... play. Love, me.

"Living" Our Home Sweet Home

Welcome to our Las Vegas Home. KB Homes broke ground on our lot in the middle of March and we closed the last week of June. I have been very happy with my home. Our home is approx 3000 sqft and sits on a decent lot for Vegas. We have desert landscaping, meaning a lot of rock, little grass, and desert trees and bushes, however, no palm trees. Our home has two levels, main floor and a second level. I don' miss the basement! KyLee has a balcony that goes off her bedroom. We tease her that she is Repunzal locked away in her castle. Cody told her if he ever say a boy trying to climb up the balcony he would shoot them off. Our backyard is decent size, especially for what we need. We have a whoppin 300 sqft of grass. I tease Cody about the grass. I told him that he should keep it cut short, put a hole at the end of the grass and use it as a putting green. I don't think he liked the idea, but I thought it was a good one. What a way to entertain guest. We decided to have a company come in and do our backyard. Cody and I had enough yard work last summer when we re did our backyard in Tooele. The day they came and planted our grass it was 112 degrees. I enjoyed watching them from my AC kitchen! I have really enjoyed getting to know our neighbors and more and more homes are being built so hopefully that will bring in a bunch of new kids for KyLee and Sawyer. I am really excited about our home and I hope we are here for a long time to enjoy it!

Pricless:

2 acre lot in Stockton, UT (15 miles from Tooele) where wanted to move 100,000

2x2 Vegas Lot :> Where we did move Lets just say the slow market was good to us

Learn to love thy very close proximity Vegas neighbor.... priceless

"Living" downstairs

This the main level of our house. We have a living room (I call it our Relief Society Room. The only time we ever sit in it is when my visiting teachers come), formal dining area, family room, breakfast area, kitchen, study, and an office. We also have a 1/2 bath, but for some reason I didn't take any pictures. I like the way these rooms have turned out. This is where we spend most of our time as a family. Probably of all the rooms on our main level, I like my kitchen the best. I love my double oven, and yes I even use it!! I am definitely looking forward to the holidays. What I like the most is how open it is. My kitchen in Tooele had a "box" feel to it. I also love having the window over the sink so I can watch the kids while they are outside. Our office is still in decorating mode. We have not had 5 minutes to go to Home Depot and get the shelves for all our Nascar stuff. One of these days. We are still missing some pictures on some walls. It is a work in progress. I think we have done pretty good in just two months. Enjoy.

"Living" downstairs

"Live" our Upstairs

Below are some pictures of our upstairs. Our upstairs has three bedrooms, two baths, game room, theatre room and laundry room. Decorating these rooms were a lot of fun. Our game room, which is also the "Man Room" as I am told, was the only room that I didnt have much to say in how it was decorated. There are some pictures of this room below. The room sits behind the theatre room. This is the type of room Cody has always wanted. One of the main features that sold us on this model is the bonus game room that is built over the garage. This was an upgrade that we did and it added about 800 sqft to our floor plan. My best friend Kim Cox gives me a hard time about this room and calls it the "bowling" room because it is long enough to fit a bowling lane. I just roll my eyes and shake my head. I had a great time decorating the "other" rooms that I was allowed in. I almost did Sawyers room in "CARS" because of her infactuation with the movie. But my friend Shelly from Tooele made me a beautiful blanket for Sawyer when she was born and I wanted to use it in her crib so I went with the purple and greens that she made the blanket with and we went with the butterfly, Tinkerbell theme. The second thing she loves the most, Bella, short in her words for Tinkerbell. KyLee got to choose what she wanted to do in her room. She loves High School Musical and so we went with a tween theme and added some High School Musical posters and wall stickers. Her room turned out really cute. The girls bathroom was a struggle. I knew I wanted to decorate in the pink and browns, but I for the longest time struggled with something for the walls. One day while I was at Target, I got this hair brain Idea to create two large pictures frames from my scrapbook stuff and add some of their own pictures to personalize their bathroom. It turned out great. It is probably one of my most favorite rooms. KyLee liked how it turned out too. Our bathroom was probably one of the rooms I had figured out right from the beginning. I love the brown in this bathroom and I though purple would go pefect with it. Our bedroom is kind of a work in progress. I ran out of ideas, so for now it has the country feel to it.

"Live" our upstairs

Work Work Work Work Work

It is kind of ironic to post the "work" portion of our Live, Work, Play blog on this same day one year ago that Cody was offered the job by CORT to run the store in Vegas. Cody has had some major obstacles to overcome with his new position, but he has done a great job and the people who work for him are awesome!! They really made us feel like family when we moved here. The drive to his store only takes about :10 minutes instead of :40 minutes it used to take when we lived in Tooele. His brand new store which is located in Southwest Vegas (off I-215) opened in January 2008. It was quite the event. I was thinking an open house for the store would be something like an RC Willey event with hot dogs and popcorn for their customers. Oh, I was so wrong! It was a huge event held during the evening with invited quest only. People from the CORT corporate office in CA flew in for the event. It was fully catered and valet parking, there was even dancing, in a furniture store!! Nothing should surprise me though, again we are in Vegas.
We have been blessed in so many ways since moving to Vegas. We may never know why we were to move here, but I have definitely enjoyed the experience.

Playing.... Viva Las Vegas Style

As a family, we have found some fun and interesting things to do and see here in Vegas. Some of them were found by "accident" and others we have heard about and decided to go check them out. With Cody's work and KyLee dance schedule, we don't have a lot of time to go explore, but one of these days our lives will slow down enough to enjoy the simple things of life! One thing Cody and I do each year is go to the Nascar race. We did this when we lived in Tooele. It is kind of our weekend anniversary get-a-way, and now that we live in Vegas we can enjoy the Nascar weekend experience right in our backyard! KyLee wants to go with us, I keep telling her next year, next year... :) (one day she'll catch on).

Me and Cody's favorite driver, Bobby Labonte, where's Cody? Not taking the picture.......
Cody, KyLee, and Sawyer on the strip

No Vegas blog would be complete without a picture of the strip. Call us crazy, but we don't frequent the strip much. The only time we hit that night life is when people come and visit. This is definitly one of KyLee's favorite places to go. She keeps that up she'll never leave the house when she gets older. The things she likes about the strip is Circus Circus, the rollercoaster at New York-New York, the lights at night and M&M World. Her Grandma Carol seems to be the only one who can win her a prize at Circus Circus and her Grandpa Glen rides the rollercoaster with her at New York-New York, so I guess the only time we need to go is when they visit!!

KyLee & Sawyer at the Park

One little piece of triva that I have learned while living in Mountains Edge, is the rich history of the mormon pioneers who once walked the land we live on today. There is a park called "Exploration Peak" park in the master planned community that we live in. This is one of the fav's with the girls. They love to play at the park and in the water. There is a trail you can hike and at the top of the mountain there is a viewing area of Vegas and postings explaining the pioneer history that surrounds this mater planned community.

KyLee has become a dancing fool since moving to Vegas. As I have said before she absolutely loves her dance teacher and the girls she dances with. This year with her dance team we went to Laughlin, NV and Palm Springs, CA. We had a great time in Laughlin. I would love to go back again and camp at the river on the AZ side. We have not found many 4-wheeler trailers since living in Vegas (nothing like Tooele) so the river and jet skies might be our new found recreational past time.

KyLee at her dance studio

One of Sawyer's favorite places to visit and play is daddy's work. When we pull up in the parking lot, Sawyer can't get her car seat strap off fast enough. Her favorite thing to do is to go around and take all the price tags off of the furniture and rearrange them. Once she gets bored with that, she likes to go up to the girls and show them how cute she is. That usually scores big and they will pick her up and let her bang on their keyboards for a minute, but then it is back to work!!

Sawyer hanging at CORT

One place that we found by accident is a little town on the outside of Vegas called Bonnie Springs. There is a ranch there that has an old mining town tourist attraction. It has a petting zoo, a resturant, and even a motel. KyLee really likes to go out there to see the melodrama and the hanging show that they put on. It gets a bit old after a while but we like to take people who come and visit us out there and to get away from the city.

"The Hanging" Bonnie Springs

I'm Not a Baby, I'm a big girl!!

Can I just say, how blessed we are to have Sawyer. She is nothing like Cody and I. She loves to socialize and is constantly on the go. She will definitely be the child that teachers request "special" parent-teacher conferences with Cody and I. This past Saturday we had a ward party at the Stake Center. KyLee and Sawyer both had a great time. I never saw KyLee once she was done eating, so I could only capture pictures of Sawyer. The theme of the party was a Luau with Polynesian dances and singers. Once the music started that kid was off dancing and hanging out with her little friends from nursery. KyLee and her friends were sitting up at the front by the stage so they could see better. Cody and I were sitting in the middle and Sawyer would run up to KyLee and then run back to us. Stopping from time to time to say hi to all the people that thought she was adorable. I am so excited to be in such a great ward! I cant wait to see Sawyer in primary! I know I will be called as the sunbeam teacher. I will be the only person who can handle this child. :)

Big Kid on Campus

I always love the first day of school! It is the only day that I don't have to drag KyLee from her bed on a school day. KyLee was up and ready to go today at 6:00 am. She usually gets up around 7:00-7:30 so I was suprised when she came downstaris and she was all dressed ready to go. Today was her first day (again :>) at a brand new school. Carolyn S. Reedom Elementary opened this year and so KyLee was very excited to meet a whole bunch of new kids, who, in return were meeting new kids. When we arrived to the school and was waiting for the opening ceremonies to begin, KyLee and I realized that our next door neighbor, Ryan was in her class, along with Sadie and Kersey who are in her primary class at church. I was glad to see that she would know someone at recess and also at lunch. It helped put the my mind at ease. KyLee makes friends so easily that in no time I will be hearing about this person and that person........

The opening ceremonies for the school were very nice. The principal and the Dr. Reedom, who the school is named after, were conducting this special day. They gave a brief review on how things will work in her new school. They also taught the kids who to be quite in a moments notice and finished by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Once the ceremony was completed each child k-5 walked through the doors and shook the principal hand along with the Dr. Reedom. I thought this was pretty cool. The parents were not allowed to follow the kids into the school. The principal wanted the teachers to have all the time necessary to get their classes started. I was kind of sad, but I thought it was pretty neat too. My baby is no more a baby. I was just glad she wanted me around while the opening ceremonies were going on. She is now the big kid on campus.

This is Cody's man room. The only room in our new home that I did not have much say in the matter. I have to admit, he did a great job! This room is our game room that sits behind our family room. A few Saturday's ago we took our family trip to the Bass Pro store. We needed to find something for all the walls in this room. We found a few wild life pictures but definitly nothing to cover the 13X9 wall we had to conquer. One night Cody was looking at the Cabela's catalog on line and came across these wall murals. We ended up finding one that we both really liked. I was all bear, turkey, and elk pictured out, so when he found this one I was really happy. Last friday we received the package and we were off to hang wallpaper. There was a total of 8 sheets, and by sheet #5 I was starting to get the hang of it. Better late then never!! I found out the bigger paint brush and the more past you use the better it was turning out. After the wall mural was about hung, we decided it needed something more. Cody and KyLee ran down to Home Depot (no wilson home improvement is complete without taking more then one trip to Home Depot, well sure enough :>) and found the wood border to go around the mural. It turned out awesome! It lights up the room. It matches our new couches and the pool table perfectly. Not to bad for a bunch of armatures!

"The Man Room"

Girls Day Out

Friday was our girls day out. Not that we need to spend one more minute in the car, but these girls needed some fun. When KyLee woke up that morning I told her whatever they wanted to do today we would go do. I hesitated asking that question.... I was waiting for the "Strip" word to pop out of her mouth. Us "locals" don't do the "Strip". We have been to the strip twice, once when Cody's parents visited (which by the way was the first of two concerts for Hannah Montana, now if that wasn't fun I don't know what is) and the second time when my parents visited. So, since we don't make it down there at all, KyLee is constantly asking when we are going to "walk the strip". Seconds after that horrific thought crossed my mind, did the words "Chuck E Cheese" pop out of her mouth. I was so relieved to hear some thing besides strip that I said sure, not know what she actually said. So fifty tokens, two individual cardboard pizzas, and my salad bar plate ( don't want to ruin a good week at the gym w. C.E.C pizza) we were off to find a table. KyLee was tapping her fingers waiting for me to give her the go-ahead to spend those tokens as fast as possible. I told her to go and Sawyer and I played over in the tyke area where we were sitting. Not our first time to C.E.C with Sawyer, I am learning quickly, sit in the tyke section, let her walk around with a few tokens and she is one happy camper. She hates to ride the rides if they are moving, doesn't like to go down the slide, so needless to say I don't have to worry about her getting hurt. Once our fine feast was presented to us, it was the typical wash down with the hands sanitizer and we sat and enjoyed each other company. Once we were done eating, we followed KyLee out to the big area to finish up their tokens. The girls managed to get 160 tickets and it was off to by the fabulous toys us parents have grown to love. KyLee and Sawyer both walked away with a yo-yo, Sawyer ended up with a tiny frisbee (that I think Toby has now taken over in less then 24 hours) and KyLee bought a Troll doll for her school backpack. Once they were done, it was off to the car. As we were driving away KyLee told me thanks for taking us we had a great time. Little cardboard pizza and hand sanitizer, that made it all worth it!

....and what a week it has been.....

Oh my, what a week it has been. I have been asked when I was going to put up some more pictures of the girls and some pictures of our new house. I promise I will get the pictures of our new home up on the blog. As I am told, patients is a virtue! :) The Wilson Crew has had one busy week. KyLee's last day of school was last Friday. She is ready for a break!! We went and registered her for her new school that starts on the 25th of August. Again, she will be in year round but she was put on Track 4 which is one of the nicest tracks to be put on. We were lucky since we had to register her so late. I like the way the school system here works. Before the kids are out of school, they know who their teacher will be the following year and what track they will be on. We attended our new ward this past Sunday, I am happy to be in such a nice ward. It has been very nice. KyLee has meet some new girls and one of the girls will be in here 5th grade class. That made her very happy to know someone the first day of school. Cody is staying busy as always! The girls at his work say he works to hard. I would agree, but he will never change. The Wilson boys were raised to be hard workers, and he is such a perfectionist he will never change. KyLee started dance camp this week. What a way to enjoy her two weeks off of school by going to dance camp each night for three hours. The girls are so excited to all be back together again. They were pretty wild Monday night but by Thursday they were dragging. Dancing for three hours each night had wore them out. She has next week to go. I think she will make it!! :) While KyLee has been at camp, Sawyer and I have been heading over to the athletic club. Oh my gosh!! Nothing like finding out how much you are out of shape to raise your self-esteem. Sawyer loves the the gym. She cries for a minute when I leave, but then she is off to play with the teachers and toys. Me and another mom, who her daughter dances with KyLee, have been at the club together and we just laugh when we get back to the dance studio to pick up the girls because we hurt so bad. I am a baby, I will admit. I was so sore yesterday that while sitting at the desk to work I had tears running down my check my legs hurt so bad. No pain no gain!! I will remember that when I can fit into my skinny jeans again!! I always like to share some photo's of the girls when I post and I thought these pictures were cute. KyLee is determined to get her splits down perfectly. She was stretching prior to us heading off to the dance studio and Sawyer was watching her stretch while she was eating her lunch. When she was done she got up and went over to stretch with KyLee. What a bunch of Gilligans I have, but I love them. Watch for more post. I will get the house pictures up. Love, me.

Dance Competition Palm Springs, CA

KyLee's dance team had two competitions this year. One was in Laughlin, NV and the other one was in Palm Springs, CA. We had a great time at both. These pictures are from Palm Springs. Their group did so good! In Laughlin they took first place in their Large Group Intermediate group and in Palm Springs they took 2nd place in their Large Group Intermediate group. For the over all scoring they took second place as a studio in both competitions. The girls were really excited how well they did. I really enjoy this studio because it doesn't focus on competing and winning. They focus on things like technique, confidence, and self esteem. That is probably why they did so well!!

Dance Show

KyLee started dancing with Pointe Dance Center in January 2008. She absolutely loves her dance teacher, Miss Donna. I can't believe in the short amount of time that she has been going, how much she has learned. I guess it helps when your teacher was a professional dancer!! The dance recital for the studio was held in July and it was amazing. I guess I am just used to the small town recitals and performances that we have grown accustom to over the 5 years she has been dancing and cheering. This years recital was held at the Community college in Northeast Vegas in their auditorium. The light show and the fog that was done for some of the performances were really neat. It was very well put together.
Not only has KyLee enjoyed the teachers, but she has made tons of new friends with a bunch of great girls!! KyLee will admit, she was a little nervous at first when she was asked to be on their Junior Competition team. These girls had been together since last October and some of them had been dancing with each a couple of years before Miss Donna decided to put together a junior team. The girls have been really great with KyLee and the moms are wonderful to hang out with.
The girls that KyLee dance with are really cute with Sawyer too. They love to tell her to "shake her diaper" and "turn in circles" They all get a kick out of it. If I ever need a babysitter I definitely have plenty. The older girls on the senior dance team are great with KyLee and Sawyer too. It has been a great experience. It is always nerve racking to find new schools, new doctors, new dance studios, etc. I am glad this one worked out so well.

Proud Parents

I have to share these pictures of KyLee. Today they had an assembly at her school to recognize different achievements for the third semester. KyLee received straight A's for the second time this year since moving to her new school in Vegas. She has done such a great job and has worked really hard. There were times that I thought her and Cody were going to "smack down" with each other as Cody "helped" her with her homework, but she pulled it off!! People have asked me who is the man with KyLee in the last picture. That is the assistant principal Mr. Oswalt. Awesome job Ky... mom and dad love you!

Go Utes

As I have been working on this blog, the first song that always comes up on the playlist is "Touchdown Tennessee" I love this song! It gets me excited for football season. Of all the seasons, fall is my favorite. The leaves changing, the air getting cooler, and the start of college football. I dont know if we will see many leaves changing in Vegas, but I am ready for cooler weather and Utah football. How will Utah do this year? Only time will tell. Utah newspapers say with the schedule that they have this year they may be the next BCS miracle. I was kind of bummed when I saw that UNLV places at Utah this year. The cable station here in Vegas carries the Mountain West Conference games, thank goodness!! I dont know what Cody and I would do with out Utah football... he already stated we were moving back to Utah because they dont carry the Braves games. He made it through okay... GO UTES!!!

Playlist

Those close to me know the infactuation that I have for Kenny Chesney. KyLee and I were bummed that we missed his concert this year in Vegas. First time in 4 years. His ticket prices here in Vegas were outrageous!!! We might have to make the trip to SLC for his show next summer. Anyways, when I put together a new play list for our blog, the songs I thought would fit best is my favorite KC songs. I am proud of myself getting these on here. Enjoy....

Newbies

5th August 2008

Being a newbie at this whole blog idea, I asked KyLee what she thought. It shows my age when my 10 year old has to help me with the new and latest trend with the web. How I made it through the 90's I will never know!! Many times I am asked when am I going to send pictures of this, that, and the other. With KyLee in so many different things and Sawyer doing something new every minute, there are times I capture them with a camera. I do forget who I send the pictures to and who I didnt. I thought this way our family and friends could see what crazy things the Wilson Crew is up to. Stay tuned, hopefully more to come !! :)