The Oaks Development Company: March 2014

This summer The Oaks will be gaining a new neighbor, Sophia Kay Perry! My husband Adam and I are expecting a little girl on July 4, 2014! She is definitely our little fire cracker! We will see if she actually arrives on her due date, I think it would certainly be a fun "birth date". We can tell her all the fireworks are for her birthday..... for a while anyways!

We recently had a gender reveal party at my Aunt Donna and Uncle David's house to reveal the news to our family that we are having a girl. No one knew except Adam and I. The theme was bow ties and pearls! It was very cute. When everyone came in they got to choose either a bow tie or a strand of pearls to wear based upon what they thought it was. We revealed the news by popping a balloon filled with pink feathers!

This will be a fun summer! I may have to delegate my annual 4th of July flag cake to someone else this year.... we will see!

Left to Right: My Aunt, Cousin, Me and my Mom

Cute Decorations!

Bow Ties and Pearls Cake

"She" Bars and "He" Bars. Cute Idea!

A few weeks ago we returned from a great trip out to Las Vegas for the International Home Builders Show. This year the show combined the Builders Show with the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show giving attendees 1,700 exhibitors to explore covering more than 650,000 square feet of floor space. The show has traded off between Las Vegas and Orlando over the past few years. I love when it is in Vegas! We are not gamblers but I love that there are always so many other things to do in Vegas on any given evening. From world class restaurants, to shows to sight seeing, there is always something fun to do within easy walking distance!

View from our room at The Bellagio

We stayed at the Bellagio and opted for a fountain view room this time, which is definitely worth it! The Bellagio is my favorite hotel on the strip. Not only do I love the ambience from the Dale Chihuly glass ceiling and the always enchanting conservatory and botanical gardens but its location is also hard to beat right in the middle of the strip! You are within easy walking distance to Caesars Palace, City Center, Paris and Planet Holleywood, however, I am perfectly content staying at the Bellagio most of the time!

Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. .

Every time we stay at The Bellagio or visit Las Vegas we always have dinner at Olives and request a seat on the patio. There is nothing quite like dining right at the base of the Bellagio Fountains where you can almost feel the power of the water. To me, this is the most impressive attraction in all of Vegas!

Dale Chihuley Glass Ceiling at The Bellagio

Another favorite restaurant on the strip is Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace. We went to the Shania Twain concert one night so it worked out perfectly to eat at Mesa Grill right before since its just across the casino from the Coliseum where Shania performed. Wow, what an incredible show!

We saw Celine Dion at the Coliseum a couple years ago which was absolutely out of this world! We knew that Shania's show had to be impressive as well and it was! Her level of interaction with the audience was amazing. She actually spent two songs down in the crowd interacting with fans, shaking hands, giving hugs and signing autographs all while she was performing. My Dad was sitting on the aisle and got to shake her hand which I thought was pretty cool! You can tell that she truly appreciates her fans.

The builders show kicked off with a high energy grand opening ceremony on Tuesday morning featuring keynote speaker General Stan McChrystal, a four-star general and the former commander of the U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan.

In addition to exploring hundreds of exhibitors and new products we were also able to attend dozens of classes ranging from architecture to design to sales and marketing. Each of these classes were presented by the top experts in the industry. Our week was packed full!

It seemed that the attitudes of builders are definitely more optimistic than they have been in previous years and it is clear that the housing market has picked up steam. On a visit to the exclusive Sky Terrace Housing development to tour the New American Home, we witnessed significantly more more construction of multi-million dollar homes than we have seen in Las Vegas in recent memory.Click here to check out more info about the New American Home.

From talking to other builders at the show I think another dynamic fueling the housing market is that Americans seem to realize that interest rates have already bottomed out in 2013 and if they still want to get in on something low now is the time.

Looking forward to getting busy and incorporating all our new world class ideas into our homes here in The Oaks!