LA Zoo- 4 new posts!!!

Sorry that these are completely backwards. I will learn to post correctly someday. So you can either go down from here or you can go to the bottom of the post and work up for our trip to the zoo. This picture was taken as we were leaving.....hence the sleeping child.

Two pooped kiddos...I was trying my best to get Riley and Lucy in the pic sleeping...instead it ends up looking like an awkward picture. Oh well!

The bear seemed to pose for us!

These pics are a little blurry of the animals..but wow were they amazing!

Our cute girls and their hoodies.

This is kind of funny. We were holding Lucy up to a sign that was a measurement of whether little ones can go on the ride or not...and Lucy was almost tall enough! We thought it was funny.

At the bird show.

Pretending to be a mom of two....only they 8 months apart so it wouldnt exactly work, but you get the idea! Cute backdrop heh?

The proud dads.

Real reindeer!

I wish I could express how hilarious this moment was...we were pretending to be prairie dogs ( i think that was the animal) and in order to go into these little domes you practically had to crawl underground ...and we were trying to do it with the kids...Cherie and I almost peed our pants while doing this...the guys did it after us and they basically showed off and had no trouble. So not fair. Here is Lucy and Troy on the left..and Rob and Riley on the right.

Lucy loved the petting zoo!

Lucy and I, and Cherie and Riley..sorry about the shade on our faces. Lucy is 11 months and Riley is 3 months.

Carolers! They were great! And so festive!

On Saturday we met up with my friend Cherie and her husband Rob and their new ADORABLE daughter Riley. They were kind enough to get us into the zoo for free and we had so much fun! We realized we didnt see too much though because we spent so much time taking pictures and talking......but that's ok, there's always next time!

It was the girls first time at the zoo...they both LOVED it ! Riley was smiles the entire time. She is such a peanut! I can't believe Lucy was ever that small.

Fashion Island

My mom and I
Ellie always wants a part of Lucy's food!! Lucy has now learned that she can give Ellie her food and also tease her with it...its very cute.

Typically on Saturday mornings you can find us at Fashion Island with the pup and Lucy. We are really trying to socialize Ellie so that she doesn't end up being one of those dogs that won't play well with others :) Here are some pictures of us taking a lunch break....

Close up

Never a good picture of me...but its the dog I want you all to see. Ain't she cute?!?! She is almost 5 months now! My how time flies! She is a great dog and we love her. She just needs to stop peeing and pooping inside :) any tips on how we can help this?

Lucy's new beanie!

A couple weeks ago at a dinner party we went to our friend Danielle brought beanies she made for Lucy and Braden. Here Lucy is using her new beanie at Disneyland! Thanks Danielle, she loves it!!

New Floors!

In our guest bathroom ( where the sewage flood originated) Troy put new flooring in...and notice the nice baseboards?!? They are in our living room and kitchen as well.

Up close of the baseboards...and the NEW WOOD FLOORS! Thank you Troy they rock!

Troy dilligently making our lunches for the next day..here is more of the floors.

And yes, we know that half the wall is yellow. Our WHOLE house was yellow when we bought it. We have the paint, we just need help painting the rest of the stairwell area..any volunteers?

Disneyland

We are so lucky to be able to visit Disneyland so much! Last night we went to Disneyland with Grandpa Sherman ( although he split as soon as we got there to go collect pins.... but we aren't bitter) it was so pretty....decorated for Christmas...I only took a picture of the castle this time..but as we keep going I will take more pictures to post. I LOVE this picture of Lucy on the "L" outside CA Adventure....click on it and you can see a bigger version. :)

Lucy Lately.....

Yes she has bed head...and you can't tell...but she had just gotten done playing in DIRT. Yes, I was trying to take a picture to prove I let her play and EAT it. What was I thinking????

How quickly she changes her attitude these days......take a look at the picture below....

Trying to get a mommy daughter picture....Ellie always gets in the background somehow....

My attempt at another mommy daughter picture...its all I can get these days! And Lucy loves saying Hi and Good Bye by waving!

Our little girl is growing so fast! On Thanksgiving she will turn 11 months! Where has the time gone?

As of tonight she is officially saying these words:

Mama

Dada

Go

Uh oh

Arf ( the dog sound)

Tikawut tikawut tikawut= Tickle Tickle Tickle ( really quickly and all jumbled together its adorable)

Dudda= Bubba ( our cat)

And like I mentioned above..she waves hi and bye and LOVES to dance!!!!

The many phases of Ellie

She has taken over the only pillow we have on our couches.

She also loves to cuddle on blankets! This is in my legs...whenever I curl up on the couch she gets right next to me.

Troy's hairy leg...NOT mine.

See I told you! I caught them sawing logs!
Did I mention she snores louder than Troy?

Back of my car.....

Do you notice anything that these pictures have in common?? Our new puppy LOVES to sleep!!!

Anywhere we go she can cuddle up with something. Her new favorite place in the car is in Lucy's car seat on Lucy's lap! She won't be able to do that for long though!

Thankful Thursday ( 1 day late is ok)

1.) We are thankful for our new baseboards and wood floors...they look amazing!!! I love you Troy! ( pictures to come tomorrow)

2.) We are thankful we both have jobs. Although we may complain about them sometimes...we are lucky to get paychecks.

3.) We are thankful for our new home teachers. We just met them last night and they are super cool and easy to talk to. If you dont know, home teachers are guys from our church that are assigned to visit us once a month and kind of get to know our family and our needs. They are also there to help us if we happen to be in need of help. Troy is a home teacher as well. ( Darci we decided last night that we are going to be seeing a lot of each other during baseball season.---i think the guys will either be over here or over there... but your husband definitely motivated us to follow the news during off season)

4.) I am thankful that my parent conferences are OVER! Well I have one more on Monday but I have 33 done. It feels great but my body and vocal chords are EXHAUSTED! They are very fun to do but to teach and do them and have fires and drama and a sick baby ( will she ever be healthy? i feel so bad for her) it makes it soo much harder!

5.) We are thankful for Cox cable. They sent us a DVR box and hooked us up to all the cable channels for 3 months for free! YAHOOO for tivo again!

cancel that last post

the north 57 opened....so i have to go in....but there will be no students so i dont know exactly what we will be doing....

south 57 is closed though so i have no clue how i am getting home !!!!

grhhh so sad to have a tease like that!

Fire day!!! ( no snow day here )

Sooo the big diamond bar fire is causing tons of trouble right by my school....including shutting down of the freeway I take....and evacuations of a ton of teachers. They cancelled school for tomorrow! yahoo!!! teachers are actually supposed to go in but only if they can come safely. Well the freeway being shut down causes quite a problem for me. SO, tomorrow you will find Lucy and I at home.....enjoying our new wood floors! ( thanks to my WONDERFUL husband and his family they are done!!)
Have a great Monday!

Thankful Thursday

I got this idea from my friend Abby to post things I am thankful for on Thursdays...kinda cute!! Sorry I havent written in a long time, things have been very busy. A little update...we officially have complete walls again, walls are repainted the same color, ( kitchen, bathroom and living room) we have new wainscoating in the kitchen ( although I liked what we did better because it reminded me of all our hard work), and Troy is putting wood floors in tomorrow. We will have newbaseboards in the whole downstairs right after Troy finishes the floors.
I am done with report cards but parent teacher conferences start next week. Wish me luck. It makes for a LONG week, but well worth it!
We have been hanging out at Disneyland A LOT lately..its been really fun. I had a four day weekend so we went twice. Once with the three of us and once just Lucy and I. She seriously loves it! And I love her!
So lets get on with the thankful stuff!!!
- I am thankful for a wonderful husband that supports me in all my craziness ( rigidity) and my freaky-out-ness that happens quite often. I love you Troy :)
Now I am writing with Troy........
-We are thankful for our daughter, Lucy, who constantly brings joy to our home and shows us the importance of the little things in life.
-We are thankful for having a great puppy who does act like a puppy, but is so DANG cute.
-We are thankful to have a home that we own, even if it has been in construction most of the time we have lived here.
- We are thankful to have jobs that allow us to keep food on the table and enjoy some of the luxuries of life!

What are YOU thankful for? join in on the fun!! ( you can post it later than a thursday!) stay tuned for next Thursdays bunch!

Lucy's First Halloween!

We loved the "backdrop!" RIP signs, green lights...fog...Braden and Lucy were so enthralled!

The two eager daddies and their babies!

I loved how her tail went down his back!

LOVE the mohawk!

One of the houses we trick or treated at had a little movie going on for the kids out in front of their house.

I guess they drive around in Ladera with golf carts?!? They were allll decorated for the holiday!

SCARY!

Dipping into the bowl for candy! Look below the silver bowl and you will see Ellie's head! yep she came with us there too!

The two proud dads!

We went trick or treating last night with our friends Matt and Christine Smith and their son Braden. ( who is about two months younger than Lucy). We had SO MUCH FUN! I was a little aprehensive because of Lucy and how she gets fussy at night time towards 7pm...and just how people would look at us carrying babies around collecting candy. Boy was I wrong in all areas! We went to Ladera Ranch and it was perfect! Seriously every house was decorated, and EVERYONE loved to see the babies! Neither baby got fussy, they were soo into it! I am so happy that we did it, and that we went with the Smith's. The dads ( Troy and Matt) were all smiles as they went up to the doors with their new babies. What a special memory! Thanks Matt and Christine!