Un-Valentine's Day 2009

Valentine's Day: a day full of cliche surprises, dates, chocolates, and flowers. We once again decided to keep our tradition of having our very own "Un-valentine's day" Instead of celebrating our relationship on the same day as everyone else we did it the next day, which worked out great. I picked Rochelle up late in the afternoon (I already gave her flowers a few days prior, and she surprised me with homemade sugar cookies) and we headed off to Wood Ranch. We went there last year and figured it would be fun to go again. Rochelle looked amazing. She wore my personal favorite dress with earrings I gave her. She looked absolutely smashing in her evening attire. We had dinner, then went to go see "Taken" with Liam Neeson in it. My friend urged me to go see it and I'm glad she did. It was a great movie with a bunch of twists and turns and non stop action. Afterwards Rochelle surprised me with dessert. Homemade Strawberry shortcake, we got to make it together it was tons of fun. The pictures don't do the treat justice.

Rochelle and her Homemade Sugar cookies. They were good!

Rochelle and I all dressed up.

The strawberries that Rochelle prepared for our dessert

Me getting the Dough ready to bake.

The finished product

Yum!

Of course what a blog without some pictures of a cute baby getting out of the bath with his cool lion towel.

Smilin' Baby!

Reagan

Sorry for the delayed update. This past month has just flown by. Doug and I are back in school, and we're already itching to be on summer break. We're both also job searching, so keep us in your prayers as we try to find the right jobs for us. Other than that we've just been able to hang out with friends, work out at the gym, do some yoga classes, and play guitar hero and halo...a lot. We're also still working on wedding plans, which seem to be coming along smoothly so far, and we're hoping that they continue that way.

At the beginning of January, Devonna and Reagan returned from Colorado. It's been a lot of fun getting to spend time with them, and Reagan's go a big personality for his little body. He's been "talking" a lot and doing little gestures. Devonna, Doug, and I will go to the gym a few times a week, or play xbox together. It's been a blast having her around again.

Taking Reagan for his first stroller ride. We walked by the beach and down the Port Hueneme pier. He seemed to like it enough.

He's smiling a lot too. Candid and not always predictable, but there's certain things that almost always make him smile.

We had a second Christmas with Devonna, Joe, and Reagan. Reagan mostly liked playing with the wrapping paper.

Taking a nap on Mimi and Pappy's big bed.

Sometimes he can hold his own bottle now, but it's not so much that he knows what he's doing rather than just playing around with it. He gets super upset with us when he drops it and cries for it again. He'll also swat it out of our hands while we're feeding him and then yell at us. Oh Reagan.

He sometimes snores too...

But still loves to have fun...

That's really all that's been going on in the past couple weeks. The semester's just started so we'll be getting busy with school and wedding plans as the date is less than 6 months away now!

Love,
Doug and Rochelle

LA Zoo

Last Thursday we went down to the LA Zoo with Kaity, Andrew, and James. James was so excited and was able to tell us a lot about the animals there (he's smart like that.) I've forgotten a lot of the names of the animals, especially the weird ones. It was a really fun day. Sadly the zoo doesn't have any penguins or pandas though. But the gorillas were awesome and so were the tigers. It's fun when the animals actually move around and play. The chimps were disgusting though and the lions were boring. Also the rhino wasn't around, for she had lost her horn due to an infection and was being treated. Below are some pictures and videos of the day.

So the zoo had three different "California Sea Lion" tanks, and all of the animals were different. James said that these weren't California Sea Lions. But they were still fun to watch cause they swam around and played with each other.

Taking pictures with the animals that they didn't have at the zoo

Smelly flamingos. The American flamingos were taller than the others

Andrew playing in some caves

Not really what I pictured a porcupine as. I never pictured them as climbers. And they're big. The picture doesn't really show how big they are. All I know is I wouldn't want those quills in me.

Big old alligator. Andrew wanted to throw a rock in there to make it move.

One of those weird animals that I can't remember the name of. It's not an ostrich though. But it's a big bird with blue skin on it's head. Like a turkey's head, but it's blue

Sleeping kangaroos. This is an animal that would have been cool to see hopping around cause I don't think I've ever seen them move in real life. But they were content just sunbathing.

Once again, I forget the name of this kind of deer. But they go up on their hind legs like this to get leaves.

We thought this sign by the camels was hilarious, but also a little too much info. The camel wasn't foaming at the mouth when we were there though.

Kaity's favorite animal

Andrew's favorite animal. They were playful. They had an empty keg that they were playing with and one of them pawed at the other's back to get in on the fun but the other tiger growled at him and scared him away.

Another funny sign. Poor tigers

Andrew with the largest land tortoise.

The gorillas. They were so funny. The baby kept trying to get her mom to play with her. The dad kept following them around as the mom kept moving her and her baby farther away from them. The baby played with kids through the glass. And there was another old one that just sat there.

Video of the baby gorilla playing with people through the glass

Video of the mom running from the daddy gorilla

That was pretty much our day. Tomorrow we can purchase our books for next semester and Tuesday through Friday Doug is substitute teaching at a private school in town. Other than that nothing else is really new. The Christmas decorations are still up at my house. We're still working on our puzzle of the castle. And we're enjoying our break for another two weeks.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The New Year was rather an exciting one for us. We went to our friend Elyse's house to hang out with our group of friends. We played Halo for a while and were having a fun time thoroughly destroying each other. Around 9:30 Elyse's neighbor knocked on their front door to inform them that a lake had formed at the edge of her driveway. It turns out that a fire hydrant's water pipes had burst around the corner and up the street. But instead of the water heading for a storm drain, it turned into Elyse's culdesac, which she lives at the very end of. Doug quickly volunteered to move her car before the engine block became submerged. Then he, Elyse's dad, other neighbors, and a bunch of firemen started sandbagging up and down the streets to try and deter the water. Our other friends that were there, Andrew and James, decided to make paper boats to float down the current of water. I must say that it did provide entertainment for Kaity and I. A firetruck came down the street and started pumping the water out of the cul-de-sac back into the street. They finally got the water out and the broken pipes turned off, and were still fixing them when we left her house around 2 in the morning. We went back inside, played more Halo, and then toasted to the New Year with Martinelli's Sparkling Cider. Then we slaughtered each other in Uno until it was time to go.

If that was hard to follow by reading, hopefully some pictures will help:

The night started with masks. Kaity had picked one up for everyone. They were cool but the feathers tickled my nose!





This pretty much explains James




This pretty much explains James and Andrew's relationship




Playing Halo. Doug's so good he doesn't even have to look at the screen...




The view from Elyse's yard to the neighbors'. You can kinda see the lake...





Elyse's poor car




Doug moving Elyse's car




Kaity and me following the water to see where it was coming from




James with his boat




The guys making and sailing their boats, well at least Andrew sailed his. James waited

The fire trucks in front of Elyse's house.

The fire hose spraying water back out of the cul-de-sac

It seems the Martinelli's had gotten a little shook up. haha Doug had to stop it from spilling all over the place someway...

James and Kaity

Elyse's dog wasn't so sure about the hats...



First picture of the New Year

More puzzles!!

So after completing our last puzzle, we had ran out of puzzles. For a couple of days we thought that the puzzle was missing a piece but we weren't that bummed cause it meant that we could exchange it for a new one. Unfortunately my mom found the piece so we couldn't return it anymore. But it's okay cause it was a pretty puzzle.

Luckily I received a puzzle from my grandparents for Christmas. We sat down to start it tonight, putting itunes on shuffle, making hot chocolate, and eating Life Saver The puzzle is a picture of Neuschwanstein Castle, or as I know it, "the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Castle." And it's the most challenging on yet, with 2000 pieces. Phew! We just did the border and that took a couple of hours. We've got a system down it seems. Separate that border from the non-border, put those together, and then separate into different colors while looking for previously missed borders haha. So we've got a sky pile, a castle pile, and the rest are just kinda together. So I guess we'll see how long it takes this time. See if we ever get a dinner table back.

The completed border and the finished poster picture of what it's supposed to become

The other 1812 pieces or so to put together

Lucky for us some of the pieces came together! We were stoked cause it meant just a little less work

Another exciting thing is that today we shaved Doug clean! His choice, cause I like him both ways. But in case you were wondering what was beneath that gotee, this is it!

The Winter Break Update!

When I picture a winter's evening it usually consists of a puzzle half way done some where in the household. This new one took us a long time to finish, a few weeks or so. It was of a Thomas Kinkade painting of a Christmas town. Rochelle's dad tackled the sky part for us. We finished it not long after that.

Before

After

With the fall semester coming to a close we had a performance for our Ballroom Dance class that we took at Moorpark College. Rochelle and I were considered a "feature" couple as Papa explained because we were front and center for a good portion of dance. Nana, Papa, Greg, and Karen showed up and watched us dance. We ordered the video so hopefully we are able to post that as well.

Here is Rochelle's hair done for the performance. I thought it looked amazing.

Here we are after the performance. It was a lot of fun. We hope to take another dance class after the wedding.

Merry Christmas and I hope you guys have a great time with Friends and Family.

Tis the Season...

It's been a while since we've updated and I feel like a lot has happened.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with my (Rochelle's) parents. Dad mostly cooked but Doug and I set the table. I took a picture so you could see how picture perfect it looked:

You know how usually someone gets up to take a picture of everyone, but then they themselves arne't in the picture? Well we put the camera in the china cabinet, but it came out a little dark. You get the gist though...

Doug and I had fun putting up the lights again this year. It took us almost 5 days because we started Sunday evening and ran out of light to finish and then were just too busy to finish them until Friday. Plus it doesn't help when some of the strand is broken and you have to check almost every bulb to find out which is the broken one. Or when a light tests fine, but when you actually put it on the house only half of it lights up. Oh the joys of Murphy's Law. We did get it finished though and I must say that it looks fantastic.

We're in our last week of school now. We finished two of our finals today (Doug only had one), but we have three on Thursday and then we're done! Phew! This semester's gone by fast, but then again, a lot has happened in the last semester.

We did get a lot of decorating done on the inside of the house, I just haven't had a chance to get pictures taken yet. Cause the house really makes it feel like Christmas