Update much? Not really =)

Well we're coming up on a year since my last update. Bobby keeps telling me to update our blog, followed by me telling him to do it. You see, life has been busy and blogging has not been a priority. Since my last blog I started teaching at a new school, got pregnant, found out we were having a girl, remodeled our living room, finished my Master's degree classes (I still have to take comprehensive exams before I'm officially "done"), had to leave work early because of pre-term labor, and then was bored at home (but still didn't blog). I watched my due date come and go, which was ironic since I couldn't work because of all of the early contractions. I think I got royally payed back for all of the times I have been "tardy" places. I think she was saying "haha mommy, this is what you get".


My water broke at 1am on June 16th. Bobby was very frantic, it was pretty comical. I didn't think I'd be the one keeping HIM calm during this ordeal. He was better once we were checked in at the hospital. There was meconium in the amniotic fluid, which put my poor baby at risk for various things and put me at risk for a c-section, which was my worst fear. I tried to labor as much as I could on my own. Bobby and I walked the halls of the hospital for 2 hours before the contractions were getting so bad that my knees were buckling. I threw the towel in and got an epidural around 7am, which immediately took all the pain away. I wasn't dilating very quickly throughout the morning, even with pitocin. I thought for sure we'd (and by we'd, I mean I'd) be laboring into the night. But after that, everything happened so quickly. I dilated from a 4 to a 10 in 1 1/2 hours and was beside myself when the nurse told me it was time to push. Bobby almost passed out, I had to give him a pep talk to let him know that he was going to need to pull it together. =)


Reagan Rose Ward finally arrived, 6 days late, on June 16, 2011 at 3:45 pm. She was 7 lb 2 oz and 20 inches long and absolutely perfect. She is now 2 months old and weighs just 9 lbs 11 oz, only the 10th percentile for her age. But the doctor said it's fine, she is just very petite. She has brought an incredible amount of joy to our lives. I don't think either of us thought it was possible to love someone so much. God has given us the greatest blessing to be parents. I pray that we would make the best choices possible for her, choices that would glorify God's name. 


That's all for now. I'll try to keep up on blogging more, even though only like 3 people read this. But at least it will be a means to chronicle milestones in Reagan's life and our little family's life so that we never forget how precious this time in our life is.

Finally, some pictures of our kitchen remodel!

Back in July, we remodeled our kitchen. If you saw our kitchen before, you know that it was very outdated. It was the least favorite part of the house for both of us, so we were really happy to do some updating. I couldn't find picture of the kitchen before the cupboards started coming off, so the pictures start from day 2 of demo. We are so blessed to have done it. Thank you to all of the extra hands who helped us get it done!

Updates...mostly on our dog.

Well... we've been in our house a month or so now. We are very happy here, it is coming together very nicely. Although we've been trying to save some dough because of our current "job situations," we have still been able to get some stuff done. The biggest project we've done so far is ripping out and replacing our backyard planter. And by that I mean, I took a sledgehammer to the first brick and Bobby & Co. had to finish the rest (Thanks babe!). Turns out it wasn't as easy of a project as I thought it would be. After the new bricks were all set in place, I got to pick out and plant the greenery/flowers. Dakota is quite the little monster and eats everything that fits in his mouth. And even things that don't quite fit in his mouth. So we've had to "doggy-proof" our backyard to ensure that nothing is toxic for dogs. Mainly because we are certain he will eat anything and everything that we put out there- so far he has proved our assertion right. He did get his little paws (actually they are quite large paws) on a sago palm, which is one of the most toxic plants for dogs to eat. The vet said it could be very serious, but I guess Dakota has a stomach of steel because the very next night he ate chocolate cake and has yet to show any symptoms of being ill.
We recently took him to the beach since he got his last set of shots. As you can see, he thoroughly enjoyed himself.

This is Dakota on his second trip to the beach- a little bit more brave. He decided to take a swim.

He is like our baby, hence all of the updates on our dog. Last one- Dakota showing the geese who's boss at the park.

Escrow is closed!

We are officially home owners! Escrow closed on Friday and we get our keys tomorrow (Monday). We are so blessed- house hunting was the most frustrating and draining experience. Just when it seemed like there was no end in sight, we finally got one! I don't have any pictures of it just yet but will be sure to post some this week. Our plan is to paint this week and move items that we don't "need" and then move everything else next Saturday morning before the Heath family Easter get-together.
We have a lot of plans as far as doing some work on the house. We are very lucky that it is in such excellent condition but would like to add some of our own touches. The biggest project we plan on doing is ripping out the kitchen and re-doing it. We originally were going to take that on as our first task but due to some unforseen events, we won't be able to for a few months (which really isn't a big deal!). We are just happy to have the house. Pixie and Dakota will be happy with some more space. As you can see from the picture above, she is not happy having her space invaded and he just wants to play.

Dakota

We decided to add a new member to the Ward family. Meet Dakota, our puppy English Springer Spaniel. He is so cute and mischievous! He loves to terrorize Pixie, although she isn't so innocent herself. She purposely follows him around to ensure he gets in trouble for biting at her tail. We just love him!

Bobby, the cat lover.

Isn't this cute? This is how Bobby & Pixie watch TV together. He likes to say how much he hates cats but I really beg to differ. She also sits on his shoulders like a parrot while he walks around.  Like these pictures:

So does anyone really think Bobby would be mad if I brought home another kitten? With these pictures as evidence, I'd like to vote no.


Our DirectTV is out and no one can come fix it until Saturday so looks like maybe I'll blog more? Or I can work on my annotated bibliography that's due in 2 days. Blek.

Our day of fun.

To be cliche, I thought I'd write a post about our Valentine's Day festivities. Our original plan was to go whale watching and then to dinner. We got out of church a little late and there was A LOT of traffic heading down to Balboa. The combination of both of these things caused us to miss our boat! So that left us with 5 hours to kill down there before our dinner reservations. Being in our favorite place, this really proved to be no problem at all! We played games in the Fun Zone, walked around Balboa Island, and sat on the beach. It really was a beautiful day!

Then the real fun began. We couldn't find the restaurant but still made it there early. Bobby had described it as "Italian food" and "laid back". So he wore a casual outfit w/Rainbow sandals and I wore a casual outfit (i.e. no dress or heels). As soon as we walked in EVERYONE was super dressed up. By this I mean every man had a jacket and tie on and every woman had a dress on. So I ran out to my car and put on my pumps that were in my trunk. We were definitely judged by the higher-class people we were about to dine with.


Soon after we were sat and given a special Valentine's Day menu with a total of 5 items on it. That's right, FIVE items! Here is how our conversation went:

Tiffany: "HAHAHA, we can just leave before our server comes."
Bobby: "No, they know my name!"
Tiffany: "HAHAHA (again) okay fine. :::Server greets us:::: I'll have a coke.
Bobby: "I'll have a water" :::Server leaves:::: "HAHAHA..Babe you should have ordered a water so we can leave!"
Tiffany: "HAHAHA" (As you can see, we were really getting a kick out of this whole thing)

This is the point where Bobby took his phone out so we could Google the items on the menu. Keep in mind that we are laughing the whole time about how out of place we feel. We are not "foo-foo" people into fancy-schmancy food and wine tasting and being all high society. Not that there is anything wrong with that if I just described you and you are into that sort of thing! We are just satisfied with a hot dog and coke, that's all. (Or spaghetti and lots of it!) So nonetheless, having to Google the menu to de-code the food was hilarious for us. We settled on the "beef medallions", in which my immediate thought was "BAHAHA...It sounds like something you could wear around your neck!". Looking around, I was the only person who had the audacity to order a soda. And really, we were the only people who thought it was funny that we didn't know what "Baked Dover" was. I thought it was some sort of duck. We found out via Google that it's fish. Whoops. Good thing I settled for the cow necklaces!

This was probably the most enjoyable Valentine's Day I've ever had. We laugh together more than anyone I know. I am so grateful for my husband who was able to laugh with me through our day that didn't go quite as planned. 

Nothing going on here!

I guess we're not too good on keeping up with our blog! But our uneventful lives might be partly to blame. =) Bobby is in busy season now so he is working away. I am so proud of him- he never complains about how long his hours are. Just another reason why I love him so much! I started back to school so I can get my Masters done so I am keeping myself busy as well. 

Pixie isn't really a kitten anymore. She keeps our lives entertaining. She has to be involved in everything that we're doing....she's too curious for her own good! Here she is "helping" Bobby build our bookshelf.

Is it pathetic that this is only update I could come up with? =)  

A New Year

The Holiday season is now over this year. I return to work this Monday and Tiffany goes back teaching after her loooooong 2 week vacation! Both Tiffany and I had a great Christmas hanging out with both our families and enjoyed our first Christmas as a married couple. We spent Christmas Eve with both of our dad's sides of the family and Christmas with both of our mom's sides. We then went snowboarding in Big Bear the day after Christmas with an almost empty mountain. It was a lot of fun and something we definitely do not do enough of.

To celebrate the new year we excitingly went to dinner and then watched some TV. We were asleep at 11:30. I had to work the new morning at 4:30am out in San Bernardino so our options were limited.

Thanksgiving= done, now Christmas season has begun!

Yeah, I know... what an awesome rhyme *haha*. Thanksgiving was another busy one- we started off at my aunt's in Irvine and then headed up to Arrowhead to spend some time with Bobby's family. We are thankful for a countless number of things- God has truly blessed us.




Up at the cabin.

The Ward family

When we got home we immediately got into the Christmas spirit. Our humble little apartment is now all ready for Christmas! We went to Home Depot to pick out a tree instead of cutting one down this year to save a little dough (I may have bought a little more Christmas decor than Bobby anticipated causing my compromise).

Here is the tree all decorated.

Pixie was very curious about the tree. She spent a lot of time just sitting under it. Before we knew it she was chewing on the pine needles, drinking the water, and swatting the ornaments. Not to mention sliding across our coffee table and knocking over decorations. She really has a mind of her own. Here she is, pretending to be innocent.

And here she is, proving she's not. Apparently as a cat it is WAY better to hang from the top of the screen door than to look through the bottom of it. Maybe she was just trying to get a good look at the lights Bobby was hanging? Either way- she is pretty wild.

Almost Thanksgiving!

I couldn't be any happier that the holiday season is here! I looooove the holidays! Today we are going to celebrate Thanksgiving with Bobby's dad's side of the family. On Thursday (the actual day of Thanksgiving) we are going to go to my mom's side in the early afternoon and then up to Arrowhead for Bobby's mom's side. Holidays are pretty exhausting for us because we have a lot of places to be. But we love it! We took some pictures for a Christmas card last weekend. I am so excited for Friday evening because that's when Christmas decorations will be going up in the Ward apartment!! On Sunday we will go and cut down our Christmas tree. Then we have a whole month long of festivities to do. I am certain that Bobby is just as excited as I am (Okay, probably not- but he does a really good job pretending!). 

Disappointed!

We went to Oak Glen last weekend to pick apples only to find out that there were NO apples left anywhere! Apparently there was a hail storm that ruined the apples- this was thoroughly disappointing! We still got to endure the 45 min+ line to get apple donuts and apple cider. Last year we waited well over an hour, so 45 minutes was a treat! It is always well worth it...we love sitting under the big chestnut tree to enjoy them. We still got to pick pumpkins so all in all our fall day was salvaged.

It's Friday Night, and I'm Blogging Instead of Doing Anything Fun.

Not a whole lot to report lately. Work has been pretty busy for both Bobby and I. He has already started working late and I have been pretty involved with my school. I am loving working at BOHS... I am very blessed to be a teacher. Pixie has continued to keep us very entertained. Bobby sure loves her! Living in Brea means I get to see my sister a lot less, but we have got to spend time with her and Andrew this past month. We all did the Susan Komen Race for The Cure for breast cancer in Newport Beach with Bobby's work, amongst other things.
We are continuing to get use out of our Disneyland passes... it's Halloweentime at the happiest place on earth!

I am sad to say that the Red Sox have been eliminated from the playoffs. It was a really tough series to watch. I will root for the Angels to win the ALCS, but solely because they are playing the Yankees. How fun would it be to have an Angels vs. Dodgers World Series? Certainly not as fun as the Red Sox vs. ANYONE else.

Our house hunting endeavors continue. I will be the first to admit that it is NOT FUN. There is a huge demand and a small supply in this so called "buyers market." Which means that we get out-bid everytime. But we're trying not to get discouraged because we know that in God's perfect timing we will be in a home.

On the bright side, I can't wait for this weekend- we will be going on our annual trip to Oak Glen to pick apples, and maybe even pumpkins this time! I looooove festive activities like this. And Bobby tolerates them. =)

Bobby would like me to add that he is very excited for the Notre Dame game tomorrow as they take on their rival, USC. Go Irish!

Summer is over!

Well, not technically... but as a school teacher I consider this weekend the end of summer. Monday and Tuesday are staff meetings and my new students come Wednesday! I am so excited to be a part of the staff at Brea Olinda High School! A few updates from our August activities:

To kick August off we went to Christina & Cory Wells' wedding.

We spent plenty of time at Disneyland this month, making sure to get good use out of our passes. Please take note that this picture reflects that Bobby beat me. Don't let it fool you- he cheated. =)

We went to Lake Mohave again, this time with his parents and brother, my mom & Jim and my sister. I have perfected flinging people off the back of the Sea-Doo by spinning out. Always fun times!

We haven't go to go beach-cruising as much as we normally do in the summer but did manage to squeeze some in.

There are already posts of Pixie, but since we got her in August I thought I'd post one more. This is my favorite one of her... she is quite the trouble maker.

I must say, I am very excited for fall to get here. I so look forward to apple picking and crafting and baking... fall is always the perfect time for that.