Lyla's 1st trip to the zoo

My parents took Lyla to the zoo for her first time ever.  They spent a long day following her around as she explored all the animals exhibits.  Her favorite were the elephants.  She kept calling them, "Dumbo".  

Flamingos!

Dumbo!

Happy Birthday, Trisha!!!

We would like to wish Trisha a very happy 28th birthday!  We love you and hope you're having a wonderful time celebrating.

Surprise visit to Costa Mesa

Lyla is the cutest little shopper at the OC swap meet.
Cruising down the aisles.  Lyla DOES NOT like to ride in the stroller.
Hanging out with Kathy and Baa-ba.  My parents were so happy to have Lyla around to show off to all their friends and customers.  They didn't know we were coming, so it was a nice surprise visit!
Happy swappers!
Lyla shopping for some hair products.  But Lyla, daddy can get you anything you want with a discount!

p.s. Lyla's sweet sweater is from Anthropologie.  Yeah, they sell kids clothes and they are really cute!

Day 4: rainy day in

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!  I hope everyone enjoyed their day off.

We spent the day indoors watching the torrential downpour from the comfort of our living room.  Lyla was quite happy to play with her toys and give mom and dad a chance to kick back and relax.    

Day 3: a day trip to murrieta

Taking Elvis for a walk to the car.  He's coming with us to visit our family in Murrieta.  yay!
Uh oh!  Elvis is getting too far ahead and he's pulling too fast!  Lyla can barely keep up with her chubby legs.
Lyla got a boo-boo from her short walk with Elvis.  She fell and scraped about half her fingernail off.  Ouch!  At least we had a cute Hello Kitty band-aid to patch it up.
Peek-a-boo with cousin Nia.  Where's Lyla?
There she is!
The Mitchells in Murrieta have a slide too.
Chillin' on the slide.

Day 2: Cruising Encinitas Blvd. & spectator bowling

Lyla and I had the pleasure of spending the day with my old BFF, Sarah Torretto.  It's been WAY too long since we got to hang with her.  We headed out to downtown Encinitas to cruise around and do some shopping.  It was pretty radical.  Unfortunately, I didn't capture any photos from today.  You'll have to trust me when I say it was pretty awesome.  

The evening portion of day 2 was planned out as a night of bowling with my co-workers.  The purpose of the get-together was to celebrate Alison's promotion to full-time customer service.  Though I only worked with Alison for a short time, I will miss her as she moves on to bigger and better things at Archstone Pacific View (my old community!).  We all planned on meeting at the bowling alley at 8pm, but when we got there at 7:30pm, there was a 1 1/2 hour wait.  Due to Lyla's bedtime, we had to call it a night at 9pm, which meant no bowling for the Mitchells.  Good times were had nonetheless.  Here are some pics from our evening at the bowling alley:

Alison, Lyla, Kim, Samantha, and Mike.  
Lyla and Berlyn (Alison's daughter).  Too cute!
Alison with her crunk teeth.  She got these from the coin machine.  
Travis scored on these "hick teeth" with his quarters.  The mouthpiece only has one tooth on the top.  What the heck?

Day 1 of a 4 day weekend

My schedule at work is changing and the way it all shook out, I got a 4 day weekend this week.  That's right...Friday through Monday off.  Thanks, Mr. Martin Luther King, Jr.!  We had some wonderful friends over for potluck dinner at our place tonight.  The evening started with a great meal and ended with laughter over a board game.  You just can't beat that on a Friday night.  Good times.Travis, Melissa, Jason, Everett, Finn, Ryan, Sarah, and Lyla.  About to dig in.
Yummy.  Melissa made some tasty salad with salami, olives, onion and champagne dressing.  Jason baked his famous garlic bread.  I whipped up some turkey pesto pasta.  Delicious and easy!
Post-dinner lounging.  We just turned on some Nick Jr. and the kiddos were happy.
Lyla and Finny.  Love these two!
Travis digging into his 6th serving of cookies and ice cream that Sarah and Ryan brought over.  He wasn't feeling too good after this.
Lyla thinks daddy is funny.

Let there be light

The new chandelier hangs in the center of Lyla's room.  It is super girly and I love it!  

The flower on the wall is a light too.

Lyla's crib featuring the new light fixture.

Slide!

Hello.  I love my slide.
Oheso!  Elvis is keeping an eye out for bad people...or squirrels.
Ummmm...I love my slide.
Here we go!  WEEEEEEEEEEEE!

The slide my parents gave Lyla for Christmas finally found a home on our patio.  We had to order these cushiony mats for underneath so that she wouldn't get a concussion before her 2nd birthday.  Lyla loves that her toys are taking over our home.  By the way, it's sunny and 72 degrees here in Encinitas.

happy new year & new dresser!

We decided to celebrate New Year's Day with a shopping trip to Pier 1.  We have been in major need of a dresser in our bedroom.  I have been using an old laundry hamper for all my socks, underthings, bras, and swimsuits for years now.  I had my eye on the Hayworth collection with all the beautiful mirrored sides.  I couldn't help but be drawn to a collection that shares my maiden name (well, almost.  the spelling is not right).  So, we splurged yesterday and purchased this dresser. I am so in love with this piece of furniture!  Now all my unmentionables are happily organized and separated.  Yay for another spontaneous purchase!

Christmas '09 part II

Opening presents at grandma and grandpa's house in the mountains.
I love this fire-burning stove!  It makes the whole house warm and cozy when it's freezing outside.  We didn't get any snow this year, but there was snow on the ground when we arrived.  Brrrrrrrrrr.
Lyla and Nia being silly.  They were in the laundry room together and we told them to kiss the window panes.  Nia is wearing the princess dress we got her for Christmas.
One more kiss through the window.  I love this picture.