Big Sister

We've been dying to let you in on the secret we've been holding for weeks now: Kayla's prego!! Yep, she's about 12 weeks along now, has definitely been feeling the effects of the little tyke's hormones (!), and Lucy still can't get over the fact that she's going to be a big sister!

Watch out little brother/little sister... Lucy's in charge and that could be pretty intense:)

We're so excited to welcome the new little Pfaffisto (sometime early next May) and can't wait for you to meet him/her. Hopefully we can start adding to our sleep reservoir... I'm already feeling exhausted just thinking about the early AM hours again. Please keep us in your prayers, especially "mommo" as she endures the nausea. If I were in Kayla's shoes, I'd be crying like a big fat baby over all the sickness she's had! :( She's a champ though and the nausea should be coming to an end pretty soon here (fingers crossed), yay! More pics to come later. Love you all. - the pfaffs

Fall Update

Here's some pics from the last few weeks. We've visited a few different local pumpkin patch's and harvest festivals in the area. We've been to the Beirwagon's pumpkin patch twice now (once with each set of grandparent's :), which is where I grew up going every year as a kid. They have the BEST carmel apples, apple juice, apple butter, ok you get it, anything apples!

Lucy loved the "neigh-neigh's"

Lucy's pumpkin of choice..currently on our fireplace with a little face on it. She really liked it that day, now, not so interested in it.

This was at a different harvest festival. Now anyone from GV recognizes this yummy ice cream bar. They are sold at pretty much every Grass Valley/Nevada City event. My bar of choice: predictably, mint chip with dark chocolate. Justin's: black raspberry. Since that was "healthier" we let lucy down that one :)

Now these don't compare to Diddy Reise in price, but come visit us and we'll go get one!!

I think this was Lucy's first real sugar high. Luckily there were a lot of activities to burn off some energy, but she was pretty crazy. She even broke out a "crazy lucy" face for us, something she doesn't do much anymore.

And I think she definitely wants a farm. She LOVES animals, not just dogs anymore, all animals. She is fearless of them. I on the other hand am a chicken, for some reason, even though I grew up with some animals, they are very intimidating, i'm always waiting for them to bite me.

Then came the rain, and rain, and rain. This is something we are going to have to get used to up here.

I can count on one hand the number of days in the past 4 years I had to actually use an umbrella in LA because it was raining hard enough. Now many people in LA break out an umbrella at the sign of one drop. Cars halt to a stop on every road down there and traffic is worse than usual. Life stops in LA when it rains. (ok, that's a bit dramatic, but we really did notice that people there freak over a day of sprinkling :).

Up here, it doesn't just sprinkle, it POURS. And I'm talking side to side rain due to wind, not just light showers. First thing we noticed was how difficult it is with Lucy. How do we get her (semi-dry) from the house, to the car, carrying both her and an umbrella? Then, even harder, into the car and car seat buckled. This is going to take some practice to perfect. Next thing we noticed, drivers. Drivers up here are used to the wet, winter weather. We hopped on the freeway and life was like normal, other than the torrential downpour of the rain. And roads up here actually become hazardous, with fallen tree branches here and there, it really is an obstacle course. All I can say is good thing we are starting with the rain, because snow is going to be a whole other ordeal :)

And here's Lucy on what I think was day 2 of down pouring rain. Any ideas for what to do with a 1 1/2 year old all day inside? I'm going to need some tips to get through the winter :)

Houseboating

I think we nabbed the last hot weekend of the summer this past weekend. We spent the weekend with our friends the Paynes, who we know from SLO, at Lake Englebright on the houseboat.

We had an awesome time with them, their son Tobin is only 1 day younger than Lucy, so those two always have a blast playing together. Here are some pics...

Here they are playing in the giant inner tube. The part where the kids are has a mesh bottom, so it was perfect for them to get wet, but not have to swim.

Here's nap #1 for Lucy. Naps were definitely our biggest problem out there. On Sat. we decided to put both kids pack n' plays downstairs, since it was blazing upstairs. We all headed upstairs to bask in the sun...or die in the sun...it was 95! As you can imagine, neither of them napped. For about an hour and a half, they just stood up, talked to each other, laughed, then we would try to put them back down...no success. So we went on a boat ride and that did the trick, they each got about a 1/2 hr nap I think...not enough!

Oh, and you can see in some of the pictures the baby gate, technically dog gates, that we used on both open ends of the houseboat. They worked really well, just gave the kids some kind of boundary so we didn't have to worry about them going overboard the whole time!

I like this next one of them. It was first thing in the morning, Tobin was trying to be all sweet holding Lucy's hand, and, well, you can just see her expression about that.

Here the guys are trying to ease the kids into the lake. Now this lake is one of the coldest lakes in our area...I barely swim in it, usually only to do something behind the boat (tube, wakeboard, those kinda things). You can see how much they both enjoyed the short dunk :)

Poor lucy...she came out right then!

Nap #2, Sunday, another boat ride did the trick :)

River Rats

We've spent quite a few days since we've moved up to GV at the river, the Yuba River that is, which is right outside of "town" :) Sometimes we just hang out in the little swimming hole next to the main parking lot (below), and other times we hike a bit down the river to other swimming holes. Don't worry, when we hike we walk PAST the nude beaches! Yes, there are parts of the river that are clothing optional...not for us Pfaffs though, we like our bathing suits on!

Here we are a few weeks ago with Allison and Aurelia Acton. They were down visiting from Seattle and it was fun to catch up with them. Here Allison and I are after swimming Lucy and Aurelia across the deep part of the river.

Here's a pic of Lucy on the way back to the car...the river always wears her out!

And we just love this picture. We tried to get her to wear this floaty ring...needless to say it came off right after this picture!

Daddy Style

Just wanted to give a shout out to my hubby. Some of you may know that he is color blind, but did you know he is also pattern blind? Check out some of these great outfit combinations below...

All in all though, I am thankful that he gets her dressed :)

huh?

OK, we've been in Grass Valley for over a month now and there is something I don't get.

Los Angeles has a population of 11,000,000.

Grass Valley has a population of almost 11,000.

Why don't people stop at crosswalks for pedestrians in Grass Valley?!!

In LA I walked to work for over 3 years and crossed a crosswalk on a major street daily - one with no stoplight, stop sign, or crosswalk flashers...and drivers would stop for me!! Now I know I'm not that good looking in my tax accounting outfit to have cars stop for me daily, but they would. In the "fast paced", "horrible driver" LA world, I never had a problem.

Then, the last year, with Lucy, we were like gold there. People would be cruising down the big streets going 30-40 mi/hr and would stop because of the stroller...ahhh the good ol' days!

Now to my point...Grass Valley. In this small town, where people drive maybe 15-20 miles thru "town" - NO ONE STOPS for me and lucy. Now I'm not talking about when we jaywalk...which tends to occur due to the lack of crosswalks, but that's another issue. I'm talking about at actual crosswalks! Do they think I just enjoy standing with my baby in her stroller at the crosswalk? They just drive on by. Now according to some friends of mine who live in Oregon - that would be a ticket there, pedestrians have right of way.

Ok, I'm done complaining...I'm just in disbelief. For those who live in GV, no offense...I'm sure you stop for pedestrians :) For those in LA, enjoy those "crazy drivers" who stop for you when you cross the street.

Camping in Tahoe

So...haven't got to posting pics of GV yet, but I have tried to post pics from our quick camping trip to Lake Tahoe last week 3 times already! Our darn internet...they say we need to bring them the modem to switch it out, it keeps shutting down all the time. I digress...

So, think it's time for a bigger car? Don't worry, lucy was back there...somewhere...in her carseat.

This was the first time we have taken lucy camping since our road trip to Seattle when she was 2 months old. Ahhh, the good old days, just used to swaddle her and pop her down by our feet and she was good to go. Camping now...a little more complicated, but still fun.

Yes, I know, the pigtails are a little out of control. Don't worry, now they are much better. Most of her hair fits in the two piggies now, so they aren't as "pointy"

The first day we were there the weather was beautiful. We found this great little creek near our campground and lucy had fun catching fish with Justin.

"Crazy Lucy" - if you haven't seen this in person, it's hard to describe. Basically if anyone says "crazy lucy", she does this really big crazy smiley face...it's halarious! I die laughing everytime! So, in a lot of these pics, you will see crazy lucy, click on the below one here, it's hard to see from far away.

Mountain girl!

Day 2 - not as warm as day 1. It began with a bright and early wake up call by lucy at 5:45am. We didn't want to wake the whole campground, so we headed into Tahoe City to get some much needed coffee and breakfast. There was a great little farmers market that morning (see the below pic - to the right of Justin), and we had fun playing at the playground at the beach there.

Here's a peek into our tent. Yep, that's the pack n' play in there, and no, that did not leave much room for Justin and I to sleep. But lucy doesn't sleep well with us, so that was our best option. We did stay warm though in our trusty tent.

The trip ended with some thunderstorms, rain, and even hail...good time to leave.

OK, i'm hitting "publish post" now before our internet fails again...hope it works!

We Moved!

As of today, we have been in Grass Valley for a full two weeks. Our move went fairly well, although it was the most difficult move we have made so far, mainly due to a certain little someone...ah hem, Lucy :)

Let's just say that we woke up at 6:30 on moving day, had a planned departure time of 1/2pm and after working full force all day, didn't leave our apt. until 5ish!! Good timing huh, 405 at 5pm?

We had everything boxed, bubblewrapped, saran wrapped, etc. before moving day, and had even cleaned the two bathrooms and kitchen appliances the night before. All we had to do was load the truck, vacuum/mop the floors and wipe down the fridge (once we packed the food in the cooler). I guess we just have too much stuff!!

And we definitely wouldn't have made it out by 5 if it wasn't for some great neighbors helping us. David, who helped Justin with all of our big items and helped give us a big final push at the end with some speed loading of the final boxes. And Kendra, who volunteered to watch Lucy for "just an hour or so" (I highly underestimated how much we had left) and ended up entertaining her for I think about 3 hours so I could help Justin load and clean. Thanks again to both of you, we couldn't have left that day without you!

Here we are with our 26' Penske truck. We arrived at my Dad's house, where we were able to park the truck and stay overnight, around 2am. One good thing about the late departure time was that Lucy was pretty tired and mellow for the ride. She didn't fall asleep until 9:30pm, which was late since she usually goes to bed around 7:30. But she wasn't fussy or complaining, she just was looking out the windows and pretty mellow. Ok, I did feed her "all you can eat" snacks to keep her quiet until we made it out of the LA traffic! And Justin was quite the trucker if I do say so!

Here's a glimpse at our new (tiny) kitchen filled with all our stuff. Yep, somehow all that (and more) fit in the kitchen...not sure how, but it seems to be working.

And here's a pic from our new place our first night here. If I had photoshop, I'd delete the power lines, but hey, that would be fake anyways huh? :) We just got internet a few days ago, so I'm still playing catch up, but I'll try to get some more pics of our apt. and the area for you out-of-towners up on the blog soon.

packin'

We have been on a packing craze around here the last few days, our entire house (ok, apartment), is pretty much in boxes. I actually enjoy packing, going thru all our stuff, organizing and purging the stuff we don't use. But we are now in the stage I don't like - the stage where there is stuff still to be packed, but I can't pack it yet. Things like our pots & pans, bedding, bathroom stuff, etc. That stuff we need until the day we leave. So now we just need to wait...

Lucy "helped" me pack up a good portion of her toys. She put a few toys in the box, then when I taped it up gave me a look very similar to this one below...confused. Don't worry, she still has TONS of toys around the house to play with these next few days :)

Mr. President

We decided to head up to the Ronald Reagan library last Wednesday since it is only about 45 minutes from us. Lucy napped on the way (thankfully!) and we brought some lunch and had a fun time enjoying the nice gardens.

Justin took this picture of Ronnie pushing Lucy in her stroller.

Here's Marine One, the helicopter that was used during Reagan's and several other Presidents' terms.

And here is the Air Force One that was used by seven presidents, from Nixon - George W. Bush. No pics were allowed inside, but we went in and explored the set up...not too shabby! Although apparently the new one is three times as large as this one.

We also saw a piece of the Berlin wall, Reagan's presidential motorcade (a few pieces anyways), the oval office (a replica), and his grave site.

Oh and highlights of the day:

1) Lucy throwing her pacifier into the oval office (past the ropes)

2) Lucy throwing our car keys onto the deactivated nuclear missile (again, past the ropes)

Fun place if you live close by, you should check it out.

Graduation

Here are some pics of Justin's graduation from UCLA last Sunday. He is now Dr. Pfaffinger! (well, almost, now we are playing the waiting game waiting for all the paperwork to clear and for the dr. to become "official")

Justin walking into the ceremony.

Justin was one of 80(?) Dental students who graduated this year. Also pictured are some of the faculty (right) and graduates of UCLA's specialty dentistry programs (top). If you are trying to find Justin, he is smack in the middle of the picture - look for the one with the black hat and lavender tassel, which by the way we found out is the official color of dentistry.

Justin's Class - photo shoot time after the ceremony.

Lucy proud of her dada, sporting her "Dr. Lucy Ann" scrubs.

My Dad, Sue, and Justin's parents all came down for the weekend to celebrate with Justin.

Yay Justin! Congrats on all your hard work!

RE-UNITE

A few weeks ago we had a GREAT weekend with some old friends from SLO. We all rented a house in Morro Bay (just outside of SLO) and spent a long weekend together. There were 5 kids from the 5 couples there and one one the way! We are quickly outgrowing the opportunity to meet in one place...but we'll squeeze in somewhere next year. This year we even had lucy's pack n' play in a closet :)

Lucy meeting up with her buddy Tobin - who is one day younger than her...ahh, younger guys ;)
Lucy, Logan & Tobin playing at the beach in Morro Bay.

The girls - Annaliese, Lucy & Rachel

We ended the trip Sunday, but went and stayed with our friends the Whitacres for one more night (The Payne's stayed too...so it was a mini-continuation of the weekend). The Whit's live in a house at a winery and they were having an open house when we got back - so we did our first ever wine tasting. Funny that we lived there for college and never went wine tasting, when we now meet people all the time who drive from LA to go there to taste! I guess we only lived there for a year when we were legal to drink :)

In other news, we are getting ready to start celebrating Justin's graduation this weekend!! 4 years has FLOWN by! The ceremony is Sunday, his folks are coming in any minute now, and my Dad and Sue are coming in Sat. morning. We have had a few celebrations so far - the senior banquet was last weekend, very formal, and they had another senior send off last night. Yay Justin!! Don't worry, we'll post some pics of the guy in his cute black dress - oh, and the "official color of denistry" is lavender...

Sick Week

Well, it's been a sick week around here, actually almost two week. It started when Lucy got a cold two weeks ago - high fevers and just all around not feeling too hot. Unfortunetly it happened while the Carr's were visiting, but Lucy still had a fun time playing with her cousins.

Then I joined her with a head & chest cold, then Lucy got that...aye. But, she's still been her happy little self, although a lot less happy then usual.

And we got two new family members (as Justin calls them) too! Here are Hoops and YoYo, our little turtle friends who now live on our dining room table.

And poor little YoYo took a dive off the table last week, don't worry, he's still alive. We didn't think they could get out of that dish, but apparently Hoops gave him a boostie and he made the jump out.

OK, that was a weird, random post, but we are getting ready to go to SLO for the weekend to meet up with some old friends (yay!) and so gotta be quick, lots to do!

More Guat. Pics

We're Back!

We got in late last night - here are just a few pics from our trip...we have many more and even some videos of the kids, but I'll post just a few for now. We had a GREAT time visiting Justin's brothers family in Guatemala City! We think Lucy was bored today after having so much fun with her cousins this past week :)

Justin & Lucy relaxing on the plane ride from Mexico City to Guatemala City. We were stoked that the plane wasn't packed and we were able to bring her carseat on. Right after this picture, when we took off, she fell asleep for the whole flight!

On the way back last night, we also were able to bring her seat on since the plane wasn't full (we didn't buy her a seat - she's free untils she's 2). The only place we had a problem with that was LAX - even though the plane had available seats, they said since we didn't purchase a seat we couldn't bring her carseat on...lets just say they were'nt as accomadating as Mexico & Guatemala.

Here are Karis, Lucy and Kaden hanging out on the couch...they had a ball playing together all week. And Lucy now thinks she is a big kid...and Renee convinced me she is one too (sniffle sniffle). She wanted to do everything they did...eat big kid food, drinks, ride horses...
Here's the kids hanging out at the beach. We went on a one night getaway at Mar Maya, on the Pacific Coast of Gautemala.
Here's the Guat. Pfaffs on the boat ride to Mar Maya...Justin and I felt like we were in that old movie "The Mission" floating up the river.
Here's the kids riding the ponies. They all loved riding them.

OK, so there is a teaser of our great week down there. When I have some more energy I'll try to get some more pictures up, and maybe a video or two and show you all more of Guatemala. Until then, goodnight :)