Dan and Lissy Valletta

2011-07-31T11:56:00.001-07:00

Ok, so it's been 1 1/2 years since I posted last! That's what happens when life gets going and there's too much other things to do.

Biggest news is that we had Chael Daniel Valletta on Jan 9, 2011. Baby wieghed 7lbs 3oz and took 17 hours of labor to arrive here. Had my feet zoned the night before which I'm pretty sure pushed me into labor maybe even if I wasn't all the ready which could be why it took so long. He arrived a week early. I will just post a bunch of pictures and video since that is the important stuff.

Enjoy!

Baby at birth....the day on the camera is a day off!

First bath with Grandma (my mom). He didn't love it!

My family came out for Chael's baby blessing. It was so nice of them!
3/13/11

Chael at 4 months.
5/17/2011

Chael's first trip to the zoo! We went to the Sacramento Zoo with my family. It was pretty disappointing....they didn't have hippos, rhinos, or even elephants or polar bears!

6/24/11

While in California, we went to 6 Flags Great America with my dad and family.

This is that one ride where you go to the top and it drops you straight down. They make me sick!
6/25/11

He moves around so much now in his sleep, we never know how he will look when we go in to check on him!
6/23/11

I love his expression in this picture! When Twister plays, she lightly bites on your hand. Chael intentionally puts his hands near her mouth and she will sit and gnaw on his hand and he thinks its the funniest thing and keeps doing it until he's bored. Needless to say, his hands get washed after playing with her......

7/3/11

All ready to go swimming!!!
He loves to kick and splash.

7/20/11

Practicing using a sippy cup! (It's actually more fun to bang it on the high chair!)

(And yes, that is a dishwasher in the background....we are redoing our kitchen!)

7/27/11

Since this kid learned how to roll a few weeks ago....he gets into EVERTTHING! It's driving me nuts!!
7/30/11

Cruise, Cali, Christmas and Anniversary

2009-12-31T16:38:00.001-08:00

So, we've had a pretty eventful past 3 weeks! And I've been excited because that means I actually have something to post! So, as soon as school got out, we drove down to Dan's Uncle Ed and Aunt Christine's and spent the night with them in Cedar City because the weather was bad up here and down there. Thanks for letting us crash at your place!! :) Then, we drove down to Long Beach to go on our Mexican Cruise! We had never been before so we were excited! I thought we'd get sick but luckily, I only got sick one night while on our way back to the States. We went with our good friends Jimmy and Verusca Gilland who just met us down there. Dan was in heaven with the all you can eat buffets and 24 hour open pizza, ice cream and other junk foods! I literally could not button the top button in my pants the last day of the cruise and I was super depressed! Here are some pics:

Us 4 waiting to go into the formal dining room during formal wear night.

Us waiting for our food, we got try escargot again and had some amazing food!

Every night the waiters and wait staff got together and sang to us or did dances...sometimes it was hilarious, other times, it was sweet.

At a certain part on the top deck, it was super windy and cold. Overall, the weather was quite warm and enjoyable! Plenty of time to lay out too!

The view of Puerta Vallarta. Funny story, we actually got stuck in Puerta Vallarta for an extra day because the captain was backing in the boat to dock it and hit a pier! The pier (made of concrete) was smashed in and broken and hole was put in the boat. So, we didn't get to go to Mazatlan because we had stay in Puerta Vallarta to get the ship "sea worthy" again.

In Puerta Vallarta we were on a speedboat and got to see this! They said it was a baby humpback whale but we were so excited because they had said that we may be able to see one and we did!

In Puerta Vallarta, we did a extreme canopy excursion. Unfortanately, we weren't allowed to bring cameras because, of course, they want you to buy their pics, so we don't have any pics. But it was the ziplining through the jungle. First, we road mules up to the drop off place and then took about 9 different zipling cables through the jungle. We also went repeling down a cold, but pretty waterfall. It was awesome.

Because we did the Carnival cruise, they are known for the towel animals that are left in your rooms. This was our favorite!

Finally headed to Cabo!!

Just the 4 of us.

So, the night before when Verusca and I decided we were done for the night and we to our rooms, Dan and Jimmy did karaoke in a club. When we realized karaoke was available again, we got Dan and Jimmy to sing for us! The kid in the red behind them was this drunk guy that we met when we did the extreme canopy. I swear that he was constanly drunk the whole time and tried to pick up on all the single ladies. He was hilarious and thought he was best friends with Dan and Jimmy. So, they got him to sing with them!

Cabo San Lucas

In Cabo, we hopped on a motorboat that took us to Santa Maria Bay and Chileno Bay. While there, we went snorkeling and saw some amazing fish! We had only been snorkeling in Hawaii but Chileno Bay was awesome! The fish swim right up to you...it kind of made me a little nervous!

We were pretty depressed when it was time to head back home...we decided that cruises are the way to go! They clean your room twice a day, everything is practically free (well, you pay for the cruise so you don't have to worry bout expenses on the ship), buffets, room service, all you can eat sushi, sun, visiting different ports rather than being stuck in one place, dancing, comedians, shows, movie screens, pools, hot tubs! Anyone want to go next year?

After we ported in Long Beach, Dallin came up to get us as he was babysitting our car for the week rather than us paying to park it at the port. So, we drove up to spend a week in Sacramento with my family. We stayed in Utah last year so I was excited to be with my family while Meg, Mike and their kids were there too. I don't have any pics except for one but it was nice to be home and my mom always goes out of her way to make it a pleasant experience for us. She and Don took us 4 wheeling and shooting and that was all fun and games until I swerved trying to avoid a muddy water puddle and threw myself off the 4 wheeler before it rolled. Oh...good times. We also saw Avatar (great movie).

Me, Dan, Austin, Landon, my Daddy and Dallin all at a Christmas pageant/rock concert/sermon at a Christian church. It was very interesting. Certainly no one would fall asleep at church if we

had drums and electric guitars!

And lastly, we celebrated our 4 year anniversary on the 29th. Althought we got home at 2am from Cali the night before, and Dan had to work all day, he still managed to bring me home some beautiful roses! Happy Anniversary, Baby!

So, that's been the last 3 weeks. School starts on Monday and with us both working full time and taking classes, our lives will resume as normal now....unfortunately! So, if you don't hear from us in a while...that's why! Also, I am reminded why I have a hard time blogging...it takes so long!

Oh...and Happy New Year!!!

Finally...a new post

2009-11-15T13:38:00.000-08:00

Well, I feel that I should probably post something since it's about 5 months! We are alive and well! I just starting feeling guilty because I like to read everyone else's blogs but don't feel that we're interesting enough to have anything to write about...let alone the time!

So, just to keep you updated (if anyone ever reads this), we've been keeping busy with working and going back to school. Yes, we each have a Bachelors but since I took over the toddler class in the morning at Weber State to put me full time, we decided to keep on going! Him, a Bachelors in Physical Education with the Secondary Licensing to teach in high schools, and I am working on my Masters in Education with the Primary Licensure track. Needless to say, we will be sticking around Ogden for many years to come! So much for our dreams of living on the beach! :(

And...it snowed on Saturday so that was depressing but Christmas music is on the radio so I am a happy girl! Honestly, nothing new has been going on so everyone, keep updating your blogs because your lives are much more interesting than ours!

Funny Puppy

2009-06-20T20:21:00.001-07:00

So, I had to get a picture of this! Twister loves to sit in the sun and will do whatever she can to get there! She does this all the time when we're downstairs. She follows us where ever we go so I had to capture it while she thought I was there. I had to creep away quietly to get my camera.

She's content to sit in the sun while watching the activity going on outside our back patio.

She finally noticed that I was moving and so she's looking back at me...I think it's so funny!

Park City again!!

2009-06-20T19:49:00.000-07:00

So, we went to Park City a couple weekends ago. We love Park City! We feel like we're not in Utah anymore because it's just so beautiful and it feels like its someplace else. It's only a hour away but we feel like it's a huge getaway! We stayed for 3 nights in the Westgate/Canyons Resort. It was a really nice place that had a sweet indoor heated pool/sauna/hot tub/waterfall that was only for adults. We went every night because it was peaceful and not full of roudy kids although there were borderline drunk couples. We saw a matinee of the DaVinci movie which was good. We make it a point to shop at the outlets and walk Main Street. The weather was pretty crappy one day so we mostly stayed at the resort but we still kept busy because there was much to do. Our room had a sauna shower that was pretty cool. It was nice to just take a vacation and get away! Thanks to Dan's parents and Tom and Claudia for babysitting Twister!

Dan was the ping pong pro...I don't know why I even tried to play with him...

We ate at a fancy restuarant on Main Street called Jean Louis. We had a buy 1 get 1 free coupon or else we never would have gone there. We tried escargot which were actually pretty good! I kept having images of the little garden snails one of my girls brought to class to share the week or 2 before. I had to keep pushing those thoughts aside as I ate it or else it was making me a little sick.

The backdrop is amazing! We would love to live in Park City if it didn't get so much stinkin' snow!

Ha, me posing! At least all of this rain is making everything green and pretty!

While we were walking around the resort, we saw the most perfect/beautiful rainbow we've ever seen! I've never seen one so vibrant or so full! Some of the resort employees were out taking pictures with their phones but we got the best capture of it.
This was as close up as we could get!

Hope everyone's having an amazing summer and doing much fun stuff! We don't have anything more planned until Meghan, Mike, and my family come out next month. Can't wait!

Vegas!

2009-04-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

Ok, so we went to Vegas over Spring Break. It was just nice to get away and take a break!
We spent a lot of time walking around and going into the various Casinos. We ate the yummy buffet at the Bellagio. The desserts were my favorite; they were just too pretty to eat!
Following are just a few pictures we took.

While there, we went to the National History Museum right off the strip. We thought that this trip we would go do fun stuff that we normally wouldn't do. It was quite interesting. This sting ray kept trying to get out and would bob his head up and down along the whole edge of the water tank. It was rather funny.

This was pretty cool. The little skeleton in the middle is that of a normal shark. The huge one is of like a prehistoric kind of shark skeleton they found fossilized. Can you imagine those teeth coming at ya when you're swimming in the ocean...it could swallow a human whole!

These little fish kept trying to bite at Dan's finger...it was pretty funny! They would follow his hand around....they thought it was snack time.

So, lame-o but I wanted a picture next to the M&M racecar so, of course, I had to pose with M&M's!

So, while we were in Vegas, some friends from our ward were on their way back up to Ogden from CA. Because Vegas was on the route, they stopped by and hung out with us for a night.

Here we found the Coca Cola bear...he was so cute and a lil bit creepy!

These boys are so funny! I swear, my mouth starts to hurt from laughing so hard! They just fuel off of each other!

We stayed at the Stratosphere so we got free passes to go to the top. We have already done the rides before so we didn't want to spend our money doing them. It is so pretty at the top!

Another pic of the silly boys!

So, we went up to where the big wooden horse is (I think it's Caesars Palace? Anyone?) and I wanted to go check out the educational toys section. I turn the corner and this is what I find...Dan playing with the cars! Who needs kids when you're married to the best kid ever! :)

So, that was our vacation. Don't count on continued lengthy posts with pictures. We don't have any fun plans set up for the summer!

Update

2009-04-19T14:02:00.001-07:00

Ok...here's a 5 second update (I'm trying to procrastinate some very important things because I really really don't want to do them...I'll be sorry by the time tonight roles around!)

In a nut shell, the end of the semester is drawing to a close (2 weeks left) which means I'll be done teaching at Weber State for the summer. In my insane way of being too bored during the summer with only a part time job and still getting paid from Weber State, I've signed on to open a summer preschool with another teacher that I work with. It will be at her house because she is licensed and everything and it'll be each day for a few hours. Because, of course, that wasn't enough for me, I'll also be watching 2 of the cutest 4 year old boys. So, because they'll be in my class each day, I'll just bring them home with me until their parents can pick them up around 5pm! Basically, I don't get a break this summer but the income will be good! :) And it will be fun to have kids in the house again. Except I'm working on making my house child friendly again...after Meghan and her kids left, there was no need!

We're also signed up to play on a softball league! I am not good at all but Dan has an amazing hit and can hit them out of the park! I'm super excited! Thanks Shaylee and Justin! :)

Dan's looking for a job in this crappy economy...sucks! I feel very blessed to have the jobs that I do!

We painted our bedroom and installed a fan...it looks great! Also painted the hallway leading upstairs...glad it's done! Dan's been working on fixing up the house a bit which I'm grateful for. Right now it seems like we'll be here forever!

I just got a new calling! I'm a Young Womens advisor. Dan's been the Young Men's secretary for a few months now so at least we can go to mutual, Youth Conference and stuff together. He really enjoys it and I'm a little bit nervous. I was in the nursery for months so it's quite the change!

Hm...trying to think of what else to post. I need to post pics of Vegas over spring break...but alas, that will have to wait.

Ok, done procrastinating...sorry there's no pics yet! It'll have to be on my list of things to do!! :)

2008-12-12T20:59:00.000-08:00

So, today, was graduation for Dan! Because it was the December Ceremony, they had all of the colleges all together at the Dee Events Center. It was pretty long but Dan looked so cute all dressed up in his cap and gown! Congrats baby, I'm so proud of you! Love you so so so much!!! Kiss!

2008-12-12T20:51:00.000-08:00

So, this is for anyone who has ever been in our house or specifically lived in our house (before we got married of course). So, we always had such plain boring white walls. Well, we've decided we were too boring and just painted these 2 rooms. I had another picture of the paint in our kitchen and the other walls, but I think I deleted it on accident and our house is too messy right now for me to go take another picture : ) I'd love to paint our bedroom, but alas, that is too much work and I'm just not motivated yet...

2008-12-12T20:23:00.000-08:00

Ok ok! I will post something! We've just been so busy and I feel like we're not very interesting and I don't take pictures very often so there's nothing to post. But, I'll just throw on some pics that I have and explain what we've been up to the past 3 months!

In September, we decided to take an impromptu trip to Slc/Park City for a weekend. Park City has the coolest outlets...I love it! It's such a pretty place up there.

We bought a car.... she's our new baby, I'll post a pic once I take one.

And, we decided to sell our Wii and Rockband :( We realized we never played it so we may as well try out something new. We just got a Xbox and it has Guitar Hero so that makes me happy!

And, Thanksgiving was fun! We spent Thursday at Dan's parents, ate some great food and saw 4 Christmases. Dan's mom is an amazing cook, I have to remind him that I'm not her and still have a lot of learning to do! I must say that I'm not a big fan of Black Friday; the first time I've ever done it was last year and it was ridiculous! I don't have the patience for big crowds of people so we had no desire to do it again this year. We left during the afternoon of that Friday to head down to my grandparents house in Oak City. My mom, Don and the kids had driven out to be there so it was nice to see them. We celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday so that everyone can come, so, got to eat good food and play games again! Just wish Meghan, her family and Dallin could've been there; it would've been complete! But no, they got to go to EuroDisney in Paris!

It was nice to see my family as we're staying here for Christmas this year. I'm sure my mom will be sad as only 3 out of her 6 kids will be home for Christmas this year. Sorry mom!

2008-09-03T21:04:00.000-07:00

Well, we had an eventful Labor day weekend! My cousin Katie got married so my dad, Kayla, her friend, Landon and Austin drove out for the weekend. Dan's sister and her family was planning on going down to Veyo and had asked us to go too. I decided to stay home with the family and go to the reception and so Dan went camping! Dan said they caught a tarantula, crawfish, bluegill fish, a lizard, a frog, and a monstrous moth/bat! He went rock climbing and cave exploring. I wish I could've gone!

Dan is also in a softball league with his work and plays in a volleyball league with some friends. So, I get to go watch him 2 nights a week! And he has a night class too so he's pretty busy! He's amazing!! :)

2008-08-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

So, just so ya'll know.....our lives are quite boring now that school has started again. I work at Weber State University for the Child and Family Studies department teaching in their Children's School and working with their student teachers. School started on Monday and I have a wonderful class!! It's been a joy so far and it has been just a couple of days. We're in the "honeymoon" period right now but I'm sure it'll stay wonderful! Dan is doing the last 2 classes of his college career!!! YEAH!!! It'll be nice not having to pay for school anymore! We're such grown ups! So, if you don't see a post on here in a while...we're doing good...there's just not much to post! I'll have to put on more pictures of our dog! :)

2008-08-27T17:51:00.000-07:00

I got to go visit home during July and see my family. I don't get to go home this Christmas so it was nice to go see family before next year. While there, my friend and cousin Morgan Werner of Morgan Werner Photography did a photo shoot with me! It was such a blast! Morgan is a fun and amazing photographer! She gives direction but also lets you be comfortable in your element. Her sister Maddy Wilfley of Makeup by Maddy did all the makeup! I had to go to her house with absolutely no makeup on and wasn't feeling very secure about myself, but Maddy is a true artist in her profession and polished me up! My sister Kayla came on our photo shoot to old town Sacramento and we had a blast! It was hot and people were annoying but it was so much fun! Maddy did Kayla's makeup too and it really pulled out the blue in her eyes. Meg, wish you could've been there too! We'll have to do a photo shoot when we are all together! Morgan and Maddy, you girls rock!

Park City

2008-08-14T18:20:00.000-07:00

And this is me being silly!

2008-08-14T18:11:00.000-07:00

Oh silly Dan! We were up in Park City for a weekend (He surprised me yet again this summer with a stay up there). He calls this "Park City Romance"

Waterfall Canyon

2008-08-14T17:58:00.000-07:00

So, I decided that I should probably add on to our blog because Dan said it's boring, but hey, I'm a busy girl!

So, we went to Waterfall Canyon over the summer. Sometimes, Dan likes to go climbing up the rocks and Twister freaks out because she can't be near him! She tries to jump up the rocks to him but some of them are pretty steep. Here, she finally made it!

2008-08-03T15:05:00.000-07:00

So, can anyone tell me how to add people as friends on a blog?

My new blog

2008-08-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I've officially decided to jump on the bandwagon with creating a blog. I stalk everyone else's blogs so I guess that others can take a look at the boring ol lives of Dan and Lissy! I'll try not to include too many pictures of our dog Twister!

More to come, once I figure out what the heck I'm doing and I actually have time before school starts and I have to work again!