The Oakland Zoo

A fun family outing to the zoo!

We loved every minute of our time together.
Chloe: We weren't sure if she would actually enjoy it. But she spotted every animal right as she walked up. Her favorite part was the little play area. She was so good, just sat and looked around the whole day. Highlight of her day was the ice cream we bought. She makes a new begging noise when she wants something really bad, if you're a Mom you probably know that noise, but is impossible to write down into a word. Any trys??
Riley: Was excited to see "Simba" and "Pumba & Timon" Simba was asleep on the rock and after 5 seconds asked to see more animals. There were tons of Timons (meerkats) she liked watching them. Pumba (warthog) was dead asleep where we could hardly see him. The sign next to the warthog said they are extremely sensitive to noise... bummer.... we were about to scream "When I was a young warthog!!!" just to see if he answered back. (in case you don't know, these are all Lion King references)
The highlight of the trip was watching the alligators get fed (they feed them dead rats...nasty) They splashed all around and guess who got wet, and screamed, and cried???

Yup, Riley. Bless her little heart, she hates to get wet. She pulled it together after a few minutes, and we thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our day.

A few things we've done this month

Our first official Beall Family Easter egg hunt, I know Riley is 3, we're bad parents. She loved this, mostly thinking that the Easter bunny was in the house.

She asks "Mommy, did the Easter bunny go into my room?"

We drove to Utah the day before Easter, the following pics are things we did there

(This was Riley's hair after the 10 hour drive to Utah, it had its own solar system)

piggy piggy

I had some apples and peanut butter yesterday and left my plate out on accident...well, take a look at who discovered it

General Conference Weekend

This weekend we had our church's bi-annual conference. This is when the "general authorities" of our church speak to us. It was beautiful!

My favorite was Jeffrey R. Holland who spoke about being lonely. I think I liked it so much, because of the details he described of the final days of our Saviors life. How all His disciples left Him, even Heavenly Father, for a brief moment on the cross, and He needed that to truly understand how we feel when we feel lonely, depressed, or sad. It definitely increased my testimony of how much we can depend on Christ, and how much He went through - simply because He loves us.

During the 2 sessions on Sunday, we walked to the park for a picnic. It was a beautiful day! As we walked to the park we were reminding Riley that we can play on the grass, but that because it was Sunday, we couldn't play on the play structure. We believe that Sunday is a day of worship and that we should only do things that bring us closer to God or our family/close friends. So, would playing together at the park, tear us apart? No!
Riley kept saying, "but those kids are playing, they're mean"! We reminded her that they aren't mean, sometimes other families do things different . And, my mind raced ahead to the future and I kept thinking that this will be an issue her whole life! "Those other kids are_____" ....You fill in the blank. Sometimes, as we're driving to church, I see people at the Starbucks, in their cute tank tops, walking the dog, and I want to say "those people are playing - I want to too - they're mean"!

At the heart of it, I know that our church is true! On Sundays, there is really no other place I would rather be than at church with fellow latter day saints, and where I can learn! I know if I teach my child the principles I was believe are correct, then she will grow strong in this gospel, and find more joy then the 20 minutes on the playground would have given her.

Our Sunday ended with s'mores out in our backyard (it still sounds weird to say "our backyard")This was Chloe and Riley's first experience with s'mores - it is now a love affair never to end!

I love the marshmallow stuck to Chloe's face, she don't care - she luvvved it.

Chloe's little buddy

Halle is 4 months older than Chloe, and every time they get together they are so cute. They just kind look at each other, and poke at each other. (they haven't hit that possessive toddler stage yet)

This day, they had a minute long hug, it was pretty funny! I couldn't resist a picture.

We moved!

For those that are wondering, NO we did not buy...we're just not that cool yet! We did find an adorable duplex in an adorable neighborhood, with a nice sized yard, and a lemon tree! It fits us just right and are loving the 2 blocks away to the park, and not having any neighbors above us or below us.
The other day while driving, Riley asked why we weren't going back to our "home". I explained that the new house is our new "home". She thinks for a second, then says
"OH, Thank You Mommy!"
I think she likes it.

Chloe, my deary, loved the boxes, but HATES the backyard :( Whats up with that?

(If you didn't get our new address and would like it, let me know)

Busy & Crazy

So with moving, we've been eating out a lot! Cuz Mama's been busy and the girls have been crazy! This night was in-n-out night.

I walk out of the room for a minute and walk back to this:

Riley says " Mommy we're clowns now, we can join the circus"

She's potty Trained

The merry go round was her big reward!I pretty much thought this day would never come! I thought I would be sending her to first grade in plastic underwear. One morning I was particularly adamant about her putting on panties, and then, she just did it! And hasn't gone back - - yet! We're still working on the # 2 on the potty, but I know we'll get there.

Chloe got a ride too!

Then we needed to buy her some sunglasses, and she wore them the WHOLE time in the mall like she wuz Paris Hilton or somthin' - pretty funny, people were staring.

Cake in bed

On March 11, Riley ACTUALLY turned 3 , it feels like we had already celebrated it, but we didn't want the real day to pass with out letting her know how important she is to us. So she got a cake in bed (OUR bed, since that is where she ends up every morning) ... luv her.

25 Years!

Last Saturday we had the joy of celebrating Mike's Dad and Step-Mom's 25th Anniversary! They just returned from Hawaii, so the party had a Hawaiian theme. It was a great time - yummy food and great company! We love you Dad and Fran, we are so happy we could come to celebrate with you!