Circus!

In February, we went to the circus! Ok ok, so we were SUPPOSED to go to the circus. Bobby ended up taking Ryan and I stayed home with Lilly. She was being a bit of a stinker butt. But they had a great time! It was a non-animal circus, so he didn't get to see any elephants or lions, but there were quite a few tallented people there! Ryan got his face painted like a cat while he was there. I hope I get to attend next year! Looked like fun! :-)

7 Months old!

Lilly was 7 months old January 6th! She *started* liking her tummy. She will at least push herself up now.

She loves her baths! She sits up all on her own now and plays. She loves bubbles.

She finally decided she didn't like being in her infant seat while at the store, and she sits in the cart like a big girl But if it's bottle time, she is lazy and will lay down in the cart. haha!

She is just the apple of my eye. I can't get enough of her.

New Addition

Well, a few days after Christmas, we were surprised by a new member of the family. Bobby was working on his car in the garage, and some people were going door to door asking if a puppy was theirs. They explained that they had almost hit her coming into our development. They also expressed that they couldn't take her home with them, because they had a mean dog that didn't get along with others. Bobby offered to take her in until the owners could be found.

We put up signs in our community, we called animal hospitals, we even took her into Petsmart and they scanned her 5 times for a chip. All to no avail. No one claimed her. The veterenarian told us she was a purebread Boxer and was absolutely perfect. She had no health issues or anything. If I had to guess, it being 3 days after Christmas, she was a Christmas gift, and got out and lost. I feel bad for whoever owned her, but she made it to a good home. Bobby is thrilled, as he has been wanting a boxer for EVER. He wanted one before I even got Bella.

Ryan loves her, Lilly tollerates her, and I roll my eyes. ;-)

If I can get her to stop eating everything and digging holes under the fence and peeing inside, we can be friends.

Christmas

Christmas this year was extra special for our family. It was our first Christmas with our amazing blessing, Lilly.

Santa was good this year, better than I thought he was going to be able to be, infact. Ryan was excited about his gifts, and was very sweet in helping Lilly (read: doing it for her) open her gifts. He is one of the best big brothers I've seen. he loves his baby sister.

I got hubby the playstation move, and both of them new games to go with it.

And Santa brought Ryan his nerf gun he has been asking for. He must have been a good boy this year :-)

He was really excited to get his starwars lightsabers. I mean, really excited.

We were surrounded by awesome family all day. Bobby's dad and step mom came over in the morning to bring the kids even MORE stuff and visit for a while. It was really good to see them.

Next up we went over to grandma's house! Carol and Jon prepared a beautiful and delicious ham. Erika and I helped with the side dishes. we were all stuffed! Good food + family is always awesome.

Later, we went to visit Nana and Dumps. We had a full day this year, that's for sure. There they got even MORE... man, talk about ranking in this year. They SURE did! We spent a nice evening over there and enjoyed the company and laughs.

This Christmas was probably one of my favorites so far. I know, we have many more to go, but it was truly just a wonderful day, spent with the people we love the most.

Christmas Lights

Just before Christmas this year, we went Christmas light hunting! One of my friends had stumbled uppon a house with hundreds of thousands of lights. Not kidding.

They have over 100,000 LED lights. They have a working ferris wheel that is all lit up. They begin putting up lights before Halloween! The couple who do it are older, 68 to be exact. Do you know of anyone of that age that can accomplish this? It's quite amazing.

They have music all corresponding with the lights that blink and dance. It's quite amazing. I'm trying to upload a video but blogger isn't letting me. I'll try to come back and add it later. We will definitely be going back next year!

We went to a few other houses, but none compared to this house!

Cosmopolitain

Bobby recently got a new job doing valet at the Cosmopolitan casino on the strip. We were so excited when he got the news! It was such a huge blessing, as he got to quit working at FedEx finally. That job was back breaking and he hated it. Cars are his thing, so getting to drive an array of different cars every night is right up his alley. It's good to see him enjoy what he is doing and I'm so proud of him. We still have our school open, that isn't impacted at all, so it works well for now.

Just before their big grand opening, they had to do a dry run of all the employee's. The held an event during the weekend where all the employees got to bring one person and enjoy the 'package' that they picked. Every employee picked a 'package'. Each package was different. Some had nights stay in a room, some had valet parking, different resturants were in each packet, and everyone got a different amount of money (play money hehe) to gamble with. Bobby drew a package that gave us $1,000 each to gamble with, and dinner at the best steak house in the world. Not kidding, this steak house STK, is rated #1 steak house in the world right now.

We had reservations at STK and we were both READY. We get there, and low and behold, our reservation was canceled. :-( apparently, they had overbooked. So they randomly canceled people. To say we were disappointed would be an understatement. They told us we could go to any other place for dinner. We settled on a nice burger place. Food = awesome. I had a great burger as did Bobby. Their milkshakes are to die for. Soooo yummy.

After dinner we took a tour of the WHOLE place. Well, Bobby played tour guide, as he had been there every day through every inch of the place for weeks at that point. The pool area is BEAUTIFUL. Absolutely gorgeous. It's on the roof, so you have a view of the strip from up high. I can't find pictures I took of it on my phone. I think those pictures are part of the bunch that I lost with this last restore of my phone :-/. I'm sure you can look online for some pictures of it. There are like 3 different levels of pools. The main pool area is the biggest and they put concerts on out there. Then there is a smaller area but just as beautiful, then you go really upstairs and there is a beautiful pool with jacuzzi's with waterfalls that are gorgeous. I'm sad I don't have my pictures. :-( The third pool is connected to the nightclub. The nightclub is massive! I'm sure the nights they have are fun because there is so much space and lots of room to dance.

After walking EVERYWHERE, Bobby and I went downstairs to gamble. As we were at a Texas Hold Em table, someone walked by and handed us their money vouchers. $10,000 worth! So we cashed them in and went to the high roller area. So fun. We spent about an hour gambling and then gave all our left over money to the people at the craps table we were playing at. We were tired and ready to go home! It was a great night, though. We had so much fun.

Ryan's first soccer season ends

Ryan finished his soccer season at the begining of November. They had a 'field day' the night before his last games. They had bounce houses, food, and soccer games. There were kids in soccer jersies EVERYWHERE! Ryan was running around having a blast. He has made a few new friends from soccer and I think it has been such a positive experience for him.

always making new friends wherever he goes. This was one of the bounce houses the night before at field day


Running in his last game


Ryan's soccer coach giving him his medal


He was really excited that his soccer ball on his trophy twirled.

It was a really positive fun experience for him. I'm so glad he got the chance to do it. He still asks about when he gets to do soccer again! I think he just misses his friends. hehe :-)

Springs Preserve & Halloween

We took the kiddies to Springs Preserve for some trick-or-treating just before Halloween. Springs Preserve is one of my favorite places to go for various holidays. They always have great stuff for the kids. Last year Ryan loved it, so we went back this year. We brought some of our friends, Jen Jen and Matt brought little Karli, and Bobby's friend Keith and his family came with their daughter, Vanessa.



They had great games for the kids. Ryan loved playing all the stuff they had there for him.


Ryan and Vanessa have a great time together whenever we get together. Vanessa was Little Red Riding Hood. She was absolutely adorable!



Mommy's little pumpkin!


Daddy, trying to get Lilly to not be sad.


I loved Ryan's bear costume this year. LOVED it. It was warm and comfortable. He was just adorable in it.

Erdman Clan - Halloween 2010

Halloween Party

This year's karate Halloween party was QUITE the success. We were a tad worried, because the elementary school and the rec center were all holding their own parties the same day and time. We had SO many kids in the school, it almost wasn't big enough! We had some great costumes and a lot of fun games.

I waited way too long this year to get us all costumes. We didn't get to be our themes like we have been in the past years. :-( I'm shooting for next year. This year, I was Betty Rubble (from the flinstones). I put my hair in a really cute bob, it turned out awesome. Hubs was one of the blue guys from Avatar. His mask was scary as crap! He walked into our room as I was getting ready, and both dogs started going crazy barking at him! He removed the mask and they were looking at him like 'what the heck man??'.

The Esparza twins had, I think, the most awesome costumes of everyone!

My sister came and brought her sister in law and her kids. We're all family, doesn't matter. Monica looked great as a dead nurse! She is such a pretty girl. I didn't get a picture of her other daughter (Lili, her's not mine) which was unfortunate. She looked great too!

Ryan and Gage won 'cutest costume'. I have to admit, Ryan sure was darn cute in his little bear costume! He and Gage were both quite deserving of the award!

We had a really awesome evening. I baked cupcakes and we had pizza for everyone. I already can't wait for next Halloween! I LOVE Halloween!