Hope for a NEW year of love and happiness...

~~As we make our resolutions for the year ahead, let us go forward with great hope that all things can be possible—with Your help and guidance."--Anonymous


The New Year is approaching and I could not be any more excited. I am expecting that 2009 will be a year of GREAT things. I will see my Mom in January, hopefully see my brother and his family in February, I have my bachelorette weekend in California in March, then we are getting MARRIED in April(honeymoon to follow)! And this is only the first FoUR months....

After all that we are planning, at least for now, to go to Germany for our BIG trip in October, 2009. We are trying to go on one nice, fun trip once a year until the future children arrive. Jerry and I love to travel with our friends and feel that it is important to "get it out of the way" before our family grows. So far we have been to Ireland, Hawaii, and on an 8 day cruise to the Mexican Riviera. Jerry really wants to visit Spain sometime soon too!

I have a feeling that 2009 will go by just as fast if not faster than 2008. There is so much to look forward to this coming year and I hope that health and happiness continue to bless us!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all :)

Tis' the Season...

Our gifts to ourselves, IPhones!







Another Christmas has come and gone. And pretty soon another year! I hope 2009 starts off and ends better than 2008. It has been quite the year and I must say, not a lot of it was great. Although, I did get a new Nephew and an engagement ring ;)

These last few days have been spent eating, more eating, SOME more eATinG and being merry with loved ones. I had some of the best homemade Mexican food I have ever had; one of the perks of marrying into a hispanic family! We laughed, played, joked and relaxed. Nothing better than that...

I hope all had a blessed and joyous Christmas! Love to all.

Christmas week!

It's finally Christmas week and today I decided that I would attempt to make some homemade cookies. I think that I may have chosen the wrong recipe for someone who hates to bake from scratch. I chose to make Ginger and Gingerbread cookies. I bought all the ingredients, came home and started baking....
I was doing just fine until I added the MoLASseS to the mix...that stuff smells HORRIFIC. I tried to keep going and finish the batter but I almost lost my cookies; no pun intended. I couldn't bare the smell anymore and threw the dough away. Yes that's right I wasted the dough, which I am sure was fine, put it in the trash and literally took it to the BIG trash can. Needless to say I will not be making any sort of ginger cookies again in my life.




So, after all that mess, I decided to make the pre-cut cookies. And if I do say so myself, they are delish :) Thank you Nestle Toll House!


Baking ingredients in the background, hahaha!








Oh, and I am giving some cookies away this coming week!!

Photo love

Here are some more of our engagement photos that I actually edited. The photographer did not edit these which is good because I love playing with my editing software! It is kind of a new hobby of mine :) Enjoy...

Crazy week comes to an end!

This past week has been nothing short of exhausting and exciting, all at the same time...

~Last Saturday (the 6th) started off great with me heading to a girlfriends baby shower at around 12:30pm. While on my way there I received a phone call from my boss. Not a phone call that I normally would get on the weekend. She was calling with some unfortunate news. Our co-worker who had been fighting Leukemia for over 8 months had lost her battle and passed away. I was heart broken and shocked all in the same moment. I instantly broke into tears and couldn't stop thinking about what her family must be going through, especially during this Holiday season. Christmas was my co-workers favorite time of year making her passing much harder on those left behind. In all, she will be missed dearly and is remembered for being a cheerful and genuine person.

~On Sunday we had a happy occasion, our engagement photo session! We had such a great time with our photographer and are very pleased with the results. There were so many great photos and we couldn't be happier :)

~Tuesday was my first flower appointment. Melinda came with me which was very helpful. I received a quote from the florist but am still going to get one more. Flowers are not cheap!

~Jerry has been working very hard these past few weeks due to rates being really low and he has been working 12-13 hour days. It finally caught up with him on Thursday and he ended up leaving work early. Although it was nice having him home early, he sure was exhausted and needing to rest. He is such a hard worker and I am so proud of his dedication.

~Yesterday was a fun day as well. We met with our Pastor again to give her our ceremony information. So that was fun. Then after that we had a nice lunch in Scottsdale after visiting Ikea. The fun house for home stuff. We had fun there too. Once we finished lunch, we headed to FireSky for cake tasting. We picked our cake out for the wedding which took another load off of what I still have to do. Luckily, the cake lady was awesome and made it so easy...there may be a few surprises with regards to the cake too ;) In the evening we were heading to my work Christmas party but before we could leave we were surprised by a neighbor stopping by....long story short, we have a leak in our landscape drip system which has flooded my neighbors yard and has made our front yard a sink hole waiting to happen! Yes, I know, this sounds like fun ;) We got the water turned off which has been running for about a month. ooops! I expect that our front yard will be torn to pieces in the coming week to find the issue. That should be good fun!

~And finally, today, which has been relaxing and fun. I finally made it to the gym and Jerry was able to do NOTHING! We visited his family for a bit, grabbed a bite to eat and are now home spending time together! Oh yeah and our Christmas cards will finally be going out this week. I managed to get those done today too!

Here is a sneak peak at our engagement photos!

Holiday Wishes to All!

I figured I should update on the wedding plans! We are under 5 months away from the wedding and still have a lot to do. These next few months are going to be packed with Holidays, birthday's, trips, parties and celebrations. I just hope that they don't fly by too fast that I can't keep my head on straight! Most of the big items have been taken care of but next up is ordering the invitations, booking the music for the ceremony, coordinating flowers, and getting all the little details in order. I have ordered the bridesmaid dresses and just recevied the color swatch so I can match up the linens and flowers! Now that those are ordered it takes a little stress off me. I have given Jerry 2 tasks; booking the honeymoon and organizing the the rehearsal dinner, we'll see who actually ends up doing these things, though ;) To be quite honest I have wanted to get more help from my dearest friends but in the end I am WAY to picky and HAVE to be involved in everything wedding related. I think it is part of OCD that Jerry just realized I had this morning. It isn't bad OCD but it is for sure there. Here's an example...My Matron of honor has been working on my shower invites, which she is making for me from scratch, and of course the OCD has kicked in on that and I need to be apart of the decision on colors :) Why should it matter? I'm not throwing myself the shower... Well, I guess because I want the colors to match my reception colors. Oh well, if this is the bridezilla type action so far, then we should be thankful!

We have our engagement photo session with our photgrapher on Sunday and I'm thrilled. We still haven't picked out what we are wearing yet, but I hope to get this done on Saturday. I plan on using these photos for our Christmas cards which obviously will go out late. But oh how they will be cute!

I hope everyone is having a blessed Holiday season this year! HO, HO, HO!

Elf, my favorite Holiday movie!

Thanksgiving and More!

I love my Dad and Stepmom :)
My handsome Fiance.

I figured I should update on how our Thanksgiving was. In all it was a VERY relaxing day. I enjoy the days that are spent with Jerry and where we don't HAVE to do anything. We spent the morning lounging around then made an appearance at both his cousins and my Dad's house! We had a great time with his family and were excited to see his Aunt who we hadn't seen in months. She finally made the official move down here form California. After a mid afternoon snack there, we headed to my Dad's for more yummy food. My wonderful sisters were in town and it was nice to see them. The next time we will see them will be our wedding in April! After we ate we hung around chatting away and then got to see my brother and his family on webcam! This seems to be the only way we can see them these days as they are so far away :( My niece Hayley absolutely loved seeing my nephew Carter on the computer. They were giggling and being silly and it was magical to watch! I miss my brother and his family more than anything and can't wait to see them soon. My mom is away too which is hard during the Holidays. But hopefully someday soon, we will all be close again.In all Thanksgiving was spectacular! Can't wait til next year :)
Carter and Hayley talking!