Friday, July 29, 2011

Makena's Dance Recital

Finally caught up on the most recent event! This last Wednesday was Makena's second dance recital for Temecula Dance Company. Can I just say, she was seriously the cutest little dancer out there! I crack up that she was partnered with the only boy in the group and boy can she shake it! Here are a few pictures! Again, I failed to bring my camera along :( Thank goodness for the Iphone lifesaver again (and a few sent from my sis)!

Shake it little lady!
Nana and Pop Pop
Proud Mommy and Daddy

Uncle Mike was able to make it this year and loved seeing her perform! :) He said he laughed so hard he had tears in his eyes...sure, he was soooo touched to see her dancing! ;)

Firefighter Olympics



The California Firefighter Olympics is when most fire departments (from Northern and Southern California) compete in competitions such as softball, paddle boarding, surfing, etc. Mike was set to play with his department (Huntington Beach Fire Department) and play softball.


Luckily the Olympics was hosted by Newport Beach Fire Department so we didn't have to go too far. We ventured up to Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach for a few days while he was off on his 6 day break for him to play in the softball tournament.


On his first day, they played 2 games. They won the first, but lost the second. The weather was perfect for some softball watching! Mike's mom came with us to help me cheer Mike and his team on! When Mike was little, he used to watch his dad compete in the same tournaments. This time, he was actually playing! On the second day, they also played two games. I can't remember if they won or lost :( Mike scored TWO home runs for his team! Yay! We were so nervous (brought back memories for Mike's mom when he used to play baseball) when he was up to bat! What a great few days that was! Looking forward to next year and hoping it's hosted by a department that is close by!

Location, Location, Location

Before we got engaged, I loved looking at wedding blogs for ideas that I would use someday when planning my own wedding. I wasn't impatient was I? Well, I came across a blog that had featured a wedding at a beautiful venue that happened to be in Irvine. I did my research and found the exact location. Mike and I took a trip to Orange County one day (before the proposal even came!) and checked out the venue. We both L-O-V-E-D it. It was the perfect place and fit our style.

At the start of summer break, we got to visit the venue to see an actual wedding set up and were able to see how everything all comes together for the special day. We took our families and they also shared our love for this beautiful place.

After searching the Internet and wedding magazines, we finally came to the decision that this was the place and nothing else was going to do. We love the beach (obviously), but had so many reservations about the weather, etc. and just didn't feel like it fit our style we were trying to accomplish either.




We made the important decision to meet with the site coordinator and were so pleased with everything the venue offered.






Here it is!



Strawberry Farms is located on a beautiful golf course that is hidden in the hills of Irvine. It's west of the 405 which means it's closer to the beach (that is a major "plus" since Irvine can get warm!). The barn is what sold us! It is such a unique venue and will fit our vintage style just perfect!




The day we met with the coordinator was a fun day spent with my mom! While my mom and I went into the barn to measure, plan, etc. Mike hit some golf balls on the driving range. He loves that the venue is at a golf course.

We ventured over to the restaurant and had a wonderful lunch out on the veranda! What a great day it was and what perfect weather too! We can only hope that we will have perfect weather July 20, 2012! :)
Mike and I planned to go back to Strawberry Farms this July 20th to celebrate a year away from our special day (his idea! Just love his thoughtfulness), but unfortunately he was on shift that day :( We will have plenty of return trips! In fact, we plan on going back next Friday to have lunch before I have to go back to work.

Baby Boy Cohen

We waited and waited (patiently-Mike, impatiently-Me) for the phone call that my sister was going into labor. We awoke at 2:30 a.m. to find out that she was on her way to Fallbrook. Yay! I tried my best to go back to sleep, but was just way too excited! We drove out to Fallbrook to wait for the little man's debut! We were all a little exhausted from being up so early, but waited patiently in the waiting room! The tiny waiting room was packed with our family, Kevin's family, Ryan (Mike's brother), and Carole (Mike's mom). It was such a funny experience to have Makena with us because it seemed like it was just yesterday that we were waiting for her debut. She was no longer going to be the baby :(
We waited some more hoping that we could see him through the window since we hadn't heard anything for a while. No such luck...he didn't want to make his appearance yet.
He's here! Look at those smiles! ;) *I missed the opportunity to snap a family picture with Kevin :( Sorry! Just another example of my poor picture taking skills this summer :(
I just melt when I look at this picture. Just too precious.
Nana holding baby Cohen for the first time :) He is already wrapped around her finger like Makena!




Since we went in shifts, I didn't get a chance to get a picture of Pop Pop and baby Cohen together :(
Uncle Mike is so excited to have a little boy to play Legos with! Although he does love playing Polly Pockets with Makena! Love this little man so much!!!!!!
Such a precious little face and so tiny!
This little one is so in love with her little brother!


Thursday, July 28, 2011

A little (to say the least) behind

As the last day of school approached, I promised myself that I would keep up with my blog since I knew there would be plenty to blog about this summer. I had my plan set that this summer would be to plan for our wedding, relax, and of course, blog. Instead, I sit here with an empty blog and an empty camera. Thank goodness for an iphone and other people who have been responsible enough to bring a camera along for the memories. Here is a brief explanation of what's been going on..

Baby Cohen: Oh my goodness...absolutely in love with this little man. He is just too precious and we cannot get enough of him. And as for Makena, I am in total shock (still) that she is going to be a kindergartner...where did time go?? She is the cutest Big Sis and so good to her brother! Pictures to come soon of his birthday! ;)

Plenty (way too many) of doctor visits: I've experienced a migraine or two before, but nothing like experiencing them once or twice in one week for over a month straight. I was having them so often that I panicked (shocked? I bet not.) and told my doctor that I thought I needed a brain scan (MRI) just to make sure there wasn't something more serious going on...he thought I was nuts, but ordered my scan. Luckily, everything came back great...needless to say, these awful migraines have made me nuts all summer and have prevented me from doing so many things that I had on my "To Do" list :( I blame these (number one reason for sure!) for my lack of blogging!!!!!!!!

Wedding planning: I was so sad to not fulfill everything that I wanted to accomplish this summer. I had so many ideas that were put on hold due to those pesky migraines :( I did, however, manage to build my own wedding binder (which I'm quite embarrassed by. It's a little, um, OCD). Sadly, we came to the conclusion that everything is just way too expensive and really had to come to the harsh reality of making our budget smaller than we had anticipated. It's so crazy how everything is outrageously inflated when it has anything to do with a wedding. One BIG decision we made was finding our photographer. Check her out: (http://www.bethanybelleblog.net/). The second I saw her work, I knew she was the one for us! We are so excited she will be shooting our engagement session (love the ones she has shot..check them out on her site) and our special day! It now all comes down to pretty much the little things that I have been dreaming and envisioning for months now. :) Let the fun begin!


Amongst all of that, add in a TON of beach days (can you blame us?), great family time, Huntington Beach Fire Department firefighter Olympics, Padre Game, pool days, Makena's dance recital, plenty of trips to Strawberry Farms, and throw in a few crafty days here and there (I was lucky if I squeezed in 3).

Did I mention any sort of vacation or getaway? Not this summer! Looking forward to that honeymoon next summer! We have been looking into the Maldives! Yay!

There ya have it...my long explanation of why I have been such a blogging slacker. Please forgive my lack of blogging and I promise to add pictures soon! ;)

P.S. Um, Where did summer go? So sad :(

Sunday, May 29, 2011

The date is set!

We set our date! I will keep the location a secret for a little while longer until we go and meet with the wedding planner on Thursday! :) More wedding details will be coming soon!



*July 20, 2012*


Location coming soon!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

We are ENGAGED!!!!!

And our story begins...






(Long story too! I use our blog as a scrapbook so I have to document every detail!)

Over the past few months, I started to get the whole "ants in my pants" feeling since most of our friends were either newly engaged, married, having babies, etc. and I wondered when our time was going to come. Poor Mike was taking the brunt of it all and kept getting the same question, "When????" from not only me, but everyone else (family, friends, etc.). It was the question that weighed on my mind constantly considering the fact that we have been together for 7 years, bought a house together, and we both were beyond positive that we were going to spend the rest of our lives together. As March 18th passed (our anniversary), I thought maybe something was going to come soon...well I waited patiently and patiently...


***He said if I kept talking about getting engaged, it wasn't going to be a surprise...how could I not talk about it though?! :/



I was tired (to say the least) and just wanted to get home after sitting in traffic on the lovely 78. My phone rang and it happened to be Mike on the other end. He asked me if I remembered the glass cupcake pedestal stand that I had sitting on top of the refrigerator. Of course I knew what he was talking about! He proceeded to tell me that he had broke it while trying to get a recipe book down from the cupboard. UGH! I got mad and then later realized that I would go onto Pottery Barns website and look to see if they still had them (ironically that was one of my Christmas presents from him). I told him I would look for one and I wasn't mad (when in actuality I was since it was one of my favorite little decorations. I then called my mom to tell her how mad I was). When I finally got home, he had this sad look on his face and said, "don't start, I told you I was sorry." I told him it was fine and I looked it up already and they sure enough had them still. I told him to call Pottery Barn and have him go pick it up. He ended up calling La Jolla and had them put one on hold for him (he would be down tomorrow while I was at work to go pick it up). I was so relieved! (This was his plan to get us down to La Jolla...clever!.....he didn't actually break it on purpose...he was putting it away and did end up cracking the top :( ) This is the infamous cake stand! ;)


The next morning (May 10), he walked me to the garage and said his usual goodbye. He wasn't acting strange, etc. even though he asked me if later I wanted to go with him to pick up "the machine"...I mumbled yes and drove off. On my way to school, I started laughing to myself wondering what on Earth "the machine" was. I must have been tired when I left because I didn't question him at all. I called him right before I got to school and asked him what "the machine" was and he said "Oh well I meant the cake stand". I just laughed and promised him I would leave right after school. He was obviously nervous and words just came shooting like a rocket out of his mouth!


I called Mike on my way home from school to tell him I was on my way. He told me he needed to get out of the house because he felt like he had been in there too long that day. I was tired, but still willing to drive down with him to pick up the cake stand. When I got home, he was acting a little strange and didn't seem as relaxed as his usual self. I didn't think anything was unusual though. He started running around the house doing things and couldn't settle down. He got ready and left to go get the mail. Well, come to find out, this was when he called my dad. He was going to meet him in person, but feared my mom would catch on and find it fishy! Mike's number one concern was that the beans would be spilled if anyone other than my dad and his dad knew. Sure enough, they were the only two! He had to call my dad last minute before we left. On the drive down, I started teasing him (which was a normal thing within the last few months since I was overall antsy) about going to a "ring shop" to look at rings (since we had been looking months before too). I laughed and told him I would search his car (so ironic and the weirdest thing to say...) to find the ring....he must have been dying inside! He laughed and changed the subject!


We ended up at Pottery Barn. I managed to tell the girl the story about him breaking the stand, etc. while he stood there NERVOUS (I still had no inkling of anything,...), but still acting completely normal. It was his idea to go take a look at Crate and Barrel and see what they had as far as book cases since he has been looking for one. We were taking unusually long in the kitchen section (he always rushes me and never looks around himself). He was looking at everything (odd! He definitely was NERVOUS and come to find out, he was STALLING TOO since he wanted to make it to the beach at sunset 7:30! This was all in his plan!). I mentioned to him, as we were leaving, that it would be fun to walk around the store with the registry gun and register for things (again, how ironic and what an odd thing for me to say!). This was nothing he hadn't heard before, but was dying inside since he knew something was coming! We left Crate and Barrel and I thought we were headed home. He asked me if I wanted to walk around downtown or at the beach. He eliminated the choices and said, "we are going to walk at the beach" before I could answer. I told him I was starving since I hadn't eaten since noon. He said he wasn't ready for dinner and not hungry (when is he never hungry?!) and we would stop at Bristol Farms to get a snack. He had to play it off the entire time that he wasn't starving since he had to stall. As we got off the car, I noticed his hands were sticky and sweaty. I told him it was like he was going to give a presentation or something (again, another odd thing to say!). He proceeded to tell me it was the HAND SANITIZER gel he had just put on and to check my hands too because they were probably the same. I just ignored it and we went on our way.

We began driving towards the little downtown part of La Jolla as I ate my snack and we chatted. At this point, I still thought nothing was unusual. We started driving towards "Wind and Sea" (an area of beach) which was kind of over by where we went on our first date. Still didn't sense a THING! He put on a jacket he hadn't worn in a while and I thought it was kinda of funny he was wearing it since it was more of a winter jacket and it really wasn't that cold (again, another sign I didn't catch on to!). The sun was set to go down soon and it was a little chilly. It turns out, he had tried on 3 different jackets that afternoon to see which one hid the box! hahah! We started walking through the neighborhood where you turn off to go down the path to the set of rocks where we ended up on our first date. Still, I'm not thinking anything. We got down to the spot after he had managed to trip twice and still managed to have "sticky hands"! LOL! Nerves! There was a couple down on the rocks close to the water and 3 girls sitting closer to us talking. Too bad it wasn't just us. He was bummed, but knew he had to do it then! We hung around for a while looking down below at the water. We took a picture (which I posted to FB and for some reason, must have tipped everyone off that it was going to happen soon because most said so!)...still had no inkling what so ever because I had a feeling that I would be waiting another few months or so. We began to walk away and start walking up the hill and I began to tease him and tell him, "you know, we went here on our first date...but, you don't care!". I turned around and saw him down on his knee holding a box telling me, "but I do care"....there was nothing I could do, but BURST into tears! I was so taken back by the moment and was totally speechless...words cannot describe my emotions at that particular moment. After all of the events that took place earlier, the location we were at, etc. he managed to pull this whole thing off without me catching on to ONE THING! I could not believe it was truly happening! I cried for about (what felt like) 10 minutes straight and finally told him "YES"!!!!!!!!!! The ring he picked out is more than I could have ever imagined. It is the most perfect and beautiful ring EVER! Not only was I in shock, we both were!

This was the picture I took before he popped the question!!!....I uploaded it to FB and everyone guessed it...did I? NOPE!

First picture after being engaged! :)


After calling all of our family and close friends, we ended up making it down to San Diego for a celebratory dinner! Our friend Jengi was down there and we ended up getting a hold of her....she did not want to impose on our night (she kept telling us that it was "our night"...but we didn't care! We wanted her to be there to help us celebrate since she is basically family!). She was so gracious to take us to the Marble Room in the gaslamp and we were spoiled with a steak dinner, the best champagne, etc.! We are so lucky to have such an amazing friend like her and so glad she was there to help us celebrate!! :)


We didn't get home until late and didn't end up going to bed until about 2:30, yet I was up at 5 a.m. beaming and basically bouncing off the walls! I just could not sleep anymore! Mike was cracking up at me because I was up way too early since it was my day off from work and was wide awake since I was sooooo excited!! We ended up heading to an early breakfast at one of our favorite places in La Costa, The Broken Yolk. Mike thought it would be a lot of fun if his mom (we missed his dad since he is in London right now) and my parents came down and he would cook a celebratory dinner! We had such a good dinner together while Mike and I got to share our story (all the details). My mom made us a dirt cake (Mike's favorite!)with a Ring Pop on the top! So appropriate! We were so in love before we were engaged, but now so much more! It just feels different (in the best way possible) and we are looking forward to spending the rest of our lives with one another!!! We are looking forward to all of the fun things ahead within this next year and celebrating with our family and friends! Let the planning begin baby!!! :)

Baby Shower for my sis!

This post has taken me forever to add to the blog :/ Let's just say, a lot has been going on lately! That update will come later! ;) I procrastinated (as usual) on planning everything out for this shower, but ended up pulling it off with the "over the top" help from my mom, Jengi, and our neighbor Ceal! Ok, Mike too (he cleaned! haha!)! ;) Anyway, here are some pics for you to enjoy! It's a LONG post! Snickerdoodle popcorn, pretzel/Oreo white chocolate mix with M&Ms, and Raspberry licorice and lemonheads! A "sweets bar" was created!

I stamped a pennant banner to top the small strawberry filled cake (my mom decorated it!). Lemon Cake Pops (dipped in white choclate and drizzled in blue chocolate with yellow sprinkles)..so yum!

Shortbread squares with caramel and chocolate
Oreo mini cupcakes with buttercream frosting...my mom is super talented and such a baker!
I was really going for a vintage theme...I had a vision and went with it!
I created tags for a "note" tree for baby Cohen. My idea was to have everyone write a note to him to go into a scrapbook with their picture.
They clipped their tag to the tree with mini clothespins.



Jengi was the brains behind this! We covered Mike's "Man Cave" up and created an area for my sister to open presents with one of Jengi's cute benches, fabric, circle garland, etc.!


Mason jars for strawberry lemonade! :)
I planned the theme around the invitation! Love ETSY!
Proud Mommy and Big Sister! :)
Stacy

Joy

Caradee
Wendy
These were the favors...wooden magnets with scrapbook paper...Mike put cicken wire on the frame so we could hang the bags.
We played this as one of the games :)
Mike's Mom :)

Sisters:)
He crashed the party! :) (at the end!)







It was such a fun shower to put together! I love the whole planning process too! Now, if I could only figure out a way to party plan and teach! ;)