Happy Halloween!!

We had so much fun this past weekend!! A big difference from last year since Shay was not quite old enough to understand everything. Friday we went to Kidsville to Trick or Treat, do crafts, listen to the Hullabaloo band and see some good friends. Saturday we went to the Mall across the street to Trick or Treat, then came home and did some more trick or treating around our house, and once we were done with that we came back home and passed out candy!! Shay loved this part!! He sat on the porch for over an hour and waited for all of the kids to come trick or treat!! This Halloween was a huge success and we are so looking forward to teaching Shay about all of the upcoming Holidays now that he is big enough to understand :)

Thomas the Tank Engine :)

Bella, Amber, Kelly, Me & Christine!

Michelle & I passing out candy @ KV

Kidsville fun!

Morrissa's Wedding!

The pro pics are in!! All compliments of Josh & Ariel!! LOVE THEM ALL!!!

This was pretty much at the end of the night! Shay was so tired from dancing all night!! He had more fun then any of us :)

Mr. & Mrs. Cardoza with little Shay


Sealed with a Kiss!

Shay RUNNING down the isle with the ring pillow.

Awww. I missed him so much. This was when Marvin & Shay first got there and I had not seen them in 2 days because I went up there early in the week. Missed my little bug.

Love this shot! Marv helping Shay with his buttons and my baby belly! Even Cross was there :)

The beeautiful room set-up courtesy of me & Morrissa :)

BFF's

Love this one too!!

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Cardoza!! It was perfect :)

XOXO

Happy 5 Years!!

Marvin and I are celebrating 5 years of marital bliss today!!! :)

Even though it has not always been blissful..it has been well worth it. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful man in my life who lives to take care of me and our son. I would love to renew our vows one of these days/years because I think it has really taken this long to realize what marriage is and to appreciate all the ups and the downs of it all. When Marvin and I first got married, we were definitely in love but how much do you really know about marriage and what it is going to be like. You say those vows to each other but do you really know what they mean? what they will mean? what they look like in real life? I finally know the commitment I made 5 years ago and plan on recommitting to those promises we both made to each other back then. There is no place else I'd rather be then with Marvin. He is everything to me and I never want to imagine my life without him. He truly is my partner in life and I am looking forward to many more years ahead!!

Happy October!

I am SO ready for fall!! I found this yummy and super easy to make recipe and it made me think of the cooler months coming up! Enjoy :)

Quick Apple Dumplings

2 medium Granny Smith apples
1 (8-count) package refrigerated crescent roll dough
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup orange juice
1 teaspooon vanilla extract
1/2 cup very finely chopped pecans

1. Preheat ovent to 350F. Grease an 8-inch-square baking dish.

2. Peel and core apples. Cut each apple into fourths. Unroll and separate crescent roll dough. Wrap each apple section in a crescent roll. Place in pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

3. Combine butter, sugar, and orange juice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour over dumplings. Sprinkle pecans over top.

4. Bake 30 minutes, or until crust is golden and beginning to bulle and apples are just tender when pierced with a fork.

5. To serve, spoon some of the syrup from the baking dish over dumplings.
Serve with ice cream, if desired. Serves 8.

Growing and showing!

6.5 Months!! Not too much longer :)

Too Long!

It has been way too long since I updated this blog!! I have been extremely busy with life, work, Shay, the house..and on and on :) Here are a few updates of what's been going on.

Preggy update: I am 24 weeks along (6 months) and cant believe how fast it is going by!! Baby H. will be here before we know it :) We picked a name, it's going to be Cross Emory Harrison and we are SO excited!!! Oh, did I mention we are having a boy??? Not sure if I posted that in the last post. I have been feeling great up until this past weekend when I decided to clean out the garage. I was up on a ladder, lifting stuff, filled up the Tahoe twice with stuff to take to the Goodwill, and sweeping etc. and I might have over done it a little bit. I started to feel very intense tightning in my stomach for about 20 hours after and had to go into the Labor & Delivery at the hospital! They monitored me for about and hour and told me all was well with Cross! They told me I was feeling like that because I definately over did it and they put me on modified bed rest! Not sure how that is going to work out seeing how I have lots of work to do but I will certainly try to relax as much as possible.
Wedding update: Morrissa got married Sept. 5th and it was amazing!! It was very busy leading up to her big day but well worth the final result. I drove up there the Thursday before her wedding, picked her dress up on the way and once I got there we headed to dinner with the family. Then we headed to the Rehearsal which was very smooth and then back to her place to just hang out with her parents. Friday we got up, hit Starbucks of course, got our nails done and ran a bunch of errands. The rehearsal dinner was that night at her house and that went very well too!! We exchanged gifts, cried, and remembered our many childhood memories. It was great being with Morrissa and her entire family!! Saturday was the big day, we woke up (too early) and got ready for hair/makeup! Stephanie and Mary came over to work their magic on all of the girls and then Josh & Ariel came to shoot the pics! It was a perfect start to a perfect day!! The wedding was flawless, nothing went wrong, we had so much fun and I want to do it again!! :) Sunday we had a family brunch and said goodbye to out of town family that was leaving that day. Shay was awesome as the ring bearer too!! He had so much fun, danced all night on the dance floor and didnt go to be until about 1am!! What a little trooper :)
~Work wise things are going amazing!! I am filling up my calendar for next year and things are very busy! I got a new website last month, a new blog and am so excited for what next year has to bring. I am so thankful also to still have Richelle with me (it's been almost 2 years) and excited she has agreed to stay on through part of next year :) LOVE HER and could not do it without her! Other very exciting things we are now doing are Candy Buffets. Specific to theme and color. I will try to post some pictures soon.
Marvin & Shay: Marvin and Shay are doing great. Marv is busy as usual with work and taking care of us. I feel so blessed to have him in my life. He truly is the best husband ever and I love him so much!! Shay is as amazing as ever! He surprises me every day, makes me laugh and just smile in awe of him. He is growing fast and getting too smart :) He's in school twice a week and is LOVING it. We are thinking of putting him in for 3 days since he likes it so much. Might also help me have that time once the baby comes. Things are going great here at home with our little family. We could not be happier with what we have and for baby Cross to arrive on January 1st!


My bro: was supposed to be shipped off to Afganistan but thankfully got sick and was placed on a medical hold..they had to send someone else instead and we are so thankful to God that he does not have to go at this time! We know he will still have to go at some point but believe that everything happends for a reason and we are all so happy he will be here for the holidays :) His little family is doing great, Christian is growing fast also and Silvia is trying to make the best of living in New Mexico :) We hope to visit them out there soon!!




I think that is it for now. I will try to update more often. I am so excited for Fall and the holidays this year I have already started to decorate :) Hope everyone is doing well also!!


XOXO

Preggy update!

Well I'm 16 weeks and doing great!! We went to the doctor last week and were told that we are possibly having a girl but that she couldn't guarantee it and don't go out and buy anything pink just yet. When we got home I got really impatient and made an appointment at the 4D ultrasound place down the street. We got an appointment for that same day and headed right over!! After about 15 minutes of a regular black/white ultrasound (not 4D) they told us we are having another BOY!!! I can not say I was exactly thrilled at the moment he told us but I am very excited now. Excited and thankful that we have been blessed with another pregnancy!! :) We could not be happier. Anyway, we are still not 100% convinced that it is in fact a boy because of what our OB said and then they guy at the 4D place saying he was 90% sure. Haha! We are wondering why he didn't say 100% or even 98%. I know, wishful thinking ;) We have another appointment on Aug. 6Th with my OB so should get a 100% by then!! This boy/girl thing has definitely been a roller coaster so we can't wait to find out so we can really start planning and getting his/her room together! I'm sure it's a HE! Either way we are thrilled!!

Here I am at 16 weeks. Not the best picture because I just woke up from a nap but you get the idea!

What?!?!

A friend of mine (thanks Vanessa) had this posted on her blog and I about died... ok not really, but I felt REALLY LAME for having NOT known this... I haven't even gone in my kitchen yet to check and make sure this is for real... I'm not up for the shame tonight... Here ya go...

Was this something we were supposed to learn from our Mom's?????I can't believe it's been there all this time. I had to go into the kitchen and check this out for myself.Whoever looks at the end of your aluminum foil box? You know when you try to pull some foil out and the roll comes out of the box.Then you have to put the roll back in the box and start over.The darn roll always comes out at the wrong time.Well, I would like to share this with you.Yesterday I went to throw out an empty Reynolds foil box and for some reason I turned it, and looked at the end of the box. And written on the end it said, Press here to lock end.Right there on the end of the box is a tab to lock the roll in place.How long has this little locking tab been there?I then looked at a generic brand of aluminum foil and it had one, too.I then looked at a box of Saran wrap and it had one too!I can't count the number of times the Saran wrap roll has jumped out,when I was trying to cover something up.I'm sharing this with my friends.I hope I'm not the only person that didn't know about this. I know you're going to go and check your boxes, so go ahead!

The latest News!!!

Tax Deadline!!

Well I hope that everyone has filed their taxes by now :) I can't tell you how happy I am that this crazy tax season is finally over! I finally get my honey back! I'm sure no one is more happy then Marvin though to be done with it. Here's to a great summer with my family!

Happy Easter!!

We had so much fun on Easter this year! Shay is finally old enough to enjoy this day and really know what is going on. We colored eggs and had a egg hunt right here at our house! The weather was not very nice so we decided to hide eggs all over the house. Shay had a great time finding them in random places and eating the goodies inside :) We then headed over to Marvin's parents house for some more Easter fun!! Here are some pictures from our fun day! Hope everyone had a great Easter too!!

Here is Shay reading with his cousins Justin & Quentin!

Photo Fun w/ Melissa

My good friend Melissa did some head shots of me for my website the other day and sent me a few teasers!! She is amazing and I'm so thankful to have her in my life and that she took time out of her busy week (she's leaving for Australia Sunday) to do these pictures for me!! Thank you Melissa!!! I LOVE THEM!!

We even got a family pic ;)
________________________________________________
And a few of Melissa :)

It's going around!!

Well I'm finally feeling better after having a nasty bug for a few days! Laying in bed with a fever is definitely difficult when you have a little one to take care of! Thankfully I have my mom and wonderful husband who were able to come to the rescue in my time of need :) Today was the first day that I finally got out of the house (Other then my urgent care visit yesterday..but that's a whole other post that we don't need to talk about;) and we took Shay to a new park we found in Rolling Hills Ranch. He had a blast!! It's so fun to see him pushing his own limits and discovering new things. And today was such a beautiful day; I am definitely ready for summer to get here!! Here are a few pictures from last week and today. Enjoy!

This picture is from the park next to our house!

Montevalle Park!

For today...March 31th 2009

Outside my window...a beautiful day

I am thinking...that I LOVE weddings and my job!
I am thankful for...everything!!

From the kitchen...need to take something out for dinner
I am wearing...jeans/shirt

I am creating...my wedding blog!
I am going...to the park with Shay after his nap
I am reading...Wedding Blogs!
I am hoping...it stays nice outside!
I am hearing...someone playing cool music outside
One of my favorite things...is snuggling with Shay

A few plans for the rest of the week: New client meetings, preparing for a wedding, seeing some friends.
Here is a picture that I'm sharing: Addelina trying to make Shay wear the fireman hat at Kidsville! He was NOT having it!!

For today...March 19th 2009
Outside my window...the swing
I am thinking...that I LOVE my crock pot!

I am thankful for...being able to stay home with Shay
From the kitchen...see previous post on Crock Potting!!

I am wearing...sweats
I am creating...a happy home life

I am going...to meet Melissa and Brenda for breakfast tomorrow!!

I am reading...nothing at the moment but going to get a new book!!!

I am hoping...Summer comes soon!!

I am hearing...Sprout network

One of my favorite things...is the Crock Pot at the moment
A few plans for the rest of the week: Seeing some friends tomorrow, girls night on Saturday, swimming on Sunday if the weather holds up.

Here is a picture that I'm sharing: The Wild Animal Park..

Potty Training

Shay has finally decided that he does not want to pee in his pull-up but on the POT!! It's been about a week that he has been wearing underwear and he is not only loving it but doing SO good! He even goes all by himself, sits himself on the toilet, wipes, flushes and puts his clothes back on!!

What a big boy! I can't believe in 2 months I am going to have a 3 year old..even though i am convinced he is already 10 with the attitude he has! My sweet baby is growing so fast! Time for another one!

Crock-Potting...

So I was introduced to the wonderful life of Crock Pot cooking a few weeks ago by my friend Alison and it has already changed my life! Of course I had used this amazing contraption in the past but never knew all of the yummy things you could make in it. I think in the past I only used it to warm canned baked beans..well..those days are long gone!! I started experimenting last week and first made a roast which Alison told me was one of the easiest things to make..if you know me, you know that I don't cook (well, not anything other then tacos :)) So I made the roast and it turned out fantastic!! To think all you have to do is cut up a few potatoes, carrots and plop a roast on top..and dinner is ready in 8 hours..well this was a dream come true for me! I have made that roast in different variations, also made the same recipe with chicken and have moved on to other wonderful concoctions!! Let me tell you that Marvin has been so happy..and he doesn't even know who to thank! I will be sure to tell him Alison is to thank for the wonderful meals I have been producing :) Today I made some chili by putting a bunch of stuff in the CrockPot from my pantry..some beans, tomato paste, ground turkey and it is amazing!! Here is what it looked like!! I'm sure Marvin will be very happy when he gets home.

After I made this I cleaned out the CrockPot and searched the freezer for anything else I could throw in there. I found some chicken wings buried at the bottom of the freezer and figured that with some BBQ sauce would be amazing! So I defrosted it, mixed together BBQ sauce, honey, Worcester and Tabasco and presto... Now to wait 2 hours to see what it will taste like :)

Thanks Alison for introducing me to the wonderful life of crock-potting and the crockpot365 blog!

For today...March 13th 2009

Outside my window...the darkness of the night..

I am thinking...that I really need to get some things in order in my life

I am thankful for...My amazing life and the people in it!!

From the kitchen...need to clean out the fridge and go grocery shopping

I am wearing...tights and a sweatshirt

I am creating...this blog!

I am going...to my nephew's birthday dinner tomorrow and am looking forward to it.
I am reading...bridal magazines!
I am hoping...for a great 2009
I am hearing...the TV and Marvin coughing! uh-oh...
Around the house...everything has been neglected this week!

One of my favorite things...is definitely nap time!

A few plans for the rest of the week: cleaning the house, seeing the in-laws, getting my nails done.
Here is a picture that I'm sharing: Here is Shay at Sea World today really enjoying his ice cream cone! I LOVE my sweet baby!!!

Family time

My sister in law came to visit us from New Mexico this week and of course brought my little redheaded nephew with her!! We had so much fun hanging out, going to Sea World, baking cupcakes and just relaxing! They had just been out here with my brother a few months ago but after only seeing them a few times in the last 5 years..it was definately a welcome and needed visit! My brother and his family lived in Germany for 5 years due to my bro being in the Air Force. They have finally been transferred back to the states and are living in New Mexico. I am looking forward to going out there this summer with my family.

Silvia .. thanks so much for coming all the way down here and hanging out with us! We had a blast and can't wait to see you again!

*Here is a picture of Christian wearing Shay's play doctor glasses :)