Spring Celebrations

Harvey and I are so blessed to be able to celebrate two religious holidays around this time of year, however, it makes us two very busy people. Last Tuesday and Friday we celebrated the Passover holiday with Harvey's side of the family. It is so nice to be able to be a part of such a wonderful celebration, one that is cherished and so nicely celebrated by both sides of Harvey's family, each in their own way. Both were full of Jewish traditions, great food, and family. And call me a terrible person, but I got NO pictures of either one!

And then came the Easter festivities. Boy did we celebrate. First, was a little party we had for all the little kids up at Kayla's house. Mama Bear, as all the kids lovingly call my mom, had a little Easter egg hunt, we ate some grub, decorated some cookies, and dyed some eggs. The kids had SUCH a great time, as you can tell by the pictures I actually did take ;)

Kayla just moved into her house, so she doesn't have many toys for kids under 3 to play with. Nothing a doggy door and kennel can't fix.

Ka-doodle, Angelica the Diva, Bubba, Mikey, Sam-a-loo, and Na-fer
aka Kadaj, Sadie, Brody, Steven, Sammy, and Nathan

Sammy and Mama Bear decorating cookies.

Then Sunday, Easter morning, Lauri, Jhonna and the boys came over for breakfast. We had usual, pancakes, bacon, sausage, and some OJ. Oh, did I mention they were "bunny pancakes."


Then Harvey and I got ready and headed to my grandparents' house for Easter lunch. My Baba always cooks a big meal and the whole family comes over to eat and have an Easter egg hunt. I will never get too old for Baba's egg hunt, wanna know why? Cuz all her eggs are filled with money. She saves her BINGO winnings all year to be able to fill the eggs. And the best part is that when we find them all, there is a bonus egg. She puts 6 eggs out on the wall, one for each granddaughter, green, purple, pink, blue, orange, and yellow. Five with dollar bills, and one with a twenty.

Now this is when the sweet Easter celebration turns a little bit sour. I have been known to have a stroke of great luck when it comes to sniffing out the extra loot. Like, I've won 4 of the last 5 years. One of the years I was in college and wasn't able to come home so everyone else picked their egg first and I got what was leftover. What was inside? The twenty, which my grandma shipped to me, egg and all. Last year, after being accused of cheating, I let little Sadie pick for me. What was inside? The twenty. And this year... After the wind knocked the eggs off the wall and Baba had to mix the money up and restuff the eggs, I went with my favorite color, yellow. I'll give you one guess as to what was inside.



Overall, we had a wonderful Easter celebration that we were able to enjoy with our family and friends. And I think Pap had a good time too!

The Cake Test

I am so excited to finally be able to publically announce that I am going to be an aunt again. No not Lauri, or Kayla, at least that I know of... But Liz. Liz and I go way back, like third grade back. She played soccer with me, was a roommate of mine in college, and a bridesmaid in my wedding. I couldn't be happier for her and Tony, and I know they will both make the most amazing parents. And of course, I can't wait to snuggle the little nugget. But of course we had to have so fun predicting if it was a boy or girl. It all started with my friend Emily...

So last year when Emily found out she was pregnant with Baby #2 people immediately started taking bets on the gender. I had been looking around online for old wives' tales to have some fun and see if they really worked or not when I came across this little ditty. It seemed like a good time so one night we invited everyone over for dinner and decided to give it a try.

The basis was simple. Bake a cake, half pink, half blue. Ice the cake. Spin the cake. Cut into the cake. And see what your little bundle of joy will be. This was Emily's test:

Much to my dismay, as you can tell by the screeching voice on the video. But I still had hope for a little girl, so on ultrasound day I made this for Big Sister Sadie to wear, hoping the pink fairy would grace us with her presence:


And like the cake, the nice ultrasound lady, and their Daddy all thought, in August we were graced with this:


Anyways back to Liz. So tonight we decided to give Liz a cake test. Her doctor's appointment to find out is tomorrow, so we literally waited until the last minute to do this. But we are all going to have to wait until Saturday to actually find out because Liz has a little something fun planned to reveal the surprise. So we started with white cake mix and mixed it to the directions on the box. Then we split the batter into two bowls and dyed one pink, and one blue.

Then we very carefully poured the batter into the baking pan, making sure we got as close to even as we could. Eventhough, I think I secretly wanted there to be more blue ;)


We popped the little bun into the oven, pun intended, and 35 minutes later it was done. I iced it in white icing and added a yellow ? for fun.

Then she gave it a little spin and decided where she wanted to cut it.

My reaction was a little different this time because I kinda want it to be a boy. So I guess we will have to see on Saturday how well the test works. So far, our odds are 100% correct.

Stay tuned.

Blender and the Diva go to Disneyland.

Sadie has been begging her mom, Emily, to take her to Disneyland. So when Emily finally decided to take her, she asked me if I wanted to come along because I have a season pass. And who doesn't love an excuse to go to California for the day. After contemplating for awhile, I decided that I would take Sammy with me. Whenever we go, we usually take Steven and Sammy is the one that gets left home. But because Steven had school this week, and I was feeling extra gracious, I decided to brave Disneyland with the little terror. We had to sneak him in using Steven's season pass because I was too cheap to pay for him. I just made him wear a hat and sit in the stroller facing backwards. The silly little Disneyland ticket taker didn't even question it.


And once we broke through the gates, it was on. The dynamic duo was in full force.

Aren't they just the two cutest things you ever did see?

First up was the teacups. For a 3 year old, Sadie sure does remember Disneyland. She had set out quite the itinerary for us. And to her request, "Alice" was first. The teacups really make me nauseous, especially when I am trying to take pictures the whole time. Then we made our way over to Toon Town so Sammy could see Mickey Mouse. Sadie was having no part of the characters. She would look at them from far away, but no way was she getting close. So Sam-a-loo and I waited 45 MINUTES to see Mickey. When it was finally our turn, this is what we got...

It was like he didn't know what to do. He wouldn't smile. He wouldn't talk. He wouldn't look at Mickey. It was like he awestruck. But it did make for a cute picture. So presh! :)

After lunch, we made our way over to Pirates. After some candy bribery, Sadie agreed to go. She is quite the Diva, and doesn't particularly enjoy Pirates. It was evident when she requested to ride like this...


The rest of the day's events are somewhat of a blur but that's what we get for leaving Las Vegas and driving to California at 6 in the morning. I give ALOT of credit to people that have twins. I was exhausted by the end of the day. And even though these two weren't even related, they sure acted like siblings. Every time I would turn my head Sammy was pulling Sadie's hair or stepping on her toes or just giving us "the look" like he was plotting to figure out a way to do something he wasn't supposed to. And then we would catch them like this...

Proof that even Princesses have meltdowns.

But every Princess needs her picture taken with the castle, and Sadie was no exception. I got about 15 cute shots of her just beaming, knowing she was in front of the castle. She loved it!


And this is the best that Sammy would give me. About 10 seconds after this was taken, he chucked those Mickey ears that he HAD TO HAVE over the castle walls. I could have killed...


Emily insisted that we stay and watch Fantasmic because she had never seen it before. The kids were exhausted but actually stayed up and watched the whole thing. Once it was over, we started to brave the crowds to leave the park. Before we even got out of Frontierland, Sadie was out.


And right before we left the gates, Sammy was a goner too.



This was the first time Sammy had been old enough to actually realize what was going on and I think he really enjoyed himself. Of course, the one thing we didn't do was ride the big train and that's the only thing he keeps talking about. "Wee ngo to De-ne-land and wide the twain Ka-wa?"

When we got home Harvey was asking him about his trip and Sammy told him that he rode a boat and saw the animals (Jungle Cruise). Harvey asked him what animals he saw, and Sammy told him, "Sharks." Sharks, Sammy? Sure you were on the same boat as me?

One happy Disney family.

Kids say the darndest things.

Many students that I have encountered thus far on my not-yet-a-real-teacher-teaching-adventures have made it onto my list of funny things kids say. But this little girl might just take the cake.

I have been long-term subbing in a first grade classroom for the last 8 weeks and I have gotten to know the kids pretty well. This little girl always likes to throw in her two cents, but is a very sweet girl. Yesterday we were talking about one of our spelling words, threw.

I asked the class," What kind of threw is that?"

To which someone replied, "Like the kind of through when you say I walked through the door."

"Good try, but it is a different kind of threw."

To which my sweet little innocent first grader raised her hand and said, "Like the kind of threw when your mom and dad are fighting and your dad screams "I'm threw!"

Professional Photos

Picking a photographer for the wedding was something I was very nervous about because I had such high expectations for them. The pictures are the one thing that you have to take with you when the night is over, and I wanted them to be perfect. I actually had nightmares before the wedding of a photographer showing up, taking pictures all night, and then realizing that there was no memory card in the camera. We eventually chose Kristen Joy Photography, someone that I have known and played soccer with since I was younger. I completely trusted her to capture our night, and she delivered perfectly. See some of her amazing work by visiting her website HERE.

Cost of a stamp is 44 cents.

Here it is...

Rock. Solid. PROOF.
So what if it is January 8. My official timekeeping record book, the iPhone, says this picture was taken on August 18, 2010. Seven weeks and 4 days before the big day... And all you fools were worried they wouldn't make it out in time.

Seven years in the making.

So what that it has been 3 months since our wedding and I am just now getting around to blogging about it. In my defense, my holidays were busy. I am mostly writing this because I hope my blog serves as scrapbook of wedding memories and I thought it would be a great way to document some of the important details. CAUTION: PHOTO OVERLOAD!!!

When I started planning the wedding it seemed like the date was so far away, and, in the last few months it was like I didn't have enough time to get everything done. So is life, I guess. But when the day finally came, it was everything I wished it would have been and more. Everything turned out perfectly and I can honestly say that I would only change one thing, to have it last longer. It almost seems like a blur now, and I am so thankful for all the pictures that were taken and the video that my uncle took of the night.

My sisters and I spent the night at the Green Valley Ranch hotel the night before, and then got ready in the suite the day of the wedding. I was surprised to wake up in the morning to flowers and Starbucks from my boy, before we set off to get our make-up done. When we got back to the hotel, my personal magician Kayla and her wonderful assistant Brittany got to work transforming this pauper to a princess. Took lots of pixie dust... It was so nice to have all of my girls around me as I got ready for the big day.

Yes, a hair train. The wonderful B. Harp fixing Kayla, and Kayla fixing Sadie, the flower princess, while she enjoys a manicure.

Then we headed over to the Legacy Golf Course for a beautiful sunset ceremony on the front lawn. We were lucky enough to have about 120 of our closest family and friends present to witness Harv and I exchange vows in a ceremony that honored both of our families and our heritage. After the wedding party walked down the aisle, followed by our ring bearer and flower girl, I was escorted by my Daddy to an instrumental version of "Kiss the Girl" from the Little Mermaid. Didn't think I would do something traditional now, would ya? Harvey's step mom sang us a beautiful love song as the ceremony started, something that she has done for all her sons' weddings. It truly was a ceremony that fit us, and it was a wonderful way to start the night.

My lovely ladies in the hooker heels of their own choosing. Mix 4 inch stilettos and fresh cut golf green and what might you get, wobbly sinking ankles. Shoulda worn Chucks.

Mazel Tov! After the ceremony, everyone was invited inside for appetizers and drinks while the bridal party and families took pictures outside. Once everyone was inside, dinner was served and the party got started. Between all the formalities of cake cutting, first dances, and speeches, the night seemed to fly by.

As guests entered the reception, they lent their fingerprint in their choice shade of green and placed it on our "guestbook" platter. The green fingerprints acted as the leaves to a tree with two tiny owls perched in the branches...



We were lucky enough to have four very important people in our lives give speeches at the reception. Matt, the best man, gave a nice speech reminiscing back to the high school days, then Kayla, the maid of honor, about how lucky we were to finally have a brother. Up to the mike next was Matt's dad, our high school principal who was able to give an impromptu but interesting perspective on our relationship. Rounding out the line-up was little Steven, Harvey's nephew, who added the "I love my uncle and my new aunt." We were so touched to have such amazing people toast our relationship and say such wonderful things about us. We truly are blessed.





After a fabulous dinner, it was dancing time! This was the one part of the night that I was not looking forward to. If you know anything about me, it's that I hate to dance, especially SLOW! I think its extremely awkward, especially at wedding where everyone is focusing solely on you! If I could have gotten out of it I would have, but Harv being the romantic he is, insisted we did. And since I refused to slow dance with him at our Senior prom and he reminds me of it all the time, I figured I owed it to him. Anyways, after talking Harvey out of his numerous first dance song choices, we finally decided on the Lee DeWyze version of Still the One. It fit us perfectly. Once I heard the first notes of the song, I knew we had made the right choice. And I'm so glad we danced... Yes, we just swayed the whole time. But just being in his arms, my new husband and I, time could have stood still. It didn't matter who was watching or who chose to finish their dinner. It didn't matter that my bustle broke and I was stomping all over my train. He couldn't take his eyes of mine, and all I could do was stare into his piercing greens and read his mind like a New York Times bestseller. I wished it wouldn't end...



Then came the father daughter dance. I had suggested enough songs to count on two hands, all to the disapproval of Dad. He didn't want country, and I refused to dance to She's a Brick, HOoooooUSE. However, I trusted his judgement and wanted him to pick a song that he felt was right. This was something that was emotional for the both of us and I knew that I would trust him to make the decision. When it was showtime, the music started. Wouldn't you guess...

She's a Brick badadunda HouuuuSE dadundaa....

But when the joke was finally over, the song he picked was perfect. My Little Girl by Steve Kirwan. Haven't heard it, give it a listen. That Daddy of mine, I'm telling ya. He is something else. I don't know what I ever did to deserve such an amazing father, someone that has always supported me in everything I have done and has ALWAYS been there for me whenever I needed him. Our dance was a bittersweet moment, I couldn't even look at him because I knew I would lose it. So I tucked my head onto his shoulder and stayed there the entire three minutes and six seconds. I secretly think he was happy I did that, or we would have both been a mess...

Then came the most tear-jerking moment of the night. Harvey lost his mother 13 years ago to an unforeseeable tragedy. However, if fortunate is even a word you can use in a situation like this, Harvey was fortunate enough to have a wonderful step-mother that has been an important part of his life since he was young, Carol. Because of his unique situation, Harvey and I both felt it was necessary to honor both women as part of his mother-son dance. Harvey's grandmother had a video of a dance from Harvey's mom's wedding in which she danced with Harvey when he was about 5. It was a very touching video that we knew we needed to incorporate into the occasion. The dance was such a touching moment, I'm not quite sure there was a dry eye in the place. Harvey briefly explained that he was fortunate enough to have two mothers that care so much about him and that they BOTH mean so much to him. As soon as he was done talking, a song that Carol had beautifully recorded started playing at the same time his Mother's video played on the screen. Halfway through the song, Harvey's Bubbe' joined them on the dance floor as emotions ran rapid. Words just can't explain.

Time to lighten the mood a little. Next up, a little garter/ bouquet toss. First, Harvey had to come get it. I'm surprised he actually came out of his shell and did what the DJ had told him to do, lap dance and all!



We did my bouquet toss first. All the singles ladies to the dance floor please... After a lttle spin, I let that baby fly... And who comes up with it?



Then the garter toss. Same thing, all the single guys. A little spin. And let it sail. However, this one was more of a fight.



Kara, my little sister ended up getting the bouquet. Tony, my best friend Liz's boyfriend, caught the garter. He seems like he really wanted it too... You know what that means right Trone?


Krista, another one of my little sisters, was not the happiest person when we decided to have the wedding on 10.10.10. See, October 10 is Krista's birthday, and the thought of sharing her birthday with our anniversary for the rest of her life was not something that she was enthuastic about. Alas, we did it anyways, so we thought the least we could do was sing her Happy Birthday and let her have a piece of the spotlight on her birthday. So right before we cut our cake, we brought out a birthday cake and the entire room sang to her. Now as some of you may know, Krista is quite the "dancer". Her claim to fame at that time was the Dougie. So when we were done singing, the DJ played her song and she led the crowd in a little birthday Dougie... I think she was surprised we did that for her, and it made her not so bitter about us stealing her day.



After Krista's 15 seconds of fame, it was time for us to cut our cake. Harvey was under strict orders to, under no circumstances, smush cake in my face. And he knows better than to make my claws come out, especially on our wedding day. We had decided to serve cupcakes and just order a small cake for us to cut into ourselves. It is also tradition as part of my mom's side of the family to serve cookies along with the cake. My grandma baked DOZENS and DOZENS of cookies in the weeks prior to the wedding and froze them so we would have enough to serve to everyone. We actually ended up having lots of leftovers, which was nice. We enjoyed them when we got home from Hawaii.




That was the last "scheduled" event of the night. After cutting and serving cake, people had started dwindling out. The ones that left continued to dance and have a good time, until the bar eventually closed and they were basically kicking us out. There are a few more random pictures from the night that I will post, just some more of my favorites...








My Godmother and my "something borrowed". Long story short, my dad bought me antique jewelry about 9 months before the wedding. It got put in such a safe place, somewhere we wouldn't lose it before the wedding. Well, we hid it so well, we couldn't find it. And at the eleventh hour, my Aunt Tee Tee came through with some beautiful necklaces for me to choose from. I was so honored to wear such an elegant diamond necklace from a woman that I love so much.



In February of 2010, my grandpa suffered a medical emergency and was on life support for 23 days. It was something that we were not sure that he would ever come out of, but miraculously he did. Having him be physically present at our wedding is something that Harvey and I wanted very very much, and I believe he did too. Pap has been very weak since everything happened, but he was adamant that he was going to dance with me at my wedding. And boy, did he dance. Three separate times, we helped him out of his wheelchair so that he could dance with me. It was three of the most special moments of the night.

October 10, 2010 was a night that I will never forget. Details will fade away, but it will forever remain the night that I was lucky enough to marry my best friend. That night marked the beginning of a lifelong relationship, for better or worse, and I am so proud to finally call Harvey my husband.