My Little Cousin's All Grown Up and Getting Married!

I'll be honest. I like weddings. I like looking at the decor, the centerpieces, the bride's gown, etc... It's my girly side showing through, I guess. I especially love when they are family weddings, so be prepared for a picture overload. Ailene married Alex Kubricky yesterday, and after finding a fantastic fairy princess dress, she decided on a fairytale themed wedding. The gown really was beautiful on her, and she is the ONLY one of us girls in the family that could pull it off. Alex was the prince of course and even wore a sword during the ceremony. Here are some highlights:

The colors were purple and green. Here is one of the centerpieces.

A glass Cinderella coach

One of two sign-in tables

Their card box was a fairytale book

The bride by the castle cake. EJ painted all of the backdrops around the room to look like castle walls. What a nice uncle Ailene has!

My hubby and my sister.

Behind the scenes...the kitchen!

The bride and groom by the duck pond. Ailene collects rubber ducks, and wanted them involved in the wedding. So they had a whole "park" set up with a duck pond, trees, and a bench, where the gifts were placed.

Cutting the cake

They were dancing, and he dropped her. Oops! Way to go Alex.

She forgave him pretty quickly.

Mother & Daughter

My artsy photograph

Aww...

EJ stole a dance with the bride

And so did her brother Ian

I settled for a picture together!

Congrats Ailene & Alex!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It was for us! Josh was a busy man today. He cleaned the living room and the kitchen, and set up this beautiful romantic table for two in the living room!

When I got home he banished me upstairs while he finished cooking dinner. I wasn't allowed to know the menu until it was finished!


Main Course: Homemade chicken cordon bleu, baked potatoes, and apple slices with milk (my favorite drink these days!) served in wine glasses.


Dessert: Chocolate covered strawberries.


He's such a good cook! Here's a picture:

There were candles all around the living room, and of course, Valentine's Day roses for me!

I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful sweet husband! He spoils me rotten. I think I'll keep him!

February is the busiest month...

Sometimes I really think that February is the busiest month of the year for us! (Busier than the holidays? Maybe so!) First, I would like to note that my family typically celebrated everyone's birthdays - though as we grandchildren start to have children of our own that may change! Whose birthday is in February (on my side)? Ailene, Andrea, Darren, Josh, Joshua (on the same day even), and if I remember correctly my sister's boyfriend even has a birthday this month.

Josh's side has also instituted an annual Chinese New Year party, which does not always fall on the Chinese New Year. We will be celebrating that this year. We had lots of fun last year, with Chinese food, fortune cookies, and fireworks! We're looking forward to that this Saturday.

And then there's the wedding. Yes, another one! That makes 4 weddings for my family in the past year. Andrea & Brian, Talon & Angelee, Ian & Victoria - and now Ailene & Alex! We're excited for their wedding, coming up at the end of this month. Ailene even found her fairy princess dress. Here it is BEFORE the alterations (I'm sure it looks even more awesome now!):

She really is the only girl in our family that could pull off a gown like that. But it looks great on her!

As for us? Well, we're just along for the ride these days. Josh is, of course, in school and studying hard. He has also taken over my teaching time at the dojo because morning sickness and karate certainly don't mix! He's a trooper because he has also taken over a lot of the household chores. Baby and I are doing well (aside from the morning sickness). Tomorrow makes 15 weeks, and I am now officially showing. Making a baby has proven to be hard work, so I am really quite proud of my little bump. We heard the heartbeat again last week, and are counting down the days (more like weeks) until we have another ultrasound and find out what we're having.

In other news, there have been some major changes at my office that have placed a huge decision before us: to quit or not to quit? EJ already has, and I've now been demoted back to runner. I don't feel I deserved that, nor did I ask for it. In fact, I kind of feel like it's a slap in the face after 3 1/2 years here. Of course there are bills to pay - so who knows what the near future will hold? Right now I'm just trying to get enough writing assignments to help us pay our extra medical bills.

Well we went to the doctor...

...and finally saw this little miracle!

We were so excited to finally catch a glimpse of our little one, and we were so grateful that it had a strong heartbeat and was growing right on schedule! This was our first ultrasound and we were so amazed to see those tiny little arms and legs! And yes, I cried when that little one-inch human being started to wiggle around for us to see! We even got to see a cool 3D view:

Here the baby is being a bit shy, hiding it's face in its arm. How cute! We were also able to hear the heartbeat, which pleased the doctor (who didn't think she'd find it this early). What an awesome sound! Go baby go! So far so good. Healthy, measuring right on schedule, and due on August 4th!

Happy New Year!

The holidays have finally come to an end. I say finally, because I feel as if we have been WAY too busy. Home? Where is that again? As much as I love the holiday season, I am truly looking forward to life settling back down again. Having said that, the holidays treated us very well this year.

On Christmas Eve we went over to Josh's parents' house for fondue. There is always lots of yummy food involved, and Josh usually stuffs himself until he gets sick. (Deep fried cheese balls, anyone?) After food we played "Imagine If" and then watched a movie. After that, it was time to go home. Santa stopped by our house pretty early in the evening. Here is our beautiful tree!

Santa did spoil us this year (and of course we spoiled each other!) Here are just a few of our gifts. (My camera died pretty quickly - and it had trouble adjusting to the lighting, so sorry for the blur!)

A new ninjitsu video for Josh...

New sparring gloves for me...

And a model F-22 for Josh! The dogs opened their own presents. It took Lance a long time to figure it out, but Toby is an old pro, and Shena finally got the hang of it last year. Of course, Toby loves to play with the wrapping paper when we are done opening as well, and the usual mess was made:

After opening our gifts, we headed back to Josh's parents' for breakfast and more gifts. Then it was on to my family, where we spent the rest of the evening opening gifts, playing games, eating dinner, and watching movies. (The movie of choice for the evening was Despicable Me, which I highly recommend.) 

New Years was spent with my family. There was food, football, and poker (with chips of course). I was quite pleased with myself for winning our game of Texas Hold'em. My sister and I were the only ones left in when we quit, and it was pretty close but in the end I had more than she did. Since my luck is usually...well...nonexistent, I thought it was pretty cool. We rang in the new year with a sparkling cider toast and lots of yelling, but skipped our traditional confetti and noise-making this year. 

The Refugee

I really am a softy when it comes to dogs. There's no way for me to plausibly deny that. So yesterday when I went to Petsmart and found that the shelter was looking for holiday foster homes for some puppies, I couldn't say no to this guy:

Meet Lance, a 4 month old black labrador puppy. He's cute as cute, and playful but rather mellow for a puppy. Unfortunately he isn't house trained yet and his bladder seems to be the size of Rhode Island (he pees A LOT) but so far he isn't doing too bad. He is very patient and loves to play. In fact, he's quite the goofball:

The other dogs aren't sure what to think of him yet. They question my sanity, bringing a puppy into the house. But so far they are all getting along just fine. The trick is keeping Josh from getting too attached (and me, I'll admit). Josh loves labs. He's cute, but he isn't ours to keep. We have to take him back to the shelter after the holidays (in about 3 weeks), where, hopefully he will get adopted into a nice permanent family! I don't think he will have too hard a time. He is such a suck-up!

Semester's End

Well, another semester is at an end, and I must say I am enjoying having my husband all to myself. Am I jealous of all the time he spends with his homework? Maybe just a little. The end of this semester brings with it a lot of relief, however, because Josh passed his math class with a B+. This class has been a royal pain in the backside, so we are both glad to see it go (Josh more than me, I am sure). Josh also completed his first ever engineering class with an A- and has decided to add that as a minor. It adds a few more semesters, but I am glad he has a plan.

As for me, I just work work work! (Or pretend to anyway...*wink*) Work actually hasn't been very busy, so there is a lot of down time here at the office, and I'm not complaining. Okay sometimes I complain, since it makes for very boring days. Writing is slow - I think the competition has increased in light of the impending holidays. Everyone is trying to find new ways to earn extra cash. I would love some of that extra cash, but in the meantime I'll just wait it out and keep an eye out for new assignments...

Our preparations for Christmas are well under way. Our tree is up, and presents are wrapped beneath it. Well, they were wrapped beneath it until Toby decided to open (and eat) my mom's gift. Now the gifts are wrapped and up away from curious teeth...