Showing posts with label husband. Show all posts
Showing posts with label husband. Show all posts

Friday, September 26, 2014

We are having a baby GIRL!!!

A baby GIRL will be gracing our lives this coming Spring!

A few days ago, we went in for an ultrasound to "confirm" the gender of our second little love. With our closest family and friends around us, we were all so excited when we were told that the tiny baby growing inside of me is a GIRL! I cried tears of joy and so did many others...which made me cry even more (hello hormones).

Honestly, I thought I'd have all boys. I grew up with 3 brothers (now 5 including my step brothers) and with our first child being our crazy man Levi, I thought I was destined to live with boys my entire life! Deep down, I wanted a little girl though and God said yes! So thankful!

Levi on the other hand, knew he was having a sister all along. Every time I asked him what mommy was having, he said "girl." That kid has instincts!!

So in love with my little family and I can't wait to meet our little love in March! She will make our nest a home of four.

See more of our family photo shoot by Kayla V here.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

{Personal} Celebrating our 4 Year Wedding Anniversary

Now that mine and my husband's 4 year wedding anniversary has past about a month ago, why not finally blog about it right? Ay yi yi, I really need to keep up to date on the blog a bit more.

My husband surprised me with plans to the beach while Grandma T watched our little man for the afternoon. We headed to Newport Beach for lunch at Jack Shrimp. They have my FAVORITE plate of food-Jack Rice. It's this yummy, spicy cajon rice in garlic butter sauce with chicken breast meat and jumbo shrimp (I get it on the side for my husband because I don't care for seafood). It comes with french bread too and dipping the bread in the sauce...SO good!! Definitely recommend this place if you are anywhere near Newport.

After lunch, we headed to the pier where we rented a tandem bike for a few hours. SO FUNNY! We've never rode a tandem bike before and I really thought we were going to fall over several times. It took a while to get used to...after a few wobbles and near accidents into brick walls, we got the hang of it and biked down the coast and around the pier.

We then walked the beach, ate some yummy chocolate covered frozen bananas and drank fresh squeezed lemonade in the sunshine. Refreshing.

We headed home later in the afternoon and got ready for dinner at a delicious Italian Restaurant near our home where we shared alfredo sticks (a.k.a. heart attack sticks that taste too delicious not to eat) and a pizza with all the fixin's.

We also shared good conversation where we reflected on this past year of marriage (something we do every year) and what the future may hold. Communication is so important in any relationship and being able to share our thoughts and feelings with each other is something I pray we will always keep between us.

I am so incredibly thankful for this man whom not only I love with my whole heart but who loves me and I know it. God is so good! Here's to another many, many years ahead of us to do life together.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

I want to remember this morning.

Last night after our dinner date at P.F. Changs, my husband and I grabbed some warm coffee at Corner Bakery Cafe and decided to stroll the outside shopping mall. As we walked toward Willams-Sonoma, I had an idea to look at cookbooks (this is the only thing that inspires me to cook-if they have pretty pictures). I then realized that Brandin has never been in this store and was surprised that a knife set could cost $1,500+ & $45 stirring spoons do exist...can you tell I buy our cookware at Target? lol I am IN LOVE with this store though! It makes we want to throw a dinner party every time I walk through those doors.

We headed over to the shelves where all of the desired cookbooks were on display. As we glanced through a few, I stumbled upon Two in the Kitchen-a cookbook for newlyweds. Although we aren't necessarily newlyweds anymore, it looked appealing. Brandin must have thought so too since he stood there reading (what seemed like every page) as I marveled within other book covers.

As I migrated to the cherry tomatoes, I noticed my husband walk to the counter with the book in hand. A huge smile danced on my lips. "So, we are going to cook together?" I asked. "Yes." He said. "Promise?" "Promise." And we walked out.

On our way home, he had me pick out a breakfast recipe as our first from the book. We both decided on Eggs Benedict and stopped by the store to pick up the ingredients for the next morning. 

It was 6am when Brandin got up and 6:30 when I finally put my feet on the floor. We were both awake before our little one and that was the plan.

We started with playing some Ray LaMontagne ('Let it be Me' was first to come out of the speakers) and lit a yummy smelling candle. Brandin wiped down the counter tops as I flipped the book open to Eggs Benedict and got the utensils ready. Ingredients were then put together in measuring cups and the team work began.

I started on the hollandaise sauce with cracking eggs and melting butter. Brandin started with cooking the fresh baby spinach, boiling water for the poached eggs and reading through the directions.

Brandin: "How do you spell ramekin?" (As he starts googling this item to find out what it is)
Me: (communicated the spelling) "Is that like a knife or something?"
Brandin: "I don't know but it looks like they're sold at Walmart....Oh wait, it looks like it's that small bowl our whisk is sitting on."
Me: "I think we should take some cooking classes..."

We had some good laughs.

As everything was just about done and Brandin poached his first eggs-ever, our little one awoke to a yummy smelling kitchen-bed head and all.

We set the table, prayed together and admired our work before delving in. "Mmmmmm" was all I could manage to say. Not only was this my first taste of an Eggs Benedict but it tasted SO DELICIOUS-a nice surprise to what I was anxious about.

We decided to make this a daily tradition. One meal a day-together.

The time that we were able to spend together (which doesn't come very often) was priceless. When you're married for a little while (3 1/2 years for us) there may be moments were you find yourselves wondering "what can we do together that we both will enjoy?" Finding time together that was meaningful didn't come as easily as it once seemed it was so we found ourselves asking that very question.

Although Brandin loves to cook a lot more than I do, it can seem like a chore to anyone at times and so uninviting. Doing this together though, makes it a lot more fun and even with a toddler in the kitchen, we can teach him what different utensils are (we may have to google some-ha!), the types of ingredients and tastes that trigger certain palettes.

His favorite part, eating the yummy goodness!

I will hold onto this beautiful morning and I look forward to many more of these sweet moments...

What do you and your husband/significant other do for fun to spend meaningful time together?

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

3 Year Wedding Anniversary with My Bestest

Yesterday, was mine and my husband's 3 year wedding anniversary! It has all gone by SO fast but it has been an amazing 3 years. I can honestly say that I married my best friend.
3 years ago yesterday, we shared one of the best days of our lives together. 2 years ago yesterday, we ate at the same restaurant (and sat at the same table) that we went to on our honeymoon during our first stop on our road trip. 1 year ago yesterday, we were enjoying Oregon's coast and wishing we didn't have to come back to California. Yesterday, we ate some YUMMY food, did a little wine tasting, sat under twinkle lights and learned to dance the tango. It was beautiful and perfect!
Thank you grandma Tiffany for watching our little love bug while we went out. :)
Here's a little glimpse of the evening turned night.
(MOST of the photos are taken with a camera phone so the quality isn't the best but hey, they're memories)
I gave him this funny card by Julie Ann Art. Ha! We're married. Whatev.
The olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It looked so strange the way I did it. ;)
Under that layer of cheese is some DELICIOUS spicy penne pasta!
Stuffed and happy.
We ended the night by Tango dancing with Sinatra, Monroe and Presley.
Looking forward to many more anniversaries together. Thank you so much Brandin for loving me more than I deserve and being the BEST husband I could have ever prayed for. I LOVE YOU my wonderful man!

Friday, July 26, 2013

Weekend Recap {A vacay in the sun}

This past Sunday, my husband, my little love bug and I packed up to go on our first family vacation. We decided to go to Laughlin and meet up with our good friends, Chad and Tara and my momma even came out for a night! I was a little weary taking the baby to Laughlin but seeing how our rooms were only $24 a night at the Harrah's, we made it work and found lots of fun things to do with Levi. In actuality, the vacation seemed to be Levi's vacation seeing how he ate lots of goodies, stayed up pretty late, played in the arcade, swam his little heart out in the river and soaked up lots of sun (with mounds of sun screen of course)!
We all had such a great time! I brought my DSLR but I ended up taking most of the photos on my iPhone because I was too nervous that I'd break my Canon somehow.
Here's a little peek of this past weekend.
{enjoy}
On our way with a sleeping baby in the back seat.
Arcade time for little love.
A dinner night with some Mexican food!

Yummy Creme Brulee another night with my momma and step father.
Levi had dessert too...
Clear skies on the way home.
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed the photo above because of the quote I posted on the way home from our trip. :)
Have a beautiful Friday my friends
Do you have any plans for this upcoming weekend?

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Friday, June 7, 2013

The day my husband and I hopped into a floating basket

Remember when I said that I was TERRIFIED to go on the hot air balloon ride this week? Yesterday (actually on June 5), my husband and I finally went! Although I am really scared of heights, it seriously wasn't that bad. I was anticipating crazy butterflies, rapid breathing and hypertension but I didn't experience any of that. Ha! Who woulda thought?

To start the day, my husband and I woke up at 3 am to get ready and put the little guy in the car to take him to my mom's. We then headed to Temecula (Wilson Creek Winery to be exact) in excitement for the new experience ahead of us. After "signing our lives away" when we arrived, we all drove out of the parking lot and up the road to get out of the morning fog.

We watched the guys set up the basket and balloon while we took photos and practiced our "landing stance."

Seeing the giant balloon inflated, was actually quite inspiring with its bright colors and rectangular shapes. I couldn't stop taking photos of it!

Once we jumped into the basket and took off the ground, it was pretty cool to see the mountains on the horizon floating on the fog. The highest we went was about 800 feet up and we constantly went up and down with the hills of the valley. We saw lots of quick rabbits, sprinting coyotes, pretty horses and scattering chickens as we floated in the sky. I had a few moments though where I thought we were going to hit rocks but thankfully we coasted right above them.

I wish I could say that being on a hot air balloon ride is quite magical but I'd be lying if I did. Between the crazy amount of heat the fire blower puts out (they don't call it a HOT air balloon ride for nothin'), the loud noise the blower causes (which results in segmented conversations) and the very small space between you and the rest of the 7 others in the basket, it wasn't what I expected. Actually, my favorite part of the whole thing was the crazy landing which flung everyone forward a few times as we skid through brush and almost hit the roof of a house! LOL Never the less, it was still a fun experience that I am happy to say that I've had-and with my wonderful husband.

After we landed, we had mimosas in plastic cups, bagels, cookies and a rugged ride in the basket-on a trailer-to get back to our cars. It was an adventure to say the least. Not to mention we did all of this before 9am! That's when I usually wake up! I feel like I'm missing out on so much now if I don't wake up with the sun.

Here are some photos of the day my husband and I hopped into a floating basket.
{enjoy}
 The husband "showing off."
 Mimosas. Cheers!
Life is beautiful! Have you had any recent adventures?