Guess it is time

Playing Catch Up…

I guess I should probably play a little catch up with everything that has been going on in our lives. See, the problem is that I go do all these fun things and I forget to take pictures of everything. Then I am left here trying to explain all the incredible things we did. So, unfortunately I don’t have a ton of pictures of the last month and half, but I will post what we have.

We spent MLK weekend in California visiting Todd’s family. I wish we could get there more often. Any time we have a three day weekend, I try to give Todd first dibs on going to see his family before we make any plans. Anyways, we enjoyed that trip so much. The weather even cleared up enough for Debbie (my amazing, incredible Mother- In-Law) and me to walk around San Clemente’s farmer market on Sunday.

We found a cute little bakery and split a yummy cookies and cream cupcake.

We also got to meet one Todd’s best friends, Jason and his wife Kimi’s new little baby.  They did not disappoint. Little Luke was beyond perfect; they are two very talented baby makers. I think I could have cuddled him all day.  We went to Baby Gap to buy a little gift for them since we wanted to give them something when we were actually able to meet Luke. If I didn’t have baby fever already, walking around Baby Gap and seeing those cute clothes made it a million times worse.

March first I celebrated my, eeek, 25^th birthday! The only picture I have from that is of the birthday flowers my sister Laura got me.

 It really was a fun day though. Katie and Laura came to meet me for lunch; poor Katie only had enough time to buy me lunch and then she had to go back to work. I felt so bad she didn’t get to enjoy lunch with me. Laura brought me balloons and flowers. It was a great break to the work day. That night Todd, Laura and Katie all went to Kabuki with me for sushi.  That weekend we made an escape up to Three Sisters’ Lodge and spent a couple days relaxing. Most of the snow had melted, but we did find one hill where Todd and I tried to race up. How he was able to stop from sinking in the snow is beyond me. I just gave up and ended up crawling up the hill.

I call this "The Great Race"

We also celebrated the first game of Spring Training. That I do have a few pictures of and I think it is worthy of its own blog…I mean it is the Angels after all.

-Mrs.J

It is that time

We had an incredible New Years Eve this year. Over the last couple of years, New Years has kind of become my holiday but this year I passed it on to my sister Laura. After hosting Christmas I was just exhausted and needed a little bit of break. Isn't it funny how you clean and prepare so much for company and after they leave you are left cleaning and preparing everything again?

Laura and Katie threw the best New Years Eve dinner party. Some of our good friends Brei and Garret even came all the way from New Mexico to celebrate with us. It was a fancy dinner party so we all dressed up and then enjoyed a dinner themed with luck and prosperity for the upcoming year.

We even were able to set off fireworks, which is surreal in Arizona. The girl's had a Debbie Downer neighbor who we are pretty sure just waited around until midnight to complain at anyone who dare celebrate. I guess she is one of those neighbors who just likes to rain on everybody's parade.

So now we come to that infamous part of the New Year in which we make goals for ourselves for things we want to get better at doing. I think Todd and I have some good ones this year and hopefully if we both push each other, we will be able to accomplish them. Without further adieu, the House of Jaramillo New Years Resolutions.

Todd
-Wants to get back into the habit of working out. We did pretty well there for a while and then remember this? Yeah, that kind of put the kibosh on any working out for a long time. I wanted to keep my bandage as clean as possible and I didn't think sweating in the gym for an hour would be good for it. Needless to say Todd lost his work out partner. Then when my arm was back to normal I hurt my food (I swear not an excuse, it was I get for loving high heels) and wanted to let it heal before putting too much stress on it. Now we are in good shape and ready to rock. It is a little hard having motivation right now because when Todd gets home it is already dark outside, I am hoping with longer days comes more action.

-Wants Heidi to learn how to golf. Before we got married Todd made me the promise of if he bought me golf clubs I would go with him to the driving range any time he wanted to go. I don't really know why I agreed, I guess I like new stuff. No, but for reals, I would love to learn how to golf. I went with him once to driving range and thought I would be the next Tiger Woods (minus the 30 mistresses, I need to find a new golf legend to compare myself to) and needles to say, I was not. So this year Todd wants to teach me how to golf. Being the incredible wifey I am, I think I will try and help him out by being a good student with a great attitude.

Heidi
-I mostly just have one major resolution that I think will help me reach all of my other goals. I want to try and be more proactive with my time. I have a habit of just shutting off during the work week and not really accomplishing things that need to get done until the weekend. The problem is then, I have a huge to-do list on the weekend and then we don't always find enough time to go play and relax. I think if I just make myself do a little housework every night during the week, I will be surprised at how much I get done. This resolution also comes with the fine writing that I will not watch as much TV. Television just sucks your motivation right out of your soul. The only show I have to sit down and watch really is Glee, everything else I am fine catching On Demand when I have some free time.

I really wish the days would start getting longer again. It is so hard to want to do anything when it is dark at 7 PM and there are still a few good hours of time in my day. Maybe we should start our resolutions in Spring and not the first few weeks on winter...Happy New Years!!!

What are you resolutions for this year?

Mrs.J

October is over???

Wow! This month really zoomed right on by. I can't believe that today is already three days into November! I know this post is a little belated, but please come on in and check out how House of Jaramillo spent Halloween...

I just adore Halloween. I think it is such a fun and silly Holiday. I also love everything spooky and ghost related so Halloween for me is really a win-win situation.

I pulled out all of my Halloween decorations on October 1st exactly. This was the first year I was decorating a house however I wanted to. It also was the first year I didn't have any of my sister's decorations to work with and realized I need to keep expanding my Halloween decoration collection. I actually found some of the best Halloween decoration at the Dollar Tree. They seriously had the cutest stuff and for only a dollar you can't go wrong. Just buy it when you see it because they sell out of stuff fast.I found this little witch restaurant menu there. I hung it right on my banister.

 

It looked really cute hanging across from our mirror in the entry way that I decorated like this.

Next year I want to get a little witches broom and make the whole entry way a little slice of witch heaven.

I also found these killer pumpkin paper lanterns at the Dollar Tree.

I hung them down the stair well with  invisible thread. These little lanterns had lights powered from AAA batteries. I didn't light them up though because it would have been a pain to go up and down, turning them off and on.

Another great area to check out for Halloween decorations is the Dollar Spot in Target. About two years ago I found some super cute glitter words around Christmas. Last year at Valentines day, I found glittery ones in pink, red and purple. This year I was so happy when I saw they had Halloween ones! I did want the orange "Boo" but couldn't find one in the best of shape. I am hoping they will have them next year and I can snatch them up.

I paired my glitter words with my cake stand/punch bowl and filled it with the most delicious seasonal treat ever:

That is right, filled with candy corn and candy pumpkins. There are some peanut M&M's thrown in for good measure. This made such a cute decoration. I have quite a bit leftover and will probably be munching on Candy Corn until summer.

I really had a ton of ideas for Halloween crafts, but only got around to making one. These are my Halloween vintage word blocks.

They are made out of wood blocks, scrapbook paper, stickers, Modge Podge and then a little ink on the sides to make them look old. I thought they turned out super cute and think it would be fun to use this same concept for another Holiday. You can find wood blocks at any craft store, I purchased mine at Hobby Lobby. I cut out little squares of scrap book paper, Modge Podged them on, stuck on a sticker and then roughed up the edges. It was a pretty easy craft that I finished over two days. I had to let the Modge Podge dry over night.

My sisters and I have started a few Halloween traditions that help us get into the fall mood. This always includes a ghost walk of some sort, a trip to Schnepf Farm, a visit to the pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving and then my sister Katie's annual Halloween party. We did the ghost walk and Schnepf Farm trip around the 22nd of October. I suck because I didn't take like any pictures. Let me just tell you, it was awesome. We did a ghost walk of Downtown Mesa, Arizona and will 100% for sure be doing it again next year. It was awesome.

This year we all met on Friday night at our favorite pumpkin patch, Mother Nature's Farm in Gilbert.

If you are looking for a fun little place to get a pumpkin next year, this is the place to go. They have a ton of pumpkins you can choose from, are super reasonable on prices and if you want they even have some fun children's activities in their actual farm. You do have to pay to walk around the farm but not just go to the pumpkin patch.

We each found our pumpkin and then everyone came out to our house to carve up their pumpkins.

Just so you know, carving a pumpkin with a butcher knife is no easy task. The tools in the carving kit are so much easier. I made a little kitty in a witches' boot. I cut the top of the ear off to make it in honor of Nunu.

For the last two years, Todd has chosen a California theme when carving his pumpkin. Last year was the LA Angel's "A" and this year he chose SC for USC Trojans. This man is a Southern California boy from head to toe.

Laura chose to do a free-hand bats and stars design. She is so crafty, she never chooses the pattern from the book.

Katie did two pumpkins this year. One was a ghost and the other was scared pumpkin face.

The kitties of course where there. Nunu was hoping that we were actually sharing our food with her when we let her sit on the chair and smell the pumpkins. I think she was disappointed that the one time we let smell whatever was on the table was the one time it was something she didn't want to eat.

Scioscia seems to really dig the smell of pumpkin, so she was a little more interested in actually getting up into the pumpkin. She probably would have crawled right in had we let her.

The pumpkins looked so cute out front all lit up, it was like having a little pumpkin patch in my front yard. I think I might get some Funkins next year to make a little pumpkin patch that can be reused each year.

Saturday night was Katie's Halloween party. Has anyone else noticed that our generation doesn't understand what it means to RSVP to party? Last year we had a bunch of people who said they were coming so we prepared for that with lots of food and drinks and then none of them came! It is was so frustrating! This year Katie didn't want to even deal with it so she decided to just throw a little dinner party with people we knew would actually show up. I think it was the best party yet. Seriously, this is such an amazing group of people. They are awesome friends.

Todd and I had to throw together our costumes last minute. I was going to be a ballerina and update a costume I had worn last year. It didn't start working on it until that day and then it just didn't turn out the way I had planned so I had to throw together a few things I had laying around the house to make something up. Todd does the same thing every year; he says all month long he doesn't want to dress up and then changes his mind the day of the party and we are left trying to scramble and put something together. He ended up wearing his suit and glasses and said he was Reservoir Dogs or Men in Black. I ended up looking like a mix between a girl from Rock of Love, Cher and the lead singer of Heart.

I really can't believe that we already into November. Christmas is going to be here before you know it. Todd and I are actually hosting Christmas at our house. Everyone is coming to celebrate our first Christmas as a married couple. I am so very excited, but we already have a ton of stuff to get done beforehand. I am going to try and do a lot more Christmas crafts so I am going start this month on some of them. When I was Target yesterday, Christmas music was playing from one of those CD displays, my heart started to flutter a little bit. Halloween really is like the kick off to the Holiday season and I rearing and ready to go!

Happy Start to the Holiday Season!

-Mrs. J

I have to tell you the story of this photo...

because it is one of my favorite memories of my wedding and I never want to forget it. It is a little embarrassing of a story, but if if you know me, I don't get embarrassed easily.

I seriously was not stressed at all in the days and nights before my wedding. I knew that things were going to go wrong, and they did like when the wrong flowers were sent three days before, and that was ok with me because I knew that at the end of the day I was marrying Todd. That was all that mattered to me. So while most brides might be losing sleep or dreaming of the horrid things that could happen, I was not. The day before my wedding I woke up from what at the time felt like the most amazing magical dream, while in real life it is kind of silly.

In my dream I was standing on this really tall building looking down into a courtyard of people. I decided in my dream that I should put on my wedding dress and show it off to everyone down below, because why not right?

Now, I loved my wedding dress. It was a dream of a wedding dress that cost $3,000 and I got it on sale for $200. I had not been looking at such big, poofy dresses because none of them were in my budget. This dress was a magical dress. When I went shopping with my mom and sisters for dresses it was the last dress from the clearance section I tried on. Nobody remembered pulling it and fit like a glove, but at 50% off, it still was not in my budget. So even though everyone thought it looked amazing on me, I didn't think too much of it. That was of course until the sales lady told us that all 50% off clearance dresses were $200 that day. I didn't want to take it off after that.

I felt like I was wearing a delicious, beautiful cupcake all day long.


So in my dream I decided that I need show this dress off. I remember so vividly  how I put my dress on and walked up to the rooftop of the tall building. I then put my arms out and started spinning around to show how gorgeous my dress was. The crowd in the courtyard down below immediately looked up. They started to gasp and all started to say "ohhh" and "ahhh" and I even heard "so lovely." I just spun and spun in my dress on the rooftop as everyone below watched. I felt so amazing and beautiful up there. It was an awesome dream to wake up to. Then I started to feel a little silly about it.

I of course had to share that story with the girls in my wedding party, we laughed about it all day while we did our pre-wedding getting prettified things. When my wedding day came and I slipped on my magical dress in unison all the girls started to go "oohhh, ahhhh, so lovely!" as I started spinning around. It was our little joke all day.

I have to say though, I felt as pretty in my dress that day as I did in my dream two nights before. It was such an incredible day, to say the least.

-Mrs.J