O Christmas Tree

December 1, 2011 in Filed Under: General, Memories 7 Comments

I love to decorate for the changing of any season, but Christmas is definitely the most fun to decorate for. I especially love looking through each of my tree ornaments as I put them up every year because each ornament has a special memory or story that goes with it.

Every year, for as long as I can remember, each of us kids got to pick out one ornament for the tree. It’s fun to look back at the different things I chose through the years depending on what my interests were at the time. I’ve kept each one with the year that I got it attached with it. My parents not only made this one of my favorite Christmas traditions, but the first year that I was married and out of house I had a enough unique ornaments to fill a Christmas tree of my own. The best part is that the tree has such a personalized look to it. I could have taken a picture of every ornament, but instead I took just few…

Obviously, I had this first one chosen for me, but I really it. It has the year printed on the back, Jesse has a neat one with his birth year too.

First Christmas

I specifically remember picking this one out. I used to take ballet lessons… not sure if I still was when I got this one. I remember loving this one and just having to have it for my ornament that year.

Angel

This is one we always kinda laugh at because I’m not sure what the significance of a sequined house was to me, but that was what I wanted that year. Most likely I just liked it because it was sparkly.

House

One that is still one of my favorites is my snowman bell. His feet dangle and make the bell ring. So cute!

Snowman

Some years have multiple ones if I got some as gifts or made them for school projects. I have lots of pretty ones that I’ve received from my Grandma. This is one that Nanny made for me when I was just a baby, and one I made myself in first grade.

Hanemade

This is a cross stitch one that my mom made for me, and a nativity one that my mother in law sent me from Honduras.

Gift from MomGift from Mildred

Now that I’m married, Jesse is included in the tradition. We usually go together to pick one out that we both like. Some years it’s just been a cute one that we agreed on, but the year that we bought and moved into our first house we wanted to find one to symbolize that.

First Home

Mom and I even made my angel tree topper at a craft party one year. All together it comes out to a tree that is unlike any other!

Tree topFinished tree

Happy December… do you have your Christmas tree up yet?

I Said Yes!

June 24, 2011 in Filed Under: Jesse, Marriage, Memories 2 Comments

Engagement photoFive years ago today, Jesse asked me to marry him… and I said YES! I have been planning to write this post all week, but my that sneaky husband of mine went and beat me to it. He posted our engagement story on his blog in the wee hours of the morning. I can’t really be mad about it though since he did remember.

Obviously, I’m so very glad I said yes. I can’t even imagine what my life would be like without Jesse. I can’t believe that day was FIVE years ago, just wait and see where we are after the next five!

California, In Pictures

June 3, 2011 in Filed Under: Family, Jesse, Memories, Travel 5 Comments

I’ve already posted some pictures of our vacation to California, but there are so many more! Jesse was taking pictures like crazy and his turned out really great with the fancy camera. Here’s a few (or a lot) of our favorite things:

It’s hard to pick, but I think my favorite parts of vacation was visiting all the places we used to frequent years ago. I’m a very sentimental and memory loving person, so seeing my old house and old town was high on my priorities for while we were there. Plus I wanted Jesse to see all my old favorite places.

Rancho sign

A walk down memory lane, our old neighborhood

Jesse and me at the lake

The family at the lake

Jesse and me appreciating the mountains

Andrew and Nicole chasing birds

We loved seeing these purple trees everywhere

We gawked at the Bugatti Veyron and the fancy shops along Rodeo Drive

Jesse thoroughly enjoyed his Pink

We took a drive through Hollywood

The family overlooking the Hollywood hills

We were all so excited for the graduation events. We managed to score front row seats for both the hooding ceremony and the graduation ceremony. I’m pretty sure Ashley’s friends thought we were a little crazy. We had our seats so early that we got to watch the rehearsal too. Dad was giving all Ashley’s classmates high fives as they passed us to take their seats. But our craziness paid off with some great pictures!

The main event

Ashley getting hooded

Ashley after hooding

Dad checking Ashley's hood

Ashley hooded

Ashley laughing at our crazy family

Ashley's hand shake

Ashley receiving her diploma

Ashley exiting graduation

Ashley with proud parents

Ashley with proud siblings

After the graduation festivities, Ashley was able to join us for more site seeing and remembering of memories.

The beach we loved going to for years

Beautiful beach view

Mom and Dad enjoying the beach

We've always laughed at this triangular house, no piece of land goes unused

View driving down Pacific Coast Highway

Ruby

La Jolla Cove waves crashing

La Jolla Cove seals soaking up the sun

La Jolla Cove beach

Jesse and me at La Jolla Cove

Hang gliders over the ocean

The bridge to Coronado Island

We thought the valet parking for boats was too funny

Andrew and Nicole at Coronado Beach

The girls on Coronado Island

The boys on Coronado Island

The boys being told to take a funny picture... Andrew looks the same

The boys being told to be funnier

Me shopping on Coronado Island

View of the San Diego runway from the top of the famous parking garage

Jesse and me imitating the famous Unconditional Surrender statue

Is that enough pictures for you? Do you feel like you were there too? We really had such a great time. Now we are back home and back to real life. However, not back to our normal sleeping schedule. Adjusting to the time change has been much more difficult coming home than it was when we got out there. It was really hard to get up this morning, but I’m still up later than normal again. Just think, in three years Ashley will be getting her doctoral degree and we’ll get to do it all over again. We loved California!