Resoltions

2011 sucked. like bad.  so its totally appropriate that im ending it in bed, sick.  sore throats are probably my least favorite illness. two of my favorite things aren't fun anymore-talking & eating.  blahh.  anyways, me and magno are both really excited for 2011 to end, although we are grateful for our health & overall amazing lives, 2011 just didn't tickle our pickles.  I remember writing my new years resolutions last year (here) so i thought i should do that now before the new year gets here.  and by the way, surprisingly enough, 2 of the resolutions were accomplished! The 1st one (a job in the wedding industry) when i accepted the internship at Petals by Xavi, and 2 (eating healthier) which at the time I wrote that I was living without a dishwasher, so cooking rarely happened which meant FAST FOOD! now that I have a lovely kitchen with dishwasher, I cook at least 5 days a week & anything that you personally cook is way healthier:)

2012 Resolutions

1. Again, homeownership.  I can't think of anything greater.

2. Meatless Monday.  We normally have one night a week with a totally meatless meal for dinner, but I want to extend that & do 2 or more days a week meatless.  I was a vegetarian for about 10 years & somehow, someway, fell off the wagon & cant seem to get back on.  So I'd like to keep our meat eating to a minimum and discover more yummy meatltess meals.

3. Figure out whats up with my skin!  this seems so silly but i swear, the past few months my skin has been breaking out worse than a teenager & I just can't figure it out!  I've tried every face wash imaginable & i've even cut coffee out of my diet ( 8 days strong so far!).  Along with that, I've been drinking an antioxidant tea twice a day that's supposedly great for your skin.  But I still don't see any great results.  I've done tons of research & diagnosed myself with hormonal imbalance.  I don't (and wont) take pills for it so i'll keep pushing ahead & trying to find something that works.  fingers crossed because my husband is sick of hearing "no i dont want to go out because im so ugly & people will run & scream when they see me!!" ahhaah. ahh yes, dramatic me at my best.

4. Regain a job in the wedding industry.  Unfortunately my internship didn't end up working out because of some crazy drama that happened which resulted in me quitting.  It really was a blessing in disguise though because I was able to branch out & start doing wedding planning on my own.  While i LOVE doing that & will continue to do it, I also want a more stable job as a wedding planner. maybe for a country club or wedding venue.  Something to keep me planning weddings ALL the time:)

Theres my 2012 resolutions, all pretty attainable if you ask me.  #1 is a bit of a stretch, but ya never know:)  Hope you all have a great NYE & an AMAZING 2012!

I'll be back with a Christmas post when im not sick=(

I can't believe Christmas is a few days.  I've been extra festive this year & even created a christmas card wall in our apartment which i put up all of our christmas cards from the past.  I love being able to see them everyday:)

& heres our christmas card from this year

sending out christmas cards is one of my favorite traditions about christmas:)

Yesterday I was craving Cinnabon but didn't want to go get it.  It must have been fate, because I looked up the recipe & I had everything for it on hand.  So, i bit the bullet and made Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls from scratch.  It was the best thing I've ever had.  I tweaked the recipe a bit and used a different frosting recipe than what was suggested, so I put the exact full recipe together for everyone to enjoy.  This would make a great xmas gift, just put it in a foil casserole dish with a cute ribbon & attach this recipe:)  Its SO good and SOOO worth the time it takes to make.

im off to go eat the rest of these bad boys:)

I finally finished all my christmas shopping! it started in mid november so I'm glad its over with!  I still need to wrap everything but I'm glad I have more time now to enjoy all things Christmas!:)

On Saturday I got to spend some much needed girl time with my friend Aiza.  We went to Guppy House & enjoyed delicioussss food and a shaved ice dessert concoction.  We talked about our weddings the entire time, anybody who would have been with us would have died of boredom!:) 

Later that night we had fight night.  I made baked chili cheese dogs which are my new favorite crowd pleaser recipe.  The fights were pretty good & at one point everyone was screaming, which kramer was not a fan of as you can tell from the look on his face

Sunday Magno had his brother over and they ate pizza and watched movies all day.  I went over to my parents house to spend the day with my family doing christmas stuff.  We make christmas cookies every year and this year my dad helped us make the morrell cookies since my mom was in bed sick.

my older sister megan made yummy buffalo dip for lunch, we picked up my parents christmas tree, & listened to christmas music.  I love christmas activities!

now im off to play some call of duty with my husband...its pretty weird how obsessed I am with this game now & we end up fighting over xbox time.  

Tree is up & cards are ready to be sent - NOW its my favorite time of the year!:)

We had so much fun this weekend on our first wedding anniversary! On Friday Magno got out of work a bit early & we headed over to Long Beach to check in at Hotel Maya, where we stayed a few days before & after our wedding.  We have such good memories of that place & of Long Beach in general so we thought that'd be fun to do.  We relaxed in the hotel room before heading over to Fuego which was just downstairs from us.  We had a 3 course dinner & all 3 courses were equally delicious!

Saturday was our actual anniversary.  We got ready & took kramer to the beach for a long walk so he'd be nice & tired that night.  After that we took him to my moms house so she could watch him while we went to the christmas parade & dinner on second street.  It was so crowded when we got there so we decided to just eat, but the hostess took us upstairs to a perfect spot where we could watch the whole parade!  After that we went to pick up kramer & cut the top of our wedding cake.  Neither of us wanted to eat it but we both tasted it for the sake of tradition.  The frosting was nasty but the cake wasnt bad a year later haha.

Sunday was our last day in LB.  We walked around the bay a little bit & took some pictures, then headed home.  On the way we stopped at second street to shop for our annual christmas ornament.  We get a new one each year & this year we found the perfect one in the first store!  Its a day of the dead type ornament, handmade, & it says together forever on it:)

We also stopped by magnos moms house..she wanted to make us dinner for our anniversary & im all for not cooking!  We also got to see all her pictures from her recent trip to mexico.  We spent hours looking at all of them & it was so cool getting to see magnos aunts, cousins, grandparents, & old family friends.  We even got to see video of everyone gathered around watching our wedding video! Magnos grandpa is so stinkin cute..he was standing right over the tv pointing out everytime he was in the video! hahah=) Then came the gifts....magnos moms sister bought me a christmas CD because magnos mom told her how obsessed i am with christmas! and she got magno a beatles cover CD cause he loves the beatles.  His cousin got us the most awesome & authentic calaveras aka sugar skulls....she has never met me & hasnt seen magno in 10+ years yet she knew EXACTLY which ones we'd like!  I've never met his aunt or cousin and they were both so sweet to send us these gifts, i MUST go to mexico and meet all my family over there someday.  Magnos mom also brought us some cute litle gifts...mexican candy, mexican cookes, a purse for me, a tequila & salt set...i can't even tell you how much i love things from mexico!! When me and magno finally got home we exchanged our anniversary gifts.  I was a dummy and forgot to pack mine so even though he packed his gift for me, we waited till we got home to exchange them.  Traditionally, first year is supposed to be a paper gift.  So i got magno a jedi knight certificate which of course he loved, and a star wars card.  He got me a really pretty card & magnets, because they hold up paper on the fridge ahaha....i guess that works right!?:)

it was a great anniversary weekend! Now hopefully today we can get all our christmas cards together to be sent out &finally get our christmas tree!

Can't belive it's been 1 year..

1 year ago today i made the absolute best decision i ever made.