New Years Preparation UPDATE

1. Grapes are ALL done in the baggies, ready to be passed out!
2. Kids Ballroom, is all ready for them to party in!
3. Already bought the few missing things we needed

Now today my checklist is as follow:

1. Blow up Balloons
2. Cut up all hams and cheeses and put them in their appropriate plates.
3. Have my hubby hang up the high decor from the ceiling.

Almost there! :)

Movie Review

As planned, after Christmas Brunch at my mom's, my hubby and I went to see "Marley & Me".

I grade it 2 thumbs up, A+

It was such a cute, funny, emotional movie. Yup all in one. The movie made us laughed, we were 'awwwing', we cried, we laughed some more, we cried some more...and then when the movie was over, I immediately called my sisters and told them that they HAD to see it. Also, when we got into our house, the first thing I did was run up my Johnny, give him a hug and kiss and tell him he was the best dog in the whole wide world! Even though I tell him that every single day...after watching this movie, I had to shower him with love.

If you haven't seen it already, go this weekend and I promiose you that you will love it!

The festivites don't end...

After a wonderful looong Christmas celebration, now its time to get things done for our big 2009 New Years Bash. This will be our 2nd time doing New Years HUGE at the FIU Ballrooms. The theme this year will be Hollywood nights, so everyone is encouraged to dress up as their favorite Hollywood stars. Can't wait to see how everyone will dress. Yesterday, we went by to FIU to drop off ALL the decorations and drinks. Boy oh boy do we have a ton of things...well we ended up starting the decoration process. The ballrooms are all set up with their tables, chairs, dance floor, bar, candy station, and food station. We did the decorations for the main ballroom and tonight we will finish the kids ballroom. Their theme will be High School Musical and they will have movies playing for their entertainment, so that their parents can dance the night away. Thankfully, since we have had everything well planned we are almost done. All we have left to do is finish doing the platters, put the grapes in their baggies, and inflat balloons. Not much and we still have 2 1/2 days left. Phew! :)

2008 has been a year of firsts for my hubby and I, its been one long incredible year for us both! So many beautiful memories...now we are looking forward to another wonderful year in 2009! Something tells me that 2009 will be EVEN BETTER!

TIME to PARTAY!!!!

Ahhhh it's the day before Chirstmas and we are ALL up already getting things ready for tonights festivities. I just love love love Christmas....and this year is an extra extra special one for us because its our first Christmas as Mr. & Mrs. and because this year has brought my hubby & I MANY magical memories. WE will FOREVER remember this year and ALL the things it brought to us!

From our families to ALL of yours....

Wishing you a VERY Merry Christmas. May you be surrounded by your loved ones tonight and tomorrow and May God continue to bless ALL of you!

XOXO

The JL Family

Right around the corner

TWO MORE DAYS and its time to CELEBRATE!!!!

We have already finished ALL of our Christmas shopping

& hopefully we will be wrapping them ALL up today.

We only have work till tomorrow (Thank God) &

then we are OFF for 5 loooong days. YAY!!!

Our plans

1. On Wednesday, we will be doing Christmas Eve (Noche Buena) at our home.
2. On Thursday, we will be going over my parents house for our traditional Christmas Brunch.
3. After brunch, I plan to go with my hubby to see Marley & Me at the movies. We have been wanting to see that movie already for a while. Can't wait!
4. Then the rest of the wkend, I will be helping my mom pick out furniture and tiles. My hubby is remodeling the bathrooms in her house so we would like to have that ALL done before the new year rolls in. :)

From the JL Family....

we wish you ALL a VERY Merry Christmas!!!!

2 YEARS AGO TODAY...

I met the man of my dreams. From the VERY 1st conversation we shared together, I knew he was Mr. Right! In that very first conversation/night, I was able to see that he had a lot of the qualities that I wanted in a partner. He was funny, sweet, polite, responsible, family oriented, good manners, respectful, goal oriented, ambitious....and then of course he was tall (6'2), beautiful blue eyes, nice hands, and he was Cuban. I had to throw in that Cuban part bc I have always dated guys from other places but never had dated anyone from my background. We talked sooooo much that very first time, we danced, and we even went out afterwards to get to know each other even more. The entire time, he never tried anything slick on me, which I have be honest...guys now a days always try to move a quick one on you. Everything was so innocent and so perfect. Everything I had always dreamt on, I knew he had existed, I just hadn't found him until December 14, 2006. We made it official on December 17, 2006 (2 yrs ago today). Thats when we shared our first kiss and thats when he told me that, "I was his girl".

So today...is a VERY magical and meaningful day for us!

MASTER'S DEGREE...

Here I come!

I just went to my school during my lunch hour for an interview with the Master's Department. I, of course, got accepted!!! Yippeeee! :) I am all set for Spring and hoping it will all go smooth from here on out for me.

FOUR months ago...

:)

This time last year we were getting things ready to start remodeling our 1st home together. We pretty much did EVERYTHING from A-Z. I actually loved putting it together and can't wait till we do it all over again in our future house. :)

So Happy 1st year of living together in our home to us! This week we have tons to celebrate. I have a few things up my sleeve to make our days extra special and romantic.

Ahhh at last, it's FRIDAY!

Have I mentioned that I looooove Fridays! This week has been one loooong exhausting and stressful week for me. I plan to relax and totally unwind. :)

Today we have planned to hang out with our very own Indy & Russ. Since we both got married we haven't really hung out and much less have we had our fabulous double dates. So tonight we are going to make up for lost time. We will go out to dinner and then we will go to watch Four Christmases. Yay! My favorite a Romantic-comedy...and who better than Vince Vaugh and Reese. I am hoping for some good laughs and good times.

Tomorrow we will be going to my mom house to install my sister's surround sound (well my handy man hubby will do all the installing; I will be hanging out w/ my mom). After we all done there, my sister and little brother will be spending the night at our home bc on Sunday it's my nephews birthday party and everyone is going for the celebration.

A pic from our movie tonight....can't wait!!!!

Hip Hip Hooray!!!

Today I had a very productive lunch hour. I went by my school to see if my diploma was ready to get picked up and sure enough it was ready. Yay! It looks so nice! So then I went to the registrars office and reapplied for the Master's Program in Mental Health Counseling. I turned in all my required paper work that they needed and now I am all set. All I need to do now is sit back and wait till they call me for my enterance interview. I hope that its early next week so that I can register for Spring and have everything in on time.

Special Dedication

I wouldn't have been able to have done any of this without my mom, my abuela and my wonderful husband. These three have pushed me beyond my own expectations. I owe them a lot! I always told my mom not worry that I was going to be bringing home that diploma and I just did. Thanks Mom! I love you! And like my abuela would tell me, "Con Dios TODO se puede". At my graduation ceremony back in October, my husband told me that he wanted to see me graduate with my doctorate so...here I go...the road ahead is not going to be easy, its going to be long and difficult BUT with dedication and determintion I will do it and of course like my abuela says, with God on my side EVERTHING is possible! I love you all of you! Thank you for ALL your support, love, and guidance!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Today we mailed out our Christmas cards!

Our home is decorated for the Holidays!

AND

I am already preparing "Noche Buena" (Christmas Eve)

bc this year we are going to do a huge party at our house.

We are even going to do a gift exchange

with all the adults so we are going do a pre-Christmas party

this wkend so that everyone can pick out names.

Did I ever mention how very much I love Christmas?

New Year Invites are...

out and in the mail!!! Yippeeee! They should have been long gone but it took for ever to get them finished. Hopefully, now everyone replies and lets us know who is coming on time.

I can't wait, this year should really be better than last years party since we had more time to plan for it and more people are coming (the more the merrier).

New Years Party Check list

1. buy more alcohol
2. figure out which hollywood star we are going to dress up as
3. finalize the food menu

Hello December :)

I love December...why? bc I love Christmas!

It's such a happy holiday...this past weekend we already did our fall cleaning and got our home prepared for the holidays. We bought our first Christmas Tree and bought all of our new ornaments...I love how it came out!

So...our Thanksgiving was a success. We spent it with both of our families at the park. We wanted to do something a little different this year and thankGod it all worked out great! It's also great that we get to do holidays with both of our families together because it makes things so much easier and nicer. We went early to the park, got all of our tables and enjoyed a day in the park. Around 2 everyone started to show up with all the yummy food. My step dad brought in the thing (containers) that keeps the food warm & everyone was either playing dominoes, playing softball, or just chatting away. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving! The Adults loved it and needless to say the kids did too! I am really greatful for our families, our health, and our happiness!

Looking forward to all of Decembers Events....

Noche Buena

Christmas Morning Brunch at my moms

and our famous New Years Party!!!!