mail call

yesterday my mom and i went to the post office to weight the wedding invitations, get them stamped and on their way to their destinations! [including 11 either going to england, new zealand & australia]
i had a huge slap in the face [not literally, obviously] when i saw how much all the stamps cost. my jaw dropped. i even pulled out my phone calculator to make sure the lady didn't rip us off. apparently my mom knew how much it'd be already.. well laa-dee-daa ;)


anywhoo!
i'm so very excited that we finally got them all hand addressed [thank you, janelle!] stuffed with the invitation info, sealed and sent off! such a weight lifted off my shoulders.


now i can only hope that EVERYONE rsvp's! even if you can't make it! it's just polite, dang it :)

before i "stuffed" all the envelopes

there they are! waitin' to be mailed :)

aaallll 200 of 'em

whew!

let the rsvp's start rollin' in, people! :)

i hate how i never come up with clever title names.

we had a great, long four-day weekend.

first was thanksgiving. bummed that we didn't get a least one picture that day but that might be due to the fact that we didn't have thanksgiving dinner together [how sad, huh?!] i stayed with my fambam while charlie stayed with the family he rents a room from. but we both agreed- no more holidays apart! and that makes me one happy girl.

friday we took two car loads of stuff to our apartment. it's starting to look very "homey" now & we absolutely love it.

on saturday morning, me, charlie and our friend john went out to breakfast at the original pancake house. YUM. 

then went couch shopping afterwards. with no such luck there, we just hung out doing a whole lotta nothin' until the evening time. [sometimes doin a whole lotta nothin' is the best] so we did that 'till our friend shelby, who was visiting home from college, had the bright idea to do a bon fire at the beach! [i know what you're thinking...beach? in november? yes, you read right.]

and it was so fun! after we got the fire goin' we went straight into making s'mores. cause, i mean, what's a bon fire without s'mores?!

& of course we took some pics :)

*fun fact about sam: she always eat one s'more then foregoes the mallow and graham cracker & eats just the chocolate. [surprised? me neither.]

the man loves his marshmallows.

and the last day of our four day weekend consisted of church, food & being lazy. just how i love my sundays.

hope you all had a fabulous long weekend as well!

p.s. it's beginning to look a lot like christmas... :)

sore loser

scrabble.
it used to be my favorite game.
i've never lost. [except for one time. i must have let them win]
then i made the mistake of teaching charlie how to play.
now he's beat me TWICE.
never again.
yup, i'm a sore loser.
i'm determined to win but i'm just afraid i'll loose again :(
& i know charlie is just laaaaughing at this post.
i'll get you back, babe. just you watch.

giving thanks

i hope you all had a yummy and fun thanksgiving with people you love!

in honor of thanksgiving, i thought i'd share just a few things that i am thankful for..
[not in any particular order....except maybe for number one :) ]


-for a loving, hardworking fiancé that i love beyond words.
-for parents who are doing all they can to make our wedding special & who have always been there for me.
-family..especially the newest member of our family, my nephew, Rowen.
-for a whole new family that i'm joining next month. [love you, osborne family!]
-for friends
-for my health and my family & friend's health
-for a roof over my head
-for education
-for being an American and having freedom
-for work
-for our Heavenly Father's love
-for my memories
-for every day

hopefully you had time today to stop & think what you're thankful for.

now we're onto full fledged CHRISTMAS SEASON!!! ahh...the best time of the year!

my bridal shower

was the most beautiful, over-the-top, best bridal shower ever!
[and it just so happens it was my bridal shower.]
lucky me :)

a good family friend, pat hess, and my matron of honor (aka my lovely sister, janelle) hosted my bridal shower on saturday, november 13, 2010 at the Hess' estate in tenaja.

we ate yummy food..
played games..
mingled..
and opened presents!

thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to all who was able to make it to my bridal shower and for all the generous gifts! i promise charlie and i will put them all into good use in our new life together :)
i love all of you!

and of course...pictures. [you know me too well] 
but only a few. yes, this is a "few" compared to the 200 i could have posted :)

 the gorgeous one-of-a-kind hand crocheted tablecloth from my grandma

me with 3 out of 5 of my bridesmaids

my handsome man and i sportin' our new aprons

p.s. sorry to all my facebook buddies who've already seen all these pictures! 

sneak peek

of our engagement pictures... :)

more to come!

[photography by the lovely Terina Matthews]

paint.

since we have awesome property managers, they let us paint before we moved in!
such a relief, now we don't have to jam pack it into our already busy schedules in the next upcoming months.
so, on friday morning we went down to our place & bought some dunn edwards paint. [AMAZING paint, btw. we only had to do one coat, it went on like butter. totally worth the money]
we chose to paint the green wall that was there in the family room an almost gray-blue. the color we got was called "glen falls"
then for the orange wall that was in our bedroom we decided on the tan that was in the rest of the place, this tan was called "stonish beige".
and finally, in our guest bedroom that was originally a pale yellow, we did two walls blue and two walls tan.
[mind you, we did all this in about 4 and a half hours. we're good at teamwork :)]

here are some before and after pictures.
don't worry, after we're done decorating, i'll post those too. those are the real "after" pictures.

BEFORE

the family room

another view of the family room

the orange wall in our room

the guest bedroom

another view of the guest bedroom

AFTER

our family room

our room 

(parts of the wall still had wet paint where it looks lighter)

the guest room

charlie being...charlie :)

and i'll leave this post with a picture that i love..

slacker

i've been SO busy this week with lots of fun stuff :)
sorry for being a slacker on posting about all of it.
i promise this week you'll have lots of posts to read about us! [how excited are you!?]

home sweet home...almost

today, the fiancé and i went to sign our lease papers for our soon to be apartment.
kinda weird [and by weird i mean 'awesome'] 
an added bonus is that we got a little sneak peek of our empty little home!


this wasn't the first time i've seen the place since the apartment used to be my sisters. 
it was perfect timing for us to JUMP at the chance to be the new renters because my sister, her husband and my amazingly adorable 2 month old nephew are in the process of buying their first home [CONGRATS, GUYS!]. 

we are THRILLED to be able to create memories there.
what's not to love?
we have a guest bedroom
a very good size patio/garden [we're planning on hosting the best bbq's of summer 2011, fyi]
a quiet, safe neighborhood
close to EVERYTHING. just a hop skip & a jump away from disneyland, angel stadium and the beach. take your pick :) [and also oh-so-close to one of my best friends, liana!]


i. can't.wait. to start painting, putting up pictures, decorating and all that fun stuff to make it move in ready when we get hitched. [don't worry, pictures will be a part of that process]




p.s. what's a post without a picture?
here's that cute nephew of mine i was talking about a little bit ago..his name is Rowen :)

it's ridiculous how much i love this little guy

halloween

i love halloween.
it's the start of the holiday season [which i can't believe is already here]
it means yummy cold weather meals
cozy clothes
autumn weather
hot chocolate
fire in the fireplace
the list goes on

this halloween we celebrated by..
grubbing on some soup, chili, cornbread, twice baked potatoes & of course candy [chocolate to be exact]
passed out candy to the little ones
charlie scaring trick or treaters with a black mask & glowing red eyes [he had to stop because some of them were getting too scared]
& finally ending the night cuddling under a blanket next to the bon fire [cue the "awws"]

i may have went a little overboard with editing this one, but i had to make up for the blurriness 

here's a better picture of charlie's scary mask

we had a great first halloween together.

then again, any day we're together is great :)