Shower Extravaganza

This past Saturday, we had our fourth shower. It was at Misa Ankar's beautiful house. Thanks Misa, for allowing all of us to come over and celebrate. That was very nice and generous of you. The hostesses were Amanda Grant, Jennifer Ramsey, Megan Knoblich, and Misa Ankar. Everything was beautiful! Jennifer had asked me for some favorite outfits that we've gotten and she used them to decorate the house. She hung up his name that she had made to match his room which was way too cute. The girls had flowers everywhere and a huge spread of food. It was unbelievable. Amanda made a homemade potato soup with toppings you could choose and put on top. It was delicious. She also made thumb print cookies that were not only beautiful but delicious. Jennifer made beautiful mini cupcakes. One was blueberry lemon and even had a blueberry and lemon zest decoration. The other was chocolate. Too good. Megan made my favorite fruit dip that I loved with the best fruit ever. Then there were all sorts of other goodies. Misa had us playing games and she was such a teacher. Cracked us all up. Everyone had an amazing time.

We were literally showered with love. I am truly blessed with such wonderful girl friends. We had an amazing time and it couldn't have been better. We got incredible gifts. Jonathan is one lucky baby, that's for sure!

Cindy Grant, Amanda's mother-in-law, brought my mom and Debbie a gift for being grandmothers. It was the sweetest thing ever and they both felt so special. A special thanks to her for making them feel special, because there is nothing more special than being a grandmother. I know my grandmother was one of the most important people in my life. I know Jonathan will think the same about my mom and Debbie as well.

Amanda, Jennifer, Megan, and Misa I love you guys so much. You guys are the best friends a girl could ever ask for. Everything was beautiful and I felt so special. Travis thought everything was amazing. You guys know he said he was going to "take pictures," but in all reality he just wanted to eat. LOL! We both appreciate all of the hard work, time, and effort that was put into making this such a special day for us.

We love you all!

Diaper Wreath that Amanda made. Too Cute!Meg serving the super cute Blue punch they made.

Some of the gifts. It was outrageous! Travis was worried at this point as to where we would put everything. LOL!


The sign Jennifer made

The Hostesses! Arianna is the cutest ;)

My Mom, LD, and I.

Mommies to be: Me and Yasmine

Work Family

I think the most important thing to have in a job is a family at work. What I mean by that is, you should love the people you work with, because you spend more time at work a week than you do at home, so working in a place you love is crucial to your job and how hard you work while you are there. You never want to let your family down, so if you think of your work as another family, I believe you will work harder and be more happy as well.

With that said, I can honestly say that I have an incredible family at work. I couldn't have asked for a more supportive, loving, and fun family to be with and work with every single day. It is a joy coming into work everyday and that's an awesome feeling to have.

My work family hosted an incredible baby shower on February 12, 2010. It was comical, because it hardly ever snows here. The shower was set to be from 3-5. With the amount of snow falling, they changed it to 1:30. Poor Teresa, the hostess, was so stressed out because she wanted everything to be perfect. She did the most amazing job. Everything was beautiful. She had her sister make an amazing and absolutely delicious cake. She made a punch that was blue and delicious.

Well, we ate, had an amazing time and then Kevin, my boss, sat us down to open gifts. Kevin, being an incredibly efficient person, set it up to be like an assembly line. Well, my logistics husband loved it! We even had a cart to take everything to the car. Let's just talk about how overwhelmed I was. I did cry at this shower (thanks to Deborah). Everyone was so loving. I was shocked and couldn't believe it.

My favorite store in Dalton is the Cherry Tree. According to Travis, I keep them in business. They are so nice and they do all sorts of personalized gifts. To me, personalized gifts mean more especially at my age because we don't really need anything anymore. Needless to say, so many people got us gifts from there, gift cards, and even the diaper bag that I had put on hold that same day at lunch was given to me. We couldn't have asked for a better shower. It was super fun, we laughed a lot, and everyone was so sweet and wonderful. We are so blessed. God definitely pushed me to make a move in jobs from US Xpress to Shaw and it was the best push that could have been given to me.

Thank you guys so much for making our shower so special. A special thanks to Teresa for doing everything for it and making everything so beautiful with extra special touches. We love you! Another Thanks to Melissa for writing everything down for us. Huge help. Thanks to Kevin, Dennis, Andrew, and Jacob for taking pictures, helping Teresa set everything up, organizing everyone to come enjoy with us, and for taking the gifts down to the car.

My Kalencom diaper bag

An Abundance of Love

On February 7, 2010, we had a shower hosted by Debbie Chadwick (my Mother-in-law), Ashley Ivey (the best sister-in-law), Melinda "Mimi" Ivey (Ashley's Mother-in-law), and Kathy Hubbuch (one of Debbie's best friends.) The shower was at Debbie and Phil's home. Everything was decorated so beautifully. When we walked in and saw all of their hard work, it was hard not to cry. You see how much people love us and care about us and it is just so overwhelming.

Ashley and her friend Katie, made a beautiful diaper cake. It was their first diaper cake to make and it came out perfect. They are truly professionals. The cake was from Piece a Cake Bakery and it was as delicious as it was cute. They also had some baby cookies made that were the favors for the shower. I swear there wasn't one detail missing. The food was outstanding. Everything was delicious.

We had friends and family there to be with us. Travis was with Phil upstairs up until we opened presents. As you all know, Travis can't miss that. LOL! For him, it was Christmas. He has been so excited about this baby coming and all of the great things we've gotten for him. At this shower, we were showered with love for Jonathan. We got so many great things and as we opened them, we made mental notes to learn how to use it all. LOL! It was incredible how many beautiful and wonderful things we got. Jonathan will not go without, that's for sure.

Again, we want to say thank you to the 4 ladies that made this shower beautiful, special, and a huge success. We love you guys!!!

Me and Ashley

Another thanks to Jennifer. Thank you for writing everything down and learning with us what everything is. We love you!

My First Baby Shower

On January 23rd, I had my first Baby Shower. It was at Maria Dolores' house. All of my mom's friends were so wonderful and not to mention all the work Maria Dolores put into every detail and into all the yummy food.

We started off eating some yummy appetizers and just telling funny stories. You give these women a glass of wine and they make you cry from laughing so hard. So entertaining. With dinner they had more wine and Champagne as well, so at this point we were dying from laughter.

After dinner and dessert, Bailey's Irish Cream became my mom and Gladys' best friend. My mom turned as red as a tomato and Gladys told more funny stories about going to Sedona in an RV with some friends and climbing a mountain. I have never laughed so hard.

It was hysterical that I didn't drink and everyone else did! I had a wonderful time and everything was wonderful! Jonathan received incredible presents and we know he will be so loved! We are lucky to have such good friends in our lives that feel more like family than friends.

NYE

This New Years was a lot of fun. We went to dinner with some old friends and met some new friends as well. The two new couples we met were a lot of fun and super nice. Thanks Misa and Charley for bringing such wonderful people to dinner. We went to Hennan's for dinner. Brian and Jennifer were also there and cracking me up all night long.

Afterwards, we went to The Mill for the NYE party hosted my the Girls' Cotillion Club. They had it decorated like we were in NYC. There was even a hot dog stand inside. It was great. The guy was dressed up like a hot dog. I laughed so hard. They had a wonderful Motown Band playing, Peace, Love, and Happiness. Travis, of course, had to sing with the band. Usually him and Megan sing Proud Mary together, but this time Megan wasn't there, so he felt the need to go solo. Bless his heart. It was hysterical.

Casey, was hysterical on this wonderful night and embarrassing too. At one point we were watching the TN game next to the bar set-up when the DJ started playing Juvenile's "Back That A$$ Up." She serenaded my belly. People in line for their drinks were staring. It was hysterical.

Funny things that happened:
1. A girl was dressed in a slutty get-up (my opinion). She started dancing all provocatively and fell in front of everyone. Jumped back up and started all over.
2. Misa fell and we laughed about it like crazy.
3. A woman in the bathroom heard Misa talking bad about herself (her post pregnancy body) and made fun of her saying, "Yeah, if I looked like you I would die. Come on you are HUGE......." Most people don't look that good pre-pregnancy.
4. Casey's dress falling down.
5. Jon Carver listening to my belly.
6. Brian telling girls they've "Been Fined." The fashion police was out that night! LOL!
7. Amanda threatening to punch someone if they touched her belly.
8. Travis singing alone with the band.
9. The Ankar family getting typsie.
10. Tina yelling at Jon Carver for rubbing her cousin's shoulders. That was classic.

All in all, I had a wonderful time with wonderful friends. I had more fun this year than last year, because I got to watch everyone get a little typsie and do foolish/outlandish things. Got to love that!

We can't wait for 2010 and all the many blessings we will receive in this new and exciting time in our lives.

Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas

Christmas was crazy! We had family in town, which was wonderful, but it kept us busy running around. We had an amazing time though. On Christmas Eve, my dad and Piti (my cousin) roasted a pig in a Chinese Box. I couldn't look at the pig (Bartolo) prior to eating him, because if I did I wouldn't have eaten any of it. We had a typical Puerto Rican feast. It was delicious! We had a great time with wonderful friends and family.

The holidays make you realize how truly blessed you are to be surrounded by so many people that love you and care about you. I am extremely lucky to have married into such an amazing family. I have the best sister-in-law and brothers-in-law ever. Our niece and nephew are wonderful and I know they'll be great with the baby once he comes. We are just so lucky that we all get along so well!

Thanks to Travis' parents, we now have our nursery set-up. They surprised us with our baby furniture for Christmas! I was speechless and Travis was shocked! I'll be posting pictures of it once it is finished. I might give you a little preview though.

We can't wait until next Christmas!!!!!!!

Family and Friends

This past weekend, we had our Friends' Christmas Dinner at our house. There was over 20 people at the house with their children. It is such a great tradition to get started. Our friends are like our family and we love them very much. Everyone made something for this dinner and it was all delicious. I made Red Velvet Cheesecake, Chocolate Chip/Heath Bar Pie, Mac and Cheese Casserole, and Sweet Potato Casserole. Piti, my cousin, made a fabulous turkey stuffed with a yucca mash, gravy, and helped with everything else. Travis made the dressing and it was delicious courtesy of Paula Dean. Then from there we had a delicious spread of casseroles, appetizers, and desserts. We had a great time. In the rush of it all, I forgot to take pictures. So sorry!

Having family in town is so wonderful. Everyone gathered together, laughing, joking, and giving each other a hard time is what family is all about. We are very blessed this Christmas to have our family in town. There is nothing better than 8 people gathered around my parents' dining room table, talking loud, and cracking jokes. We all love to joke and laugh a lot. We all love to give each other a hard time and crack up, so these are memories that we will be able to carry along forever.

On Sunday, we went to my dad's office to show my grandfather our baby. We had an ultrasound done and the baby is doing great. He was sucking along or already trying to talk. I think he's going to take after my mom with all the talking. She is never quiet! LOL! Kikito, my grandfather, was amazed at how a computer could show you the baby. He said it was amazing.

All in all, these holidays are going to be a sad time for us, because one of the people we loved most in this world is not going to be here with us. At least not in our presence, but I know she is watching over us and she is definitely in our hearts. One thing I do know is that we are all making it our duty to make sure Kikito has a good time filled with laughter and we will make sure he realizes that his life will and can go on without her here on earth.