Another visitor!!!!

Today, my cousin Paige is arriving here in CA and spending the next week with us! 

Paige and I, although she is several years younger, have always had a very close relationship!

Whenever we are all together as a family, Paige and I are inseparable! 

She is great. Not like most teenagers these days, who think that everyone else's life should revolve around them. Which is why everyone loves her, she really is the sweetest thing ever!! Anyhow, I'm not going to get into a long description of her. Just thought I would "announce" her coming to visit...because I'm really looking forward to it!! :) 

It's her first time to California so it will be so fun to give her a little taste of our wonderful state!!! 

It's been awhile, I know! :)

I feel like I have so much to blog about and I have no idea where to start.
For the last two months life has been pretty hectic!
Starting with the end of school that was not only exciting but very very busy!
In the last three weeks of school we crammed in our
annual Spring Auction,
 our 1st-6th grade Spring Program,
a fun but stressful Field Trip,
THREE Graduations
a school wide Field Day
....and in between all of that...
the end of the year rush to get all assignments done, classrooms cleaned, grades graded!!!

From school, we jumped right into our exciting summer.
Starting with my bestie, Nicole, coming to visit us two days after school ended!

What a great great time we had!! Seriously, we took so many pictures, laughed constantly, talked and talked and talked and made memories that will last for such a long time!!

It was so fun showing her our life and our beautiful state of California!

The day before Nicole left my Mom arrived in CA and was followed a few days later by my Daddy! :)

I can't even tell you in words how great it was to have them here!

My parents are two of my best friends and spending this time with them was so great!

It was fun to have my Dad with us right before his birthday and Father's Day. It made it a little easier when I couldn't see him on those special days! :)

Since they left, Julian and I have been keeping busy with day to day things.
We have a few slow weeks coming up and then the mid/end of the summer will be filled with Craft camp at our church, a Bridal shower, and a couple special family members who will be visiting us near the end of the summer!! Along with getting ready for the school year!

I have been so bad at keeping up with the blogging world! I feel way behind! I need to catch up on all of my favorite blogs..and... hopefully it won't take another 2 months till my next post! 

so thankful she is mine...

It's Mother's Day! 

The day that we set aside to honor the person who brought us into this world.

The one who molded us into who and what we are today.

God allowed me to have an amazing Mom!

Sometimes I think of all the other situations I could have been born into. It makes me grateful beyond words because God gave me to the most wonderful parents in the world! 

It honestly humbles me.

I believe it must of been around the time when I was old enough to buy things for my Mom (on her birthday/mother's day) when I first had these thoughts. I clearly remember being in the store looking for the card to buy for my Mom and I would see these cards that would go on and on about how their Mom was now their best friend and they love being able to share everything...etc..etc...

I remember thinking....
Who in the world is ever best friend's with their MOM??!! 

As a teenager, especially, this really baffled me! :)

Mom's just aren't the normal teenager's best friend. lol Even in my younger college years I could just never relate to this kind of relationship.

I realize now that these cards are probably NEVER purchased by teenagers. lol 

You know, there is something about marriage that really changes you.

I'm not saying that people that don't get married until they are older aren't able to mature and become an true adult, but honestly when you get married EVERYTHING changes.

One of the biggest things is your relationship with your parents.

They are still your parents but they aren't responsible for you anymore. They aren't the ones that you "fall back on." Now you have your spouse. It's NOT all about you anymore, you have another person to think of.
It sort of "forces" you to become an adult!

After I got married, my relationship with my Mom really changed.

It started changing in the year before I actually got married but that probably had to do with the fact that I did a lot of growing up that year. 

My Mom had to do less and less "parenting" and started becoming my friend.

When I was a teenager if you would have came to me and told me that my Mom and I would have the relationship we have today. I would have probably laughed at you.

Now, I wouldn't trade the world for the close relationship we have.

She is my best friend.

Thank you Mom.....

* for everything you ever have and will teach me 

* for all the advice you give

* for showing by your example what a being a GREAT wife is

* for passing down your sarcastic personality! :) 

* for teaching me about being a true friend

*for encouraging me 

* for constantly making me laugh

* for your prayers

* for giving me the huge goal to try and be the kind of Mother you were to us

* for giving of yourself completely in everything that you do

* for being "hard" on us when we were younger because you wanted to make us the best we could be

* for teaching me to be a hard worker

* for listening to me talk and talk and talk on the phone :)

* for showing by example what it's like to have a true relationship with God

* for officially being....

my role model,

THE person I aspire to be most like! :)

I love you, Mom! 

This is our first Mother's Day apart.
I miss you so much and REALLY wish we could be together today!
Happy Mother's Day

I just LOVE going home!

Last week at this time Julian and I were rushing around doing our last minute packing for our trip back to Indiana! We left for the airport Thursday morning at 4:30 a.m. as soon as Julian got home from work (he has a midnight shift). We landed in Chicago around 1:30 p.m. and our busy weekend started!

To start I would like to talk about the real reason for our visit to Indiana...

Tyler and Mary

On Friday, February 18, Tyler Brock and Mary Johnson became...

Mr and Mrs Tyler Brock!!!!

These two people are separately and together two of Julian and I's dearest friends.

Mary and I go way back. We have been friends basically since her family moved back to the United States after being missionaries in Mexico. If I remember correctly that was in the 4th or 5th grade. 

Throughout Jr. high and high school Mary and I were very very close!! She is one of those friends that never changes. She is constant and she has such a sweet heart and is just an all around selfless person! 

Tyler and Julian didn't meet until college and even then didn't really have a close friendship until the end of our sophomore year. When Julian and Tyler are together they are something else...they can constantly make you laugh! I know that Julian is very thankful for the friendship that Tyler and he have..it's one that I know will last a very long time!!

As couples, Tyler and Mary and Julian and I did A LOT together. Especially during our last two years of college when our relationships were heading the same direction and our relationships were both getting to be serious. When we went on group dates, Tyler and Mary were always there...we had countless lunch dates together in the school cafeteria. They were the couple that we always paired up with...

So, we just HAD to come to Indiana to see our dear friends married off!!

Plus, my handsome husband had the honor of standing by his friend at the altar as his Best Man! 

Here are some pics from the special night!

Us with the happy couple!

Mary was a beautiful bride!

Feeding each other the cake at the reception!

Nice Tyler..just rub it all over her face!! :)

Going in for another Kiss! aww..

Leaving the reception!!

The Bridal Party looking on as they kiss!

Groom and his Groomsmen!

Bride and her Bridesmaids!

Like I said before, Mary and I were very close in high school but we weren't the only two in our little group! 

Sarah, Michelle, Mary and I were a foursome!!! We all have grown up and it's so hard to believe that three out of the four of us are married!!! Where does the time go? But it is so nice to know that although we aren't as close as we once were, we are all still friends!! I know the four of us will always have a special friendship!!!

Michelle was not able to make it to the wedding..seeing as we teach in the same school out here in CA...they couldn't let both of us get off for the trip..:( but she was in this picture in spirit! :) 

 ...here are the three of us that are married women! Now, we just need Michelle to join us! ;)

Here are some other random pictures from the wedding I thought you may enjoy!

 Having fun with the Swangims!

Getting ready to finish up these pictures!!! Can you see it on their faces?? They were ready to be done!

Love this one of Mary with her nephews and niece!!!! 

Soo adorable!

And this is too precious...Mary saying bye to her ring bearer!

Us! 

One more of the sweet newlyweds!

Although the main purpose for the visit was the wedding...we were also able to fit several other fun things in!

Friday afternoon, while Julian was doing Best Man things, my dear best friend Nicole and I spent the entire afternoon together! I miss her so much way out here in California....it's really not fair that we live SO far apart!! Over the past, (almost 8 months..can you believe it?!?!) since we got married, Nicole and I have stayed very close! I am thankful for that!!

We decide to spend our afternoon traveling to IL to check out a store that one of our other best friends had discovered and raved about!!! Let me just say....this place was AWESOME!! 

Actually you can read more the store at Nicole's blog!!

 We had a wonderful time doing what we do best....TALKING and SHOPPING!!!! :)

I miss my in person time with Nicole..she is such an incredible friend! 

Here's a little peak at the store!

Happy to be shopping and doing it together...it had been too long!! 

Another part of Nicole and I's friendship that is great is that our families have become very good friends as well...so we couldn't be in Indiana without spending time with the whole fam!

After the wedding on Friday night the LaBate's came over to my parents house and we had a wonderful time with them!!! 

LaBate girls and I! 

Last (but far from least) was the great time we spent with Dad and Mom!!!!!

I love them so much!

 We had such an awesome time with them!!!

  

Eating / Shopping

Laughing

Just being together again!

I love them so much!

We spent our last evening, Sunday after church, out with some great friends!!!

here are a few pictures that I snapped!

Us with Andrea and Dustin (another couple that Julian and I were college friends with)...with Mr and Mrs E...in the background! 

Here are the Leslie kids...leaving an empty space for Sharon...:)
We missed you Sharon!

I am so glad that we were able to take this little trip back! I love seeing all the people that I grew up with and that all had a part in my those years! I love my home church and even though it hasn't been extremely long since I have lived at home...it is so refreshing to come back and visit!!! 

So....I am definitely looking forward to next time....

Hopefully soon....unless.....ALL of you back home just want to come see me!!! :)

It's only fair......we should take turns!!! 

'tis the season...

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Ours was very very nice! I decided not to post my pictures...basically because it takes too much time to load pictures on here and I wanted to put these on instead. Anyhow, we celebrated (as I said before) with the Balatbat family. Everyone gathered at my in laws house and ate wonderful food (and yes there was turkey)! Filipino's love to cook and they always do things in HUGE amounts (at least my relatives).

Thanksgiving night, at midnight, Julian, Joyce (his sister) and I went to the outlets to start our black friday shopping! It was a crazy crazy experience! I LOVE black friday shopping! It is so fun to be out there with all those other crazy people! We got home around 3 a.m. and then we were up again at 9 to go shopping some more!

Saturday, was a day that I had been looking forward to for a long time!! We decided that we were going to go get our very first Christmas tree! I love Christmas and I have been excited about decorating for our first Christmas! So first thing Saturday morning we headed out to a local "tree lot"....

and we found our tree!!!

It was so fun! Even though there was no snow and actually it was raining...the little tree lot did feel very festive! :)

:)

Getting ready to take it home!

Michelle, my best friend, spent the entire day with us and we used her big truck to haul our tree home!

Carrying it in!

Up the stairs!

Let's just say, this moment, or this twenty minutes...which was about how long it took us to figure out the tree stand and get the tree to stand straight....was a very memorable time! One of those that you just won't forget...Julian "Babe, stop pulling it"..Me "I'm not pulling, you are pushing".... It was a very special! :)

yep...that's me...still holding it up!

then the fun part...all the stuff on the floor is the decorations we had yet to put out...

lights!

Did I mention it's our 1st Christmas and we are EXCITED!! :))

ornaments!

Finally Michelle was in a picture! Thanks for taking pictures all day for us Michelle! We love you!

It's our awesome tree topper! I love it!

We made a last minute decision on what the tradition would be for the "who puts the tree topper on"...we decided our entire family would do it together (all two of us) ...I'm not sure how that will work in the future, especially if we have several kids but we will cross that bridge later! :)

Love my moose couple...(passed down from my mother) btw most of my decorations were passed down! Including our tree skirt...which is definitely very special to me!!

Our stockings! I got these after last Christmas at an adorable store called Swoozie's!!

Love them!

Here's the finished product!

the nativity scene we had all during my childhood

Love this set...actually one of my bridal shower presents from my Mom! I just had to put them out...they are way too cute to be in the cupboard!

It's so perfect!!

It definitely is "beginning to look a lot like Christmas" around our home!

Looking forward to all that this Christmas season has in store!!!