Our Engagement Photos are Here!!

Woo Hoo!! I have literally been waiting on pins and needles to see these for the last 3 weeks! We took the cheap route and had a family member take our pictures so we couldn't exactly be pushy about when we would get our proofs back since she did it for free. But I am SO glad that we had David's cousin take the pictures, she is an aspiring photographer and she really did a great job. 

David and I aren't the most photogenic couple, so I was extremely nervous that not one of the pictures would turn out suitable. But I kept telling myself, our photo shoot lasted 3 hours and she had to of taken at least 300 pictures - one of them must be some-what decent... Much to my surprise I loved almost every single picture she sent back to us (~40 proofs). Below are some of my more favorite shots...

It was SO much fun taking our pictures, but it was also quite exhausting - I do not know how models do it! I came home that day with no less than 4 cuts on my ankles/feet and a sprained wrist, but it was definitely worth it!

If you happen to live in the Orange County area I highly recommend our photographer for any photos. She doesn't have a website yet, but you can email her at JessGelber@gmail.com.

Little Mitch

In my inability to sleep and unwillingness to get out of my warm bed I have decided to write a post about my baby brother...

My parents got divorced about 10 years ago and my dad remarried maybe 6ish years ago. Dad, being the child loving man that he is, and his wife Dianna decided that they wanted to have a baby together a few years back.

Crazy, right? They definitely aren't (no offense Dad and Dianna) spring chickens anymore. But they did it and I could not be happier for them.

On October 31, 2008 their little bundle of joy was born, Mitch Leyton-Leon. He was so excited to enter this world that he was about 1 month early. But thankfully the birth went smoothly and there were no complications.

LM (Little Mitch) has the sweetest disposition I have ever seen in a little boy. He always seems to be so happy and has no problem what so ever going to people other than his parents. Not to mention that this kid is also adorable!

Here are some pictures that I have photoshopped of LM on my phone...












Cute, right? I just love this kid...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Commute far anyone?

Well, I am finally at David's house (aka my future home) after not seeing him for 3 whole weeks. Yeah!! I am sitting here waiting for him to get home from class (he is currently getting his Masters and Administrative Credential, so one day he may become a Principal and I may become a Stay at Home Mom... I wish), so I thought that I would write a quick post about the commute from my work to my future home...

My job is precisely 55.7 miles from my future home. Ouch. David and I really put a lot of thought into where we wanted to live and to raise our future children before we bought this house 1.5 years ago. My commute was definitely a topic of discussion while house shopping, but we decided that 1.) We did not want to end up living in LA (which would be the only way to limit my commute) and 2.) A job is a job - although times are tough in the workforce, I figured that eventually I would be able to find something a bit closer to home. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my job and I am hoping that I will be able to work out something so I can stay there as long as possible, but I was thinking of my (non-existent) family when we made the decision of where to buy our home. 

Since I start work at 6:30am, the commute from my future home to work only takes 1 hour and is not that bad. I fly at about 75 mph on the freeway the whole time and hit little, if no traffic, at all. 

The commute from work to future home is a different story... Those 55.7 miles have taken me from as little as 1 hour to as much as 2.5 hours. In order to save my sanity, I have started taking Pacific Coast Highway on the days that I am going from work to future home - so I can at least stare at the ocean for part of the drive. I love love love the ocean, so this really has helped me out with the road rage. I find the ocean to be so calming and awe inspiring that I can't help but to smile when I look at it. I also feel so blessed that I am able to have this amazing view right at the tip of my fingers...

Today I thought that I would attempt to take some pictures of this gorgeous view to share with you all how lucky I am...

**Please don't judge me by my dirty windshield... In preparation for the storm that is expected to his this weekend I have not bothered to wash my car...**

Anywho - although the 55.7 miles does totally suck, at least I get to have an amazing view for part of the ride. And to make things even better, tonight I got to watch the sunset right before I got off the freeway...

Note: Taking pictures while driving is a lot harder than I thought it would be... Between pointing, shooting, and driving in pretty bad traffic; I am very impressed that I did not get into an accident. I do not recommend trying this at home.

Lots of love!

Happy Friday!!

Well, not technically... But I don't have work tomorrow, so today feels like a Friday to me...

I've been MIA for a bit (I was sick), but I promise to have some good blogs coming up.

Yesterday my beautiful niece turned 7 months, so I thought I'd share with you some of the pictures I have saved of her on my phone... Enjoy!













Have a great weekend!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Very Productive Weekend

Last Thursday I thought that I would start my weekend off right by cleaning out my closet… I do not have a ‘before’ picture for the following reasons 1.) I forgot and 2.) even if I would have remembered, it was way too disgusting to share with the public. But… here are my after shots:

My clutches linned up nice and neat

My dresses

Tops and hoodies on the top, pants/skirts and sweat suits on the bottom

Some purses and bags

My shoes... and yes that is a bucket full of flip flops on the left...

Between my closet and my 2 dressers I was able to fill 4 white trash bags with clothes and 1 extra large black trash bag with shoes to donate. = )

On Friday and Saturday we ran a TON of errands to buy stuff in preparation for the 3 rooms in the house that we did a complete overhaul on.

Room #1

Before: Alana’s Room

** Sorry no before picture, but just imagine a blank slate**

After: The Guest Room

We found this adorable bedding at Bed Bath and Beyond, we already had the dresser and mirror, still working on a few more items to put on the walls, and Mom made the beautiful curtains…

Room #2

Before: The Cat’s Room

 Not shown: The cat tree, the liter boxes, and the cats

After: The Linen Closet

We patched up the holes, put in some carpeting, cleaned the walls (will be painting them soon), Mom made the curtains, and brought in the hutch from Room # 3

Room #3

Before: Place to Put Random Crap

After: The Workout Room

All of the random crap is still there; it is just behind that curtain… But now we have a nice place to workout so we can get our bodies in shape before the wedding…

Speaking of wedding… I also picked out my bridesmaid dresses this weekend!

This weekend we are going to continue with the productiveness and clean out the attic (oh my!) and the craft room/office…

Wish us luck…

Happy Valentine's Day!

On Friday I was at one of my favorite stores, Michaels, and came across this super cute little set to bake Red Velvet Whoopie Pies. Although I had never made a whoopie pie, let alone eat one, I thought that this was just way to cute for me to pass up.

So I bought 2 packages of the mix, a heart shaped platter, cupcake holders and was on my merry way to bake these bad boys for my work today…

Last night after our very productive weekend (which I will blog about later) Mom and I set to baking. They were pretty easy to make. They had this little template to pipe the batter out into heart shapes

Let them bake for 9 minutes and they come out looking a bit more like red blobs than red hearts…

Then put a dollop of icing in between 2 blob shaped hearts

These may not have turned out as cute as I hoped, but all 24 that I made were gone within 3 hours at work… I’d say they were a success!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!!!

XOXO

Peach & Blueberry Crumbles

On New Years Eve, David and I were eating lunch and watching The Food Network (I heart The Food Network) when the Barefoot Contessa comes on with a recipe for these Peach & Blueberry Crumbles. They looked SO delicious that I yell for David to start DVRing the show so I can try to make the recipe later…

This is now my third time making the crumbles in about a month, and they have yet to disappoint…

It’s a very simple recipe to make – just some sugar, flour, peaches, blueberries, and some other stuff and you are good to go. The only items that I had to buy while making these at David’s house were the peaches and blueberries, which says a lot since he lives in a bachelor pad…

For the fruit, you mix the fruit ingredients together with the blueberries and the peaches (skinned and cut up).

Did you know that if you boil a peach for 30 seconds to 1 minute and then soak it in cold water the skin comes of incredible easily?

Put the fruit mixture in your ramekins and set aside

Then you make your crumble

And pack it on top of the fruit mixture – I honestly think the crumble is my favorite part of this dish so I really pack it on…

Bake it at 350 for 45 minutes

Serve with some vanilla ice cream

And you are done

This is a very simple and delicious dish. Click here for the full recipe.

Enjoy!