A year ago today we opened the door to our California home. A whole year. Can you believe it?! Neither can we!
It has been such an exciting year and so much has happened. Here's a quick run down of what's happened! (sorry this is not in any order!)

• we moved into our California home (obvs)
• We celebrated New Years Eve 2013 in Lake Tahoe in the snow
• I started not one, but two new jobs.
• CL got to travel all over the place and he got to hire someone!
• we traveled to Tahoe, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Napa, Houston, Austin, Santa Cruz/ Capitola, San Francisco, Big Sur, Monterrey, Carmel, and Santa Rosa just to name a few!
• CL got to be part of his company going public!
• We got pregnant!
• We celebrated one year of marriage in Hawaii
• CL sliced the tip of his finger off and got 6 stitches in his pinky
• CL turned 30 years old and we celebrated in Las Vegas
• I joined the Junior League of Palo Alto- Mid Penisula and met some amazing girls
• We made lots of new friends that have become our California family
• We attended a Giants game at AT&T park, a Oakland A's game at the Oakland Colliseum (and lived to talk about it) a 49ers game at Candlestick Park, an Indy car race at Sonoma Raceway, and CL went to a Sharks game at the SAP Center
• As an anniversary gift, we got to go see The Rolling Stones live. 
• CL planted and has kept alive an olive tree. and no im not joking.
• we joined costco. 'merica!
• I grew out my bangs. riveting, i know!
• I turned 28 and we celebrated over dinner at the four seasons and with fireworks
• we had lots of visitors.
• I learned to sew and CL built a bass guitar
• We cheered on the Baylor Bears ever week they played, even if our neighbors thought we were crazy
•  We celebrated our first Valentines Day, Easter, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Halloween, Christmas Eve and Christmas on our own

I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but it was! We have enjoyed every second of living out here, except that whole family is 1000s of miles away thing. We have been really lucky and can't wait to see what 2014 has to offer!

here is a short video of pics of the highlights of our year!

Here's to year two!

Our 1st California Christmas!

Since I can't travel because of baby boy, we knew we wouldn't get to see any family for the Christmas holidays. While it was really hard, it was also really nice and relaxing. 
Since I knew way ahead of time that i'd be preparing all our holiday meals, i started shopping and prepping a week out, which made everything SO easy day of. 
Christmas eve was really relaxed. CL worked a half day and brought home lunch while I tidied the house and baked some cookies. We leisurely hung out around the house until it got dark. My Dad called and asked me if I was homesick yet and of course that triggered my hormones and not being home for the holidays hit me like a brick. I know he didn't mean to, someone was bound to bring it up! Luckily I was able to collect myself and CL and I were out to enjoy some Christmas lights.

 

We headed to downtown San Jose to Christmas in the Park. Christmas in the Park is a carnival, tree extravaganza, ice skating, shows- you name it- right in the middle of downtown San Jose. There were a ton of people out and about, so we were definately not alone. It was fun to see all the Christmas trees decorated- there were hundreds!

 

 

 

We watched the ice skaters, hoping to see someone wipe out, but settled on just making fun of all the newbie skaters.

Before heading home, we made one last stop to see this house. Turn up the volume and enjoy! I was so entertained, we actually stayed and watched it 2x! If you've never seen Christmas lights like this in person, you need to! SO much cooler that just watching on the internet!   We got to FaceTime with my family in Houston for a little bit before we ate dinner. I just love and miss my family like crazy. It was kind of fun to know that we were about to sit down and eat the same meal they had just finished up back in Texas! Its the little things!

Momadear, Nic and Mom all managed to squeeze into the camera!

  We always have seafood on Christmas eve. This was my second time to make this recipe, and yall it's so delish. CL ate every last bit!

 

Before bed, we always open one gift, which happens to always be a new pair of Christmas pajamas from my mom. This is the last year she's getting us pajamas as she passes the torch onto us to carry on this tradition. Its always been my favorite.

Chrismas morning started off with making Chrismas breakfast. I literally wait all year for this treat! since it takes a while to bake, we opened presents in the mean time! 
We didn't go all out this year because of baby, but we still had lots of presents to open thanks to my Mom and CLs parents!

even the pups got presents! antler bones! their fav!

 

 

 

 

  Once we finished opening gifts, breakfast was ready! It was so good! Definitely worth the wait!

 

after breakfast, we FaceTimed with my family in Houston while they were opening presents. Even though we couldn't physically be there, we got to be there in spirit. I love technology for FaceTime alone. It really makes the miles seem smaller.  It was hard this year since all the cousins were together except for me. I wish I could have been there, but for obvious reasons, couldn't. Next year!!!   Since we had nothing else to do for the day other than watch Christmas movies and eat, again, we decided to head to the movies. We got in a quick Skype chat with our niece and nephew before we left and everything!   We saw 'American Hustle'. It was really good! I didn't even have to get up to pee for the whole film which is a miracle in and of itself considering it was 2.5 hours long!

 When we got home I got another FaceTime call from my family. This is what happened next!

Dinner was our family's lasagna and I only hope that I made my Momadear proud! It was my first lasagna, ever. CL ate it and we've since then polished off all the left overs! I guess it was a success! I also made her Chocolate mousse and it was delish as well! I guess If I ever have to do this again, i'll be a pro!

 

 

Even though it wasn't a Christmas that we have had in the past, we had a really great day. Sometimes the simple days are the best!
We still have our decoations up and they aren't coming down until New Years. I don't see the point in taking them down right away! Hell i'd like to keep them up til Baby Boy arrives in February, but I don't see CL allowing that ;) plus we need the space where the tree currently is residing!
We hope you had a great Christmas!

Christmas Cards 2013!

This year we decided to do a little something different for our Christmas cards. Since it is the last Christmas without baby boy being here (omg can't wait 'til next year!) we decided it would be nice to have some nice photos taken of just the two of us! I even did my hair different. Whoa. I know.   Lucky for us, we were able to snag a mini session with Bethany Mattioli and the photos do not disappoint! We were so lucky with the weather and the beautiful lighting! Although they look like maternity-ish photos, they aren't-- but at the time they were taken there was no hiding the bump, so you may as well flaunt it! Im a lot bigger now (60 days left as of 12-16-13!!) so you'll know a maternity photo when you see one!   Here are a couple from our shoot!

 

 

And here's our final Card!

We really love how they came out! Shutterfly never disappoints! Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Since we didn't get to decorate or have a tree for Christmas last year because of the move, I was even more excited than I usually am to get our Christmas boxes out this year!   We usually decorate the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but since we were still in Texas, we had to postpone our tree adventure to the weekend after!   CL did some research and found a great cut-your-own-tree farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Los Gatos, and y'all, it did not disappoint! Cutting our tree has become our favorite Christmas tradition so we were both pretty excited to finally go get the tree.   After a hike up the hill (in the jeep of course!) we made it to Four Winds Christmas Trees and it was the most picturesque tree farm i've ever been to!

Free hot chocolate, hot apple cider, a saw and the open and we were off to find our perfect tree!   Apparently we are pretty quick shoppers as we quickly found the perfect tree! (We measured our space so we knew what we were looking for before we left the house!) 

We picked the most beautiful tree, and even when we were carrying it back to car people were like 'OOH great tree!'!

 

 

 

We bundled the tree up and tied it to the jeep before walking around the grounds for a little while, it was just too pretty to leave that soon! The views were spectacular!

 

 

 

This may be the best photo my husband has ever taken. No lie.

 We got the tree home and decorated it and the house! It the holidays here now! We even watched Elf!

 

 

 

yes, that is our entire living area in our huge apartment. and yes, im watching elf, wearing an elf hat. :) and no, when i sit on the couch all the way, my feet barely make it over the edge!

Hope you all have gotten bitten by the Christmas bug as well! What's your favorite Christmas tradition?