Very Thankful

Every year when Thanksgiving rolls around we take the time out to be thankful for all that we are fortunate to have in this world. This year my family was lucky enough to have My (maternal) grandfather's brother and sister in law visiting from Cuba.

As always there are plenty of pictures to document the little ones being just down rite adorable. But before you are mesmerized by my boys... I want to take the moment to just make a short list of all the wonderful blessings we were given this year.

I am first thankful for the arrival of little Aiden Eric into our family, although very high maintenance he is my little laughing goblin. Having my family healthy and together is another blessing, one that can sometimes be taken for granted. Not taken for granted in a not appreciated kind of way, but taken for granted that it is like that for everyone. When I think of all the madness that there is in this world, it is comforting to know that I have a little slice of perfection in my boys. There is definitely madness in our home, but it is such a more enjoyable type of madness.

Speaking of madness, this Black Friday did not disappoint. As always my brother and I have a shopping spree date every day after Thanksgiving. Last year we began with the Toys R Us line which was utter chaos, this year we decided to mix it up a little bit. Since we both agreed that Toys R Us opening at 10 pm would be a zoo.. we decided to change our plan of attack. Yes ladies and gents we hit up Walmart first. For what you may ask? Surely Wal-Mart which is loony on a Tuesday at 2 pm, would only be worth tackling for an ubber deal of all Black Friday deals. Well we decided to stroll in at 11:30-ish (since it WAS open on Thanksgiving, which I did not agree with at all) to buy nothing other than.... a Buzz Lightyear that was on sale for $12.99. BWAHA HA HAH... it even sounds crazier when I type than when we were actually just wandering around the store. To be honest, it was not that crazy when showed up. Literally just walked right in. Below is a video clip that I was fortunate to capture, although the best part is really just the last 2 seconds. Allow me to set the scene:

The Wal-Mart black Friday sales were suppose to begin at Midnight. No big deal, we expected chaotic behavior from our surroundings. We do the Black Friday thing every year, at this point we have seen it all. Wal-Mart had decided that in order to "hide" door busters with brown shipping paper. Than it happened, about 10 minutes before 12 the masses just started ripping the papers off of the shelves and it was crazy! I actually had already placed the Buzz Lightyear in our shopping cart and was just waiting for the official sale to begin so I could pay for it. All the while taking in the show that was going on around me. So I decide that I want to capture the moment of the people just pushing and shoving each other. Than as I am filming, I hear in a muffled sort of commotion so I turn to see a special kind of crazy going on. Two women just stacking these little pink bicycle boxes into shopping carts only to get in to a scuffle over the last one in the pile. It was priceless.

The rest of our evening was pretty uneventful. Toys R Us went very smoothly as did Target. The Disney store to my surprise was the worse line, lasting over an hour (Toys R Us maybe lasted about half hour). Our Black Friday outing was productive, I completed all my Christmas shopping (except for my brother) ... now to get cracking on that gift wrapping.

Another wedding

Over the weekend a long time friend... when I say long time I am talking I have known her since I was 12! She is older than me by 2 1/2 years... so it is kind of odd that I have been married for (almost) five years and she just tied the knot on Saturday! But it was well worth the wait Yulie! Congratulations to you and Joe, you are a beautiful couple. Thank you for inviting our family to share your special day. It was my honor to create your wedding cake. I am so glad that you both liked how it came out... I was uber proud. Again... CONGRATULATIONS! Now hurry up and make some babies!!!

Quick rundown of recent events

These past couple of weeks have been non stop for us it seems. Omar has been doing baseball tournaments, we have both been dieting, I have been making orders weekly, and whatever spare time we have we manage to make our way to the gym. We have started to try to make it to the gym in the mornings, it kind of helps with the rest of things to fall into place. I really do feel like I have a million pictures to post, but alas I am only going to post a few. Enjoy :0)

These cupcakes I made for a friend which baby shower theme was nesting. I was not sure how I liked the idea at first, but once I started browning the coconut for the nests I was really digging on them. The flowers although simple also looked too cute!

For my mom's birthday this year I really had no idea where I was going with this cake, but had a couple of extra colors left over from a previous cake. I kind of let me creative juices flow, and ended with a cherry blossom. Not the most creative, but I really liked how the color combo turned out.

This is a wedding cake I did for a Halloween themed wedding the day before Halloween. It really looked really simple and elegant. The actual finished product I was not thrilled about at ALL. Therefore since I did not like the concept, I opted to not photograph the finished product. Instead I photographed the cake on its own and than the petite fours on their own as well.

Since Halloween landed on a Sunday this year I decided to throw a party for the kids. It was really fun, we had bobbing for apples, a cookie station for the kids to decorate their own cookies, monster puppets, foam frames--- you name it! I really love doing all those kinds of things. There were a massive amount of pictures taken that day but really this whole uploading process on here takes longer than I feel it should, so I only posted a select few. Check out my dessert/ candy station. Not to mention, DJ LANCE ROCK was made a cameo. LOL!!! I was not able to capture Omi with his wings on, but he did have them at one point. And well Aiden did not care for his Alien hat, so there are ZERO pictures (besides the studio ones) of him wearing it.

This was awesome to watch. Omi tried for a bit without cheating and using his hands. But alas Grandpa helped and held it so he could take a bite.

Maybe giving the kids a baseball bat to knock the pinata was not the best idea, but it was without a doubt fun to watch.

Since the boys are too small to carve, we got them this crazy looking witch. Omi got a kick out of poking the holes in the pumpkin. I recommend it for little ones, gives them the best of both worlds- "carving" a pumpkin and not losing a finger. YAY! high five!

The day after Halloween we took the boys to their first visit to the zoo. Again, uploading process is a bummer... so bare with me and the lack of pictures. Omi LOVED the elephants because they were giving them a bath and he just found that to be the funniest thing ever. Not to mention that he kept telling everyone about his trip to the zoo and how the elephants were getting a bath. It was hilarious.

Now tell me that these are not the animal version of the Falcon Family? lol... enough said.

My two angels pooped after their day.

These pictures were taken at Emily's first birthday party at the park. Omi loves him some playground... Aiden just loves being cuddled. My grandparents were in heaven with this little guy cooing and giggling all over the place.

This is the most recent picture of me where I feel that you can actually notice the weight loss. See my arms? They do not look their usual (old) blubbery-like selves. I am quite proud of those biceps, they really are trying so hard to fight their way out from behind the fat.

Yvette = Marie Osmond????

Any one who knows me is aware of my uphill weight battle. The gym, the hydroxycut, you name it. Those first couple of pounds were not too difficult to but oh gosh these leading up to the first goal are lingering.

So just recently I convinced Omar what would really help me lose weight is getting Nutrisystem. It really did not take too much convincing, we spend more than what the food costs eating out almost every other evening. So last Tuesday it arrived. At first I was really excited, Omar of course knew better. He did warm me that the pictures online were not going to be the what they sent me. Those little fibbers! Their pictures do look so delicious and filling.... sigh.

Well long story short--- portions stink. But I am slowly getting used to them. I MISS french fries and pizza!!! EVERYONE knows my love affair with pizza is serious, so hard does not even describe it. But tah-dah!!!!!! I am only 3 lbs away from goal number 1... and lost 4 lbs in one week!!!

Luckily I lost as much as I did in the first week. THANK GOODNESS! The more I lose the easier I find it to be stay focused. End goal you may ask? Well it is a bit unrealistic, but it is to try to weigh what I did when I went to NYC for our honeymoon when we go for our 5 year anniversary in January. LMBO!!! Wish me luck friends... and prayers, lots and lots of prayers.