MY 32nd BIRTHDAY!

I cannot believe I am now 32 years old! I feel like I am 15. I had a great time this year. Hubby took me to dinner and Thursday, two days before my birthday and then took me to breakfast on Saturday morning. Unfortunately he had to work that night, but my best friend Javanna came to the rescue! We went to dinner at McCormicks Seafood restaurant, which by the way I will never go to again, the food was great but they are STINGY and I like my food! LOL Then we went dancing and danced our butts off! I'm so thankful for a great husband and great friends. Here's to another year of good times.

A BIRTHDAY CARD FOR MY HONEY

Today is Alex's birthday. Ahh another year gone by. How time flies! For the past year I have become a die hard card maker and decided to make Alex his birthday card instead of buying one. I am really happy with how it turned out and I am sure he will love it. :)

TIME TO OURSELVES!

Since the wedding, Alex and I have had no time to enjoy each others company, so we decided to take a week off from our jobs to have some fun. Economy being as it is, we decided to have some fun locally by visiting places like the Getty Museum, The Science Center, The Long Beach Aquarium, Magic Mountains Fright Fest and who doesn't LOVE Disneyland! I haven't been to the happiest place on earth in over 10 years! Anyways it's now Monday and we're both back at work but it was good to have no agenda and just enjoy each other all week long. Here are some pictures of our week.

THE SCIENCE CENTER

LONG BEACH AQUARIUM

Hey! I found Nemo and Dori! "Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming"

Bruce Says "Fish are friends not Food"

                                MAGIC MOUNTAIN

THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH

Getting ready to ride the Matahorn!

Ok, I don't remember the matahorn being scary!

Alex using his manly muscles to spin our
Mad Hatter Tea Cup

At the end of our day,
Goofy and Minnie were exhausted!



WEDDING ALBUM

After almost 3 months we FINALLY
received our wedding album with the professional pictures. :)

You can see the rest of our wedding pictures here...
http://picasaweb.google.com/melaniesminiatures/OurWeddingAlbum2010 

LAS VEGAS GETAWAY

Due so some unfortunate circumstances, we were not able to take an official honeymoon to Hawaii, so in the meantime we took off to Las Vegas for 4 days and had the time of our lives! We went to ALL the casinos and I even played some of the High Roller tables and WON! Of course I lost it again, but that's Vegas for ya! Of course there was tons of drinking involved beucase as long as you're at the tables, the alcohol is FREE! LOL

We stayed in Summer Bay Resort that's only a block away from the strip and ended up buying a vacation home. That's right, we don't own our own home yet, but we own a vacation home! HA! We looked at it as an investment. It's an extremely new piece of property that for the most part is still under construction. We only paid $5,500 for it and we figure that becuase it's practically on the strip, across from Harrah's, in 5 years we will be able to sell it for triple what we bought it for. Not to bad for our first investment as husband and wife :) So that was our mini getaway and now we're off to start our lives together as husband and wife.

WE DID IT! WE TIED THE KNOT!

After a little over a year of planning our BIG day,
we are now officially husband and wife.

We tied the knot on March 20th, 2010. My day started at 7am. Alex had spent the night in a hotel, so we wouldn't see each other until we reached the alter. It's bad luck you know.... LOL.... I had my hair and makeup artist come to my house to help me look beautiul. :) At about 11:30, the photographer arrived and started to take pictures of me and my dress. It was all so very exciting. After about an hour of taking pictures, someone announced that the limo had arrived. I was really starting to get butterflies now. LOL... When I stepped outside and saw the excursion limo that my mom had gotten for us, I was ecstatic! It was gorgeous! The Bridal party got in the limo and we were off. The ceremony took place at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in Encino, CA at 2:00 pm. I was very happy to see that alot of people showed up to the ceremony, that in my opinion is the most important part of the wedding. As my brother walked me down the aisle, I found the closer I got to the alter, the harder it was to fight back the tears of joy that filled my eyes. Alex looked so handsome, standing there waiting to take my hand. The mass was ministered in both English and Spanish by Father Austin and it was BEAUTIFUL!

After the ceremony, the limo took us to The Japanese Tea Garden in Glendale to take our wedding pictures. We spent about 2 hours taking some wonderful photos and then were off to Shiraz Restaurant in Glendale, which was the location of our reception. We made the traditional wedding entrance when the DJ announced the bridal party by couples and then when Alex and I were announced, we went startight into our first dance as husband as wife. Our song was "AT LAST" by Eta James. Not very original I know, but it's a beautiful song. I mean there's a reason why its such a popular wedding dance song. HAHA

The rest of the night was followed by the usual tossing of the bouquet and garter belt, the cutting of the cake and TONS of dancing!

*Highlights of the Day* 

• The toast that my Maid of Honor Javanna made was definetly spoken from the heart. She had EVERYONE crying, yes even the guys. After 18 years of knowing her, she still amazes me every time. I love her so very much and thank god to have such a wonderful friend.
• My brother really stepped up on my BIG day. He was the one to give me away at the alter and did a wonderful job. He is usually a shy guy, yet during the ceremony he actually stood at the alter in front of everyone and read lines out of the bible. Thanks little bro :)
• My mom was so helpful through the whole wedding and I couldn't have done it without her.

We'd like to thank everyone who attended our wedding for sharing our special day with us.

Our wedding day has definetly been the most important day of our lifes as of yet and now we have the rest of our lives to create more wonderful memories and have plenty more special moments together.

If you'd like to see pictures of our big day click here........ http://picasaweb.google.com/melaniesminiatures/OurWedding2010#

CO-ED BACHLORE & BACHLORETTE PARTY!!

This past Saturday, my best friend Javanna said she was taking Alex and me to a dinner for her sisters 21st birthday. On the way there, Liz called and said if we could stop by her house really quick to see some papers that her parents received in the mail cuase it was urgent. I was thinking, "ARE YOU SERIOUS!" We're on our way to a dinner, but I agreed to it. Once we got to the house, I noticed it was really dark, but didn't think to much about it, then when we walked through the door, the lights came on and SURPRISE!!!! All our friends and family were there and ready to PAAAARTY! Our friends were throwing us a co-ed party. The guys took Alex outside to get a lap dance from a female stripper and all the girls stayed inside to watch our stripper do some CRAZY acrobatic moves! That guy was STRONG! He picked me up like a rag doll! LOL. After both shows were over, the guys and girls co-mingled and we danced the night away. I had a blast and I am so thankful to have such wonderful friends that care about us. I LOVE YOU GUYS!

This was the end of the night and we were really drunk,
so needless to say, NOT our best picture! LOL

If you'd like to see pictures of the party, you can click here...
http://picasaweb.google.com/melaniesminiatures/BachlorAndBachloretteParty#

BOY MEETS GIRL

It was a warm evening on March 16, 2008 when I took my brother, his girlfriend, her son and my niece Naomi out to Benihanas for his birthday. It was our first time there. As we were seated we made small talk before the "show" started. Our chef approached the table and started to confirm each of our orders. When he turned to confirm my order, that's when it happened. Alex and I locked eyes for the first time. He had the most beautiful smile and I knew I had to get his number. Throughout the night I caught him discreetly glancing at me, as I myself was doing the same. When he was done cooking and before leaving our table, he asked if everything was ok. I felt like telling him everything was amazingly delicious and would he like to go out sometime? But of course I was to shy so I just smiled, said yes and watched him walk away. I found myself looking around for him the rest of the evening and knew I just couldn't leave without at least knowing his name. On our way out, I located the manager and asked for the name of our chef. He asked if something was wrong and I said "No, on the contrary everything was excellent", and asked if he would pass my business card along to him then walked out. I couldn't believe what I had just done! Surely this man named Alex would think I was some desperate woman who gave her card out to just anyone! I suddenly felt embarrassed and regretted what I had done. Then I thought, he must get numbers all the time. He won't call right? Wrong! The very next day I received a call from the man with the beautiful smile and he asked me if something was wrong with the dinner. Being as shy as I am it took all the courage I had to tell him this, but I said, "I left you my card becuase I thought you to be a very handsome man". He laughed and confessed that he had noticed me as well. In the following weeks we met at Starbucks and talked for hours on end. Needless to say there were sparks between us and now in 3 weeks, we're getting MARRIED!