Countdown to Wedding Day! :)

236 days and counting....

I can't believe how quickly our day is approaching. One day we were on our first date, the next day engaged and tomorrow we will be MARRIED! What a roller coaster! I'm glad we started planning and prepping early.... cause we are looking mighty fine with our plans... just got a couple things left to take care of and we are all SET! :) So far, here are the things that we've already made solid decisions on.

1. Church- done and secured!
2. Reception venue- done and secured!
3. Wedding dress- Picked out and has been purchased!! It's soooooo pretty!! :)
4. Colors/Theme- Got it!
5. Bridesmaids & their dresses- Picked, decided on and about to be ordered!
6. "Save the Dates" - Has been designed and finalized.. just need to be printed.
7. Wedding planner - has been hired and secured and has already begun to work for us! Yeah!
8. Invites - Color, paper and style of the invite has been selected, just need to format the wording!
9. Photographer- Was one of the first things we secured!
10. Videographer- Awesome people out of Lubbock... date has been secured!
11. Wedding Cake- Has been chosen and have secured our date.. :) YUMMY!!
12. Wedding Website - almost done... just need to add our registry information on it...

Other than all that... we've got a couple things left to do.. like deciding on the flower arrangements and Chad's tux stuff... and finish our registries... I can't wait for this day!!

I still can't believe I'm getting married!!!

Savor Dallas :)

I didn't think things could get crazier than last weeks event. We were inundated at the Chef's Showcase by throngs of people wanting a tasty bit of Chad's creations. It didn't stop... all night long...and by the end of the night, I literally was willing to chop off my feet the first chance I got. Little did I know there were events that made the Chef Showcase look like childs play. I had no idea what to expect when Chad said it got worse. I didn't have a clue.... but i soon found out what he was talking about. They came fast and furiously... from all sides. Four straight hours of a sea of people eating and drinking from nearly ONE HUNDRED restaurants and wine makers from around the area. Everything you could imagine and all you could drink. Luckily I found a friend. To my pleasant surprise one of Chad's cooks brought their very lovely and super friendly wife along. We hit it off immediately and soon left the boys to make our rounds tasting all the wonderful delicacies everyone had to offer. It ended up being a great, belly filling evening full of great food and new friends. :)

Life before chaos...

Are you in there Chad??..... CHAD???...

Working his charm....

Will work for FOOD!!

So seriously, who in their right mind would pass up an opportunity to work along side one of the BEST chefs in Dallas, handing out the most delectable yummy treats you’ve yet to see? On every occasion that Chad has ever invited me to an event or charitable function that he needed to attend, I’ve taken full advantage...and tagged along. :) This particular function was a rather touching one and I was delighted to help! In honor of the Camp John Marc organization, Chad was asked, along with 10 other restaurants around Dallas, to produce and hand out morsels from their respective restaurants. Set at the Ritz here in Dallas, the atmosphere was lively and cheerful with a live band playing in one corner, casino games in one room and rooms filled with awesome auction items for all to choose from. The food and wine flowed… and we ended the night with swollen feet, achy bodies but full and HAPPY bellies. It was awesome! Thanks for the invite Love, can’t wait for the next one!

My love, perfecting his plate of goodies. :)

Avocado puree that began the layers of Alaskan King crab and snow crab, followed by a creamed corn puree topped then with toasted almonds... all in the cutest taco/phyllo type shell you've ever seen!!

Two bites later, we found heaven...

One hour after we arrived at La Duni, we found ourselves on a drunken sugar high of bliss. After a long discussion with Dunia Borga herself about our vision for our cake, we committed ourselves to the most GLORIOUS wedding cake we could've hoped for. Imagine layers upon heavenly layers of THIS!!

Cuatro Leches Vanilla Mantecada Cake-

Layered mantecada vanilla sponge cake, soaked in cuatro leches sauce. Topped with carmelized swiss meringue and dotted with an arequipe caramel reduction. Served with extra tres leches sauce and arequipe caramel.

OH. MY. GOD!!!

Weekend with our Fockers.. :)

So if planning a wedding wasn't enough of a stressful situation to contend with, we took a weekend opportunity to fly the parental units out to Dallas for a nice long "Meet-n-Greet". Although Chad and I had met eachothers family, they hadn't actually met EACHOTHER. Chad's mom flew in from Cali, and my parents flew in from the valley, and you know, it actually turned out MUCH, MUCH better than expected! Everyone had a great time and loved the fact that Chad and I had planned a weekend FULL of everything WEDDING! We started out every morning with a tasty and relaxing brunch then headed out to various things like WEDDING DRESS SHOPPING, an oh so yummy but oh so tummy aching cake tasting, a trip to visit our reception site and church, then ended the weekend with a PARTY at our clubhouse in their honor! We had a great turnout of friends and family from Chad and my work!! A GRAND time was had by all! :)

Fairy Godmother :)

I couldn't imagine a bigger honor than being asked to be a Godmother to the most beautiful niece a girl could ask for! I was touched and THRILLED at my new title and I was excited to celebrate the day down in the valley with my family and friends at her baptismal party. :) She couldn't have been in better spirits and just seeing that beautiful smiley face, neither could I!!

Finding our CHURCH!!

I think it was probably week TWO when Chad and I realized we were done for. We knew VERY early on that we were meant for each other, and by week SEVEN, we were "shopping" for churches for our wedding. :) Being that we were fairly new to our area of town (with the new house and all) we hadn't yet committed ourselves to a particular church.... and being that Chad wasn't raised in a particular religion, he accepted and looked forward to honoring my desire to get married in the Catholic faith. He knew the importance being married in the church meant to me and my family and soon realized that we were going to have to go through the marriage prep "process". It didn't take long to settle into St. Mary Immaculate Church in Farmers Branch near our townhome. We visited, met with Father Michael Forge and quickly became "members" of the community. We then went through our "Focus" questionaire and promptly secured our date! Now all we needed was a little patience to settle our nerves until the BIG DAY!!

Happy New Year!!

I wish I could say that we had a roarin’ good New Years this year, filled with parties and alcohol and all the makings of a fabulous New Years Eve… but the truth is, I was sick as a dog. Yuck. After being amongst the sickly ones back home, I came back to Dallas to lay in bed and wish for certain death to fall upon me. I felt like poop!! What a way to spend New Years Eve. Aside from the fact that Chad had to work late that night, I scrounged up enough energy to head to my coworker Karen’s house for a small get together to bring in the New Year. It was the best I could muster up with such a limited supply of energy. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! Here’s to a WONDERFUL 2009!!

Addie's First Christmas

Although our Christmas was spent at this hospital this year, we tried our best to make Addie's first Christmas memorable. We obviously realized she wouldn't remember a thing, but we still did our best to make the present opening process a fun one for her. When I get more pictures from the only working camera that went around that day, I'll post more pictures of Addie opening her gifts. :)

Sporting her "First Christmas" outfit..

Super smiley after her bath and a long hard day of opening Christmas presents.. :)

Quick blow to the gut.. :(

So... for all the good things that came my way this year, I wasn't too surprised when things took a turn down hill. Looking back now, I'm glad it was what it was, because in reality, it really could've been a whole lot worse.

Chad and I entered the holiday season with plans to spend Thanksgiving in the valley with the Maldonado clan and Christmas in California with the Kelley's. Little did we know then, that our plans were about to be changed. After spending a seemingly normal Thanksgiving with the family, we got a good scare on Friday morning when my dad had to be rushed to the hospital. Not really knowing what the issue was, he was essentially treated of his immediate problems then was released that following Wednesday. By Sunday afternoon, he was back, and this time, it was serious. Having low white blood cells, they ended up giving him a blood transfusion... that did nothing more than temporarily raise his cell count. By the following week, my dad had become the resident "House" episode. No one could figure out what was going on. He had symptoms unlike anything any of the specialists could resolve. They would fix one thing, another thing would go wrong. It was a constant waiting game as he underwent test after test, only to be cleared of one thing, while showing signs of something else. Talk about STRESS!! Poor Chad having to deal with Yvette the Emotional Wreck! What a first test of love and patience that was!! I felt so lucky to have him there to be my constant support and ever present shoulder to cry on as I had to deal with all this in Dallas while everyone was back home...

The scary shocker came when some of the doctors were fairly certain that all signs were pointing at the ever dreadful Leukemia. A quick hard blow to the gut that was. After a few weeks worth of testing and waiting... they finally said... "NO CANCER". Whew!! By this time, Christmas had fast approached and we were back in the valley, stuck in the hospital no less... BUT, at least all the cancer tests were negative!! A few days later, they finally isolated the problem in his gall bladder and went in to remove it. Apparently it was the worst gall bladder the surgeons had seen in years.. but that was it!! That's where the problems stemmed from.. and we couldn't have been more GRATEFUL and relieved. All is well and my dad is on the fast track to recovery!! Oh happy day!