Thursday, July 11, 2013

Allyson's Bridal Shower


Allyson and Brian's wedding was a month long event that I will never forget! Bachelorette party in Florida, helping plan for the bridal shower in Denver, and then five AMAZING days in Lake George, NY. Although I could sit here and post photos all day that would take up screen after screen, I should probably just recount the highlights. The interesting thing about this wedding, unlike others I have been to in the past, was that everyone I met was so caring and wanted to sit down, chat, and learn about your life. I met more nice, thoughtful, and caring people during this last month then I feel like I've come across since I moved back to California! What a great experience.

It all started with planning the Bridal Shower...

We first decided that since Allyson loves mexican food (and tequila) that the semi-outdoor patio at Tamayo would be the perfect place for the shower (http://www.richardsandoval.com/tamayo/gallery.php). This led us to our mexican bright colors, almost day of the dead, type theme and color scheme.

My co-worker Gabi, so generously designed personal invitations for Allyson's shower. Didn't they turn out fabulous?!
If you want to contact Gabi for any design work here is her contact information. She came up with this design all by hand and it enabled us to keep up with a similar theme for floral arrangements, flags and other decorations throughout the party!

{phone}
{website}
{etsy paper goods shop}
{twitter}
tweetgabriela
{pinterest}

Here is how the party decorations turned out. Beautiful center pieces, fun tissue paper flowers, flag party banners, succulents, cactus and more!



Gabi also helped with some of our games for the guests including "Wedding Libs" and "How Well Do You Know the Bride?" She kept in the theme of the invite and they turned out pretty cute!

Leslie came up with this great game, "How Old Was Allyson." It was a cute idea to showcase some embarrassing photos and get all the guests involved in the guessing work!

Fun tequila party favors! (Leslie found this idea on Pinterest!)

Thanks Leslie for planning this awesome shower, I'm so sad that I wasn't able to make it, but hope that my contributions helped just a bit :). I know Allyson had a great time and loved every minute of it!

*Photo credits go to Leslie - great work!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Kyle's 27th B-Day Weekend

Kyle's 27th birthday was a fun, long weekend. We began with a surprise BBQ with a bunch of his friends from school. Weird that he didn't ask me why I was cutting an entire watermelon or two onions for just our burgers? Seems like studying for finals distracted him from figuring out the surprise!

Cheers to the birthday boy!

Thank you Lindsey and Chris for decorating the space before we got there! I wish I had a picture of all the cute decorations! But at least you can kind of see Kyle's chair and accessories!




Even Clara was in the hawaiian/tiki spirit!


Even though Victoria couldn't be at the party to help celebrate, she still made Kyle some yummy cupcakes. She knew he doesn't like sweets, so she made angel food cake with cool whip and berry 'frosting.' So delish!


Blow out the candles!

 Roasting s'mores by the fire pit. Love our Palmer Family!

Sunday Fun-Day!
Joe and Victoria were SO sweet and bought Kyle and I tickets to the Tim McGraw concert at the Shoreline for Kyle's birthday. It was definitely an interesting/enlightening/fun experience! We decided since we had leftover BBQ from Friday night that we would tailgate in the parking lot before the show. Turns out, no grilling and no alcohol allowed in the parking lot! Now we know for next time and it still ended up being a very fun night!!





Thanks Joe and Victoria for a fun concert! We need to do it again soon.

Happy Birthday Kyle! I hope you had a great weekend and are now enjoying your 3-week break from school. Love you!

Sunday, May 5, 2013

I've Moved.

What a weekend this has been! After thinking we were going to be moving the beginning of April, I have had quite a bit of my packing done since March. However, that did not make the experience any easier or any more enjoyable!!

Friday finally came and seven Palmer boys all told me to stand back as they took trip after trip of moving the heavy furniture (not sure why my bedroom set has to be solid oak) and all the boxes. By the end of the night, our old place looked almost empty. Not to be deceived though, the 'little' items ending up taking Kyle and I two days, a trip to goodwill, and sore feet. Around 4:30pm today, Sunday, we finally had everything out of our old apartment and cars and into our new place.

Although our new place looks like a tornado went through, I was able at least to get the closet and kitchen mostly put away. Clara is having a blast jumping in and out of boxes and getting herself stuck in the smallest of spaces. Kyle and I even managed to get out for a bit on Saturday night to enjoy Santa Clara's Red and White Gala. Not sure how I found a dress I wore for Homecoming in high school and how we managed to pull it off, but it was nice to dress up, even if it was just for a short while.

Once everything is put away, I'll have to photograph our new place. I thought I would have lots of extra room with a whole extra bedroom and bathroom, but it looks like we will fill it up all the same! We are getting ready for a busy next couple of weekends and can't wait to enjoy them.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Happy Birthday Janelle!

Happy birthday to the best friend a girl could ask for! I hope you have an amazing day with your little guy and finally get to do something for yourself very soon :)

You have been such a good friend to. I'll never forget meeting you on CU Express and you welcoming me into your life. It was so great to meet friends right away. Here we are trying to be soo...cool.


Fanta Friday! I felt so loved to be included in your group of 4 for Halloween!!!

You are still my first visitor in San Jose! I'm so sad that I had to move out of Colorado, but at least I have friends like you, who can come visit me out west :)



Lastly, I want to say, Happy Birthday to a beautiful new mom! I can't wait to meet Mason in June and see you again too. xoxox

Friday, April 12, 2013

My New Puppy!

Welcome Clara!

On March 20, 2013, this little pups was brought into my life! My Santa Clara cheerleaders decided to surprise me and give me this cute little puppy as a gift... boy was I shocked!!!

Here is the picture of them giving her to me, little did they know I was leaving for Hawaii one day later:

Because Kyle and I were leaving on Saturday, we decided it would be best for Clara to stay with her mommy for one more week. We were able to snap a few cute pictures before we had to give her back...


We got home from Hawaii on Saturday night, late, around 10pm. We unpacked, did the laundry, woke up early on Sunday, cleaned the house, and then went to meet Alejandra to pick up the little stinker. Easter was a big day, Clara got her new name and a TON of shots!! She was excited for us to hold her and snuggle with her. She would bark when we would put her down! She is such a good cuddle bug :)


Of course she did NOT want to sleep in her bed or her crate, the towel was good enough so she could be close to us while we were cooking dinner.

Clara already finding love with the old Barbie towel and her favorite lovie toy, lamby!

Kyle has always said that he doesn't want a small dog...I think Clara has won his heart. He now loves her so much!!


Look how cute the two of them are on the bed!

Clara's favorite spot to get rubbed is her belly! I think she sleeps on her back so she is ready just in case we want to reach over and rub her belly a little bit.


Clara's first bath! (With us!)
She is so furry and fluffy that when she is wet, you can really tell that she is only 3 pounds. She looks like such a little rat. She loved getting bundled up though, once the bath was over!




Clara's just so cute! My phone is full of random shots:



(This one is my favorite! She just looks like a little stuffed animal!)


My poor little sick girl is sleeping and couldn't get warm. She liked being covered with the blanket.


Oh...but...sleeping on the SIDE of the bed is way better than IN the bed...


Here is Clara hard at work!



After a long day at the office, all she wanted to do was sleep in between the cords under my cube! She was probably hiding from her new boyfriend, Riley!


We are so excited to have Clara in our lives and we can't wait to see her grow up! She is getting more comfortable with her surroundings every day and hopefully we can start teaching her a few tricks here soon. She is very smart and it makes me happy to see her potty trained and learning to walk well on her leash! I'm sure everything will feel better and more comfortable with time.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Janelle's 'Once Upon A Time' Baby Shower

I had such a fun Denver weekend! I'm so glad I was able to celebrate with both Janelle and Allyson for these important moments in their lives. I can't believe Janelle ended up going into labor - changing all my plans! It ended up being very fun, I just wish I had gotten to see little Mason.

Allyson is still deciding on bridesmaids dresses, but her vision close to being complete! I was just glad I was able to hang out with her and meet her beautiful maid-of-honor, Stefanie!!

Leslie was able to capture the baby shower through photos - so all this photo credit should go to her! Here is how it all turned out:

First - Bri picked me up from the airport and we rushed to get balloons and begin decorating!




These straws were definitely difficult to travel with. I'm glad they didn't get squished!!!


Leslie's book banners turned out so cute. She worked so hard on those!


The finished product! So cute!


Peter Rabbit's Veggie Garden

Miss Spider's Tea Party - Tea Sandwiches

Green Eggs and Ham - Avocado Deviled Eggs

Cloudy With A Chance of MEATBALLS!

Go Dog Go! Cocktail Weenies/Pigs in a Blanket

Stinky Cheese Man Plate

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Cookies

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

James and the Giant Peach Bellinis

Pinkalicious Lemonade

Duck Pond Punch

Leslie and I had to sip out of the cute straws :)

Activity #1: Decorating One-Sies!
We had iron-on appliques (ordered from Etsy), stencils, fabric paint, puffy pain, and fabric markers


People having fun decorating!


This was the creative table...

Here are some of the first ones up and drying! They turned out so cute!

Jess was the winner! She is so creative.

The hosts + Janelle 

Activity #2 - Make Baby Mack!!



Opening Gift Time


People had fun coloring alphabet pages while Janelle opened gifts. Leslie collected all the pages and is creating the baby's first alphabet book. Too cute.

Party Favors - Going along with the book theme!


What a great shower!