Happy 5th Birthday Katie!

We were so excited to get a call from the Danleys inviting us to celebrate Katies 5th birthday on Monday night with them at Downtown Disney. We weren't able to meet up at Disney so we invited them over for cake and ice cream after dinner. We had a great time and Katie got some great gifts!

I baked a cake. I have never claimed to be a baker. For some reason I just don't think I have enough patience for it. I can never seem to wait for the cake to cool before I frost it. I always try to have good presentation for the food I make but this was the best I could do.


Little Piper got in on the balloon fun.

Katie got a really cool digital camera from Mom and Dad and it was a HUGE hit! The rest of the night consisted of "photo ops." for Katie:-)

There was special gifts for Katie hidden in the balloons so there was some poppin' going on for a while:-) Jake was so gracious to help.

(you will hear a little confusion at the end of the video for what birthday we are celebrating. Ooops!)

Happy Birthday Katie!

Christmas lights to music

There is a house a little bit down Brookhurst from us that we drive by all the time. Every time we drive by we say something like "that house is crazy" "what were they thinking with those lights?" or "That house is going to make someone have a seizure". Then the other night we drove by and Aaron made a quick u-turn and we checked the house out. There was a sign in front that said "tune to 93.1" so we did and that is when every thing started to make sense. The whole house and lights were choreographed to the music! So now we think it is really cool and we wanted to share it with you!

Aaron and Marly sing you a Christmas Song

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Where the magic all started.

Every year we celebrate the anniversary of our first date (5 years ago!) by repeating the date. I remember when Aaron asked me to go out on a date with him and I was so excited. Well, every year I get just as excited as that first time to go have dinner at Hof's Hut and then go look at Christmas lights in Torrance. Because of our busy schedules this year we postponed this date later than usual. Usually the neighborhood is pretty busy, but this year it was incredible! From the brass bands to Mr. and Mrs. Clause to the Churro stand we had a blast. Here are some pictures of the highlights.

First we had dinner at Huf's Hut then off to see the lights...


We were welcomed by a brass band playing Christmas carols.

Next we saw Mr. And Mrs. Clause greeting all the children on the streets.


There is nothing like a warm Churro on a cool night :-) (Aaron took this picture b/c he liked the Rams lamp).

Aaron posing with some Poinsettia plants (Pronunciation of that word is still under debate in our family).


This was just one of the hundreds of vehicles driving around the neighborhood. It was a huge party.


I broke out the Santa hat to be festive:-)

Not only is EVERY house decorated but EVERY tree lining the street is decorated. It is really hard to capture how beautiful it is in a picture but we tried.


No words needed :-) lol!

This is our favorite house. This was our 6th time going to visit. I secretly hope that in about 10 years it goes up for sale so we can buy it (that's probably when we could afford it).

Who knew that first date would lead to this happy married couple?
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(Okay, I did)

Great website...

Need some last min. stocking stuffers?

http://www.perpetualkid.com/

My company Christmas Party

On Tuesday all of the managers and our supervisors got together for a Christmas party.

Jane (the CEO of Tosoko) Loved the sign I got her for her office.

Jane and Stevie are my supervisors and are so much fun!

We had a gift exchange and the person I gave a gift to LOVED the Betty Boop glasses I got her. She is a HUGE fan of Betty.

This is all of the managers!

I love my book club!

These are most of the girls in my book club. We have such a good time together! We met on Saturday night to talk about the last book we read called Hunger Games. It was a great book and so was the second book Catching fire. I can't wait to read our next book.!

Bringing Norman home.

On Saturday Dec. 5th we headed out to find our Christmas Tree for this year. Since we have a new place and a lot more space, our options for the tree were much greater.

We went to the same lot that we went to last year. We like going there because they still refer to the trees as "Christmas Trees" and not "Holiday Trees". Also, they have a manger in the front of their lot. We like to support companies that keep the true meaning of Christmas alive.


We went up and down aisles of trees looking for the perfect tree. There were several runners-up but finally we found "our tree".


It is a new kind of tree for us. It's called a Nordman fir. It is in the Noble family of trees but has a couple of special traits. First it takes about 3 times as long to grow a Nordman than a regular Noble fir (which means it was a little more expensive but they gave us a good deal). Also, it has two tones of green. The top of the needles are dark green and really shiny and the underside is almost white. The needles also have rounded ends which I appreciate when decorating it.
Aaron helped strap it onto our car...
...and we were set to go!
Every tree we get we end up giving a name and this year he's Norman:-) It looks perfect in our living room and I can't wait to get all of the decorations on it (pictures to follow)! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!

Win a $50 gift card to Target!

My friend has a really great blog all about apartment management. It really is funny and I think you should check it out!

She is having a raffle and giving away a $50 gift card to someone that leaves a comment. So, check it out, leave a comment, and WIN!

"You and Me"