~Christmas time with my Boy~

Christmas is the best time of year and while Christmas in New York is one of my favorite things in this world, it's certainly good to be home with family and my boy for the holiday season! I haven't lived near Fidel for Christmas time since 2003! That's a long time! So to sum up I am so happy! (happier with a ring on my finger, but WHATEVER!) So it's Christmas work party time! So here's work party number 1!Not only was this Fidel's Christmas work party, but it was also a big night for him! It was his graduation from the apprenticeship program! He is now a big important journeyman!! Makin the big bucks! Woo bayba! He graduated the four year program a little early, my smart, hard-workin lil man! He was definitely cheered for the loudest out of the other 12 graduates. He got an award and a skill saw! (which his friend, Josh, displays a little more proudly than him!) We sat with Josh and his fun wife Melissa and also two of Fidel's friends from high school, Matt and Johnny! It was so much fun!

The party was at Rancho Solano Golf Course and it was beautiful! It didn't hurt that I was wrapped around a handsome man in a suit, oh how I love a man in a suit! Especially this one!The end of the night! AKA Not lookin so good! Fidel got sick of his tie, so I gave him a break from it! Yeah, don't worry, I won't do that too much more! lol
Well I thought the picture above was the end of the night, but then we got home and decided to have cheesecake and cuddle by the fire! Perfect end to a perfect night! I love this boy!

Party Number 2!

We had yet another excuse to dress up! Love it!

My Party was at the Double Tree in Sacramento; also very pretty!

A few of the paint folk! (The cool ones anyway! Just kidding! Kind of :)

You know I will not attend an event or a...Wednesday without at least one self portrait of me and Fidel! You might be sick of them, but I actually still enjoy them!

Good times!

I love Christmas!

Okay you really can't see these pictures very well at all, but we were watching Monday night football when we heard a siren outside, so mom looked out the window and saw that it was our very own friend, Santa Clause!! On a fire truck with his reindeer! It was so freakin cute! I know Santa is not the reason for the season, but I think he is a secret way to tell people to be loving and giving like Christ. They really have nothing to do with each other, but it did make me stop and think about Christmas, and how happy everything about it makes me, but even events like this remind me of Christ and how he is the greatest gift we could ever receive! I love him, and that's why I love celebrating(hopefully unselfishly) his birth! I love my life and my family and friends that are also my most precious gifts!

Happy Birthday Stocky!!

Remember when I used to always come for Thanksgiving!? I'll try to come eat with you guys next Thanksgiving okay? Some of these pictures are from a WHILE ago! Hope you like them! Love you, Stock!

Happy Birthday Stockton! You're such an awesome nephew so I hope you had an awesome birthday! You make me laugh so much! Just take a look at these pictures and you'll know why! I hope you liked my back up vocals to Grandma Wendy's singing! Fidel and I want to come back to visit you soon because we had so much fun! I miss you and love you, Stock! Hope you had a great 7th birthday!! You're so old! I can't believe it! Talk to you soon!

Love, Aunt Nan

~Just Our Spare Time~

So our friend, David, just got back from serving our country in Iraq for 7 months. (Thank you so much for your service David! We all appreciate you and what you have been doing for us!) So I talked to David on Friday night for the first time in months, he asked me what me and Fidel were doing the next day and we were just hanging out, so I was like "Nothing! We're gonna hang out with you now!" And he was like "Okay, do you have something fancy to wear?" And then I was like, "Oh, tomorrow? Yeah I think I'm busy tomorrow!" But it didn't work, he didn't believe me, so outta nowhere Fidel and I went to his Marine Ball with him and his adorable wife, Ashley! It was so much fun, though, so I'm so glad David didn't take my excuse!

Good times with the Braithwaites!
On our way to the ball! (I decided to not wear so much makeup on a daily basis, cause when I try to be fancy, I really look the same as I do every other day of the week! I would hate for that to happen on my wedding day! No, I'm not engaged, btw!)
We decided we definitely should not take the professional pictures when neither of us are in uniform, so here are our pictures of the two of us at the ball! At least we got a marine flag in a pic! (it's just a lil bit smaller than the ones in the professional pictures!)
The boys, obviously having a good time!
Fidel doesn't wear a tie too often, so when he does, you better believe I take advantage of it!

Rough Week!

So what would YOU do if a lizard invades your house?Step 1: Stand there and stare at it for at least 13 minutes while you work out your plan of action. Then grab a somewhat large box. Position yourself as shown in the picture below. From this point make sure to scream the whole time while catching him in the box. Step 2: Be sure to have back up sister and mother each standing with a small bowl on the opposite side of the lizard just in case you don't catch it in the box, and you happen to have a family with catlike reflexes that can catch a lizard on the move. It also is helpful if they can assist in the screaming originated in step 1.Step 3: Keep holding the box snug and definitely keep screaming so the little guy doesn't get out while your mom finds something heavy enough to hold the box down. Also make sure she knows that a light weight pan probably won't do the job, so yell for her to get some books while she returns with a box full of books that came out of thin air. (by the way, if you're not having enough fun yet, and you want to hear your mom scream some more, tell her the lizard is by her foot! Because scaring your mom is always fun! Or maybe just mine, I don't know.)

Step 4: Leave the box with books over the lizard that you hopefully caught until a boy is able to come home.

Step 5: When the boy gets home make sure he knows that it is his role to get rid of it from this point on, and that it is the wife's role to overlook from atop the table.

Step 6: When you do finally get this invader out of your house, it may still be stuck in the box somehow, so have the man of the house kick the whole box and watch the lizard fly to freedom after a long day under a box!

P.S. This is all based on true events, I know these steps from experience, so next time this happens to you, you will be ready!

So after the lizard scare, I needed to get my hair done. You won't understand until it happens to you. So a couple days later I got my hair done by my sister's childhood friend Danielle. She happens to do my hair everytime I have a date night too, so it's always fun looking cute for Fidel cause she always makes my hair look pretty outta nowhere. Well after she did my hair I was feelin pretty good, and I always get excited for date nights. So we're just having a grand ol time together...laughin and jokin, huggin and kissin, until...He told me my hair makes me look like a 40 year old soccer mom. From then on, he did all the jokin and laughin (no huggin and kissin, mind you) and in the midst of all of this, he grabbed the camera that I was taking all our cute pictures on, and snapped this picture...

This is NOT a joke. This is also a part of my rough week, and also based on true events. I'm glad I can laugh about this now, because as you can see in the picture, I was NOT having a good time, and was NOT amused by 8 year old Fidel. (And I mean 8 year old, like he was acting like an 8 year old, not 8 year old because I'm bitter that I'm not amused by the fact that our relationship is 8 years old. lol. kinda.) So that about sums up my rough week! Oh, and I got a 30 dollar parking ticket while getting my "40 year old" hair done. Good week.

Farmer Joe and His HouseWife

So Fidel and I were supposed to dress up for Halloween, but the costumes that we wanted just didn't really work out, so we decided not to dress up. While he was on his way to my house, however, I realized that I had never not dressed up for Halloween, and Fidel and I have been apart for so many Halloweens that we're finally together so we just have to dress up! So in about a half hour, this is what I came up with! U likey?Uh oh, I think she spilled her coffee! (Thanks for the FRIENDS cup Heather and Libby! I love it!) I didn't tell him what we were going to be, so I had him close his eyes and when he opened them, all of a sudden he was a housewife! lol I love my lil housewife!

Happy Halloween, but more importantly Happy Birthday Porter!

Happy Birthday Porter! I miss you! And I know you miss me kickin your butt at Sorry! and Clue! I hope you had a great birthday! That's pretty freakin awesome that you didn't have school on your birthday, and I'm glad the weather was perfect for playing outside and trick-or-treating because the weather is pretty crappy here for us trick-or-treaters! What's up with that? California is supposed to be the one with good weather, not Kansas City! Well have fun, and take care of your rats!(Hampton and your real rats too! ha ha) You're such an awesome kid, Porter! I'm so lucky to be your Aunt! You're freakin hilarious and so nice and caring to everyone! Love you, Porter!

I hope you got a chance to tell everyone that out of all of the happy birthday songs you got, this Aunt was the best singer out of all of them! Glad you liked it, Po!

Wow, I was just kidding about you turning 5, but from this picture below, I kinda believe that it wasn't a joke!

~SoCal~

Ahh, southern California...there is really no place like it. When I lived out of state, it was "there's no place like California" but now that I live in Sacramento, I'm gonna have to revise it and say there is absolutely no place like Southern California. Hangin' out at the beach with sand pretty much on your feet for the rest of the day, like Stella's little feet here. I miss everything about socal immensely!Among the top reasons why I miss southern California is this little princess, Devin.And this little star, Macy.And this pretty lady, Rebecca.
I miss you too, Kevin and Zeenat, but apparently there weren't any photo ops! I went to LA because my sister, Rachel's husband had a work thing, so my mom and i drove down for the weekend to see her cute little family (by the way, I had very little time with my own camera which explains my lack of beach pictures because I was playing photographer with Rach's camera)! We went earlier tho, to see my southern California family! Oh how I miss them! I was Devin's nanny for 2 years, and that was one of the best times of my life! The whole family made me feel like a part of the family, and I loved it! Rebecca joined the family to be Macy's nanny a year after I had been there. She is an amazing woman, and her someday husband (which hopefully happens soon, huh Rebecca? lol) is a very lucky man! Rebecca taught me a whole lot! It was so good to see all of them, the time just went by too fast, like always!





I'm a lucky girl to have these little cuties in my life!

Did I mention that I love my little twinner!? She pointed out that we were twins, but her headband has hello kitty on it and mine doesn't! She hugged me so tight for so long when she first saw me, it melted my heart! I have missed her so much!

So while we're speaking of little cuties... Oh my gosh, I love these babies! A whole weekend with my niece and nephew was so much fun! They're so darling I could just eat them up!

Oh my gosh how I love these little baby Amidons! Stella and Calvin are the cutest kids ever, I just could not stop looking at them because they are just gorgeous little sweethearts! These four kids definitely made a perfect weekend! It didn't hurt that this was our hotel, though!

The sign says Huntington Beach behind us, and this is just the walkway from our hotel to the beach! Perfect, perfect perfect! And by the way, Rach, please stop having 2 kids a year apart and still be cuter than me! Fart you.

Wait...are we 9 in San Francisco again? Interesting!

I don't understand how someone can be so freakin cute! Especially with Paul as a parent! lol Just kidding Paul!

Oh my Calvin! Waking up to this precious little baby is something I would gladly do over and over again! (hint: hire me as your nanny please!)

This weekend was seriously perfect, well...close to perfect if I hadn't gotten a ticket for apparently going 93 in a 70, which was weird because I never went above 80 the whole trip, but its nice that cops have the power to say whatever the freak they want! Anyway, sorry to kill the party...but it really was an amazing weekend! I love the Amidons! Thank you guys so much for bringing me down there to stay with you! It was so much fun, and never forget, and never let your kids forget that I'm their favorite Aunt! Woo! Love you guys!

Monterey, Baybay!!!

A weekend in Monterey with my boy! I just happened to have a whole long weekend off and so did Fidel, so we went to visit his cousin, Jesus in Monterey for the weekend. I had never been there and Jesus was the best tour guide! He even drove us for a really long time to see this little waterfall, what a passionate tour guide, huh?

Pretty, pretty, pretty!! But very windy too!

~Handsome Cousins~

I LOVED Monterey! It's so gorgeous!

~Pebble Beach~

Even though there are still a good amount of these self portraits(which Fidel has perfected, and I love him for it),it was so nice having his cousin there to be our photographer, so we didn't have to ask a stranger for the pictures we wanted of more than just around our faces! Thanks Jesus!

Is anyone thinking what I'm thinking?......

.......great place for engagement pictures!! Don't tell Fidel!

Fidel's cousin is a bouncer at a night club in old town Monterey, so we had a little taste of Monterey's night life, too. And apparently my hunny hasn't danced with me since I discovered Reggaeton, so he called me a dancing machine! (that has no implications, by the way of whether I'm good or not, it just happened to be Latin night, so I never wanted to stop dancing!)