doughnuts & nostalgia

made some changes to our little blog now that it's no longer going to be just the two of us!  I figured I wouldn't have time once the baby arrives and also I've been going crazy the past few days with Mark gone!!!  I have never been so bored!  I know, I know, I will definitely never be bored again after the baby but right now that sounds pretty good.  It's also been so lonely...constantly coming back to an empty apartment with no one there to greet me or wonder where I've been.  how did I do it before I was married?  standard meal times have flown out the window...I eat when I'm hungry (or when baby's hungry) and I eat whatever I want!

oh can we talk about pregnancy cravings??  I have been craving doughnuts for a few weeks now...seeing them everywhere...pinterest, instagram, tv shows, youtube...and I may or may not have been looking at the krispy kreme website frequently!  HA!  so, two days ago I caved and bought a dozen assorted doughnuts from krispy kreme!!!

this was partly because I can never decide what kind to get, partly because all the different kinds looked soooo good, and partly because they were all individually cheaper if you bought a dozen.  well after two days of having a dozen doughnuts in the house (the empty house, remember) I don't care if I never see another doughnut again as long as I live!  haha, so I guess mission accomplished?

I've been feeling pretty nostalgic lately, what with moving and being pregnant and all.  so many changes!  I went on my familiar walk through our beautiful neighborhood yesterday and realized that there would come a day when I might not remember what it looked like!

I might forget the spot where I first told Mark I love him...

or the park where we always play volleyball with family and friends...

where we celebrated Jake's 1st birthday and Mark introduced me to everyone as his fiancé...

this was a really, really good day :)

the old witch's house from hansel and gretel...

okay we've never met her but her house looks like it's made of candy plus she has a sign in her front yard that says how much she loves her grandchildren...creepy!

our Snow White house we were going to live in someday by being friends with the people who lived there (who we assumed must be old) and being so good to them they'd leave it to us in their will...

the Romeo and Juliet house covered in ivy...

I'm just now realizing our neighborhood is like a living fairy tale!

O Romeo, Romeo!  Wherefore art thou Romeo?

the dragon tail we always trip on in the neighborhood entrance to the park that I was planning on making a game with for our baby...

okay it's just part of a tree coming out of a fence but the first time I saw it was at night and let me tell you...I truly thought it was some huge creature's tail!  a dragon came to mind...

the new apartments they just finished building down the street that are going for $4300 a month (those were our second choice before moving to Texas, haha)

and basically just our home!  coming home after vacations or long days of work and being so grateful to see our woodsy little apartment that has become home the past two years...

home sweet home

Mark is more confident about us falling in love with Texas than I am...I really hate change.  I spent my entire life moving all around the country and I just want it to end!  this is actually the longest I've lived in one place (two years) since I was 15!  that was back in Texas so I guess it's fitting that I've come full circle.  I hope my old home can feel as much like home as LA has become.  It will be different because I'll have my own family this time and honestly that's all that matters.

wherever they are is home.

A Valentine's to Remember

So, a few weeks ago it hit me that this would be our last Valentine's as just the two of us!  It made me both sad and excited for our littlest Valentine to join in on the fun... I even ordered this set of shirts for our next Valentine's Day :)

Since this would also be our last Valentine's Day in LA, the city where we met and got married, I decided we needed to make the most of it!  I planned a Valentine's Day Scavenger Hunt all over the city, tracing back all our "firsts" and old favorite places full of memories.  Mark had no idea until I gave him his present (a puzzle) and his first clue.  He actually opened it Friday night (because I couldn't wait) and had no trouble figuring out where the next clue was...the first clue talked about our first date (where I actually wrote in my journal, "This is the man I'm going to marry...").  So Saturday morning we set off for...

Our first date!

Our table where we sat and chatted for hours as we fell in love :)

Once we got there, I had to pee, per usual, so after we ordered Mark wandered around (suspiciously?) looking for the clue.  I had taped it underneath a bench outside (I would have felt super awkward going inside to hide the clue and then leaving ha!)  He said it was the coolest thing to find it there, just taped under the table.  He was grinning from ear to ear when I got back, proudly holding his clue :)

We actually hadn't been back there since our first date!  I don't know why, their empanada's are amazing!!  Just like our first date, I could NOT decide what to order so Mark let me order for both of us.  We got Chicken, Ham & Cheese, Spicy Beef and Cheesy Spicy Chicken (the favorite!).  All were so delicious!

After lunch we set off for the next clue, where we shared our first kiss!  Mark knew exactly where it was...on the sidewalk outside his old apartment!

Lovely isn't it?

I actually wasn't sure exactly where it was...he had kissed me in front of my car but I was parked on the street somewhere between his apartment and the end of block.  Since I wasn't sure I just hid the clue in the best spot I could find.  Oddly enough, when we got there Mark walked down the sidewalk and then completely stopped right where I had hidden the clue!  HA!  Guess I subconsciously knew exactly where it was?

It wouldn't be an LA Scavenger Hunt without making a stop at the beach!  Too bad it was pretty cold (and I had to pee) so we didn't stay long.  But it's pretty awesome living so close to Ocean Avenue...

Our scavenger hunt didn't end there but that's the last picture I took.  His beach clue led him back to the car and we drove up in the hills and watched a movie, cuddled up in the backseat.  We used to do that all the time when we were dating in an effort to get away from our roommates :)  We watched "Little Manhattan," a perfect Valentine's Day movie about young love and the same movie we watched the night I first said 'I love you'.

What a wonderful day of celebrating our love...going back and re-living all our firsts actually gave me butterflies as I remembered those long good-byes at the end of the night, never wanting to leave each other's side, making out in the backseat of our cars and listening to music, and talking about our "hypothetical" future children.  Now, here we are, three years later with a baby on the way!

Life is just crazy and it goes by way too fast.  I feel like if I blink we'll be 80 years old and all our kids will be grown and it will be back the way it is now...just the two of us.

Happy Birthday to Me!

This month has been super busy already!  And so much more excitement to come!!!

Last week I celebrated my 27th birthday!  All day long I got texts and phone calls from family and friends who remembered my birthday...the little boy I sit for even called me and sang "Happy Birthday" to me!  I felt so loved :)

A few days before my little sister took me out to lunch!  We went to our favorite place, Aroma Cafe!

Is it just me or do we look like twins here?!

YUM.

I can't wait until sissy is just a few states away in Arizona and we can see her for all the holidays and she can escape to Cali in the summer and we can live it up on the beach!

For my birthday, Mark got me the most beautiful bracelet!  He always amazes me with his gift giving abilities.  How did I get so lucky??

He also got me an outfit that he picked up on his lunch break from work because he felt like he hadn't gotten me enough!  What a sweetheart!  It's super cute too...pictures to come later!

Oh and he also gave me something he made at BYU when he was studying Art a long time ago.  It's  a little book with drawings of his eye at different times of the day and CD's to go along with the different moods of his day.  The morning CD is so good!  He is so creative!

Then he took me out to a romantic candlelit Italian dinner with live music and the waiters all went around and sang!  We had a great time...

We got meatballs, pepperoni, tomatoes and bell pepper!  DELISH!

Look at that CHEESINESS!

We ended the night by cuddling up with hot cocoa and watching our favorite show lately, "Once Upon A Time"!  I wonder what life will be like for my next birthday!  So much can happen in a year...but this one has been pretty great!

Fall Bucket List

Mark and Catherine's Fall Bucket List

1. Decorate the house

2. Buy pumpkin flavored everything at Trader Joe's

3. Visit a pumpkin patch

4. Carve pumpkins

5. Haunted Hayride @ Griffith Park

6. Harvest Festival

7. Corn maze

8. Disneyland!

9. Watch Hocus Pocus

10. Find pieces for our Halloween costumes

11. Studio City Halloween party

12. Take Jake & Sam trick-or-treating

13. Road trip to Hearst Castle

14. Anniversary Trip to Vegas

15. Make homemade pumpkin pie

16. Bob for apples

17. Thanksgiving dinner at the Rawlings!

18. Have a baby...just kidding, sort of

Boy October is flying!  Only one week left before Halloween!  Then NOVEMBER is here!!!  AHHH and then CHRISTMAS!!!!  We have to get cracking on our Fall Bucket List.  I count Fall pretty much until December 1st so we still have a good month but lots of these are Halloween sensitive... We're doing a lot today!  We're going to the Harvest Festival where we'll knock off pumpkins and a corn maze and we're carving pumpkins on Monday for FHE.  The Studio City Halloween party is Friday and then we're doing DISNEY on HALLOWEEN and taking Jake and Sam trick or treating that night.  The rest of the stuff will be in November.  I might add stuff too...

We've sure got a fun week ahead!  Also, I'm getting a little confused which holiday is coming up because I listen to Christmas music every day hahaha.  I would listen to Halloween or Thanksgiving music but there isn't any!  So at least it's festive!

Happy October!

It's finally October!!!  October is one of my favorite months and I am soooo excited it's finally here!  It's the start of all the magical months, the first true signs of fall weather, and all the holidays to look forward to!  Our anniversary and my birthday are also in the Fall!  Just so much fun stuff to look forward to! The whole season always flies by for me so I'm going to try and tell myself to enjoy every second of this glorious Fall season!

There's another reason October is one of my favorites...the haunted hayride!  Every year for the past 3 years I drag anyone and everyone I can find to the Haunted Hayride in Griffith Park!

If you know me at all you know that I love scary stuff...scary movies, stories, people?  Haha, maybe not people but I love being scared!!!  The Haunted Hayride is a 30 minute experience of being planted in the middle of every horror movie you can think of and watching everything happen around you!

It is SO. MUCH. FUN!!!  Maybe it's the actor in me but I love feeling like I'm in a movie...especially a scary movie!  Haha, it's actually not even that scary!  It's more entertaining and just FUN!

Well, my sister is into scary stuff too (I've taught her well) and ever since the first time I went on the hayride, I knew she had to go on it! We never figured out a way to do it though because she usually only comes to visit in the summer. Well, this time her visit happened to fall on the first weekend of October so we got to go! It did not disappoint...

This thing was on stilts outside the main entrance and decided to follow us!

We were terrified...not really ;)

You're not allowed to take pictures while on the hayride itself so all of you will just have to go experience it for yourself.  I can promise you will NOT be disappointed!!!  We usually don't go until closer to Halloween so now we'll have to find something else scary to do on Halloween! Mark will be so happy...hah.