Caught In The Act!!!

Boys will always be boys. I don't even think Daniel got her name. But, she didn't seem to into it!

The real story, Daniel and I were hanging out in Scottsdale waiting to have lunch for my friend, Andy.

Daniel afterward told me, 'they felt like bags of sand.'

Daniel's Dance

This picture was taken at our friend's, Karin and Chris's wedding. Billy Jean by MJ came on and Daniel was feelin' it that night. After Miriam's encouragement and Tom's hat, Daniel hit the dance floor.

People clapped and his dancing was just plain awesome-ness! I loved it! Hope he does that for our wedding too!! :-)

The Wedding Invitations Are Out!!! :-)

The invitations are out! Finally! Yeah! This is exactly what they look like. To add a special touch, we did a wax seal on the outer envelope instead of a sticker. It turned out nice, but the wax would get onto other envelopes. Honestly, I was just glad to get them mailed!!!!

One other thing to note, I spelled my name Leah instead of Leigh. For the invitation, I probably should have spelled it Leigh, but when I change my last name, I am going to change my first name to as well. It is just easier to spell it Leah, because people then know how to correctly pronouce it. And I don't have to explain my name every time.

If they haven't already, they will be coming soon-to a mailbox near you!

Meet My Bridesmaid-Sarah

Katie, Sarah and Me-At Katie's 2009 New Years PartySarah and I at her sister, Jenny's Wedding

Meet Sarah. She is my best friend. Sarah and I meet lifeguarding while we both lived in Tucson. This would have been around 1999 or so. I knew Sarah's sister Becca first, but Sarah stole me away just like she did Kimi-hee, hee. Sarah and I have been through different relationships, moving, distance, time and yet our relationship has strongly surivived. I couldn't imagine life without her. I have not only spend national holidays with her and her family, but attend major family events as much as possible. I am really looking forward to and am honored that her family will be attending my wedding also. Because I consider them a part of my family, and I want all of them there celebrating along with me.
Currently, Sarah is a high school English teacher at a school right by our house. She is spending the summer with her first born son, Xander.
It only makes sense that Sarah be right by my side on the most important day of my life. I have so many Sarah stories, but I think our picture montage describes it better than my words even could. Sarah, Jaycee and I celebrating 'Purple Reign' our kickball team
Sarah and I camping during our 24 hour camping trip with NO fire-Good times!Sarah and I cosmo bowling
Thanks for always being there for me, Sarah. You are my best friend! I love you! Thank you for being with me on my most important day!

Meet My Bridesmaid-Jacquline (My Flower Girl :) Just Kidding)

Meet Jacquline aka Jackie aka Nina (only to me, I will explain this in a sec...) She is also my cousin, her mom and my dad are brother-sister. And, she is also my godmother, hence the title-Nina. Nina and my uncle baptised me as a baby. She has been the BEST godmother (every holiday I got a great present) and cousin. Growing up, we were not really close due to being in different stages in life. I remember telling her and her friend, Sheri (she is the one in greenon the left in the top picture) when they over for dinner once and were MERELY 25 years old, that they were both old as dirt. (I was probably around 9 at the time.) Let's just say that they both still to this day remember me telling them that! Retrospect, 25-not that old!!! :-)

Of all of my family, Nina and I (along with her mom) are probably the most alike. We are very similar in a lot of ways and take after our Nana. Which is a lot of fun!

After graduating nursing school last August (speaking of, we are both Leos), I had the opportunity to move back to Tucson for my first nursing job and got to live with my Nina. So, for a little less than a year, her and I lived happily together. She would set up my breakfast stuff for the next day if I was working, it was so sweet. (Daniel doesn't even do that for me...) And, I had access to a whole closet FULL of shoes that fit. Yeah, it was heaven! We really got along and life was good living together. She was also the first family member to meet Daniel. Nina meet Daniel on our first date in Tucson. We all went out to a sports bar that night with some friends (Jeremy and Jackie-she is in white in the picture below). Apparently, my Nina only hangs out with people named Jacquline. Seriously. But, it is easy to remember her friends names that way. I really love all of the Jacqulines in our life though and I am just teasing!!! :-)

Currently, Nina works for Hogan Real Estate School as the Office Manager and she lives with her Cocker-Tedi Bruschi. She is also coming up early to help with the wedding-yeah!!I love you, Nina! Always have and always will! Because of you, I knwo that I am really NOT a cabbage patch baby, like my parents always made me believe.

Meet My Bridesmaid-Hannah

Meet Hannah. She is also my cousin. As well as Sarah (please see MOH), her mom is my mom's sister. I was eight when Hannah was born and I remember the very spot I was when I found she made it into the world. Her and I grew up closest to and with eachother. We would spend every day (expcept weekends and school days) together playing at Grandma's house. We were particularly fond of office. :-) Oh the memories. High school came along for me, where soccer and other teenage things took me away from spending so much time with her. Unfortunately, I moved to Cal and a year or so later, her and her family moved to the OTHER side of the country, literally-Florida. Currently, she is attending University of FL. I am so excited and honored that she is a part of my bridal party. I feel so fortunate that I have such great cousins that will stand up and be with me on the most special and happiest day of my life. Thank you Hannah! Love you!

MOH-Maid of Honor

Meet my MOH. Apparently Sarah doesn't like pictures of her adult self (at least I couldn't find any on Facebook...), although, I really like this picture, because growing up at my grandma's house, this picture was one of the ones I always remember looking at as a kid. She also has one wtih Kermit the Frog that I always affectionately think of.

Sarah is my first cousin. Her mom and my mom are sisters. She has always lived in a different state than me (Mo or Ct), so we didn't see a lot of eachother growing up. But when she did visit, we always had a great time and really got along.

The picture below of the three of us actually hits upon two of my bridesmaids (Hannah is in the soccer jersey. She will have her own post in a bit.) This picture is from 1999, which was a while ago (and it scanned in poorly), but now you know what she looks like as an adult. Good looking both as a child and an adult!!!

Why I choose Sarah to by my MOH-when I was around 12 and Sarah a few years older, we were both in Tucson, walking around our grandparents neighborhood, hanging out. Her and I both happen to be only children (as is Daniel) and we were talking about getting married and stuff like that. We talked about since we are both only children and have no sisters, we should be eachother MOH. We made a pact that day to be eachother's MOH if/when we do get married.

Now forward to several years later-I call her on the phone to ask her to be my MOH. She was so suprised and excited! Although, she assumed that Sarah (my best friend-you will meet her too) was to be my MOH. I told Sarah-MOH, remember our pact? You were always going to be my MOH!

Sarah currently lives in CT, working for ESPN as a journalist. She is going to come out to AZ early and help me get everything finished for the wedding. Thank goodness, because I know I am going to need her help! :-)
Sarah, thank you for being my MOH and following through with our childhood pact! Love you!!

Meet the Wedding Party-Bridesmaids

Yesterday, while doing some of the ceremony decorations, I was zoning out and the thought occurred to me, not all of my bridemaids know eachother. They are all related to me (or have been my friend for so long, I consider her family. When you spend several major holidays over several years with that friend and their family, it is time to consider them a part of your family-in my opinion!) So the next four blogs I am going to dedicate to my wedding party, starting with my MOH (maid of honor) and so forth, describing our relationship and all of that other fun stuff. Stay tuned!