Engagement Party

So earlier this summer Ryan and I had an Engagement party and invited our close friends and family. It was so awesome to have our families hanging out, eating, playing volleyball, pillow polo, and slow pitch softball. With many athletes in the family everyone got pretty competitive. It was awesome and sooo Fun!

Here is a picture of all my girls Nadine, Megan, Dani, Me, Crystina, Jenn and Sandi (not pictured Rachelle)

I LOVE MY SIBS! Me (24) , Matt (26) , Jill (29) and Nick (31)

The first time all ten of us have been together. Everyone and their partners! All of them are great additions to the Leal Family! I look forward to so much with this group of friendly faces and open arms. I look forward to our upcoming weddings, holidays, celebrating birthdays, having babies and watching them grow up and play with their cousins and do the silly junk we used to do. I look forward to having my nieces and nephews spend the night and having all our little crazies camp out at grandma and grandpas house in our old bedrooms. :)
I could not be blessed with a more perfect amazing group of people to call family and the neatest part is I get to be part of the same thing in the Andrade family! I am so excited to finally make this all official and be an Andrade, although I'll always have the heart and break rules like a Leal! :) JK!

And the weddings continue

So this weekend one of my coworkers got married.

It was very beautiful!

It was a Catholic wedding combined with some Filipino traditions also.

MaryJane and her husband Mark were glowing with love and happiness!

I had a great time but I missed my better half, RY!

Being engaged and being in the wedding planning phase I really felt like I was looking at the wedding with a different set of eyes.

I kept thinking things like I wonder how much they paid per plate, were the center pieces made by hand, and what the time line of the evening was, and what should mine be like.

I really do think weddings are so very special and I just want to get to spend time with everyone there.

The past 3 out of the 4 weddings I've been to, I've been in the wedding so it was nice to be a guest and be in the background.

I wish I could be a fly on the wall at more weddings so I could see the do's and don't's of a wedding.

Ryan and I have been slowly checking things off of the list, and it feels good!

Wedding update:

Today we designed a label for our favors! It is super cute!! :) Although I'm partially bias.

We will be meeting up with the caterer some day this week or next.

I have my DRESS!!!

I need to still call Father Rudy to meet up with him to figure out all the ceremony details.

I also made an invitation today, which was fun! It is simple and neat.

I have to go to Michael's to get paper and find an envelope that fits it too.

Ryan and I started doing them together but Ryan quickly got kicked of invitation making team!

Way to many questions and comments! haha!

I honestly think if it were up to him an evite would be the way to go. :)

Everything has been awesome and I can't imagine planing this with anyone else!

Ryan is my Best Friend and I love him soo much!

Cheers to a continued stress free wedding planning environment!

166 DAYS TO GO!!!!

My old and new kids.

OMG I miss my old class so much. I see them playing out on the school yard and some still come say hi to me and grab my leg and give me hugs. And some are over me and it breaks my heart. But I'm trying to be grown up about it. hahaha! I miss them! They will always have my heart being my first class! And I'm proud to say 11 out of 13 were potty trained by the end of the year! Think I've Aced the potty training phase!

These are my new kiddos minus 2 kids. I only have 10 which is awesome! They are so cute and filling my old kids shoes nicely! I have 7 boys and 3 girls, yes this means we play cars, trains and with balls for majority of the day. They are learning new words everyday and I'm getting back into the swing of changing diapers.

Cheers to another fun school year. At least this time around I kinda know what I'm doing, well more so than last year! :)

Where have I been...

It has been so long since I've written on my blog and much happened.

I started a new school year with 10 kids, back to diapers and trying to understand what they are trying to say.

They are soo cute but I miss my last class!

I think I will always has a very special attachment to my first full time class ever.

They still come hug me and peak in my window calling my name.

I miss them and love them so much!

This past weekend my friend Sandi and I planned and ran a Retreat for the Junior Facilitators at our church.

It is for the teens that just got their Confirmation and want to come back to help.

I love being around teenagers and watching them open up to one another and grow in their faith together.

Having a very strong faith has got me through so much and I thank God everyday for blessing me.

Ryan and I have been making head way on wedding planning and on honeymoon planning too.

We decided to head to Bora Bora and also another island Taha'a.

It is amazingly beautiful!

Also we have been working on finishing up our wedding website and registries.

We are very excited to slowly be checking things off our long list.

And I'm proud to say it has been very stress free.

We met with a DJ last night and it went great, way fancier than we need but in our budget and seems like a great guy.

Next we are going to figure out the caterer thing and all of the big things will be taken care of.

I found and got my dress but I still need to find a veil and shoes too.

It is very simple, elegant and in my eyes beautiful.

I cannot wait to share our special day with all of our close family and friends!