My Bridal Shower- Alyssa's Favorite Things

My mama and sister (and papa) threw me a shower just for the ladies! They were all family friends and family women and it was a blast!

The theme of the part was Alyssa's Favorite Things inspired by my favorite movie Sound of Music and a song from there "My Favorite Things". They had decorations of my favorite movies, tv shows, music, dancing, etc! It was so cool!!!!

They served my FAV FOOD- italian!!!! YUM YUM YUM! That was definitely a hit! Some friends brought over more yummy desserts, and I lucked out that my popo was in town to bake my fav desserts :D what sweet beings!

We played some HILARIOUS games. alyssa bingo. a little icebreaker to make alyssa ugly faces. alyssa family fued. wedding pictionary. alyssas favorite things memory. It was so fun!

I am VERY fortunate to God to have a wonderful family!!! They did so much work with a lot of love. Thankful to have them celebrate this season!!!!

Portland

Jose and I visited my two good guy friends Andrew and Ashwin up in Oregon! It was fantastic! Among the wedding, school, work grind, we were excited to visit a new place!

The Lord blessed us with BEAUTIFUL and PERFECT weather! It only sprinkled when we landed, and it was clear skies the rest of the weekend! A&A were perfect hosts! They set up a mattress for Jose and the couch for me! Towels were clean, apt was clean, and they hung out with us til the wee hours of the night! When they hosted us, they refused to tell us anything about where we were going so we could experience it without the hype!

Friday night, as soon as we flew in we were treated to pho (which jose claims was his favorite food from the entire weekend!) This place was BUSY- so we had to take it to go. PHO-TO GO!

Saturday was a travel around the city day!

We ate at the most wonderful biscuits place! Man was it jam packed with flavors!

We hit up this rose garden! The roses weren't blooming yet. Darn!

This brewery that had board games. We had an intense game of scrabble. I am terrible at this game! The boys went at it!

We hit up the place where the food trucks were poppin!!! So many different foods!!!! I ate a grilled cheese with tomato soup!

We literally spent the walk home taking pictures in front of colored walls haha!

We took time in between to watch college basketball games too! That was enjoyable!
We ended our night at Nong's! We saw her on food network and had to try! It was simply chicken and rice but the sauce was AMAZING! im asking andrew to bring me some when he comes to CA!

They took us to a lovely ice cream place where the line was crazy long! It was worth the delicious flavor and many many samples!

We stopped by target to buy some board games! We played taboo and clue :D

Sunday was our nature day! Unfortunately, Ashwin was called into work, but Andrew was gracious and took us to the most beautiful hikes and sights! Columbia River Gorge.

Multnomah Falls

Latourell falls

My eyes could not understand the beauty of this creation. My God is so grand, awesome and glorious to move the skies from the waters. The land from these falls. The shades of green and blue and brown and gray. I was awestruck at these beautiful places. It caused my heart to worship and praise our Lord Jesus!
We were able to eat lunch at a yummy burger joint together!

We also stopped by Andrews work- Adidas!!!! Seeing his work space and what he does what really neat- especially with Jose being a huge basketball fan! :D What a treat!

Jose and I were dropped off to eat thai food with my cousins! Jose got to meet Justin, Jennifer, and Caite for the first time! I was sooo excited!!!! He loved them and i believe vice versa! The food was BOMB. Jose said one of his favs!

We ended the night playing more Clue! haha
Monday, A&A went to work, so we headed off to eat and explore on our own!

We visited this huge book store, shopped around, and ate yummy food!!! We said our goodbyes and flew back home.

We treasured our time in Portland and want to visit again. People were friendly, food was delicious, homes were sweet, and we could see trying to share life there and doing our part in sharing the gospel. Thank you to the hosts for making it the best.

OH YEAH! We got our first RSVP's for the wedding :D

A Sweet December

Hello all!

I am writing while being all snuggled up in my blanket. It sure has been cold these last few days but overall, December has been warm!!

Catching you up on a few things.....

Work.... DISASTER. lets just say I pulled my first ever weekend overtime due to a server failure! It was a burden to us all but we carried on! I am thankful we had sweet treats to feast on every day this month and enjoyed gifts given to us by vendors!

Secret Santa- TOTALLY SCORED! Man, I have really really generous friends and future family. lots of thoughtful and undeserved gifts!

Check out this most wonderful video my brother Aaron made of one of the Christmas parties we were apart of. These people I absolutely adore and it was sweet to write encouragements to one another, play games, eat together, and exchange gifts. SO AWESOME!

CHRISTMAS! first time really spending it with joses family and mine. it was crazy, fun, loud, and sweet. I saw a lot of love in the gift giving and in how others wanted to show their appreciation to one another. I was so thankful for a fiance who kept pointing me to Jesus. I sometimes am surrounded by the hulabaloo of gifting and eating and family when really its about JESUS! My fiance put this on his facebook to help my soul!

What I love about the holidays and summer is that friends come home! I got to see many I love for pilates, lunches, bobas and more! It is such a joy!

I got to take a part of old traditions like caroling and my dads company luncheon (SO PROUD!)

On the wedding front, I BOUGHT MY DRESS!!! hooooray!!! I love it, and cant wait to share in about 7 months!!!

Lunches, cantadas, getting to know members at my new church FSBC has helped me grow in trusting God and loving this church!

Grinchmas at Universals was sooooo fun!

Jose and I were Mr and Mrs Claus for a murder mystery. We lost......

alot is better this month and all thanks goes to jesus who continues to be really gracious!