in-laws

I feel very fortunate to have the in-laws that I do!! I know not all can say that, but JR and I both feel extremely blessed with our other sets of parents :)We have the best parents in the world!

My in-laws are coming in tonight! Nancy and Ronnie will be here this evening, for a weekend of wedding planning, shopping, eating, and maybe even Christmas-light-looking-at....yay!


We love having our family and friends in, so we've been preparing our house all week for their arrival! I love having guests! I picked up a few more ornaments for the tree today, and will do some last minute grocery shopping and then it's on to a family packed weekend! I even think we have more guests next wknd...I'll make that announcement next week, ha!

Happy Friday, hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

ever so patient

It's good "they" say when couples balance (i.e. one has a personality trait that other one doesn't) each other out. Last night was the perfect example, and I must praise my fiance for his unwavering patience with me and my never-ending beautification...hair, face, massage, etc....I love being a girl.

Being a girl though, is hard work! and time consuming! I decided yesterday that I needed a drastic change to my hair so I found this (whilst I was online shopping):



I am that blonde now. It took three different color processes, and three hours!!! No lie! and JR came with me! oops! I didn't realize how long it would take and he will sometimes come with me and get a haircut while I let my color sit and such. No, 3 hrs!! Insane! Even I was getting restless, and even after he let us grab some dinner at the restaurant I picked out! So, I must say thank you to my ever so patient fiance, because I was skipped in the "patience" line. I have none. zero. patience tank empty.

Babe, thank you for being so sweet about my 3 hr hair appt! Today we get to finish our wedding registry :) This is probably his favorite week ever! ask him about it :) haha!

we elf'd

Lauren, I couldn't control myself watching you and your family! sooo, I decided to elf mine! Shhh, nobody tell JR! hahaha!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9634676655

the best time of year

We love Christmas, but I LOVE Christmas. For us, decorating the house and putting up the tree is so special to do together...thus we started a tradition last year (I'm a tradition-starter) to play our Christmas CD's and make homemade chocolate chip cookies (those will be tonight) and put up our tree and ornaments.


I love the sentiment of things, JR even moreso so we like to find little ways to make things more personal to us and one of the other things we do for Christmas is buy each other an ornament for that year! It's a small gift but when we were getting them out last night it made us smile :) They end up being somewhat reflective of that year...it will be fun to see what some of our future years will bring us in ornaments!!!



JR bought me and surprised me with this huge tree last year, and it was the best gift I got!! We had been on the hunt for the perfect tree, and ofcourse he found it! We had the same tree my whole life, so I think it would be neat for our children one day to love this tree as much as we do! JR thinks we will upgrade one day, we'll see! haha! I told him if that's the case, I'm going for the 13 footer! That's my compromise :)



This is our second Christmas together in our home and with our boys. However, the boys think Christmas is a time to be super naughty!! I don't get it! They are perfect little kitties all year, but when they see that tree go up they turn into a crazy mess! They dart into the room, barrel around the tree, then ball up under it because they think we can't find them! so naughty!! We're waiting for they day we come home and the tree is horizontal...they'll have an angry mommy and daddy! for sure! It's like having children!! We've had to anchor all of our stuff down and into walls because they'll break all of our stuff! Then they act real sweet, after they've been caught chewing on the tree and batting the ornaments, sneaky kitties!

We still have a quite a bit of work to do to our beautiful tree, but here is what we got accomplished last night! Hope you all are enjoying your Christmas decorating!!

art for the day

-Vincent Van Gogh

THE dress

MY DRESS IS HERE!!! ahhhhhhh! I'm so excited! Christian called me from Patsy's Bridal yesterday and told me I could come "visit" my dress! When they do custom gowns, they make them to your exact body measurements, but leave the length long so that when you get your shoes they alter the length according to the length of your veil and heighth of the shoes. Long process, but now we can start the final details of the dress!!!!! I can't believe it's finally here! I ordered it back in July, so it's been 5 months...She arrived here safely :)

I'm waiting for my parents to get back from NYC to go try it on! They get back tonight! We have an appointment to try on a couple of tuxedos for JR this wknd!! He's excited too! We're only 5 months away! We are so ready to be married to each other :)

the holiday's are upon us

We wanted to share this video of the music we came upon when we walked up to Pier 17! It was a high school band playing Christmas music! Christmas everywhere! It was magical!

amazing

We truly had the best Thanksgiving trip to NYC!! Everyday was spectacular, really! Our night we got in pretty late, so we settled into the hotel and we all ordered room service, got in our comfy robes and enjoyed our first night in New York!

The next morning we made it up in time for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!! It was so awesome to watch something your whole life on tv, then finally get to see it in real life! When it got to the end and Santa came around the corner, everyone was yelling and hugging! So neat! That afternoon was Thanksgiving dinner, so we all fancied up and ate at "The Room with a View" overlooking Central Park!

Friday morning was Black Friday, we didn't last two hours! It was pure insanity. If I can't make it shopping, no one can. Trust me. So we made a better day out of it, and played tourist. We got a metrocard, and took the subway to the southern tip of Manhattan and went all around the city exploring! Everywhere you go, you see people laughing, hugging their kids, kissing, eating...so much life there! Christmas music playing everywhere, everyone bundled up and running to catch a cab! Street performers, and musicians, all in this melting pot of a city! Even with the enormous buildings, the buzz of city life, and the millions of people, New York has this warmth to it, and a serenity when you walk around. I've been around the world, and there is no place like NYC.

It was both of our second times there, but our first to spend together, and we could not have enjoyed our trip anymore than we did! We did the subway, NY pizza, shopping, Central Park, room service, hotel, parade, limo ride around NYC, you name it...we did it!! We ended our trip with a visit alone to the top of the Empire State Building! One of the most romantic things in the world, to look over the entire city (minus the fact that it was -156 degrees up there, and it felt like my extremities were going to freeze and break off)...JR said I fit right in! short temper, aggressive driver, and food on every corner! haha! He may be right! NYC doesn't help calm my aggressive ways :) Maybe that's why I got put in TX and OK!!



p.s. I think if you double-click the on the slideshow it will take you to a bigger window! fyi!

day of thanks

Wishing you all a safe, happy, and blessed Thanksgiving with your family and friends! We will be traveling to New York in less than 24 hours!!! Safe travels everyone!

going to the chapel

and we're----- gonna get maa-aa-aaried!!! I have made a few small changes to our wedding website, the most important being that I've added the accomodations information for the two hotels we have rooms blocked with. Next will be the registry information!

www.jrandnatalie.com

feliz cumpleanos

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Holly! who is celebrating her first birthday as a MOMMY! We wish you a wonderful birthday and many many more wonderful birthdays ahead!!

Love,
JR and Nat

you know you're old when...

you get excited about your appliances. Our dryer has been broken for a couple of weeks now, and it has put a kink in our domestic ways and hindered my proof to JR that I will be the next Mrs. Housewife USA.

I finally allowed for us to fix it, because I refused to pay hundreds of dollars to fix the small part that went out. I'd rather go prarie-style and hang our clothes out to dry, but JR would have no part of that. Sooo, I caved and finally let the guy come fix the dryer, $142.64 later. grr

I'm okay with it though, and I must admit that we are very excited to announce that we have our dryer back.

new york, new york

Only 6 more days until we leave for our trip to NYC!!! We are SO excited to be spending Thanksgiving in The Big Apple!! It adds to our travel log of Miami, Red River, and now NYC together! Hopefully, we'll just keep adding to it! Just wanted to share our excitement and anticipation!! Happy Thursday!



and, as an added plus! Our family will be staying at The Helmsley Park Lane! right on Central Park! ahhhhhh! so exciting!!



The only problem I have with NYC, is that when I want to buy those fake Louis, Fendi, and Prada the NYPD come in and chase those guys away and I end up walking/shuffling chasing them down 5th Ave. until they find a discreet spot to set up shop again :) I'm a very determined tourist, haha! I must look crazy, oops!

6 days.........

parents make everything better

Monday was a bad day...a horrible day for me, but my parents are one of a kind, and the best anyone could ever ask for. They always have made everything better for me, even at the age of 24 :)

Mom also sent me some beautiful flowers from Miami, and it made my day!! I am forever grateful for my mom and dad! They are so wonderful!

the tree

We initially chose our condo for it's good location on the second floor and the nice "greenery" it had on the balcony. Well, that greenery decided to make it's way into our house. Literally.

It's caused several problems, the first of which has created our SQUIRREL NINJA. Yes, squirrel. Every single morning, there is a squirrel that comes to the very tip of a branch closest to our balcony--he puffs up, and starts making these heinous squeaking sounds and both cats run out as if this dang squirrel is summoning them. They all three then have these ridiculous stare-downs until I finally get scared and run out, grab my cats, and scream at the squirrel before it attacks my head. He is a very aggressive squirrel. Beanie (Charlie) thinks he is the squirrel ninja, and provokes an attack from Mr. Squirrel and hisses at him and leans on the railing trying to get closer to him, so we gave him the new moniker of SQUIRREL NINJA. He thinks he is one tough kitty, and one of these days I tell JR, that squirrel is going to run in our house and murder our kitties. I myself am afraid of this squirrel. SQUIRREL NINJA doesn't know what he's up against...

The other problem it has caused has been to stir up JR's famous OCD. He says the tree is blocking his view of the outside world (i.e. the street) and the leaves building on our balcony are ruining his days. So, I called our building management and asked to have them call the property to which the tree belongs to have them cut down this tree that is growing/falling into our house. That was two days ago-----

This was last night:



We now have a TREE NINJA! JR could not wait for them to cut down the tree, so he went to mom's, got a saw and decided to cut off limb by limb on his own. crazzzzzzy. I'm not sure I've laughed this hard in awhile, my fiance has no patience for such matters! What makes me laugh the hardest is knowing that if it were me, I'm so lazy, I'd let that tree into our bedroom before I'd actually go saw down a tree myself :) Nonetheless, the tree is chopped and we can now see Blackburn once again, ahhhhhh roadside. So beautiful :)

thanksgiving numero uno

We will be heading up to the OK for our first Thanksgiving of the year!! yesssssssss! We are having to do it a little early to make sure everyone in the family can make it! I'm okay with early, because this allows me to start our holiday's even sooner! (Boomer Sooner)


Thanks to Lauren, she has informed me that 103.7 KVIL has officially started their non-stop Christmas music! I love everything from Halloween on, Halloween being my least favorite of the bunch...Thanksgiving is full of food, family, and sleeping. My three favorite things :)


JR still hasn't let us put the tree up, but I think I'll make him cave soon, it's time. I'm working on him one day at a time! Although, this 80 degree weather coming up really isn't helping my case much :/


** On a special sidenote, I may get a chance to babysit Baby Luke, our new newphew...and I am so excited to hold him, and love him, and kiss him!!

We hope you all have a great weekend! and we wish you a Happy Early Thanksgiving!!

a little delayed

Sorry about the late Halloween post! I got side-tracked...JR's costume was an old 70's Central High football coach, complete with the "packaged" shorts, and I was a schoolgirl :) naughty, naughty!

I even got JR to dance!! In the 6 years that I have now known him, I have never never seen him break it down, it was awesome!! He has Billy Madison moves :)
















We had burgers at our house first and invited The Neaves' over and Lauren & Clint! Lauren and Ricardo came as pirates, well Ricardo was more of a gay pirate!



Lauren and Clint were Wimbledon stars!!



The girl pic:



The boy pic:



We went to Tribeca for the costume party, and the best costumes there were by far the pervert coach and the gay pirate, hahahaha!



We also found some other interesting costumes at the party! Like Where's Waldo?!



a Blues Brother!

and a dirty ol' Santa!



and what would a good Halloween party be without some dancing!!!!!!!!!!!!!



and just a little bit more of JR dancing, enjoy!!!

i feel cheated

I come to you full of embarrassment and shame. In reference to my previous post about the presidential sighting, I've been fooled.

As Lauren sits next to me and assures me that it was a "semi-presidential" sighting I am regretfully updating our blog to inform you that it was the VP of the USA.

That's it. Dad broke the news to me, and Lauren made the pain a little more real by breaking out into a full-out hateful laugh. fine, fine, fine. You all win. She is forcing me to breakdown and post this update and confess my mistake. I am upset and feel cheated by the US govt. Why make such a big deal for a guy that can't even hunt well?

Even I can hunt better than Cheney.

To make this all the more real and disgusting, Lauren made me put on an "I was there" t-shirt with Bush/Cheney on it. I feel dirty.

we have our differences, but....

I am putting my political views at bay, strictly and temporarily for the sake of this post. JR and I saw President Bush last night, and I almost peed myself. I don't get real "stirred" up if you will, at the sight of him on TV, nor do I waste my time debating him. It's just too messy these days. To each their own...

However, I feel compelled to share a rather intense sighting on our part and one I'm sure our Republican friends shall appreciate.

Scene 1: I am in the works (months of internet researching/debating how much $$ I want to spend on a phone, more specifically a new Blackberry) so JR and I went to the Cingular/AT&T store right by our house. On our way home, after me not choosing to buy last night, ofcourse, we decide to stop by Arlington Hall (our wedding location) to see if the pavillion in which we will exchange marital vows is completed. It's not. Bummer, they have 7 months to go before I need that space. I'm okay. We start noticing there are several helicopters with those light-beam things hovering over Arlington Hall, which was packed with security as well and full of cars so we pass on thru and find a sneaky corner to park in.

Scene 2: You see, Dallas is like the big brother to Lawton. They both share an unusually high crime rate...so it's not unusual to see some cops/helicopters every once in awhile, so we decided to make an evening out of it and watch the show. We thought they were chasing down some crazy. By this point they had completely stopped all traffic at Lemmon and all of Turtle Creek Blvd. had been shut down and police barricades had set up at every light. JR was for SURE that a celebrity was coming through...I pointed out to him that there are celebrities here everyday and no one really cares. This was BIG! I knew it. I had an inkling it was the President, but JR didn't believe me. Dallas doesn't stop traffic for ANYTHING!!

Scene 3: About 10 minutes later, cars honking, people yelling (short tempers), sure enough the whole area gets completely quiet except for the loud hum of hovering copters. 1, 2, 3, 4---------30! Police motorcycles pass thru all at even distance apart (very coordinated-looking) then atleast 10 huge black Suburbans, like the ones in all the movies you see, then the 2 presidential bullet-proof limousines with the presidential seal on the side!!! You could even see in!!! AHHHHHHHH!!! It's the President of the United States!! It took probably 6-7 minutes for the whole convoy to pass through! One block from our house! The President! Oh my! I don't even agree with 98.7% of his policies!! Wow! We were hugging, and laughing, as if he'd come to see us! There were some other young couples out all snuggled up doing the same thing we were, haha!



Scene 4: Some people were clapping, some yelling obscenities (fair enough) but overall it was the biggest spectacle I've ever seen, and rumor has it that he was in town to see his new house in OUR NEIGHBORHOOD! The President of the United States might live in OUR NEIGHBORHOOD! I feel special and important. This won't change my vote though. I stand strong.

Regardless of our opposing views, as a welcome gift to the neighborhood I may even buy him this for Christmas: