Speech! Speech!

Goodness... I wasn't prepared for this ;-)

First, I would like to thank my amazing families-

Gaby-My favorite and best big sister i could have ever wished for.

Candy- The best MOH and Hyde/Cousin/Niece i could have ever wanted!

My mom & Future Mother in law- For putting up with my randomness, and still loving me.

Mom, FMIL, Gaby, Candy, Nico, Sodi, Sam, Irma, Madrina Felix, Leah, Titi Julie and anyone i forgot- for selflessly and lovingly preparing/purchasing yummy food.

Isolda, Ale, Maggie & Bela- I couldn't have possible opened all those presents without your girls' help.

My Comadre & Compadre- For obtaining the hall & helping with clean up and set up.

All the attendees- Well, you'll get your thank you cards in the mail

My bridal shower was on Saturday, but its taken me a while to post about it due to lack of coordination between my camera's battery and my memory card. I am extremely grateful for everyones generosity and willingness to help. It truly means a lot to me.

I arrived shortly after all the guests. And then the party started. Everyone ate and mingled as i pranced around from table to table. The little kids ran around laughing and screaming, my mom and my FMIL scrambled to keep the food warm, Canaan (my nephew) continuously congratulated me, and it was beautiful.

Dezzy Esa & Sasha, Don't you just love Sasha's bangs?

I actually allowed myself a moment to stop and look at all my surroundings. I took it all in. This is my BRIDAL shower. Every 'milestone event' make me realize how real everything is, how close the wedding is.

After a few games we were ready for cake and presents. It was adorable, i had 3 little helpers. One got the tissue out, the other one got the card out and the last one attempted to lift the gift out of the bag.

My Mom, Sam & Leah

Sheryl, Ana & Elia

Titi Julie, Estela & 'guapote', Carlisa & Evelyn

Maria & Adriansito

My cousins- Norma, Liset, Bela, Ale, Isolda, Maggie, Laura & Patty

Cristy & Titi Irma

Me, Candy & Juju (im not sure why Candy looks like a midget)

My cousins- Elvia, Mario, Lilia & Godmother Felix

We played several games, but my favorite one was where they had to create wedding gowns from toilet paper. The only rules were that you couldn't use tape, you could cut, fold, tuck and knot, but no tape. I wont say who, but one bride was disqualified.Team, You know who you are! I was pretty amazed at some of the creations. What was even funnier, since i was the judge, one member from each team had to tell me about their design and what had inspired them.

Here are my TP brides....

And these were the 2 winners-

I loved that she had the complete party going on, plus she did a quick up do followed by a retro headband.And Esa, well just look at that beauty. The dress looked very sophisticated and it was screaming Amsale.

I took tons of pictures while opening gifts, but i figured i would share a few, i wouldn't want to keep you from getting back to work-

Here is my red Crock-Pot with free mini dipper!!

Here I am cracking up because the next box i opened was the same Crock-Pot in silver.

After everyone left we did an all out clean up of the room. Everyone was running around cleaning and packing up left over food, moving tables, sweeping. We cleaned up in about 50 minutes, loaded everything into several cars and took it to jujus house. As you can tell by the pictures, there wasn't any men there. They arrived late into the shower to eat & help pack up the gifts.

We went home and sorted through the gifts in an attempt to get them organized. My siblings and cousins wanted to go dancing afterwards, but Juju and i were just exhausted. It was 10:30 and we were having a yawn feast. We opted to not go out.

It was an amazing day. I had so much fun, eat great food and got the gifts that will help Juju and i start our lives together.

Now i just have to get started on those Thank You cards.