Christmas Eve

I know I am going out of order but here's a few of pictures from Christmas Eve!

This is also the first time we met my nephew Nathan Hudson! It was his first Christmas! Welcome to the family little one!

 

Aubs<3

 

Nathan does a mighty good impression of a hotdog! hahahah

 

Home Alone Face!

 

"I'm cute" pose

 

Aubs cheesin it with Lola:]

 

Nathan with his Mommy!

 

Nathan wanted to join the party. hahah

 

Most of the Cardenas Kids Clan!

 

The girls:]

 

A Belated Merry Christmas from the Cardenas family!

We continually are reminded of God's goodness this season!

- Rachel Marie

22

I turned 22 on December 27th. So weird.. I'm an adult.. I don't feel too much like it. I feel so young  and still feel like I have so much more to experience!

Well.. anyway.. I spent my birthday at Disneyland once again. I think it's my second or third year in a row spending my birthday at Disneyland.. I was definitely spoiled TOOOOOO much that day. I spent my birthday with Dinah, Samih, Josh, Meagan, and Nieman. It was kinda like a triple date thing.. which was weird at first cause I never experienced anything like it.. but fun:] 

The place was PACKED ( as usual since it's during the Christmas season). We were still able to have fun though! Some of the highlights that happened that day in order ( not every single ride will be mentioned):

•   Still got to get a little discount on a park hopper ( after something happened with our other tickets)
• Josh was able to ride his first rollarcoaster with a loop!
• Rode tower of terror, Samih almost lost his lanyard during the drops! hahahah
• Got into Disneyland and ate some chili cheese fries at the Golden Horseshoe and watched a show
• Went on the Mark Twain boat ride, AND SAW JON FAVREAU (  I recognized his face but honestly.. didn't know where he was from until the guys starting talking about it! haha). The guys told me he was in movies like "I Love You, Man", and he directed movies like.. "The Elf", "Iron Man I and II", and "Cowboys and Aliens". Pretty awesome.

Us waiting in line in the huge Crowd. hahahah.

 

 

 Getting a genuine smile from JON FAVREAU ladies and gentlemen! The guys yelled out his name from the crowd as he boarded. hahahahah

 

The guys SUPER excited right behind Mr. Favreau. HAHAH! 

• Ate at my favorite BBQ place!

• Traded a pin for another world of color pin with Buzz! 

• Rode Big Thunder Mountain twice in row ( Nieman got the guy who worked there to let us ride it again, even though the place was crowded that day!)
• Got to see the Christmas tree light up.

• Rode Goofy's Flight school for the first time
• Rode Star Tours for the first time!! Not only that.. but got to ride it twice! even though the wait was for 75 minutes! ( Nieman worked his magic again and got the guy who worked there to give us fast passes to go again!) YAY!

It was an overall great day, despite the crowdedness! I'm glad I got to spend my day at my favorite place and with some of my favorite people! (  a little sad that I couldn't have more of my friends there, but I still loved it)

I'd like to be all gushy a little and thank Nieman for making my day great. Sorry for making you spend so much, but thank you for not complaining once about it! You did your best to make me not worry about anything and I thank you for that!  I didn't know that we'd make it here and I know things are still working themselves out, but I'm glad to see where were going. You're the best!

Thank God for another year and a great day with great people. GREAT GREAT GREAT!

- Rachel Marie

P.S.  Tori Sumie also celebrated her birthday.. And if she's reading this.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! WERE 22! I LOVE YOU!! I BOUGHT YOU A PRESENT :)) and it's awesome. HEHE!

Queen of the Valley

I have been volunteering and interning at the Queen of the Valley Hospital for a little more than a year now. I would be lying if I said it was the easiest and funnest thing in the world to do. It in fact.. has taught me so much patience and understanding not only for the patients but also the the staff. If you guys know me, my career path has been to become a physician's assistant. I believe yesterday has somewhat helped solidified my path to that. Lately, I have been discouraged at my work because I felt as if my work was going unnoticed. Yesterday, I had enjoyed spending time talking to the patients about their newborn babies. Also, the nurses seemed to know me by name and had appeared to stop just to talk to me ( especially the usual charge nurse named Sheila who talked to be about her plans for the holidays). When I left, all of them stopped to yell out thank you to me. I believe it is my passion to serve others and to help others. I find so much gratitude and purpose in serving other people. I do believe that wherever I end up, in whatever occupation, God will have me there for a reason. I guess were just gonna have to wait and see!!

- Rachel Marie

Hello Melo!

I wasn't able to post this before because of finals, but on the 10th I was able to spend Christmas with my mom's side of the family ( which we haven't really done in years). My mom's maiden name is Melo ( how cool is that!), and so... on the 10th... we had a really MELO Christmas. Get it? no? ok! ANYWAY! It was a lot of fun... and so weird.. considering how old were all getting. Everyone is either having more kids or getting married. It's gonna be weird when I finally join THAT bandwagon. BUT THAT'S LATER DOWN THE LINE.

The OG melo kids used to live with us, and I have collected and shared a lot of good memories with them. Christmas time really felt like Christmas time with them around (that fact hasn't changed). I remember making up games like raptor where my Kuya Matt (  who played "the raptor") piggy banked us around the house, with only the tree lit while the rest of the house was pitched black. The one on his back was the "hunter". The hunter's objective was to find this little necklace snow globe around the house while everyone else was trying to prevent that from happening. The hunter had a weapon of choice either a plastic clothing hanger (machine gun) or a plastic golf club holder ( a bazooka) to shoot the "Bad guys" trying to prevent them from finding the globe.
It was honestly... probably even to this day... the funnest childhood game I ever played. Memories like those make me wish that I were still as close to them as before. I wouldn't trade those memories for anything.


Also, I was absolutely ecstatic to spend more time with my nieces and nephew. They are the funnest little people ever.. Especially my nephew Jerrel, who is so crazy that it's both hilarious and adorable!! Here's a picture of him ( I caught him eating all the cookies while everyone was in the living room) hahaha.

 

I know I don't get to see them as often, but I honestly love my mom's side of the family. They are people who never forget even after years of not seeing them in person. We usually just keep in touch on facebook, but nothing beats seeing them face to face and embracing them and catching up with them. As Passion has said, "Distance can determine so many things", but I do believe that distance should not determine how close you are personally and how close you can be with people. If I can't talk to them or see them, my mom gave me the idea to always pray for them. She's right. If I love them, I should be able to pray for them. Also, I CAN'T FORGET ABOUT THE ONES IN THE PHILIPPINES!!

 

I always say this but...

I am blessed. 

Thank you Lord for an amazing family.

- Rachel Marie

zombified party

So.... I have a million pictures I wanna share with all of you.. So I will keep my words few and let the pictures do the talking. This is from our annual college group party. This years theme: Zombies.

let's take a look shall we?
First off.. THE DECOR.

 

found some old vintage pieces: lamps, boxes, cloths, dried out flowers, jars, and cans lying around my house. added a few "cobwebs" (cotton) to top it all off to make it look old.

 

 caution tape, newspapers, and ripped up things always make a place look more condemned.

 

All these antique pieces were found at tori's house. It was displayed on top of the piano.. Top it off with some cobwebs and cheap skeleton lights.. and we have ourselves, a purty little display.

 

This was our photo backdrop. Nicole pitched the idea of the windows.. and I think it turned out PERFECT.

On to the zombies...

 

These last few pics I give credit to RJ Ganaden. They turned out really great!!

and to the girls who planned and decorated... you girls are awesome.. and are truly a blessing. I'm honored to have worked with all of you! Another great party because of you girls!

Big thanks to Nicole, Dinah, Sarah, and Tori!!!
Nicole and tori for the great decorating ideas, Tori for the decor and the AWESOME job of zombifying most people 

and dinah and cj oliver for helping out with their awesome skills of decorating!!

 

I love all these people. I am blessed beyond words. 

I know a zombie theme can be a little questionable when celebrating Christmas, but I assure you that this theme wasn't meant to go against or disregard the meaning of Christmas. God GAVE us love by sending Jesus down to earth to SAVE us. 

With this party... I have been SHOWN some of that same love through the people I have fellowshipped with. I am blessed to have friends I could not only have fun with, but share the same love that I have for our God. I believe that through this party, we have helped build up the body of Christ, and I do believe that that is an awesome thing and that God would not have it any other way! plus... I'm am proud to say that we are able to have fun without the use of "worldly" ideals of fun.

that is something to be thankful for!

I thank God for blessing me with so much.

Christmas is truly a time for celebration.

God loves the zombies too.

- Rachel Marie