ellen

Last Thursday we (my mommy, Trey and Anna) went to Ellen!

We were in the riff-raff room (the area right behind the set) which is still so much fun!! The guest on the show was Christina Aguleria -- she sang for us and sounded AMAZING.

During commerical breaks they raffled off tickets to the 12 days of Christmas show and Trey won!! He only got 2 tickets so he is taking my mommy (what a good son :-P)

They are going on December 7th and I can't wait to see what they get!!!

xoxo,

Natasha

day of the child

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of volunteering at the 14th annual Day of the Child. This event is so cool -- they bus in thousands of foster children from all over LA and put on this huge, free carnival full of rides, games, music and other fun stuff that kids love :) As a mentor, I was paired up with one of the little girls and my job was just to take her around and make sure she had an amazing day :)

They had more mentors than children (a good problem to have!) so I paired up with my friend Venina and we were assigned a little girl named Vanessa. When we first met her she was SO shy and kept saying she wanted to go home. We took her on some rides and she quickly warmed up which was great!

Over the course of the day we rode most of the rides, ate tons of carnival food, played a bunch of games, Vanessa got a makeover, and we took a tour of the Star Eco Lab.

At the end of the day, my mentee was up on the stage dancing with a bunch of other kids which was great to see since she was SO shy earlier.

If I wasn't leaving for Orlando in January, I would sign up to become a long-term mentor for one of these children. It was an amazing experience that really opened my eyes.

xoxo,

Natasha

thanksgiving

I'm thankful for so much today.

I'm starting off the morning with my favorite french toast (think apples, cranberries, brown sugar and cinnamon all baked with love) then heading to work. I definitely don't have the ideal shift for Thanksgiving (1PM-6PM) but I am SO thankful to have a job! After work I will head to the valley to have some dinner with the family and then we are going to go see Tangled.

I hope you all have a wonderful day full of friends, family, laughter and good food.

xoxo,

Natasha

kings

Remember when I told you about when Alex went to the Laker game? They had awesome seats thanks to my soon-to-be-sister-in-law Amber. Well, she was able to get us tickets to the Kings game too!

I was very excited because I love hockey games and I had been wanting to go to a Kings game really bad!

My cousins were going too so we went to their house first to say hi (and dropped off Rocco so he could hang out with his cousins :D)

The game was SO much fun!!!!

Thanks Amber :)

Go Kings!

xoxo,

Natasha

love is in the air

FOUR of the grandchildren of Bud & Claudie Spiroff (aka my grandma and grandpa!) are now engaged! Love must really be in the air :)

My grandma and grandpa are seriously the cutest couple I have ever seen. They have been married over 50 years and couldn't be happier :) The two of them are the reason that I have such an amazing family and I don't think I could ever thank them enough!!! They are the best parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents that any of us could ever ask for!

aren't they cute?!

Emily and Tad kicked off the engagement train on New Year's Eve and are planning on getting married this coming June.

Next came Shauna and Nikita in August. Kita popped the question while they were vacationing in Hawaii and they are hoping to tie the knot here in California sometime next fall.

Alex and I are next! He asked me to marry him on our 4 year anniversary just last week :) We are planning to have our ceremony in Hawaii and a reception back in California next fall.

A few days after we got engaged, my cousin Kira announced that her and Adam are engaged now too! They are planning a picnic-style wedding in Ohio this August.

2011 is going to be exciting. Lots of weddings, family, love, laughter, pictures and memories. I can't wait for it all to start!

xoxo,

Natasha

laker game

On Halloween Alex went to the Laker game with his sister (Amber), her husband (Eric), and his Dad. They had awesome seats (15th row!) and the Lakers dominated so a good time was had by all!

Even though I didn't go, I wanted to post some of the pictures. Why? Because I love pictures, I love family outings, and I love Laker games!

Enjoy!

The picture of the truck makes me laugh :)

xoxo,

Natasha

engaged

we're engaged!

details later :)

xoxo,

Natasha

trash to treasure

I have already professed my love for arts & crafts to you...but I didn't mention how much I love revamping old furniture!!

Earlier in the year I picked up a desk on craigslist for free. it was pretty ugly but had potential to be cute so I decided to have some fun with it...

Earlier in the summer Alex and I went kayaking in Ojai and on the way back we saw an old dresser on the side of the road that we decided to pick up! Again, it is pretty ugly but I saw the potential...and I needed a dresser!!

After letting it sit basically all summer I finally starting working on it. At first I wanted to do something fun with it but after sanding it down today I loved the way it looked so I decided to keep it brown and added some fun accents to it :)

I don't have any good "before" pictures of this one because I was just ready to get going! But as you can see in the picture below, the color was AWFUL and the pulls were gross too..

I like the finished products muuuuch better...how about you? :)

xoxo,

Natasha