family photos

Tanya Mercado Photography Blog: The Balat Family Video

so ever since Jeremiah was born I've been big on taking family photos every year. In prior years we've had our good friend, Ferdi (frameandfocusphotography), take our pics...we'll probably hit him up this year for photos too cause I just got the kids Christmas outfits and they are too cute I can hardly stand it! haha. Anyway, this year, one of my good friends from a previous job, Tanya, started taking pics professionally. I love her photo style (She's really good at scrapbooking too!) and I was excited to ask her to take our pics! We also got to finally take pics with my sister & her family (I'll post photos again in the near future). We took some joannemichelle photos as well, but we were missing my cousin so we'll have to re-do those business pics later. Anyway, the link above its to Tanya's blog and our family montage. Hope you love it as much as we do!!! :D

It's our 5th Anniversary!!!

It's Jenner & my 5th wedding anniversary today.  We didn't really plan anything special for today, just because I had clinical almost all day and Jenner had to work.  I think the only thing we did plan was to have dinner somewhere with the kids.  Thanks to our little family business that I started with my sister and cousin (joannemichelletreats.blogspot.com) we've been able to take the kids out a couple times a month.  It's nothing extravagant, but it's good to get the kids, well, all of us out of the house all together once in a while.  The kids are at the age where they can feed themselves well, plus they're so curious about everything around them, we might as well use this time as a learning experience so that they can learn some social skills as well. 

Like I said, I had clinicals almost all day today.  I woke up at the crack of dawn hoping the day would go by quickly.  Don't get me wrong, I like being able to experience new things in clinical, but this time around isn't really any different from our past clinicals.  Welllll, we all got to the clinical site early to research our patient, but hit a road block because it seemed that the charge nurse was not aware we were coming early.  There was a little mix up and no communication.  Long story short, we needed to pick patients, but didn't know which ones we weren't allowed to get or which one had precautions.  Finally we met our instructor for our morning meeting and he said 1 of us would be able to go to the ER and another would be able to go to Ambulatory (which is basically pre-op).  We all put our names on a piece of paper and our instructor picked 2 randomly.  Luckily, I was one of the people picked!  The other was a friend of mine from past semesters.  Guys usually like to go to the ER, so not knowing what was in store I chose Ambulatory.  My instructor took me up to meet the charge nurse and she suggested for me to stand in on a surgery!!!  I was soooo excited!!! When I was younger I saw a total knee replacement surgery on PBS and was so enthralled by it!  I thought, wow! wouldn't it be cool to see one of these in person!? Back then I didn't even consider a health care profession, but now, today, I got to witness a total knee replacement!!!!  Talk about crazy!  I got to shadow the pre-op nurse and watch her prep the patient about what was gonna happen and she let me prep the IV bag (of course, I didn't put the actual IV in) and I got to use a doppler to try to find the patients pulse.  Then after a couple hours, I helped her take the patient to the operating room!  I even got to change into surgical scrubs...booties, hat, mask, face shield.  I didn't go near the sterile field, but I was close enough to see everything!  Everyone was so welcoming and the nurse in pre-op was a great teacher!  It was my best clinical experience yet!  Can't wait for more days like this! :D

Now I just gotta wait for the kids to wake up from their nap and for Jenner to get off work so we can have family time!  What a perfect Anniversary/Friday/Clinical/Family Day all in one!!!

my! how time flies!

It was Jeremiah's 4th and Emma's 2nd birthday on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, this weekend.  We planned for a small Halloween Costume Party, but with all our family & friends and their children, small is no longer an option! haha.  Miah & Em had soo much fun at their party! Jeremiah dressed up as Thomas the Train, of course! and our little Emma was a ballerina.  Jenner & I were surprised so many people dressed up! We're thinking we might continue this Halloween Costume Party theme.  It's so hard to choose a theme party when you have a boy and a girl whose birthday's are so close together! Our solution, Halloween! :D

Above is a pic of Miah & Em when everyone is singing Happy Birthday and you can tell how happy they truly are that all their friends were singing for them.  When everyone started to sing Jeremiah looked at me with a surprised look and smiled.  He even started to sing along with everyone!  Emma loved it too!  She knew exactly when/how to blow out her candle.  I'm so proud of both of them!  That was my favorite part of the party because the happiness in their faces was priceless! 

Eventhough it can be rough sometimes, being a Mom is the most rewarding title ever!  I love my kids so much and I can't believe how fast they are growing!  All day Sat & Sun, everytime I looked at Miah & Emma, I just thought of the day they were born.  I can still feel all the love I felt for them back then on top of all the love I have for them now.  The whole experience of Motherhood is awesome and I wouldn't trade it for anything! Jenner & I are sooo blessed to have Jeremiah & Emma in our lives.  They are so loving and caring and they make us laugh everyday!  I am truly head over heals in love with my little family! No words can express my love and joy for them!

Happy Birthday my Jeremiah and Emma Michelle!  I love you both sooo much!!!

My daughter is sooo me!

There's been so much going on in my little corner of the world the past month or so...that will have to be another post, that I hopefully WILL write someday. Anyway, I've been on vacay from school for the past two weeks and thought I would get a chance to purge & throw away a lot of un-needed clutter and most importantly spend some quality time with the kids. Although I didn't spend as much time as I wanted on those things, i did get to catch at least a little QT w/ Jeremiah & Emma.

I have the tendency to just post on my FB little things that the kids say just because it's quick, but I really think I need to start posting it here. Somehow I feel like it will last longer here. For lack of time (I start a new semester in the morning & figure I should try to sleep earlier than my usual 3-4am bedtime) I'll just write my little post about todays funny things my kids say.

When Jeremiah was little I used to make it a point to read to him every night. He'd always want the same story How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight. I didn't mind it, it was a cute story, and I tried to make it interesting and fun and he ended up memorizing it and repeating it the way I had read it to him. Anyway, I haven't been consistent with reading since I started nursing school, so since I was on vacation I tried to resume my nightly story time. This weeks winner was The Foot Book by Dr Seuss. Emma loves this book & makes me read it all the time! It's pretty funny cause she also repeats things the way I read it to them and she hates it when I say it's the end. Today she even stopped me before getting to the last page and tried to tell me to read it again....which brings me to one of the points of my title! When she knows what she wants, she wants it done right now! Soooo me...sometimes, ok, most of the time!

The kids have a little kitchen that my husband got from his work. We keep it in our play room/computer room/my craft room along with the bulk of the toys so that I can work/study while they play. Today, Emma announced that she was gonna cook for me. "I gonna cook por u, ok mommy?!" Of course I said "oh, OK!" so there she stood at her kitchen pretending to cook. She even paused to look for the spoon to mix her concoction in her little pot. "OH! where's da spoon?" looks down and sees it near her foot and says, "OH! der it is!" hehe. I just wanted to squeeze her! Anyway, she continued to cook, pretended to ladel something out of the pot and gave me some. Then she says, just like me, "is it good? u like it, mommy?" I said "ya, that's yummy soup!" Then she says w/ a smirk, "nooooo, dat's not toup! dat's noodles!" lol.

Oh, I wish I had a way to record her or DVR her so I could play back what she says! haha.

She's also been going at it with her markers lately - washable of course! We set up a little table with a roll of paper for the kids to draw on right next to my computer table. Emma loves to draw and has almost fill up the roll of paper with circles! We had to turn the roll over to use the other side. I think in 20 minutes she could fill a table worth of paper into a drawing of tiny circles and still not be tired of drawing! Last week I decided to show her how to write her name. you can never start to early, right? haha. Anway, she would constantly ask me to "draw Emma", so one day I decided to draw a face w/ eyes and all and even added curly hair and told her that that was Emma...OMG, now she ALWAYS wants me to "draw Emma" One time I tried to trick her and I just wrote out her name. She got mad and said, "NO! wid da eyes!" hehe. Now to get her involved in drawing herself I only draw the shape of her face, eyes, nose, mouth and ears and hand her the marker & tell her to draw her hair. I think she's catching on though cause she'll only draw a circle on or around the face then tell me to "draw Emma!" again. and again. and again. Oy! This child! She's just like me! She knows all my lines (like "What da heck!?"- not proud of that one, but it IS pretty funny when she says it and I always have to fight a laugh!), gets mad JUST like me, wants what she wants right away, oh, I could go on and on! haha. She cracks me up everyday and it's amazing how much she learns from just watching what everyone around her does everyday! hmm, that sounds like me too! lol

July Highlights

July was a very busy month so this highlight may need to be divided. July 1st was our good friend Jos' bday. I was bummed I didn't get to go to her surprise bday dinner at the new Spaghetti Factory! Jenner was at work & I didn't have a babysitter available. It was also my neice, Kiana's bday. I was supposed to go up to Corona & make some Hello Kitty cake pops for her, but had to stay down & study for a big test I had that Friday. boo! :(

3: This day was our friend's Butch & Andrea's wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony & reception at Mariner's Point. They both looked fabulous! & no doubt, I cried! I love weddings! We're so happy for the newlyweds! Definitely good times w/ good peeps!

10: Wedding #2 for this month! Kim & Newc's wedding was at Bali Hai. It was a beautiful ceremony on the beach, then we headed upstairs to the ballroom for the reception. Beautiful view of the bay & the Sea World fireworks! We also got some great photobooth pics of the old Ikea crew. Congrats to the happy couple! & Thank you to my sis & family for watching the kids while we were at the wedding.

11: Cousin bonding at Otay Ranch Mall. Again, we met up w/ the Penaranda's, Aquino's and Carbonell's. FUN TIMES! Always!!!
12: Finally a day of sun! The kids & I headed to the beach w/ my SIL Annalou & her kids. Fun in the sun quickly turned into fun under the clouds, but we still had a gun & relaxing time. That afternoon when Jenner got home we went to Maggie & Andretti's new place for late lunch. Had some yummy food that included a bacon wrapped hot dog inspired by Lucha Libre's - w/c was somewhere Jenner & I always talk about going...so after resting for a couple hours Jenner & I took the kids to Lucha Libre's for dinner! haha. There was a long wait in line, but it was well worth it! sooo yummy! Luckily Jenner figured out how to make the special green sauce so we can enjoy it at home w/out waiting in line!
16: I had this overwhelming desire to bake, so I baked my heart out! Made cupcakes filled w/ cream cheese icing, topped w/ homemade buttercream icing, an assortment of cake pops, homemade marshmallow fondant and chocolate chip cookies w/ cream cheese icing topped w/ the fondant. I also made some w/ ice cream filling, but they didn't turn out so clean so I didn't take pics of them. I also practiced making designs w/ chocolate to top off mini cookies & for possible future cupcake toppers.
24: Lola's birthday! The four of us had a family day at the beach. Luckily it stayed sunny, however I forgot there was a rosary for Lola at Auntie Marie's house at 5pm. I lost track of time- FAIL for Jen!
27: Completed my first order for cake pops! - 15 cake pops, pink & purple for a birthday for one of Jenner's coworkers. She really liked them & decided to give me an $8 tip! Jen FTW! AND I got another order on the same day! Talking w/ my sis & cousin about starting up a family business! We're pretty excited!!!
This day I also got to visit Jos & Jo #5, little Joel Ayden! so cute!!! I could've held him all day!!! I didn't bring the kids w/ me cause I wanted QT w/ baby & mommy, but I should've at least brought Em so she could play w/ Joelle!
31: Joshua & Ethan's Lego birthday pary!  Stine was gonna make a Lego cake, but ran out of time so I offered to make one for each of them, along with some cupcakes.  I had a lot of help from my sis & the girls and everything turned out looking great! 

Funny things Jeremiah said the last week of July:
25th: J & I were looking at baby pics of Em & I asked J if he remembered when his sister was still in my tummy & I had a big belly. He says, "yaaahhh!!!" then he looks at my tummy & his eyes move upward & he pats the girls up top & says, "Ohh, mommy! What's this?! ooh! there's two babies inside??"
26th: The kids & I had to go to Jenner's work to pick something up from him around lunch time, so I ask the kids if they wanna have lunch at daddy's work. No answer, so I "hello!? anyone? Can someone please answer mommy?" J whispers to Emma: "Eeeemmmm, youuuu doooo iiiiit!" Aye! they're funny little people!
27th: I had school so I dropped the kids off at Lolo & Grandma's house. Miah sees me off & before he closes the door he says, "Ok, have fun and don't get mad at daddy, ok?" LOL.

June 2010 highlights

highlight for this month... 2: drove up to Corona with mom & the kids for a couple hours to witness Mikaela's induction into the National Junior Honor Society. soo proud of her!!! 3: AJ & Jayme's promotion from Bonita Vista Middle. Headed over to eat some yummy sushi at Todai after to celebrate. 12: June cousin get together. Menu: Mexican cuisine and cake to celebrate Mikey's birthday befor he left for NJ for 3 months. 19: Took Father's Day photos of the kids. Tried to be creative and took a pic of the kids holding a Happy Father's Day sign. Turned out pretty goo, although J was a little cranky that day & forced a smile. 20: Father's Day at SD Fair (Del Mar Fair). Met up with the Penaranda's, Aquino's, and Carbonell's to watch Mik & Kian perform w/ their Hulau(?)-Hula family 23: Mikaela's promotion from El Cerrito Middle and my first attempts at making cake pops. Flavor: Red Velvet dipped in chocolate. I also made chocolate graduation caps which turned out pretty cute! I was proud of myself...AND of course, proud of the graduate! 26: Jeff & Chrysty's baby shower at Maida's beautiful house! Fail on my part-didn't even get a picture with Jeff &/or Chrysty! Had fun though! There were a lot of kids & we got to see a bunch of old OVC members. Misc: random pics of the kids, including Emma on the drums...

May 2010 highlights

ok, so I thought I should start trying to catch up on my blog. I gotta back track a little to get up to date w/ my stories. Since it's pretty late, I'll just start off with May. Had a lot of pics so I just combined them into one slideshow. Here's some highlight of the month of May: 10-12: Jenner took me to Vegas for Mother's Day AND to watch the JABBAWOCKEEZ at MGM Grand for their show Mus.I.C (Great show!!!) We got to stay at the new Aria Hotel (LOVE LOVE LOVED IT!!!) We also ate at Hash House a Go Go, KOI at Planet Hollywood, after that he had a hot dog from Pinks cause it was on our way back to our hotel. We also had my friend from school, Nelly & her hubby come over for some drinks and the next night we got to have dinner w/ them at NYNY before we watch the Jabbawockeez. 15: The DelaCruz's babysat Jeremiah & Em while I went to a dr appt. I met up w/ them later at Rohr Park. 22: May Sushi night w/ the Penaranda's, Aquino's, & Carbonell's - hosted by the Aquino family. We had fantastic sushi as always, Rex & Jenner won their first beer pong match, 80's kareoke and bday cake for Ashley & Ginger. 22-28: Jenner's mom & dad come home from Florida for a week. Tito Ike & Tita Len also come for a couple days from Virginia. 30: J & Em hangin out on a Sunday afternoon after mass.

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"he loves me!"

I took the kids over to "Owo" and Grandma Marie's house yesterday so I could study for a test coming up at the end of this week. I got to read a little but just couldn't help sneaking in some laundry. I don't think home is a good place for me to study cause I get distracted w/ chores. hmph!

Anyway, I went to go pick up the kids. As always, Miah opened the door and both of them were excited to see me for a second, then went back to the family room to play. After a half an hour I finally got them in the car. "Owo" always comes out to help me put the kids in the car cause Emma usually wants him to carry her (spoiled!) So as I'm backing out the kids are shouting "Bye Owo! Byyyyeee!!! Bye Owo!" Suddenly, Jeremiah stops, and in the same tone as I say 'Oh, Oprah!',he watches 'Owo' walk inside the house and says, "He loves me!" I just had to laugh out loud! I told him "Yes! he DOES love you!" They're both so spoiled by Lolo, Grandma Marie AND Grandma Ely (eventhough she says she doesn't!)

haven't been HERE for a while!

A lot has happened since my last post, but it's been busy and I have yet another test this Fri that I need to study for, then Jenner's good friend, Butch is getting married on Sat, and Sunday is 4th of July...

that said, I will post again later with more things to say! :D

trying to get to bed earlier before Jeremiah starts preschool. So far I'm managing to get to bed in the 2am hour instead of 3am. Yay me!

Potty Training = SUCCESS!!!

Soooo proud of Jeremiah!!! I was thinking I should wait till Jeremiah showed an interest in going to the potty, but those times have been slim to none. So today I thought I'd just do it. Serious Potty Training has officially begun! So I explained to him this morning that he was just gonna wear underpants instead of diapers all day, and thanks to Goofy and his "pineapple underpants", Jeremiah was all for it. On a side note, I hope I find some pineapple underpants for him cause he would go crazy over them! haha.

Anyway, I had him go about every hour...and sure enough, he went! And each time he went to the potty he would get more & more excited that he actually did it! Mid day I added the cheerios for him to aim at just so he wouldn't get bored. That went off well too! The only accident was nap time- which was totally my fault! I knew I should have put a pull-up on him, but I just brushed it off. Sure enough, he and daddy woke up from their nap in a wet bed! (Lesson learned for mommy!) After I gave him a bath he was all revved up to continue the potty training. We even went to Target for some shopping with no accidents!

The next two days are gonna be a challenge though...the kids are staying at Grandma's so I can study for finals. I'm hoping Jeremiah will be able to remind them that he needs to go to the potty. I'm not too worried, he did make it a point to tell me he needed to use the potty even after he had his nighttime pull-ups on. *fingers crossed*

This was definitely a big day! I'm soo proud of him & made it a point to tell him that all day long.

our drive home from grandma's

I love our drives home from Lolo & Grandma's house because usually the kids are really talkative. Our conversation today started w/ nature. Miah: Nature! Me: Nature? you like nature, Miah? Miah: ya! Nature is aaaaallll around us!

Jeremiah likes to talk about a lot of things on the way home, usually about what he sees. He likes to look for airplanes because Uncle Rey is ALWAYS on the plane that is in the sky. I had to point out the plane today cause he couldn't find one. When he saw it he said "Der it is Mommy! Der's da pwane! Da pwane is taking Uncle Rey to Can..an..da, Mommy?" I just had to start laughing! Then Em started laughing, and eventually Miah chimed in with his laugh.

Another great ride home full of memories! :D

potty at Costco

I haven't been really potty training Miah because he seems to only be occasionally interested in going pee-pee in the potty, but two weekends ago we were at Costco, where, by the way we just recently renewed our membership after 6 years (YAY!), and out of nowhere he says, "Mommy! I need to go (#2)!" So I excitedly asked him if he wanted to go to the potty and surprisingly he said yes!

So, I quickly grabbed him out of the cart & left Jenner & Emma to finish shopping. Miah and I rushed to the restroom, all the while me telling him not to go and him saying "ok, mommy, ok, let's go! let's go!"

Luckily there was a stall open and sure enough, he went pee in the potty! I was so proud of him and kept telling him that he was doing a good job and he nodded in agreement with excitement on his face. So after we washed hands I told him that from now on he would have to tell me when he needs to go so we could go to the potty. Ya, that didn't happen. I don't know why he had the urge to tell me in Costco, but at home it's a different story!

Well, at least I know it can be done & there is hope to potty training him. Just hoping it's sooner than not! :D

My Lola Agripina

My Lola's death anniversary was on the 6th. I miss her so much! Six years have gone by & I still cry like it was yesterday. Anyway, the following was my eulogy that I said at one of her wakes. I wanted to post it on my blog so I wouldn't lose it...


My Lola was an incredible woman. She knew everything that went on within the family even if we tried to keep it a secret from her. Like when our relatives would come to visit from the Philippines, Canada or New Jersey…somehow she would know they were coming. I’m convinced her being hard of hearing was a trick. I think she just pretended that she couldn’t hear us so that she could find things out. She was a very smart woman.

She also had a good memory…even in her old age. There would be times when I would visit her in the hospital and my mom and manong rex would try to tease me and tell me to ask my lola if she remembered me. I would get mad at them and and tell them, ”I don’t need to ask…she knows who I am!”

When she had first started getting sick I remember sitting with her in her room and she started talking to me about her dying and for me not to mourn her too much and to not cry too much because she would be in a better place. She told me she wasn’t scared to die and that it would be better for her so she wouldn’t be suffering. She said she had done everything that she wanted to do and that she was ready to go. Of course my response was, “No Lola, you’re not going yet!” It hurt me to hear her say things about her dying…but at the same time it comforted me. It eased some of the pain because I knew she was ready and at peace with the thought of going to heaven.

Lola was always trying to look out for me…even when she was sick. Everytime her condition would get worse she would remind me that her death was coming soon…then she would start trying to marry me off. She would say, “Why don’t you settle now?” Caught off guard, I would try every excuse I had to try to convince her that that wasn’t ideal at that time, but she would always look at me with a frown on her face and a solution to my excuse. Like I would tell her, “I need to finish school first, Lola” and to my surprise she’d say, “Why? You can still go to school and be married!” Then I’d try the I don’t have money excuse, and suddenly she became my financial planner. She’d ask me how much I was making and how much I had left over after I paid my bills. Sometimes I would exaggerate and add to the amount just to see what she would say…then her eyes would light up and she would say, “Oh, good!” Then she’d start counting with her fingers and say, “Then you can save (this much) in (however) many months.” I would always laugh and she’d look at me so seriously. It was not even a week before she died that she gave me her last “You should now settle” speech. She told me she wanted me to get married already so that she knew I would be taken care of. It’s hard to know that she will not be there when that time does come. But I know she will watch over me and make sure I am taken care of…married or not.

I think what I’m gonna miss most about Lola is how she would tell me that she loved me. When it would be time to leave after visiting her I would tell her that I was going and she’d always tell me thank you for visiting her as if I were a stranger…then I’d tell her I love her and she would smile and her voice would soften and she’d say, “I love you,too!” so sweetly. After she passed away that was the only thing I thought of when I closed my eyes to sleep.

My Lola was and always will be my hero. Her quiet strength and her strong faith in God are just a few of the values that I have learned from her. I believe the reason she lived such a long and full life was because of her strong faith. She would say her prayers in the morning and say the rosary in the evening and then say her prayers before she slept. I remember when I was younger and we were still living in the navy housing…she would put me in bed turn off the lights and then turn on the night light so I wouldn’t be scared. Then she’d kneel next to my bed and pray the rosary. I remember she would recite the rosary in ilocano…and the rosary she had used back then smelled like roses. Luckily I found a rosary that smells just like my lola’s , so everytime I pray the rosary I am reminded of her and that night I stayed up to watch her pray.

Lola, I will always keep my memories of you in a safe place deep in my heart and the values I have learned from you will forever be a part of my life. I love you soo much and I miss you dearly.

huevos

this past weekend we made our bimonthly (if not weekly) trip to Henry's (btw, I love Henry's! we can fill up our cart full of veggies and fruit and get everything for less than $20! haha) so, i had both kids in the cart-Miah was illegally riding in the big part of the cart-and i stopped to check out the eggs. a man was nearby with a cart and a stroller with a baby, he seemed to be waiting for his wife, i'm suspecting. anyway, so as i'm looking at the eggs a woman comes by with her son in the cart and the boy points at the eggs and the mother says, "ooh! este es huevos!" telling her son that those are the eggs. so, Miah sees and hears the mom say this and makes an angry face and as the mother and boy pass us, he says angrily, "hey, i no huevos!" It took me like 2 seconds to realize what he said and I chuckled and told him that she was just telling him that those are the eggs! LOL. Then I look over to see if the man heard what he said and he kinda chuckled and said, "haha, that was cute!"

FINALLY!!!

Yay! Emma's first tooth is finally starting to coming out! Finally! She's already 18 1/2 mos and they're just barely coming out now. haha. She's getting so big & learning new words everyday. She even knows what makes us laugh and is always so happy!

Jeremiah has learned to navigate the web! I made him his own account on the computer and set up his favorites, like Thomas the Train, Mickey Mouse, Word World, just to name a few. It's so hard to get him off just to eat dinner, but he's learning lots so I'm not really concerned. Maybe he'll grow up to be a computer whiz, we'll see! :D

March for Babies

Click here to help me reach my goal!

Happy Birthday, me!

It's my birthday today...I'm 32...wait, am I? Where's that calculator...yup, 32. I lost count after 21 haha. I tried to stay up to finish reading for a quiz today, but I was already falling asleep and figured if I was that sleepy, there's no way I would remember anything! Anyway, I'm just sitting at the kitchen counter drinking coffee and eating a bagel (which I never do cause I'm always in a hurry), thinking about my life and what I wanna change to be a better person. STG: more productive study time. Oops, 5 mins till I gotta pack up the kids in the car for Lolo and Grandma's house, then school all day for me. I think I'm gonna try to just relax today while at school :D Maybe take a nap in class. j/k. Better yet, I'll make a list of my goals...Have a great day everyone! I will! :D

Thank you God for giving me a life full of love! I am truly blessed to have a great husband, loving children and fantastic family and friends!

Happy 65th Birthday Dad!

My dad's birthday is on the 6th of March and mine is on the 8th, so we usually celebrate together by going to eat seafood...our birthdays are usually during lent and we tend to get together on Fridays. This year Dad's birthday fell on a Saturday so we decided to have a small bbq at our place since there's so many grandkids. Surprisingly our youngest brother, Anthony, was able to make it! We usually only see him out and about during the holidays. Our other brother, Jr was also able to sneek away from work for lunch too. The middle bro, Don, is still in Oklahoma :(

Anyway, it was good family time. Jeremiah convinced himself it was his birthday eventhough I kept telling him it was Grandpa's. I just let it go after a while and let him blow out the candles with his cousin Valerie. The adults even got to play a little poker later that night and some of us eventually made our way to Barona! :D Thanks to Jenner & Rex for babysitting!!!

A Kai & Miah (and Emma) weekend (Feb 20, 2010)

This particular weekend Miah was missing playing with Kai and it just so happened my sister needed a mini-vacay! So, she brought Kai down for the weekend. I thought it would be fun to get the boys in the kitchen so the project for the day was cupcakes! ooh, were they excited! Emma watched and enjoyed the end product.

playdate (feb 19, 2010)

Jeremiah & Emma finally had a playdate with their friend Joelle! Luckily I had a day off from school and so did Jos and Shirl! I had been meaning to take Miah & Em to My Kids Clubhouse and they loved it! It was a really cool place for them to play, plus they had tables where the parents could sit & get some work done if they wanted. Definitely going back there!

Valentine's Day and Manny Pacquiao

Valentine's Day this year was quiet. Jenner & I usually have lunch or dinner a couple days before or after Feb 14. so I didn't mind when Jenner asked if he could go to a meet & greet for Manny Pacquiao with a friend from work. This was the only picture he could get. They weren't allowed to use personal camera's to take a picture with Manny and charged $40 just to take a picture with him! Jenner saved his $40 for this pic. haha. He did however buy a signed boxing glove...yes, A single glove. AND he didn't even get to see him sign it! They were already presigned, but they did come with a certificate of authenticity.

Anywho, the kids and I had a nice day at home relaxing :)

drums

So, we've been wanting to get Jeremiah a drum set for a while just to get him exposed to different things. Since tax time was good to us this year, we finally did it! Jenner & Mikey convinced me to get the regular sized set to save money by not having to buy one later down the line when Miah would outgrow a jr set. Anyway, we found a decent set at Best Buy of all places and luckily Mikey was here to set it up and tune it.

The kids were at Lolo and Grandma's house when we bought it, so before I picked them up we rearranged some furniture and set up the drums in the kids play room/guest room. Jeremiah usually doesn't want to leave Lolo's house (probably because he always gets his way there!) so I had to coax him by saying he had a surprise at home. Being the chocolate freak he is, he thought it was some type of chocolate something or other and kept saying, "Is it chocolate Mommy?"

So we finally got home and boy was he surprised! He didn't like the cymbals at first and was hesitant to make so much noise. We just let him take it all in until it was bedtime. The first thing he said the next morning though, was, "Mommy! I pway the cymbows??" and headed straight for the playroom!

Hopefully he starts practicing more so one day he can become a famous drummer and buy daddy & mommy a house! :)

more videos from the holidays and new year...

decorating the Christmas tree...

Christmas Day...

Santa at daddy's work...

haven't been here for a while...

Keeping up w/ my blog is difficult these days (school started again in Jan. Only have 3 classes, but one includes weekly clinicals and one is Pharmacology- enough said) :( i'm kinda bummed I missed blogging for the Christmas and New Year, but I'll summarize it with pictures :D

Mom and Dad were here from Florida for Christmas/New Year week and Mg. Rey was here from Canada Nov- Jan. Fun was had by all and Mg. Rey's gift to everyone was to work on whoever's house needed fixing...including us! :D YAY!!! We finally got a mouse hole patched up (which btw, we never knew we had! EW!), got our base boards nailed in, got the leaks in our bathrooms fixed (actually, Jenner's friend from work helped us with those), and many more! We had a couple of trips to Sushi Deli 3 with the Canadian...those were FUN! - Mg Rey didn't know we were going there for Sake, needless to say, not everyone survived the wrath of the Sake Bombs, but that's a whole different story that we will leave to the memories in our heads! hah!


My nephew from New Jersey also moved in in January. He's taking up Audio Production at and art school here and so far so good. He says he's never liked going to school as much as he does now. Everythings going well, although, he got me re-addicted to coffee! My sister bought us a Keurig coffee maker! We were soo excited! haha.

Jeremiah and I got to go to Sea World with the Penaranda's the day after Christmas! Miah loved to see the Polar Bears, Pengpengs (penguins), and Shamu. oh, he also loved the popcorn!

Family time during the holidays and the beginning of the year was plentiful and fun times...for the sake of saving time for studying, I'll just let you see the pics and videos. Enjoy!

hmm, guess you can only post 2 videos per blog?? more vids to come...

Haircut time for Miah = terrible time for mommy & daddy

Sooo, it was that time again...the dreaded haircutting time for Jeremiah. I thought I prepped him well. I told him that he could finish watching Lightning McQueen, then we would cut his hair. He even saw me prepping the kitchen floor with big trash bags to catch his cut hair & asked, "what u doin mommy?" BUT, once I got him on the chair & plugged in the clippers, OMG, he started crying for dear life! then of course the little one comes close to the kitchen (it was funny, she never went past the counter to see what was going on) & starts crying cause she hears her brother screaming his head off! So I have Jenner still at work due home any minute (which seemed like a lifetime), Jeremiah, hair partially cut on the chair in the kitchen, crying his eyes out & screaming at the top of his lungs for me to "turn it (the clippers) off! turn it off mommy!", and Emma, balling just as loud as her brother! Finally Jenner arrived and I let him try to negotiate w/ Jeremiah while I put Em down for a nap. 30 mins later, Em's sleeping and father & son are still in the kitchen, Miah's hair still partially cut. OY! No joke, it took like 3 1/2 hrs to finish cutting the little man's hair! Terrible terrible time, however, for all the struggling & crying he did, I must say, his hair doesn't look too shabby!

not a great photo to show off his new 'do, but he was happy!