Browse Category: babies

Christmas Vacation: Part 3

Photo courtesy of Brother

Thursday, December 24, 2009

On Christmas Eve morning, Brother came over and we headed down to Fountain Valley for my photo assignment.  Debbie’s good friend from high school found me as a link from her blog and asked me to take family portraits for them.  Brother came along to be my second shooter and it turned out to be a fun hour.

We originally were supposed to go to Mile Square Park but ended up staying at their house and taking all the photos in the backyard.  They have a really nice backyard with a great shady spot.  Coupled with the morning light (around 9:45 am), the photos turned out pretty well.  They have a beautiful family and it was great working with all of them.  Thanks for the referral, Debbie!

Later in the day, Jes and I went packed up our belongings and headed to the Buena Park house.  Jes and his brother hung out while I wrapped Christmas presents.  In the evening, I drove down to the Suminos’ house to deliver gifts and hang out before dinner.  The boys have grown so much and Cole is a walking, talking human now.  Crazy.  Brandon is such a fun little guy too.  He’s small but really scrappy.  Love it!

The boys tore open their gift and were so happy to see four Bakugan toys inside.  They showed me how they work and I was genuinely impressed.  I miss having them around.

Prime Rib Bday

dinner table

This evening we celebrated Ryan’s 35th birthday.  They made the roast and Yorkshire pudding and we made the creamed corn, green beans, and mashed potatoes.  Vyl made an iceberg lettuce cobb salad and brought mochi/taro cake.

birthday crisp

There was birthday apple crisp (compliments of Tracy) instead of cake and it was delicious.

Charlie Brown Christmas

We also watched A Charlie Brown Christmas with Jack spinning himself in circles by the end of the night.  Good times…

Here are the rest of the photos.

Welcome to the Terrible Twos!

Birthday Boy

It’s Little J’s 2nd Birthday and I was there to share his birthday dinner of turkey loaf and cake.  He wore a birthday crown and was a little scared of the birthday candles.  He opened up his gift of Tonka trunks a garage rampy toy I bought him and he seemed to be very excited about it.  Happy Birthday, Little Man!

Here are the rest of the photos.

Little Mia

Mia_01

Mia_02

Last month when I went home for Brother’s Bday, I stopped by Sandy and Carl’s place to meet their newborn baby girl.  She was born on Jes’ bday and was only a few weeks old that day I visited.  Little Mia was asleep for the whole time I was there but I guess that’s what newborns do best.  It was great to see Sandy and Carl again and they seem to be doing as well as they possibly can at this point in time.  Congratulations, you two!!

Here are some more photos:

Mia_03

Mia_04

Mia_05

Didneelan with da Fam

tickets

Last Sunday I went to Disneyland with Brother, Joy, and Jes.  Since it wasn’t the exact date of my birthday, I couldn’t get in free.  Bummer.  So, I managed to dig out a pair of complimentary tickets that I got back in 1993 when I worked there.  They never expired so it looked like the perfect time to use them.  Unfortunately the tickets were so old that no one really knew what to do with them.  After a couple managers took at look at them, we scored a pair of Park-Hopper tickets worth $97 each!  Can you believe how expensive it is to go to Dland nowadays?!

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

Spam and Cole

Once we got in, we grabbed a little ice cream on Main Street, got a FastPass for Space Mountain, and rode the Nemo ride before lunch.  Jes got to eat some yummy fried chicken and then the Suminos arrived!  They met up with us in front of the castle and brought two boxes of spam musubi – wooo!!

Matterhorn

Brandon

Astro Blasters

It was so much fun hanging out with the cousins and the boys.  Cole is four now and big enough to ride Matterhorn!!  Brandon is two and does a pretty good job keeping up with his big brother.  Cole was brave enough to ride in the front bobsled with me and I let him steer the car on the Autopia ride.  We also rode the Astro Blasters ride, which Cole missed out on last time he went because it broke down.  Unfortunately my score was really low since I was too busy taking photos.

the boys

group photo

After hanging out with the family, it reminded me of how time passes so quickly.  Marie and I used to go to Disneyland all the time as kids and it was really something to be taking her two boys around our old stomping grounds.

Toy Story

3D glasses

In the evening, Jes had to make a conference call so we all hung out at Disney’s California Adventure for a while.  I rode the new Toy Story ride that was in 3D and was super fun.  Unfortunately Cole wasn’t tall enough to ride the roller coaster.  Too bad.  The Suminos went home once the sun went down and we ran over to Space Mountain for their special haunted house version.  Thank goodness for the FastPass because the line was super long.

Nighttime on Main Street

The evening ended with the fireworks show that actually wasn’t as cool as I had hoped.  It was a Halloween/Villains themed show and the music was terrible.  We ended up leaving halfway through the show…that’s how bad it was.  It was such a fun day with the family and a wonderful way to celebrate my Birthday Eve.

Here are the photos from the magical day.

Beak-Proof

Auntie Beak and Jack

This evening I went to the Sokol-Juns’ to babysit Jack for a couple hours.  When I arrived, Jack was seated on the couch watching a Sesame Street DVD.  So, I plopped myself down next to him, opened my bag of McDonald’s, and offered him a french fry.  The parents left for their dinner and the two of us continued to share a small bag of fries, watched Cookie Monster and his friends dance around, and were as happy as could be.  He went to bed surprisingly easy tonight without a squeak out of him and I spent the remainder of the evening watching TV and surfing on my laptop.  Unfortunately, their house has some super duper baby-proof outlet covers that even stumped me.  My Facebook status might as well have been:

Bee-Too-Bee (how Jack says ‘Auntie Beak’) was too weak/lazy to get the cover off so the laptop ran out of juice and she took a nap until the parents came home.  *sigh*

I’ve taken the covers off before but for some reason I couldn’t manage this time.  Oh well.