thankful thursday...

I am so grateful that Bryant has such a great relationship with my parents and his cousins!! I never understood why family was so important, until now that I have Bryant. He gets so excited when he sees them, and wants to see them all time.  He cries when we have to take him home.  I am very grateful for my parents and his cousins!  

week(end) lens

The 4th of July Weekend:

The weekend started on Wednesday for me... Courtney asked for me to take some maternity pictures for her!!  I am so excited to have a guinea pig practice to take portrait photos.  We drove around several places in Long Beach, and decided on the Japanese Gardens.  This is a preview/practice shot we did the actual photo shoot a few days ago. Now I just need to find someone to take my maternity photos =)

 

On Friday, we went out for dinner with my parents to BJ and Bryant refused to go home with us.  My parents kept him over night.  They came over for dinner on Saturday.  Bryant kept telling them that he didn't want to go over to our house, but wanted to stay at "Bryant's House" aka my parents house. 
On Sunday, I completely forgot that it was Sunday and we didn't go to Church.  I was suppose to be there to help with the Children's Liturgy.  Instead we had breakfast and then the guys (Phil and Bryant) went to go play "golf" in the morning.  Phil said that Bryant did a great job chipping on the green but his putting needs improving...hmmm maybe he could get a golf scholarship for college, but it is too early to tell.  For me it was nice to have a quite house even though it was only one hour. 

Then Sunday evening Dana, Kurt and the girls came over for burgers, and hot dogs at the pool.  It had been really warm on Friday and Saturday, so we thought it would be nice to invite over a few friends to cool off at the pool.  However, it cooled early on Sunday and we were actually freezing.  The water was warm so the kiddos didn't want to get out of the pool because it was warmer in the water than outside.

Monday (4th of July) we went to the Bike Parade on Belmont Shore.  Last year, we walked the ride while the boys "rode" their bikes, although it was more like my dad and Phil pulled and carried the bikes.  This year we convinced my dad to ride his bike and have Bryant in the trailer. 

After the ride we went to Seal Beach for breakfast, and walk around the pier.  When we got back to the condo we tried to put Bryant down for his nap but he refused.

Crazy Sh** Bryant says/does:
(Note: Phil is taking over to tell Phil's story: 

I know that Bryant is not stupid, he is moody, difficult, and stubborn but not stupid.  Bryant learns lessons from when I discipline him, not always the right lessons, yet I can see that he is learning.  This weekend I was working on stopping his hitting problem.  I put him in the corner when he hits Carmen, Tri or myself and I am trying to be consistent in doing so.  I tried to put Bryant down for a nap that afternoon so that he could make it through the late night, his response, lightly hitting me and then telling me "no hitting Bryant in timeout for 2 minutes." Seriously I had to work very hard not laugh at him.  I wish he would put that determination in staying up to getting potty trained.  Oh well, he's learning just not the lesson I want him to... (end Phil )

Then in the afternoon we headed over to the Calderon's house for bbq, pool, and fireworks.  Bryant was excited to get into the pool, but got bored quickly and wanted out within a few minutes and sat down to eat instead.  It's cute to see Bryant and Tyler playing together two kids who don't share playing with one set of toys always makes for good entertainment.. 

Bryant was not scared of fireworks (not that it should surprise me since he isn't scarred of anything i.e. heights, animals, etc unlike me).  He actually wanted to hold the sparklers. 

 

 I was excited that I got to practice with my camera.  I got this great idea from DigiScrap 101 and the fireworks photos came out great!!

eating cake...

We went to Senor Fish for lunch to celebrate Jazmine's graduation from UCLA.  Wow, I can't believe it, it feels like Phil and I just graduated from UCSD, but that was 13 years ago!!!

The boys really loved the cake, it was from Porto's after all, so it was so yummy.  There was only of few us but we ate all three cakes!!  

Bryant was front and center waiting for my sister and my aunt Juana to cut the cake.

Max loved the blue icing, and would not stop sticking his blue tongue out.

I could not or should I say, would not want to believe that Bryant actually ate his whole "slice" more like mini cake.  This was after he ate all his chicken, three servings of french fries (two servings for him and then ate Eli's who wasn't paying attention) and rice/beans.  I really don't know how his stomach can fit so much food...

 

 

After the luncheon we head over to see Sesame Street Live.  

 

Bryant and his friends had such a great time.  I didn't think Bryant was going to be able to sit still and watch it for several hours (although he did get up and run down the aisles twice).  Phil and Richard were a different story, I can't believe they feel asleep with so much singing going on. (Yes Bryant is eating again...goldfish and afterwards we went to Outback Steak House and he ate dinner)

Here is a picture of the kiddos and parent's afterwards... It was the best photo we could take with 2 year olds!!!

FYI...something is the water, all four moms are pregnant!! Round 2 playgroups for 2011 babies!

season of...family

Season of Family... Season of Bessing, Season of Thanks, Season of Love. I will show the picture of my door frame next time, which has this saying on it. 

This photo is of Eli, Bryant and Max learning to bowl last night at Game works. We celebrated Phil's birthday at Game works in downtown Long Beach.  I am going to be having my work Christmas party there, so I wanted to get some practice in bowling before the event.  I haven't bowled since high school.  We had so much fun, we will definately want to do this again soon.

The above photo was this morning at breakfast at Geoffy's in San Pedro.  Liz and Eddie want to eat there.  Max has the same love for ketchup that my dad has.  Who would have thougth it was a genetic trait?  We are definately passing our love for breakfast to the boys, yesterday we had breakfast at Schooner or Later.  Funny picture below.  We took a walk after breakfast around the Marina, and Bryant refused to walk, we kept taking a break.  I ended up having to carry his 27 lbs around. 

I didn't have any picture of us at my parent's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  I only took photos of my decorations...I will post those next time.

These next photos are from Thanksgiving with the Calderon's.  Haley took the pictures which is why they came out a little blurry.  I feel bad that I didn't have a picture of my assistant photograph ...well at least I was in the pictures...finally.

This photo was taken at the Miyamura Thanksgiving dinner held on Sunday.  Missing was Wally, who was the photographer of this picture...I should have brought my tripod (not the dog his name is Triton).  Also missing Ted, he didn't come out of his room unfortunately.

Here is Phil's grandmother and uncle with Bryant.  Phil went to visit her before Thanksgiving so she could see Bryant. I can't believe he was sitting on her...although this photo is such a great shot, I love the tender kiss she is giving him!!  

Memorial Weekend...

It started on Thursday evening...we went to Legends to watch some basketball game. Surprisingly, Bryant yells, and screams could not be heard over everyone else cheering and yelling over the game. People were really surprised how great he was behaving at a sports bar, I guess they really could not hear him.

On Friday, Bryant spent the day with my dad and the twins. After work Phil and I went and picked him up. We went out for dinner with my parents and the boys to a local Italian restaurant in Downey.

Saturday we had breakfast at Chuck's near the pier. I wanted a beach view but it was crowded so we had to sit inside. The mimosas were still good inside, which is a good thing. It seemed that they have the same highchairs my parents had for me when I was Bryant's age. Check out those metal highchairs...Then we went to LA Marathon Expo to check out some really good deals on running stuff. Bryant had quite a fever while we were walking around so we decided to stop at Kaiser and make sure he was okay. He did have a fever, but he was okay. We also found out that he is 21 lbs. We would have guessed way more. He is quite heavy. We were suppose to go to a going away party for our friends Beth and Cheston before they leave Cali for Colorado, but with Bryant having a fever, we were scared he would be contagious or get worse. Sorry Beth for not going!!

On Sunday Bryant got much better, and didn't have a high fever anymore. We met up with Edgar, Laura, Carlos and Sofia at the San Diego Zoo. Again we missed mass, but it would not have been possible to attend mass and still make it to San Diego. Originally we were suppose to go to the Padres game , but we weren't able to the get tickets, so we decided on the Zoo. It was perfect, because we have been wanting to go to the zoo!! Although it wasn't perfect for Phil since we didn't take our stroller he had to carry Bryant around.

You can see the elephant behind Phil and Bryant.

Then on Monday, we had breakfast on 2nd street and went to the beach. Yes, we walked to both breakfast and the beach, since it was only .5 mile away, but we walked up the coast towards downtown Long Beach. We walked all the way to the Long Beach Museum of Art, which made it about 6 miles round trip walk. Yes, I am trying to lose the baby weight. (What is up with my hair, Phil should have said something before he took my picture!! Got to love the ocean breeze.)

Happy Birthday Natalie...

On May 17th we had a super busy Sunday. We had to miss Church unfortunately because we had to travel to inland, great ready, and pack all our stuff.

First, we went to Sofia's daughter's baby shower. It was a family baby shower so Phil and Bryant also went with me. It was great, Phil took Bryant inside the pool. I wish I taken a picture he was so cute in his wet suit. (Yes wet suit, later Phil took off his wet suit and had him in his swim suit.) We have been waiting for the temp to increase to at least 78 degrees before we put him in our pool, but it has been really cool with the marina layer here in Long Beach. We figuered that it was going to be warmer in Diamond Bar, and it was. Perfect poolside weather, which was nice!!

Then we were off to Chino Hills...for Natalie's Birthday. We had a great time celebrating Natalie's 1st Birthday on May 17th. We got there late, so we missed family and activities. But Nise waited for us to break the pinata!

Of course by then, Natalie was exhased and missed the pinata breaking ceremony...

However she woke up for the watermelon eating contest...

"Phil, do you think Bryant might have done this before..."

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was really great. I completely forgot that I was a mother until Phil asked me "what I wanted to do for Mother's Day?" I said "I didn't know and that I would ask my mom." He then said "this is your day too!" " That's right it is my day!! I am a mom. Wow! I am a mom..."

Well we still went to my parent's house. Liz and the boys showed up. I can't believe we are all moms. Liz bought us beautiful flowers which we are wearing.
I loved the gift I made for my mom with the help of Scrapbooking Heaven.

Then we went to Phil's uncle and aunt's house. It was great seeing everyone.

Phil's cousin Bobby and his wife Staci and their little girl came to visit from Colorado. We really do need to go out there and visit them. We miss them so much!

the boys are back in town...

Bryant was having fun hanging out with his cousins at the AQOP...

Getting completely wet outside...

checking out the Sea Lions inside...

Melissa and Catalina also joined us...