Day at Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo

 Mia Morales

William and Ana

Ana and Bryant

Ana, Diana, and me

Phil and Eric with the kiddos

This was our second weekend in a row in San Diego...in several months, maybe even years...seriously Phil and I could not remember the last time we went to San Diego.  Bryant had been a constant reminder that we had not taken him to the big zoo.  He was tired of going to the Los Angeles Zoo, or as he calls it the little zoo.  Really, has he seen or remember the Santa Ana Zoo that is a small Zoo.

So we were invited by the Perezes to attend the International Food Festival.  We had some delicious food, too bad I didn't take photos of the event at Balboa Park.

The kiddos were not as interested in watching the different dancers, or trying more food.  So we decided to walk next door the Zoo with the Morales Family.  Of course most of the time they spent at the kids play area, and then we walked over the petting zoo.  Bryant and Mia really wanted to see the insects, which was so scary, I had nightmares thinking of those roaches, spiders, etc getting out.  We had a great time, and can't wait to come back to San Diego again during the summer.

Mother's Day

Bryant created this beautiful flower for me for Mother's Day.

Congo the Gorilla Visits the Hernandez Family

Part of Bryant's Kinder project was for Congo to visit us for the night.  You would have thought Bryant won the lottery when it was his turn to have Congo spend the night with us.  Bryant is not one to have his photo taken, but he wanted his photo taken with Congo.

part two thanksgiving ... with the Miyamura family

The next Thanksgiving event was with Phillip's Japanese family ...

We are so grateful that we are a part of his family!!  This year it was celebrated at Nise and Jeff's home.  They are so generous in hosting it at their home.   They even rented a bounce house for the kids to play outside.  Unfortunately I didn't think of taking photos until it was later in the evening so I didn't get photos of many of the family :( especially the little kids (i.e. Bryant, Natalie, Ty - who is not really a little kid but was outside taking care of the little ones, and Chris' two boys) who were outside jumping the whole time.

Nise and Donna, her mom, so such a great job preparing so much food!!  Sorry not the best photo of these beautiful ladies, but let's just say that they didn't get a minute to rest and have their photo taken.

I did however take a photo of Donna's beau who did get to rest :)

I also got a ton of photos of the no longer baby boys...but I didn't want to post of photo of William.  I feel that I have so many photos of him that you might want to see another little boy instead.  This is Zander, Nise and Jeff's little guy.  He had a big goose egg on is forehead and injury on his nose :( because he is walking everywhere, unlike William who refuses to walk.  Why should he, he has a sucker for a mama that carries him around everywhere.  (I totally regret not buying a new baby carrier, but I just assumed that he would be walking at 10 months like Bryant.  I had heard that kids aren't the same, but I didn't believe it until now.)

Totally forgot to take a photo of baby Trent, until Trevor and Jenny left back home to Palm Desert. Must remember to take photos first, then sit, eat and be merry!!

thanksgiving at BHCP

We celebrated Thanksgiving at several different times....

Belmont Heights Church Preschool...Bryant's preschool....

The staff at his school made the kids a Thanksgiving dinner and even made place cards and cute center pieces.  I am so grateful that Bryant attends this school, not just that many of our friends attend but the staff is so great and the new friends we have made.

 I am also so grateful that I work part-time.  At times it has been financial difficult for us, but I love that I am able to help out at his school and capture memories like him being in class.

Yes I am back and I am starting from Thanksgiving and moving forward :)

bike riding

Bryant loves to ride his bike.  He was even singing about it!!!

In case you can't hear it very well, he is singing, "riding bike is so much fun" over and over again.  Sorry about hearing me, I am getting over a bit of cough and running nose.

cloth diapers

I can't believe I finally did it, I went cloth diapers.  I had been thinking about it since I was pregnant with Bryant but living at the condo, prevented me.  Phil and I even thought of purchasing washing machine, but then rejected the idea when we realized it would not work with the old plumbing.

There are so many benefits of cloth diapers, but I am very squeamish at poop which was a huge disadvantage for me!! I have even been known to throw away clothes that got too much poop for me to handle.

I decided that if my mom who worked full time could cloth diaper my sister and I, I could do this.  So far so good!!  I have a small stash because getting started is a pricey investment, so I have to wash daily.

Another benefit, he looks so cute in cloth diapers.  I know this is not the best photo but it has been a little too chilly to take a photo of him just in his cloth diapers!!

introducing William Peter Hernandez...

born September 9, 2011 at 9:19am * 6 pounds, 4 ounces* 20 inches

 our first family picture

Bryant holding Will for the first time

i scrapbook...

I did this two page layout on Thursday and Friday. I am trying to do a page a day not including the weekends.  I am part of the Mother LOAD class, which is a Layout A Day class at Big Pictures. 

Can you see the belly got in the way of the photo? Not the best photo, I took it Friday night when I finished it.  I also couldn't think of a title for the layout and I didn't want a cheesy one, so I decided not to have one.

Random, but can you believe I only took 7 pictures with my camera during the month of August.  I didn't think it was possible to take such a few pictures.  Talk about the month of August flying by and I didn't even capture it :(

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!  

overbooked weekend...

Most weekends were are just sitting at home watching HGTV, hoping that someone walks through our condo and wants to do a free makeover!!! This weekend we had so much planned...

This weekend we were just going to go to Court & Randy block party, but a few days before Phil got a text from Edgar to join them in San Diego.  Although I did want to see our friends, being 35 weeks pregnant I was not excited for a two hour drive down, walking around at Sea World in the heat, and then driving back up and then attend the block party.  Bryant had been bugging me to go to Sea World, darn those TV commercials during the news.  How could I look at those brown eyes and tell him no. 

So we decided to drive down Friday evening and spend the night so at least we were not driving for 4 hours in one day.  Friday was my mom's birthday and we were not planning to take her out for dinner (we were going to take her out on Sunday for brunch), but when we forgot about Tri, and decided to drop him off at my parents.  Bryant/my parents wanted to have dinner, how could Phil and I say no.  (this is starting to become a trend...not being able to say no).  However, this meant that we didn't leave until 10pm, and arrived in San Diego at 11:30pm. 

We did have a great time at Sea World, and I am glad we went down there!!  Also happy that Diana was able to make it out even though we was helping her sister move.

We also had a great time at the block party...and didn't want to leave.  I can't believe we stayed so late, but the kiddos were having as much as fun as.  Phil and I also felt bad, because we had told Court and Randy that we were going to help them set up, and ended up being late from our drive from SD that we didn't even arrive on time but an hour late.  We decided it was only fair to help clean up.  While the guys were putting away the chairs, tables etc. the kiddos all sat down in line ...too cute not to grab my camera.  However, by the time I got my camera out they were starting to walk away, I quickly started to snap away even though I didn't get a chance to set the settings.  The photos came out blurry but it was too cute not to post.

Then on Sunday morning it was my day to help with the Children's Liturgy.  I originally was not planning on helping out since I had "traded" with one of the other ladies my day.  But I realized when she sent out an email, not only she was scheduled the same day as me so not only were we not able to trade, but also she wasn't going to be able to make it herself and was looking for someone to trade with her.  It was fine because I actually had a great time with Karen who stepped in to help me.

Then after mass & doughnuts, we went out to celebrate my mom's birthday at Spaghettini's for Brunch.  They sat us in the dinning area, and not were the live music was planning.  I am guessing it was because we had Bryant with us =)  We could still hear the live music, and the food was delicious so there was no complaints!!!  Highly recommend to take the parental for a nice brunch on Sunday. I will have to post a photo of Bryant eating my mom's cake, I can't believe I forgot my camera.

It was a great weekend, and I could not complain that I was bored =) 

oc fair...

We had a great time with the Wherrys at the OC fair.  We actually had such a great time, that we stayed way to late for the boys, and ended up sleeping in the next day and missed Church. 

 The food was okay, at least at the beginning.  Read more below.

 I really thought Phil was too big to ride and that it was going to break, but it didn't and it was a huge sigh of relief.

 Both Celeste and I being pregnant this was about the only ride we could go on with the boys.  As for the rest of the rides, the dads accompanied the boys. They even raced downhill...hmm who was really having the most fun on the rides.

 Around 11pm Richard got hungry and decided to eat a turkey leg.  Julian actually loved it so much, Richard had to buy two turkey legs.  Finally found a food Julian loves!!  I was going to buy a funnel cake, but yes the cheap in me won, and I could not get myself to pay more than $9 on funnel cake at the OC fair.  Hey if it was a chocolate souffle at a restaurant it would have been a different story.  But I did pay $3 for hot chocolate, more like hot water and Nestle mix, it got cold okay...

More photos over at flickr.

almost wordless wednesday

I wish it was wordless photo, but it would not be the same.  For some reason seeing a photo without an explanation is not the same. First impression of this photo would be that Bryant is helping Phil carry some things, cute!  

THE STORY...
Bryant had not seen my parents for a few days, and had been wanting to see them for a while. He wanted to spend the night at their house and for them to take him to the zoo. However, we were just going to visit them for brunch on a Sunday.  My parents were taking care of my grandparents, since my grandfather just had heart valve replacement surgery, and my grandmother does not drive.

Bryant is always upset with us that we don't pack anything for him.  So this time Bryant packed his "bags" to go over to visit my parents.  He packed his snacks in the lunch bags and then packed his toys in two other containers.  It was too funny to see him carry his important items to stay at my parents' home.

i scrapbook...

In case, you don't know, I love to scrapbook, although it is more for a personal hobby because I usually don't show my layouts to others or post them on the blog. 

I am so excited that I was mentioned on digiscrap101.  I first learned about this website on Paperclippings podcasts when they mentioned that Kayla was doing a free Lightroom Class.  I was about to purchase Lightroom because I wanted to get my photos under control for this photo managing class I was going to take at Big Picture Classes. Kayla's class was perfect, I learned so much, and it helped me when I was taking my photo management class. 

Now that I have been able to learn how to manage my photos better, and edit them faster, the whole reason to take these classes was because I want have to get more scrapbooking done.

So far what I have done is getting most of photos to share with friends and family on Flickr, and started updating my blog more often! 

My next goal is to get this blog looking better!!  Do you like the changes so far to the blog?

flickr friday...

I posted these photos up on flickr today.  It was my first photo shoot!!!  I love taking photos and I have been begging Court to let me do a photo shoot for her family forever.  She finally agreed!! I started freaking out the night before but I am glad the photos came out, at least in my humble opinion, great!  No, I am not quitting my day job, but I had a ton of fun and would love to do this again.  Any victims friends and family like a photo shoot! You just have to have a ton of patience for me to set the settings on the camera and change lens all the time, hey there is a trade off for having it free, right!

Back to photos...

Courtney is due one week before, it was so exciting when we both announced we were pregnant at the same time.  She looks great!!! It is so funny because Court and Randy met in high school, but you couldn't tell they are so in love.

 

This is the before photo, which isn't bad, but with the art students in the background it isn't wow!  So with a little LR magic I erased them!!

What a difference!!  And I also cropped it so you can see the three of them better!!

I love this photo of Court and Misty!!  Misty and Bryant are 2008 "babies" and the "new" babies are going to be 2011 babies!!  You would have thought that we planned it but we didn't it was just a coincidence. Misty and Bryant are also the good eaters in the moms group kids.  They can eat, and eat and eat when playgroup starts at 10am, and then Bryant and I stay after playgroup ends to have lunch  with Misty and Court at noon!!  I wonder if the next two boys are also going to be good eaters?   

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!!