cheesy baby

i was looking through the pictures on anthony's phone earlier and found this one. haha. serena is so silly!

memorial day

it was so nice to have the day off because anthony and i were able to get so much done at home. after eating brunch at a place in old torrance, we pretty much stayed busy doing house stuff all the way 'til midnight. at the end of the day, our house was more polished looking, but we were a mess. haha.

sunday visitors

this is a weird picture but it's the only one i took today. i've been so forgetful/lazy about taking pictures lately. anyway, my grandma and auntie fely came over this morning. auntie fely helped us clean the back yard and grandma just hung around. i only took this pic to show rianne what grandma was doing. i gave her a guava cheese roll and hot chocolate, and a few minutes later i noticed that she put the pastry into the mug and ate it like bread pudding. haha. weirdo!!

the malong kids

today we went to burbank for mikaylah's oldest brother's 7th birthday party. gabe, the birthday boy, was too busy playing with his friends the whole time, so mikaylah posed in pictures with us instead. haha. when i told her to smile, she showed me the hand. anthony was so happy because even though we haven't seen the kiddos since january, mikaylah walked right up to him as if she remembered exactly who he was. i think she likes him because he has the distinct mejia look just like her mom and uncles (anthony's cousins). it's just like how serena is so comfortable with me and rianne because we look like her mom!

dinner with the peruvian

my cousin, mark, has been living in peru the past 2.5 years as a peace corps volunteer, but he is here on vacation for a few weeks. rianne and ricky took him to a dodgers game, and then anthony and i met up with the three of them at daikokuya in little tokyo for some late night ramen. it was great to see him!!

teahouse

the boys had another party planning meeting tonight, so jenn and i went to guppy's instead. we had milk tea and shaved ice, and happened to sit next to a youtube celebrity. haha.

spray paint

here is my latest project. it may not look like a big deal to you, but anthony and i are very excited that our floor heater's grill is no longer brass. you can see what it used to look like here. haha. i applied about three coats of rustoleum's oil rubbed bronze spray paint and let it dry for 24 hours before putting it back in place. we are very happy with the result!

prime time

i love how the days are getting longer, 'cause now anthony and i still have a couple hours of sunlight to do house stuff after we get home from work. today we finally primed our kitchen cabinet doors. that is something we have been putting off for like a month now! it took so much work to strip the original paint and sand them down nice and smooth, so we got lazy when it came to "prime time." next up is a fresh coat of paint. i can't wait to see what the kitchen looks like when we're all done, but i'm a little overwhelmed with how much work it's gonna take to get there. oh well. one day at a time!

p.s. our garage clearly needs a remodel, too. haha.

sagey baby

sagey baby was spending the night in torrance tonight so i stopped by after work to say hello. she is growing so much and becoming such a pretty young lady. before i know it she'll be graduating college! haha jk. but really, this baby is growing so fast!

du bunne

as a belated mother's day gift, anthony's mom wanted to spend an afternoon at the spa, so today we did just that. i ended up getting an aromatherapy scalp massage. it was a little different from what i was imagining, but it was enjoyable. venus and mom-in-law enjoyed their treatments, too. when we were done, we noticed a nice little outdoor relaxation area, so next time we'll have to try that!

nina's bridal shower

i had quite the adventure getting there, and an even crazier adventure getting back home, but today i went to nina's bridal shower! it was paris-themed so of course i thought everything was super duper cute! we ate delicious sweets, played a couple games, and showered the bride-to-be with gifts & advice to prepare her for the big day. happy bridal shower, nina!

p.s. since this blog is about things that make me happy, i just want to give a special THANK YOU to eva, jonah and matthew who helped me with the car drama when i didn't have a clue how to help myself. you guys are the best!

p.s.s. my camera was on a crazy setting when this picture was taken.

sister sister

my "luck" with car problems proved to be neverending, as venus just noticed a hole in my back tire yesterday. since i didn't want to drive to work with a holy tire, rianne was kind enough to lend me her car. and not just that, but she (and ricky) brought us some chicken wings when they came to pick the car up at the end of the day. what a gal!

virgilio

my two coworkers and i took a really long lunch break today so we could go spend time with our dear friend, virgil (and his wife, bonnie). it was our first time seeing him in quite a while. he has been battling some really serious health issues for over a year now, but we were relieved to see that he still looks good and hasn't lost his positive attitude. please keep him in your prayers!

grandma's 95th birthday

today my grandma turned 95! can you buleeeeeh dat? haha. we celebrated by eating fried fish (her favorite), noodles (for a long life), chicken, and a banana macberry pie from king's. happy birthday, grandma!!!

my favorite

we had our monthly dinner at olive garden tonight. that place is really just the bee's knees! to make our dining experience even more enjoyable, we had THEEE nicest waiter in the world. he refilled our soup bowls nonstop and even gave us more to take home! love love love!!

quality time

we had some good quality time with the minnesotans today before they flew back home. everyone hung out at our house for a while, and then moved onto to the carson house. next time we see them will be at their house! minnesota here we come!

party time

whew! what a long day! we had lots of fun at serena's birthday party. it actually felt like a kids party, mostly because there were so many kids there! as you can tell from this picture, we also did some face painting. haha. i was nervous at first because it was my first time trying it, but it ended up being fun! the party lasted all night, so serena was pretty pooped (which is also evident in this pic) but overall i think everyone had a good time! yay, serena!

master brizuela

after sleeping at 4:00am last night and waking up a few hours later to go decorate for the party, anthony and i headed out to west covina for carla's graduation luncheon at pondahan. i felt bad that i wasn't able to make it to the actual commencement ceremony yesterday, but at the same time i know i would've been holding back tears of joy the whole time. haha!!! i know it's ridiculous, but i always get so emotional at big, important events like that! i always mention this, but carla is a very dear friend of mine and i'm just so happy to see her accomplish such a big goal. congratulations, master brizuela! and an even greater congrats for beating mike! hahaha jk =P

bake night

we had a busy night preparing for serena's big birthday party. our theme for the party is springtime, so we baked up a batch of funfetti brownies and about five dozen colorful cupcakes. they turned out really cute, especially priscilla's specialty rainbow ones. it was so hard to resist eating them!

yarn wreath

i've been wanting to do this project for a while ever since i pinned it, so today it finally got done. i made this yarn wreath to liven up the front porch, and also to tie in with the new patio chair that jenn and mark graciously donated to us. while i do love the old/traditional character of our 91 year house, i'm trying to add in some youthfulness at the same time. either way, it was a fun project and i'm happy with how it turned out.

two year old

yayyyy!!! they're finally here! both sides of the family met up at seafood town tonight after work for serena's birthday dinner. they met up with us at the restaurant right after their flight landed, and we were all so excited to see them. i know serena had a happy birthday, because she's always such a happy girl!

orchids

since the minnesotans are flying into california tomorrow, anthony and i are on a cleaning and decorating frenzy over here. we're trying to make the house pretty so they have a good first impression. haha. my mom even joined in on the effort and bought us two new orchid plants to help liven the place up. i love how this one matches perfectly in our master bath! thanks, mommy!

pizza and pizookies

gennie and i went to bj's for an early dinner. we split a mini bbq chicken pizza, but were suprised to find just how mini it actually was. haha!! it ended up being the perfect amount, though, because we still had room for dessert. we chose red velvet, oreo, and chocolate chip for our pizookie trio. so good!

mother's day

we had plans to take my mom out to dinner for mother's day, but ended up spending the evening at anaheim hills instead. that way, grandma was able to celebrate with more of her offspring. haha. sebastian was replaced by coach in this picture because coach is a girl. sorry, seabass!

happy mother's day, mommy! i love you!

afternoon snack

toni happened to text me right as i was dropping rianne off after an afternoon of shopping. less than five minutes later, we were hanging out! haha. it's so weird how our timing and location were totally in synch. since both of us had already eaten lunch, we just went to get shaved for some dessert.

ottoman

i've been searching for the perfect ottoman for months now! i check target.com, homegoods, and craigslist several times a week, but kept holding off 'cause i wanted a really good deal. so today i was so happy when we saw this ottoman set at kohl's for $90 at their power hour sale. after our $10 off coupon and $30 worth of store credit, it ended up being only $50. yahooo!!

club mini

haha! it's always good times in club mini!

coyote cafe

this is a bad picture, but jenn and mark have these two little tables in their dining room, each with their own set of chairs. and those are in addition to the actual dining table. it makes it feel like a little cafe!! haha. the boys went bowling tonight, but even if they were there we could've all had our own private dinners. (=

i scream

jennifer sent me this picture earlier of serena enjoying her ice cream cone. she's so stinkin' cute! as soon as i saw it, i kissed my phone. haha. i can't wait to see her and the rest of the family next week! woohoo!

going blind

after three months of living in this house, anthony and i finally decided that it's time to do something about our windows. we started by installing some blinds in the master bathroom. they are brown to match our bedroom furniture, which also just happened to perfectly match the bathroom's sliding door. one window down, eleven more to go!

my gym

today was chloe's 2nd birthday, so we went to my gym for her party! it was really cute. they had a big play area and a bunch of activities for the kids. sebastian was there but he didn't appreciate the playground very much. haha. we tried pushing him in a swing, and also down a slide, but he didn't enjoy either one. poor baby. at least the birthday girl enjoyed her special day! (=