New Year's Eve.....

Here we all are on New Year's Eve at Alan & Som's place. It was a nice & mellow celebration with our family and a few of Som's friends to ring in the New Year!

The Grandparents toasting already.....the night is still young!

Makayla and Grandma Arakaki hanging out.

That's us! Our little girl had passed out way before midnight so it's rare that we get a picture in without her. Especially with our party hat on!

Miss. Makayla on Daddy's shoulders getting ready for the New Year....but it's way early still so I don't think she's going to make it!

Alan & Som the host & hostesses of our New Year's Evening!

Granpa Stan double fisted. Now that's how to spend New Year's!
Thanks for the invite Alan & Som! We had a blast! Happy New Year!
Cheers to a wonderful 2007 and onto celebrate a Fantastic 2008!

Mommy's 32nd Birthday at Buca!

We celebrated Mommy's 32nd birthday today at Buca di Beppo. Daddy got all our close friends and family together to go out to dinner. Mom had lots of fun since she didn't want anything, this was Daddy's gift to her. Mom came with a few of her crazy "Scrap Queen" friends since they had scrapped the entire day before for her actual birthday and then 1/2 day today before dinner! Crazy croppers! Good times!

The family photo at Mom's birthday dinner.

Makayla and her friend Mia eating and being little hams together! They're just too cute!

Makayla with her new buddy Aidan, but she's not too sure about him. Auntie Janai holding another baby and it's not me?
Thanks for such a great birthday get-together for Mommy!

Scrapbooking Day for Tine's Birthday

As part of my birthday weekend I got to scrap all day today with my Scrap Queen friends at the Red Bee in Tustin. It was such a fun day! Then we had a nice dinner at the Sushi restaurant next door and went back for more scrapbooking until midnight! Crazy girls!

My yummy ice cream cake from Cold Stone! Thanks Janai! You're the best sis in law ever!

Most of the gang with a some husbands dropping by to have dinner with us since we're gone all day long!

Blew out those candles! I fee like she really got all 32 on there? But then we might of needed the extinguisher! Thanks for such a great birthday girls!

Christmas with Disney Ice Princesses

Daddy got Makayla tickets to go see Disney Princesses on Ice at the Honda Center on Christmas Evening. It was so much fun! Daddy got some deal so he got a few extra tickets so we took Ong Ngoai & Ba Ngoai too. We usually just see the Ducks at the Honda Center so when we walked in it looked so different.....it was all decorated with Disney princess stuff everywhere! We thought Makayla was a bit young for this but surprisingly enough she sat nicely and really enjoyed herself. It was a really nice show.

Makayla with Mom & Dad in front of one of the goodie booths. Of course we ended up getting a brochure that came with a Belle rose for Miss. Makayla.

Makayla with Ba Ngoai & Ong Ngoai.

This was the ending part of the show that showcased Tinkerbelle in the beautiful carriage with all the Disney characters.

Then the night came to a close and we went home. We never got a picture of her full lenth in her Snow White costume borrowed from her good friend Mia (thanks a bunch!) so we took her in front of the Christmas tree since it was still Christmas. What a fun evening! Thank you so much Daddy!

Christmas Morning!

Merry Christmas Everyone! Here we are on Christmas morning. Looks like Makayla caught Santa Claus under her tree. She was real hesitant with him but after awhile she was okay with him. Then it was time for Santa to go since he was running real late this year. He went upstairs to ride off in his sleigh and Makayla kept on saying "bye" Santa! We usually spend Christmas with just us. Mom, Dad & Makayla and it's usually a real relaxing day. After presents, Mommy made us all breakfast crepes! Yum, yum! We had ham & swiss cheese crepes and then are very favorite nutella & strawberries!

Makayla and Santa caught on camera!

One of her Christmas gifts that was saved from Christmas Eve. Cute knitted scarf & hat from Auntie Lilo. Smile!

And here she is with her new sock monkey and wagon. She's so excited about this gift! Again, being spoiled from Auntie Lilo!

The annual picture on Christmas morning in front of the tree with Daddy!

And now with Mommy! Reindeer from Auntie Som & Uncle Al got in the picture too. He was in her stocking this year! It was filled to rim just like her tree! Well, another wonderful holiday season for us with friends and family! Hope yours was all great too! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Family Dinner

Well, this is Makayla's 2nd Christmas Eve celebration with the family. We had lots of holiday fun and great food as usual!

Here is our little Christmas princess with Ong Ngoai & Ba Ngoai in front of her tree, but they're blocking it.

Here's a better shot of almost the whole family that was over. Uncle Alan is missing because he was the photographer. We also had Auntie Amy over visiting from Hawaii too. We all gathered here and started a new family tradition by Grandma Arakaki singing Christmas carols. It was lots of fun!

Alexis and Makayla in their pretty holiday dresses! Too cute! Did she just see Home Alone? She sure did recently, one of the holiday movies that we try to watch each year.

All the cousins snuggling on the couch. Must food coma!

23 - Months old w/ Mr. Bear

Here she is at 23-months old! We just can't get over how the time just flies from month to month. She's still right at 25lbs. and 31 inches tall so no major changes from last month. Still talking up a storm. Her words are getting clearer and clearer each day. She's super playful and really a fast runner too! She knows that there's baby inside my tummy too. It's so cute, she'll kiss my tummy because of baby. Again, just when you think she can't get cuter she just does.

Gingerbread House

Makayla made her 2nd annual gingerbread house. She was much more helpful this year! We got a great kit from Costco. Much better than the Michael's one. It took us a few hours and we had a good time decorating!

Here she is putting the candy on the frosting so that it dries! She concentrating alright!

Our little silly goose posing next to her beautifully finished gingerbread house. I think we did good! It's so pretty! Argh! This is her latest pirate smile with one eye closed.

Holiday Party

We had a holiday gathering with our friends this weekend. This party is usually at Ed & Grace's house but they're currently on bed rest before their twins arrive. We absolutely missed them this year! We had our family over also since my brother and Janai would be up in Hanford with her family this year so it was a good time. Makayla had lots of fun with her little girlfriends opening up all their presents. I can't get over how fast they pick up on unwrapping presents.

Here's our little Claus, she just loves her Santa hat!

Then all the hustle and bustle of all the girls tearing up the gift wrapping to get to their presents! What fun chaos!

After presents the girls all sat quite nicely for a photo in front of the Christmas tree.
Then we had our gift exchange game with all the friends and family.
Good times and good memories! Just 10 more days until Christmas!

Summerland Santa Claus

Our community had Santa Claus visit the clubhouse so I decided to take Makayla. She knows who Santa is and likes him in movies and books and says "Ho, Ho, Ho" when you mention Santa, but when we took just to glance at him at the mall she wanted nothing to do with him. So I decided to try out our clubhouse Santa, well as you can see in the photo below she really wanted nothing to do with him even in my arms. I think this really made my decision easy to not battle the mall Santa lines so my little girl could scream her head off.

No, no, no Santa!

Zeke's 5th Birthday

Today was our neighbor Zeke's 5th birthday party at the clubhouse. It was lots of fun! He's the cute little boy that's always riding his bike outside. Makayla loves to play with him and he loves playing with Makayla even though she's so much smaller. He had a cute Surf's Up Penguin theme. His mom also had all of us stuff penguins like Build a Bear. It was so much fun and a great idea! Makayla just loves her penguin!

There's the birthday boy, Zeke on the left and Makayla and her new penguin on the right.

The parents wanting to get a group picture of all the kids! Good luck with that one!
Thank you so much for inviting us! We had a blast!

Mel's Wedding Dress

Today was a very exciting day! We went to go pick out Mel's wedding dress! So much fun! We all met at David's bridal in Orange. It was her Mom, Marlene (sis), Aunt Leanne & myself. When I arrived we met in the parking lot and she came up to me and asked me to be her Matron of Honor! I was so surprised! I can't believe she's going to want 9-month pregnant girl to be in her wedding! I do love her dearly and she is one of my best friends but still.....no I'm so honored and hope I can help make this a wonderful experience for her! Anything for one of my oldest best gals! I can't believe this day is so near!



















Here she is with her mom! Doesn't she look beautiful? Don't worry it's not the actual dress so I didn't spoil anything, it's just one out of how many did she try on???? Like 20? So much fun! I can't believe that she ended up finding her dress in just the one day! She glowed and her face lit up so much when it was the perfect dress! Can't wait for everyone else to see it!

Holiday Portraits

Our little snow princess is looking so much older in these holiday portraits. She looks like she's 5 to us! We hope you enjoy them as much as we are! They are just too cute to us!

Makayla and her snowball.

Laying down so comfortably!

Park Days w/ Grandma

I had to blog Makayla's park days with Grandma Arakaki. She goes for a walk with Grandma almost everyday! She loves and waits for Mommy & Daddy to leave for work because then it's walk time! She gets so excited about it! Because walk days are park days! She's become so comfortable at the park and swings and slides and plays with all the other kids. She loves playing ball out there too in all the greenery. Grandma says she can kick and is going to be great at soccer! She has also met a really, really good girlfriend at the park, her name is Jordan. They see each other almost everyday there. Jordan's Grandmother's also watch her so it's fun for Grandma too to socialize with everyone! Fun times at the park!












Here she is with Jordan, I think Jordan is a few months younger but looks slightly older?! And then there's our little monkey swinging back and forth on the bars.

Sneak Peak Ultrasound.....

I got a sneak peak at the baby today at my appointment with Dr. Linzey. I asked if I could have one to insert into my Christmas cards as an announcement to the rest of our friends and family that do not know yet. But it ended up not turning out well in the card. Oh well! Thank you so much for letting me see our new baby in advance! It was soooo wonderful! Dr. Linzey and his staff are the best ever! This is the same Doctor that delivered Makayla.

Decorating my Christmas Tree

Makayla was real helpful decorating our tree this year! It was so much fun to watch her be so involved. She got right in the tote and picked out her ornament to put on the tree. She was so cute! she even went and put the Santa hat on when it was all done! This is going to be a wonderful Christmas! Can you believe it, we only broke one ornament! It really scared her but after awhile she was fine with it and called Dad to clean it up "broken" she kept saying.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Ever since Makayla has been born Grandpa Stan has been buying her Christmas tree. We go to the Christmas tree lot right around the corner from our house. Makayla had fun picking out her 6ft noble fir. She did a good job!

Here she is with Grandma & Grandpa and her tree. And of course our we had to have our family picture in front of it too.








Then the step cutting and wrap it up and we're headed home to decorate it! Yippee!

1st "My Gym" Class

Today was Makayla's 1st official class at My Gym. We went last week for the 1st time as a trial and she had a blast so we went ahead and signed her up! We had gone to an open house a few months back but we were already enrolled at the City Gym so had to finish up that class before signing up here anyways. So it's once a week in the morning on Saturdays with Mr. Michael and Mr. Gabriel. They do so many fun and educational things for the kids here! Can't wait to see what each week entails since they always have something different!












Here's our little monkey on the monkey bars and then with Mr. Gabriel doing Demolition Derby! Wheeeee!








This is the red circle where the kids do story time and their warm ups and bye bye songs. In this picture though is separation play time from all the parents. That's Mr. Michael with Makayla.