Korean BBQ

It's been so long since we've seen our really good friends, The Chows and their twins, Ethan & Haley so we decided to finally meet up with them for dinner.  This was really suppose to be for Grace's birthday too but it was way overdo.  It was fun to hang out and have a nice dinner with a group of friends!

A glimpse of the Korean BBQ.  This place was great and really yummy up in Roland Heights. We haven't done this in a long time!

Joanne and baby Julianne decided to join us too since we weren't too far from her neck of the woods.  Always good to see them.  Makayla taking a picture with the baby!  She loves them!

And now posing with Haley.  She's not camera shy is she?

Ethan and his daddy Ed.  What  a cute little guy, Ethan that is! haha!

After dinner we headed to the Chow's house just to hang out for a bit.  All the kids had fun with the doggies.  Here's Mylee & Haley with Uncle Alan.  Mylee just loves Uncle.  Look at that big smile!  Thanks for all going out to dinner guys!  We'll have to take the Grandparents to try this place!  Ono ya!

Friday Evening at Disney

I know you're probably all real tired of seeing us at Disneyland but I use this as my own journal log so I can try to keep track of what we've been up to for my own purposes and my girls little milestones, especially Mylee since I'm really not as good at keeping track when it was just Makayla.  It's really hard and everything seems to blend together.  Anyhoo, tonight we met up with my cousins and their cousins on a Friday evening to hang out.  It was a nice evening at Disneyland since the weather is finally dry.  

A family picture in front of the carousel.  We've been taking advantage of these photo ops since Mylee is awake so much more now!  It's so fun!

Makayla with her cousins and her cousins, cousin, Lil Ryan.   All the kiddos had so much fun together!  Boy that Lil Ryan has a lot of energy.  He's just like a jumpin' bean!

Mylee is soooo happy with her favorite guy, Daddy!  They are just buds and it's so cute how attached she is to him and how he can just make her giggle, giggle!  

Som's Bachelorette Party

It's my soon to be sis-in-law's bachelorette weekend party in Sin City!  I was able to get away for two days and one night to join all the girl fun!  I flew in with Patty, Grace and met up with Joanne at MaCarren airport.  The mommy's all arrived the 2nd day when most of the single ladies started on Friday!  We just couldn't part with our babies for that long.  Too bad we missed some of the Friday night fun but I'm sure we'll make up for it today!  When we arrived we made it just in time for brunch at Tableau with all the girls at The Wynn where we were staying.  Can you believe we sat right next to Mr. Wynn himself?  His face looked very plastic.  You should have seen the service for him too.  Wish we were served in that manner.  Brunch was very nice.  Afterwards we had a little free time before we met up at the spa.  We all got pampered in their pools and got massages!  It was wonderful to be able to relax like that!  I so needed it!  Most of us got showered and did our hair there so it wouldn't be so crowded in the rooms.  There was 14 of us ladies so that would have gotten tough in the rooms if we had to do it all at once.  

Here we all are with some drinks by bartender Joanne to kick off the evening!  Cheers to the soon-to-be-bride!  I can already tell it's going to be fun evening!  All of her friends are so nice!

This is really the only big shot we got with the whole group at Fix a restaurant at Bellagio.  Really yummy food that her Maid of Honor Joanne and Bridesmaid Cora arranged, they did a fantastic job all weekend!  Everything was dialed in!  Don't we all look like a sorority?  haha!  After dinner we headed to Camarmel Ultralounge for a few drinks. Can't believe the hook ups we got with drinks all weekend.  I felt like we didn't have to pay for anything!  Nice to be a girl! 

Here are the mommies that flew in together, Patty and Grace!  We had  a blast together, it was really good for us to get away since we never do!  I don't think we'll have another opportunity like this again since Som is the last we know to get married that we're this close to celebrate!

Joanne the MOH, Som, bride-t0-be, me and Cora, one of the bridesmaids.  The other two in the wedding are from Thailand so they couldn't be here but will be here for the big wedding day!  All these pictures are from dinner.  There's more but I just couldn't post it all.  After dinner and the lounge we headed to Chippendale's as a silly fun surprise for Som.  It was good fun and entertaining.  Got a lot of laughs in!  Then it was an evening of clubs and dancing.  We had some really fun experiences that I doubt I'll ever see again in my lifetime so I'm glad I did it!  We couldn't believe we were in Vegas and didn't gamble hardly at all and stayed out till 4am!  Shocking that we were able to party it up like that!  We'll have to tell you the stories later....don't forget to ask about the VIP set up and the guys raining money! The next morning was just lunch on Som, so sweet of her!  Then we all parted ways checked out and headed to the airport for home!  Thanks girls for setting up such a fun and memorable weekend for my soon to be sis and all her friends!  She's got great girlfriends for sure!  I did miss my family though and so excited to come home to them!  Muah!!!

Rachee's 5th Birthday

Rachee's 5th birthday was at this super cute store called Bears, Buddies & Toys in HB.  It was a Princess themed party which is Makayla's favorite right now.  I was bummed that I couldn't attend.  It conflicted with my soon to be sis-in-laws bachelorette party in Vegas so that's where I was but good old Daddy took her to the birthday festivities!  I heard it was a hit and Makayla had a lot of fun!  She told me all about it when I came home from my trip.

Look how cute the 3 beautiful Princesses are!  Birthday girl Rachee in the middle and Mia on the right.  And then my shorty, Makayla there on the left.  These girls have grown up with each other and are really good friends and so are the parents!  Long time friends from grade school and high school.  The girls are all dolled up in their dresses and they even put make up on them too.  What fun!

It's must be food and cake time!  Wow, there was a lot of kiddos there!

Makayla and her cousins getting ready for cake.  She came home with so many goodies, wands, tiaras, purses, stuffed ballerina bunny, etc., etc.!  Auntie Stacy really went all out for Rachee's 5th!  It's a milestone!  Thank you sooo much for inviting us and having such a fun party!  

Disneyland with Cousins

Today was my first visit to Disneyland with my cousins!  We're sooo happy that they got annual passes with us!  We're going to go all the time together!  Yippee!  It was kind of crowded for a Friday night but that didn't stop us from getting on a few rides.  Even if we only get in a few rides it's always fun and worth it just to get out of the house for a few hours.  It's also good exercise to walk around that park too!

Our first ride together was Dumbo ride.  Makayla rode with Daddy and Mylee rode with Mommy.  It was Mylee's first time riding Dumbo.  She had fun and was smiling the whole time flying up in the air!

Can't remember what we're waiting in line for here, but cute picture of the 3 cousins, Alexis, Makayla and Alyssa!

The teacups were lots of fun!  Patty, Mylee and I were watching and we couldn't believe how fast they were spinning with two little one's on it!  I guess Makayla and Alexis loved getting dizzy!  What a fun Friday evening!  Thanks cousins!  Let's do it again soon!

3-Year Portraits

So we were a little delayed on taking Makayla's 3-year portraits, but at least we got to them about 3-week after her actual birthday.  Too many things going on!  She is really a really Big girl in these photos.  She's looking so grown up to us lately!  She's talking, talking, talking up a a storm and it's big long sentences.  She knows how to spell her name and she recognizes her name when it's written.  She recognizes most of her ABC's now too.  She's cutting with safety scissors and is really good at it!  She loves her arts and crafts but her favorite is still her books!  Loves for us to read to her and loves the library.  She's also into her ballet lately and park days!  She likes to pick out her own clothes and really tells us what she wants to do and wear and when.  She's also very, very helpful and wants to do everything we do.  Pretty typical, simple and ordinary little 3-year old.  She's very smart and bright and is going to be trouble!  She's are cutie and growing up way too fast for us!  We have to enjoy each and every moment and try to capture them too!

Big 3-year old on her milestone block at Kiddie Kandids!

One of my favorite photos of her!  She was full of smiles today for the photographer!  It was  fast and easy shoot!

Daddy's favorite photo of his Princess!

Valentine's Day with just Us!

It was so nice of Ryan to arrange for us to have dinner at Roy's tonight.  It's one of our favorite spots to dine.  And even better now in Anaheim because it's pretty low key and mellow.  He had reservations for 5:30pm so it was an early dinner for us which was nice so that we didn't have to get home too late to relieve the Grandparents since they watch our girls so we could have a nice dinner together.  Thank you!  I don't think we've had dinner with just us since our wedding anniversary last year in July.  Sad! 

I know we're cheesy but had to get a picture of us at Roy's on V-day!  The ambiance was super nice for the occasion and they had it decked out for the holiday.  It was pretty crowded when we got there and thank goodness for reservations since we got seated right away.  There was quite the crowd waiting too.  They had a special dinner menu tonight which was excellent!  We started off with some wine and then you'll see the rest of the meal below!

I started with the scallop appetizer which was delicious!  Then followed by the pear, walnut salad.  And then it was time for the main course, the seared ahi!  It was yummy!

Ryan had yummy Kobe beef sliced super thin with a yummy marinade followed by the lobster bisque, which he said was only okay.  I think it was a little too potent for him.   Then he had a great looking fillet!  

For dessert, I had the red velvet cake!  So, so yummy and so, so cute!  Ryan special ordered the chocolate souffle since that's his favorite there so we took his dessert home to the Grandparents as a thank you for watching our girls.  They got some yummy chocolate truffles!  What an awesome evening with just the two of us!  We thought about a movie afterwards but got too tired and wanted to get home to our girls!  It really meant a lot to me that he took me out.  Simple as that!  I'm an easy gal and it doesn't take much.  Just some quality time will do it!  We don't do gifts or anything since neither one of us needs a thing.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day w/ Our Girls

Well, it's Valentine's Day with our girls!  And Mylee's 1st V-day!  It's so nice that it lands on a Saturday so that we can really enjoy the whole day together and not just the evening and just a quick dinner.  We have this little tradition that we started when Makayla arrived and was old enough to go out with us a little after she turned 1!  We go to this little Italian restaurant called Frantone's in Cerritos.  It has a great kid friendly ambiance with fun heart shaped pizza, salads and pasta.  Makayla's favorite foods!  What a fun day with our girls!

We actually got to sleep and when we got up we got the girls dressed in their little matching Valentine's Day outfits.  I just love dressing them alike lately!  It's so much fun and so cute!  They came downstairs to just a few little things we got them.  Just some fun balloons and a little kitty cat Webkins.  They had a special last night when I was scrapbooking so I was suckered into it since my girls don't need another thing in our toy house lately.   They were so happy!

Our little cutie pies!  We headed out after a few pictures to an early lunch.

Mommy and her love bugs!

Daddy with Makayla's favorite pizza, pizza!  Can you tell from her face that she's so excited her heart pizza arrived?

Daddy and his sweet girls!  We're at Frantone's for an early lunch so that Ryan & I can go to dinner tonight at 5:30pm.  What a fun family day with our girls!  Afterwards we just headed home and relaxed and played!  Happy Valentine's Day to my girls!

Chopstix

Makayla has really been into using chopstix lately and she's pretty good at it as you can see in this photo.  She's got some beginner helper clips but she hasn't been able to do it on her own until recently.  We're so proud of her!

Bootcamp Starts!

Okay, so I started this crazy thing called Boot Camp.  It's a pretty intensive exercise program MWF from 6-7am at the local park with a personal trainer.  Makes it convenient that I can just walk there in the morning.  It all happened when I was going to register Makayla at school for the fall at 7am.  I saw a group of ladies working out and they looked very familiar.  Sure enough after a few minutes standing in line at her school Liz arrived and she just came from Boot Camp.  Her daughter Annabelle is good friends with Makayla.  So she invited me to try it out for a week for free.  I didn't know how hard core it was so I showed up that Monday when it was slightly drizzling.  And sure enough the trainer showed and just one other gal, but it was good since it was really like a one to one trainer for my 1st session.  The group has been together since Oct. 2008 and there's usually 4 of them.  I'll keep you posted on my progress!  I'm super excited about it!

Thomas the Train

I took Makayla to see Thomas the Train show today at the OCPAC.  It was a fun event and Makayla has so been into Thomas lately.  Thanks to Daddy always being on top of what shows are in town.  We've learned now that we don't both need to attend since it's really not that exciting for us to watch and really just for her so that's really saved us some money.  Plus Ry spends time with just Mylee at that time.  I wanted him to take her to Thomas but she just wanted to go with Mommy.  This was actually a really good show and probably one of the better performed one's that I've seen.  It was super cute!

My little conductor.  She had the hat from home and of course I had to buy her a Thomas light for during the show.  It's so hard to come out with nothing.  

Some shots of the stage prior to the show since I was bored.  

The main character, Thomas!  The props were really good.  The eyes and mouth all moved too just like the real deal and even had steam coming out.

During intermission we had a little snack.  Some fancy and expensive water and some cheddar chips.  We sat outside since it was a nice day and crowded inside.  It was a little breezy so she wanted her hoodie on.  She's a good girl!

The celebration and party for when the story ended!  I'd highly recommend this show if your child is into Thomas!

Uncle Binh's 40th Surprise Birthday!

It's been a year of planning for Binh's 40th surprise birthday party!  Janai did a great job along with all of our help with save the date cards, invitations, planning, coordinating and even little hurdles along the way with venue changes at the last minute.  Really long story so if you wanna know one day just ask me.  Overall it was a hit and boy was he surprised!  I can't believe we all pulled it off after knowing for a year and not spoiling it!  We got people from junior high, high school, co-workers and close friends and family to all join!  There was probably 80 people that showed up to share in this special celebration for him!  We had it at a place right down the street from where they live called Offshore Tavern.  It was a great spot and they had a private indoor patio area for us.  It was perfect with a taco style buffet bar and chips and dip.  We gave out drink tickets since we couldn't fit it in our budget for a total open bar.  And we'd probably go broke with the way his friends drink! 

This was his face when he arrived!  It was classic that he was that surprised.  One of the other doctors went with him to a seminar/conference today in Orange County and said they should stop here on their way home for a few drinks and voila!  SURPRISE!!!

Binh & Janai his lovely wife that pulled off this whole party!   I know she dressed a little silly, I forgot to mention it was a tacky tourist luau theme.

Such a cute picture of Ryan and his little Mylee! 

We were the tourist family that all had matching shirts.  They were pretty wild with a pattern that Makayla picked out for us.  Had lots of tropical animals which she loves.

Another cute picture of Makayla and her cousins!  She just adores them!  Alyssa, Alexis & Auntie Patty.

Binh with the parents!  They are very happy and very proud of him!  Binh gave a great little speech to thank Mom & Dad for getting us to the U.S. to give both him and myself the awesome opportunities we've gotten here that we would never be able to experience in Vietnam.  Plus all of our successes too!  I could go on and on but it was very heartfelt and I got very teary eyed and I'm sure others did too from his words.  Thanks Binh!

What are we pointing and laughing at up there?

Well, we're all watching a great DVD that Ryan made for Binh from when he was a baby until now.  We went through all of Mom's old photos and scanned in a bunch.  It was so fun to go through all the photos.  Thanks Ry for getting that all set up!  It was great and he really loved it and so did everyone else.  Even his selection in music was fabu!  Kudos to my hubby! 

It's time to sing and blow out those candles now!  Janai had one of her friends make Key Lime pie for dessert and that was his birthday cake!  It was yummy!  I think those are trick candles since he kept on blowing and they didn't go out.  All Janai!  Memorable party for sure!  Thanks everyone who made it happen and such a success!

Oh almost forgot, this was his huge present, another surprise, Zeus, the rottweiler pup!  Another long story but they had to put their other dog Rocco down last week so this replaced him.  Isn't he cute?  He's going to be a perfect friend to their current Rot, Bria.

X-rays

It's x-ray time.  We couldn't get in yesterday and the wait was going to be over 2 hours so I just called and made an appointment for first thing this morning.  Got right in and right out.  Makayla was so good again!  A little cautious as to what the big device was but we explained to her that it was just going to take a picture of her.  She was fine. 

They sent the results to the Dr. the same day and sure enough she does have pneumonia.  Darn!  I kept on blaming myself but everyone keeps on telling me that I did all I could.  I took her in once she got the fever and you can't prevent it from happening.  This doesn't change her treatment though. We started her on antibiotics and that's all you can do for this anyways.  This is her first time ever being on antibiotics at 3-years old so I think that's pretty good.

Pediatrician Visit

We took the girls in to see their pediatrician today since Makayla has had a cough for awhile now and got a fever last night.  She needs her 3-year wellness check up also.  Too bad we couldn't see Dr. H.  He was all booked up and we really needed  to get in right away.  We got to see Nurse Elaine instead.  She was great and Makayla really liked her.  Mylee also needed her 2nd dose of the flu shot.  Poor thing!  Those shots are never fun, but she did great too!

Makayla is getting to know Nurse Elaine better and she's checking Makayla's lungs and breathing.  Makayla now wants one of these stethoscopes.  Sure enough she's pretty congested and it doesn't sound good at all.

Her stats for her 3-year check up.  She's weighing in at 29lbs and 36" tall.  She's still around the 25th percentile which she's been at since she was a baby so things are just fine and on track.

Just some cute snaps of my girls!  Makayla just loves her lil sis and always hugging and holding her.

And of course a fun picture with Daddy and his girls!  We try to both go to their doctor's appointments.  Makes it a little easier and then we both know what's going on and can ask our questions and be a double check to make sure we don't miss or forget anything.  I'm so glad that we can both be so involved in everything since both our jobs are very flexible.  Very blessed!

Sorry, got a little distracted with the cute family photos.  Now back to the appointment.  As you know, Makayla doesn't sound good at all and the nurse had some concerns so this device will test her to see how her breathing levels are and how much oxygen she's getting.  They will do this test before and after to see if the treatment below will help, which it should.

Check out the video of the treatment for Makayla.  I forgot what it's called and have it written down somewhere but too lazy to go look it up now.  She breaths in the medication that is evaporated and steams up into her nose.  This is to clear up the lungs a little bit for easier breathing.  She was so good about it and finished up the entire treatment that took about 5-7 minutes.  Looks like the treatment was helpful so now we have this same prescription but in a liquid form for home.  They warned us that it will make her hyper and sure enough it did!  We've never seen he zipping around the house an going 100+ miles an hour like this before.  It was hilarious!  She's active but really, it was like she was on drugs!  I don't know about this stuff.....Gotta ask my brother Dr. Ly about it.  He said it was fine and yes very normal.  We didn't keep her on it for long at all.  Now we have to go in for some x-rays.  The nurse had concerns that she might have pneumonia.  I hope not!