Mak's 2nd Dentist Visit

It's time for Makayla's 6-month cleaning. Her 2nd visit ever. She did great back in March for her first visit ever and everything was perfect then with some minor things to watch like soft enamel and one little pinhole cavity that might be forming due to her sippy cup addition before she goes to sleep on one of her bottom front tooth.

Well, this visit was the quite the shocker for me and I thought it was going to be easy peezy but boy was I wrong. Her teeth had really deteriorated since our visit just 6 short months ago. I felt like such a bad Mommy! I wish her Daddy came with us since I had trouble holding it together to be strong for her. She had lots of cavities that were very visible when the dentist pointed them out. So much work that we are going to have to think long and hard about what the next steps were. Most likely even some crowns! The dentist kept telling me that a lot of it is genetic but that still didn't make me feel better. But a lot of it had to do with her milk addition so this was hard lesson but one we're going to learn from for sure. Whatever it is we're going to just have to take care of it is the bottom line! Overall she was great with her cleaning and a bit nervous when the dentist was talking to me about the issues but she understood what was happening. My poor baby! We'll keep you posted on this little hurdle.

Lemon Cupcakes

Just a cute video clip of our mini Betty Crocker! She just loves to help out in the kitchen with everything to dishes, baking and making meals. My big helper!

Yummy lemon cupcakes! Want some?!

First Day of Preschool - Yellow Room

It's the first day of school and Makayla's 2nd year of preschool. She was able to transition to the yellow room over the summer so she got a little use to the classroom but too bad the teachers changed. Not bad, they're all great but she was just getting use to her summer school teachers and then bam, the regular school year starts and there's a new set of teachers to get use to. She still had a little bit of separation anxiety when I dropped her off but overall she loves school. She just wants me to stay with her, which I never do but boy is she persistent.

She's super excited about her pretty dress for the 1st day of school and meeting her new teachers. She seemed to know who they were already which was great to get her prepared. She even posed in front of the welcome easel for a picture just like she did last year. Oh, how they just remember.

Welcome to her yellow room.....from Mrs. D & Miss. Danielle. They were both super nice and friendly when we arrived.

Here's Mrs. D one of her new teachers.

And now with Miss. Danielle. She's super sweet! It's going to be a fun filled year with lots of learning ahead of us! We're so excited for the new year and room! Our girl is just growing way too fast!

Mani/Pedi Night

We had a fun mani/pedi spa night to get the girls all ready for their 1st day of school tomorrow! Summer is officially over! Boo! I found an old foot spa in the closets and Makayla and her cousins had a good time soaking up their toesies.

Makayla getting pampered by her cousin Alyssa. It was so cute listening to them and their role playing also. Full on conversations just like if you were at the nail salon.

Patty pampering her little Alexis! This is a big deal since this is the first time Alexis is going to preschool! What a good way to end the summer with tonight and a great beach day this afternoon. It's going to be another great school year!

Little CDM Beach

Our one and only real beach day of the summer. Kind of sad since we live by the beach. Just no time or when there was it was a crowded weekend. So today we took a day off with some of our friends and headed down to Little Corona Del Mar. Even more sad that we didn't even go to our local beach in HB. But it was well worth it. It's been a long time since we've down to this area. Probably when Ryan and I took our engagement photos which was over 7 years ago. The morning started off slightly gloomy but then warmed up real quick for us. It was great since it was a weekday so it was crowded at all. We spent all day there just chillin'! Super small and clean beach! We highly recommend and will be back for sure next year! Hopefully a little bit more often.

Ryan and his baby girl Mylee! She's lovin' it so far! That's Naters right behind him and little Macaila (Ry's old buddy's little girl, not our little Makayla).

All the girls are right in the sand already making their holes and building away. My Makayla was not lovin' this idea of wet sand and ickyness! She is my super clean little girl. She eventually got into it but it took some time of just watching what a good time her friends were all having.

Ryan taking Mylee out to the water for a little dip to cool off. She really enjoyed it!

Makayla and her cousin Alexis. We took her and her big sis out to the beach today since she starts school tomorrow and her parents had to work. So glad we did since Makayla always has a blast with her favorite cousins!

The hole got much bigger by now! All so cute surrounding it and digging and scooping.

Mylee sunbathing. She's just too cute so just posting as much as I can! Plus this is her 1st trip to the beach

The very cool "Daddy's". Nate, Mike and Ry. All old high school buddies.

Makayla really got into it by now! She's going into the water and filling up her bucket with water and all. She's having a blast now and there's her cousin Alyssa right behind her. She takes such good care of our Makayla, no wonder she just adores her big cousin!

Are we posing like super models? Look at that Rachee! She's too much! Look out Nate!

We took the girls for a walk along the beach down towards the tide pools. They had fun looking for shell treasures there and back. The tide pools were lots of fun and rocky but we managed to maneuver around and get all close up to the caves.

Yes, yes all cutie pie girls in our group today! Trouble, trouble!

What a super fun beach day! As you can tell by Mylee her she absolutely loved it! My tanned little baby girl! Can't wait to do more often next summer for sure. It just keeps getting better and better and funner and funner!

Legoland

It's time for some more summer fun with a trip to Lego land! This is our first trip there. Everyone kept on telling us it's great for Makayla's age and they were right! But even our little Myleeboo had a great time! It wasn't too crowded at all and lots to see and explore! It was cute from the entrance where everything is really made out of these little amazing Lego's.

We started and entered towards the dinosaur era. That elephant behind us was made out of Lego's and was squirting water out of his truck! So cool! There were giraffes and all kinds of fun animals.

Mylee was having a blast in the dinosaur egg while big sis was waiting in line to ride the big roller coaster!

Mylee just hanging out and making some new friends. This little boy was so cute. He wanted to play with her and they just kept on grunting at each other. It was cute their little communication.

Mylee sitting in front of a dinosaur made out of Lego's. I'm still amazed what they can make with them. So much detail!

After some fun rides we went to an area where the girls were able to make some things out of Lego's. We had fun in this little store but the Lego's were too small for Mylee so we didn't stay long.

Off to pirate town where everyone got wet! It was a nice hot day so it was fun to cool off for a bit here. It was packed in this area and the kids were all having fun! But for some reason Makayla wasn't interested in any of the water rides. Good thing since the lines were long! Instead she wanted to play some games. She won great prizes! She played on one and won herself a little rabbit. Then she insisted that she play another one to win a prize for her sister too. Boy was she confident! Sure enough she was right and won her sister this big pirate ducky. It was even a bigger one than normal so she really did win a big prize!

Ryan an his sleeping beauty walking down the Las Vegas Strip all made out of Lego's. There were a bunch of these little mini famous towns and cities. So neato!

He had stopped here to have lunch and we got to overlook NYC! Makayla lovin' her new bunny rabbit she won. I just love this picture of her!

This was a great area where the girls both got to play with giant Lego's! As you can tell from Mylee's face that she's having a lot of fun!

Our M&M girls! Princess Makayla got her face painted in the fairy tail princess area. She loves getting her face painted.

Some more shots of the girls playing. Sorry so many pictures to post! I just can't get enough of all the priceless expressions!

My little ballerina poses with Bob the Builder. This was a great fun show we got to see in 3D!

My little daredevil and her Daddy on this ride that went up and down pretty high but Makayla just loved it! Yelling and screaming but all in good fun! The lines were so short here that I think she rode this a few times in a row! What a great fun filled day at Lego land! We stayed from open to close and pretty much made it through the whole park. We'll definitely be back again next year!

Jessica's 5th Birthday

Makayla and Mylee both went to celebrate Jessica's 5th birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's today. Ryan was a great Daddy and took both girls all on his own. I think I might of been scrappin' with the girls today. They all had so much fun!

There's J the birthday girl and silly Makayla having so much fun with each other. They were buddies!

Mak's 1st Martial Arts Private Lesson

So we've decided to let our little Makayla take some martial art lessons. Her preschool teacher's boyfriend is an instructor nearby so it's very convenient. He teaches at a great school for United Studios of Self Defense. We believe that this will be very good for her and give her more confidence and discipline. She is doing a Kenpo Karate. This was her first official lesson and she did great! She doesn't talk to her Sensei Mike at all but she sure does all the moves real well.

Doesn't she look great in her Gi!

Her stance and bow with her Sensei before they start their lesson. Good discipline. They also have to bow before they go onto the carpet towards the American flag also.

Practicing her kicks. Not bad!

Her jumps were pretty good too! Our girls got some hops to avoid falling as the hammer goes towards her.

A quick movie clip of her hits and blocks. It's so cute!

All done! Not bad for her 1st official lesson at all! She did FANTASTIC! This is at the end of the lesson where she learned to take her belt off and fold it in front of her. They bow again and then meditate for a few seconds. She didn't say one word but gave her Sensei plenty of Hi 5's! We're so excited to see how she progresses with all this!

Hula Luau Part 2

We decided to let Makayla take another hula class this summer since she was sick for most of the previous session and only made it out to 2 or 3 classes. So at the original recital she really didn't do much at all, but she really enjoyed it. The sessions are short so it's perfect to end the summer before ballet starts again since that seems to be more of her passion and she keeps telling me she doesn't want to give it up.

The Grandma's came to cheer her on! And little sis did too!

This show was much better. We got there extra early and got front row seating instead of outside the door like last time. Overall this show was less of a turnout. Smaller classes and end of summer so I think most families are on vacation. Here she is before the show with her Daddy.

Cuddling with Grandma's again.

All the hula classes sitting so nicely waiting for their turn.

Her first song! I just loved this pose so much!

That's the Hawaiian in me! She did great!

Sitting on stage for her next performance, Pearly Shells. Too bad I couldn't upload this video for some reason.

The end of the show! Just shake it!

Mak with her Daddy after the show. Too spoiled! He got her this awesome lei to wear afterwards!

Me & my girl! She was awesome this time around! So proud of her!

Bananas Fosters

So not sure why we got on a Banana's Foster's kick. I know we had some a few months ago on our anniversary so maybe that's why it came up? Or maybe we just had lots of ripe bananas! Anyways, Ry found this great recipe online and got all the ingredients for us to make it! It was awesome!

Cooking and warming up the bananas in it's sauce!

The final creation! Not so pretty but oh so good! Served warm with a dollop of vanilla ice cream! Mmmmm! Good!

Sea World

We made a long fun weekend out of Aidan's birthday celebration! After his party we headed over to my brother's place to relax and spend some time with them and the rest of the family. He BBQ'd for us and then we spent the night to be ready in the morning to spend the day at Sea World! We've already gone this year and had the pass to go again all year long for free so we took advantage of that.

Here's Makayla with Bria, one of my brother's rottweilers. She's super nice and Makayla's favorite. She likes the girl doggie! Zeus the other Rot is still a puppy so much more hyper and wants to play and Bria is more mellow so that's why I think Makayla likes her better. She just chills and Mak can just pet her. Zeus is more of a licker and nudger for her to throw toys and play. My brother had some friends come over too for the BBQ and my parents also stayed so it was nice to just hang out & relax. My brother's friends had Vietnamese parents like ours so boy did they have so much in common to chat about. It was cute to listen to them reminisce about the old days and how things were because they brought over great DVD's for us to watch of Vietnam. So beautiful! We also had some super hot chili peppers that they brought from their garden and everyone was screaming how hot it was! That's rare since my parents eat SPICY! I didn't even try since it made my dad sweat because it was so HOT! They had a little boy that Makayla played with. Dillion was just a little bit younger and they had so much fun together!

Here we are at Sea World the next day! Woke up to an awesome home made breakfast by Uncle Binh.....is famous Ebelskivers! Oh and my sis-in-law Janai woke me up to work out at the YMCA too before going! So it was a busy morning alright!

Catching our first show, the Dophin encounter. Mylee really enjoyed it! But boy was it hot out! Good thing there was a slight breeze from time to time! I hope we get wet to cool off! I know Makayla wanted to sit in the splash zone so that's where we're at! Too bad we really didn't get wet. Still a little too far up I guess.

So we didn't get wet at the show but She's really getting wet in Elmo's World. We spent a lot of time here. It's a super cute area for the little one's. She had her suit on and ready to play! It was so nice too cool off! Mylee was going down for a nap in her stroller right about now so no getting wet for her!

Check out Makayla's little obstacle course run! She had a blast! Don't forget to press play. It's a video.

Mak & Elmo. She was hesitant at first and then changed her mind. She loved him!

Oh boy, was she happy to see these two girls! They were having a little parade and then Makayla wanted me to follow them. Good thing since they went right in for pictures and we were right there to be one of the firsts! Zoe and Abby Cadabby! She was in heaven!

Ernie & Bert were right next to the girls and she didn't want to see them but they somehow talked her into it and she even got that close to Ernie for him to hold her. She liked them after all. Great day in Elmo's World. Too bad Mylee was asleep that whole time!

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed. We had lunch and walked around and did whatever Makayla wanted. We didn't even see another show. So it was pretty mellow. She went and touched all the starfish and sea cucumbers in this area.

Mylee finally woke up and also wanted to touch the starfish! She was excited to see them! The we walked over to the Honu's (Sea Turtles in Hawaiian). Great day spent at Sea World for sure! I love it when we don't have to rush to see and do everything!