Category Archives: Khoackie Adventures
Happy 23 Months Lily!
Happy 23 months my precious Lily pad!! Right now she weighs in about 22.4 pounds, and stretches about 33 inches tall! Lily loves to talk now and starts to mimic our words we say! She is picking up so many things so quickly and is getting so smart so fast! She is talking so much more these days and picking up new wordings really fast! Right now she can count to ten, but she likes to say the next number in the sequence. For example, I’ll start with saying 1, then she’ll say 2, I’ll say 3, then she’ll say 4, etc! It’s so cute and I’m so impressed with her! She likes to hold things for us and say “I hold it!”, “that’s funny” or she’ll plug her ears and say “It’s loud” when she hears loud music or something haha. She is super good at spotting parks miles away and saying “SLIDE!!” and “PLAY!” She’ll also point things out like boats, trucks, trains, dogs, bunnies, stroller and say what they are too! It’s amazing how fast she picks things up! Also, we would ask her what does a cow say, and she’ll say “moooooo” and we’ll ask her what does a bird say and she’ll say “kaaa!” like the seagulls she saw in Seattle. Then we asked her what a dog says and she goes “dooooog!” hahaha! So cute! We’ll work on that haha. She will also point to my jacket and say “mommy jacket” or point at Khoa’s and say “daddy jacket!”, or point to our shoes or feet and say “mommy shoes” etc! She also likes to bring our shoes to us to tell us that that she wants to go out to play! She also knows who to say “this is heavy” and she’ll say “oh!” a lot too! She surprises us with new vocabulary everyday! She’s a non-stop talking and is so smart! I can listen to her voice all day long, she never stops amazing me!
We also went on vacation to Vancouver and Seattle from May 1-6! Lily was such a great traveler! She loved seeing all the new sites and playing at all the parks! She especially liked Maplewood Farms where she got to pet a bunch of animals like baby goats, cows, and guinea pigs! She made herself at home at the hotels as well and loved playing hide and seek behind the curtains and jumping on the bed haha. We took her to various parks and let her play and run around, and she loved seeing all the new things she hasn’t seen before! You can see all our photos HERE!
This past weekend we also celebrated my 2nd Mother’s day! It was really busy but overall very nice! Lily came home on Friday from school with a special sweet gift she made for me! She made me a really nice card, and a frame with her cute little foot prints on it that made a shape of a butterfly!! Her teacher said she worked really hard on it, and I know she put so much love into it! I’m going to make sure I hang it up in a nice spot so I can see it everyday! =) later that night we had dinner for Khoa’s mom for her special mother’s day celebration. On Saturday, we had lunch and dinner for our families, and here are a couple pictures of 4 generations from Khoa’s mom’s side, and 3 generations on my side! We had a nice lunch with Khoa’s mom side and a nice dinner with my family later that evening! We appreciate and love our moms for all that they’ve done for us all our lives. We would not be here without them and we love you so much! Thank you for all your hard work, caring for us, and showing us what love is. Happy mother’s day mommies and Bà Ngoại!
On Sunday, my sweet little Lily pad came into our room with this huge heart shaped balloon that says “Mom is the Best!” and sings “Simply the Best” when you tap on it! It was so cute seeing her walk in all excited with the balloon. She lights up my life and makes me so incredibly happy! Khoa then surprised me with a brunch buffet at Don the Beachcomber in Huntington Beach. Everything was decorated Hawaiian/Polynesian style and at the end of brunch they had a Polynesian show with Polynesian dancers and a fire dance too! I was very pleasantly surprised! Good job baby cakes!! Afterwards, we had a nice relaxing stroll along the Bolsa Chica State Beach! Not many people were there so it was really nice not having to deal with the crowd. After Lily got to play in the sand for a bit, and picking up all the tiny trash items in the sand (gross haha), we dropped her off at her grandparent’s house and we saw the movie The Neighbors! It was really funny and better than I expected too! We then went to church and got my special mother’s day blessing. We then had dinner at Gyu Kaku where I ate an entire s’more even though I said I’d only have 1 bite…whoopsie! =P We then picked Lily up, put our sweet angel to bed, then watched Game of Thrones! Thank you Khoa for a wonderful day, I love you! Also, big love and thanks to my special baby, my sweetheart, my love of my life. When you came to be, you became my everything! I would not have this wonderful gift of motherhood without you, my Lily pad. I love you with all my heart my love, and I feel your love everyday, and it warms my soul, you complete me! Also to my angels, I love you, and thank you for watching over me. <3
Happy Mother’s day to all you wonderfully fabulous mothers out there!
Easter 2014
Happy Easter! This year we did something new and took her to an Easter Egg Hunt at Pantera Park in Diamond Bar with Mieng and Sandy and Emmy! Lily was too shy to go to the 4 years old and under kid section for the egg hunt so we had to take her to the parent assisted section, and Khoa took her in while I stood outside to try to take pictures. I said “tried” to take pictures because once the announcer said “GO!”, everyone just swarmed into the center of the field and grabbed all the eggs within seconds!! I was so shocked I didn’t get any pictures! haha. Then Khoa was lost in the crowd for a bit and so there was no point in taking any pictures. They did get 2 eggs though, they had a candy in each egg haha. I think Lily felt very overwhelmed by how many people were there, so she wanted to be held the entire time. I think next year will be better if we don’t go to the parent assisted one. However, due to my lack of photo abilities, Mieng did get this nice photo of me and Lily!! Thanks!! =)
After the egg hunt, which lasted like 2 minutes haha, we decided to go to the park nearby to let the kids roam around and burn off some energy before lunch! Lily looooves the park and made a few friends at the park too. She saw some kids and just sat down in the sand box and started playing with their toys haha. What a social butterfly! After a good hour or so at the park, we went to eat lunch at one of Khoa’s favorite Shabu places called Paper Pot! Lily was so tired by then that she took a nap in her stroller while we ate! We then did a quick milk tea run and then headed over to Goat Hill Junction Railroad in Costa Mesa for a free 15 minute train ride! Lily was still snoozing like the sleeping machine she is, and so the Saetia’s went on the train ride first, and then finally Lily decided to join the party haha. The train ride was pretty cool, it was this cute little train that you would straddle, and it takes you around this big park with random little ponds and bridges. It was really nice and relaxing! After the train ride, the kids had a blast running around and playing with the rocks on the floor haha. Thanks Sandy for inviting us to come, it was such a cool and fun experience!! It’s always nice to create new memories with such wonderful people! =)
On Easter Sunday, we went to church just the three of us and then went to have a nice lunch at Ajisen (ramen) at Diamond Jamboree! I got Lily this Lychee Raspberry Yogurt Juice, and boy she sure loved it!! She wouldn’t put the juice down!! It was a very large cup too and drank more than half of it! Haha. We went home and stay home for the rest of the day and enjoyed a nice and relaxing Sunday at home, watching the The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and then a bunch of TV since Lily took a majorly long nap that allowed us to do so haha. Easter is a celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and therefore the celebration of renewed life. It’s like a clean start after all the sacrifices he made for us. So this year’s Easter, is a celebration for life, not just for Jesus Christ and mankind, but for our family as well. We’ve had two losses this past year, and after this Easter Holiday, I am trying my best to start anew, and celebrate the life we do have now. The loss we suffered won’t be forgotten, but they’ll be forever in my heart. As I look to the future, I must embrace and enjoy the present. I’m so grateful for all that I have, and even though I don’t know how I got to where I am now, I cannot be more happy and am super humbled to have the wonderful life I have. We only have 1 life to live, and so we must cherish all the moments and live it truly to the fullest. I’m lucky to have so much love in my life, love from my family, friends, Khoa, and most of all, my Lily pad. I will continue to give love and be loved, and make sure that Lily has the best loving life possible. I love you so much my love!! Happy Easter everyone!
Happy 21 Months Lily!
Happy 21 months Lily (over a week ago…)!! Lily weighs at about 21.3 pounds and stretches about 32 inches long. She’s lost some weight because she was sick for a couple week, poor baby had early stage pneumonia =(. She had a cough for a few weeks and then she got a fever at school one day, so Khoa took her to her pediatrician. She start wheezing when she breathed and that’s when the doctor said she had early stage pneumonia since her left lung wasn’t so clear. She had to be on antibiotics and breathe through the nebulizer 3 times a day for about a week before her lungs cleared up! Afterwards, her appetite slowly came back! Lily likes to say “thank you”, “all done”, “mommy”, “daddy”, and can sign “different” very well now. she also likes to say phrases like “what is this?”, “what is that?” and point to her drawings and saying “I did this!” a lot too!! She can also point to us and say “this is dada, this is mama” then point to herself and say “this is Lily (yiyi)”. It’s amazing to hear her speak so much! She likes to point up in the sky when she sees an airplane or helicopter, and she also likes to take selfies in my phone and totally ham it up with facial expressions! She sometimes wake up from her naps babbling and cracking up with herself haha!! She’s such a happy spirited baby, she lights up our lives! She’s getting smarter and smarter each day!
Lily also loves to sing!! Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is one of my go-to songs when I lullaby Lily at night, and usually she just rests peacefully in my arms while I sing it to her, and then place her in her crib. I haven’t noticed until recently that she can sing along to the song now, and I assume her school taught her some dancing motions to go along with this song, along with Ring Around the Rosie! I was able to capture it and she’s so cute when she tries to sing along, her favorite part must be the “up above” line haha! She also babbles a lot with some audible words here and there. She’s starting to get really good at repeating words now too and can hum to tunes to several songs! I can listen to her and watch her all day!!
One of her favorite things to do is to play outside. She loves the slide and slides down it like a pro! She waits for her daddy to count to three and then she slides down! She’s so full of energy and is non stop, I love seeing how happy and active she is! She also insisted on wearing her sunglasses outside! She’s a smart cookie for wanting to protect her eyes! She actually kept them on the entire time!! She also got to walk Luna for the first time!! She did great and insisted on walking Luna from the park all the way home! She did so well! She’s so cute walking her furry best friend, but man, she’s growing up fast! Check out these videos of her playing at the park and walking Luna!
Today is also St. Patrick’s Day! Lily is all dressed in green, and found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and is sharing all her treasures! Dressing her up is fun, but she also loves to wear hats and look pretty too! If you tell her she looks so pretty, her face will light up!! She loves playing with jewelry and beaded necklaces and she can put them on herself with ease now too. She’s so girly haha.
Bee Mine!
It’s the time of year again where everyone gets to shower each other with love! This year, Lily got to celebrate Valentine’s day for the first time at her school at LePort! Her teacher told me to bring 12 Valentine’s Day cards and write Lily’s name on all of them and they will distribute it to their kids. So I headed over to the awesome fancy 99 cent store, and found these super cute animal vday cards! It came with a bunch of stickers too, so I stuck 2 stickers on each card! I was very proud of myself because the cards were cute and it had stickers on it, what a nice bonus that is! So I pick Lily up from school on Thursday, and right next to her backpack is her decorated box of valentines with all her valentines in them. Then there’s a fancy cupcake box from Samuel. I was like WHOA, a cupcake for a valentine?! How sweet and ingenius is that?! I was blown away haha, and then when I got home and we looked inside her box of goodies, there were little packages of erasers, pencils, etc. I was like what?? Why are they going above and beyond! There was even a scratch and sniff valentine that said “you’re grape!” and it smells like amazing grapes! And here I am feeling so nifty with myself because I thought adding 2 stickers on each card was making it that much more special =(. Well, in the end, they are only 1 years old, and she’s not going to remember this anyways, and it’s all in good fun. I was just so shocked by the parents’ creativity, I feel like I need to step up my game next year…we’ll see if I remember haha! But anyways, isn’t this so cute what her school did? I love it!! Most of all, Lily really enjoyed it! They got a special Valentine’s Day snack where some parents brought in raspberries, cheese, yogurts, etc! She likes seeing all the colorful cards and decorating her box, so cute!
Khoa and I have been parents for a little over 20 months now, but we still try to make sure we spend quality time together as husband and wife! Normally we’d make a nice dinner then go out to the movies! However, it’s much harder to go to the movies these days, but we’re still very fortunate to have amazing parents who’ll watch Lily now and then! So Khoa told me to take a half day off work so that we can spend some quality time together, and he planned out the whole day! We started our nice date by going to the movies at the Arclight in Paseo Colorado mall in Pasadena and watched the funny Lego Movie!! It was so cool and funny with lots of wit and charm, and it had a nice story/message at the end too! It was very enjoyable and we splurged on expensive popcorn haha! We then walked around the mall and got Lily a cute fork and spoon travel set thingy, I couldn’t help myself haha. Then we had dinner at this cute restaurant called Cafe Santorini! The environment was very romantic and lovely. Then we went back to the mall and Khoa reserved us a spot in the Wine and Canvas class where it was “Date Night” and we each get to paint half a painting that fits together to make one big painting! The painting is called “Love Birds”, how appropriate is that?! It was so much fun and we HIGHLY recommend it to everyone! Khoa’s side came our a lot better than we both expected haha, I’m so proud of him! We now hang this painting in our dining room! So happy to showcase art that we made together!
At work, Khoa sent me another forever platinum rose to go with the one he sent me a few years ago! What a nice surprise!! However, my favorite part is his hand made card he made in powerpoint and paint haha! Who does that right? Well HE does! And he’s darn proud of it! He even put the Valentine’s Day date and our wedding anniversary date in the barcode! Oh the little details and thought that went through his mind. He also made sure to include a picture of Luna in the card too!! I love him so much, today and everyday for the rest of my life and beyond!
Lastly, I made Lily a new tutu tote bag! She loves purses and will wear anything that has a handle as a purse. So I decided to make the bag myself since I couldn’t find a mini tote bag that was a good size. I saw a princess tutu tote bag on etsy, but they used a bunch of tulle and make the skirt part really poofy, it looked really cute, but I didn’t want the tutu to be too much. So I used organza and just did 2 layers so that it’s just a simple accent to the bag. I used one of my existing tote bags as a reference and sewed a mini bag from that! So no pattern was used for this, but I did make my own pattern now! So I made one for Charlotte and Emmy too but in different colors so they all can have their own cute little bags!! I showed it to Lily and she went “ooOOooo” and loved it! She likes to put her pots and pans, crayons, and minion toys in it! haha! That’s my cutie pie!!
Upgraded Juicing!
Hello beautiful new juicer! After 4.5 years with our Jack Lalanne juicer, (even though we only used it for a few months), it’s time we upgraded to a new and improved Omega VRT350HD Low Speed Juicer! It’s definitely a lot more expensive but it’s well worth the purchase! Plus we got this on super sale on QVC with free shipping and it came with a free Juice Boost recipe book! Our old juicer worked ok, but cleanup was such a pain (for Khoa, since he did the cleaning). It was also very loud and would vibrate and it didn’t come with a container for the juice to fall into. So finally, we decided to upgrade and boy this makes juicing so much easier! Our new machine is whisper quiet, compact so it doesn’t take up much space, and has a convenient container with handle for the juice to pour into! The Omega VRT350 is a low speed juicer so it juicers the fruits and veggies slowly to preserve more of the nutrients! One of the best parts is you just plop the fruit/veggie into the juicer and you don’t have to push it down! It’s amazing!! We initially started juicing after we saw the documentary “Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead” featuring Joe Cross, and boy did he have an inspiring story! Here’s a LINK to Joe Cross’s 3 day weekend cleanse, with recipes of 5 juices you can do during this cleanse! Juicing is awesome because of how much vitamins and nutrients you’re gaining, and how easy it is to do so. Normally we can eat maybe 1 apple a day and a few veggies here and there, but with juicing, you can consume multiple apples along with several carrots, celery, kale, asparagus, etc., all in 1 drink! The idea of juicing is so inviting but when you actually do it, it takes a lot of work, but not if you have the right machine! It’s also a great bonding activity to do with your spouse/loved ones. Khoa and I have developed a pretty efficient way to juice to make it not so tedious, and it’s fun in my opinion! I’m glad we’re able to get back to our healthy juicing habits! Just after a few days of juicing again, we already feel like we have more energy, our body feels cleansed and lighter, and with all that, we are happier! Best part about this too is we can give Lily some of these healthy juices and have her consume way more fruits and veggies than she normally would, without even know it! If you haven’t tried juicing, you should definitely give it a shot, it’s worth the time and investment! Here’s some images of some juices that we like and tried this week!
Sweet & Spicy Carrot Juice
Mean Green
Blueberry Cucumber Juice
Strawberry Mango Juice
SunnyG (ginger) Juice
Asparagus Detox Juice
Resources – here’s a LINK to a website that has 5 juicing recipes that uses 5 ingredients or less for each juice! Also, HERE’s a very informative website that has lots of juicing recipes to help with weight loss and health, and it even has a 30 day juicing challenge! Also here’s a useful tip, if you use ginger in your recipes, you can easily and safely peel them but using a spoon and carve/scrape the skin off! My juicing book that came with our new juicer is also super awesome with lots of education on what you’re getting out of certain fruits and veggies, you can get the book Juice Boost by Chris Fung HERE on Amazon! Enjoy and happy juicing!
Lily’s 1st Birthday!
Happy 1st Birthday to our previous Lily pad!!! When Lily was born, she was 6 1/2 pounds, 19 inches and pretty much slept all day. I remember having to always wake her up for feeding times. Now, Lily weighs 18 pounds, and stretches 27 inches tall and she developed quite a spunky personality! She is already walking, playing, eating solids really well, and is oh so vocal! She still loves to sleep and eat, but she now also loves to party and explore! Still, I cannot believe that it has already been a year since our little baby was born into this whole and filled our hearts with more love than we can ever imagine! I must say I have been planning her party ever since she was born! haha! I even bought her birthday dress a few months after she was born! Also, how convenient is it that her birthday lands on a Saturday?! I wanted to make sure that her very first birthday was super special and so I didn’t hold back and totally went all out for her celebration! Even though I know Lily won’t remember any of this, at least we will have the memories and have lots of pictures and video to show her later! We are so grateful for all our friends and family who helped us prepare for this special day, and we are so thankful for everyone coming to celebrate Lily’s birthday! We are the luckiest parents in the world, to not only have such a wonderful group of people who love Lily almost as much as we do, but for having such a sweet, smart, irresistibly lovable baby in our life!
We hired an amazing balloon twister from a company called Super Inflated, we saw one Emmy’s birthday party and we just had to have one for Lily’s, and she was a huge hit with all the kids, big and small =P. We also had a DIY photobooth where I made all the 2D props and Natalia lent us her equipment and helped us set it all up!! IT was a lot of work so we really appreciate all your help Natalia! We also set up a fun bubble station, ball pit tent with tunnel, and basketball hoop play area for all the kids! That definitely occupied the kids while the adults mingled and it also burned out a lot of the kids’ energies, you’re welcome! =P We ordered tons of Vietnamese food and my mom made her famous pasta salad and my aunt made her yummy fried rice! We bought a bunch of fruit and stuck them on skewers for our rainbow fruit skewers, and I also baked all the yummy goodies for Lily’s dessert station! I made French Vanilla Mini Cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Frosting, Oreo Truffles (thanks Natalia for dipping them!!), and 6 types of Macarons (rose, mango, lemon, macha green tea, vanilla, and raspberry)! Since her party was held at the pavilion in front of our house, I made her a display cake instead of a real cake because I didn’t want it to melt in the heat. We ordered a mixed berry cake from Givral, that wasn’t decorated since we were just going to cut it up and serve it! We also got two small special cakes for our niece Ngan, and cousin Mimi since the 8th is also Ngan’s birthday, and the day before (the 7th) was Mimi’s birthday!!
We had tons of balloons everywhere since her theme was Up inspired that eventually turned into a rainbow theme with cute owls with an earthy feel haha. Auntie Jennifer made a really nice banner from her pre-birthday celebration in Canada back in April. I also made another banner myself since we had a lot of space to display banners, and Pixar’s Up inspired centerpieces. Khoa was a huge help in making the goodie bags for the kids! These bags are filled with movable dinosaur erasers, color pencils, puzzle blocks, squeezable rabbit heads with popping eyes, flute whistles and a fun polka dot pinwheel! Roger and Khoa was also a big help in filling up the mason cookie jar favors as well! There are 4 types of flavors for the favors, chocolate chip, white chocolate macadamia nuts, oatmeal raisins, and brownies! We also had personalized water bottle labels with normal size water bottles and cute little baby water bottles, after all, it is Lily’s party! =) I also hung pictures of Lily from this past year and had a little fun fact about her behind each photo! I’ve also been singing to Lily the birthday song days before her party so that she would be familiar with the song, so that way when everyone sings it at her party, she won’t get startle by the loud noise and be excited instead!! Hehe. Also, thanks Chi Hai for the amazing tip to buy the white plastic dessert tray/plates from Party City! They’re very light weight, looks really nice, is a really good size, and most of all CHEAP! It’s so convenient and it’ll make your display looking fabulous without breaking the bank on fancy ceramic plates! So if anyone needs nice plates to display their yummy treats on, go to Party City! I also had a Jenga Guest Sign-In where each person gets to take a piece from the Jenga tower, and sign a birthday wish for Lily! They have to be careful not to make the tower fall though otherwise Lily’s birthday wish won’t come true!
Lily had a special Smash Cake session a few days before her birthday so we can capture her first time eating cake! Also, this is convenient because not only do we get super nice photos from it, but it allows Lily to get all frosted up and covered with cake goodness, and then we can hose her down and not worry about time or keeping her party guests waiting while we do so! We also took family photos the weekend before Lily’s birthday to document out first year with our precious baby! Our photographer Janet was also our wedding photographer who also did our engagement photos (5 years ago!) and so it was a great way to complete this cycle but having her take out 1 year family milestone photos! We took photos at this great venue called the Monteleone Meadows in Murrieta, and we got super lucky that a wedding was going to take place later that day because we got to take advantage of all their pretty decorations! They had this cool vintage looking chair right as the dock of the pond, and they had a cute dresser that Lily was very fond of as well. The venue was beautiful and it provide a variety of locations for shots! We then went to Havertown Park to take photos with Lily and balloons and bubbles and she sure does love the bubbles!! We then went back to Janet’s house for her in-house studio for the cake smash session! A special gift we got for Lily was that our friends David and Drexelle offered to take photos of Lily’s birthday party along with some portraits of Lily! They have their own successful photography business at D. Park Photography, and they also did Lily’s newborn photos! Thank you so much for these wonderful pictures that forever documents Lily’s 1st birthday!!! I made her cake myself, it’s French Vanilla with swiss meringue frosting. The inside of the cake is 6 layers, with each layer being one color of the rainbow! I embellished her cupcake cake with some fondant flowers and a butterfly on top. I added gold trimming to the flowers and butterfly for some added elegance!
We actually did a second smash cake session because we wanted a more white and brighter background, so her second cake that I made her had normal buttercream frosting since it was softer by nature and we hope it’ll stick to her face better =P. When we first put her in front of the cake, she literally just ignored it and kept crawling right past it and towards us! haha. It’s so funny but it made sense since she has NO idea what sweet deliciousness sat right in front of her! So we had to help her along and took and frosting and put it in her mouth. She loved it! However, she didn’t “smash” the cake or grab it herself. She’s quite a diva and we ended up having to break apart the cake ourselves and then feed it to her haha. A few times she did seem quite excited and waved her arms in the air and rubbed the cake all over her arms…Overall, it was a lot of fun memories to watch her enjoy her first birthday cake!! Thank you SO MUCH to our photographer Janet from Purely Capitvating Photography and to Mieng Saetia for taking these beautiful cake smash photos!!! The turnaround on these photos were amazingly fast and we appreciate all the hard work and accommodations you’ve made just for our Lily pad!!! Thank you!!! More photos from these session to come!
Lily seemed to have a good time at her first birthday party. Even though she won’t remember it, I know we can one day show here these pictures and show her what we did for her! She partied pretty hard on Saturday and so she slept pretty long and didn’t get a chance to finish opening her gifts, so we had to wait till the next day to open most of her birthday presents and boy did it take a while! She sure has so many people who love her and not only because of all the gifts she got, but from all the people who came to share this celebration with her and us, and all the wishes she got from those who weren’t even able to make it. The day after giving birth to Lily, we had a celebratory dinner at the hospital. It came with these small bottles of sparkling cider and I thought it was so cute! We got a bunch of them, at least 5 bottles because Steve was able the nurse to give us more since we were having a big “party” in our room haha, and so I decided to save one bottle. I wanted to drink it after Lily was 1 month old, but then we forgot, so then I figured we’ll drink it at 3 months since that’s also our 3rd wedding anniversary, but I also forgot. So finally, I decided we’ll just wait till she’s 1 years old! Don’t worry, I checked the expiration date and it doesn’t expire till March 2015 =). So on her birthday guess what happened, I FORGOT!!! haha. So we FINALLY drank it the following day, which works out nicely because we had the celebratory dinner the day after she was born anyways! So I’m glad we finally got to celebrate that! =)
Lily with all her opened treasure!
Lily with her celebratory cider!
Mommy daughter matching toesies!
Words cannot describe how I feel about our little angel being 1 years old. She is the joy of our lives and she deserves the very best in everything. All our hard work, late nights, exhaustion, and stress is all worth it to see our baby have a great time and have a huge smile on her face the whole time! She also already watched her first Disney movie, only 1/3 of it, and it’s The Little Mermaid. She loves to sit on my lap with and watch while chomping away at cheerios from her snack catcher! I just watch her in amazing at how she’s slowly becoming a little toddler, and I just can’t get enough of how cute she does every little thing! I love that her forehead crinkles every time she takes a bite of her cheerios, more like stuff her mouth with 3-4 cheerios, and how she gives me sweet kisses on the cheek, and how she knows to say “mom” every time she wants something!! This first year has flown by and so much has happened with so many memories. She’s even has a career as a baby model and has made a good amount towards her college fund already! We can’t wait to see what other adventures Lily has in store for us. Each day is a blessing with her and we cannot ask for a better life than this! Happy 1st Birthday our sweet baby Lily! We love you to pieces, forever and a half times double infinity!!!
Throughout this past year, I’ve been taking video clips of Lily whether it was of milestones, tiny accomplishments, or her just being silly and being Lily! Jennifer pieced together an AMAZING video with some clips we took of her in her first year of life, and it is a great recap of how much joy and love she brought to all of us! Thank you SO much Jennifer for doing this and for creating such a memory time capsule for us! Enjoy this super cute video of our precious Lily pad! Happy 1st Birthday our baby doll! We love you so so so so much!!!!
Lily Turns One from J.N. on Vimeo.
Lily’s 1st Trip to Canada!
Lily had her first big trip to Canada! I must warn you, this entree will have a lot of food pictures, so do not read when hungry! =P I was really nervous about how Lily would be on the plane, so we figured we’d try to pull a modern family and try to keep lily awake as long as naturally possible before the flight so that she’ll be sleepy and sleep on the plane. She did get drowsy when we arrived at the airport, and eventually slept for maybe 10 minutes when we were going through check-in and security. Then when we got on the plane, we gave her a bottle while we were taxi-ing, hoping she can drink as we take off to deal with the elevation change, but she finished it before we even took off. But luckily she fell asleep in no time and slept through most of the plane ride! She did so great and was a champ! She didn’t seem to be affected by the elevation change at all! When she woke up near the end of the plane ride, she was very curious and liked to look outside the window, and look at the people behind her. 
Everywhere she went she attracted all these attention from everyone, just by smiling at them, people had to stop and say hello to her! She sure is her father’s daughter =P. We also had this AMAZING egg salad sandwich at the airport in Denver during out layover, it’s at this deli called Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli, and the sandwich is called the Hell’s Kitchen Sandwich. It’s egg salad, with lettuce, tomatoes, swiss cheese, and a spicy chipotle sauce!!! Mhmmm, so good I had to give it a special shout out! haha. So next time you’re there, GET IT! It’s by the gates B80’s.
When we arrived at Jennifer and Andrew’s house, first thing I noticed when I got inside was a big pretty banner that said “Happy Birthday Lily!” There were macarons and mini cupcakes on the table and when little Lily water bottles too! They had dumplings and popcorn chicken as appetizers too which were really tasty with the dipping sauce. They got take out from the Spicy Hut Thai Restaurant, and we got to try some really good food, my favorite was the duck curry! The restaurant gave us free chicken fried rice and crunchy chicken as well since we ordered a lot of food! What great service in Canada hey? Haha! After our delicious meal, we all sat around while we all sang Happy Birthday to our Lily pad and ate a nice fruit cake that Andrew’s parents bought for Lily! We then went to the living room and opened Lily’s birthday presents, she was actually interested in some of the clothes, maybe cause of the bright colors on some of them haha. I think she still liked the tissue paper the most! Thank you Chan family for throwing our Lily pad a wonderful party, she truly is so loved and you made us feel special for allowing us to share this with Canada (yes the whole country…haha)! Our room was pretty much set up like a fancy hotel.
There were chocolates on our pillows, a little pack n play all set up for Lily, a little space heater to keep us warm at night, and even our cirque du soliel tickets were all printed out and ready for us at the desk, with a printed itinerary for the week as well! We had complimentary bottles of eye drops too, talk about fancy! 
Our bathroom was nicely decorated with 3 types of scented body wash, it had a brand new bottle of shampoo and conditioner, and one of the drawers under the sink was stocked with contact cases and solution for us, and the other drawer was stocked with diapers for Lily! Wow!!! We had our own set of towels hung up and even Lily had her own special froggie towel too! Talk about a warm welcome!
Jennifer and Andrew took us to the First Alliance Church (a Christian church) so that we can experience our first Christian church experience. It was quite interesting that they had free coffee and you can bring it inside. It was a good experience, not the usual formal ritual that we’re used to, but I’m glad we got to see it! The minister had a great message and it was all very practical and educational too. I liked it! After church we went to Thompson’s Resaurant at the Hyatt Hotel and got the all you can eat brunch buffet! They had so much food, and they even had an omelette station and all sorts of desserts (my favorite part)! They originally had plans for us to go to the Calgary Zoo but since it was snowing, we skipped that. Instead we just hung out at the house and prepared some dip for game night that was held at Bobby and Ivy’s house! Their house was SUPER nice and very modern. We got to meet their cute little doggie Joey too, who even got his own seat at the table because he likes to be part of the party!! They grilled some really tender yummy Alberta steaks and we improvised on the salad dressing but it came out pretty good (mixed some oil, balsamic vinaigrette, honey mustard, salt, pepper, and maple syrup!!). Bobby had some pretty nice (and expensive) wine, and all the guys polished off 3 bottles of wine and took a shot of PB&J vodka…Lets just say Khoa was not in great condition that night, and I had to “clean up” after him…haha.
River Cafe
On Monday morning, Jennifer had a groupon deal for a Skin Science Make-Up Lessons. The lady examined our skin and told us what we can do to keep our skin looking young and to present rapid aging and damage that can happen due to time and environment pollution/UV rays. Then she taught us how to best put on make-up on ourselves, and then did our make-up so that we can look fabulous for the rest of the day haha! Of course this groupon deal was super cheap, but the catch is you want to buy all their clinic products afterwards…but I’d say you must put some tender love and care to look good, so it was worth it! (I hope…haha). We all went to lunch at the River Cafe by Prince’s Island Park, where Amanda’s friend Matthias happens to be a chef there. He gave us complimentary oysters for visiting him, and boy were they good, I got to eat Khoa’s oyster since he hates seafood, woohoo!! We then stopped by Yaunn Hautte 
Bakery, this really cute yellow house that has a whole bunch of macarons and other really good smelling pastries! We went back to the house and played this new board game called Carcasonne, it is quite an addicting game that we went home (to the US) and bought one for ourselves to play!!! hehe. We then had dinner at Cravings with their friends Diana and Sean, who would be babysitting Lily the next day! That place a Monday special where all pastas were only $5, so we ALL got pasta, woohoo! They also had pizza, steaks, burgers, etc too. I then got a really moist tre leches cake for dessert too, see the trend of this vacation so far…food food and more fooooood!
On Tuesday, Jennifer had to work, so we got to spend the day with Andrew! For lunch we got these HUGE chicken schwarmas at Jimmy’s. They were the BEST schwarmas ever and boy was it an adventure in eating it. You cannot eat it without making a mess all over the table, your hands and face; we all felt like savages, but it was totally worth the mess haha. He then took us to the TD mall to visit the Devonian Gardens! I was super impressed because all the plants looked SO fake because it was SO perfect! Lily really loved the garden, she liked looking at the funny monkey head sculptures on the wall, touching the plants, and watching the koi fishes swim. The koi ponds were her favorite!! She loved it so much she was bouncing with excitement and I thought she was going to dive in with them! Haha! We then visited Jennifer at her office so Lily can play with the machines haha.
We then dropped Lily off with Diana and Sean and saw and amazing cirque du soliel show, Amaluna, at the Calgary Stampede at The Grand Chapiteau!
On Wednesday, we had most of the day to ourselves since both the Chans were at work. So I got a massage at Jennifer’s massage place she likes to go too, and got a nice relaxation massage! Afterwards, Khoa and Lily picked me up and we got lunch at a really good thin crust pizza place called Without Papers! They were playing Toy Story 3 at the restaurant, what an awesome place right??? Haha. We then we went at the Chinook Mall! I hit up all the stores that we didn’t have in the states, and they have some nice clothes, but I only ended up getting a few things from one store, called Suzy Shier! There’s a carousel there too and Lily was curious to see what that was all about haha. We all got dinner at Notable and that was a recently new restaurant that opened up and it was really good! Everything we ordered from the soup, the appetizers to the entrees were just really well done! It was a very enjoyable meal.
Thursday we had lunch at Over Easy Breakfast Co. They had really good Benedict eggs, breakfast bagels, waffles, french toasts and more! The decor of the place was really cute too from the lights to the ceiling art! The girls then got dropped off at home while the boys went go-karting, however the karting place was full to they went to shoot guns instead at an indoor shooting range! Jennifer and I watched Glee while Lily napped and then we took Lily to the local Farmer’s Market! The market was quite impressive. It was a really big indoor market with tons of fresh produce and lots of food! They even had samples at some of the food stations! They had some other miscellaneous shopping stations as well, with a kid’s play area and live music performers too. It was pretty fun place, I wish I knew of a market like that near home!
After that, we all met back at home so that we can go to dinner with Amanda, Diana and Sean again at an all you can eat Hot Pot place!!! I NEVER experienced this type of hot pot eating style before, so it was quite and interesting experience. The had all sorts of meats and veggies and tons of dipping sauces. They even had a variety of special drinks, including sugar cane juice too!! They had a lot of ice cream flavors and hot bean soups as well. Jennifer likes to eat her red bean soup with vanilla ice cream, it sounds weird, but it’s a really yummy idea haha!
Friday Jennifer took us to a good sushi place called Globefish, it’s right outside the Chinook Mall. We then went into the mall so that Jennifer and Khoa can get some really good coffee at Phil’s and Sebastian’s Coffee shop! Then we headed home so I can rest a little bit to ease the flu symptoms. They she took us to this cute little park behind their house to take some photos of Lily, then we went to Prince’s Island Park for some husband and wife photos! We then met up Andrew at Shikiji Ramen for some super delicious ramen! We had a reservation, but we had a wait a bit for this family to clear out, so they gave us complimentary appetizers of these mushrooms on a cracker…it was tasty! Haha. After dinner we went back home and had our last game of Carcasonne!!
You can see more pictures from our vacation here! I wanted to say and big THANK YOU to Jennifer and Andrew for working so hard to setting up our room and bathroom for our stay at their home. We appreciate all the efforts and hard work you’ve gone into making our stay as comfortable as possible!! Lily definitely had a great time and put that play mat to use as well! We could not have had a better time without you guys! Thanks for taking us around and showing us the sights and introducing us to all the yummy food places. So now I’ve saved the best for last! Check out this beautiful video Jennifer made that documented Lily’s 1st Visit to Canada!! Thank you so much Jennifer for making this time capsule for us, so that we can show Lily one day her first vacation to the great white north! We miss you both already, we hope to come back again soon! =)
Lily Visits Canada from J.N. on Vimeo.
Lily’s 1st Christmas!
This Christmas is a very special one because it’s Lily’s first Christmas and our first as a new family!! I’ve always wanted a real Christmas tree because I never had one before. So Khoa and I made a deal awhile back, that when we have a baby, we can get a real tree! So, it’s time to cash in on that deal! We went to Home Depot and picked out this 6-7 feet Noble Fir beauty! We got brand new Philips LED Twinkling lights, (it was a big 
search to find then since there were sold out in 3 different Targets!), a Martha Stewart snowflake string lights we got on sale after Christmas last year, and bought new colorful ornaments and a bright changing color star tree topper! We decorated the tree with all our past ornaments as well. We originally had the tree where we normally keep our fake tree, right by the couch, but since this is our special first real tree, I didn’t want it to be stuffed in the corner, I wanted it to BREATHE and be free to show off it’s beauty, so I got the idea to move the love seat to the dinner area, and put the tree in it’s place! Now everyone can truly enjoy it! Lily loves to look at all the pretty bright twinkling lights as well. She’ll stare with a huge smile on her face and bat at the tree!
We started out festivities the night before Christmas Eve by letting Lily open her very first Christmas present from her mommy and daddy! You can see the video of her opening her gift below! Lily did really well and I was able to help her open her gift, and she pretty much did exactly what we all thought she’d do, which is put the wrapping paper in her mouth haha! We got her a floor mirror toy with a textured caterpillar and bee on it for her to play with! She seems to like it, so yay! We also got her a Bright Start Clack and Slide activity ball and a little froggie security blanket!
The next morning, Jennifer took our family pictures at the George Washington Park just a few minutes away from our house in Anaheim. It started to lightly sprinkle a little bit, but she managed to capture a lot of great shots for us within 20ish minutes, and then it started pouring! Such great timing we were able to get those photos done!! I was then able to use these photos for our Christmas digital card! For more pictures from the photoshoot, click HERE!
We went to our usual Christmas Eve mass at St. George’s Catholic Church in Ontario, and then went back to Fontana to my uncle’s house to eat dinner and open presents! My parents made Bun Bo Xao and my aunt made Bun Bo Hue!! Such yummy foods; it was very satisfying! They also made a green bean and aloe dessert! Yummies galore! We then gathered around and opened presents, and the tradition is always youngest opens first! This year, Lily and her cousin Tracy got to open their presents first since they are the babies of the family! The evening was filled with lots of fun and we all enjoyed laughing at each others silly gifts. I think the winning gift this year was the back scratchers our cousin Tiffany got everyone! However, the most fun gift were these flying led toys that Andrew got my dad from Garden walk! They were a big hit and we all played with them outside. My dad was a natural pro with this toy! We then headed back home and I made winter macarons (vanilla penguins and snowman, and chocolate gingerbread men, click HERE for more info on them!) and then we played some card games (Dutch Blitz and Sabatuer) with Jennifer and Andrew.
The next morning, we said our goodbyes to Jennifer and Andrew =(. My parents came and took them to the airport at LAX. We got ready and headed over to Chi Hai’s new house in Portola Springs and did our annual Secret Santa Exchange!! Chi Hai and Anh Hai Mike made some REALLY good spam bowls, so we all gobbled that up and then had the secret santa exchange! I drew Chi Ba, and since Thai Anh wrote her a poem last year, she was expecting another poem this year in iambic form…so I tried REALLY hard to come up with a poem, so I wrote one about her new precious baby Connor! Khoa just had to show me up though and say this whole long winded touching speech about Anh Hai Mike and totally stole my thunder. Thanks a lot Khoa! Haha. Either way it was loads of fun! We then ended the festivities by singing 12 Days of Christmas, each having a verse while Chi Tu played the accordion!! We were short on people so An had to sing verse 9-12 haha! What a good sport! After this, we went to Di Anh’s house to visit Ong Ba Ngoai since they wouldn’t be there later tonight. 
Then we went to Khoa’s parents house to eat dinner with the family. His parents grilled Omaha Steaks, baked potatoes, corn, and mashed potatoes. There was also yummy chocolate cake too! After dinner they all came to our house to open presents, since we have a Christmas tree and it’s more festive. I also made some homemade apple cider for all of us to sip on as well! Lily is so cute during all of this, she tried so hard to stay awake, and be with the party, but she pooped out and we made her nap. When she wakes up, she always has a smile on her face and ready to party some more! That night we ended the whole celebration at Di Anh’s house and celebrated with the family there. We are so blessed to have so many people who love and care about us and Lily. It’s tiring to do so many things for just one holiday, but we are so lucky and grateful that we have all these events to go to in the first place! Hopefully next year, we’ll be able to have time to squeeze in our own traditions as well. For now, we have all the way until new years to have our little intimate family quality time, so we will make every moment special! Click HERE to see our Christmas Album!
Lily’s auntie Jennifer surprised us with this super sweet video of Lily’s 1st Christmas! It’s so wonderful to see Lily’s face in all these shots and just see her personality coming through. Thank you so much Jennifer for capturing these special moments that we will cherish forever! I can’t wait to show Lily this one day! Enjoy and Merry Christmas everyone!
Lily’s 1st Christmas from J.N. on Vimeo.
Lily’s 1st Disneyland Adventure
This is Lily’s first time at Disneyland, at 27 weeks and 1 day old, and we purposely chose to go during Christmas time because that is my favorite time to go! We dressed her up in a Minnie Mouse outfit that our cousin Lennie gave her! It came with a matching beanie and shoes, so cute!
We took her in the morning for just about 1.5 hours, and she fell asleep RIGHT AS we got inside Disneyland, so we just walked around ToonTown, maybe for 30 mins until she woke up. We wanted to go into Minnie Mouse’s house and have her take a picture with Minnie Mouse, but she was still sleeping and the wait was too long. When she did wake up, we took a few photos of Lily in front of the castle, It’s A Small World, etc., and then went to lunch. Her trip was very short, but while she was awake, she seemed to like observing all these new things. We let her see the tea cup rides because of all the colors! Khoa and I came back later to enjoy Disneyland while Lily was with her grandparents! =) I say it’s a win win situation for everybody. Lily got to see some new things today, her grandparents gets to play with her, and Khoa and I got to FINALLY see Cars Land!! The whole time we were there, Khoa and I kept pointing things out “Oh imagine when Lily gets to ride on that…I can’t wait till Lily’s running around waiting to see this… Lily will totally love that!” I can’t wait to take Lily back her when she’s older and can remember and truly get excited about the whole experience! Until then, we have this nice photo for the memories! For more pictures, click HERE!
Our 1st Family Vacation
We went on our first little vacation with Lily this past weekend at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes! I got a deal on travelzoo a couple months ago because we heard about this nice resort from our friend Kelsey who went there three years ago! When we first arrived at the resort, we were greeted with complimentary champagne talk about fancy! Of course, I took one and gave it to Khoa, the perks he gets for marrying me =P. Our room was really nice and spacious, with a nice balcony with an ocean view! 
There was lots of room for us to put her adventure gym and toys to make Lily feel right at home! We forgot her pack n play at home, but luckily there was a love seat with firm seats, that we used as her bed, and faced it against the wall and it was a perfect “crib” for her. We had dinner that night at Bashi, an Asian Fushion Restaurant! We ordered the shaken beef, garlic noodles, and BBQ spare ribs. I also got a coconut soda while Khoa got a “perfect pear” cocktail drink. We then got a milk chocolate banana tart, soooo yummy!
The next day we enjoyed a complimentary breakfast at the Catalina Kitchen. We then decided to go to the shopping center nearby. At first, Khoa “followed the directions” and we ended up at a Ralphs, and he insisted that was the shopping center…I told him to look up the directions again, and 5 minutes later we arrived at the REAL shopping center! It was sprinkling on and off that day and it was rather foggy, so I wasn’t pleased when the mall ended up being an outdoor mall, but it’s ok, we got to browse some stores and take a picture in front of a giant Christmas tree, we’re such tourists haha. After our stroll, we went exploring the little shops at the actual resort and we came across this store called Marea, and they had a really cute kid section. They had the cutest baby girl headbands, so I couldn’t resist and bought Lily 2 headbands, one which she will wear on her 1st birthday =P. They were a little expensive…but it’s all worth it for my little princess!!
Later that day the fog cleared up and the rained stopped so we rushed outside to see the sunset! It was an amazing view and Lily just woke up from her nap too so timing could not have been any better! We wanted to hike to the Vincente Lighthouse that was maybe 1-2 miles away, but we wouldn’t have made it before it got dark, so we just enjoyed the sunset and the amazing ocean view. We then went to dinner at Mar’cel, a fancy restaurant at the resort. They had really yummy food as well and the service was really nice as expected! Everywhere we go, everyone just had to stop and look at Lily, she’s such a show stopper haha. She sat in the little booster chair too and really enjoyed being at the table with mommy and daddy! But before our food came out, she got sleepy and spent the rest of dinner sleeping cozy in her stroller. That night we relaxed by watching a bunch of food network in our hotel room. 
It was nice and relaxing, and since we don’t have cable, I really enjoyed watching all the food shows I was missing out on, and I saw some new shows I never even heard of, like Sugar Dome and Sugar Genuis haha! However, the downfall of watching food shows late at night is that it makes me hungry…so Khoa went and got me a Truffle Mac N Cheese from Catalina Kitchen! It was so satisfying!!! Lily still was able to sleep through the night with ease, it was nice to hear her snore now and then. Since she sleeps in her own nursery, I don’t get that pleasure every night, so it was really a nice memory to have.
The next morning, Lily was being a little stubborn and didn’t want to drink her bottle but wanted to watch the food network instead. What a little couch potato! Haha! She’s so cute though, I must not fall into that habit, but how can you possibly say no to that face! After she finally drank her bottle, we enjoyed a yummy complimentary breakfast buffet at the Catalina Kitchen again. Since the rain stopped for a little bit and the fog cleared up some more, we decided to have breakfast in their patio with the ocean beside us! It was a nice day, cloudy, but still very nice! After breakfast, we checked out of our room and took a stroll along the ocean. We then drove to the Vista Point by the Vicente Lighthouse. We got some nice pictures to conclude our stay at Terranea Resort! For more pictures from our Terranea getaway, click HERE!
On the way home, we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach! Boeing had a sponsored event where all their employees get to go for free and bring a guest, so Khoa and I went, and Lily is free of course! She was so curious at everything and was really alert and observant! The aquarium had some Hawaiian dancers putting on a little show for everyone, and Lily was very intrigued by the dancing and the music as well! She loved looking at all these new things she’s never seen before! Finally after about an hour and a half later, she was getting tired yet she still tried really hard to look around, but she finally she started to doze off in my arms. That concluded the end of our wonderful vacation! We got so many great memories, I can’t wait till our next adventures! For more pictures from the aquarium, click HERE!
“Whoa…is it gonna eat me?” – Lily
Lily’s 1st Thanksgiving, 2012
Thankful for our family!
We just celebrated our first Thanksgiving holiday as a new family! I wanted to make sure this thanksgiving was extra special this year since last year we were in New York and couldn’t be with the family, and that made me miss spending the holidays with everyone.
So this year, we stayed home and were able to spend it with lots of family! We spent Thanksgiving day at Di A’nh’s house where Khoa’s uncle, Cau Dung made the best, super moist, flavorful turkey we’ve ever had! The table was filled with lot of delicious home cooked foods like mashed potatoes, fried wontons, cream corn, stuffing, candied yams, and plenty of dessert made by Mo Thien (pumpkin flan, pumpkin log cake, and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!!).
Saying a prayer before the feast!
All the amazing food!
Lily was really hungry!
The next day, we had dinner at Lanta Thai Restaurant with Khoa’s immediate family! They had really good food there and we brought Lily’s booster seat for the first time. She loved it at first, and she was playing with the toys that came with it, but then she wanted to be held, so the 2nd half of dinner, she sat on all our laps haha. She wanted to join the party, that or eat our food…haha.
Saturday we had a friend’s gathering at our house with a small group of our closest friends! It was a potluck so everyone brought all their yummy foods, and we bought 2 roasted duck from Lien Hoa BBQ Deli in Westminster! It was really good! I also made deviled eggs an my newest baking adventure, Apple Pie Pops! There were a BIG hit! Click here to read more about the pie pops! Cynthia brought mashed potatos and roasted almonds, Aarin brought hawaiian sweet buns, fancy cinnamon butter and pumpkin scones, Steve brought spicy sausage bites, Alvina made green bean caserole, Bi-ying made salad and brought vanilla ice cream, Kristin brought cream corn, An and Linda brought veggie and fruit platters, and Roger brought a cheese and meats platters! After a very satisfying meal, we then played Munchkin (a super fun, but also really nerdy board/card game) that lasted till past midnight haha. It was great to see all our friends and play games, hang out, and eat good food!
On Sunday, we had lunch with my parents, and we ate at King Lobster and had dim sum, with some house special lobster and shrimp fried rice! It was nice to spend all this time with all our family. For more pictures of all of our Thanksgiving festivities, click HERE! As we live our day to day lives, it’s really easy to forget what’s really important. So I love the holidays because it’s a reminder, and good way to force us all to remember the simple joys in life and be with one another. I have so many things in my life to be thankful for this year; my loving family, relatives, and friends. I’m thankful for having a nice home, a cute doggie, and food at the table everyday. I’m thankful for a loving husband who loves and cares about me, and puts up with all my shenanigans. Most of all, I’m thankful for our bundle of joy, our Lily pad.
So thankful for our Lily pad!
For her Thanksgiving day photo, I wanted to have a large cornucopia with her surrounded by bountiful fruits and flowers. I didn’t know that cornucopia baskets sell out really quickly, so it was a big challenge to find one. Once we did find one (thanks to Khoa’s searching skills), it was still too small. So I bought a basket from Michaels and cut it up, wrapped it around the small cornucopia, and wrapped some twine vines around it, to make it bigger. I bought a bouquet of flowers, some fruit, and reused the leave garland from her pumpkin photo session, and laid a small towel in the middle for her to sit on and she was ready for her photo! A cornucopia (horn of plenty) symbolizes and abundance, and nourishment so usually whatever you put inside of it always overflows to portray that. So Lily in this case, is our abundance of joy and love. She overfills our hearts with happiness, she is our biggest joy in our life, and I cannot express in words much I love her and how happy she makes me. She makes all my days days good, and my good days even better. Thank you my baby Lily! I love you SOOOOO much! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Lily at 23 weeks & 6 days old!
Khoa’s 1st Birthday as a Daddy!
Happy 1st Birthday to Khoa as a Daddy!!! In case you don’t know, he just turned 28 years old! This year I wanted to make Khoa’s birthday extra special because he’s a new daddy, so I planned a full weekend filled with fun events! We had a surprised birthday party for Khoa at our house Friday night. I ordered food from Famous Dave’s BBQ, one of Khoa’s favorite food item is RIBS! So the catering choice was a no brainer! We had a house filled with a bunch of friends and family all sharing the love and joy of Khoa’s special day! I made an edible print of his Diablo3 character, a demon hunter, (thank you An for getting the screenshot for me!) and put it on top of a Marie Calendar’s banana cream pie, one of his favorites! However, instead of printing on a wafer sheet, which was what I was familiar with, I decided to print it on a frosting sheet since it’s supposedly better, the print ended up dissolved and bled into the pie =(. It looked quite horrible when I opened the box a few hours later. Good thing I bought 2 pies so I can bring out the other pie for the cutting. I was so sad, but now I know what not to do next time, which is not to use frosting sheets on super moist surfaces. Anyways, the party was really fun and thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate!!
The next morning on Khoa’s actual birthday, November 3rd, we started the day by going jet packing in Newport at a company called Jetlev! I got a deal for this event on Amazon Local Deal! We took Lily along and she hung out on the beach in her stroller since we fly one at a time! She slept through most of it but when she was awake, she had fun playing with her feet and enjoying the beach! I was super nervous for my flight, I went first unfortunately. They made me do a swim test first and that was when I knew this wasn’t going to be good. I tried to swim but I just kept sinking. I had so much trouble, I kept flying to the right and falling into the water. After 10 minutes of struggling, I finally ending my adventure when I did a face plant into the shore…My right eye lid is scraped badly and my eye bruised and my nose bled a little bit, but overall, I’m ok! I was able to give Khoa the rest of my flight time so he was able to fly longer. He had much more luck than me and did SUCH a great job! He was my rocket man soaring through the air! They didn’t even make him to a swim test, he was a natural!! Check out the video below of his flight! At the end, the instructor told him to “fly” without hands and to flap like a bird, unfortunately this made Khoa yank out the key in the ignition and so he fell haha. Other than that, he did great with all his “mocking God”, submarines, dolphins, and other tricks in the air!
That evening we went to the BIGBANG concert at the Honda Center with Lisa Guan and her boyfriend Eric Chao! I won’t say much about this since this is Khoa’s post, but this was the most AMAZING concert and one of the most amazing events of my life (besides my wedding day, Lily’s birth, and anything related to Khoa being in my life of course =P). Taeyang even did two of his solo songs, Look Only At Me and Wedding Dress, soooo amazing!!! After the concert, Khoa bought me a t-shirt and a wand, and completed my night, I mean Khoa’s birthday! You can see more pictures and videos from the concert HERE!
The next day, I asked mother nature for more time to enjoy Khoa’s birthday celebration, so we got a whole extra hour to sleep in!! Oh the things I manage to get for Khoa! =) I was planning to make Khoa a nice breakfast at home, but we had SO MUCH BBQ leftovers that we just ate that instead. We then went to church at noon and brought Lily inside with no carseat for the first time, and she was so good! She was awake the entire time and just sat there and enjoyed everything! We then went to the mall to get some milk tea and relaxed at home with some TV shows. I made dinner reservations and surprised Khoa by taking him to a Brazilian BBQ restaurant called Agora Churrascaria in Irvine. They had a very nice salad bar and 16 types of all you can eat meat ranging from chicken, fish and red meats. Khoa’s been bugging me for a long time to eat Brazilian BBQ, so FINALLY this was the perfect surprise. I found it on yelp and this place had really good reviews and it definitely lived up to it’s expectations. Just make sure you come with a very empty stomach because there’s a LOT of food there! I told the waitress it’s Khoa’s birthday and he got a birthday flan dessert on the house! We ended the night by watching some more TV shows, it was nice and relaxing, great way to end the birthday weekend celebration! Happy 28th birthday Khoa, you deserve the best and I hope you enjoyed your special 1st birthday as a wonderful DADDY! Lily and I love you to pieces!!!
More meats please!
