Since k’s birthday is right around Christmas, it will always be difficult to try to plan her birthday parties/activities. However, we knew we had to do something for her first birthday! We decided to go with a snowman theme. My parents were gracious enough to host the party since our place would not have comfortably accomodated the thirty or so guests.

I had D take k for a walk right before the party so she would fall alseep and be well-rested. Sure enough, it worked:

There was cookie decorating and a cookie swap. Note to self: force people to take more cookies home so we don’t end up with so many left-overs! I tried to make a “miniature foods” theme, so we had mini cakes, ice cream cones, sandwiches, veggies, chicken, etc. We even had a “mini bar” with toddler-friendly foods: cheerios, puffs, rice crackers, apple juice etc. Unfortunately, we do not have pictures to share 🙁

I will post more later…too much to do, and flickr is being difficult tonight.

For those of you who don’t know, k has an Uncle K. A couple of weekends ago we (along with a lot of other peeps) helped him and my sister move to their new house in Irvine. As a “thank you” they had us all over last weekend. Uncle K made some delicious chili and there was “pick your carb”: rice, rolls, cornbread and spaghetti. (I had a little of all of them, thank you very much!)

It’s that banana box again!

Pushing k is good exercise

Crawling through tunnels is one of k’s favorite activities.

Recently, I haven’t had a chance to post as much as I would like.

I forgot to say that for Black Friday we went to Ikea for their free breakfast. We ended up getting two free breakfasts (on the right) and buying one 99 cent breakfast (on the left). It wasn’t too crowded, and I was able to buy my new desk for 11.23% off! I would definitely go there again next year.

Here’s a video from Thanksgiving. I’m still working on the videos of k walking, so hopefully they’ll be up soon.

This video really isn’t too exciting…it’s mainly k eating turkey. Watch for her “squinty smiles” in the very beginning, though. Very cute.

In other news, k’s bangs are definitely growing out:

Well, the holiday season is upon us, and already it feels really busy. On Saturday morning I went to a Women’s Christmas brunch at WPC and we were reminded that the focus should be on the birth of Jesus.

From Wednesday until today we were all staying at my parents’ house because our condo was being fumigated. It kind of felt like a mini vacation since our meals/dishes were taken care of and we were sleeping in a different bed. However, now our place is a mess (food in bags, laundry to be done, etc.) I guess the vacation is over!

We still have some shopping to do, but I’m hoping to get most of it done on the internet this week. I need to get the remainder of my Christmas cards out this week, too. Also, I am trying to plan k’s 1st birthday party in a couple of weeks. On top of all of this, my work hours have temporarily increased to 40 a week, so things are a bit overwhelming.

On another note, Armed Services Bowl…here we come! Haha. D has been so disgusted with how Cal has been playing, he said he would never watch another game. We’ll see about that.

Before heading over to my parents’ house this morning, we watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special.

I was also excited to hear that my beloved HK had her own balloon at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade:

The target time for Thanksgiving dinner was 3 p.m. After cooking up a storm, my mom managed to have the food ready not too much later than that. We had two turkeys (at my request, for leftovers), and ham, plus all of the usual sides: sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, creamed corn, rolls, cranberry jello/sauce, stuffing, salad and rice. I volunteered to provide dessert, so I made a pumpkin pie with gingersnap crust and pumpkin ice cream. I also bought a huge apple pie from Costco. It weighed over five pounds!

k and SaSa

Hey, that’s not a banana!

D, k and I all participated in a 5k walk for juvenile diabetes on Sunday morning. D signed up through his work, which was a major sponsor of the fundraiser. It was a pretty big event, with plenty of free food (which is always good in our book). Thank you for those who sponsored D!

The walk itself went through the campus of UCI. We were at the very front, at the starting line. We finished in about 48 minutes–not bad. I was glad we were at the front though, because there was a major back-up of people behind us. They were barely walking! Plus, we were able to get in line for the food earlier. 🙂

k started to get antsy right before the race started. She calmed down once we started moving, though, and eventually fell asleep.

Someone, who will remain nameless, dislikes wearing socks, and didn’t even wear socks for the walk!

Look at that traffic jam!

Headed towards the finish line.

k had a Mazda shirt too, but it was way too big. She wore her Reebok track suit instead. She really stood out in the team photo.

On Saturday afternoon, we went to the Grand Opening for the Shops at Rossmoor. If there’s free food involved, you’ll probably find us there. It wasn’t anything too exciting, though, just waters, sodas, popcorn, 1/2 croissants (from Peet’s), cornbread (from Marie Callendar’s) and cotton candy, which we didn’t have. We did receive some free tote bags–nice! There was also a youth orchestra and a magician/balloon animals guy.

I guess I’ll stop by at Ann Taylor Loft once in a while, but I’m not sure about the other “anchor stores”: Chico’s and Coldwater Creek. I don’t think I’m the target demographic for those stores yet. We’ll probably try out Mel’s when it opens (in the old Parasol building).

k likes to feed us food.

Here are some pics from k’s first halloween. We went to WPC’s Harvest Festival. D ended up playing the games for k, but she seemed to enjoy it. I guess we’ll be eating her candy!

k the bunny rabbit. (Sasa made the outfit. k also has a big fluffy tail).

Bowling for bunnies.

Family photo op.

Meet the “Harley” Pastor booth.

D with cotton candy, making sure we went to all of the booths. He even won a goldfish, but we declined.

Going to the Big Island for the last week allowed me to eat at many great restaurants of which 5 made my list. In addition, I went to many great beaches and other natural wonders. After much thought, I decided to fully revamp my destinations list. The revised list allows greater flexibility for me and easier readability for the readers since it is broken out by geographical location. L will provide the color commentary, but for now here are my revised lists.

Restaurant List

Destinations List

k still has a couple months to go before she turns one, but on Saturday we helped celebrate our friends’ son’s first birthday. The theme was The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

The parents did a really good job chronicling little m’s life through a scrapbook and DVD. It made me realize I need to get on that stuff for k! At least I can go back to this blog to help remind me of some of the details. Watching the DVD of m’s birth (not the actual birth, of course!)brought back a lot of memories (both pleasant and not-so-pleasant) to D and me.

Blowing out the candles.

Enjoying his first taste of pure sugar.

I think k enjoyed the opening of m’s presents more than he did!

I’ve been debating whether to have a one-year party for k. It’s right around Christmas, so I know everyone is really busy. I think we will try to have one, though, since she’ll only turn one once!