Saturday, September 27, 2008

Preschool

Little bugs she drew..the one on the left is me (notice circles around eyes-they are glasses!) and the one on the right is ryan.  too cute!

we've made it through two weeks of preschool now!! here are some photos from her first day
just as we arrived!  

Her preschool first day outfit-ponytail and all!!

cousins!  they are in the same class.  i LOVE it!


Check me out!  


Tuesday, September 23, 2008

the big 30!!!

My awesome sister turned 30 on Sunday!  I tried to celebrate / suprise her (which is HARD!) by doing everything in '30's'.  at 9:30 i gave her 30 roses from our garden, at 10:30 she got 30 balloons, at 11:30-11:30p every 1/2 hr she got (or was suppose to!) texts and phone calls from her friends and i wishing her a happy birthday...at 4:30 we took her to Gabbi's (an AWESOME mexican restaurant at the Orange Circle!!!) and at 6:30 we had her favorite pie for dessert.  She also got 30 one dollar bills from us to go towards her D-Land pass (also a tradition from my grandma i tried to incorporate to bring her into Marisa's celebration) 

All in all, i think it all went off w/o a hitch!  WE love you ZIA and hope you felt celebrated!!!  

Daniel and Marisa after Gabbi's

Marisa opening her 30 one dollar bills wrapped around a can of beans-just like Grandma-ma did it!!

wearing the money

Playing with the wrapping

Daniel and Em...

It's here!!!

This past week has been a bunch of firsts....one being, WILL'S THREE!!!  can you believe it??!!?Here is a picture of me and the birthday boy this morning before he jetted off to play with his new toys


Here is the family on Saturday-the day we celebrated his birthday-monkey theme because 1) he LOVES them and 2) he IS one!!
Happy birthday little man!!  You fill my heart with joy and i LOVE having a boy to discover the world with!!  

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Will is turning three...

Our little man is turning three!!  We have begun celebrating with a combo birthday bash with Ryan's family.  We celebrated my birthday (august 29th), Desi's birthday (my niece), Anthony (my nephew) and Wills birthday!!  It was so much fun!!  We built HUGE home-grilled burgers, played in the pool, played with water guns, decorated our own red velvet cupcakes (will's favorite color is red) and entered into the world of boy!!  Will has had his own toys apart from Emily's dolls, princess clothes and jewels-but it's really only been like cars and blocks.  He got his first dinosaurs and monkeys and will i'm sure receive more boy toys as the month continues till his actual sept. 23rd birthdate.  And with Emily starting preschool tomorrow (photos will be posted!) I am now feeling old-and no longer a mom of babies, but a mom of kids.  Time really does fly by!  



Ed's HUGE burger!  I had to take a photo of it-how will he get his mouth around this!!


Will-post cupcake-doing his typical face : )


The opening of the dinosaur 

i'll post more as more celebrations continue : )

Changing

A LONG time ago...I said I would show you the little changes I was going to make in an effort to live more sustainably and less wasteful.  Below are three little photos of changes i've made.  


I have a basket (below) full of towels, older towels and older napkins that I use instead of paper towels.  I was going to buy all new towels and have them be all white and amazing, BUT then i thought, "another way to continue to live sustainably, is not to spend more money on items that really are meant to be dirty and not white and pretty!" therefore, I just am using what I already had!  I re-use a towel till it's just too dirty or smelly, put it off to the side in a pile to be added to the laundry pile, and then use another.  (also, on the side, is my aluminum water bottle-the only thing i don't like about it-i can't fit my ice cubes in them-i will need to purchase an ice mold maker in long tubes (at ikea) to put in my bottle)  The thing i LOVE about it-it's a  perfect size for my bag, it was $5 at pottery barn (and others online were like $20!) and it will fit in the pottery barn lunch pail that is made from chemical free insulation and has glass containers for your food to match.  

No more paper napkins!  Finally-a daily excuse to use my cute linen napkins i've only used in the past for special occassions-but isn't every day with your family a special occassion!?  and not creating more waste is also another reason to celebrate! (okay-cheesy, i know!)


My little recycling station.  I only made a station for the things I can either locally recycle or to on campus (oh, how i wish i could have more!)  The company that picks up the trash separates the other stuff in my trash for recycling.  The trash containers I got at Home Depot for $6 or $8 dollars a piece, the base they are standing on is a shoe organizer from Target for $10.  As you can see, the used napkins or used towels i put between the cans and at the end of each day, I just pick them up and put them in the hamper.  The middle shelf is all the cardboard boxes I will tie up and place in the trash to have recycled.  The bottom shelf are plastic grocery sacks that I have to take back to the local grocery store.  Staters, Albertsons, Vons and Fresh & Easy all have a place at each entrance/exit for you to put clean plastic bags for recycling.  My reusable bags (i got from trader joes for a buck a pop-to feed my whole family, i bought 6-that contains all the food i've needed.  5 bags-1 insulated bag for milk) i keep them in my trunk so i don't ever forget them.  I got the pictures off of google images and just glued them onto cute paper so the kids would know where to put what (another reason why i made the station, so they'd begin to learn how to recycle).  We actually just took our first load of plastic and glass to the recycling center and made $2!!!  I told Emily that we'd put that towards our gelato night!! 
; ) Any questions?  lemme know!!  also, let me know the changes you are making!!

Some other changes we've made:
All bath products are organic.  What we wash our bodies with I have seen, affects our skin.  William's skin has always been uber sensitive and since going organic with bubble bath, soap, lotion-he has totally slowed down his itching.  Seriously-i thought i wasn't going to see a change-but i did.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE  method baby (target).  i wish i could buy a costco size bottle of it because i love the smell so much i'd use it!!  i use aubry organic baby lotion after bathtime...oh-the kids just smell edible!!  i LOVE it!!
Adult soap-i used Jason-tea tree.  It lasted about 2 months!  it's a pretty large bottle that we all used till i got method last shopping trip. I saved the bottle (because it has a great pump top) and am going to refill it with whatever I can find (method sells refillable bags of soap at target) once we are done with it.  
My shampoo-I tried avalon organic from traders-terrible! smelt great (lavender) but the conditioner didn't work at all.  I am now using giovanni organic and love it.  i got it at henrys, but i think you can get it at target.  it's $7 a bottle-and has lasted me a good month and 1/2. that is with ry and i using it.  i would love a cheaper one that works and doesn't cause my hair to dread-but for now, i'll stick with this.  
anyone have a good face wash?  I like my alba wash (ad love my alba lip gloss!!!)-but don't really have anything i like for after wash (used Juice (from sephora) but not super stoked on it).  I just feel like my face looks older.  that also could be because i'm older! (just turned 34 and am acutely aware of my wrinkles all of a sudden!)...i'd like a killer moisterizer and make up ideas...
As I am finishing up my cleaning supplies, I am moving towards green products.  anyone have anything they like for toilets, mirrors and wood kitchen tables?  

wow-thanks for reading the novel!!  finally had time to catch everyone up!!

More Banquet photos

Dress #4...she is just beautiful, every time in each dress!!


Our cousins, waiting for the garter toss (which was won in a three way tie by three little guys in the front!!)

The fish I didn't try, that was part of the last course.  why didn't i try it-well...it was served and snatched up before we could get some-because our cousin ellen volunteered us to sing !!  that's right, the DJ was singing from a karaoke machine, and ellen told him we'd sing the couple a song.  HELLO!!!  so, ry and i ROCKED (ha ha ha) "endless love"  : )  omg...only for Gary!!
Dress number three-going around for toasts with each table!
Oh-lobster...it was sweet and buttery and ended too quickly!!
Michelle and sweet Kaitlyn fast asleep

family

something i have come to love more and more with every event, is ryan's family. if you don't know, ryan is 1/2 chinese. and i LOVE his family!! i wish we could see them more!! well, last night, we did! Gary (our cousin) got married on 8/8/08 and yesterday was the banquet (which is tradition) to celebrate!! Oh, did we!! Can i tell you how amazing the food is?!?! you eat i think it was 5 courses, then have a break, then 3 or so more!! duck, bbq pork, shrimp and walnuts, albacore, mushrooms and bok choy, soups (shark fin-not that great-but worth trying), battered scallops, some fish that i have NO idea what it was, but we ended with lobster and a sweet bean soup to ring in the sweetness of marriage and a YUMMY strawberry cake. i only got a photo of a couple courses because i was eating so much i didn't want to be bothered to stop and take a picture!!


The happy couple!!-dress one!  (she changed i think 4 times!!)  I asked if it was tradition or representing something and Michelle (our cousin and sister of the groom) said, "no-we just like to change dresses!"  Good enough reason for me!!  
Sweet Kaitlyn (Michelle's daughter, our cousin) 10 months
Our aunt (Ryan's dad's sister-who is 20yrs older) amazing story-Ed's dad came to america and left Joan-Ga (below) and his wife in china to make a life for them in San Fran-20 years later, he returned for them, they had Ed (my father in law) and came to america.  Our last name is really "Fong", Low is a name from a stolen passport.  So, we'd actually be, Ryan and Alyssa Fong!!  
Family!!  Ryan, Aly, Aunt LeAnn and Ed!!  


something i have come to love more and more with every event, is ryan's family.  if you don't know, ryan is 1/2 chinese.  and i LOVE his family!!  i wish we could see them more!!  well, last night, we did!  Gary (our cousin) got married on 8/8/08 and yesterday was the banquet (which is tradition) to celebrate!!  Oh, did we!!  Can i tell you how amazing the food is?!?!  you eat i think it was 5 courses, then have a break, then 3 or so more!!  duck, bbq pork, shrimp and walnuts, albacore, mushrooms and bok choy, soups (shark fin-not that great-but worth trying), battered scallops, some fish that i have NO idea what it was, but we ended with lobster and a sweet bean soup to ring in the sweetness of marriage and a YUMMY strawberry cake.  i only got a photo of a couple courses because i was eating so much i didn't want to be bothered to stop and take a picture!! 

famous!!!

Check us out!!!...


we're famous!!!  (okay...maybe for a week at least!!)  my friend texted me and said, "hey, since when did you become a frame family?"  i didn't know what she was talking about till she texted me the photo of us in this week's michael's ad!!  And there we are!!  Our 2007 family christmas photo in the ad!!  We signed a release form with our photographer (who is AMAZING!! Hire him!) Adam Kazmierski (a former student of ours) to allow him to post our photos on his website for purchase (since he does it for free for us, it was the least we could do!)...when you sign that, you don't think you will end up in a michaels ad!!  so...flip through your ad and bring it by, we'll be setting up our autograph hours shortly ; )  ha ha ha...