THORiffic!

The hubby and I had date night tonight while Tita Bot, my mom & co. watched Zo-Zo bear. We ended up watching Thor -- despite Jay's "so-so" review of the movie, we both LOVED it! That Hemsworth guy has some muscles!!! And I also liked Natalie Portman's role =). As much as I love being around Zoe, I really enjoy these date nights with Mike. We don't have them too often, but when we do, it's always nice to pretend it was like the "old" days. They say everything changes when you have a kid ... and it's true, for the most part. However, it changes but not necessarily in a negative way. The change that really happens is that you just have to do a little more planning when and if you go out. It's not like you can NEVER go out ... it's just a matter of planning ahead of time for either a babysitter or a baby-friendly place if you plan to take the baby with you. I don't think I'd ever trade "chaotic spontaneity" for my Zoe bear. She has totally ENHANCED our life and just makes it so much more fulfilling! I love that we can "pretend" we're young crazy single people again from time to time and then we get to come back to such a BETTER reality of being mommy and daddy to Zoe Grace =).

Extreme couponing!

So .... I've slipped further into housewife oblivion ... I've entered the world of couponing! Thanks to the show "Extreme Couponing" my husband has encouraged me to try to tackle on this new "hobby". I've never really clipped coupons before, but after watching just a few episodes of that show, I must say the amount of money they are able to save is quite intriguing! I really want to help keep us in budget, so I figured I might as well give it a try. I'm not sure if we'll end up using the coupons I clip since we are almost always at Costco and not at a regular grocery store, but I thought I'd try it out. To kick start my extreme couponing adventure, I found a coupon online for a one year Sunday-only subscription to the LA Times for only $9.88 (as opposed to $52/year)!!! To make it more "extreme" I got three copies so that's 3x more coupons =) !!!! The hubby was pretty proud of my find as well! We'll see where this takes me .... I know it will be a bit time consuming to clip all those coupons (x3 no less), but if it is able to help us save more money, then so be it! Now that I'm couponing, I totally feel more housewife-ish ... which isn't such a bad thing, is it? =)

Fell asleep in crib for first time!

I've been playing with the idea of having Zoe sleep in her crib instead of the basinnet or the swing ... so today, I decided to try putting her in there for an afternoon nap.  I read that it's better to get the baby used to her new crib environment little by little -- until they get used to their new digs and actually enjoys it.  It took longer than usual for her to fall asleep, but once she did, she looked so grown up!!!  She didn't seem to mind all the space and actually fell asleep looking at all the patterns and textures in her bedding!  Look how CUTE she looks!!!  Waaaaah -- she's growing up toooo fast!!!  It's good to know she doesn't mind the crib -- now to figure out when mommy feels ready to let her actually sleep in there overnight!

Zoe interacting with her jungle friends

Zoe is getting more and more interactive these days! It's great to see her so curious about everything. She's such a smart little girl and I really enjoy watching her discover the world!!! She loves her jungle friends play mat -- her eyes totally light up!!! Here's the video:

Strawberry Festival

Since we're now officially Oxnardians, we thought we'd hit up the annual Oxnard Strawberry Festival. To our disappointment, it wasn't really a great festival. It cost $10 to park and $12 to get in and everything inside was super expensive! I guess we were expecting more strawberry stuff ... instead, it was just a bunch of craft stalls and expensive food. We tried to get "everything strawberry" but there really wasn't that much stuff ... we ended up eating strawberry nachos (which is really more like cinnamon chips with strawberries) and deep fried strawberries (which tasted like donuts). Good thing we had good company though! Tasha, Lawrence, Mao and Tita Mai, Jay, Jeric and Mike's mom joined us and we ended up having a good time despite the disappointing strawberry fest. They all enjoyed hanging out with Zoe ... that Zoe -- she always saves the day =) Here's the links to some videos we took of Zoe playing with Tash ...

Zoe also showed everyone she's starting to teethe =):

Zoe gets caught talking to her guardian angels =)

Last night, after we put Zoe into her bassinet, we overheard her babbling/talking. Careful not to disturb her, we quietly peered over the bassinet and saw her talking to the little kids in the pattern of her bassinet bedding! It was the cutest thing!!! It actually looked like she was have a real conversation with them. When she finally saw us looking at her, she knew she was caught! Her reaction was priceless as I was trying to interrogate her on who her guardian angels were.

Here's the link to the video:

Zoe's four month celebration

For Zoe's four-monthsary celebration, my mom cooked a delicious Pinoy breakfast for everyone -- complete with fried eggs, garlic fried rice, tocino, jefrox and longonisa!! Sometimes, simple food like that is the BEST anyone can ever have! It was great getting together with our family, Mao and her mom. They all loved watching Zoe play with her jungle friends (yes, we now bring that to LA with us every weekend to keep her busy while we eat!). Happy 4 Months baby girl!!! Time sure is a-flying!!!!

"Don't mess with me"

Mike was playing with Zoe last night and at some point she seemed to get really annoyed/pissed at him. She made this "angry" face and put up her fist as if she was preparing to sock him in the face! It was one of the funniest things we've ever seen her do ... literally, her face and cute little fists were saying "You wanna mess with me? Huh?" Too bad we didn't get that on camera ... this video is what happened afterwards ... =)

Happy THREE year anniversary to US!!!

Michael and I celebrated our third year anniversary today! It's hard to believe it's already been 3 years (plus 8 years we were dating, so technically it's been 11 years). We went to church for a visit so that we could thank the Lord personally for the blessing of each other. I thanked the Lord so much for blessing me with such a wonderful husband. He really knew what He was doing when he brought the two of us together =). I also prayed for guidance on being a better wife to him. I know I have my shortcomings and I want to be able to make him always feel loved and happy. We both continue to work on our communication and we know that as long as we keep Christ at the center of our marriage, everything else will fall into place.

After church, we had a nice sushi dinner in Camarillo. Zoe seemed to enjoy the sushi restaurant ambiance and behaved herself so mommy and daddy could have a nice romantic meal =). When we got home, Mike surprised me with a mini replica of our wedding cake!! He was able to order the exact flavor and design from the bakery that did our cake and managed to hide it in the back of our refrigerator for a couple of days (good thing I didn't go rummaging around the fridge!). It was the sweetest thing ever!!! Since we didn't get to enjoy the top tier of our wedding cake on our first anniversary (my family accidentally ate it the day after our wedding!) it was nice to be able to enjoy our wedding cake again. Seriously, how super sweet is my husband?! As we were enjoying our cake, we got a nice call from Monsignor Kevin wishing us a happy anniversary. It was so nice of him to call and to remember us on our special day!!!

Here's to many many many many many more years of wedded bliss =)!! Thank you Lord for the best.husband.ever!

My first Mother's Day!

As if yesterday's baptism wasn't already great, I was blessed to be able to celebrate my first mother's day today!!! I felt really honored to stand up at church alongside all the other moms and receive a special blessing. Being a mom is hard work but it's also a tremendous honor and privilege. I am sooooo very blessed to be a mom to Zoe and to have such great examples of moms (my mom, Tita Bot, Ima, mama Flory, etc.) to learn from. I didn't think my first mother's day would hit me the way it did, but it really did! I was sooooo happy to be a mom and it was nice for other people to acknowledge me as part of an elite and strong group of women.

After mass, we continued the celebration at Master Chef with everyone. We also opened all of Zoe's baptism gifts (that girl got a lot of stuff) and stopped by the Salcedo residence on our way home for a Mother's day dinner.

Here's a link to the video of Zoe talking to Lala Flory: http://www.youtube.com/user/isudjati21?feature=mhsn#p/u/9/dPLHV9uFwGI

My first mother's day weekend was PERFECT in more ways than one and I can't wait to be able to mother Zoe and my future kids =). I hope to be able to draw strength and patience from Mother Mary so that I can be the best mother I can be to my children.

Zoe is now an official princess in the Lord's kingdom!

Today was the most special day of Zoe's life -- it's the day when she inherited God's kingdom! As a parent, I don't think there's anything better you could ever give your child. She is now a REAL princess =) ... as much as I wasn't into the whole girly princess-y thing, I am all for her new official title now! The ceremony was so beautiful! Monsignor Kevin and Father Francis really did a great job in making her special day so personal. All of our guests were moved by the solemnity of the event and all had a great time seeing Christ's love for everyone. It was really a great day of evangelization and we hope that by being a part of Zoe's big day, everyone was able to understand how special they all were to be part of God's kingdom ... to be heirs and heiresses to His treasures and love. Zoe did great all throughout! She only cried a little bit when she was dipped in the water but quickly calmed down (without a bottle!) once we put her dress on. Everyone loved her beautiful dress and she really did look like God's angel. After the immersion and the annointing, Jay led the audience in a procession to the altar where Monsignor Kevin presented the Eucharist. It was such a blessing to have all our family and friends surrounding us around God's table while God turned the bread and wine into His body and blood. Jay and Tasha then lit the baptismal candle and Monsignor Kevin concluded with a final blessing. Afterwards, he took her around the altar and presented her to everyone -- it was the cutest thing! It looked like she was doing a victory lap =)! I was so proud of my little munchkin -- she did soooooo good!!! After the ceremony, we invited all our guests to the Cathedral residence for the reception. It was an honor for her Ninongs to open up their home to our family and friends ... everyone was amazed that they had such VIP access =). The event was catered by Levy and the open bar was hosted by ninong Kevin =). Again, Zoe was great at the reception. After a quick nap, she went around greeting all her visitors and took pictures with her "fans". We even had a special appearance by Cardinal Mahoney! We are so very blessed to have Monsignor Kevin, Father Francis, Natasha and Jay as Zoe's godparents. I know that they will do all that they can to show my little girl who Jesus is and to always make her feel loved and to know her worth. Zoe's baptism is a day that we will always remember and thank the Lord for such a blessed occassion. This little girl will walk side by side with the Lord all the days of her life and I feel so honored to help hold her hand through that beautiful journey!

Here's a video montage of her big day:

Highlights:

Homily Part 1:

Homily Part 2: