This is how Zoe distracts us

Zoe has really taken a liking to the peek-a-boo game.  She's constantly trying to instigate a game of peek-a-boo any chance she gets.  Sometimes, she even plays peek-a-boo with the TV!!  Tonight, as we were watching our favorite show, she started squating and hiding behind a part of the couch ... as she went down, she would babble like she was saying "where's zoe?" and when she popped up she babbled something that sounded like "there you are!!!".  I swear -- this kid is S-M-A-R-T!  It was so adorable that Mike and I both got so engrossed with this peek-a-boo game with Zoe that we completely forgot about our show.  I LOVE that Zoe is getting more and more playful!!!  She is so much fun!

Daddy goggles

Mike was changing Zoe's diaper and as he was doing so he asked her, "Zoe ... are you really cute or is it just my daddy goggles?"  Zoe looked up at him and flashed him her killer smile to which Mike said, "Yup -- that pretty much confirms it.  You ARE cute ... it's not just my goggles".  It was the cutest conversation ever!!!  I don't know about you, but Zoe IS adorable!!! And I'm not just saying that because I'm her mom, either!!!  Several people have told me how cute and downright beautiful she is so it HAS to be true =).  Sometimes, I just find myself staring at her because I can't get over how cute she really is ... all joking aside, God has really blessed us with a beautiful angel.  And what's best is she's just as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside ... with or without our goggles!

Happy birthday Jeric!

My "original" baby is 19 years old today!!!  I remember taking care of Jeric as a baby and thinking that when he grew up, he was gonna be the smartest and sweetest boy ever ... and that's exactly the case!!!  Jeric is so talented with his writing and he's incredibly loving.  That trait has stuck with him all these years ...  we are so blessed to have him in our family.  Even though we give him a hard time on various things (it's more for fun than anything else), he has grown up into such a fine young man.  Any girl should consider herself seriously blessed to have him as a boyfriend/husband.  I'm so proud of him and am so excited to witness more growth throughout the upcoming years.  I love that Zoe loves him, too!  She plays with him differently than how she plays with everyone else.  It's like she knows that he's the next youngest person there and they have some kind of secret bond =).  I really miss being a second mom to Jeric.  When I got married, I had to slowly step away from that role and step into my new role as "wife" ... and now that I'm a mom, I've stepped even further away from that role to him ... but I hope he knows that me stepping away from the "mom" role to him only allows me to step back into "sister" and "friend".  Life does that, I guess ... because it's constantly changing -- because you're constantly changing -- it allows you to evolve into different roles in peoples lives.  It allows you to love people in lots of different ways.  I hope Jeric knows that I'm still here for him and will always be here for him ... second to my mom, I'm probably one of his biggest fans.  I KNOW he'll continue to be amazing in the years to come ... his best days are definitely still yet to come.

To celebrate his special day, my family went to mass where afterward, Monsignor Kevin gave him a special birthday blessing.  After, we all ate at Souplantation (family favorite) ... and after that, mom got him a NEW CAR!  He ended up getting a Scion ... the beetle was on it's last leg and mom wanted to make sure he had a safe car to drive around.  Talk about blessed!!!  

Happy birthday Jeric!!! May you always know your worth and how much you are loved and admired by your family and so many others!!  God has a wonderful plan for your life -- keep your eyes, ears and most importantly, your heart open to His voice and you will not be led astray ... 

D&D shower!

Today was Danrochelle's baby shower!!! Me and the girls have been planning her special day for a while now (with Janel and Shannon taking the lead) ... we're all so super excited to meet little Phoebe!!!  The shower was held at Bing and Joe's place ... I came early to help decorate (Mike and Zoe went to go hang out with Lala and Lolo in Woodland Hills ... this, by the way, was Mike's FIRST time alone with Zoe).  It was great hanging out with everyone -- it feels like forever since we've all been in the same place.  The kids had tons of fun, too!  I love it when Zoe gets to hang out with other kids.  Sometimes I worry she doesn't get enough exposure to little people and will grow up too serious since she's around us boring adults all day long =).

It was great to see how happy Dennis and Dan were -- they are sooooo ready to meet their little girl!  I know after my shower, as I was putting away all the stuff we got, it really hit me that we are getting close to meeting our little one.  I'm sure they feel exactly the same way.  They will make AWESOME parents and I can't wait for our kids to hang out!!!

Here are some great pics taken by Cherrie:

Shopping at Camarillo

I decided that I need to seriously update my wardrobe.  I haven't shopped for myself in FOREVER and I no longer wear maternity clothes nor do I wear my work clothes.  So I'm stuck in this constant "casual" attire now that I work for Zoe which leaves me with not much to work with in my closet.  So I figured I'd go to the outlets to see if I could update my wardrobe somehow.  After spending a couple of hours there, I end up with NOTHING for me and two big bags of stuff for Zoe!!!  The Carters and Osh Kosh sales totally snagged me in and I ended up updating Zoe's wardrobe for the colder weather (as if her closet wasn't already full!).  Even though I ended up with nothing, I was super happy going home ... I felt like I had a successful shopping trip.  It's crazy how much motherhood changes your perspective ... you don't even notice sometimes the change from you only thinking about yourself to you thinking about your child 100% more than you even remember to think of your needs.  So what if I didn't end up getting anything ... at least I know that when the weather gets colder, my little girl will be stylin' =) ... maybe I'll pick something up for me next time.  No one looks at me these days, anyway! Lol!  I could probably get away with rocking pj's since all eyes are on Zoe ... as they should be!

Drew's Birthday

After mass today, me, Mike, Zoe and Jay headed out to our godson Andrew's 7th birthday party!  I can't believe he's already 7!  I feel bad that I don't get to see him as often as I'd like ... but I do keep him in my prayers and hope that I can make more of an effort to hang out with him.  This was also the first time a lot of my dad's side of the family met Zoe! The consensus was she looks just like me when I was a baby =) ...  Again, time flies by so fast that you don't realize you haven't made time to share Zoe with so many other people ...

We couldn't stay too long but had a great time nonetheless.  I miss my cousin Ethel and her family a lot and hope to be able to see them more than once or twice a year.

Dinner at the Lee's

Our friends from CCC Nelson and Elizabeth invited us over tonight for dinner. We've been talking about getting together with the kids for a while now, so when they brought it up, we happily accepted their invitation.  Monsignor Kevin also joined us so that he, too, could spend time with his godkids =).

We had a GREAT time at the Lee Residence!  They cooked an amazing meal -- it was a nice, fancy-ish sit down three course meal!  They prepared a great cold soup as a starter ... then for the main course, pork loin with asparagus ... and for dessert, Elizabeth made the BEST cheesecake with crazy good lattes made by Nelson.  It was scrumptious meal!

The kids had a great time, too.  Although they mostly played independently, they did interact with each other here and there.  I love seeing the two of them hang out ... they are only one month and one day apart and I know that they'll be good friends as they grow up.  Godfather Kevin seemed to have a good time hanging out with them as well.  It's so cute to see him play with them or feed them or even just hold them -- you can see how much he loves his role as godfather.  God brought all of us together for a reason and I know His plan involves us all growing together as family.

Here's some great video footage of Zoe and Grayson's play date =)

And here's some pics of Zoe and her Ninong Kevin as he was feeding her at the table

Crab Day for Wowa's Birthday!

Since Tita Bot/Wowa's birthday is coming up on Sept. 20th, we decided to celebrate with crabs at H.C. Seafood at Channel Islands!  It was also the first time everyone saw our house since we moved in (hey, we've been in LA almost every weekend, remember?) so it was nice to finally show the our home.

We made sure to pack our own rice, sauce and drinks for the seafood extravaganza and we definitely got our grub on!!! They ran out of dungeness crabs so we ended up just getting rock crabs instead.  Regardless, it was all soooo good!! I think everyone over ate for sure!  It was so fun to do as a group -- we hadn't done something like that in almost 10 or more years!  Tito Charlie and Mike were the last men standing and made the most of their "cheat" day =).  

After lunch, we stopped by the beach to show Ima the great ocean view.  Then everyone headed back to our place for some banana bread and green tea (to melt away all the food we ate).  Then we all packed up and headed to LA (Mike, Zoe and I had a dinner with the Lee family to attend)!  

Crabfest was awesome!  I hope we can have more gatherings like that here in Oxnard =).