2011 Recap

Let's start with this years recap...

January: I was still pregnant and I had a baby shower at my friends house. It was really nice and I had a good time.

February: I became a mommy to the star of this blog. She has really changed my whole life.

March: One month in to mommyhood and it was bittersweet.

April: Started this blog. I went back to work..such a sad day. I loved being at home with the squishy baby. She was still such a sleepy baby, napping all the time.

May: I got Cupcakes ears pierced. I experienced my first mother's day. Finally bought Cupcake a swing.

June: Finally got an A/C in the house. Cut my hair. Started on weight loss (big fail). First time out at a restaurant.

July: Playdates and doctor visits.

August: First solids. Pool parties. Birthday parties. Good times with friends.

September: Got back together with Marc (more towards the end of the month). Visited the fair. More family outings.

October: 1st Halloween. And honestly I can't remember what else.

November: My birthday this month. Black friday crazy shopping. Last dinner for now with an old friend. It's finally cold up in here.

December: 1st Disneyland trip. Christmas card picture shoot. Family time. The stomach flu. Puffy quilts. Gingerbread house fail. Lots-o-presents.

Can't say it enough Happy New Year!

My Christmas gift

One of the presents I was super excited for was my new phone (my mom helped me pay for it as my present). I had debated for over 4 months now what phone to get and yet I still couldn't decide what I wanted. My two options were the Droid 3 and the iPhone 4s. Now to some people this would have been an easy decision...yes I am looking at you iPhone lovers, but for me I just can't let go of the QWERTY keyboard, which is something the iPhone doesn't have. After going over all pros and cons I decided on this baby...

Credit

And I am happy with my decision. It will make life a little easier not having to take out the battery every single day because it freezes up on me. I wont have tons of ad pop ups because that's the problem that a lot of Android users have. Overall, I am just excited to convert to Apple products. Next purchase on  my list is a case. Now, I can't just get any case. I need a case that will protect it from the Cupcake. So I need this to be a case that will protect it from drool (waterproof) as well as, head banging and floor banging (shock absorbent). So far after a lot of review readings I have come to the conclusion and the best so far is the Otterbox.

Credit

It wont be exactly this boring black color because I mean I did buy the white phone. So I will see what my color options are first. I am just so happy about this gift that I just had to share. Looking forward to taking more awful cellphone pictures.


Since I wont have the internet over the weekend, I just want to wish everybody a happy and safe New Years.
I forgot I work tomorrow, I already have a post ready. =]

Catching up with lack of Christmas pictures

The holidays are coming to and end, NYE is almost here...Saturday to be exact. With that being said, our regularly scheduled program will be in effect soon. Christmas. Well it was different, in a good but also in a bad way. First let us talk about the bad. Christmas Eve was spent at my house, also my mother's house. There was no Christmas spirit whatsoever, my little brother called it "Ghetto Christmas" I tried to liven the mood by playing Christmas music but was quickly shut down by my mother's really loud "banda" music playing in the kitchen. I suggested baking some Christmas cookies but my mother was already making desserts that aren't exactly Christmas anything. My mom ended up going to bed at 6pm so it was just Marc, my little brother, the Cupcake and myself just hanging out watching Hall Pass. Not the best way to spend Christmas Eve. Christmas morning, we got up around 730am and headed to the living room to open presents, that was also a bust. No excitement whatsoever, my mother even said it was silly of me to have the Cupcake try and tear off the wrapping paper off of her presents. Luckily, opening gifts was fast and well after that Christmas was over. So like I said, Christmas sucked at home.

Now on to the Good. Christmas day the Cupcake and I got ready real quick and took off to Faby's house to give Cupcakes play date Isra his gift. We were there for about 20 mins and we went off to Marc's house where his immediate family was waiting. Once we arrived the liveliness there was amazing. Once we walked in there were presents everywhere, the smell of baked goods lingered in the air, Christmas music was playing and everyone was so happy to be just hanging out with each other. This is what Christmas is suppose to be like. This is what I want my daughter to be raised in, good family fun. It is sad to say but I prefer this much better than being at my house. Anyway, we all got to open presents, watch the kids play, have some good eats, and just lounge around all day. I felt all warm and fuzzy just being around such a warming family. I have never spent holidays with Marc because my mom always gave me the guilt trip of  me never wanting to spend holidays with them....Newsflash! I am always home for holidays, it is them that leave me alone to spend it all by myself.

The weekend was just perfect at the end. Cupcake got tons of toys and clothes and she seemed really happy. I am going to try and make things a little different next year at my  moms house. I don't know how I am going to achieve the unachievable, but that's my goal and I have a whole year to do it. I am so excited for what the new year will bring us, looking forward to more wonderful memories.

This is the cupcake with one of her gifts, she loves this thing.

Sorry for the ugly cellphone picture...I have been way too lazy to take out my camera but I am going to try and do a 365 photo project, TRY being the keyword.

Gingerbread house FAIL!

Before I get to the story which led to the title of this post, Sunday was a fun day that started off with a small trip to Michael's. I had to return a frame I had purchased but later found out I didn't need. I had to pick up some stuff for the finishing touches to some gifts I have left to wrap. I was able to get this picture of the fatty while I shopped. I'm really loving her hair without the bows or headbands. I love her messy bed hair, I don't even comb it sometimes...shhhh! don't tell my mom.

So now to my Gingerbread house story. I had picked up the kit at Michael's last month during the Black Friday sales. It was only $8 so it wasn't a big deal if it didn't turn out. Well when we started assembling it last night, it was just.not.happening. I tried making the frosting a lot thicker so that maybe it will help the cookies stick, but that was not working out. After an hour of trying I decided to bust out the glue gun. And whoa-la!

Okay my decorating skills aren't the best, but I wasn't the only one doing it. My little brother was helping. Total Fail.Next year I am just going to buy regular stuff and try to make it from that, if that doesn't work out. The glue gun will save the day. It's not like I am going to let the cupcake eat it.

Twinkle lights

Friday was a relax day. Marc, the baby and I went to Rich's shrimp shack in West Covina to try it out since it's a new place. We are always looking for new places to try. We both ordered shrimp plates and seriously it was like eating garlic and shrimp as our side, that's how much garlic was on our food. I should've took a picture but I was seriously starving that I gobbled it up. We smelled for like two days. The rest of the evening we spent it just watching the Cupcakes favorite show....Special Agent Oso.

Saturday rolled by and we were at Marc's house. The whole family was coming over to decorate the Christmas tree since they do that every year. We were hanging out for a little while playing on the floor before the family came over.

The cupcake was getting upset because I kept taking pictures of her. She is gonna love/hate the camera. Once the family came over, they were taking turns holding her and showing her the fun decorations. Here she is with auntie Amy.

Marc started putting up the lights on the tree and you bet she was all over those lights.

She was so happy just looking at the tree all decorated with ornaments and those white lights. It's finally starting to look a lot more like Christmas.

Magical Weekend

Friday was still a bad day. I had the stomach flu and didn't know if I was going to be okay by Saturday since we had a trip planned out to Disneyland that day. I made sure I had tons of water and that I got rest. Suzanne, Cupcake's auntie came over to visit and have dinner with us. Since I wasn't feeling good, I hit the sack pretty early so I didn't get a chance to say good-bye when she did leave. We had a big day ahead of us the next day so I wasn't trying to stay up super late making small talk.


Saturday was finally here. I was up by 6:30am, that never happens unless its during the week and I have to get ready for work. I was so excited I had everyone awake and preparing everything for our day. We were out of the house by 10am. We had some ticket issues so we didn't get to get in the park til noon. First thing we did was take a family picture in front of the huge decorated tree. This is a picture of it at night when it was all lit up.

Cupcake was awake for everything except for Mr. Toad's wild ride. She loved everything we got on, especially It's a small world. I was never a fan but she definitely is. We spent most of our time just walking around and seeing some of the characters. We got to get her her Minnie ears, I of course got matching ones.

We finally took a break to get us, Marc and I, something to eat and so the Cupcake can take a quick nap. When we were eating which was really close to the Haunted Mansion, we realized how long the line was that we decided to park the stroller and just carry the Cupcake while we stood in line. The wait was exactly 2 hours and 5 mins long. Our backs were killing us, but at least the Cupcake was able to take a long nap without being disturbed. We snapped a picture of the skeleton outside. I love this ride so the 2 hours plus wait was so worth it. Marc will beg to disagree.

We also went on the Jungle cruise at night, which neither one of us has ever been on at night. We really liked it, and plan on doing it on future visits. The last thing on our agenda at Disneyland was the fireworks show. We headed on over to the main areas where you can stand for viewing and parked ourselves there. We were fortunate enough to not have to wait so long for it to start. The cupcake was still awake for it, so when she saw it she was amazed by all the beautiful colors and lights in the sky. Since it's Christmas time at Disneyland, at the end of the fireworks show, they have machines that blow out snow. It isn't real snow, I think its foam but I didn't get the chance to actually try to feel it out. Once that was all done, the cupcake was tired and fell asleep, it was perfect timing. Our day seriously was magical.


Sunday was spent sleeping mostly. I was so exhausted that I couldn't even function. Marc helped with cupcake while I slept all day. Okay not all day but hours at a time. He didn't mind since I spent most of last week awake at night because the Cupcake was sick and couldn't sleep. Around 5pm I headed out to the mall to do last minute Christmas shopping. When I got home I saw a package that I hadn't noticed all weekend. When I opened it I was seriously so excited. It was the puffy quilt that Kim from {My} Life's Stories had made Cupcake. It is beautiful and the cupcake loves it to pieces. She can't stop starring at it and likes playing with the puffs. This is something she will be using for a very long time. This was the cherry that made the weekend perfect.