Welcome home and a belated birthday!

Wendy went to London for work a couple weeks ago and came home last Wednesday.  We had her over for dinner tonight for sharing and pictures.  We had a lovely time and it was nice to hear all about her trip and the awesome sights; makes me want to go to Europe, STAT!   The only downer is that because our American dollar is so weak right now, everything is even that much more expensive…oh, and Wendy said the food was horrible.  Mommy and Daddy agreed, and although they went to Europe over 30 years ago, they also remembered the bad food.  Yikes – Brits, get it together!  Hmm….no wonder they don’t have the same obesity problem as the US. :X   Anywho, Wendy also brought me back the CUTEST Harrod’s HK towels – to die for, right?!?!?!  So glad you are home safe and sound, Wendy! 

 

It was also Wendy's birthday last month and I am just getting caught up now.  I still have a few birthday posts on the horizon (sorry I’m late Diana, Mommy, Lolli Oli and J!).  We went to Mastro’s for din din and celebrated both hers and Mommy’s birthdays as they are two days apart.  It was a great dining experience even though we didn’t get our bill comped.  :P 

Celebrations aside, Wendy is like a sister.  We have been close since we practically met 12 years ago. I thank God for her in my life.  She has a super busy social calendar, yet always makes time to hang out or do something low key with me and/or with the fam.  She is smart, talented, driven and beautiful, on the inside and out, and no matter how crazy life gets, we make time to catch up.  She never judges, always loves, always cares, and gives with everything she has.  I love you so much, Wendy, and I hope you always know just how special you are to me.  To celebrating many more together, with all my love…XOXO

 

Back!

I’m baaack!!!  Well at least for a few days before we depart for a mini vaca to Cabo!

So life has been crazy.  I’m sure it’s been crazy for y’all as well since we each have our own chaos, but the days have just flown by.  I find myself barely getting home in time to shower, do some house chores or maybe read a bit, get to bed past midnight, only to wake up the next day and do it all over again…BUT, as always, God is faithful and has been taking good care of us.

There is one thing, other than time, that has truly put a damper on my blogging.  About 7 weeks ago, my camera broke (I won’t go into details, but for once, it isn’t my fault :P).  Since I don’t have my camera, it’s been hard to capture moments to share on the blog, and let’s be real…no one just wants to read text…booooring, right?!!?  Anyhow, we are on the hunt for a new camera, or we may just get ours fixed, but until then, I’m cameraless and have been totally bummed and unmotivated to blog.  OK – enough with the excuses, camera or not, I gotta get caught up.  I’ve missed you!

So much to tell, so little time, and again, all with no camera.  I’m going to do my best to recap the past couple weeks with “borrowed” pictures, so just bear with me in case the photo doesn’t exactly match the event.  Here we go!

Day trip to Laguna Beach – attended Saddleback church in the morning, then headed down to the beachside for brunch.  Went to Art-a-Fair, Sawdust Festival, Festival of the Arts, and finished the day with Pageant of the Masters!

 

  

 

Celebrated three special birthdays (more to come…)!! 

 

Our wedding DVD – HOORAY for Addy and Julian at 10^th Letter!!!

 

 Had a special visit from Rocky!

  

Much needed QT with Wendy <3 

Celebrating God’s new gift to my Cousin Stacy!

 

“…because that’s what you do with gifts…you give them away.”

 

Sleepover in the OC, early entry to DCA (Cars Land is AWESOME!), then Disneyland. 

After 10 hours of Disney fun, enjoyed a yummie Tonkatsu dinner

and tasty shaved ice with the fam and Ethan.

 

  

And on Friday, headed to Cabo for some much needed R&R…

Have a blessed Tuesday…I know I will as J is visiting!! 

Fill in the Blank Friday - Birthday!

Since the old format of the FitBF has returned, I haven’t had a chance to join in the fun!  This week is birthday themed because Lauren over at thelittlethingswedo is celebrating her birthday today!  It is fitting as my birthday happens to be this month too…so here we go!

1. The age I will be on my upcoming birthday is…31 – yipes!

2. The best birthday present ever would be…a MacBook Pro.  That retina display is AH-MAZING and I had to put my oldie but goodie iBook to rest some time ago.  She was awesome though…if I could just get her to update…heehee

3. My favorite birthday to date was…wow…too many to list.  Highlights are probably the normal ones…the sweet 16 birthday bash, 21st in Vegas, 30th in Vegas and all the others in between are precious too because they were spent with loved ones.

4. Birthdays make me feel…joyous!!  I LOVE celebrating birthdays!  My family has always been big on celebrations, and birthdays were even bigger because we were truly praising God for the life of someone we love.  It continues to be the way I feel about birthdays today.  To be with a loved one, to thank God for their life, the special, unique creation they are…it is pure joy.

5. The worst birthday I ever had was…I honestly can’t recall a bad birthday.

6. When I was born…my parents were in the middle of celebrating their anniversary.  They had to leave their own party to have me! 

7. So far my favorite age has been…I’m not sure.  Every age has had its significance, although I’d say that this one might be a special one as it is the first year I will receive a “to my wife” birthday card. :D

Happy week, friends!

Happy Birthday, Hubby! (Part III - Big Bear)

And the finale to my Mister’s birthday celebrations was the weekend in Big Bear, granting his request to go fishing.  Mommy, Daddy, Sherwin and I headed up the mountain and spent the weekend eating, laughing, resting, and fishing.  It’s awesome when family is some of your best friends. 

Happy birthday, love!  I hope you know just how much you mean to me.  To celebrating our 10^th birthday together, and many more to come…I love you.  Cheers!

Happy Birthday, Hubby! (Part II - Mastro's)

I HEART MASTRO’S…and as they say, it was definitely an unparalleled dining experience.

Thursday night I made dinner reservations at Mastro’s.  My Mister has been wanting to go and since we were leaving Friday night, Thursday night it was.  Little did we know, Thursday nights are one of their busiest nights. :/

Our reservation was for 9:15pm.  We checked in at about 8:50pm, hung out at the bar and watched the Olympics as we waited for our name to be called.  9:15 came and went…then so did 9:20, 9:25, 9:30.  I checked in with the hostess and inquired about how much longer our wait was going to be.  He explained that tables would be leaving soon and that we would be seated as soon as possible.  Long story short, turns out that “as soon as possible” meant 9:45pm, which was 30 minutes past our reservation.  I have to admit, I did tell the hostess that I was disappointed in the long wait, but because the birthday boy was calm and composed as usual, I didn’t make a big deal of it.  As we were being seated, the hostess said that they would comp our dessert due to the wait.  I politely said thank you but knew that when I called to make our reservation, I explained we were celebrating a birthday and they had already committed to a birthday treat on the house…

Our server Debbie apologized for the wait, chatted with us for a bit about the menu, then took our appetizer order.  Shortly before our appetizers came out, she informed us that they would be giving us a shrimp cocktail appetizer to compensate for the wait earlier, along with giving us our mushroom appetizer for free!  OK, so now the night is starting to turn around folks!  The appetizers were SUPER yummie and somewhere between the appetizers and main course, the general manager, Franco Checchini, introduced himself and also apologized for our extensive wait. 

Dinner was superb but we were so full from the bread and appetizers, that we didn’t even finish half of our meal!  Debbie then came to prepare us for dessert and kindly substituted the birthday chocolate cake for their infamous buttercake (thanks for the tip, Wendy!).  It was DEEEELISH, however, we only finished a third of our third course. :P

Brace yourselves friends because then the unimaginable happened.  We were getting all our tasty goodness boxed to go and Debbie tells us that Franco has picked up our tab.  WHAT?!?!?! Yup, you heard right…our.entire.tab.  Crazy, right?!?!?  To put some perspective on it, our bill would have been upwards of $200+. 

Hooray for Franco and Mastro’s!!  You don’t often find service like that anymore.  Proves that God is FOR SURE omnipresent and delivers his blessings in all shapes and sizes!  

Mastro’s anyone?  Definitely a steakhouse worth supporting. 

Wishing you all a great start to the week!



Shrimp cocktail over dry ice…fancy!

Crab stuffed mushrooms

 

Lobster Mashed Potatoes, recommended by Wendy...YUM!

Buttercake!

Happy Birthday, Hubby (Part I)!!!!

Happy birthday, hubby!!!

Today is Sherwin’s birthday (yipeeee!!) and as you know, we celebrate week long around here!  We actually started celebrating on Tuesday with Mommy and Daddy (pics below).  We went there before his basketball game and they bought him a cake and one of his fave treats…donuts!  They also gave him a heartwarming card (complete with a cute drawing, compliments of Picasso a la Daddy) and a generous gift (that we might be using towards a new toy! *ahem* ipad *ahem* maybe?….)! :P

In a few hours we will be packing our bags and heading to Big Bear for the weekend as the  Mister wanted to go fishing for his birthday!  There will be more birthday posts to come, but couldn’t leave without wishing my “life partner, my one coquette, the answer to my love’s duet” (oh boy…watching too much Enchanted :P), a happy, happy birthday.

To my itchy bun, I mean ichiban…hee hee…

I love you with all my heart.  You truly are the answer to my love’s duet and

I praise God for you!!  Thank you for being my everything!!  I am excited about what

 the Lord has in store for you, and for us, this next year.  I am so grateful that

you are the one I get to spend the rest of my life with. 

With all my love and affection,

your wifey XOXO

And we’re back – Weekend recap!

We are home from sunny Sacramento!  We flew up on Friday morning and spent the day with Jr. – watched Spiderman, went shopping, then headed home to hang out with the fam bam.  In other words, we made sure to engage in activities that provided shelter from the heat.  :D 

Thoroughly enjoyed Spidey!

Saturday was filled with party preparation, and of course the party itself.  We celebrated two birthdays – Jr. (10) and Nana (90), and it was precious time spent with family.  We shared our wedding photos and answered the baby question about 20 times - no, we are not pregnant yet and no, we won’t be anytime soon.  The girl cousins and I hung out (Sharlene did make-up while I did hair), the aunties, Mom and I played cards, we ate loads of food and yummy cake and just enjoyed one another’s company. 

Then came Sunday morning…and after 2 hours of sleep, we headed to the airport.  Jr.’s flight back to Hawaii departed 9:15am and ours at 8:55am.  It was an emotional morning as Jr. said bye to his Mom, Step-dad, siblings, Mama and Papa (my MIL and FIL).  After lots of hugs, kisses and teary goodbyes, we decided to grab a quick breakfast with Jr. before we had to board.   Then it was our turn to say good bye, and as we walked Jr. to his gate to meet his uncle (who is flying back with him), his tears started to fall.    For those of you that know me, the whole situation is a little complicated and too much to write in this post, but as I turned around one last time to tell Jr. I loved him, his “I love you, too” response made my heart ache.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and praying for a blessed week ahead!

FitBF with a twist!

Over at the little things we do, FITBF has gotten a makeover, so this is my first attempt using the new format.  As I started thinking about my fill-ins, I started getting super excited. 

I originally wanted to throw a big birthday bash for my golden birthday last year, after all, I was turning the big 3-0 on 8.3-0!  After talking to my Mister about it, he said that since we were already doing so much for our wedding, he thought it be best if we didn’t try to plan/throw a big shindig, not to mention the budget for that on top of the wedding – yikes.  So when I saw this week’s theme, I jumped on the world wide web in efforts to plan my virtual, already passed, golden birthday bash.

I found it wasn’t such a good idea.  My head was swirling and I even started getting frustrated and stressed when I couldn’t find the images of what I was envisioning!  I felt wedding flashbacks coming on, only this time, I was racing against time, wanting to post my images tonight!  That should be a TV show, if it isn’t already, like couples planning their whole wedding in 12 hours, or something crazy…it would be a nail-biting show for reals.

OK, so back to my FITBF…after an hour of searching, skimming, and stressing, I only found these images to capture some of what I might have included for my party.  I thought it might have been New York themed, sprinkled with Hello Kitty and a touch of fancy. 

If you do a FITBF, would you let me know?  I’d love to join your party as well!  Happy weekend!

There would be…a ton of twinkle lights

Invitations would look like…this…maybe not the color scheme, but do love the layout.

Dessert would be…a cake like this...definitely not the same color scheme (hate this one),

the stiletto would be different (hate that shoe), but love the NY skyline,

the bows, and the shape of the cake.

The back of the menu would be…Hello Kitty!  Not sure if it would actually be

the back of the menu, but I would find some way to incorporate her!

My make-up would look like…LOVE that smokey eye and those lashes!

I would wear…this dress if I had some time to work out and shed some of my weight! L

If not, I might end up wearing something like this…

  My shoes would be…these Valentino’s…SWOON!

My hair would be…BIG curls…bigger than in this picture but I got a

2-for-1 deal on this pic…love the hair and love Hilary too!

  

Party favors would be…this engraved on the back of an ipod.  Since this is my virtual party, I’m not concerned with the budget…and get it…an apple from the Big Apple! 

Hee hee…I’m so cheesy sometimes I make myself sick. :P

 

*all images found on google J

Bubba's 2nd Birthday!

I know I’m a little late with this post as we celebrated Bubba’s birthday over a week ago, but life has been nutso! 

OK, so the weekend started off like all Friday nights before a party – Sherwin and I with Nafan-Chan and Diana, up till 4am working on party favors and the like.  Saturday morning started bright and early (earlier for Diana because she was up when the kids got up…awesome Mom, I tell ya J) as we were up and out the door to pick up the cake, which turned out super cute!  Then we headed back home to get ready for Bubba’s big birthday bash!

My brother and his wife are fabulous party planners.  They take such careful thought in the party favor bags, specifically creating each bag to cater to the individual (age, gender, likes, etc.).  They also made personalized t-shirts for all the kids attending (included in their party favor bag), made sure that the open jumper had a canopy so it wouldn’t get too hot, ordered a yummy taco truck caterer and even hired a photo booth!  The day was so much fun that I got carried away with the festivities and didn’t take many pictures, but I’ll share the few that I have.

Nafan-Chan and Diana – thank you for the BIG FUN birthday party!  You were and are wonderful hosts and everyone had such a great time! J  Thank you for treating us to dinner two nights in a row (I guess we will work for food…hee hee) and for just being the best brother and sister-in-law a gal could ask for.  Love you both as you complete our family and our circle of best friends. 

Bubbas – Happy 2^nd birthday!  I love you so much!  I love hearing you sing ABC’s and Baby…I love playing outside and in the small house with you…I love how you eat anything and everything (sign of a true Yoshizaki).  You bring so much joy to my heart and I can’t wait to celebrate many more birthday bashes together!  XOXO!

Me and my girlie, Lolli Oli (she’s sportin’ the personalized shirt that were in the favor bags)

  Eli coming down the jumper slide for the 30^th time

Happy Birthday to Eli!

 

  Diego toddler moonbounce jumper

Big jumper with super steep slide!

  

Our photo booth pics – cheese!

Happy Birthday, Kristin!

This past Monday was Kristin’s birthday!  After the boys had their championship game (which I didn’t go to L, but in my defense, my hubby wasn’t in contention for 1st), we went to Fluff Ice for just that, some fluff ice!  Fluff ice is different than shaved ice…it’s shavings of flavored, frozen, condensed milk (I think, at least that’s what it tastes like J).  Put on some toppings (similar to frozen yogurt digs) and there you have it!  It is yummy, but I would say that the atmosphere and their cute decorations actually make the experience.  On this night, taste didn’t really matter because although we were there for some dessert, we were there to celebrate Kristin.

Kristin may seem quiet and unassuming at first glance, but underneath, she is quite a gal.  She is super organized, sweet, kind and generous.  The more I get to know Kristin, the more I realize how blessed we are to have her in our lives. 

Happy Birthday, Kristin!  Praying that this year will bring new blessings and continued growth in the Lord!  Hope you had an awesome birthday and glad that we could share your special day with you!  XOXO