Some summer fun

So the kids are out of school and summer have officialy started in our home. Yesterday we went to our first of many free movies at the galaxy theater inside the mall. We watched "everybody's hero". It was a cartoon film about baseball, specifically the Yankees and babe Ruth. It was cute. Then today me and the kids drove to Garden Grove to G'ma Tolman's house to do some swimming. I'm so surprised how Marcus loves the water now considering just about two summers ago he despised it a lot. Soon before I know it, Maddie will be the same. But right now she's just happy sitting in her yellow floatie.


I don't know if I've mentioned in my previous blogs at sb.com that I've started a garden around April and I've been harvesting some of the veggies but yesterday I harvested a bunch of them. I picked our carrots, corn, 2nd batch of radishes, cabbbage and green beans. It's so much fun to actually "taste" the fruit of my labors. Last night we had this filipino dish with green beans and ground beef then tonight Mitch will make his pork and beans with cabbage tacos. OOhhh haven't had that in ages.

So that's it for us today.
Hope you have a great SUMMER day!

It's all about the organization

So i've been meaning to do this post for a long time now. In april, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed at all my kids' clothes in multiple boxes in our attic. I was telling my good friend Allison about my need to purge and organize but i'm afraid of letting go of everything bec. I don't know if I will have another baby or not. *Before I continue I just want to say that Mitch and I have decided NOT to have any more kids BUT since both of us haven't done anything permanently that is still a possibility.

Now that's out of the way, back to the kids clothes. I couldn't believe two kids can fill up about 5 big diaper boxes and a few more rubbermaid tubs.

Allison shared with me a great system that now I want to share to everybody. All of us needs some purging once in a while. Here's her system, she said to save 10 outfits for each age bracket. For example, 10 outfits for 3-6 months, 10 for 6-9 mos. and so on and so forth. Now since I have outfits for cold and hot weather, she made me pick 5 of each. Some other tips she mentioned was (1) pick clothes that are neutral in colors like denim and khaki which can be for both girl and boy; (2) for onesies pick 7, one for each day of the week; (3) for socks pick about 7-10 pairs; (4) for jackets and sweaters pick about two for each age bracket; and (5) the most important thing is throw away anything else that have stains, rips and are faded. They are not worth hanging into even if they have some sentimental value. Allison said with the ones that have really great meaning behind it, take a picture of them and scrapbook it. Cool huh!

Now I would totally testify to this system. It works! Why didn't I think about this before? I do not know but now that I've seen the light, I'm never gonna go back to any other system. I mean think about it, the less clothes you have, the more times your kid can actually wear them and they're not collecting dust in your ever changing kids' closets. And another thing, you wash clothes every week anyways so why not just have 7 of the underclothes and socks?

Spending about three hours going through all the boxes of kids clothes was a little overwhelming but once I was able to sort them out and gotten rid of all the ones that have stains, rips and are faded ( I didn't even realized I was hanging to a lot of these) it was smooth sailing from then on.

After folding all the clothes, they looked so much better.

And after all the hardwork of organizing, purging and inspecting.....tada!!!! here's the result...... one big rubbermaid tub and one diaper box. Now isn't that worth bloggin about.

Oh I got to tell you, I was able to put clothes for BOTH boy and girl from 0-4T in those two boxes. Preeettttyyyy cool!!!

Have a great day!

Weekend in review

First of all thanks for all that played along with my RAK. You guys are great guessers. Congrats to Genevieve for being the first one to post. Your goodies was sent in the mail today.

As for the "defining" moment in my life. It is true- I am now an "official" american citizen. Woohoo! But you know the interesting part was that it didn't really hit me till the judge who helped us take our oath gave his speech. As he was talking he mentioned that this is a defining moment in our life. After he said that, only then did I realized the oath I just took and the decision I've made to (somewhat) turn my back from the country I've called home all my life. I vow to still keep the ties I have to my philippine roots but at the same time I'm excited to experience what true americans can do and that is to vote! I've never voted before, not even when I was in the Philippines so this would be a first for me.

this is a pic from Gem's camera phone so it's small.

I was so blessed to have my mom, sister Gem, Mitch, Amanda, Marcus, Maddie and even my in-laws come support me at the LA convention center to take my oath. There were 3,525 people sworn in at the session I was in. According to the officiator, we were the third batch of that day and the previous two groups had about the same number as we had. So on that day there were about 10,000 people that officially became US citizens. That's some crazy numbers.

Here's a pic of me being hugged by my mom-in-law. I didn't really get great pics. We were not allowed to bring a camera to the oath taking so no close up pics from me.

After the ceremony we all went to Don Jose's for a late lunch/ early dinner celebration. We celebrated my success and also for Amanda's birthday. The waiters even sang happy birthday to Amanda and gave her a small plate of flan. We love mexican food. Yummy!

On saturday we decided to go on a bike ride. This was our second bike ride as a family. We started at the El Dorado nature center and rode the bike path along the san gabriel river to Wilderness park in Downey. At first Mitch said it was 15 miles (roundtrip) but after we came back he checked his book again at it was close to 20 miles. No wonder I was struggling at the end to try to finish the ride. It kicked my butt! I haven't ridden my bike in a long time (since I was about 12 yrs. old) and I found out that it takes a while to get back into the groove of riding again. I had a slight injury with this ride though. There was a part of the path were we go under a bridge tunnel and I was going down in a pretty fast pace (or so I thought), I was concentrating on staying in my lane when I hit some puddle of water and it scared be. Before I knew it, I was going straight onto the wall, I quickly lifted my right arm to block the hit to the wall and went right into the other side, almost hitting that wall. It all went fast and I knew I was hurt but didn't really now how bad it was till I was out of the tunnel and into the light. When I finally looked at the damage, I saw a big scrape wound on the back of my right arm and a blood coming out of my leg. I got hit by the sprockets of my bike. It went pretty dip into my leg causing some flesh to come out. Yucky stuff and painful too. Good thing Mitch is a scoutmaster and had brought a first aid kit. Oh man! this was definitely a hard and scary ride for me.

After the ride we went and had lunch at Carl's Jr. Mitch asked me if this would be my last ride since I got hurt. I thought about my answer for a little bit and all I said was, I'm not gonna hop on the bike for a while. hehehehe!

Even with my injury, we're still very grateful that nothing major happened.

That night we went to our ward's social/fundraiser for the youth to go to summer camp. Cool entertainment of mexican folkdance and Amanda got some high bids for her to do some cleaning at some member's houses. She will be busy this week. I also got a lot of good compliments with my hair. So funny one of my girlfriends cut her hair this week too. Hey we're starting a trend.

Yesterday we had our ward conference and everything went ok. I don't think there's any day in primary that's just smooth sailing but we survived another week.

So that's our weekend.

Have a great day!

A birthday celebration plus a RAK

So our family had quiet a packed friday today. Lots of things going on.

(1) Today Amanda turned 17. Wow can you believe it! I remember the time when I met this little blonde haired girl. She wasn't shy at all and loved talking about everything and anything to you. She was a typical middle schooler trying to figure out her place in this world and where she belonged..... and today I'm looking at the same girl but with a lot more confidence in her eyes. She knows where she belongs now and have a pretty good hold onto the standards she wants to live her life by. We are so proud of her, she has really evolved into a beautiful woman. Don't get me wrong, she is still a typical teenager sometimes and now that "dating guys" are in the picture, it will be more interesting but with improved grades and a new discovered talent in arts she has truly blossomed. Happy birthday girl!

(2) Got a new haircut today. It wasn't a very good experience though. You see I wanted to try the "famous" Katie Holmes style. I believed it's called a bobb look. I heard it's the fad with haircuts nowadays so I didn't even bother getting a picture/sample of it when I went to supercuts this morning. When I got there, the lady I was assigned to didn't even have any clue what I was talking about. I knew it was going to be a disaster from the beginning. I tried my best to explain it to her but unfortunately she didn't do it. Not even close. Even after she blow dried it, it was still very far from what I was expecting and now with a short apple shaped hair, it made my face look fatter. I was so sad. She was apologetic and even offered to redo it for me. She said to keep my reciept and within the week try to find a pic of the hairstyle I wanted and she'll try to fix it for me. Huhuhu! So I went home and my sister Gem ( who was at my house at that time) didn't have to say one word and I knew it was not a good look for me. She instinctively offered to flat iron it to make it look better. After about 30 minutes, my hair was made into some kind of a mod look which I really like. So now I might just keep it. But it will take some work to "always" make it look good. We will see.

(3) and finally- something happened to me today. A great thing. Something that was a "defining" moment in my life. Here's where the RAK (random act of kindness) comes in......... look at the pic. Guess what major thing happened to me by leaving me a comment and the first person that can guess it right will win something from my stash.

So that's our day. Whew! im pooped. I will tell more details about the 3rd event of today in a couple of days and at the same time announce the winner of the RAK.

Have a great weekend!

A farewell story

So last week, one of our dear friends moved to Alaska. I was so, so, so sad when they left. I couldn't even see them off at the airport cause I knew I was gonna breakdown. Allison has been my bestfriend for over 2 years now (since they moved to our ward) and I just don't think I can manage without knowing she's just around the corner. Marcus and Maddie lost some great playmates too. Huhuhuhu!
Anyways before they left, I decided to make them a farewell album. It was a scrapbook/directory for them to take to their new home. I asked all of our closest friends to give me some pictures and messages plus their contact infos to put in the book. I dedicated two pages for each family. The book itself wasn't hard at all to make. It was a cinch making the pages. The harder part was being a pest to these people, reminding them over and over again to give me their stuff! Oh boy it was a challenge. I felt like a debt collector or something, they promise you something then they forget and in turn you bug them through 20 or more phone calls and emails. But at the end, it turned out great. I also planned a farewell bbq for them where we presented the book. It was a very tiring week for me but it turned out really well. We had it at one of our friends house (thank goodness it wasn't at mine, or I would've been totally stressed!). They loved the book, I cried, she cried, we all cried and then we all gave them a big huge hug.
Here's a pic of the front of the book and my family's page.


Anderson family, if you are reading this blog, we miss you!!!

Our disneyland trip and Father's Day happenings

Sorry I'm a bit late updating. Just got home from disneyland. Marcus and I bought annual passes for our birthdays last year and we got the cheapest ones. That meant we were blocked out on all holidays, weekends and summer. Which, if you think about it, is kinda good cause you don't want to go on those times anyways bec. it's the most crowded times. Anyways today was our last day to be able to go this summer. According to our calendar we're blocked off until the last week of August. The kids and I didn't stay long there. The crowd's just too much for us to handle. We wanted to try the new Nemo submarine ride but the wait was 3 hours and there's no fast pass for it. Bummer! So we just did our usual buzz lightyear ride, a trip inside the innoventions so Marcus can play video games and then we hopped on to California Adventures where the kids got soaking wet at the bug's life wet play area. Didn't have to do a lot to get my little ones all tired, and now they're sleeping quietly for me. woohoo!

So this past weekend was father's day. Didn't do anything spectacular. Helped the little ones make Mitch a crown. They doodled on it and stamped some flowers (of all things!) and I wrote "king for the day". I made Mitch wear it for breakfast and Maddie kept on staring at him. While Marcus shouted "king of the castle!, king of the castle!" So cute! Made him his favorite breakfast tacos but I've forgotten that we've ran out of salsa, so it didn't taste as good. Oh well!
At church they gave the dads cupcakes, Amanda gave a talk about fathers and I helped out our primary children sing their songs at sacrament. I was doing double duty at primary today- doing the conducting and sharing time. Our president had given birth and so she was out and our pianist was out too so our first councilor did her job. Oh is a good thing Tiffany knows how to play the piano. Imagine if she was gone, I would be totally panicked!

Mitch has a 20 year high school reunion coming up and he's decided to shave his mustache. It's pretty different. A great change but still different! He made heads turn at church today. I must admit he does look 10 years younger. I like it, it just need a little getting use to.


We had dinner at the Tolman's. The men were complaining that they still had to do the bbq even if it's father's day. Too funny! It's really nice that my kids are not babies anymore. I can let them loose in the backyard with their cousins and I can sit and chat with my sisters in law. No more carrying babies, or needing to nurse or watching them crawl around. I'm liking this!!!

Tonight is Gem's graduation and after tonight were full force on wedding preparations. I can't believe my youngest sister is getting married next month. Aahh!

Oh and by the way, our roof is finally done!!! Mitch decided he would redo our whole roof by himself. It really needed to be done and since we really can't afford to pay somebody to do it, He has decided to take on this challenge. Oh and it was a major challenge! took him about 15 days from start to finish. But now it's done and I'm doing the happy dance. Finally our lives can get back to normal. I will post some before and after pictures soon.
Have a great day!

Fantastic four rocks!

Ok so yesterday at around 5 pm I got a call from my sister Gem that my parents and them just spontaneously planned to watch fastastic four and was inviting us to go with them. Mitch and Amanda were supposed to go to a drama club party so I initially said no. Marcus have been wanting to watch that movie, everytime he sees the trailer on tv, he jumps right up and asks if we can watch it. So I was a little bummed that we couldn't join them but to our luck, Mitch and Amanda came home early (way early) from their shindig and all of a sudden our night was free. So I called back my sister, got all the ticket arrangements done and by 8 pm we were out the door for the 8:20 showing. It's been a while since I've gone to the movies with my family (deleon). Of course as the scrapbooker of the family, I couldn't leave my camera at home. So even if some of my family members were embarrased that I was taking pictures of them at our local theater, I didn't care and clicked away. Most of the pics turned out not so good. I hate taking pics at night. All the red eye and overexposed shots, but oh well, at least I got the event on film and ready for a scrapbook page soon.

As for the movie, I will give it a big two thumps up! It's better than the first one and that silver surfer guy is pretty hunky. Jessica Alba's blonde hair is working really well for her too. After the movie (which ended after 10pm) everybody seemed pumped up and ready to continue the party. So off we went, back to our house, which was the closest from the theater, and hanged out looking at all my scrapbooks until midnight. I swear I'm getting old because I can't handle staying up that late anymore. I had a hard time dragging myself up from bed this morning at 7:30.

So as a summary, go watch Fantastic four, you won't be disappointed, unless you didn't watch the first one! and if you can, watch it with family members, they're a lot of fun to be with too.

Have a great day.

we're finally bloggin

So we have finally been hit by the "bloggin" bug. Welcome to our homepage. Since we have a lot of family and friends all over the globe, it's just right to use the worldwide web to connect. I will be updating this blog as much as I can. Reporting the stuff that occupies our time and chronicling the stuff that fills up our minds. As most of you know, I'm a very passionate about papercrafts and that will fill up some of the blog posts as well. Not like my blog at scrapbook.com, here you can post your comments, so feel free to reply and check back as much as you want. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Love,

Mitch, Grace, Amanda, Marcus and Maddie