I'm It!

I was tagged by the lovely Mrs. Law

8 Things I Look Forward To:
1) Getting Married
2) Having more kids
3) Going on a vacation with my family
4) Watching my kids grow into wonderful adults
5) The Beach
6) Tyson's BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!
7) Meeting my grandchildren (i kno I have a long way to go)
8) Going back to school to get my masters

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1) Got a ton of food for Tyson's birthday party
2) Went to Chile's with Katie and Ashley
3) Had two margaritas and thought of Mexico
4) Ordered the birthday cake
5) Ate Costco pizza
6) Blow dried and straightened my hair
7) Made a list of things i still need to get for the party
8) Uploaded pictures from my camera to my computer.

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
1) Go swimming
2) Get into some kind of shape
3) Run everyday
4) Travel the world
5) Make someone a scrapbook (and they pay me for it of course)
6) Buy photoshop and learn how to use everything on it
7) Graphic and web design
8) Invent something

8 Shows I Watch:
1) Gossip Girl
2) 90210
3) The Game
4) Oprah
5) House
6) Weeds
7) Californication
8) United States of Tara

I Tag the following people! (i dont have many blogger friends)

The Mueller Chronicles
Jamie and Lance Hunter
Baking Baby Lovf
Waiting for Baby Foreste
Whatever Happens Happens
Katrina is a Princess

i'll have to cmoment to even tell these people they are tagged!!!

Baby Einstein

So I have about 3 Baby Einstein movies and when I moved back to LA I left them at my mom's house on accident. So now that we are up north visiting, Tyson get the chance to watch them. It's actually a little better at his age now b/c I feel that he can understand it a little more. It was so cute, he had his own little chair on the floor as he ate snack and watched his portable DVD player. He actually watched the whole thing. I was amazed. He didn't want a second one though, b/c then he tried to keep climbing out of his chair. We'll try that one again tomorrow.

T & D

I had to share this picture b/c it's seriously so freaking cute. It's Tyson and his best friend Damien. We are having a joint birthday for them in so-cal and Jackie I wanted to make an invitation with their picture on it so we set up this mini photo shoot outside of IHOP after breakfast the other day and this is the BEST picture i got and I actually love it. I wish I could see a little more of Tyson's face in it but it's still cute. Taking pictures of two toddlers is not easy. Especially trying to get a good picture where they are BOTH paying attention. and yes, Tyson is officially a TODDLER on saturday!!! wow almost a year already....this is too crazy

Easter Weekend

So since this year is Tyson's first Easter I really wanted him to be involved in an egg hunt. I know, I know he's too small but it still would have been fun to see him picking up the eggs to place in his basket. Even if it was only 1 or 2. Well I had no idea where and Egg Hunt would be, esp since I am not from around the SFV. I kept telling Justin that most of them were going to be on the Saturday before Easter but he was convinced that Sunday they'd have to have something. Well according to my hunch, early Saturday morning I decided to do some Internet researching and found that I was right and most egg-stravaganzas were being held on Saturday. Well the one that was the closest to us was the one in Calabasas at it was only being held from 10am-12noon and it was already 10am when I found it. So of course we RUSHED getting ready and headed to the Grape Arbor Park for the fun festivities.

We missed the egg hunt. But there was an Easter Bunny and they were taking pictures with him for $5. So Justin and I really wanted Easter picture with the Bunny so we stood in the VERY long line to get one. It was so cute. We took a family picture first and then I took one with my camera of just Tyson. Tyson sat on his lap and kept looking up at him like "what is this thing". I couldn't stop laughing. Glad I got a good picture of it though. [I have the family pic on the other computer so when I get to it I'll post that up too. There was a petting zoo at the event so after we took pics with the Easter bunny we stood in another long line so Tyson could pet all the animals. Well I stood in line while Ty and Justin went to eat food. It was funny because about two people in front of me this lady was holding her little baby that kept crying and the man directly in front of me turns and says "i don't know if it was just me, but my son NEVER cried like that". I said "MEE TOO...my son hardly ever cries and when he does he's tired that's it". It was funny b/c then we just started going on this tangent about our kids that never cry. I was hoping that poor lady couldn't hear us.

We finally got into the petting zoo and there was this little Tyson sized baby goat. Just perfect for Tyson. He had this tiny little horns and everything. Tyson didn't really pet him that much but we could tell he liked him. Then there were bunnies, horses, big goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, and I'm sure more kinds of animals. Tyson wasn't paying too much attention to them but he got a few pets in here and there.

I think he was more interested on what was going on outside the fence. It was so cute though. He went over and stood next to the fence and looked out as if he were a little animal locked in the cage. So we took him out after that. Since we missed the egg hunt, there wasn't much to do after that and it was already getting past 12pm so we went home.

The next day was Easter and Justin and I decided to have some friends over for a BBQ. I had been lazy and didn't take the time to get and make an Easter basket for Tyson until last minute. And of course there wasn't much left in the stores. Luckily I found at least a few things to scrounge and make this one for him. I thought it was just the perfect size for him.

He didn't care about anything in the basket though except for the plastic eggs filled with candy. Although he has no clue what candy is. I guess the Easter basket was more for me since I'm the one that ate all the candy for him anyways. :) I was on a sugar high for the next few days afterwards searching for candy everywhere.

We did have a small egg hunt though. I boiled some eggs and since we obviously weren't prepared and didn't have dye Justin decided to color them with the only marker we could find. I thought it was really cute! I ate all of those too! hahaha.

All in all we had a fun filled Easter and I'm glad we got to share it with family and friends. Like I was saying below, I am not that religious and really haven't been to church in years so kinda embarrassing to say this but until now I had no idea what Easter was even about. Learning more about Passover made me want to learn more about Christian holidays as well. So I read up on it and learned that Easter was the day that Jesus was resurrected from death. It is the holiest day of the Christian year. THAT is something new I learned. To me, Easter was probably one of the least important and obviously because I never understood its true meaning. Easter is actually linked to Passover. The original Christians were of Jewish heritage and they believe that the last supper may have been a Passover Seder. The celebration of Easter likely evolved as a new facet of passover with emphasis on the resurrection of Christ. Easter starts 40 days prior which consists of fasting and penitence known as Lent. Holy week is the last week of Lent which commemorates Jesus entry into Jerusalem and Good Friday, the Friday before Easter, is the anniversary of Jesus' crucifixion. It concludes with Easter Sunday. Easter is held on the first Sunday following the full moon following the spring equinox. Rabbits symbolize fertility while colored eggs represent new life. Egg Hunts are traditions for the children. Similar to the hiding of the afikomen at passover.

And all this time I would stop eating a certain food for 40 days and never really knew what I was doing. Not that I ever made it past a week anyways. Maybe from now on, I'll actually try and fast during Lent for the right reason.

Passover Seder

so this year Ty and I both had our first 2 passover seders. One with Justin's close family and another the next day with his extended family as well. To tell you the truth I was kinda nervous because I didn't know what to expect. When Jerry (Ty's grandfather) had sent me the invitation via email about the big passover seder I started researching what passover was all about. But of course that was a while ago and when the time came I completely forgot what I learned. Of course when we started some things started to come back to me.

On Wednesday April 8th, when we arrived at Justin's Grandma's house, she had two tables set up beautifully for everyone. The setting's included wine, boiled egg in salt water, matzah, and gefilte fish. In the middle of the two tables that were set up was the Seder plate which had symbolic foods that would be eaten or explained throughout the course of the Seder. We each received a copy of the Haggadah which is text that explains the complete Seder service. What I thought was cool was that everyone is equally obligated to participate in the service. I had never read the Exodus, which is the story of how Moses led the Jews out of Egypt from the salvery of the Pharaoh, so it was very interesting to me to be able to learn something new.


This was also my first time trying most of the food like Matzah Ball Soup and Gefilte fish. The fish I could do without, although it wasn't that bad, but the Matzah Ball Soup was delicious. There's no way anyone wouldn't like it. I also am NOT a wine person. All wine just taste sour to me and I usually never drink it. Sometimes when I think I can possibly handle it, always turns out that yep I don't like it. Well I discovered Manischewitz Wine which is a Kosher wine that tastes oh-so-good.

This is Tyson and his Auntie Doris, who is a huge follower and commenter for the blog, thank you Doris, if it weren't for you I wouldnt be so sure anyone takes the time to actually read this. lol. Everytime we go to great Grandma and Grandpa's house, of course everyone just loves Tyson and wants his attention because he's the only grandchild and great-grandchild in the close family. We always joke around if Justin, Tyson, and I arrive before Stacey and Neal about how everyone has about 10 minutes to spend with Tyson before Stacey and Neal come and steal him away. So lucky auntie Doris got a picture with the infamous Tyson and this day everyone got a little time with him.

This is Justin and Tyson wearing his Kippah aka Yamaka, which used to be uncle Jordan's when he was younger. It was a little big for Tyson but it was cute for him to wear it all night. Sooner or later he'll fit in it better. The Passover Seder is a great tradition where in the telling of Jewish history and tradition is transmitted from one generation to the next. One way to encourage children to participate is by hiding the afikoman, which is a piece of Matzo that is broken during the early stage of passover, and encouraging the children to find it after the Seder proceedings for a prize of money. Well Tyson, being the only person under the age of 12 was lucky that he had no competition. He found the afikomen and got $5 for it.

All and all my first passover experience was great and I look forward to many to come and teaching Tyson more about his Jewish heritage. I think that with most other holidays, specifically mentioning Christian holidays, many people lose the true meaning and reasons they are celebrating the holiday in the first place either from being caught up through presents, food, or suedo-figures. WHat really amazed me about Passover was that since the Haggadah serves as the guide, the seder must be performed pretty much the same all over the world. I learned a lot of new things during teh passover seder and I think it is a wonderful way for Jewish people to praise, gives thanks, remember and passdown the true reason the holiday is celebrated in the first place.

And the next day we did the whole thing all over again...but with more family.

How Lucky Am I...

...to get to wake up to this every morning.

He check son the doggies too!

Lake Balboa

We went for a walk to Lake Balboa the other day and Tyson was actually awake this time to be able to go in the sand for his first time ever. He was just touching it and looking at it on his hand. It was a new exciting feeling for him. He didn't go to much in the sand though. He was staying pretty close to mommy. A little girl next to him even let him play with her shovel. which lasted about 1 minute.
Lake Balboa is so pretty. Out of the 1.5 years i lived in the valley last year I never knew this existed until about 2 weeks ago. And from where we live now, it is literally in walking distance. I mean I will walk there if I know I'm only going to play at the park, but if I plan on walking around the lake, I will be taking my car. I mean maybe I was still sore from the canyon but walking around the lake did not seem possible after walking all the way from the house.
There a lots of ducks and geese too so I brought some bread and we got to feed them. There is also fishing allowed in the lake. By looking down you could seriously see HUGE fish. Maybe we'll try fishing for dinner one day.

Runyon Canyon

Ok so i know i haven't updated in a while but it has been crazy planning for Tyson's birthday party up north, especially since I am not up north to do so. But I finally found some time to download some pictures and start blogging again.

Last week we went on a hike to Runyon Canyon. It's a spot in Hollywood that is literally the EPITOME of LA. I have never seen so many people with their dogs walking or jogging all in the same spot at one time ever. of course we fit right in with the baby and the two dogs. I didn't have my cool Chanel glasses though to match. But it was a good excercise. After we parked and walked 10 minutes to the trail I was already hurting. Not only was a walking a dog but I was pushing a 23 pound baby (+ stroller) UPHILL the entire time. After a little bit I think I was just walking through the pain because I couldn't feel anything after that and felt like I could walk for miles. After a bit Justin and I traded and he pushed the stroller. When we got to the top it was a beautiful view of LA. One side was the Hollywood sign the other was the city.

I then walked the baby back down while Justin ran down with the dogs. Walking down became a lot harder then walking up. especially while pushing a stroller making sure you don't let go. and not to mention sore legs. Let's just say Justin had to wait a while before I made it all the way back down. Definitely a good way to spend a Saturday morning. Can't wait to go again