Sophia's Birthday Eve!

Below are some pictures of Sophia's last day as an eleven month old! We will be celebrating her glorious 1 year birthday tomorrow! A year ago today Joy was already admitted in the hospital and I was settling into the couch right next to her. Ahh, good times!





I can't believe that a whole year has gone by so fast! This Saturday, we will be celebrating Sophie's Tol (Korean 1st birthday celebration) with lots of good food and good company! Sophia will have many items to choose from to determine her future. I wonder what she'll pick...

Thanks for reading!

Our November and December 2009

PLEASE CLICK ON THE COLLAGE TO ENLARGE! ENJOY!

Wow, It's been FOREVER since the last time we updated. As usual, a lot has happened, and we were too busy to update the blog since we were having so much fun! After our last update (back in November of 2009!), our wonderful family has gone down to the Bay Area for Thanksgiving, celebrated Eden's 12th birthday, celebrated Emma's 3rd birthday, celebrated Christmas, had family over for New Years, and LOADS MORE!

A couple days before Veteran's Day, I took Emma and Sophie with me down to the Bay Area. Since I'm able to work practically anywhere that has a computer, and the girls are not in a school or daycare, we were able to come a couple weeks early down to the Bay Area. It was very sad to leave Joy and Eden up in Oregon. We drove down... Yes, drove. It's a 10 hour drive, but it took us 11, just to be safe. The girls were fantastic all the way down! Sophie was a bit sick, so she slept most of the time, and Emma had a blast listening (and singing) to music and watching some movies. While I worked from my parents house, my mom and/or dad would watch the kids. Sophie took a little while to get comfortable with my parents, but after a couple of days she was her happy smiley self.

The days went by pretty quickly. Emma, Sophie and I would Skype with Joy and Eden every other day. It was hard to be in the Bay when it was Eden's 12th birthday. I don't like missing special events like that for our kids. She looked great in her dress though! Joy made Eden all her favorite foods, like Korean BBQ and Sinigang. The little ones and I would visit (rather frequently) the Rubin's house for some PS3, and NERF War action! Emma had such a great time shooting Ninong J-Lee. We were practicing and gearing up for the great Thanksgiving showdown! Finally after 2 weeks of being apart, Joy and Eden took the Amtrak down to the Bay Area. It was a 16 hour train ride! They were met by Emma, Sophie, Mama, Papa, Inay, and myself! It was great to have everyone back together again!

The week that Joy and Eden were in the Bay was probably our busiest yet! We visited all of our hangouts and literally pigged out on all the food that we were missing out on! We had our pictures taken for our Christmas cards by Jon's cousin Billy. He did an amazing job taking TONS of pictures of the family. Thanks Billy for capturing many wonderful memories for us!

Thanksgiving LUNCH this year was at the Rubin's house, and it did not dissapoint! It was food overload, with a showdown of sorts for the cousins. NERF WARS! Thanks to Inay (well really Sae for donating most of the guns). We also celebrated Eden, Emma, and my dad's birthdays there. After a semi food coma, we followed the Navarretes to Thanksgiving DINNER at RJ's house in Benicia. MORE FOOD!!! We also got to meet Logan, who was super cool and very adorable. He and Sophie had a wonderful time playing together!

Friday was "errand day". We spend most of the day in Fremont getting our van fixed and doing some Christmas shopping at Costco. Joy and I went and visited Jon and Billy that night for a late night snack at BJs (formerly Houlihan's at Sunvalley Mall). We ran into Norbert, Bobby, and Adel there! Random!

Saturday was TEATRO ZINZANI. First of, a huge awesome THANK YOU to Kuya Gerry. That night would not, could not, have been possible without you. Thank you for everything! We had a wonderful time and memories that we will take forever. If you ever get the chance, you MUST go and see Teatro Zinzani. Their performances are amazing, and the food is just ridiculously delicious! I won't spoil anything from the actual performances, but let's just say that it's definitely MUST SEE! After Teatro Zinzani, Joy and I headed down to Billy's house for a little get together he was having. We arrived right before Holman and Alesia were "leaving". They had been trying to "leave" for almost an hour. It was good to see them, and everyone else for that matter! Thanks to Auntie Jet and Billy for opening up your home to us. We probably arrived there at 1130, but had to leave about 1AM since we were leaving for Oregon the next day.

Sunday was going home day. Granted, it's not a fun day to begin, but it's a day that always has to get done. I hope that made sense. One highlight of this day was going to In N Out on the way up to Oregon. It's our last stop in California before hitting the border.

After being gone for almost a month, Oregon felt different when I came back. It was probably because it was FREEZING when we arrived. The next couple of days before Christmas, we had temperatures in the TEENS almost every day! If it warmed up, it only got to about 37 degrees as a high, and it would rain. Just a couple more degrees and it would be a blizzard, but it never came down as snow.

Emma's 3rd birthday party was so much fun! Joy always makes what the birthday celebrant loves to eat. For dinner we had Mac and Cheese (Kraft style), McDonald's Chicken Nuggets and Fries, and corn. Go figure.... Not the healthiest dinner, but it was still yummy nonetheless.

Getting ready for Christmas was very memorable. I spent a good hour or so on the roof of our house putting up lights. Having Christmas in our first house is definitely a memory that will be with me forever. We had Christmas Eve dinner at Joy's parents house, and opened stockings. Thanks Mom, Paw, Lara, and Grandma Belle! The Night Before Christmas (the kid friendly and unrated versions) was read by Paw with Sophie and Emma sitting on his lap. Since it was our first year in our first house, Joy and I decided to have Christmas Dinner here. Paw, Mom, Lara, and Grandma Belle arrived super early Christmas Day to see the reactions to the girls waking up to Christmas morning. Emma's gift from Santa was a playhouse/dollhouse, and Sophie's was a buggy that she can ride and be pushed in. Eden got a digital camera and an MP3 player. My lovely wife gave me my ring that she restored. It was previously (and purposefully) cut off of my finger a couple of years back. (It's kind of a funny story, but a bit long to post here.) I have one word to describe Christmas Dinner... DELICOUS!!! We had pernil (pear-kneel, Puero Rican style pork shoulder), raviolis and gnocchis from Genovas in Oakland (which we took with us from the Bay), green beans (Leah and Nick style) and Joy's awesome eggplant parmesan.

A couple of days after Christmas, my sister came up on the train to visit us for New Year's. She said that she didn't care what she did while she was up here, as long as she got her hair "did" and that it snowed. She got both of that, on the same day... After having freezing temperatures and rain on opposite days, it finally happened. God was with us that day. My sister wished for it to snow because she wanted to see snow falling. It's one thing to see it on TV, but to see it in person is another. It's so quiet, that's the amazing thing about it. It's beautiful and quiet. The funny thing is, the snow FOLLOWED us up to Tualitin where Inay was going to get her hair done. It snowed a good 6 inches, with Eden and Emma in the thick of it! My sister got her wishes, a nice new hairdo (complete with purple streaks), and it snowed. The weatherman called it a "freak" occurance, because the next day you could barely find any snow anywhere.

The next day also happened to be the day that the Ignacio boys were coming up via plane. I drove up with my sister (she had to get some last minute touches done to her hair), and met them at PDX. It's always a fun time when Kuya Royce, Kuya Edsel, and Kuya Rodney are around! Even though they like it better when Joy drives, we drove them around Salem and Portland and showed them some of what Oregon has to offer. We went bowling, looked at houses near the golf courses, and watched Avatar in 3D. We celebrated New Years Eve by playing poker and watching The Hangover. New Years Day was TAX FREE SHOPPING DAY for the Ignacio Boys. They took advantage of saving an automatic 10% on everything they bought, and got even better deals when we took them to the Woodburn shopping outlets!

On January 2nd, we had to say good bye to all of our visitors. We had breakfast at the Stepping Stones cafe, a place that Adam Richman from Man V. Food visited when he came to Portland. They really weren't lying when they made MAN-cakes! We dropped off the three boys first, then went to IKEA for some shopping before we dropped off Inay.

Alas, winter break was over for Joy and Eden, and it was back to the daily grind of work and school for us. I just want to thank everyone for all the support that you have given my family. Your love, prayers and thoughts are all that we could ask for. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts. God has blessed my family with a wonderful network of people who truly care and love us. We cannot be more grateful. Thanks for reading! Hopefully we'll be more dilligent in updating! :)

Our Halloween Adventure

Halloween was a full day for us. It started with a quick stop to HMart to fill up on all things Korean and then off to lunch. We found a great PHO place up in Beaverton and Sophie loved the rice.



After lunch we took the girls to the zoo to participate in the scavenger hunt. We had fun running all over the place and looking at the different animals. Our reward was a coupon for a free dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. We would have stayed longer but we had to head back to Willamette University so Eden could meet the author of the Heck books she was reading. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity.



After the book signing we came home to rest and then got ready for the big trick-or-treat night ahead. First we visited Gma Belle and then off to Grandma and Grandpaw's house. We stopped at some houses here and there and then headed back to our neighborhood to get more candy. The kids were pooped by the end of the night and they had a blast doing it. I have to say this was by far the most successful Halloween yet!

Getting ready for Halloween

We made little spiders to hang from our porch for Halloween. They are so cute and the kids had so much fun making them! We tried to make a spider web from white yarn but it just wasn't turning out the way I had imagined so we had to scrap it. On Oct. 31st, I get to look forward to my kids turning into a chicken, elephant, and a nerd! I can hardly wait!

Random update

I know it has been OVER a month since our last post so instead of writing, I decided to just put up a photo journal of what has happened since then.

In the mornings when we go to get Sophie up, her Ate has already joined her in her crib. They have so much fun together.Today was curly hair day. Eden wouldn't let me take a picture of her.

The result after the curlers were out. Isn't she too cute?

Sophia and Emma had a playdate with Eric. He lives just a few doors up from us and he is right between Emma and Sophie's age. They all have fun together.

Lolo teaching Emma the essentials in life... How to make vampire teeth from french fries

Lolo and the little girls spending quality time.

This is a video of our crazy jumping Sophie... She loves to jump!

Birthday Greetings and Labor Day Weekend!

My parents, sister and Yori came up for the Labor Day Weekend to celebrate my birthday and see the girls. They arrived at 4AM on Thursday morning of last week and stayed until Labor Day. Sorry, but we didn't take many pictures this time! We were too busy doing other things. :)

This was the scene that morning at 4AM.

It was really great to have my family over. Thursday was a recovery day for my parents. They slept until about 11AM, then we headed out at 1230 to meet Joy for lunch at Willamette. After that, just waited for Joy to get home, and rested some more!

Friday was a busy day! We went to the Oregon Zoo in Portland and saw animals! We started the day off on a little adventure, and found ourselves at the Biscuits Cafe. :) It was a pretty amusing time there! My mom was impressed that Eden ordered porkchops, pancakes, hashbrowns and an egg... and finished it all!! After the cafe, it was Zoo time! Eden, Emma, and Sophie showed Nanay, Tita, and Lolo where all the cool animals were! It was nice to see my girls having a great time with my parents and my sister!

After the zoo, we headed on down to Uwajimasdifpwidfoawefiho... the japanese grocery store. :) While Nanay and Lolo were grocery shopping, Emma, Sophie, Tita and myself (with the grocery cart) got boba and looked at the fishies in the tank. After receiving our drinks we headed off and looked for them. Emma kept yelling, "LOLO!! NANAY!"... it was the cutest thing to hear, and so funny watching all the other people looking at her. She's so funny sometimes!

After the grocery store, we picked up Joy and had yummy dinner! Saturday was my birthday! Papa made a yummy breakfast of beef steak, rice, and lumpia! It rained that day, but it didn't damper anything... except for Joy's surprise for me. Apparently, she had scheduled a helicopter lesson for me that day, but with the clouds and weather the way it was, they had to postpone it until another day. Thank you babes! It was definitely the thought that counted! So, instead of getting a helicopter lesson, Joy, Tita, Emma and I went to Toys R US. There, they bought me Guitar Hero World Tour! YAY! We pretty much jammed out until Joy's parents, Grandma, and sister showed up for dinner. The In-laws gave me tickets to the Blazers/Suns game! WOOHOO! We even invited our neighbors, Michelle and her son John over for some prime rib, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, pancit, lumpia, and whatever else we had. It was DELICIOUS! Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated my birthday with me!

Sunday was church day! It was definitely a blessing to see my parents and sister at church! They got to see where Emma and Sophie go during the service. After church, we went to Bridgeport and had sushi at Sinju! We walked around and had a great time inside Z Gallerie. We left feeling a bit tired, and went home and rested. It was a great end to a wonderful Sunday.

Monday was sad... We were THIS close to getting Yori to stay with us until October. He was such a good dog the entire trip and he didn't pee or poop in the house at all... until that Sunday night, because SOMEONE (hint hint TITA!) didn't want to take him outside before going to bed!! HAHA... Anyways, my family left at 7AM, and arrived in Pinole at about 4ish... We skyped w/ them and my relatives in VA.

Alas, the weekend went by too fast. Yesterday, Joy went back to work, and the grind continues on.

Today is my parents 31 year anniversary! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MAMA AND PAPA! We love you! It's also Eden's first day as a 7th grader! I had to do a double take this morning to see what she was wearing. She just looked so old!! I'll have to take a picture of her and update the blog so you all can see what she wore today. :)

Thanks for reading, and again I apologize for the lack of pictures. Take care!

Our Special Weekend Getaway!

August 21st marked the 4 year anniversary for Joy and me. It was hard to keep what I wanted to do for our anniversary a secret from her. She has a way of asking nonchalant questions that eventually give her enough information to figure out where we're going. This year, Joy's parents gladly watched our three girls for us while we took some time for ourselves.

The day started out like any other Friday. Joy got ready for work, the girls had breakfast and we dropped off Joy at 8 at Willamette. When we got back, the girls got ready for the weekend by getting packed. I got a haircut, then dropped off the girls at Joy's parents at 1030. I picked Joy up at 11 and we were off on our weekend adventure.
Our first stop was ULTA for Joy. She got an awesome new haircut! As if she could get any more beautiful!! I love her new haircut and her new confidence in herself. She's also 13 pounds lighter and looks better than ever!

Look at that smile, and that hair! YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL BABES!

After ULTA, we headed on down to Washington Square Mall for an awesome lunch and even better dessert!

Joy's there's-no-way-they-should've-made-this RED VELVET CHEESECAKE. Yes, it tastes JUST AS FLIPPIN' AWESOME AS IT SOUNDS.

My not-as-awesome-but-still-pretty-delicious Strawberry Shortcake. The vanilla ice cream in the middle was REALLY YUMMY.

After Washington Square Mall, we drove back down to Silverton. Our fabulous day was topped with with our stay at the Oregon Garden Resort! This hotel was just recently finished this year, with the lodge/dining area sitting above the gardens.

Our sunset dinner view of the garden. It was an amazing view!

The view from the garden, looking up at the lodge of the resort.

My love.

The next morning, it was breakfast buffet and check out time. After we checked out, we headed on down to the Oregon Garden to check it out. It's a very beautiful place. They have a lot of different area where they grow different plants. They're extending a lot of it too, which will make the whole place even bigger!

We had such a wonderful time, but we couldn't have had this without the help of others. Thank you again to Mom and Paw for watching the girls while we got our time alone. Thank you to my sister, for helping me orchestrate this weekend and keeping it (almost) a secret from Joy. :)

Lastly, thank you to my wife, my love of my life, Joy. Thank you for being you. Thank you for all that you do, for our girls, for me, and for everyone! You are a beautiful, loving, caring, and just AWESOME person. I love you so much.

Thanks to all of you as well. Thanks for reading!