these make me happy

because i can rarely grab the camera these days

this kind of shot makes me smile...



while this makes me laugh...



and this makes me, happy

my boys: my pride and my joy

looking at these photos,

all the exhaustion i felt these past weeks was all worth it.

{wanted to share this milestone in our son's childhood}




he was serious, he was raving of becoming a chef :-)
(our mini bobby flay)


and despite his absences from school due to asthma attacks,
he was able to snag some awards


what's a family portrait without the mom in it ;)


and concluded the day with a thanksgiving dinner with his grandparents
(my parents, my aunts and my grandmother - JP's great grandma)

it was a very-fine-day :-D TFL!

the weekend is almost here

don't get stressed waiting.
have an all-smile day everyone :-)

the newest addition to the family

meet reiv . our nephew. a new cousin for JP.

and this little cutie is the baby of ruben's cousin {that's her in the pix below}

babies are {just} so adorable. they make you want to sniff and touch them all day long. uhhmm.

wreckfas

that is breakfast to us and wreckfas in my son's vocabulary. heehee. when he first learned to label each meal, he cannot pronouce breakfast and i find it cute when he says wreckfas in the morning.

now, i just keep those funny facts at heart as i see my son growing faster that i can't seem to catch up. everyday, i see him growing taller, slimmer from the cute, chubby little boy that he was. our little boy. he would often correct me when i call him baby. and i would always tell him that no matter how big he gets. even when he is already bigger than daddy, he will always be my baby. our baby.

before we return to normal mode

here's one last post about Christmas/birthday before i set my mode to regular programming (heehee - and that includes laundry, housecleaning, cooking, scrapping, and a lot more).

during the holidays (even when i was still a student), it is my self-imposed obligation to try and get everyone a present. be it a serving bowl for mom, a shirt for dad, stationeries for sissy and caps for bros and {being the crafty little me} i usually embellish my gifts to seem like they are worth more {whispering: 'but not really'}. this year, was not an exemption. i still tried to get everyone something and (still did that crafty thing to make them seem worth more that how much i got them). heehee.

well. i really don't always mind not getting that {double} number of presents (for Christmas and for my birthday of course), but this year, i was overwhelmed with my Christmas/birthday presents. because each has something that i love in it from the people whom i love. {doesn't that just sound mushy? heehee} . wanted to share a piece of my happiness last {Birthday}Christmas.


and it was this holidays that i was able to take a very wonderful shot of the 3 of us. {it is a first time - to have a decent Christmas picture that is}. TFL! and one last time, A Wonderful New Year to everyone.

cheers to the new year

wishing everyone a blessed start to 2009
and let's end the 2008 by checking this Rhonna Farrer giveaway.

{stay safe}

jp's into shawarma lately.

and found this picture of us having shawarma at home (taken december 30,2007). we were going to watch the fireworks display at SM and we do not have time to grab some shawarma so we made our own when we got home.

as you see, eating is one of our favorite bonding time. hihi. just wanted to share. :)

this cutie is sick

found this photo of JP. he was barely a year old here. he used to be so skinny. i am thankful that he gained weight when he grew older. whenever he is sick, he has enough kilos to sustain the weight loss. he's been sick for just 5 days but i already noticed his smaller belly. i can slip his shorts effortlessly when we went to the doctor. i used to have a hard time with it.

it's pretty hard for parents when kids are sick. i almost cried this morning when we had his blood tested for infection. although i was able to persuade him to had the test done, we was crying the whole time. thank goodness the technologist was very patient.

hopefully, in a few days he'll be well enough to go to school. well enough to play outside again. well enough for us to finish the half gallon of ice cream [just kidding] that has been sitting in the freezer. i just missed eating ice cream with my baby. it is our bonding time. {actually, our kitchen is our bonding place}. can't wait for you to be well, kiddo. mom and dad are also sick {maybe not literally but it feels like it} when you are.

time off from work (NOT!)

{ warning: this is a picture-filled entry. it may bore you or it may not. but thanks for looking anyway. :) }


who takes time off from work just to work? yours truly. heehee. i have neglected housework (unintentionally) for quite a while and i owe it to my family to come home to a very polished and fresh-smelling house. :-D so after accomplishing my other domestic chores, i moved on to my 'favorite' one.

i was looking forward to my days off cuz i have been planning [it's been a long time since i saw the challenge over at the daring baker's and promised myself that i'd one day try it] to make cinnamon rolls.

i so love cinnamon. i like it in my toast. in my coffee. and i love apple pie overloaded with cinnamon [is there such a thing?].

i found this illustrated recipe of cinnamon rolls from pioneerwoman (very very witty and talented woman)

i have a very cute helper which made the process merrier and messy-er. hihi. JP and i made the dough the night before we were to bake our goodies. he was so excited (as you can see in his expression, hihi). he can't wait to use the rolling pin. note: he offered to help me because he wanted to see the dough rise and i promised he'll use the rolling pin to roll the dough.

so, we started by adding our yeast to the warm milk, oil and butter mixture.

we waited a while before adding the flour and below is my helper (while waiting)
and then my little helper continued by adding the flour and mixing our would be doughnoticed that my little baker doesn't have an apron? as little as he is, he managed to destroy my apron when he was acting so grown up and tried wearing it without help. so there goes a messy shirt (for sure) after the dough making.

left the dough to sit in the fridge to knead the next morning after i energized (after playing SIMS2 until midnight - heehee - this is my latest addiction).

the next day, i didn't wait for my little helper to wake up (which was a very,very bad idea cuz i had a bout with a crying boy for more than 10 minutes when he woke up and learned that i made the rolls while he was asleep) i decided to go ahead and make the rolls.you gotta have to be generous with butter and cinnamon. yum-o!

while waiting for them to rise (and as what pioneerwoman suggested), you can do the laundry, fold clothes, play SIMS2. heehee.

modified it a little. since hubby likes his food well done, i decided to glaze some of the rolls before baking them. this will give me caramelized rolls which i am just oh so sure hubby will love. :-D

and while the rolls were in the oven, i also made chocolate muffins and chocohip-oatmeal-peanutbutter cookies.

so my babies will have muffins (with a surprise). JP will have his stuffed with chocolate chips and for daddy, a small scoop of his favorite chunky peanut butter.

whenever i bake, i do it so most members of my family will have goodies. i make sure that everyone will have their small bag of cookies and a muffin to go. :-)

but most especially, i just love making these babies happy.

he is now 6

our little boy is not so little anymore. :-D

he is now 6 years old. :-D

hubby and i have [long] planned a mini vacation [at least that's what we call it when we take a leave of absence from work] to celebrate our son's birthday. we were not able to get away [an out of town] but we partied [with special people in our lives] and for me, that was a blast.

we started it with a get together with the gang on the eve of his birthday. we are rarely complete and so it was an opportunity to spend some time with friends. [JP took this photo himself. :-D ]

and on his birthday, we had him choose his gift. we went to Toy Kingdom and bought him a remote control race car that he had been eyeing for a long time already and a small metal race car that daddy bought as a bonus. [such a fan of cars, especially race cars] we [with my apo - yes, JP's great grandma] had a simple dinner at Rumpa. JP has been wanting to dine here ever since he saw the place and so we made it a point to fulfill that wish. isn't that a happy boy (waiting to devour his dinner)?
[tired afterwards and won't even give me a smile]

and how else would you wrap the day up but with a birthday cake (especially made by mommy) and a picture of the three of us (and his birthday presents - to remind us how lucky we are for life's blessings)
and that was not the end of it. the next day, he received another gift. this time it was from isa. a hotwheels starter set [to add to his collection of cars].

[picture of isa's present to be inserted here]

and on monday, it was a celebration with my family.

it was as if the celebration does not end but we were glad to have taken time off work to make sure that JP was happy on his 6th birthday.

[ daddy: mission accomplished :-D ]