Fourth of July Parade

(still catching up to current posts...)

This year, we volunteered Aaron to be a part of the Fourth of July Parade in Summerlin (they were looking for kids to ride bikes during the parade). So we went to Michael's and bought a bunch of decorations for his bike. Aaron was super excited, though he did not understand why we were doing it. ;-) I think we did a good job on the decorations, but later on we realized we over did it! Most kids had like one bow on their bikes, but Aaron's bike, as you can see, was very festive. After they did the mile walk, they joined me in watching the rest of the parade. Later on we ate a cake I made. It was a hot, but fun, day. (BTW: During the parade, Aaron thought they were in a race. As they walked by, he yelled, "Mom! I'm racing!" ---he's into Speed Racer right now ;-)

Father's Day Weekend Part 2

Sunday, we went to lunch with my dad before he went to work. That afternoon, we found out I am pregnant! Brent was extra happy to find out he was going to be a dad again on Father's Day.

Father's Day Weekend Part 1

Ok, so I'm still catching up on my posts, sorry! Anyway, Father's Day Weekend, we went to the beach on Saturday with some friends from Oki. We had a great time. Brent surfed a bit, and Aaron had a blast playing on the sand with friends. He's afraid of the water though, because he is convinced that there are sharks. He doesn't like the big pool either, just the little kid pool by our house. I hope he grows out of this stage soon... anyway, we had tons of fun and we were blessed to spend time with some old friends from Oki (plus Lizeth and her kids from Corona.) Great day!

Announcement!

I have only told a handful of people and I was going to wait until my first doctor's appointment to announce it, but I can't wait! I'm pregnant! I think I'm about 4 weeks along, but we'll see after I see the doctor. Brent and I are so excited. Aaron is almost 4 years old and about to enter preschool, so we figured it was time for the next one. Please pray for a healthy and safe pregnancy!

Recent Haps Part 3: Sister's Visit

Another big thing that happened with us this past month was my sister's visit. She was here for almost 2 months. It was great having her here. She helped with Aaron a lot and I got a break from giving him baths and potty training. ;-) He loved having her here, cause he's tired of playing with me. ;-) She got here while Brent's mom was still here so their stay overlapped, but it was fun. I'm afraid I did not get any other pictures because I lost my camera charger. Anyway these pics are from Hoover Dam.

Recent Haps Part 2: Brent's Mom

So, on to the recent haps update: Brent's mom, Melanie, came to visit for about a week. While she was here, we took her to the strip (of course), Red Rock Canyon, Hoover Dam, and Fremont Street. It was great to be able to spend time together. I wish she stayed longer, she's fun to be around.

I love my new grocery store!

Ok, so we've been getting advertisement flyers from this new store near our house. Because I've been shopping at Albertson's for several years now, (I mean before and after Okinawa), I didn't see what the big hoopla was about. Until... they sent us a coupon for 5 dollars of a purchase of 20. I figured, hey, why not? As soon as I got there, I realized that the store was very small. I also noticed that about 75% of the aisles consisted of fresh food like, vegetables, fruits, meats, dairy, and ready to cook meals. About 3-4 aisles have things like cereal and sauces and some canned foods, ect. I realized that when I went to check out, I bought mostly things that did not have preservatives and mostly organic! It occured to me that when I go to Albersons, I end up spending like over 100 on some fresh food, but mainly JUNK! This is because I spend most of my time going up and down the aisles filled with junk food, and by the time I get to the fresh food part, I just get a little because my cart is full! This time my cart was not even half filled, but I have about enough food to last a week AND no junk!

I think overall, buying organic does cost more, but I think I'll save a lot on junk food! ;-)

Relatives from the PI

After we returned from DL, we were visited by relatives from the Philippines. My cousins and thier kids came to Vegas for a few days. Here is Aaron is his (second?)cousins.

Recent Haps Part 1: Disneyland

Ok, so this last 2 months have been extremely busy! So busy, that I haven't had time to post anything on this blog. After Kate left, we decided to go to Disneyland... THEN some relatives from the Philippines came, THEN Brent's Mom came, and THEN my sister came (and stayed for a month and half!) So I'm go to post these events one by one starting with Disneyland.

We decided that we needed family time so we took Aaron to Disneyland. Taking him to DL is getting funner and funner since he is getting more and more aware of what he sees.


We normally go to Disneyland, so this time we decided to spend most of the day at DCA. Here is Aaron with the letter A (from the California sign outside the park).


We always take Aaron to see the playhouse disney show, even if we just do that and go straight to Disneyland afterwards. But this time, it was better because they updated the show with Aaron's favorite shows! The show now has Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Winnie the Pooh. He was ecstatic to see "Rocket."



Here we are on the Ferris Wheel. (I forgot what this ride is called.) Brent apparently thinks it's funny to torture his son. ;-) Just kidding, Aaron was scared during the really swin-gy parts but overall we all had fun.

When the park closed we went over to DL for the rest of the night. We can never leave the park without going to the Buzz lightyear ride. He is and will probably always be Aaron's favorite character. We always start with Playhouse Disney, and end with Buzz. ;-)

Day Two: The Strip

We spent the entire day at the strip. We really should have planned out the day better. We planned to see so much stuff, but only got to see a half of what we had planned. We got distracted the M&M store. Lol. I think we were there for like 3 hours... by the time we got out it was about 9 pm and were were starving. In the end, we were too tired to make it to Bellagio, Wynn, and Treasure Island. Oh well... it's another reason for Kate and Moriah to visit again.... (like next week...hint, hint, Kate). ;-)

Kate and Moriah, here at last!

Today is the first day of our little vacation with Kate and Moriah. After their plans for Grand Canyon fell through, I suggested that the pair spend the Spring Break with us instead. They arrived today and right away the fun began. Thanks to Ate Aida, Kate's mom, the kids have their own tents and sleeping bags. We also took a walk to our kiddie pool and the kids got to swim for a bit. Afterwards, in my attempt to get Kate to move close to me, we checked out the model homes. Aaron and Moriah are having fun, especially Aaron. He has been wanting friends so bad, and today he kept calling Moriah "friend". He thinks that's her name. ;-) Everytime she leaves the room, he gets sad because he think she will leave him forever. How cute.

Egg Hunt with EGGS!!!

After service and lunch, Brent went to our couryard and placed eggs for Aaron to find. Aaron was ecstatic when he saw the eggs, grabbed his basket and began collecting them. In the end, he "found" a treasure chest filled with big eggs (containing little toys).

Easter with CC Spring Valley

We attended Easter service with Calvary Chapel Spring Valley. The service was held at the Cox Pavillion at the Thomas and Mack Center at UNLV. The message was good... Pastor John Micheals reminded us that Jesus' promises are true 100%. He promised us that he would die for our sins, and He did. He promised us that He will rise again, and He did. Jesus promised us eternal life, and that we shall have!

Egg Hunting with No Eggs

Can you find Aaron in this line??? He was waiting so patienty, I was proud!
Here he is, only 3 and already embarrased by his mom taking pics.

Our HOA hosted an egg hunt last weekend. There were so many people at the park, it was kind of chaotic. At one point we almost lost Aaron in the crowd of 3-4 year olds. :-) They had the event divided up according to the ages of the kids. Aaron is only 3, but we put him in the 4 year old category (ages 1-3 only get to watch a show, not hunt for eggs). Anyway, they did not let the parents go on the field, so there were lots of crying kids suffering from separation anxiety. My son was one of them, but only for a little bit. He was quite excited to hunt for eggs, I was telling him about it for days. So he was really excited and preparing to "hunt for eggs". I did not notice, however, that they did not place plastic eggs on the field, but they had tons and tons of individual packages of snacks (like animal crackers and cookies). So when they said "go", Aaron ran around the entire field without picking anything up. I could not figure out why he was doing that, until I saw him pick up the one and only egg that was on the field. He was so happy that the found an egg! (I think it might have been left over from last year or something and got mixed up in the snacks because it was the only one. ) Anyway, I was afraid that Aaron will end up with an empty basket, so I ran to him and began putting stuff in his basket. He was upset because I was putting "non-egg" items in the basket. But he did let me put some in there... but because he was looking for eggs, he missed out on the good stuff, like suckers and cookies... oh well. Next year I'll tell him to hunt for "snacks". ;-)

Cathy's Childhoold Faves # 2

Jem and the Holograms--- Another childhood favorite of mine. My mom bought me a Jem doll when I was kid. My sister and I would play with that doll along with our numerous Barbies for hours and hours. We would also record the shows and sing along to all the songs.

Cathy's Childhood Faves #1: Anyone Remember This?

Nobody I know, other than my sis, will probably remember this. The show lasted only one season, but we sure loved it! We named all of our Barbies and Ken dolls after the characters of this show and would play as if our dolls were in an episode of the show. We made our own story lines, but we made every character/doll act according to the personalities of each character of the show. This went on for years and years.

Whatcha lookin' at? Vogue!

Check us out! We made it on the cover of Vague Magazine. Anyone want an autographed copy?

Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) !!!

Last year (February 2007) at the Nago Cherry Blossom Festival in Okinawa. Look how bare the trees were behind us... I was really bummed. :-(

Close up of the trees outside our house today.
( View from my kitchen window. I can see it whenever I wash dishes, which is about 4-5 times a day!)

Ok, this is along story but, pretty cool. Last year, around this time, we were getting ready to leave Okinawa. We were there for almost 5 years and I had no idea what cherry blossoms were. (I know, I can be very ignorant at times...) I knew that every year there were Cherry Blossom Festivals held throughout the island, but I really didn't know what it was all, about so I never cared. Until...one day around the time cherry blossoms were in season, I read an article about it. Lo and behold! I was enlighted with the wonder that is: Cherry Blossoms. I immediately made plans to go and see them and attend one of the festivals. That time was very bad for us, Brent was working all the time, and we barely saw him. We were also getting ready to PCS so it was a hectic time. But I was determined and we made a huge effort to see the cherry blossoms, and attend the festival. Well, to my big disappointment, the trees were not quite blossomed yet. The amount of blossoms were so little, you can literally count them. I was really bummed. I was told that if we went back a month later, then the trees will be filled with blossoms. We couldn't do that, however, because we were leaving to move back here in the states. Anyway, I left Japan, really sad that I wasted 5 years of seeing these awesome trees and I thought that I will never see them again. There are a lot of things I regret not doing while we were in Okinawa and this one topped them all.

Ok, so a few weeks later, as soon as we moved into our house, guess what I saw! Cherry Blossoms! There were cherry blossom trees planted all over around our house! I noticed that all of the other houses had one or two cherry blossom trees outside, but somehow our house was surrounded by only cherry blossoms! I guess the HOA made a mistake, but it worked in my favor! Anyway I thought how great it was that after being so sad about missing out on seeing these super pretty trees in bloom, I came home to a house surrounded by them. That was last year, when we first got here, and I didn't have time to take pictures of them.

Now it's cherry blossom season again, and last week I looked out the window as I was washing the dishes and I saw a couple blossoms on the tree. I was ecstatic! Then today, I looked at them again, and there were hundreds of flowers that bloomed. I can't wait until all of the cherry blossom tress are blooming. They are so pretty, but they don't last very long. That's what make them special anyway, you wait for them for so long, and when they are here, they are appreciated. Anyway, here are pictures of two of the trees outside our house.

Oh yeah, and not only are they here at our residential area, it's all over Summerlin. So I am blessed by these beauties while I drive around our neighborhood. Later on this week I plan to take more pictures of them.

Busy Weekend Part 2- NASCAR (Las Vegas Motor Speedway)

Brent was "voluntold" to work an Air Force recruitment booth at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway during Nascar weekend. Afterwards, he was offered 4 tickets for the race! The tickets are worth almost $100 each! So, he called me and told me to come and meet him. We are not Nascar fans, but it was a great experience. We got good seats and we had a great view of the race. It was also neat to see people coming up to Brent and thanking him for his service in the military (he had to wear his formal uniform). It was a good reminder that being part of the military is a sacrifice, and it's great to see people being thankful for what Brent does.

P.S.

Aaron kept looking for "McQueen". :-)

Busy Weekend Part 1- The Natural History Museum

Me and Aaron looking for "Nemo".
Brent and Aaron searching for Simba.

We went to the Museum of Natural History. We've been trying to go to this place ever since we went to see the dinosaurs show at the Thomas and Mack Center. Aaron loves dinosaurs, and we got a coupon at the show for the museum. But with Brent's work schedule, we kept putting it off. So finally went this weekend. I was a bit disappointed. I think living in California, and going to nice museums in L.A. during school field trips, caused me to have high expectations. This museum was not as big and as nice, but Aaron loved it nonetheless. I was just glad to spend time together as a family.