flowers?

my hubby is the last person in this world

who will ever pick up flowers of any sort

on any occasion that may arise.

he is a great believer that although beautiful

flowers are a total waste of a good dollar.

i kid you not when i say that in 9 years together

(and it's coming up this 22nd!!!)

he has only ever given me flowers about five times.

SERIOUSLY.

so imagine my surprise when i got these on the 10th!
(our actual wedding date).

the little man with daddys' goodies

flowers and tofu bubble tea --- i was on an anniversary high!

note to hubby:

thank you for finally listening to my "concerns"

you do have some sort of romantic streak after all

i just have to pull those ears of yours from time to time

celebrating six years...

in celebration of our 6 year wedding anniversary

the hubby and i took the kiddies out for some family time.

it was a beautiful vancouver summer weather

that greeted us.

(just a quick note that this post is photo heavy...

and you can also click on the photos to enlarge)

we started the morning off by packing the kids in our car

and heading to tim hortons drive through for some breakfast

timbits for the little man

coffee, b.e.l.t. & bagel with cream cheese for the adults

our next stop was toys r us

just because we felt like picking up some small trinkets

for both the boys

dylan wanted to get on one of the rides

and asked us if he can share it with kaelan

so of course we gave him his baby brother to ride along!

our next and final stop was granville island

this must be one of my favorite places to visit in the city

as you can never really run out of things to do or see

the hubby was not very happy though when we arrived

the first thing that happened to him after leaving the car

was get splattered by bird goop

yes, you got that right.

disgusting bird goop that got on his glasses

slipped on his cheeks

and hit the littlest man right on his head!

supposedly, it is lucky though.

we've been told plenty of times to buy a lottery ticket.

(and we did --- and no such luck, unfortunately)

we stopped at the public market for lunch

the little man wanted pizza so we obliged

and because the hubby is going strong on his lifestyle change (aka. diet)

we stopped at siegel's to grab some of their yummy goodness!

we both had the Lox and Cream Cheese

(wild sockeye salmon, cream cheese, red onions & capers)

it was super delicous!!!

the little man was so enthralled with the boats around

and kept yelling at the top of his lungs that he wanted to ride one

that we obliged and got ourselves on a mini-tour

aboard the aquabus 

when we got back at the island

we spent the afternoon lazing around

checking out some of the galleries

doing a bit of window shopping

chasing after the birds

and drooling over some sweets at the market

our last and most important stop

was a quick detour over at the gelato cafe

to pick up some creamy and decadent sweets

as a perfect punctuation mark to end our day

we had a marvelous time exploring a small part of our beautiful city!

it's even more marvelous that we've shared six years together

and now have two wonderful kids to celebrate our anniversaries with.

i think this will definitely be a tradition

for us to spend our anniversaries with the boys

and not just for ourselves.

Happy 6th Anniversary!

six wonderful years ago

i had a chance to go back home to manila

and built wonderful lifetime memories 

by saying 'i do' to the boy i fell in love with

three years prior to that

Happy 6th year anniversary ---

to my partner in crime

whom without, i would not have

two of the most gorgeous & sweetest little boys.

after all these years

it's still you that makes my heart skip its beats

and put butterflies in my tummy.

the dusty bookshelf: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

what dusty bookshelf is complete

without a copy of Eric Carle's famous book?

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

is on my toddler's list of must read on a daily basis.

and with pages looking like this...

what parent and child would not love the book?

it promotes learning and counting on it's lovely hard pages.

i, for one, am a BIG FAN of Mr. Carle.

a few of his books are sitting quite nicely on our dusty bookshelf

waiting to be pulled out by the little and littlest man.

gaga over paper

two weeks ago i posted that i am burried

in some paper goodness.

i was.

i was very busy working on items

for my baby boy's dedication (baptism).

and since we were hosting the reception at our humble abode

i decided to doll it up a bit with some paper goodness.

click for larger image

since our theme was yellow and lime green

i grabbed some pretty scrapbook paper and got going on the work.

i made flower pompoms to hang over the food.

paper buntings were strewn both inside and outside of our home.

little cupcake toppers were made.

i repackaged some honeycomb cereals (which was a BIG HIT for the kids!)

made my own magnets with the little man's photo

and created it's own pesonalized case 

with a "PK" in front (for Phoenix Kaelan).

it was a very busy few weeks for me

trying to put everything all together.

in the end, it all worked out perfectly!

a celebration...

my family on the littlest man's dedication.

more photos to come...

paper goodness

i have been away lately a i am busy working

on some paper goodness.

you heard me right.

some paper goodness.

i've been elbow deep in pretty paper.

working on a ton of DIY's

for this upcoming saturday's dedication

for our baby boy.

said paper goodness will be posted soon

so stay tuned!

happy sunday, lovies!

20SB Blog Swap #9: i heart summer. and roadtrips!

hey y'all!!

austin-mommy-bella

i'm kiranda {pronounced ker-AND-uh}. i blog over at mommyhood.  i still consider myself somewhat of a mommy-newbie even though i've had two kids in just under two years. crazy, right? i'm a vocalist and have a bachelors degree in vocal jazz performance. i'm also a wicked awesome barista at an award-winning coffee shop in downtown seattle. and more recently, i'm starting my photography business- Captured By K. Photography. i love Jesus, 90-calorie fiber one bars {the chocolate ones}, pedicures, clean houses, the smell of fresh rain, and good food. oh. and i loooooove summer. 

ever since i was a little, my absolute favorite time of year is the summer. it just doesn't get any better. i thrive in the summer. it's like the rest of the year i'm merely existing, but in the summertime i come alive, friends. for anyone who lives in the PNW {pacific northwest}, you're aware of how our summers can be. washington is a pretty awesome state and most of the year it's pretty crummy here on the westside. but man oh man, washington sure does come alive when it wants to. summers here are absolutely beautiful. and this year, while everyone else was dying in triple digit heat, we've had a nice string of perfect summer weather days.

this summer, i spent quite a few days in the hospital with my bellz while she had surgery on her liver. she's fine now, but i tell ya- sitting in a hospital while the sun shines outside and your little is in the OR...talk about torture! and while we were in the hospital, austin {my other little} went over to the eastern side of the state to soak up the sun with my mom and the rest of my family. when we finally left the hospital, bella and i decided to go on a roadtrip. since dad was away for training, why not?!

so we packed our bags and made the trek over to spokane. it was the weekend of my grandmother's 75th birthday and she had no idea we were coming. needless to say she was pretty excited to see us.

see! isn't washington amazing?

bellalina and i trekked 300 miles and spent a wondrous week with my family. 

honestly, it was the best vacation i took this summer.

b and my aunt.

w/ yoli {my mom}

w/ uncle winto.

ahh! i hate that this one didn't come out the way i wanted it to. :(

l-r

yoli, b, aunt schel, nina {godmother}, cousin clifton, uncle leslie

walking on the dangerous bridge with grandpa

acting craaazy.

it was one of the best weeks I had this summer.

thanks for reading! 

for more mommyhood- goodness, stop on by my blog!

www.mommyhood-blog.com

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the three months weight challenge

you may wonder how this all started.

the hubby was given an ultimatum by the doctor 

and long story short, he has no other choice but to lose some weight.

over the last two days, both his status and mine on facebook

was geared towards curbing his lifestyle.  

one thing led to another and next thing you know,

his family and my mom has gotten on the wagon

and we have a challenge on our hands!  

with my dearest friend kary's suggestion

i have decided to open this challenge up to the blogging world

to see if anyone is interested!

below are the Rules and Regulations of the challenge

which has been forwarded already to current participants

____________________________

Start Date: August 15, 2011
End Date: November 15, 2011
Winner Announcement: November 16, 2011

1.) To be an eligible challenger, you must submit $20/person in the pot (to be kept by me for the 3 month duration).

2.) Monetary submission should be received by Monday, August 15.

3.) Only US & Canadian patrons are allowed at this time. We will treat the dollars as equal to reduce the questions of exchange rate and such.

4.) If you are a US patron and would still like to join, you are welcome to send me your $20 via PayPal. Please email me at mommy.shrimp@gmail.com for further details.

5.) Every Monday, starting from August 15, your weight, along with a picture of your feet on the scale, should be sent to my email.  For the sake of fairness for everyone, this is required (please ensure that i can fully read the weight on the picture or I will ask for another photo). If you are submitting your weight in KG (kilograms), I will be using this converter (http://www.convertunits.com/from/kg/to/lbs) so that everyone is equal across the board.

6.) Your weight will be kept in confidence with me although every two weeks, I will be sending out an email as to how much each person has lost to keep all of you motivated to lose the weight and win the pot at the end!

7.) At the end of the challenge, whoever loses the most weight (calculated from their beginning weight and subtracting their most current weight), will win the total of the pot.

8.) To the winner, please understand that dependant on the exchange rate of Paypal, your total pot may be slightly higher or lower than the original amount.  Again, I am looking at both the USD$ AND CAD$ to be of equal value for this challenge.

9.)  If there are two (or three, or four...) people who are tied in 1st place, the total of the pot will be split evenly between the winners.

10.) We trust that everyone will be honest in their weight submissions. We would like to keep this as a fair, clean and honest challenge!

***IT IS IMPERATIVE FOR YOU TO SEND IN YOUR SCALE PHOTOS.  THREE WEEKS (CONSECUTIVE OR NON-CONSECUTIVE) WITHOUT YOUR WEIGH-IN WILL AUTOMATICALLY DISQUALIFY YOU FROM THE CHALLENGE AND YOUR MONETARY SUBMISSION WILL NOT BE REIMBURSED***

____________________________

i would also like to include that second and third place winners

(discounting any family members and only open to my blog followers!)

will be receiving a little something from me!

please remember that you have until Monday, August 15 at 9:00pm EST

to join in and get both your submission and first weigh-in to me.

if you are interested in joining and have any other questions

please feel free to email me at mommy.shrimp@gmail.com

HAVE FUN TO ALL OUR CHALLENGERS!!!

the dusty bookshelf: Caillou Books

there are three things my little man is head over heels in love with.

the first being his brother (ok, that's a person)

the second are his trains (be it thomas, chuggington or whoever else)

and third is Caillou.

yes, Caillou.  he just adores Caillou.

we have netflix at home because they have the complete

four seasons of Caillou and for his down time,

the little man get to watch his favorite show.

of course, what little boy who loves Caillou

would be complete without having a few choice Caillou books on hand?

this set includes the following selections:

Caillou Dresses Up!

Caillou Goes Birdwatching

Caillou's The Hiding Place

Caillou Rides a Bike

Caillou Rides on the Plane

Caillou Walks a Dog

of course, not a day goes by that we do not read 

ALL six books.

yes, we've have them memorized by heart already.

27 is over...

i just turned 28.

because the hubby had to work on my actual birthday

and i have been badly wanting to take the kids to the beach

we decided to hit Barnet Park last monday to do a quiet celebration

with my boys, my bestest girlfriend, her hubby and her baby bump.

after weeks of dreary vancouver weather

(and if you know me, i am quite happy with that!)

it was actually quite nice to see the sun peek out on monday

and we were able to thoroughly enjoy the time spent at the park.

how about i let the photos do some talking here?

after a solid 8 hours spent by the beach

numerous sunblock applications

forgetting the grill of the bbq (thank goodness we had aluminum foil!)
breaking the handles of our picnic bag

my bff having to buy a cooler on her way

and also the very preggers bff having to taking a dive in the cold water

to catch the little man who lost his footing (thank you for this!)

building sandcastles

digging in the sand

feasting on some yummy bbq

and hours upon hours of just plain quality time

i can say that in just one day, we are able to fully get our summer on.

we had a fantabulous time!

and i have to say, it was a nice way to end year 27

and begin year 28.