Love to ALLAY

You know when the weather starts to get cold and you want to wear a hooded sweatshirt AND your jacket...but your jacket is too small to layer or if you wear both, it's too hot...well, ALLAY solves that dilemma for me!
I can still wear my tank tops, have my hoodie and jacket and not feel the crowded-ness of all that clothing! Not to mention, I don't have to keep wrapping that darn scarf around my neck!
At the beginning of the month we had the pleasure of meeting Liza and Randy, the Filipino-American owners of ALLAY, at the annual Bixby Knolls Street Fair.
They make an amazing thing...the hooded turtlescarf!It's a turtleneck, scarf and hoodie all in one! I love this new accessory of mine! Liza and Randy both came over the other night with product and it was so hard to not buy them all. We've been on their website ever since we meet them. It's such a breathe of fresh air meeting young Filipino entrepreneurs. Their product rocks! I'm in love with it! This definitely gets my product props of the year award! And to top it all off...Liza and Randy are super cool. Just down to earth and sweet. One size fits all....even Alexa!

Christmas is one week away.

I can't believe it. I'm still not done with my shopping! I have yet to send out my christmas cards. I finally did the address labels! They are going out tomorrow forsure! If I have to cut another snowflake my fingers are going to fall off!

Had a jam pack weekend.

Saturday:

My girlfriends and I had our annual Christmas party/White Elephant/Cackaling/Potluck. This year we were suppose to be "creative" with our white elephant gifts and give your favorite framed picture of the girls. I'm so glad that I have like 10 empty frames just hanging around waiting for pictures. I did a collage of the last 7 years. 2000 all the way up to 2007. I was surprised that I was able to find pictures from every year. The girls loved it. They didn't even recognize a lot of the pictures.

After I was done, I didn't want to give it away! (Yeah...just ignore the scarf, orange sweats and blue thermals...it's freakin' cold in our house!) For the white elephant I ended up with a Starbucks Gift Cert! Pumpkin spice fraps...here I come!
I love these girls. They make me laugh until my stomach hurts!

We had shirts made! L(heart)N. We're such dorks!Sam performed at Lakewood H.S. for Prelude So.Cal. on both Sat. and Sun. Her longest performance. She did so well! We are so proud of her with dance. We finally found something that she wants to stick with.

She's the first one to come out and the last one to leave...check her out!

Later that evening we ended up going out for Tina's 31st birthday. I took a break from the camera...so no pic. from that night.

Sunday:

Early the next morning we started our Christmas. Paul's sister was in town from Arizona so we decided to have Christmas early and let all the kids open the gifts from one another.

Alexa got a chair...something that she's been needing.Her stair has been lonely since. She won't even let me change her without running to her new chair!
The poor girl was so confused. All week I've been getting on her case for touching the gifts under the tree then her ninangs come over and tell her to open gifts and she looks at me like, "I can touch the paper...can I...can I?"
All the boys got personalized black hoodies with their last names on the hoods.
After opening gifts we went to Cerritos for some Pinoy Bistro...ummmm yummy!
We got to rest for about 30 minutes...then off to Sam's 2nd performance. This time my brother came to watch. Drove all the way from San Diego to see her :) Then right after her performance we left to eat PHO...back in Cerritos! Whooo-Weee...what a weekend! Can't wait to do the next 3 christmas'. Christmas Eve with my family - mom's side. Christmas Day is going to be split between going to Brea with Paul's family friends and back to my mom's for my step-family side. Can't wait to grub!

On another note, I just wanted to send my prayers out to our friends: Camille, Tone, Steph and Pia. Their father passed away last week. May God give them strength to cope through these difficult times.

And she conquers her fear of...

outside. She took her first steps outside the front door with caution about 2 weeks ago . And ever since then, she's been okay about walking outside. We're at Staples quite often, and she prefers to NOT be in the cart anymore, which calls for disaster!

It takes longer to get in and out of the car. Sometimes she freezes on the sidewalk out side our house and won't move. We'll say stuff like, "Okay...ba-bye Alexa...we're gonna go inside now..." and she'll reply, "K! BYE!" and waves. What the heck man. This girl changes so fast. I can't keep up!

By the way, we got Alexa those suede fur-lined boots at Target. They zip up and are the easiest to get off and on. We love 'em!

O Christmas Tree...O Christmas Tree!

This year we(mostly I) decided to get a small tree. It was so small that we didn't even have to tie it to the roof of our car to get it from the tree lot to our house. We just put it in the trunk!
If you've ever been to our house, it's a small cozy house with a small living room that is mostly taken up by our large monster sofa! So a big'ole tree kinda adds to the monster sofa and turns our cozy small living room into an uncomfortable cramped living room. Of course Sam wanted to show me how small the tree was by putting Alexa on her shoulder and proving that they're taller than the tree!
Check out Sam standing next to the tree...inside she's laughing at it.
O well whatever....I love our little tree, with our home-made ornaments in our small dinky living room in our cozy little house.

Sweet Sixteen...MONTHS!!!)

My big (little) girl is 16 months today. I don't know how I lived my life without her. I'm so blessed to be able to stay at home and be with her. She's the best thing to wake up to in the morning...unless she's really fussy and didn't get good sleep, then she kicks you awake at about 6am, which isn't so good. But I'm talking about the mornings when she actually sleeps in her crib and lets us sleep in until about 7:45 and she just patiently waits for us in her crib. Those mornings are the best!

Here's 16 things about my Sweet Baby at sixteen months:

1. She teeter-totters her feet really fast when you tell her, "Happy Feet!"

2. She's still on the bottle, because she fights me, literally fights me if I don't give it to her. She pinches and bites and screams and yells. Then if I get mad she gives me the silent crybaby sad, upside down U lips, and I just throw in the white flag and give it to her. She's only a baby once.

3. She absolutely can't sleep without a standard size down pillow.

4. She thinks that Barney is a dog.

5. She likes my louis vuitton purse more than the toys that light up and make loud noises. She plays and puts it over her shoulder and gets her fake cell phone and babytalks, "blah blahblah blah shhheee, lalalalala..." I really don't know where she gets that from.

6. This girl chills like she's in the bario. When she wants to take a little break and just chill, she squats...you know this girl is filippino fo sho! You can carry serious conversations with her like that too. She'll respond with some baby talk equivilent to "what's up" and nods her head or raises her brow!


7. Her favorite places to sit are the bottom steps of the stairs. The one going to the 2nd floor and the other going into the office. This is a new thing. She just started doing this, and I love it! She's so comfortable there that she let's me take pictures of her keeping still! But don't get it twisted...this seat is HERS. She claimed it, put savesies and definitely marked her territory.

8. She has callous on the bottom of her feet from running around barefoot in our house. She just got used to wearing socks and shoes recently, only because it's been below 70 degrees...

9. Doesn't let you get away with putting on chapstick without giving her some.

10. She puckers her lips before she kisses.

11. Pats my back (and Paul's) when she gives us hugs.

12. Perfers to be called, "Baby" rather than, "'Lexa"

13. Has to eat with a metal spoon. NOT a baby spoon!

14. Still can't fit her size 4 Orange Crocs!

15. Has 7 full teeth, 4 up top and 3 on the bottom and 3 more coming in.

16. Pulls the kitchen towels off the oven handle to see her reflection in the mirror. Then dances or fixes her hair, or claps, or like I said earlier...just chills and squats.

OH...and BTW...Thanksgiving was great!

Food was to die for, of course, thanks to my mom and auntie Mher.
We just chilled with family,my bro, and cousins, Jes, Carla, Cal, Dan. The twins were there too and we didn't get to take a pic with Tone. We missed Celisse! She wasn't able to make it.
...played a little Taboo and drank. Nice chill night. Can't wait to see them all again for Christmas.

the GREAT bridal expo

Paul and I did back to back shows this past weekend at THE GREAT BRIDAL EXPO.
Saturday we were at the Anaheim convention center. We've done more than a few of these to know the ins and outs, like where to park and where and when to get food. We also know to eat before we leave, have coffee on the way, and get there early to beat the crowd of exhibitors at the freight elevators. At the Anaheim convention there's a long walk underneath the convention to the ballroom. It feels like we're rock stars about to go on stage. (If you've seen Jay Z's black album DVD you know what I mean)

Sunday the expo was held at the Westin Bonaventure in LA. Downtown has a special place in my heart. I'm familiar with these buildings. It's nice to know that I come out here at least twice a year (on our small business trips) to visit it's uniqueness. We've also become experts at packing up our booth (thanks to my husband). Can you believe that we fit our whole booth on that small travel dolly? Had to mention that. I'm really proud of that!

Both shows we had a great outcome! I love doing shows! It's a lot of work, but it's the one forum that our work really gets appreciated, especially after being locked up in my office, aka cave, it's nice to know that all our hard work paid off!

I hate to sound like a snot, but I think that we have a really nice booth. It's different and interesting to look at. It attracts the modern bride that can't seem to find invitations that come in her color of orange and purple. It's also paper heaven! If you scrapbook, then you'll see some familiar paper.


Our untraditional flyers/business cards are a big hit at the shows: If you've ever been to a bridal convention, you know that you get bombarded with flyers and free samples and bags of stuff. So giving a bride a small business card just isn't gonna cut it. These little cards stand out, and it's a way for me to use all the scraps that are collecting dust. Sometimes I catch some of the brides getting more than ONE...shame on them!

Now it's crunch time with assembly! I love the set that I'm working on now. It just came off the letter press and it's beautiful! Can't wait to finish and deliver to the bride! So much to do...so little time!

This is me participating...

My filipino cousin (I call her my "filipino cousin" because we're not actually blood related, but her step-mom is my mom's 1st cousin. So that's cousin in my dictionary), Jamie did 7 random things on her blog and didn't tag me (or anyone else) because she said that we'd (her cousins/friends) would probably not participate...so this is me participating, because I thought it was a great idea for a blog...
These are seven random things that happened over the weekend:

1) Alexa doesn't walk in public or I should say in strange places, which means hotel lobbys, fast food restaurants, anywhere outside, etc. And in this exact example, Casa de Fruita off the 152 on the drive between the bay and LA.If you put her down, you can't walk. She'll be holding on with her kung fu grip. It's hilarious.

2) I fall for gimmicks! There's a special on a polish dog sandwich at Wienerschnitzel for 99 cents! Is it really that good, or is it that fact that I love hot dogs (especially with rice, eggs over easy, tomatoes and bagaoong(sp?)? Either way, this is a darn good sandwich. Totally worth the 99 cents, because I'm a pretty good eater and I can't finish the sandwich. We had some before we left. Sam always gets the mini corn dogs. Those are heart attack and a half, and those are good too. Do you see? I think it's a hotdog thing.

3) Alexa doesn't drink or eat anything unless you've shown her that you're willing to eat/drink it too. For instance this SunnyD that Sam's been drinking.
She wouldn't touch the thing last week. But since Sam's been enjoying it around her all weekend long, she WANTS IT NOW. BTW, this is 5 seconds in the lobby without freakin' out. But like I said...5 seconds.

4) Alexa takes a whole lot of persuading to eat something. But once she finds out that the "something" is good...WATCH OUT NOW! She'll snatch as much as she can get and shove it down her throat! Don't even think about trying to get it back. She'll fight you for it!

5) Paper makes me happy. :) I love paper. I love all the different textures, sizes, prints, solids, dies...I love it! And I think that the love is hereditary. Alexa is truly in love with paper! Always has been. Her whole 15 months of life! Whenever she gets close to paper she is drawn to it. Likes to rip it, crunch it, throw it everywhere around her. This is the one mess that I don't mind. I figure that she's developing a relationship with paper. Getting to know how it feels. Like different kinds. If she's fussy, just give her a napkin. It spares me like 4 minutes of quiet time.

6) One of my good friends Christine Yap, nicknamed me "Cornelia". Obviously because I'm corny. I entertain myself. I suffer from only child syndrome. So I do stuff like slap my own knee and catch myself being the only one laughing at my own jokes. I just come from a very comedic family. I do stuff like tell Sam to pick up the bananas and pretend she's a monkey. Then I bust up laughing! The funny part to me is that Sam LISTENS!!! So sad. So sad. The great thing is that she's pretty strong about people that talk crap about her. She learned to say, "They must be drinking haterade". Thank you uncle Slim for that.

7) I hate coming back home from a weekend getaway, or vacation. All it means is that I have to unpack, which leads to more laundry, and it also means that I have to get back to work. And once I get a sniff of relaxation, it's really hard to go back to the daily routine of the week. It's obvious that Alexa doesn't like it either.

And I had to add this random pictures that Sam took with her camera.
She takes awesome shots. Like this one of Alexa brushing her teeth on Oct. 29th. She loves to brush her teeth!