Last Hurrah for the Holidays

During the holidays, I went on leave from work starting on the 21st of December. But before going back to the office on the 4th of January, our family went on a staycation at F1 Hotel BGC. Actually on New Year's Day I was so itching to go out but at the same time I was mindful that I can't be exhausted from going out. I wanted to go to Tagaytay actually and book a room there. But Joema was kinda lazy to get off his butt on New Year's Day. I was texting my friend Joy about this and she said she also wanted to go to Tagaytay but the hotel rates were a bit steep since it was a holiday. The next day, she messaged me if we will still push through with Tagaytay. Naglambing pa ko kay Joema na pasyal naman kami, but my lazy husband told me to go to the village playground instead "Dyan ka sa playground pumasyal". Kainez haha! Joy suggested if the kids can instead go to Kidzania while we can go to a salon/spa to relax. But I didn't want to pay for the fee in Kidzania as I found it a bit steep plus with Miya's age she will be required to have a guardian inside so that's almost 2k just for her+guardian and then another round of expenses for us adults. Yikes! So I went online to Agoda and searched for hotels in the area. Agoda's price for the deluxe room king bed was around P5,100 so I told Joema about it and (surprise, surprise!) convinced him to have a staycation.  So I immediately booked (medyo nahirapan pa ko to book coz Agoda's site was having some technical difficulties). Anyway, after lunch we were on our way to BGC! I was pleasantly delighted when they upgraded us to a city suite! Yey!

The kids with Ate Glenda settling down

Miya watching Masterchef Junior. I was surprised she remembers Gordon Ramsey and the other judges from the Masterchef (adult edition) show. 

Ang bugoy na ayaw mag-afternoon nap. Buti na lang nakatulog din kahit saglit lang. 

We invited Joy and Mek and the kids to go with us. Joema brought the PS3 which kept the kids preoccupied while Miya went to the pool to swim. We actually all though Miguel will also swim because that was the initial plan. But Miya couldn't wait anymore for Miguel to arrive so we told her she can go ahead and swim (with adult supervision of course).

Javi is so enamored with his Kuya Miguel

Ate Miya enjoying herself at the kiddie pool

Hahaha kinikilit sya ni Ninong Mek nyan

For dinner, the boys went to S&R to buy pizza, chicken and dessert! Yum! 

I think our guests left around 11pm already. By that time Javi was already asleep. Thank God we got an upgrade, and the room was enclosed and separated from the living areas because Javi wouldn't sleep knowing that there are still other people there he can play with.

The next morning, our little chicken (Javi) woke up early, as usual.

The last time we were at F1 Hotel, Javi was still inside my tummy -  one day short of being born. =)

Ate Miya and Daddy are still sleeping

Finally, Ate is awake. They can play na! 

During breakfast, Miya had pancakes and bacon while Javi ate a lot of yogurt while sampling almost all the food we got hehe.

Here, Javi is eating some bacon

Acting out "Itsy Bitsy Spider" while Ate is singing. 

Javi and Joema still had time to take a nap when we returned to our room before we checked out. I love staycations. It was the perfect way to end the holidays!

Week 2: The 52 Project 2016

Ate Miya took some flowers from our garden because she wanted to give her teacher flowers. Taken 15 Jan 2016

Our little Kuya laughing out loud. I love his laugh! Taken 13 Jan 2016

Week 1: The 52 Project 2016

I'm doing this again in the hopes that for this year, I will be able to finish all 52 weeks. I really want to do this especially because I will be a mother of three this year! Yikes!

She's really such a girly girl even in her poses. This was at the pool side of F1 Hotel after her afternoon swim. Photo taken 2 January 2016.

My super adorable boy. He is our alarm clock. He wakes up first and wakes us all up. This was also taken at F1 Hotel. Photo taken 3 January 2016

New Year 2016

The initial plan for New Year's Eve was to spend it at my parents' house because the mass we'll be attending will be celebrated at the church near their home plus my mother had work and it will be easier for them to just stay put at the house instead of moving the food to our home. After mass, we'll have an early Media Noche and then transfer to our home to watch the fireworks. But when I told this to Miya on our way to church, she said "Mommy, sa house na lang natin tayo kumain kasi baka ma-miss natin yung fireworks, e di ba mas maganda manood ng fireworks sa house natin?" After the Lolo and Lola heard this they agreed with Miya wholeheartedly (yes, my daughter is spoiled by the grannies). So what happened was we went to my parents' house first then church then went back to my parents' house to get the food and then proceed to our home to eat and watch the fireworks. Here are photos of our New Year's Eve celebration.

Photo-op with our red Christmas tree before leaving

Family pic - mukha akong may koronang star haha!

Love this photo

Back at home after the mass, Miya lighted up her lusis(?) from Lola

Also watching the fireworks

Little boy was so scared of the firecracrackers

When the fireworks died down, Mek and Joy went to our house for our supposed annual NY inuman. Drawing yung ibang Migs hehe.

Wine, cheese, grapes and chips

Thanks for coming guys!

Our First Christmas at Our New Home

Was so excited for last year's Christmas (gah! Can't believe it's already 2016!) because it was the first time we celebrated at our new home. Although we lacked Christmas decors (our decors except for the tree were courtesy of my father haha), we didn't lack in Christmas spirit as I wanted the kids, especially Miya, to enjoy this Christmas.

Christmas eve, although Joma had work he arrived early at home and we didn't have to rush to prepare for the Christmas eve mass at our village. The mass was at 8:30pm. By 7:45pm my parents together with Javi and one of our househelp went on ahead of us to the chapel. Joma, Miya and I with our other househelp arrived at the chapel around 8:15pm. I couldn't really wait that long in the chapel since I've not been comfortable with all the pregnancy weight I've gained (ack!). Before leaving for mass, we took a family pic right by our Christmas tree. 

Christmas family pic

When we got home, Jay ate Noche Buena ahead of us as he needed to leave. 

Nauna na sa crispy pata

Picture with the kiddos before he leaves

Pareho ng ngiti ah

While waiting for midnight, Miya hunted for Kinder Eggs which Lolo Arthur bought since early December. Side kwento: Miya's Lolo brought her kinder eggs almost wvery day the last few months but before Miya's exams in the first week of December I told the grannies no more kinder eggs. So they made a deal that Lolo will collect Kinder Eggs and give them all as Christmas gift hehe. 

My father had the brilliant idea to hide the eggs around our garden for Miya to find

Add caption

Daming eggs!

Picture with the grannies - Javi starting to be fussy at this time

I think we ate Noche Buena around 11pm. Surprisingly, both kids were still up and awake. Javi was so sleepy already but didn't want to sleep just yet. He was able to get through eating Noche Buena and opening of a few of his gifts hehe. After Miya opened all her gifts, I had to put Javi to bed because he started crying already.

Thank you parents for our Noche Buena feast

Group pic before eating

Miya very excited to open her gifts

Walang paki naman 'tong isa

The next morning, Santa's gifts were already under our tree. Miya asked for a dress and drinking glass from Santa. When I asked her why she didn't ask for toys, she said 'di ba sila Ninang naman magbibigay sa kin ng toys? Sila na magbibigay sa kin ng Shopkins and Glitzi Globe' Ahahaha! 

Santa's gifts wrapped in that polka dot gold wrapper

We also opened Javi's remaining gifts on Christmas morning. After that we went to my parents house then to my father's side of the family for Christmas breakfast as with our usual tradition. Then we went back to our house for lunch and slept for afternoon siesta. Everyone's happy! Hope you had a wonder Christmas celebration as well. 

Flyfish Christmas Party 2015

It's the middle of December and for sure you've been attending Christmas parties left and right. Over the weekend, we hosted our annual Christmas party for the Flyfish Gang.  We've been friends with this group for more than 10 years now, we've been together for when we were still single until one by one each of us got married and now almost all (but one) has a family of their own. Our Christmas annual picture grows almost every year. It's so fun to see our pictures every year.

We set up the tents in our backyard for the kids. And then they run around pretending to be zombies. And then when some of them got tired, we set up Inside Out for them to watch. While us adults had our chikahan.

Miya playing with the kids

Javi and Micca inside the tent

My happy baby

Javi with his Ninong Mands

The little girls

Our annual group photo 

Halloween Costume

When I was about to make this entry, I remembered I was not able to blog about Miya and Javi's costumes last year. It's a good thing Miya's been the one suggesting her costumes since last year. I don't have to think about what she'll be. She chooses and then I execute. For Javi on the other hand, I still get free reign over what he wears. Without further ado, here are the costumes of my kids from last year and this year.

2014

Last year,  Miya chose to be Sheriff Callie. I actually asked her around August last year, what she wanted to be for Halloween. I wanted to know way before I give birth so that I'll have time to prepare if ever. She chose to be Sheriff Callie because the sheriff cat wears a pink cowboy hat, pink kerchief and pink boots! 

I thought the costume was simple enough. We only had to buy the different elements of the costume and put them together so I didn't actually prepare anything before I gave birth. A few weeks before Miya's school Night Out (annual Halloween fair), I asked my mom to buy the hat and boots at Divisoria. She had a hard time finding the hat. She said she scoured Divisoria for 3 hours until she found a pink strawhat. A friend told me that for her kid's cowboy themed birthday party they bought straw hats for the guests and she just sew the edges to look like a cowboy hat. So that's what we eventually did. I wanted to buy a vest for her for her top but we didn't find any at the SM Store so I bought her a chambray top instead with pink pockets. We also bought a pink handkerchief to complete the look. I cut out a star from the leftover gold cloth we have from last year's costume for the sheriff badge. And voila!

Yihaa!!

Meanwhile, Javi used a puppy frogsuit that was gifted to him.

He was only more than a month old here

For our Migs annual trick or treat, Javi wore an LA Lakers frog suit instead of the puppy one.

2015

For this year Miya wanted to be Disgust from Inside Out. So I told her we can dress up Javi as Anger hehe. I had a hard time buying a green wig for Miya, it's either super expensive (almost 2thousand pesos) or other colors are available but green was not. So I went to Instagram and found this really cute store which sells handmade beanies: Posh Dollies. I asked if she could rush doing my order, I think I ordered only a week before our trick or treat but she was able to deliver anyway. The beanies were affordable, the one for Miya only cost P500 while the one for Javi cost P350. For the clothes, again I ask my mom to buy them coz again like last year, I'm pregnant and can't go around scouring the malls for the costume. But I bought Miya's leggings while Javi's red shorts were already on hand. I also used a red bandana that Miya used in her Linggo ng Wika program in school as Javi's necktie.

When I was taking her photo at the right, I didn't know why she was posing like that. It was only when I did this collage and posted this photo on IG did I realize that she was doing Disgust's pose!

Si Anger na hindi hahahaha! Happy baby as Anger.