Birthday Party Day

So Jacob and I woke up early and decided to do some yard work. We thought it would be a great experience for the kids too! Haha So here are the kids helping Jacob trim the trees. I helped out as well ;) We trimmed trees, bushes, pulled weeds and cleaned up around the house! Thanks kids!

Then my aunt Daphne and uncle Boy came over and cooked lumpia (Filipino eggrolls), and pancit and chopsuey. They already had the lumpia made. They just needed to fry them! Here's a picture of one of the trays (we had 4 trays of lumpia-- vegetable and meat)! YUMMMMMM

So everyone started arriving around 2pm. My dad even came! I figured he would since I'm his only daughter and it's my birthday party ... AND he's the only one who hasn't seen our house yet! He spent most of the time on the couch talking to Jacob and watching golf, of course...

And we spent our time outside swimming and playing! Thank you to my family who came! I love family weekend parties :) Lots of pictures to follow!

Birthday Party EVE

Today I made sopas. It means "soup"... but "Sopas" is the Filipino version of chicken noodle soup. It's so yummy. I've never made it before so I had to look for the recipe online. Luckily, I had all the ingredients! I made it using chicken stock and omg it was so delicious! Better than I expected! Jacob loved it and said, "babe, I wouldn't mind having this every day!". That's how I know he loves it :) This isn't a great picture since it was taken with my iphone, but hey it's a camera and it works!

My cousins also came over tonight. My aunt and Mama brought my sister and cousins over (since tomorrow is my birthday party). They wanted to spend the night :) Hahaha, Jacob and I are planning on doing some yard work tomorrow morning! And now we have slaves! They have no idea what's in store for them! hehehe

Happy Birthday To Meeee

I showed up to work today and my desk was decorated! AND Karina baked me cupcakes! I have the BEST co-workers :) They make great friends :D I had a hard day but having friends like them made it easier! Later that evening Jacob took me to my favorite restaurant! Olive Garden! What a great husband

Chef Dan

So my cousins are here for the weekend. Dan woke up early and made us breakfast. Scrambled eggs with yumminess. At first I was a little hesitant... but I tried it and it was SO GOOD! I eat a lot though... so it wasn't enough hahaha :) We swam the rest of the day :D And Dan showed us his back flips lol

That evening, Dan made angel hair pasta with shrimp. Yum! Thank you, Dan, for making my weekend stress-free!

JK DAY

On Fridays, Jacob gets off of work early-- usually around noon. I decided to take a half-day as well and spend the rest of the day with him. It was fun! Jacob and I went to the David L. Baker golf course in Fountain Valley. We played a good 18 holes. I shot 80 this time! The first time we went (earlier this week), I shot 86, so for you all mathematically challenged out there, I shot 6 strokes better on my second time playing the course! I wish I had half-days EVERY Friday so I could spend the day with J :)

Then as we were finishing up our round, my little cousins call and ask if they can spend the night TONIGHT, so afterwards, Jacob and I head to my grandma's house to pick them up. My cousin Dan also joined us and offered to cook for the weekend. Wow! How could I say no to that?? He graduated culinary arts school last year (Cordon Bleu). I said yes. He brought all his cooking tools lol. It was great. I love when my cousins come over. They've been coming over almost every weekend! So much fun!

Another Swim Day!

So Jacob and I were going to spend the day doing yard work in the back. We cleaned some of the side of the house and I got a phone call from my cousin asking what we were up to and if we were going to be home.. I totally knew they wanted to come over and swim! Then my little sister called and asking if our pool was clean. LOL of course it's clean! I knew she just wanted to come and swim too. So anyway, everyone came over to swim! My older cousin Troy made pasta and I made some steaks. It was good fun. Everyone went in the pool! I like when people participate :) It's no fun when my family comes over and they don't swim. Unless they have pool issues, then I understand! lol ...but anyway, here are pics

This little black lab/german shepard is Emma. She belongs to my older cousin Troy and his wife Ceng (in the picture)

Reunion!

So for 4th of July weekend, Emily and her family, Betsy & Micah, and Jenna came over to our house! We had burgers and dogs and chips and veggies and fruit and yummies and omg ice cream! Jacob and I didn't have a grill :( so the night before Jacob went out and bought a grill/smoker thing. Jenna and I put the barbecue thingy together... she's so good at that kinda stuff :) I wouldn't have been able to do it without her lol! I really hate putting things together haha.

So it was a pretty hot day. We hung out by the pool while my super awesome husband worked the grill. I'm proud of him :) Lots of pressure when you're the cook! But he did great. The burgers and dogs were yummified!

Here's a not-so-sexy picture of me with my always-good-lookin girlfriends and cutie-face Clark! :)

It was great fun! I got to see Mae (whom I haven't seen since my bridal shower back in 2006), and I finally got to meet Clark! They are such adorable kids! I had a great time hanging out with Em, Jen, and Bets. It was like being 17 again! ...onlly its 8 years later! Wow.

So after the Slussers left, Jenna, Betsy and I hung out and talked some more. We were talking about shaving our legs or something and Betsy started talking about this contraption that is like an electric shaver (kinda like a man shaver), but instead of shaving, it tweezes! ...Like a tweezer! Jenna and I kept asking what it looks like, what it does, how big is the thing, etc. and Betsy goes, "oh, here it is..." and pulls out the epilator! It's called an epilator. Jenna and I tried it on our legs/arms and OMG it hurt so much but I think I want one! It'll save me so much time. I really hate shaving my legs because that is extra time in the shower, extra time I'm wasting, and extra money on the water bill! Anyway, here's what Betsy's epilator looks like. Epilator is a funny word.

Cousins and TV Frame

My cousins spent the night last night and we all went swimming today! It's so fun when they come over because all we do is swim, hang out, play some guitar, eat, and sit around and do nothing! ...And it's never boring!

Jacob had some down time and decided to frame the tv. He's been meaning to do this for some time. He got 2 different pieces of crown/trim, stapled one on top of the other, cut the angles, and badda bing, badda boom! A frame! He also did hole-cutting (behind the wall, leading to our almost-finished big shelf), so that those tv cords aren't all over the place!

Door Frame

Jacob framed the door to the backyard with some casing and rosettes! We aren't finished with it yet. We need to cover the staples with putty and paint it, but here's what it looks like right now...

Shelves

So this past week Jacob and I have been building shelves. We have 2 open niches on both sides of the fire place that just look so plain and boring! We thought buying those shelves from Ikea and just putting them in there would work, but we realized it would be a little costly... so we decided to just build the shelves ourselves! We haven't finished yet. We are almost done with the big one (right side) and will start the left side next. No after pictures until both are finished! :D But here's what the before looks/looked like right before we started tearing down the walls/bullnose. What's bullnose, you ask? Look it up!