Category Archives: Family

Baby Shower #2 Recap (*photo heavy*)

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Two weekends ago, Mr.Dubs and I had another wonderful baby shower with some of my girlfriends and family.

It was at the Brio Tuscan Grille that we frequent on our date nights and needless to say, we both thoroughly enjoyed the food and spending time with friends/family. This baby boy is already so loved and spoiled! I honestly cannot think of many things that we’ll need to get after both baby showers! We were gifted so many things, I am in awe of the support and generosity that Mr.Dubs and I are surrounded by on a daily basis.

Without further ado– some lots of pictures:

Shower Cake made by my co-worker/friend Lisa (yellow cake with raspberry filling & whipped frosting! NOMNOM)

Shower Favors & Decor

Food

Guests

Daddy & Mama Dubs<3

Opening Gifts!

Gift Bag Time & 1 Game! (I’m not a huge fan of shower games, so we passed out gift bags to guests who matched or came close to certain dates: due date, my bday, mr.dubs’ bday, etc.) We did one game, where guests cut pieces of yarn to measure the size of my belly! :)

Picture Time w/Guests! :)

To our friends & family:

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you so much for your love and support. We are so blessed and grateful to have you in our lives. We cannot wait to embark on this journey together, surrounded in your warmth and love. Words cannot express the happiness we feel knowing that our lil’ boy is coming into a world filled with so many wonderful friends and family. Thank you.

Baby Shower #1 Recap

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Now that both baby showers have come and gone; I figured it would be a good time (since I’ve been lagging on the baby/preggo posts this past week) on doing a brief recap of both showers.

This one will be quicker to write, since the photos from my shower last weekend are DSLR huge-annoying-but better quality pics that I won’t get a chance to upload ’til the wknd!

Anywho, last month, when I was about 27/8 weeks along, my MIL obliged us and threw us a wonderful family baby shower with Mr.Dubs’ extended family up in Bay City (where MIL/FIL grew up, met, and still own their first home!)

She rented out a school building’s cafeteria and while she was afraid that the “no air conditioning” might cause a problem– it worked out perfectly, because the day was beautiful with a slight cool breeze coming through the windows! :)

Mr.Dubs was such a good sport and joined me for the shower. I’m not a huge fan of showers or having the spotlight in any situation. He did a really great job of making me feel comfortable and introduced me to long-lost relatives that he hadn’t seen in years either. :)

(Sorry for the bad cut off, I think that’s FIL’s cousin?)

Mr.Dubs, MIL, Me, & FIL

Mr.Dubs’ cousin Kayla

Mr.Dubs’ Cousin’s Daughter, Ella<3

All in all, I survived without a panic attack (yep I get nervous)! And we ate a ton of good food and got see lots of aunts/uncles/cousins that we don’t get to see all too often. And of course, people were so generous– we made out with a TON of baby gear for our Lil’ One!<3

I mean, seriously, a TON of stuff:

Happy Friday everyone!<3

My first best friend

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I’m a girl that’s blessed with great friends. Both IRL and ITC! :)

But I’d like to take a minute and talk about the first best friend that God blessed me with… my lil’ brudder, J:

Korea 1980s 

We were born exactly 21 months apart. I revel in the months of May ~ Aug, when we are numerically only “1 year apart.” LOL makes me feel young? Anyway, after our move to the states, we were only a grade apart in school. So, naturally, we grew up being best friends. We were latch key kids together, we made forts, roller bladed together; and to be honest with you – that year in Kindergarten when my brother wouldn’t talk at school? I was the only one he’d converse with (in English – his teacher thought he didn’t speak the language, but it was an emotional/social adjustment.)

We also fought a lot and used “swearing” as bait to make each other “servants,” instead of ratting each other out to our parents. :)

Fast forward to HS years, when my brother was the angelic son and I turned into the devil teenager. (In hindsight, I wasn’t all that bad persay…) But I did put my brother through a lot of crap that “big sisters,” shouldn’t do to their younger siblings! Anyway - we loved each other too much not be get through that stage of life. Moved onto college and I went back to being his caretaker, dropping off pizzas at his dorm to make sure he was eating right? LOL, giving him dating advice, and giving him rides, etc.

(J’s College Grad day May 2007)

Through it all, he’s been my rock. (I partially knew DH was “the one,” because he was the only MAN, J ever approved of~) He’s been my spiritual role model at times I consciously fell away from God and is probably the number one influence for why I was able to find my faith again. I think that’s a rare quality that a younger brother can offer his older sister. And I love him that much more for it.

(He hates dancing, but danced for me! And our parents in the background, staring in shock, wondering where we learned our moves, because they certainly never danced back in the day! :P )

Don’t get me wrong, we’re totally stereotypical siblings. To this day, when we fight (rarely now), we fight like any two stubborn, strong-headed siblings would; but at the end of the day – I love him more than life itself and I wouldn’t be the woman/wife I am today without him having been the best lil brudder in my life (and in my opinion, the world.)

J is all grown up now. He lives in NYC and I only get to see him (not counting google hangout) a few times during the year. I actually haven’t seen him since Thanksgiving 2011. But, he’s home for the next couple of weeks (visitng family and serving at our home church’s summer youth camp) and I can’t wait to spend as much time with him as possible.

I only hope that our future babies have the bond that my brudder and I share to this day and forever.<3

(and yes — I am crying writing this entry.)

The Big Annoucement

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Written: March 16, 2012 (1 week post-BFP)

I told Mr.Dubs, early on in our TTC journey, that if/when we got pregnant, I’d like to keep it between us two for the first few weeks. While many of our friends and family know that we are actively trying; I didn’t want to jinx it and also had many irrational fears of miscarriage, etc. and didn’t want to let people down.

Well it’s been a week of keeping my mouth shut to so many people… it’s driving me bonkers!

Our first pre-natal appointment is scheduled for March 20th, with a follow-up/first ultra-sound on March 27th.

While I originally wanted to wait until after the doctor’s appointments to tell our families and close friends, this Sunday the 17th – I’m hosting a family dinner party for my dad’s 60th birthday! What a great birthday surprise!! :D

So, Mr.Dubs and I decided to tell our families this weekend. He’s been dying to tell everyone, but has been respectfully abiding by my wishes to keep quiet, so naturally he was super excited! We are having dinner with his parents tonight (they’ll be heading up north this weekend), so they will be the first to know!

I wanted to order custom t-shirts online, but decided to go the cheaper route and make them at home. They’re not perfect, but they turned out well enough for the point I want to make! :) I made a t-shirt for the in-laws, my parents, and my younger brother!

–edit:

My little brother was the first person I called/texted (he was vacationing in Puerto Rico at the time), and he was SUPER geeked. He actually told me that he wasn’t bombarding with questions along our TTC journey because so many of his friends had trouble conceiving and didn’t want to bring me down with negativity! (LOVE HIM)… He couldn’t believe it and told me how’d he been praying (and continues to pray!) for our future LO.

That night, we had the in-laws over for dinner because they were heading up north for the weekend. We sat them down for dinner and just gifted them the t-shirts. MIL said that she had an inkling because when they were over the week before, I seemed super tired (which is abnormal for me) and she had heard us whispering! LOL. :) They were thrilled!

My dad’s birthday present surprise is on video but it’s too big to post!, pretty much, I had my parents open the t-shirts as one of my dad’s birthday gifts. They held their t-shirt up so everyone else (my dad’s siblings and my cousins) saw what the t-shirts said first. “World’s Greatest Grandpa(ma) 2012″ in Korean. :) Even after my family started applauding, my parents had no idea what it meant! They thought I gifted them the t-shirts for good luck in our TTC journey! :P Then a few minutes later, my mom asks, “WAIT, ARE YOU PREGNANT, JI GEUM (RIGHT NOW?!)” hehe, then she started crying and my dad couldn’t stop smiling.

Here’s a pic of them right after:

Love my umma & appa<3