I'm grateful...

I'm a little late with this but I got a lot of things to do these past few days. Anyway, I always think it's never too late for anything especially for being grateful. I got a lot to be thankful for and since I didn't write it down earlier on a piece of paper, I'm hoping I won't forget anything, hehe!

I'M GRATEFUL...

• for my life and the endless blessings I receive
• for a loving husband who puts up with me all the time, I know I can be very hard to deal with at times *wink*
• for 3 beautiful boys who fills my heart with so much love
  
• for my first son, AJ who is so smart, for being such a great help at home when I need one and for being a loving big brother

• for my second son, Aiden who loves to hug and kiss everyone, for being such a good company on weekdays and for being a great big brother to Aerell
  

• for my little baby Aerell, who isn't so little anymore, hehe! for being such a joy in our lives, for entertaining us with his cuteness and for being such a mama's boy, haha!
  

• for the roof over our heads that kept us safe and warm especially during hurricane Ike's visit
• for my family in the Philippines whom I miss a lot
• for my family here in the States for accepting me into their family and for loving me
• for my parents who brought me into this world and who love and miss me a lot
• for my brothers and sister who miss me a lot
  
• for my new sister-in-law because now I got 2 sisters to keep my mom company
  
• for my new baby nephew in the Philippines, whom I couldn't wait to see in person
• for my husband's job that supports our family
• for paid blogging that allows me to shop for digi-scrapping goodies, lol!
• for AJ's teachers who watches out for him and for teaching him things that he needed to learn
• for digital scrapbooking and photography
• for yahoo messenger and friendster
  
• for my friends online for being there to chat with, discuss things with and whose comments make me happy, hehe!
• for my long time real life friends, far away and near for keeping in touch with me
• for my new found friends
• for those people in the past whom I thought were my friends
• for my past friends who didn't make it to my future
• for those who are reading these and are thinking of posting a comment, lol!
• for those who are reading these but didn't wanna make a comment, lol!
  
• for those people who literally hate my guts!
• and for so much more that I might have forgotten
  

Aiden's 3!

As promised here are a few of Aiden's birthday pictures. I'm a little disappointed about the weather this year though. It was so windy on a 65F day. I think it would have been perfect without the wind. You should have seen me mad and screaming at the wind, lol! Yeah, yeah so crazy I know but it was really frustrating. Anyway, we tried to make the best of it and I think overall, Aiden enjoyed his 2-day birthday, haha! I'm seriously considering on buying some really big bright lights for the house so we don't have to rely on weather for great photos.

Here's Aiden's little cake on Friday, his actual birthday. The high that day was only 56F that's why we decided to do it the next day added to the fact that AJ was in school all day.

Here's the birthday boy. He was licking the icing while I was busy taking pictures, lol!

And here is his real cake. He picked Thomas and friends this time after finding out that the store has only 2 Winnie the Pooh designs and he had used them all on his past birthdays, lol!

Letting everybody know he's 3, lol!

He asked for transformers this time so he got a few of them.

AJ making fun of his food. If it's the only way to get his genuine smile, then it's fine with me, lol!

It's supposed to be eating food time, not something else, lol!

He was actually busy chasing ducks that were as big as he is, lol! Talk about finding some playmates, haha!

Then, we had a little 3-yr old photo shoot, hehe! I caught him playing with this umbrella a couple days earlier so I thought it would make a good prop and would keep him still. It worked!

That was it. Thank you very much for all the birthday greetings you guys left on my last entry. I appreciate them all. Have a great week everyone!

Happy Birthday Aiden Dale!

Three years ago, I gave birth to our 2nd baby boy. I can't believe it's been that long already. Aiden has grown up to be a very sweet boy. He loves to make people happy especially the ones he love. Every time he does something good, he asks us if we're happy about it, hehe! The name Aiden means a warmth giver and that's exactly what he is to us. He warms our hearts all the time! He has also learned to be a good big brother to Aerell and as always AJ's partner in crime, lol! Anyway, I didn't really mean to say a lot. Here's Aiden on the first 3 days of his life. Pictures taken with my old Olympus point & shoot digital camera.

We'll have a little cake for him today and have a little party tomorrow at the park. Will post his birthday pics on Monday. Have a great weekend everyone!

10 Months Old...Already?

I still feel like I just got out of the hospital the other day with my newborn but oh my, look at him now! Like any proud mama would say, he's growing more and more handsome each day, lol! Of course some of you might disagree but just keep it to yourselves, ok? LOL! Ten months has really gone by so quickly. I admit I spoil Aerell by holding him so much. He cries when I leave the room or follow me wherever I go if nobody's watching the door, lol! He is such a happy kid though. He doesn't cry much as long as I'm around but watch out if I'm not 'coz he'll definitely make you miserable, lol! Anyway, here are some of my faves from our shoot today.

I read from a professional photographer's blog that a sticky tape would keep a baby from walking/crawling away when you take their photos but you know babies put everything in their mouths, right? Mine is no exception, lol! Have a great day everyone!

Late Friday blogging...

I don't have enough time to think of a better title for now so let's just go with this one, ok? My boys are all sick this week. They all have strep throat. We wouldn't have known something was wrong with the kids till the teachers called us to pick AJ up from school because he was breaking out in rashes. We brought him to the pediatrician that day and found out about the strep. They gave him a penicillin shot right then so he was able to go back to school the next day. The other 3 are on antibiotics right now. Yes, three because Bear has it too. I'm not too sure but I think I was actually the first one to get it right after the hurricane hit us. We've been to the doctor too much this year so I'm already looking forward to the next year hoping it will be a year with less time at the doctor's office. Anyway, please help me pray for my guys. It's already hard enough to watch one of them get sick.

The kids seem to be feeling better now though. Aerell is getting back his appetite so that's quite a relief for me. Speaking of Aerell, he's gonna be 10 months old tomorrow. He's learning something new everyday and it's just amazing to watch him grow. Lately, he has been saying "baba" for bye-bye, uh-oh, dada and mama for anything else, lol! Every time he eats, I try to teach him to say "yum-yum" but the word that comes out of his mouth is mama, lol! To illustrate, I got a video below. I think we'll stay home for the weekend so the guys can get a lot of rest. Thank you for visiting and have a great weekend to all!

F is for fall and fishes...

I don't have pictures from the weekend since we really didn't do much. We dropped our first balikbayan box for my family and then visited my mother-in-law. It was pretty relaxing and I think the kids love the fact that I gave them a break, lol! Anyway, it's pretty wet here today and if the weatherman is right, it's gonna be like this for a couple more days. For some reason, I just can't blog if I don't have new pictures, so I went outside and took my camera with me.

Isn't fall just lovely? I never really get to appreciate it till I got my DSLR camera, hehe!

Like I said, it was raining outside. A little droplet here and there...too cute! haha!

I didn't even know that leaves could be so pretty!

I believe these are hollies...not so ripe yet. The kids call them berries.

The ripe ones are ready for Christmas, haha!

Please welcome the latest addition to our family, a goldfish named Bubbles. Aiden named it.

Isn't it a beauty? I suspect it's a male, haha! In the animal world, the prettier looking ones are the males. That's a fact!

They get along pretty well. AJ named the other fish Thomas as in the tank engine, lol!

Too bad, I couldn't get the other one to pose with them. AJ named it Sucker 'coz it sucks dirt, lol!

That's it for today. I hope I'll have something more interesting to post next time. Have a great day and thanks for all the comments on my previous entry!

AJ's report card, a fish & so much more...

I wanna start with the "so much more", lol! I know I've been MIA since halloween and although we had a great time at the school's halloween carnival, I just couldn't post the pics because it has AJ's classmates in it. I really would love to share that photo of him and his "special" classmate (who happens to be a girl, LOL) but I don't have her mom's permission to do so. In case you're intrigued by this, you can give me a buzz on YM and if you're not a stranger to me, I might show it to you, lol! I'd love to share more about their blossoming friendship but I can't right now, perhaps some other time *wink*.

Aerell is sick again. I feel so bad for the kid. It's one thing after another. He's having diarrhea right now. I'm not sure if it's the new formula or if it's something else. I'm hoping it's just the change of formula. It's really devastating to see a helpless baby suffer. He's not acting sick though, he's still playing and running all over the place. He cracks me up at times. Every time he sees me coming to get whatever it is on his hand that he wasn't supposed to have, he starts walking fast in a different direction away from me, lol! He is such a joy. I hope and pray that he gets well soon.

Another thing that devastated me is the result of this election. I'm not a citizen yet so I wasn't able to vote but if I did, I wouldn't vote for Obama and it's not because of his color. Don't even try to insist on that! I think that is such a stupid argument! I wouldn't have any problem voting for Condoleezza Rice if she runs for president. I would have voted for any black person who didn't believe that "babies are punishments" and who won't steal from the people who worked hard to earn what they have so he can give it to those who didn't wanna try! This country is full of great opportunities for everyone. All you have to do is work for it and earn it. Change? What change do you want? For you to just sit on your behinds and wait for the government to take care of you and your needs? Come on! I'm sorry but I just had to say it. It's my blog anyways.

Now, let's move on. This past weekend, we finally decided to get a fish tank and some fishes (3 to be exact) to go with it. Yeah right, as if 3 hyper active boys and a dog aren't enough, LOL! Unfortunately though, one already died before I could even take a picture. I think it only live for 3days. I feel bad for it but I guess we'll get a new one to replace it. I don't really know what kind of fishes they are. I know the one that died was a goldfish. The other one is a black fish that eats all the dirt in the tank. That's the main reason why we got it, lol! Then, this one below...

You can see the other fish behind the bigger fish. It didn't pose for me, lol!

And finally, AJ's report card for the first quarter...
[sorry, had to delete some of these for personal reasons]

Here are the narrative reports. In case you didn't know, AJ is a junior.

What can I say? He is so much like me when I was a kid in school, lol!

Thanks for spending time to read my ramblings. Sorry if I have offended some of you but I just feel the need to express myself. I think the least you could do is respect that. Have a great day!