Category Archives: Family Oriented

Weekend in Pictures: The Superbowl

Unless you care nothing about sports and/or football, you had to have known and felt in the air that this was Superbowl weekend. When the teams were finalized as the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Green Bay Packers, we all knew this would be a great game. Although I’m a die-hard San Diego Chargers fan, I bought myself a new Steelers t-shirt just so that my husband could feel the support of his family for this weekends game. Although we have our favorite teams, we make sure to support each other when the moment calls for it. For instance, Deon wore only Chargers gear when we watched them play against the New Orleans Saints in London back in 2009.

I debated on whether or not to post this because I wanted to be sure that the Steelers won. Since they didn’t, I don’t think my husband would want to include any pictures from our little get together this weekend. Instead, I included a few pictures of his Steelers fandom. The first two are from our trip to Pittsburgh three years ago (when I was nearly 7 months pregnant with Dominic). The last picture is from the 2009 season, which was Dominic’s first official football season. Believe it or not, Deon and Dominic were both born on years that the Steelers won a Superbowl. Coincidence? Although my husband’s weekend wasn’t all too great because of the Steelers loss, I hope you all had a great weekend!

Weekend in Pictures: Milestones

Not only was this weekend my husband’s birthday, but it was also the 90th birthday and 68th wedding anniversary of another great-aunt and uncle on my father’s side, Crescencio and Paula Ancheta. We celebrated this very special occasion with a big party given by my extended family in Palmdale. This is such a milestone not only because of the age of the birthday celebrants, but the years of marriage they shared together.

Because of my father, we are very close to many of our relatives, even if they are 3rd and 4th cousins. We practically grew up together because my parents made sure to make the visits to Palmdale almost as regular as visits to cousins who were just 30 minutes away.

Now that we are spread out all over, we don’t get to see each other as often as we used to. For example, when I used to work up in the San Francisco area over 10 years ago, I used to see my cousins Derek and Sharon on a weekly basis. Now, we keep touch through Facebook when we can. But it’s always great to see them in person like we did this weekend. This is where we have the opportunity to see each others kids who we only usually only see through pictures.

I’m happy to keep the tradition of attending these large events, and the smaller ones as well because I want my son to continue to experience the closeness of family as I did growing up. So much of this bond I have with my cousins, aunts, uncles and even my immediate family as well as family in other cities and countries all over the world is because of my father. I want Dominic to know and understand the importance of family. Hope you all had a great weekend!

Dominic’s outfit: Gap for Kids shirt; H&M tie; Old Navy pants; Converse One Star shoes

Happy Birthday to my Loving Husband

I just wanted take time to wish my wonderful husband, Deon, a happy birthday today. I had a great time with you at the Farmer’s Insurance Open at Torrey Pines yesterday, and now I know why you love golf so much. Next time, we will take Dominic to enjoy in the fun!

I love you more and more everyday and I am proud to be your wife and the mother of our child. I love you honey!

First picture, in Pittsburgh, 2008

Above picture, in Rome, 2007

Our first year anniversary, 2008

In London, 2008 (preganant with Dominic)

At Sea World, 2009

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom’s 69th birthday. I just wanted to post about how much I love her and to wish her a fantastic day. She thinks about my dad a lot since he passed, so I wanted to post a picture of the two of them together.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Photo by Rholnna Jiao

Weekend in Pictures: Ducks at the Driving Range

On Friday, I took Dominic to feed the ducks while my husband shot a few balls at the driving range. If you’re wondering, it’s all in the same place at the Chula Vista Municipal Golf Course, which is 10 minutes from our house. There’s also a park nearby and a run & bike trail.

After we fed the ducks, Dominic had a little golf lesson with his daddy. I know Deon is excited for the day he can actually buy Dominic his own clubs and they can start golfing together. In the meantime, we’ll just have to feed the ducks until he’s old enough.

The rest of the weekend was spent being lazy and watching football. If anyone was following the playoffs, the Steelers are going to the Superbowl again, and my husband is VERY happy! Hope you all had a great weekend!

Weekend in Pictures: Our Weekend Started on Thursday!

Last Thursday, my husband was in an amateur golf tournament at Brookside Golf Course in Pasadena, next door to the Rose Bowl. Even though Dominic and I couldn’t attend the actual tournament (he’s just way too young) we made a day of it and ran around having fun until Deon finished.

After stopping by a mall, we went to a nearby park called Glenoaks Park. I would never have known that it existed except that I typed into the GPS that I wanted the nearest park. What a very pleasant surprise! It’s nestled in the middle of a beautiful neighborhood and was the exactly what I was looking for: quiet, spacious, and not crowded. We stayed there for a couple of hours and then met up with one of my good friends, Sara at a beautiful new mall called The Americana at Brand (new to me at least!), which was next door to the Glendale Galleria. I love this new concept of the mall where you can live and play. There are apartments and condos available, and the mall layout makes you feel like you are in another town within a city.

We ate lunch at a fantastic restaurant called the Granville Cafe, which features fresh and organic gourmet meals at a great price. It was great to see her, and she actually shared with me a great new project that I’m going to feature in an upcoming post!

On Friday, Deon and I had the day off to recover from our all day trip to Pasadena. While my mom went shopping, Deon played golf and Dominic slept, Mei-Lin and I finally “baked” cookies! She brought over her little Mrs. Fields cooking set and we made two little batches together. The rest of the weekend was spent trying to recover from a cold.

I’m also happy to say that my all time favorite actor, Colin Firth (see my post about him here), won a Golden Globe for his role in “The King’s Speech”. Congratulations Colin! Hope you all had a great weekend!

Weekend in Pictures: Janurary 8 & 9

This was another semi-lazy weekend. On Saturday, I went shopping with my sister and our kids while my husband went to Pasadena to try out a new golf course and my mom went to the local casino (there are many here in San Diego). The kids had fun running around Old Navy and I bought them each a ball. Dominic was having too much fun to pose for any pictures, so my sister just got a photo of Mei-Lin with her ball and the little Old Navy dog. I know she was happier than she looks in the picture. Both the kids were so tired by the end of the day and immediately fell asleep about an hour later on the way home from a full day of shopping.

On Sunday, my mom bought my son an indoor tent to play around in. My son is having a great time going in and out of the little openings, and I’m excited to see how they will play together when my niece stops by this week. How was your weekend?

Photo 1 by Rholnna Jiao

The Little Baker That Could

For Christmas, I bought my niece, Mei-Lin, a Mrs. Fields Cookie Maker Play Set. She wanted to help me the first time I made the Eggnog Cookies this past November but never got the chance, so I thought she could make her own batch with her own bake set. My sister sent me these great pictures of my little sous chef de cuisine hard at work mixing and icing her cookies.

This toy is not like an “Easy Bake Oven”. The little “oven” is actually storage unit for all the cute little utensils. The utensils are used to mix the two batches of cookies included in the box that can be “baked” in the microwave. Once finished, it also includes icing as the pièce de résistance.

My sister said that Mei-Lin had a great time making her first batch of cookies. Next time, I want to be there! The best part of the pictures is the pose with the finished product. Who knew baking chocolate chip cookies would be so fancy?

Photos by Rholnna Jiao

Weekend in Pictures: New Year’s Eve

Hello 2011! We had a fun New Year’s Eve with the family at my cousin’s house. My son got to ham it up and played with all of the kids while I sat down and chatted with various cousins throughout the night. My husband and “the guys” enjoyed another poker game and then we rang in the New Year. Hope everyone had a great time ringing in the new year!

Pictures 3 & 5 by Fong Ladao. All others by Cyrillynn Chen.

Weekend in Pictures: Our Christmas Holiday

We had our traditional Christmas Eve get-together on Friday night which went into Saturday’s wee hours. It was a potluck, and I made “Pumpkin Pasties” served with Cool Whip (I will put up the recipe tomorrow); my mom brought a baked ham; and my sister made amazing chocolate and butterscotch chip cookies (baked with Splenda).

Every year, one of us dresses up as Santa and distributes the gifts at midnight. Until then, we had plenty of activities to keep everyone busy. My cousin has a great little entertainment “nook” where he has reclining theater chairs where one can either watch TV, DVD’s or play video games. In the garage was a poker game and this year, my cousin added a Bingo game with prizes brought in by married couples.

For a long time it was my father who did the dressing up. When he passed away, we all took turns being Santa. I had my turn last year, which really confused my son. This year, it was my cousin-in-law, Robert. Once it hit midnight, Santa came down and the kids all went crazy because they knew it was time for the gifts! I love the picture of my husband and son sitting on Santa’s lap. I was amazed at Dominic’s ability to stay up late and keep up with the older kids. One of the last pictures of the night was of my great-aunt holding my son.

We arrived home around 3am, only to wake up by 8am so that Dominic could open up all his gifts. I’m always thankful that we can have a relaxed Christmas because all of the activities take place Christmas Eve. I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!