baby shower pictures

A few pictures from my baby shower.

Candy bar.

Yummy food all prepared by Sonia, Irene and Hanna.

Does becoming a mother make you more artsy and creative?
These were made by Deanna. So cute!

Table runners were made by Irene, as were those white ball thingies.

A little tree with messages about motherhood. I think the message I got most often was, "get your sleep now!"

Pictures on the wall are baby pictures of some people at the shower.

Sonia asked Dan some questions and then asked me some questions and put them on straws.

Time to open gifts!

I thought this was such a creative gift! But I loved everything I got. I wasn't very helpful in my registry. Registering for a first baby is harder than it looks!

Thank you for coming...

and celebrating with me!

Eating, sharing, laughing...
I had so much fun!

Thanks so much Sonia, Hanna and Irene! You guys are the best!

35 weeks eek!

1. As of Wednesday, I'm 35 weeks. Only 5 more to go!

2. I gained 25-30 lbs net (35-40 gross) so far. I thought that I would have a hard time putting on weight because I lost so much my first trimester, but jeez, these last few weeks, I've been feeling real jolly.

3. Once when Dan was in younger, he got saved by a FEMALE lifeguard. Just getting him back for the last post.

4. I had my baby shower a couple weeks ago. I am so blessed for friends. Thank you all for your wonderful gifts, encouragement, and support. Oh, and crazy nipple stories. That one still scares me! Also, I think Sonia, Irene and Hanna should start a party planning company.

5. My stomach is HUGE! And super tight. I don't remember what my stomach used to look like before pregnancy. Baby's been moving around a lot. I absolutely love that feeling. Sometimes my stomach doesn't resemble a stomach at all! It's all lopsided and pokey. Weird. But I love it, and I'm going to miss that feeling.

6. I must pee 5/6x a night, 9/10x during the day.

7. We still can't decide on a name. I really like Eden (paradise), and Dan really likes Charis (grace in greek) and we recently kinda like Liana (my God has answered). Dan's mom also recommended that we read Job 42: 13-15.

¹³ And he also had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴ The first
daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third
Keren-Happuch. ¹⁵ Nowhere in all the land were there found
women as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father granted
them an inheritance along with their brothers.

It's a beautiful story. And it's neat that their names were mentioned when their brothers weren't. Jemimah and Keren-Happuch were definitly out, but we kind of like Keziah. We're not sure if it's the name that we like or the story behind it. We'll see.

8. Dan has been so nice and supportive. I think the favorite thing he does for me is help me put my shoes on.

9. I've been craving some weird things! I don't usually like coffee, but I crave it all the time now! I think I had more lattes during my pregnancy than I did in the last 3 years! I've also been craving beer, and sushi. Maybe it's just the rebellious part of me that wants what I can't have.

Afternoon silliness

Most people don't know this, but Esther is one of the silliest, funniest people I know. The problem is that she get's embarrassed so easily, she rarely shows her silly side to anybody but me. Occasionally she gets caught slipping, so there are a few people who know. Like my brother John, who walked in on Esther while she was singing and dancing while cleaning my room in Colton. Apparently, the music was on too loud for her to hear my brother entering the room. Point is, I want to share a peek into the silliness of my wife. I think she's been buying and seeing so many one-sies that she decided to buy an adult size one for herself. I personally think it's hilarious! The hot pink socks top things off quite nicely. She's threatening to buy one for me too, so when our baby arrives all three of us can match. I shudder to think of a world in which I wear a tight onesie. Worry not my friends, I will not allow such a thing to happen. And if it does, you will never know about it. I introduce to you, my wife.

Week in photos

Our favorite restaurant in Portland, hands down, is Ken's Artisan Pizza. If you come to visit us in Portland, and we don't take you here, it means we don't like you. hehe jk. But we try to take everybody here and we eat here as often as possible. This past week, Esther and I ate here 3 times! We went on Saturday with Brent and Irene, we went on Wednesday with Tyler and Haley, and then went again this past Saturday night with Brent and Irene (I think they like it as much as we do). When the waitress saw us, she said, "this feels like deja-vu!" They have a wood-fire pizza oven here, which helps to make the best pizza I've ever tasted.

This man deserves a raise. I don't know how much he gets paid, but he deserves a raise.

Our good friends, Tyler and Haley recently moved back up here from Loma Linda. Tyler just finished his Orthodontics residency. Tyler and I were classmates from 6th grade until 12th grade and then again through dental school!

This is the most recent visit with Brent and Irene.

Brent decided to be adventurous. Anchovy pizza! Look at Irene's face as Brent takes his first bite. Brent's rationale: if ANYBODY can make good anchovy pizza, it's gotta be Ken's. I tried a piece and it was quite good!

Sopressata. The classic. I don't mess around with anything else.

On Friday, we went to dinner with Kev, Son, Caleb, Casey, Brent, and Irene. Piazza Italia, my favorite local pasta joint. We also watched a movie (forgot title) with Ben Affleck and Russell Crowe so Brent could test out his new Blueray player. It was actually pretty good (because Sonia did not pick it). The theme of the week: "Good food, good friends, good times."

I took this picture in our parking garage because I thought the lighting was good and it turned out pretty good (IMO). The car is pretty sexy too.

This is a picture dump so Brent can download a still of his golf swing. For the golfers, notice how the club face and wrist are square. Club pointed straight down the line and parallel. Very nice.

This sock monkey is one of Esther's best knitted creations yet!

This little cutie is quite lovable. Esther looks like a natural right?

New Beginnings.

Hello friends! It's been 100 years since I've posted anything on our blog. I have spent countless hours entertaining myself off of other peoples' blogs while at work without ever contributing. I have been a blog moocher. Well, what can I say? It's been a hectic year. We moved, we bought a practice, got knocked up and time flies. Being the dutiful father-to-be that I am, I went and bought a digital SLR camera today. I went to Costco and bought the one that they had in stock. =) That was the extent of my research. I trust Costco's research department and I know that they would never sell me anything sub par. Plus there's the 90 day return policy, which I doubt I will use. I never return anything. Even if I don't like it. I'm too lazy to go back and deal with the hassle. Anyway, I know nothing about taking pictures. I watched this DVD that came with my camera and now I'm ready to take on the world. Please call me Danny Leibovitz from now on. ahaha. jk But this camera does seem to take much nicer pictures than my point and shoot and I was messing around with some of my night shot modes since it was night time. Now that I have this new camera, the photo updates should be far more frequent (probably not).

3-6 months

It's been a looong time since we've put up pictures. I guess being frumpy, tired, and breaking out makes you not want to take pictures anymore.

So today, I'm 25 weeks pregnant! I can't believe I'm more than halfway there, at the same time, it's going so so slow. We found at at 20 weeks that we were having a girl. Neither of us had a preference on the sex of the baby, but personally, I'm so excited that Dan's going to be a father to a baby girl. =) I think he's a bit nervous about that tho...

So one of our other friends who are also pregnant mentioned that they have a bucket list (before baby, not death!), and I was excited to have one of my own! Except the only thing on the list was to go to Vegas and eat at the buffets. So off we went to Vegas last weekend! So as I'm loading the pictures from the trip, I realize that we had some catching up to do, so here goes...

In August, we were in Northern California. We went back to PUC, and this is the place that Dan first told me that he liked me ten years ago.

We went to the Theology department, and found this old picture of Dan's class! Look how young he looks! We also saw pictures of all the other Theology/Religion majors from the different years. =)

Of course we went to Giugnis.

I was still sick (nauseated) at this time, but I ate the whole thing no prob! Although I had to skip the onions.

We went to Tomatina's for dinner.

Once again, happy. This is my spongebob face.

For Halloween, we had a cute little festival for the kiddies at church. They were adorable!

Ryan as a cow. His sisters were batman. As was Casey. I thought all girls wanted to be princesses? Apparently not.

Isn't this the cutest picture? This is Sawyer holding onto his ma Susie. He really is the cutest little tiger.

The troublemakers.

Mr. Emerson as a dragon. I'm telling you, we have the cutest kids at our church!

Here's MC Lloyd and Alexis Ice bumpin it up. They were awesome! Nice pants.

I as a magician and Irene as Dora the explorer awed the crowd with our amazing magic tricks. Or not. They were pretty lame. I don't think even the 5 year olds were fooled.


So last weekend, we went to Vegas. We stayed at the Trump, and it was nice because the whole hotel is smokefree! It was also nice because our room got upgraded (thanks Gerald!). Gerald and Mimi met us out there. Dan loves Gerald, did I ever mention that? The first evening we went to a Hypnosis show. Do you guys think they're real? It's pretty crazy what the hypnotist can make the volunteers do. I was tempted to volunteer, but I'm way too inhibited! It was a great show. Interesting, funny, with a pinch of dirty.

My stomach now.

This is what I see from my view.

Outside Wynn Buffet.

Herb, Eun-duk and Sophie met up with us for dinner. Our first buffet of the trip was at the Wynn. I heard many great things about it, but I wasn't too impressed. Maybe I'm a rube, but I find most of the Vegas buffets to be similar. We went to Spice Market, which is the buffet at Planet Hollywood, and I thought it was just as good, if not better. The only bad buffet I've ever had at Vegas was at the Sahara. We went there because Brent said it was good, but it was worse than Hometown Buffet! Boo Brent!

Sophie is such a girly girl! Look at her in my heels posing for the camera. Herb, you better be careful!


A weekend in Vegas is just the right amount of time spent there. I don't think I could've lasted another day! Also, I'm so sick of food. Buffets are a sin. Gluttonous and wasteful. But don't worry Vegas, I'll be back. =)

Thank you for your congratulatories! And I'm sorry for the lack of updates/responses/etc. for the last few months.

So after a week of what I thought was food poisoning, I found out I was pregnant! I found out at about 6-7 weeks. It was a complete surprise! I took the test like 5 times.

Unconventionally, I told family and some friends right away. Poor them, they were probably dying to tell people, especially our parents.

My first trimester has been indescribably horrible! I had morning sickness from the moment I woke up till it was time for bed again. Morning sickness is so wrongly worded. I threw up multiple times daily. I lost 10 lbs! I retired early quit my job because I couldn't go through a procedure without having to run to the toilet. This feeling of complete physical inability is so foreign to me. I've always been healthy, if not superhumanly strong.

Currently, I am almost 15 weeks pregnant and I'm feeling a loooot better. The nausea is still with me all day long, but I haven't thrown up in almost a week. I think Dan's been feeling more ill than I have lately... My favorite food is cumcumbers and gochujang. I can't stand anything too seasoned, especially with garlic, which is funny because normally I LOVE garlic. I haven't cooked properly in the last month and a half.

Even though I've been miserable lately, I'm so thankful and amazed that there is something so little growing inside myself. To know that in the end, there is something so good that comes out of this is so worth it and more. Mad props to you mothers out there. I don't know how you do this 2, 3, or 4+ times!