Is it JULY already!?

Digging through my HD tonight, I came across this 2012 personal project that I started at the beginning of this year... and I just realized that I somehow lost steam with it. I guess I will have to try harder to find time to continue with this project this summer. 

It's a personal project of my 2 boys, just being themselves, doing their daily things as I capture them in their natural state. I guess this was suppose to happen once a month... but oh boy, what happened and where did I left off? Well, either way, I thought it was still worth sharing. I hope you enjoy seeing my unfinished project. This can still be a work in progress... as this year isn't over yet, right? We're only in ... July?! What?! 

Hope everyone is having a wonderful July 4th holiday!

A recent favorite...from NYC

Just want to share a recent favorite of mine.

My silly boys. Just being exactly who they are.

Laughing, giggling, together. The chilly weather didn't matter to these two.

From a short trip to New York city back in November. Brrrrr.....

Japan Town San Francisco

He wanted to wear that shirt.

Then, he wanted to wear that tie. (although the patterns don't really go together)

Freedom of choice Coop.


They love each other.


And I love his mole.


They never seem to get sick of each other.


I'm a lucky mama.

My little dolphin...

...finally knows how to do the butterfly. Congrats on getting your GOLD certificate my little Aidan. You should be so proud of yourself.

Our Family Tradition...

My youngest one woke up to a room filled with colorful balloons all over the ceiling on his 4th birthday this year. This have somehow became a little family tradition now. I started doing this when my older one turned 4. I surrounded his bed with helium balloons tied to little matchbox cars all around him. He was obsessed with the Cars Movie back then and that's what I tied them to. It was like all of his cars holding a balloon celebrating with him when he woke up.

This year, the night before Cooper's birthday, I decorated his room with helium balloons all over the ceiling so that when he opened his big eyes, he would see ALL the balloons right above his bed up on the ceiling. I sneaked into his room and taped streamers on his door and hung up the felt birthday banner I made him. So that morning, he woke up to a room filled LOVE.

I love birthdays. I love seeing their happy little faces when they wake up. I love balloons. And I love celebrating every occasion. And I will continue this little family tradition year after year until they are sick of their mommy sneaking into their room at night.

I snapped a few quick shots that early morning, at exactly 7:47.am, the exact time Cooper was born... just 4 years ago in 2007.

Happy 4th Birthday my dearest little one.

Now stop growing up so fast already.

Happy January

Happy New Year!

Ah, yes, I think its still okay to wish you all a Happy New Year as we are still in the first month of January in 2011.

As you have already noticed, its been a little quiet here on our blog. Well, it sure wasn't quiet at all at our studio as the holiday just swallowed me entirely with all the holiday shoots and orders coming through. I hope everyone had the chance to send out their beautiful Christmas cards with photos taken from our studio. I received a few in the mail from some of you guys, thank you SO SO much for sharing them!

I have so many sneak peeks that I want to share and will try to catch up with those as soon as I can. Thank you everyone for staying in touch through our Facebook fan page. If you're not a fan of our page yet, please add yourself to see our latest pics of babies and bellies. I seem to be doing better at updating the Facebook page than I have been here on our blog.


{ Bigger is better }

As every year passes by, we reflect back onto the years that was before us. And for this past year, so much have happened with me and my family in 2010, especially with our youngest son, Cooper. You can read more about his story here.

Every year since Cooper was a newborn, I would take a photo of him in his white undershirt in our laundry room. I haven't forgotten this year but as you can see, he wasn't as cooperative as he was from the other 3 years. This gets more and more challenging as the year goes by as his personality gets stronger and stronger each day. This year, he refused to let me put him in his white undershirt so the cute Gap pajamas did the job. I might have to try this with him again (IN his white shirt) so that I can keep his photographic growth chart looking consistent.

Thank you for bearing with me little Cooper. It's been amazing to watch you grow right before my eyes for the past 3.5 years. I look forward to create more fun series of photos with you like this as you continue to grow stronger and healthier each year.

Thank you everyone for all your love and support for the past year.

One of my New Year resolution is to visually enhance this blog and make it better with more updates and more photos to share with you all.

Happy 2010!

Our photos on Ohdeedoh

A friend of mine recently found one of my son's party favor item featured on the popular kids blog site 'Ohdeedoh'. It was from Aidan's 3rd Birthday years ago, I made little thank you labels and glued it onto boxes of sidewalk chalk as party favors for my guest to take home. I had no idea it would be such a big hit, but glad everyone liked it and wanted to take one home, even those without kids. The theme for the party that year was Crayola and I thought sidewalk chalks would fit in just perfect. It was easy to assemble, I only had to design a big label and glued it onto the box of sidewalk chalk. This image below was found by Ohdeedoh on Flickr, photo courtesy of my good friend and also a very talented toy designer, June Shieh.

What is even more fun is that today, Ohdeedoh also featured my Aidan's Star Wars theme birthday party images on their blog too. All that effort put into his little party was all well worth it when I saw that priceless smile on his face when he saw life size Darth Vader come out with his cake. You can see the blog post on their site here: My Party: Aidan (San Francisco, CA)

It's always so exciting when I see my images featured on other fun, design inspired kids sites. If you've never heard of Ohdeedoh, it has great design inspirations for kids stuff, it is part of Apartment Therapy, a site that I LOVE looking through for color inspirations and neat ideas for my home, kids rooms, color combinations, and more. I highly suggest bookmarking this site.

Thank you Ohdeedoh, I've always been a BIG fan of your site, now I love it even more.

Halloween 2010

Hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween this year.

Our Halloween was a blast. My boys dressed up as Harry Potter and well, so did I. I tried, although I've only watched Harry Potter once and I've completely forgotten how it was in the movie. I managed to find an outfit out of my closet somehow. Okay, next year I'll try harder.

Every year I try my best to match what the boys' theme costumes are. Last year, both the boys were Darth Vader, so I was Princess Leia. The year before that in 2008, they were both Buzz Lightyears so I was Jessie the Cowgirl. The cousins comes over to trick or treat in our neighborhood, its almost a tradition of ours now. Year after year, we would put all 4 of the boys together for a costume photo. Looking back at them, its so much fun!

I love dressing up with my boys. And I plan to continue to do this until they are embarrassed of me copying them someday.





Halloween 2009:


Halloween 2008:


Halloween 2007:

Mini Me.

I take pictures of him almost everyday. Yes, I really do.

I encourage you all out there with kids to do the same too. It's just way too convenient to capture life with modern technology. My new iPhone takes great HD photos and I can't be more happy. I love technology, I love Apple and I love the iPhone, all the apps out there are endless ways you can be creative. Here's one of my favorite used here again, the Shake-It-Photo app. I love the polaroid border. Love, love, love.

Now, everyone's been telling me my little one looks JUST like me... is that true? Well, it must be the hat and glasses I think.

Here is fun capture of my Mini Me roaming around my work station from this afternoon.

Oh, I love his cheeky smile.

Rub-a-Dub-Dub

... 2 (little) man in a tub.

Labor Day weekend...

Happy Labor Day weekend to you all. Hope you all had a fun and relaxing long weekend with your family.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog. Often times, I wonder how many people are actually reading my blog. So if you are one of my loyal readers, please don't just walk away without saying "hello". I'd love to hear from you and know who you are. Leave me a comment, I love to read them :)

So, over this long weekend, I got to spend a whole lot of time with my boys. I also got to clean out their closets and put away some clothes that they have outgrown. It's always sad for me to put away those 'baby' clothes because it always reminds me of how my babies aren't babies anymore and soon they will just turn into little young adults.

I cherish the days we have now as I know that the first 5 years of their lives are the most precious years as a parent. I hope that they will have memories of Mommy playing with them when they grow up. Taking pictures of them is the only way I can freeze their youth right now and I already do that every month.

Here are just few highlight from our weekend...

The boys ran around the house shirtless with just their bottoms on (or undies)... telling me how HOT it was...

Jumping on MY bed is always an all time favorite...check out my stuntman, he is always so full of life.

I had to pin them down to capture a few great giggles together...

And finally, a special moment captured... as I was just sitting there in my bathroom floor looking down at my camera, I noticed the 2 boys were quiet, and I looked up to see what's going on and this is what I saw. This moment last for about 8 seconds and then the little one ran away. I'm so glad I was able to capture this sweet moment of them together. Perhaps, someday, with Cooper's diagnose, maybe one of them will be aspired to be a doctor when they grow up.

On Valentine's Morning...

...I woke up and made heart shape pancakes for all 3 of my boys (yes, including the BIG grown up one too). Then we opened our Valentine's day present in our jammies. The boys loved their little gifts... a Dinner Doodle pad for Aidan (he LOVES to draw at restaurants before the food arrives)... and cute little ABC Paul Frank flash cards for the little one. And a music Valentine's card for the BIG boy (aka. hubby). I was a happy mommy. Life is sweet.

Every Valentine's Day, whether its your first... or your third, should be celebrated.

Everytime I tell him I have something for him, he would have to close his eyes, open his hands and get it... this time I took a snap of this familiar scene.


I love that sweet, genuine happy look on his face when he received his gift. And then just showing off his mommy's grafiti skillz on his gift. (Ha!)

Oh, trust me, it WAS a heart shape... shoulda took this shot before they ate it huh?

This awesome Dinner Doodle pad had step by step instructions on how to draw things like animals, trucks, etc. My hubby and I saw it at a local bookstore in San Francisco near Pesce restaurant when we were there celebrating our early Valentine's dinner the day before Valentine's day.

Sunday

This is how we spent our rainy Sunday morning.

Growing Up Together

I love to watch the boys play together on the weekend. And I especially love the age they are in right now, 6 and 2.5 years old. It's a really fun age and I am definitely trying to enjoy this time with them as much as I can.

The 2 boys get along very well (well, most of the time)... and of course, other times, they would fight for their Lego's, LightSabers, etc. It's just part of brotherhood. I hope someday when they grow up, they will always be just as close as they are right now. Especially when I see them look for each other the minute they wake up... "Where's Adun, Mommy?".... "Where's Coop Coop, Mama?".... they always have each other in their hearts... and I hope this will continue when they grow up.

The Kid's Artwork

Every mother who has a child in preschool or kindergarten would ask themselves this question - "What should I do with my kid's artwork?" Throwing them away just seem too cruel, but keeping all of them seems like too much to store. As much as we LOVE all of them, you know only a few would actually end up in our scrapbook or on our walls.

Here's my way of saving the artwork. Photograph your child WITH the artwork every year, pick a fun background to use and then make a collage. Have your child pick out his top 20 favorite piece. Throwing away some of the artwork after a photo of your child with it just doesn't seem as guilty after that.

And as for Aidan, he loves to ham it up in front of my camera, can't you tell? He posed most of these on his own. I just said, "Hold this up and let me take a picture". And this is what I got.

Ready, Set, Cut!

Many people have asked me where my kids get their haircut. I figured I might as well share that info with you all here - AT HOME!... um, not me, of course. I can't take the credit for their beautifully cut hair. But my husband's hair stylist, Jacky, who is also a good friend, lives near our place. So instead of going to Jacky's hair salon out in the city during the day, he just comes over to our house at night and cuts all 3 boys' hair one after another all in the same night. Convenient, eh? I LOVE it.

I've been meaning to post these pics that I took of the boys getting their cut and finally got around to them tonight. Oh, and if you're wondering what my boys have on their faces that makes them look so white and ghostly... its just baby powder. I've learned that sprinkling baby power onto the skin helps to keep the tiny strains of hair from sticking onto your moist skin so its easier to remove when you are done. What a great way to use up the baby powder I had.

Oh, and by the way, if you're interested to get the contact info of Jacky, the hair stylist, please email me and I can share that info with you. Jacky owns a hair salon based in San Francisco off of Clement.

The Tooth Fairy is coming to town.

Today marks a very big day for my little Aidan. If you remembered my post from weeks ago, he started to have his very first wobbly tooth. Well, gueeeess what? He woke up this morning and had a gap in his teeth! Daddy noticed it first and asked him where his tooth went? Did he swallow it? (was my first thought) Then Aidan ran back into his bedroom and searched his bed. Viola! We found it on his bed.

I made sure Aidan kept his tooth safely so I told him to put it on this porcelain plate that I have by my sink in the bathroom. As he was reaching for the plate, guess what happened?... Yuuup, you guessed it. The tooth went DOWN the drain. Poor little guy, he burst into tears. The tooth went straight down that drain. I felt so bad for the little guy. We made sure no one uses the sink anymore. And after we came back home from our long day, we went for the elbow pipe. Bucket under the sink, wrench, towels... we opened it up and there it was! (It was stuck into the yellow mildew tho). We washed it out real good. I will not forget how happy little Aidan was when he saw us dig his little tooth out of that pipe. He couldn't wait to put the tooth inside his little tooth fairy pillow for the night!

I'm planning to swap out his little tooth with this BIG dollar coin that I have since I was a teenager. Where did I get those huge dollar coins? It was my hard earned reward when I used to have braces. My orthodontist would award me with a big dollar coin whenever I went in for a visit with VERY clean teeth. So I've collected a few of those since then and never wanted to use it for anything. Now I'm really glad that I am able to pass my very hard earned dollar coins down to my own son tonight.




Showing off his tooth...

Kissing his little tooth fairy pillow before he goes to bed...

Here's a side by side comparison from wobbly stage to the missing tooth....