Andrea helped me with Fifi's loot bag. She is a very wonderful big sister and I am so proud of her. She went with me to the store and helped me choose the stuff that I should get for the loot bags. She hasn't shown any hint of jealousy towards all the preparations I did for her little sister's party. If anything is is more excited about the party than Fifi.

She has had plenty of birthday parties before and she knows that this time it's her sister's turn. I hope that she grows up to be a very understanding girl and she would always love her sister like this.

Andrea putting stuff in the loot bags

some of her finish products

Yesterday, hubby and I did a general cleaning in the house. We cleaned everything and made sure that even the refrigerator is cleaned inside and out. I sprayed the cabinets to remove any hand-prints made by the kids especially Andrea.

We weren't able to finish it all the way since we both got so tired and it was already almost time to sleep. We would continue our general cleaning as soon as hubby gets home from work. Right now, I am so sore and I could barely move without being in pain. I still need to re-organize our closet but I might wait until I feel a little better.

Even if I am in pain, I like looking at our cleaner, more organized house. It's hard to keep it clean when you have kids but seeing it like this gives me the drive to keep on striving to maintain it. It takes a lot of hard-work but the end product is very nice to look at.... I am so proud of myself and thankful to hubby for helping...

We have been working on renovating our house for a while now. It's our DIY project so it's not going as fast as we would love it to go since hubby works. It's alright though because by doing it ourselves, we saved enough money to rewire our entire house. This house is old, so it needs to be rewired to make it up to code. And also for safety purposes.

Hubby knows a little about electrical wiring but since we need the house to have electricity right away, we decided to hire professional electricians to rewire it for us. They came with their van and electrical materials. They used their own helicoil inserts and screws to have all the required plugs and outlets in place.

After a day they finished rewiring the house and we have extra peace of mind knowing that our electrical wiring is updated.

I am not a football fan before I got married but as soon as I said I do to my hubby, I also said I do to his favorite sport.. Football... He is very proud of his home team and no matter what he is always supporting them. I just find it amusing at first how he gets carried away everytime we watch a football game on our Direct TV, but later on, I learned to love the game.

I also learned to love the home team. The fan spirit is so contagious that it didn't take long for me to fall in-love with the players and the sport itself. Hubby on the other hand is at the extreme in terms of being a fan. He specifically got the extra HD channels in Directtv just so he could watch the game in high definition.

Everytime there's a game, he would wear his jersey and have his game face on. He would swear, laugh, yell, scream and even cry whenever he watches his favorite team play. Thanks to Directv and ofcourse to football, I enjoy seeing all kinds of emotions from my husband in as short as 3 hours. That's usually the length of one game plus commercials.

I have been busy these past couple of days preparing for Fifi's 1st birthday. I did all the planning and now, I have to do everything to make all the plans materialize. This is my first time to do a birthday party at home since with Andrea, we just go to a party place and pay them to do the party for us. No hassles, all we have to do is pay them ans show-up on the scheduled party.

I thought doing it at home would be way cheaper but I am wrong. It still costs a lot, but not as much as going to party places.The food would be better too since I will be preparing it, versus the usual pizza and coke they serve. Yes, all that money and they just feed you pizza and coke... lol...

Anyway, I have been busy buying the party materials and I was shocked when I paid for it. 5 dollars here, 3 dollars there, and before I know it, I paid a total of 65 dollars! And all I bought are trinkets... I have to stick to my budget so I might have to sacrifice on toher stuff that I want to get. I still have to buy foods and drinks and ofcourse the birthday cake... I will be fine and I can't wait for it to be over with so I could relax again....

Stuff I bought for Fifi's party

Andrea's party room last year with her party host preparing everything

Andrea has always been close to her daddy. Even her personality and hobbies are all inspired by her daddy. She is adventurous like him and she loves computers and games like him. They would watch their favorite cartoons together and they play wii together.

She said that Fifi could be my girl but she'll always be daddy's girl. She loves her daddy so much that she would marry somebody like her daddy.

having fun with daddy

visiting the zoo with daddy

trick or treating with daddy

riding the carousel with daddy

hugging daddy

Having kids did not stop us from travelling to far-away places. Since having Andrea and Fifi, we have been to Orlando, Florida, which is an 8-hour drive from us, San Angelo Texas, which is a 16-hour drive, Pigeon Forge, Tenessessee which is a good 24-hour drive and all the way to Ciudad Acuna in Mexico, which is the longest drive we ever did...

It's not easy but we were able to make it there and back with no incident. Ofcourse there's the dreaded "Are we there yet??", question every couple of hours but other than that, all went fine. Thanks to portable DVDs  in cars, our kids were occupied. They would watch movies and fill the car with laughter.

Everytime we travel, DVD movies are always part of my "things to bring" list. We will be in big trouble if I don't.

My friend who lives in Geaorgia called me yesterday, telling me that she has found a healthier substitute to her daily pack of cigarettes. She said that after having breathing problems, her doctor told her to quit smoking or else she would end up having asthma. She has been smoking for as long as I could remember and she said it is not easy to quit just like that. I don;t understand why because I am not a smoker myself. I just knew that most smokers are having a hard time when it comes to quitting.

Anyway, my friend said that instead of regular tobacco, her doctor mentioned to her electronic cigarettes. She went online to read about it and it convinced her to try one. She said that it taste like the regular cigarette without the smoke and free from tar, tobacco and carcinogens.

She said she hasn't smoked any regular tobacco for 4 days now and she said she might quit altogether. It saved her money and ofcourse her life.

I am blessed to have two beautiful girls who are healthy and active. They are my pride and joy and I just hope that they would grow-up to be well-rounded, God-fearing and kind-hearted individuals. I don't care if they don't make it to the top of their class, although I am glad Andrea is, as long as they take their studies seriously and hopefully get a degree.

I also hope and pray that they would stay close and that will always be there for each other no matter what happens...

big sister, staring lovingly at her little sis

this is the first time Andrea saw her sister

Sister bonding

I like to create fun pictures online and I am so glad that I found a site that makes it easy for me. All I need to do is upload my picture and choose a design they have available. This site is free and they have New Designs available everyday, so you would never run out of fun designs to use. Andrea had so much fun looking at the finished product and we all had a good laugh at some of them.

You can create funny pictures yourself. Just go to picjoke.com and upload your picture. Choose the design you want and your fun photo box is ready. Once you try it, you will get hooked and if you have a website or a blog like I do,  you could post funny pictures in your site in as easy as one, two, three... Have fun!