I wanted to share more detailed info on the vendors from Evan’s birthday party.  I’m just so thankful for the wonderful vendors we had the privilege to work with and also from all the help and support from our family and friends.  Let me know if you have any questions about birthday bashes!  I’d be more than happy to share the truckload of info I’ve learned throughout our planning process.  If I was able to pull this off then you’ll surely be able to do something even bigger and better!  Just arm yourself with a bunch of Michaels coupons and a good pair of scissors and you’ll be on your way!

Venue:  Warner Studio

My #1 priority for finding a venue was to find a place with good light.  I’ve been to so many events in banquet halls and restaurants where the lighting made it hard to take good photos.  I found the perfect solution~ have the party at a photo studio!  I fell in love with the bright open space and lighting of Warner Studio.

Food:  Kogi Truck

We wanted to have Korean food but not the typical buffet.  We wanted fresh food but not restaurant food catering.  Hence the perfect solution was the Kogi Truck!  All-you-can-eat Kogi truck tacos with minimal waiting was a hit!

Dessert:  The Fry Girl

The freshly made mini donuts were sooo delicious!  The Fry Girl was an awesome vendor.  She’s a favorite vendor for celebs and I could see why!  I wish I could have her come to all my events.  The donuts are just so yummy.

Cake:  Mike’s Bakery

Mike was great to work with!  He’s so talented and easygoing.  His custom cakes are awesome!  Best of all, his cakes are delicious!  Please let me know if you’re interested in working with him and I’ll give you his contact info.

Coordinator:  Petite Productions

My dear friend Sophia from Petite Productions was a dream come true for us.  With a resume that includes coordinating events at the St. Regis and unbelievable organizing skills, what more could we ask for?  Sophia was amazing.  She helped tie everything together so we didn’t have to worry about anything on the day of the event.  I admit I’m probably a tough client to have because I’m such a perfectionist and I even drive myself crazy with my attention to detail.  However, Sophia was so good at handling me, hehe.  We must’ve traded what seems like hundreds of e-mails but Sophia never missed a beat and made sure everything was accounted for.  I’d highly recommend a coordinator like her for your next big event!

Invitations and Other Paper Crafts:  Me!, Paper Source, Michaels and Jo-Ann Fabrics

I absolutely love paper, fabric and anything to do with crafts.  I had so many ideas I wanted to incorporate but I just didn’t have time.  I’ll just have to save them for another event.

Photographer:  Youkeun Oh

We got to work with Youkeun several times throughout the year and I just can’t say enough good things about him.  I’d highly recommend him to capture your family portraits and important events.  He’s so talented!  He works so hard to get the right shots and he’s also just so nice to work with.

Videographer:  29 Frame

We love 29 Frame!!  They’re the ones who edited Evan’s first year video for us.  I can’t wait to see how the video of the event turns out too.  I’ll post that once we get it!

Balloons:  Kiki Event

We considered doing the balloons ourselves but I’m so happy we ended up working with Kiki Event!  They’re so professional and easy to work with.  Check out their website and portfolio for some great balloon décor ideas.

Doljabi and Memory Boards:  Dohl Posters and More

My super talented friend Sooki designed the doljabi and memory boards for us.  She’s just so creative and wonderful to work with.  If you’re planning a party and want to make boards to display then please consider working with her.  You’ll be so happy you did!

1 YEAR!

Dear Evan,

I can’t believe you’re already one now.  Wow, what a whirlwind of a year.  In every single day there has been a moment of unbounded laughter, thankfulness or just sheer happiness.  You’ve been such a good baby for us.  I wonder how we got so lucky.  Although there have been struggles and fumbles along the way, I think we all did a pretty great job living in this fabulous year together.

* You love balloons!!  If you have a balloon at home you’ll just walk around everywhere with it even as you’re playing with other toys.

* You & Bella went to see Santa Claus.

* Your bottom right tooth poked through.  Now we’re at 8 teeth and counting…

* Mommy & Daddy went to Vegas and left you for the first time overnight.  You were such a good boy and had a blast with Grandma & Grandpa while we were gone.

* This was your first Christmas season and we celebrated throughout December.  We spent Christmas in Palm Springs with family.  It was so fun!  Family, good food, lazy days…what more could we ask for?

* Here’s our holiday card!

* We had a Christmas dinner at Yongsusan with Abbie and Eleni’s families.  It was so nice to relax and take a break from dol planning.  I hope this becomes an annual tradition.  

* You love imitating people.  You’ll copy people and smack your lips, bang on the table, etc.  You also started playing peekaboo.  It cracks all of us (including you!) up whenever you do it.

* We celebrated your first New Year’s Eve & Day.  I can’t believe just one year ago you were still in my belly and now you’re this big guy.  What a difference a year makes!

* You got your first haircut!  It was only a mini trim because I couldn’t bear to part with your baby hair.

* Some of the highlights of this month~ Desmond’s birthday party, Asher’s birthday party, Eemo Halmoni’s wedding, photo shoots, filming our birthday party video, reunion dinner with the Liangs and Pengs and a ton of craft sessions.  The biggest highlight of all was your birthday party! 

You won’t remember me.  Not as I am now.  You won’t remember this love.  The way I hold you close and brush my cheek against your silky soft hair.  The time I spent painstakingly putting each piece of your birthday invitation together from cutting the stray edges off paper elephants to trying every font in Photoshop to find just the right one.  The tears that fall from my eyes when I see you in pain.  The hours I’ve spent just watching you sleep.  The silent prayers that float through my mind wishing every happiness for you.  You may not remember but you’ll know…when you look back at these letters, photos and videos.  We love you so much!

Love,

Mommy

Weight:  21 lbs 14 oz (35th percentile)

Height:  30.5 inches (70th percentile)

Head circumference:  47 cm (67th percentile)

Evan’s Actual Birthday

The actual day of Evan’s birthday was so nice…a very warm & fuzzy day.  We had Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Sandy and Uncle Marvin here to celebrate with us.  Grandma made Evan noodles and I made him miyuk gook (seaweed soup).  It was the first time I made it but luckily it turned out okay!  Andy brought flowers and an awesome gift for me!  He said Evan’s birthday should be like Mother’s Day because of all that I went through to have him.

We opened all of Evan’s gifts and he was super happy!  We were so touched by the generosity and warmth of our friends and family who got him such wonderful gifts and cards.

Next Time…

The next time I post it’ll be all about birthday party stuff.  Yay!  Until then, here’s a video of a sweet moment.  I took it with my iPhone so the quality is poor but trust me…the contents may melt your heart, hehe.

We were so excited to be invited to the grand opening of CityCenter’s Aria Hotel in Las Vegas.  The invitation was probably the nicest invitation I’ve ever received!

CityCenter is the largest private sustainable development in the world and with a pricetag of $8.5 billion dollars, it is sure to forever change the landscape of Las Vegas.

The best part was that we got to go to the VIP pre-party before the hotel opened to the public.  It was so awesome being one of the first people to ever be in the hotel.  All of the restaurants were open and tray passing their signature dishes and drinks.  We got to watch along with tons of television and newspaper reporters as the public came rushing in at midnight.

Guess who my new buddy is??  It’s Lloyd (Rex Lee) from Entourage!  We were on the same flight in and became buddies.  We ran into him later at the party.  He actually came up to us when we were talking to a bunch of Andy’s work people and totally remembered us.  His co-workers were so surprised.  One of them even took a photo of Andy taking a photo with Rex, hehe.

I always take photos from one side so when we were at the airport and I was taking a photo with Rex I naturally went to that side.  The funny thing is I felt him sort of pushing me to the other side.  I didn’t think anything of it because I never thought guys cared about that stuff.  BUT when we were hanging with him at the party and taking photos he did the same thing again!  This time he admitted he has a “good side” and we realized our good sides conflicted, hehe.  I’m too embarrassed to show you the ridiculous photo that resulted.

It was sooo fun and memorable.  There aren’t many opportunities in life where you get to be a VIP and also get to experience the opening of a hotel and project of this magnitude.  It was also meaningful to both of us because I worked on this project at the first law firm I was at and Andy recently worked on the project.

I wanted to introduce you all to my sister-in-law’s new blog called Sandy a la Mode!  She has so much useful info on just about everything – cooking, photography, books, sewing, etc.  I have no idea how she does it!  I always say that I hope Evan grows up to be just as diligent as Andy & Sandy.  They’re both superstars.  They work so hard yet always manage to do so many other non-work things and do them exceptionally well.

I couldn’t have asked for a better sister-in-law.  She’s not really an “in-law”…she’s just like the real thing.  It’s like we were meant to be family!  We both love photography, crafts, shopping and cute things.  We also love being silly.  Whether it’s rummaging through bolts of fabric or eating a mysterious corn concoction purchased out of a trash can in a shopping cart we always have a blast.

The best part about Sandy is that she’s such a good aunt to Evan.  She loves him so much!  Her and Marvin flew all the way to California to be there for his dol and they were such a huge help.  Although I know I can be pretty crazy about my craft projects, they were happy to oblige and stay up all night helping me.  I love them so much and can’t even express how much it means to me that they’re my family.  We were sad when they had to go back home…

Dear Evan,

We’re quickly approaching the end of the year.  This month was filled with so many birthday parties, playdates and holiday fun.

* When you hear music you like to shake your booty and dance!  You love making music too by banging two objects together.

* We were on a special segment for Fox 11 News!

* We had a Thanksgiving playdate at Aunt Tracy’s place and a Christmas playdate at Aunt Connie’s place.

* You can do “manseh” (lift your arms up high) when we ask you to.  I got it on video and when you watch it you’ll do it too!

* You learned to do the “happy dance”~ moving your head and neck side to side with a huge smile on your face.

* Thanksgiving was such a wonderful event.  You got to spend it with both sides of the family~ all of the people who love you most.

* You went through a biting phase and kept biting me.  I even got bruises.  Ouch!

* We were out and about all over LA with Aunt Sandy & Uncle Marvin.  We went to the Getty Villa in Malibu, ate crab at the Redondo Beach, ate shaved iced in Monterey Park and went shopping at the Culver City Westfield.

* You started taking a few tentative steps but always from where you’re holding on to something.  You also started standing on your own.

* We can see the bottom left tooth poking out.

* You’re always waving hi and bye to everyone.  When you’re excited you’ll wave with both hands.

* Your love affair with the pacifier ended at 10.5 months.  It was a rough week.  You had a lot of trouble sleeping at night and napping.

* Other highlights this month were~ Aunt Miny’s birthday at Manna BBQ, Ellie’s birthday party, Aiden’s birthday party, playdate at our place with Ella, Logan & Aiden, family reunion and hanging out with Aunt Jean, Aunt Jane & Aunt Grace and lots of craft sessions.

Seeing the world through your eyes has been such a privilege.  You help us see how something as simple as hiding under a blanket could be just so hilarious or how delicious a piece of apple could be.  You love everyone equally…you don’t care if they’re ugly, poor, fat, short.  You share the same big and warm smile.  You make everything more fun and worthwhile.  You are just an incredible joy to us.

Love,

Mommy

Hi~!  Just wanted to say a quick hello and a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my baby bear!  I can’t believe one year ago Evan was born and changed our lives forever.  What a whirlwind of a year.  Thanks for all of your love and support!  I promise to be back soon to catch up with you all but until then…here’s a video montage we made for Evan’s party that perfectly captures this awesome year.

Hi!  Hope you’ve all been great and staying healthy!  I’ve been so busy but I promised myself I wouldn’t miss Evan’s monthly updates so here I am.  I realized I have to do this now since he’s closer to being 11 months than 10 months now!

10 Months!

Dear Evan,

I feel like I can hardly catch my breath as time keeps slipping through our fingers.  While I can’t for all of the new milestones you’ll be reaching…a part of me wishes we can just stay here for a bit longer and enjoy now.  My favorite part of each day is this silly moment we have of tumbling around on the floor, giggling and just being mushy.

I think when we look back on this past month we’ll realize that we celebrated Halloween for most of the month of October!

* You started transitioning to two naps.

* Your top left tooth popped out and then the top right one followed soon after!  There’s a gap as both of the top two teeth are just starting to grow.  We jokingly call you a baby hillbilly – the cutest hillbilly we’ve ever seen.

* On Halloween we went to a Xanga Halloween party at Amy’s Playground.  Youkeun was nice enough to set up a photo booth for the event!  You dressed up as a piece of galbi!  Then at night Mommy & Daddy went out with the Hongs and Uncle Kevin to the West Hollywood Halloween Parade.

* Daddy went on a bunch of business trips again but we were okay on our own since we had so many visitors this month.

* You think Bella is a comedian.  You laughed so hard when we put a pumpkin hat on her.  Bella was hiding under a big blanket.  You realized she was under there so every single time you lifted up the blanket and saw her you would crack up!

* You said “ummmm-ah” loud and clear although I’m not sure if you meant me or if you’re just practicing sounds.

* We hosted a welcome home party for Aunt Katherine and Nathan.  After everyone left we realized the place looked like we had just thrown a crazy frat party or something…it was trashed!  It was so fun though and I can’t wait to throw more parties.

* Daddy said you stood on your own but you haven’t shown Mommy yet.

* Dr. Cohen said you’re really strong.  I already knew that as there are so many times I’m amazed when I see you lifting chairs, pushing boxes and resisting me.  You’re a superhero baby!  Dr. Cohen also said that since you’re cruising so well you actually have the capability to walk whenever you’re ready.  I don’t mind if you wait to start walking though.  I’ve heard that it gets a lot harder keeping up with little ones once they start walking.

* It was Daddy’s first birthday as a daddy!  We had a bunch of celebrations – with buddies, in Corona with Grandma & Grandpa and at Aunt Katherine’s place.

* One day you pooped and it got everywhere.  While I was washing it off you threw up.  I put you on the ground to clean up and saw blood and realized you had a cut on your toe.  Then before I had a chance to put on your diaper you peed!  It was a day filled with poop, pee, puke and blood!

* Mommy went to Aunt Sue’s baby shower at Jack & Jill’s Too while you & Daddy hung out with the other babies and daddies.  Afterwards Mommy & Daddy went to Aunt Sarah’s birthday dinner at Lola Gaspar.

* We went to Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch.  You were a big hit as one of the pumpkins.  Who would’ve thought a pumpkin patch is a celebrity hot spot?  There’s even a section where the paparazzi hang!

* Here are some of the other highlights of our month – Aunt Teresa’s birthday, Sophie’s 1st birthday party at Airport Park, Audrey came to visit, had a playdate at our place with Calista, Desmond & Nathan, went to say “happy birthday” to Uncle Davin, visited the Kim family in PV, ate lunch at Panera with Aunt Miny & Uncle Steve, went to Ellie’s place for crafting sessions every week, shopping day with Halmoni @ Westfield Culver City, lunch with you plus 6 girls, Mommy & Daddy went out to Lawry’s for Uncle Stephen’s birthday, and we went to the park for the first time by ourselves.

Until next time…stay happy and healthy!  I love you!

Love,

Mommy

10 Month Check-up

Weight:  20 lbs 11 oz (41st percentile)

Height:  28.5 inches (41st percentile)

Head circumference:  46 cm (60th percentile)

Other News…

- We recently had a chance to be interviewed for Fox News.  It was a segment on online shopping and Ebates.  It was such a fun experience!  Even Evan & Bella were filmed, hehe!  I’ll let you know when they post the segment on Ebates.

- Evan’s first birthday (dohl) is coming up so soon!  I’ve been so busy trying to plan but I haven’t done much yet.  We rented a photo studio as the venue so the great thing is that it’ll be an empty canvas but the hard part is trying to fill it!  If you have any helpful tips, vendors, websites, etc.~ I’d appreciate any kind of help I can get.

- We’ve been invited to a once in a lifetime experience – a wedding in India.  I’m sooo torn though.  Our baby bear will only be one.  I’ve always wanted to go to India BUT I can’t imagine being apart from Evan for so long (around 10 days).  Have you been away from your baby for an extended period of time?  Please tell me it’ll be okay!!

- Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!   

Hi everyone!  Hope you’ve all been doing well~!  We’ve just been busy here as usual.  I know people say this all the time but I seriously don’t know how time goes by so quickly.

9 Months!

Dear Evan,

Now 3/4 of your first year of life has passed.  At times like this I reflect and can’t believe how much all of our lives have changed in such a short period of time.  I guess I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you for bringing so much joy into our lives.

* You’re always trying to stand now…it’s like your full-time job.

Swagbucks – Amazon Gift Cards

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  I won a little contest for submitting this quote…

“Eat, drink & be scary!” 

Hi buddies!  How’ve you been?  The last few weeks were up and down…luckily, mostly UP.  However, the downs really make you realize how hard being a mom is sometimes.  Hope you’ve been doing great~!

3 Year Anniversary!

Just Married – Italy, Bora Bora, Michigan & NYC

Anniversary 1 – South Africa and London

Anniversary 2 – Punta Mita

Anniversary 3 – Home Sweet Home

What happened to the travel bugs?  We decided on taking a staycation this year.  We didn’t want to stress about planning a vacation, the logistics of getting ourselves there with a baby and losing time packing, preparing and in transit.  We figured we’d save a lot of time and money by staying home and just spending time together.  I found that it really doesn’t matter where we are as long as we’re together.  We could have fun at some fancy resort but we could also have a blast just lounging around at home doing nothing.

One of the days we went to show Evan where we got married.  It was so relaxing just laying around on the grass staring at the gorgeous ocean and scenery.

8 Months!

Dear Evan,

Here’s an old adage that I’d like for you to always remember — treat others as you would like to be treated.  From the janitor at work to the president of the company you work for, from your doctor to the checkout stand guy at the market…just be nice and respectful to everyone.  Mommy tries to always do that.  You’ll definitely come across people who don’t make it easy but I just try to put myself in that person’s shoes.  Sometimes just being yourself may bring a pleasant surprise.  I bought your playzone play area from someone on Craigslist.  Other than the fact that she was a bit curt, it was nothing out of the ordinary…just a typical transaction.  However, a few weeks later I got an e-mail from the woman saying that because I had been so nice to her she’d like to give me another set for free!  One set goes for like $100 plus tax & shipping.  Wowee.

• You are sooo fast these days that Mommy is having trouble keeping up with you!
  
• You can now stand up and sit up by holding on to something.
  
• You love tapping on things and you’ve trained Mommy to repeat after you!
  
• You can wave HI & BYE!!!
  
• We celebrated Aunt Connie’s birthday and Abbie’s birthday.
  
• Your Uncle Thomas & Aunt Jenn got married.
  
• Avocados became your nemesis.  Whenever we tried feeding it to you you’d start jibber jabbering (probably trying to vocalize your dislike) and then you’d spit it all out.
  
• Mommy & Daddy celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary.
  
• We had lots of play dates and visitors – Asher S’s house, Asher B’s house, Desmond’s house, Bennett in Torrance, Sophie @ our house, a family dinner for Uncle Eric, a Bloomies date and Jean’s family, Grace & Jina’s family came over.
  
• We had our family photos taken in Century City.
  
• You’re always trying to feed yourself!

I’m really loving this bond we’ve worked hard to create.  What will I do when you grow more independent and don’t need Mommy as much?  Eek!  Please try to stay a baby a bit longer!

Love,

Mommy

8 Month Check-up

Weight:  19 lbs 13 oz (32nd percentile)

Height:  27.5 inches (40th percentile)

Head circumference:  45 cm (53rd percentile)

Swagbucks Update

Thanks so much to all of you who signed up for Swagbucks!!  I really hope you get the hang of it and start getting some Amazon gift cards.  I wanted to thank you for signing up through me…I got so many Swag Bucks just through referrals so I was able to get more $5 Amazon gift cards.  Just let me know if you signed up and started using it…I’ll pick someone and send you one of the $5 Amazon gift cards.  It’s only $5 but still~ just a tiny token of my thanks!

If you missed the whole Swagbucks discussion then here’s the link to my previous post.  If you want to sign up here’s the link.  Thanks!

Family Portraits

Here are some photos from the super talented Youkeun Oh!  It was really windy and cold that day but he managed to make it seem like we were all happily basking in the sun.  I really can’t rave enough about Youkeun.  I’m always so critical when it comes to photos with me in them but I actually really love these!  He was able to capture us as us…being goofy, laughing and just so happy together.

Youkeun’s awesome wife and baby made us the “E” and it turned out to be a perfect addition to the shoot.

By the way, if you’re interested in working with Youkeun then mention that you read about him here and he’ll give you 10% off.  Not only is he talented, he’s sooo nice!  Here’s the link to his website.

So I follow a ton of these mommy and money-saving blogs and I kept hearing about Swagbucks.  I finally decided to take a look and sign up.  Before recommending it to people I wanted to try it for a few months to make sure it’s worthwhile.  I’m glad I signed up because in the past 2 months I’ve already gotten $60 in Amazon gift cards.  I know it isn’t that much but hey~ it was all for just searching the internet which is something I always do anyways.

Swagbucks is an online search engine where you do searches (like with Google or Yahoo) and you periodically win “Swag Bucks” which you can later redeem for prizes.  It’s really simple.  I think the hardest hurdle for me was to break my habit of automatically going to Google to do searches.

PROS:

• It’s like getting paid to do internet searches!  Who doesn’t like free money?

• The search engine is powered by Google & Ask.com.

• It’s really easy once you get into the habit of using it.  I feel like I could get even more Swag Bucks if I tried harder (like following them on Twitter, referring people, etc.) but I haven’t done a lot of that stuff yet.

• It’s fun!  Sometimes I’m just randomly doing a search and I’ll win a Swag Buck and it’ll put a smile on my face.

CONS:

• Sometimes the search results don’t seem as thorough as the ones I’d normally get from Google.  For example, I’ll see that Swagbucks has 4 pages of results while Google has like 10.  Not really a problem for me since I’m not doing any kind of real serious business sort of searching.

• Even though the results are from Google & Ask.com I find that it can be a little odd sometimes.  For example, I’ll type in “yelp los angeles” and the actual Yelp link shows up as the 2nd link.

TIPS:

• It doesn’t help to just sit there and type in random things to search.  I’ve tried that, hehe.

• Install the toolbar so you don’t end up forgetting to use it.  Plus, the toolbar gives away free Swag Bucks sometimes.

• I don’t do this but the bloggers I follow do – they sign up for the newsletter, Twitter and Facebook and get free Swag Bucks like that too.  Those guys must be doing something right since they’ve already gotten hundreds/thousands of dollars in gift cards/prizes.

• Instead of typing in a web address like Gmail or clicking on my favorites, I’ll just type it into the toolbar and then click the link.  Yes, it’s one more step than necessary but I’ve won a bunch of Swag Bucks that way!

• Just go for the $5 Amazon gift cards which cost 45 Swag Bucks each.  I think you get the most bang for your Swag Buck that way.  I just get the code and enter it into my Amazon account and it’ll be there the next time I buy something.

• You get Swag Bucks for referring your friends!

Sign up here >> [Click me!] and let me know if you like it and if you have any questions!

Random Rumblings & Questions

* I’m sooo behind on everything Xanga~ posting, commenting and messages.  Sorry for always being so tardy in keeping up with you guys!  Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up soon.  I had one simple goal when Evan was born…to post at least once a month so I could chronicle his growth.  Evan is already 8 months and I’m just getting around to doing his 7 month post!  *sigh*  Sometimes I feel like there are sooo many things I want to do but I just don’t have enough time to do them.  Can you share how you keep up with Xanga — posting, your subscriptions, commenting??

* I’ve been hearing rumors that Xanga might be shutting down.  I hope not!  Are you staying or is there another good blogging site you’d recommend?

* Any suggestions on nice gifts for 1-year-old boys/girls & 2-year-old boys/girls?  What are some of the best gifts you’ve received or given?  I love giving gifts so I usually spend a great deal of time and effort trying to pick out the best gifts.  I wish I could still do the same but it’s getting harder now that it seems like birthdays are coming up every other week!

* THANKS and have a wonderful week!!