The Mansion

What is it that counts here?

Only that which is truly given. Only that which is done for the love of doing it. Only those plans in which the welfare of others is the master thought. Only those labors in which the sacrifice is gretaer than the reward. Only those fiftsin which the giver forgets himself.

...good book. great recommendation by President Monson

I simply love her

Dear Kiera

Bringing you into our world

Kiera you were born on December 10th 2010. I was so eager for you to come, I jumped, walked and tried acupressure. But you knew when it was the right time to come. On Dec 9th around 10pm, sharp pain down my right thigh began. Thinking it was another random pain I just joked about it being a contraction to your daddy. Then I felt more pains come. They actually feel like pains that come when you really need the bathroom. The pains would come and go and weren't really all that painful. But we decided to start seeing how frequent the pains were. They were about every 5 mins. So we waited for another 30 mins and they seem to be coming quicker and quicker. About every 3 minutes . This was about 11 o clock at night. Daddy started to pack for the hospital just in case,. He started to get nervous at this point but was in gear to help me whenever as possible. We then decided it was time to go the hospital. We were pretty excited but I was nervous that they weren't contractions so I didn't want to get too excited. The nurses hooked me up to a monitor so that we could monitor the contractions and your beautiful heart beat. Our first nurse was from the Philippines and she was so nice and send that I was definitely not going home and that I better fill out all your paper work because for some reason they sent your paper work to little company of Mary. At this point I knew I wanted to get the epidural since I was worried it would be too late or the anesthesiologist was in a surgery and couldn't come. So they checked to see how far I was dilated. I came to the hospital at a 3 and in one hour dilated to a 5! So they called for the anesthesiologist and they gave me the epidural. Oh how wonderful the epidural is. What an awesome invention. I could no longer feel the contractions and we just waited patiently for you to come. We were suppose to get rest but I was too excited. There was no way I could sleep. At 6am they finally said I was at an 8 and the nurse guessed that you will come at 9am! Boy was she right. We started pushing at 8am and you came at 9am. We even called your grandparents and auntie Jody and Uncle Cody so they could hear your first cries. Pushing was hard work but when you came I couldn't express the overwhelming joy that just came all over me when I heard you cry. I was so happy and was filled with so much joy. I felt that I tasted the celestial joy that heavenly father wants us all to experience. It confirmed to me to why men are to have children so that we may have joy. After you came, I couldn't hold you right away because you actually pooped in the uterus and they had to clean you all up first. When they placed you on me I was so happy. You are so beautiful and small. I couldn't and still can't grasp the miracle of you. How you possibly fit in me is so mind boggling. Your features to me are perfect. Your little mouth and nose are cute. Your eyes were swollen when I first saw you so you looked like a cute Japanese baby. I was also in love with your full head of hair ! You weighed in at 6 pounds and 14 ounces, 18 inches long. Your Daddy and I just couldn't stop staring at you! When Daddy held you he kept saying, oh you are so adorable. Welcome my angle, to our home. We love you.

Comments!

So sorry to those who have been wanting to comment! I fixed the issue.. I think. So please try again! I love comments.

nine months and more....

Being overdue is definitely not fun. No longer are people pleased to see you.. no longer are you excited to see people either. Cause all they say is..." you're still here? "

haha and what kind of response are you suppose to give to that....recently I have retreated to a hiding position and have voiced out a quick yes...(cause I'm all embarrassed) why all this pressure to have a baby early or on time? Why did I give myself so much pressure? Now I'm at this hopeless stage where I have given up on the possibility of her coming...Every day, I think that today would be a good b-day for her... and then I wake up and the day has past and I'm again disappointed. So as a voice of caution for all future mothers out there. Don't expect your baby to come early or on time.. cause it's a painful disappointment. When I think about all this..Honestly I know I'm just so silly. I'm sure she just needs to grow and she will come when she is ready. I should just be grateful that she is healthy and well :D and that I get another day of full sleep :D Here is a pic of me two days before she was due!

patience

I think the lord plans for babies to be in the womb for nine months so that we can't wait till they come and then hopefully we will appreciate all the crying and pooping since we waited sooo long. Well I'm at a point where I really can't wait till she comes! Way too excited. Here are pics of her room! and hats that I made recently!

Truth about pregancy

For all those who haven't been pregnant I feel as I should share my enlightened knowledge about what a pregnancy could be like. When I wasn't pregnant I heard all sorts of horror stories.. Such as you'll never sleep, you'll throw up all day, get super fat and you just feel miserable. While this can happen. I am giving hope to those who are worried. Cause I have been very blessed and lucky to have an awesome pregnancy thus far.

So I'll describe how my pregnancy was so that you get a more balance image of what it’s like being pregnant. The first semester: I was lucky not to have morning sickness and felt pretty good. I was still able to attend lots of work out classes. The main difference was that I needed more sleep and I would need to eat every hour or I would get strong hunger pains. So without food I was pretty miserable. But it was awesome because I could eat pretty much all the desserts that I would say no to originally since I could have 300 extra calories a day ;)

Second Trimester: Felt great , more energy. People are starting to notice you are pregnant. You start to feel something move within you! Very cool! Did not get nearly as hungry and ate like normal again.

Third Trimester: Everyone is helping you out. People are so friendly. They love talking to you. It’s like all of a sudden you are wearing a crown. You feel very special. Downside: My back started to hurt pretty bad after two hours or any activity. Positive: people let you go to the front of the line in bathroom wait lines or even grocery store lines. Awesome! For this trimester I all of a sudden needed 9 hours of sleep. But if I got that I had good amount of energy during the day. Negative: you pee a lot more. I would wake up two or three times a night to go. Make sure you put creams on cause this is when a little bit of strength marks starts to come. Also my brain disappeared in this trimester, so I had to start writing everything down and start apologizing for silly things I always seemed to forget to do.

Another awesome thing about being pregnant is no period for 9 months! Also being pregnant makes a great excuse to be lazy: P and enjoy me time until the baby comes. About Emotions/ hormones... It wasn’t too bad. I did have two breakdowns about silly things. But don’t we all go through that without being pregnant?

Therefore I have concluded that there will be somethings I will miss about being pregnant. I just wanted you to know that being pregnant isn’t all that bad and that it can be enjoyable and fun! About Labor.. hmm I'm sure it's another whole story. I will let you know what it was like for me :D

Week 29!

Getting bigger and bigger......

The past couple of months!

My family came to L.A for ten days and I got to tour L.A with them. We went to all sorts of places. It was fun! After they left we got to move into our new house!!!! How I love it here. I love how it's so close to a korean grocery store and close to Ralphs. The layout of the house is perfect too! My favorite thing is the kitchen. It has lots of counter space.Moving in took more effort than I thought. The hardest part was deciding where to put things. After weeks of work we are down to three boxes ! yay!!!! It feels so good to be settled. Shortly after we moved in, we took a 9 day trip to Taiwan, Shanghai and Hong Kong! Jonathan had to go for business, and he had a buy one get one free deal with the tickets, so I got to go along! We got to see lots of family and friends and discover taiwan. Going through the Chinese program at BYU, I've heard about taiwan over and over again. So many would glorify and rejoice at the sound of taiwan. So I was excited to finally discover what it was like for myself. Indeed, I have to say I was impressed. No one told me about how green taiwan was! Oh MY! AND SOOOO very clean! We saw both Taipei and Taichung during this trip. I loved seeing the country side. Jonathan and I even got to spend a day at a spa near the mountains in Taiwan! It was so relaxing :D. I also saw the forbidden palace museum in Taipei. Where it held all the stuff that the GMD took from the forbidden palace from Beijing. That was neat too. The cool thing about Taiwan is that everything gets recycled! Many countries could learn from them! In shanghai I got to see Cody, Jody, mom and dad and some extended relatives. We took lots of pregnancy pics. Since my cousin, Kara, who was there was also pregnant. We also got to go to the Shanghai World EXPO!!! IT"S HUGE!!!!!!! we were soooo tired after just going through several countries.So we didn't even get to see 1/3 of it! It's amazing how china can just create a whole new expo city in the time they had! The pic with the gray structure at the back was the Tongan booth at the expo! These structures were not small! In hong kong, since I was there just two months ago I didn't do as much as I did in the last trip. It was fun to catch up with friends again and to wonder around the streets of Hong Kong! I love traveling with my husband! He always makes it so much more fun!

It's a baby girl!

So on July 22nd was when I found out that the little precious one that has been moving a TON inside of me (Since week 17) is a girl! yay! My parents , cody , jody and jonathan were
all at the ultrasound when we found out that she was a girl. My dad was so touched, he said it really hit him that he was going to be a granddad when he saw the ultra sound. The funny part was before we found out that she was a girl. We all made bets on whether it would be a boy or girl. I was so sure that it was a boy. Everyone else beside jonathan and jody bet it was a boy too. So I was amazed when I found out that it was a girl! haha I guess I don't quite have the mother intuition yet :P

But a girl makes a perfect head of the family! So I'm glad she is the first! Just like me :D The oldest girl!

picture : me at 21 weeks

Our first year together :D

goals till baby comes.,...

Move into house
clean
create an organized efficient system
Get baby room decorated and all the needed essentials
plant herbs: basil, mint, parsley, thyme
finish another scrap book
do not gain more than the needed weight necessary
attend cake deco classes
maybe get a sewing machine and make a cute baby blanket
volunteer at shelters
cook a lot more, don't eat out as much
learn more chinese vocab
read baby wise, harry potter,

hmm, feel much better.. more planned and organized :D

Blog question

Does anyone know how to delete the undefined undefined message under each of my heading? It's driving me crazy... ! Thanks

One of the many projects I worked on :D

So this summer I had the lucky dilemma to do whatever I want with my free time! Currently I am crocheting a baby blanket, making a recipe book of favorite recipes from my food network magazines, working on an online scrapbook of this year thus far, made a video of our europe trip, made a flower clip, and have actually read about five books ! I have never really enjoyed reading, so this is a huge success for me! I really love reading now! If I find the right books :D I have also been able to attend an intense 40 hour training course about domestic violence and sexual abuse. Couldn't really sleep for a while but it was surely a learning and eye opening experience and now I'm qualified to work and volunteer at all domestic violence shelters. Here is my flower clip that I made... this is one of jonathan's old t-shirts.

My new hobby!

yep :D I'm totally pregant!

This past week I got to go to my second doctor's appointment and I saw the baby move inside of me.. I had this overwhelming feeling of joy that was so indescribable. It was at that moment when it really hit me that I have been blessed to raise a child of God. I can't believe how, by not doing anything, an amazing complicated development could possible take it's own course inside of me. I am still living daily in awe thinking about it. I'm so excited to be a mom, even if it meant putting some other dreams aside and never sleeping as good as I do now :). The beginning of this journey has already made all those other dreams seem so much less important and exciting.

The lord's roles that he has set for men and women are divine, where it is a unique ingenious design that will bring us the greatest joy.

EUROPE 2010!

We had the amazing opportunity to travel to Italy, Greece, Turkey and Egypt via a cruise. For me it was really a glimpse into our past. At every destination, I was constantly amazed at the ability that god has given us here on earth to create in so many ways. I am so grateful that we are all blessed with that gift. I feel it's one of the many reasons why life is so beautiful.

Life in the day of me

I always hated those English assignments when you had to share a typical day of yours to the world. I would just type one word over and over again because I didn't know where to start. To me, my day was never typical. The assignment should be life in the ideal day of me. In which today could have been a day I would have written about.
Having finished my internship and completing school. I woke up with a day that was without obligations, stress free. So what did I do? I sat staring at a water fountain eating my favorite breakfast meal ( cereal with sliced bananas) as the blue sky hung above me. After which, I tackled my Chinese book of Mormon that has been on my to do list for way too long. Then I wondered around the house determined to play the piano and relive all those memories at my piano teacher's house. I remember the different smells of her house. Mostly smells of, I would imagine, India. I remember how she allowed me to play as poorly as I did just so I can continue to enjoy playing the piano. She taught me to love music. I wonder where she is now, and if she knew the continued impact she has made in my life. My mind wondered continuously back to the sweet moments of life.

A day that allows me to have moments where I can enjoy, reflect and grow is one successful and happy day!

The awesome reunions :D

Graduation lunch at GURUS!













Reunion with friends I grew up with in Hong Kong! Alice and Deanna!









JANELLA! FRIEND From west island school :D

SAN FRAN!

CHINA TOWN!





Down Town, with a little photoshop editing!

Looking back

Is it real, am I really leaving...? Leaving the comfort of the library, the mountains, the BYU wards, Chatham Towne, endless precious memories, FM 100.3, friends and Sisi? Deep down I feel excited yet puzzled to go to the unknown. Deep down I'm grateful that I got exactly what I wanted to get out of my BYU experience and more. I took all the classes that I wish to take. I did all the summer opportunities that I wanted. I experienced a plethora of random jobs and most importantly I met the man of my life.

I came to BYU alone, scared and excited. Now I am leaving having made incredible friends, a little wiser and again excited. I'm glad this time I'm not leaving alone, but with the best life partner ever, and as he always says, to go conquer the world. L.A here we come! Oh beware!

Believe and become

What a conference! I went to a recreation therapy conference. People wonder what we do and why we do i.Some look at us and think we just play all day and chose an easy major to get out of school, only if they all could see the energy, power, and determination within all these professionals. People are in recreation therapy because they know it's a powerful modality to help change someone's life. These people don't dread to wake up to go to their job. They can't sleep thinking of what they can do different and better. These people work overtime from choice.
As the saying goes, "Your passion lies in what you think about when you don't have to think about anything". I have discovered that Recreation therapy is indeed one of my passions.

hmm needed a slight change

when oh when can I

Every couple of months, I get excited to run an event. Then I see the half marathon at saint George go by, I see the next race go by... today is the same. I literally saw the rex lee run go by. I woke up at 8am. I can do this. excuses, after excuses.. the same beautifies from 9th grade creep back up. Maybe next time. Today I ran but only ran and saw the real race go by....

Freedom

This week was pretty exciting since I finished my LAST FINAL EVER! well for a while. The relief that I passed the course at the grade I wanted had me saying " I'm freeeeeee" all day. I was soooo happy! Now I have to face with myself and rediscover all the things that I used to do for fun before school dominated my life. Any ideas? I used to scrap book with Sisi, Make Jewelry, and paint. Hmmm maybe I'll start reading a book? maybe..... What to do with all this freedom! I'm almost scared of it.