4th of july

This year's 4th of July was filled with food, fun, and family! Well, minus my sisters who are too cool for school. My hubz had a day off of work (what a great change!), so we went over to my mom's house to celebrate America's birthday!

My mom invited her bestest friends over, one who happens to be my mother-in-law and the other, pretty much my 3rd mom. We never call her "3rd mom" but I've known her forever and she has grown to be a mentor in John and my life. So with my mom, MIL, 3rd mom, her 2 younger boys, John and I, we had an amazing Korean style BBQ that included KBBQ and grilled spicy squid (my fave)! 


Then some intense speed scrabble with the boys - one who is the king of collages and the greatest videographer. Ever. (You can see the video he made for us here. *SHAMELESS PLUG* You can hire him for any occasion!). 

Moving on, John and I ended the night watching fireworks. Our city, every year, has some crazy fireworks by our crazy neighborhood people. Think Disneyland style from every street corner. It's insanely loud and scary - in a fun, exciting way! 


 Happy (3 days late) 4th!

momma's weekend

First things first - thank you for all the encouraging words on my previous post... but, after reading the bff's post, I realized I should be (even more) grateful that I have amazing friends, siblings, and cousins that allow me to "mother" my little nieces and nephews.  Thank you for letting me mother and smother them!

To celebrate our amazing momma, we hung out with her all day Saturday and Sunday. It was pretty tiring but I haven't seen my momma that happy in a while, and in the end that's all that matters.

Most of Saturday was spent in the momma's garden, bbq-ing and s'moring.  Here are some instagram shots from my lil & big sis.

We decided to arrange our own vase with flowers from the local wholesale florist.

Best s'mores ever. EVER.

Sunday was a busy day too!  Per my momma's request, lil sister and I went to church with her, where John picked me up (he had to work), then off we went to eat lunch with my MIL and John's family. Then back to my momma's house, so we could go to dinner w/ the big sis and bro-in-law at Mastros.

My cute momma, the most delish butter cake, and my mouth watering pork chop.

My mom is an amazing, strong, stubborn, loving, smart, motivated, caring, hilarious person. You will not meet anyone like her.  She's bossy as heck and likes things done her way, but that's her charm. I really think she should have her own reality show because, seriously, there is no one like her! 

Mom,

Thanks for being your crazy self. You are amazing. I love you and can't thank you enough for all you do for me (and our family). And to close, I'll quote my favorite poet, Tupac, for you - "... there's no way I can pay you back but my plan is to show you that I understand. You are appreciated."

Too bad she doesn't read my blog...

a busy sunday

A typical Sunday for me and John is pretty low-key. We usually go to church in the morning, go grocery shopping, and then come home to rest. Today, was not low-key. It was a busy day, filled with some major fun.

It started off at Crossview, listening to God's Word. Then, we went to meet up with my fake cousin, Liz, or as I call her, Lizard Breath. I've called her my cousin for years because we grew up next to each other and always hung out. She came with us on family vacations, hung out at our house all the time and vice versa. As we got older we just started telling teachers and friends we were cousins. People started realizing we weren't related by blood so now she's my fake cousin. With all that said, I love this gal.

We finally got to hang out and chat at Urth Cafe. And just like when you see a close family member you haven't seen in a long time, our time with Liz was so easy and natural.

*Taken by Liz's iPhone.

Can you guess which one is Johnny's cup?! It was the size of my head!

I love my fake cousin! <3

Then off to dinner with my sis and the bro-in-law. My coworker was raving about this BBQ place in Venice, and it's a place my bro-in-law goes to often. It's a hole in the wall-ish place with plastic sports team plates, diner-esque chairs, and dark lighting. But, man, is the food good!

Kicking off my birthweek with a delicious BBQ dinner at Baby Blues BBQ.

As we were eating, John recognized one of the workers. (He has horrible memory, but he has amazing face recognition). She was a character on one of John's favorite shows, Breaking Bad. I have no idea how he recognized her, and she was pretty surprised he recognized her considering the fact that she herself said she was trying to be incognito. This proves that he really is the good at recognizing faces! Thanks to my super outgoing bro-in-law who was bold enough to talk to her first, John was able to chat with her and get a picture with her.

We learned her name was Emily and she was sweet enough to learn our names. Seriously, she was the nicest gal, super grateful, and even gave us some free banana bread pudding! I hope she makes it back to the next season of Breaking Bad!

Today was super busy for us, but what a great way to kick off my birth week! Time to sleep. Too much excitement for one day!