Weekend Pix

This is Baby AJ.
Mae & Glen's second baby.
Looks identical to Jared.
Very much a Soriano.






The girls decided to get together to welcome Ev back from her
romantic getaway to Hong Kong and Phuket.
She brought us back each a pashmina from HK. Thanks Eb!
Ron held a baby for the first time! Maybe he's ready?






We met up with the family to celebrate Jonathan & Flo's birthday.
We went for an all you can eat Sushi.
Hayden was hillarious during dinner. It must have been the coke.
The girls out ate the boys. I don't know if that's a good thing.

No Show

Yesterday we all gathered at a community centre to have a baby shower for Christine aka Ms. Fonzie. Turns out she was a no show...but for good reason. She was in labour and en route to the hospital. How crazy is that? Chances are she had the baby already (a boy I'm sure) and is now resting. Poor thing didn't even have her baby bag ready so we had to go through her gifts to see what she can use at the hospital. Sometimes its better when it takes you off guard so you're not lying awake at night closer to the due date wondering when it's going to happen. Anyway, we still enjoyed the party and played all the baby games. As competitive as I am, I held back and let the others win. Sharing is caring, right?

Happy Birthdays

Happy Birthday to Jonathan who turned 14 on January 17th. As each year passes he looks more and more like Has but his sweet personality is what he got from his Aunties. This year he graduates from Grade 8 and in September he starts high school. Yikes! I'm so proud of this kid.









Happy Birthday to Rayanne who turned 5 on January 20th. She is such a little princess who is obsessed with shoes. She has over 20 pairs I'm sure. We've added to her collection by buying her little Ugg like boots. She also enjoys makeup. One time after dinner she went into her purse and pulled out her lipgloss to reapply. How cute is that?







Happy Birthday to Seyla who will turn 4 on January 22nd. She loves to sing and dance and does not care who is watching. She also loves to eat at Lin Garden but still finds a way to hide her vegetables under her rice or noodles. Although Seyla is taller than the 5 year olds, her baby voice is a tell tale sign that she is only 4. I love when she leaves us random messages on our voicemail. I keep resaving them for when I have a bad day. It makes me smile in an instant. When asked what she wanted for her birthday she simply said, "Uncle Nom's coffee cake".






A new addition to our collection of godchildren is Baby Ella who was born on January 9, 2007. She is such a good baby who loves to sleep. I can spend hours just looking at her and smelling her. Can't get enough of that baby smell. I have a feeling she's going to be a silly little girl like Seyla.







Happy Birthday Kids. Ninang & Ninong are so lucky to have you in our lives!

Hold the beans please

Last night 3 of the 5 members of the Wednesday night dinner group went out for Mexican. Norm's friend opened up a new restaurant along Yonge & Dundas near Ryerson called Chimichanga. Because there was standing room only, we took our chimichanga and brought it to the Eaton Centre. As Di would say, it was just like those good ol' University days. We devoured our burritos and tacos and did not have enough napkins to clean our hands and to wipe our sweat. After dinner we headed home but not before stopping in the stores that were "on the way". Di and I went to the Baby Gap so I could buy a cute little outfit for Baby Ella. We searched the sale racks and all of a sudden I noticed an offensive farm-esque odour, almost as if a billy goat with a stomach infection from eating spoiled milk, had passed gas in the area. I quickly looked around me to see what that awful smell was and found no one...except for Di. Who does that?! Who are you?! Where did you come from?! I tried to run away but she kept following me yelling "it was the beans! it was the beans!". Well, next time we go to Chimichanga, I'll have to tell Dave to HOLD THE BEANS PLEASE!

Welcome to the family

Today Baby Ella came into the world weighing 6 lbs 7 oz at exactly 3:36 p.m. She is the sweetest thing. It kinda makes me want to have one of my own. I said kinda.

I also want to welcome another new addition to our family. Norm and I purchased a brand new camera - Sony 007 DSC-T50. As all of you know, I absolutely love taking pictures. I'm ecstatic! Now all I have to do is figure out how to use it. Ha ha. This should keep me busy for awhile.

Global Warming?

Okay, it's January 5th and it was 10 degrees today. In fact, it was double digits for most of the week. I am thoroughly enjoying it but I must admit, I'm a little scared about our environment and why we no longer get "snow days" where snow would be up to our hips and we would be summoned to stay home. These days our kids don't know snow the way we once knew it. Anyway, I am enjoying every minute of our wild and mild weather but I still have my long janes ready for when that snow storm catches us by surprise. Can you believe there's not even an inch of snow in Ontario for skiing? There were some people actually swimming and having picnics. How crazy is that? I was actually itching to go away - somewhere warm - but why bother? I can get a tan at home.

Mother's Dumplings

Yet another blog about food. Gosh it's getting hard to lose 5 lbs. Norm brought home some Mother's Dumplings - shrimp of course - and oh my gawd they were delish! The restaurant is a small, even tiny little whole in the wall but it's clean and everything is homemade. They also have frozen dumplings that you can take home - you should definitely get a few bags Sal and bring back with you to Montreal.

Mother's Dumplings. Another great find. Check it out!

http://www.mothersdumplings.com/

Lin Garden

If you haven't been to Lin Garden you are indeed missing out. It's my favourite Hakka restaurant by far. I do like Fredericks as well but the line up is incredible and it's a little farther now that I live downtown. My favourite dish is the house shrimp and yesterday we discovered they also have great deep fried squid! Our usual includes: hakka noodles (ordered the Hakka way), chicken pakora, chilli chicken, green beans, house shrimp and a big bowl of white rice.
We frequent this place usually once every two weeks. You should definitely give it a try...and give us a call if you do so we can meet up with ya'll.

Happy 2007!

Our New Years group had dinner at the Keg...well all but two. Rennie and Eric went to Hy's to celebrate a much needed romantic dinner for two and the rest of us went to the Keg to eat for half the price. The kids got full off of their salad. Go figure. The adults pretty much went all out with lobster and crab. I got the usual Oscar Sirloin that had shrimps and scallops with bernaise sauce. After dinner we walked home and found Rennie and Eric already home. Paul and Carlo also joined the group in time for games. The first game we played was Family Feud. How fun was that? Girls versus Boys. Take a wild guess who won? That's right, girls rock! Paul, our Barrista, spoiled us with hot Starbuck's like drinks using our espresso machine. We had chocolate & caramel sauce, marshmellows, whipped cream...you name it. It was awesome! After the countdown Fran made ham sandwiches and not just plain old ham sandwiches...we're talking about Uncle Vic's hamon in large kaisers. How is it that we're still eating? Anyway, on to more games and then later watched some stand up comedy. Somewhere around 3:30 AM I snuck into the bedroom where Seyla was sound asleep and joined her. Right now I'm the only one awake...just waiting until someone wakes up so we can go to breakfast!

What a great start to the new year. Oh wait a minute, do I have to go back to work tomorrow? That sucks.

New Years Eve

We will be having Norm's cousins over for New Years Eve - 10 adults and 3 kids. Last night we were rearranging our condo so we can all fit comfortably. We moved the dining room table to the den so that our living room will be more spacious. We won't need the table since we'll be going out for dinner (whew!). I think the plan is to go to the Keg for 5pm. I know it's early but the Keg does not take reservations and we don't want to wait 2 hours for dinner - especially with 3 kids. After dinner we plan on heading back to our place to hang out and play some games. If it's not too cold we will head over to Nathan Phillips for the free concert and the countdown - since I'm a bit sick, I'll stay home with the kids and watch it on TV.

For 2007 I plan on learning how to swim; doing more scrapbooking; filling my walls with art/pictures; losing the 5 lbs I gained over the holidays; or maybe getting pregnant and gaining 30 lbs.

I look forward to what 2007 brings.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Christmas 2006

Norm's family spent Christmas at his cousin's place in Brampton. It's probably the biggest house in the family that can accomodate the 43 members of the Barrientos clan. It was also nice because it forced everyone to sleep over or at least stay for the whole party. We didn't go to bed until 3:30 AM that morning. The party started with Grandma and Grandpa giving out the insane amount of gifts under (and over) the tree. At around the same time Mr. Carlos Primeros made an appearance which made the party much louder than ever. (I didn't think it could get any louder). Down in the basement they had dancing and later karaoke. Upstairs we sat around Grandma listening to her stories. The next morning we (Norm, Fran, Trae and myself) were in charge of breakfast so we whipped out the tocino, longanisa, garlic fried rice, ham, cheese, pandesal and 3 dozen eggs. I love breakfast so this was a nice treat. Shortly after we had to speed home in time for the Marquez family Christmas at our place. Mom and Has & family came over for lunch and some stayed for dinner, too! The next day was Boxing Day and even though I was exhausted I managed to get to the mall for 7:30AM and found some decent sales. That night we went to the Cruzada's to visit our Godchildren and to spoil them with hugs, kisses and oh yeah, the gifts. The day after Ev treated us to a Raptors game. Can't beat the service and the 3rd row seats! Thanks Ev! What a nice Christmas treat.

Right now I'm fighting a cold that I managed to get from one of the kids. I am hoping to feel better soon because I am hosting New Years Eve at my place.

Happy New Year everyone!

Ahhhhhh.....

What a wonderful feeling to be off at last. Yesterday was my last day of work and although I had to stay until 8pm to finish my work, I am happy that I don't have to go back until January 2nd. Yahoo! So what do I do now? I think I'm going to hit the malls to see what deals I can score. I guess I should also prepare my dishes for Christmas. This year it's going to be at our place and I will be serving roast beef as requested by Flo. Usually I make Mom's roast beef but this time I'm going to make my mother in law's roast beef recipe for a change. I will pair it up with roasted potatoes, green beens, carrots and rice pilaf. Mom is taking care of the appetizers and Flo will bring dessert. The only thing we're missing is... Han & Al! C'mon guys...join us!

Weekend Review

On Friday we took Seyla to see Santa. She's terrified of the big guy but I managed to talk her into taking a picture with him. It's way too late to send her letter so she had to hand deliver it. At first she handed him the letter and ran away but somehow this Santa managed to get her back and put her on his lap quickly enough to take a picture. Yay! Mission accomplished

The next day was a BIG day for us. We've been planning Mom's 65th birthday for the last couple of weeks. In the end, it turned out to be the most perfect day. For lunch we went to Star Walk buffet. She thought it would be just the 6 of us but when she came into the room there were 42 family members waiting for her. Surflies! And out came the happy tears! After lunch we went to the Barrientos household and had yet another surprise waiting. Norm had worked so hard to make a cake for mom but not just any cake...mom's coffee cake! Mom was so touched by this. More happy tears. She has always made cakes for everyone but no one has ever made her a cake, let alone her coffee cake! After coffee, cake and presents she headed home just in time to get ready for church but no time to rest just yet. The last surprise was 2 tickets to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at the Hummingbird. She loved it and Dad had a comment or two about the beautiful kicking legs. We ended the night off at Congee Queen where we had a late dinner with just the 4 of us. How perfect was that?!

Yesterday we went to Sherway with our Wednesday crew - Ev and Di. We went shopping and Norm went to the bar to watch the football game and had a few drinks. Later we headed out to the burbs where Bruce and Harita were hosting a Christmas/Housewarming party. It was nice to end the weekend off with good food and great friends. Cheers everyone!

Scary Santa?

It took a lot of convincing for Seyla to visit Santa. She simply said, "I'm scared" and I don't blame her? You've got this man in a red suit and a red hat to match and most Santas have funny looking fake beards. I told Seyla that she has to tell Santa what she wants for Christmas and this was her response: "I don't want presents. I will buy Santa a present". Isn't that the sweetest thing? Anyway, a couple weeks passed by and I kept working on her. She finally agreed to see Santa if I promise to stand near her. We took her to the Santa located at the Bay. Its a little hidden secret up on the 6th floor next to Christmas Street. It was great...no line ups! And even better, Santa had a real beard and he didn't look as scary. At first Seyla quickly gave him her letter and started to run away but he asked her a couple of questions and she eventually made it on his lap.

Santa is coming to town

So Christmas is almost here and that means good ol' Saint Nick will be making his rounds. Have you finished your shopping yet? I went to the mall early Saturday morning when it was quiet and the stores were still neat and tidy. It made such a huge difference. Anyway, like Floree, I got sidetracked and found myself going into stores and trying things on. I should have really stuck to the plan and finished my shopping but how can you just bypass the SALE signs at Banana Republic? Floree just bought yet another jacket at Old Navy for 50% off. What a steal! Diana emailed me tonight to see if I wanted to go shopping with her. I would have loved to but going shopping with a friend is even worse. Imagine trying on that beautiful jacket at French Connection and having Diana convince me that I have to buy it. I'll just wait to see what Santa has for me. I hope I'm not on his naughty list.

Day 11

So what do we want to do on our last day in Vancouver? With no hesitation we went to Shabusen for a late lunch. Allan has been craving sushi and it was only fitting that he share this craving with Norm. This was our favourite hang out during the summer months when we lived in Nanaimo. Sometimes we'd ride the ferry over, eat at Shabusen and head back to Nanaimo. Crazy, I know, but we will travel far for good food. I guess it's because our mother's are such great cooks so we're big food critics. We're still trying to find a good cantonese chow mein in Vancouver. You would think that in an asian dominant city there would be some good noodles. Toronto still has the best chinese food but Vancouver has the best Japanese without a doubt. After dinner we walked along Robson and it started to snow. Heather got a little frightened by the snow so she went to Roots and bought a scarf and a hat. In hindsight, that was a good call. Before heading back to the house, we stopped by at Goldilocks. By the time we got out the snow had gotten worse. No worries, we've got a Toronto driver behind the wheel. Allan was certain the snow would stop and everything would melt. "It never snows in Vancouver and when it does it doesn't stick". Well, we were lucky our plane left that night. It was difficult driving to the airport because our van was not equipped with winters and all the signs pointing us to Richmond/Airport were covered in snow. The next morning we arrived in T.O and as we walked outside the sun was shining and the weather was mild. In Vancouver, Han tells me it's now 30 cm of snow. Poor Rihini.

Well, that's our trip out west. As usual it was fun filled and way too short. We would like to revisit soon but first we have to save up for yet another wedding. Houston, here we come!

Happy Birthday Hazel

Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to my beautiful niece Hazel Marie. I love the way you have grown up to be such a lovely little lady. Just like your Aunts!

Day 10

We came home at 6AM after a whirlwind shopping experience in Seattle. As we all were getting ready for bed, Norm was getting ready to go to his Pharmacy conference. Allan drove him to the sky train but Norm had no idea it would take 25 mins just to get to the sky train so Norm was late getting there and he also went to the wrong hotel by the time he was downtown. In the end, the conference was "boring" (I think he was just tired) so he made his way back home via skytrain and went to sleep. Later that evening Norm, Rohani and I made our way back to the States to Bellisfair mall which was only half an hour away. The malls were still crazy but it got us into that holiday spirit. After a little more shopping, we were finally satisfied so we went home and packed. Only one more day to go. (sigh)

Day 9

On this day we had dinner with Allan's family - The Umlas. Prior to dinner Auntie Yolly was so adamant about taking us out to eat so we had appys at White Spot. By the time we got to the Chinese restaurant, I was ready for round two. I don't normally eat like this but hey, I'm on vacation! Uncle Rey ordered the whole menu it seemed - rice, noodles, hot & spicy wontons, crabs two ways - creamy or with ginger and onion, sweet pork, seafood birds nest, soup, squid. It was so nice of them to take all of us out. We really enjoyed the food and the company. After dinner the Umlas came over for some majong. The "kids" went to bed to prepare for midnight madness shopping in Seattle. We thought we were ahead of the game by going this early but by the time we reached the outlets, there were barely any more parking spaces left! Line ups were everywhere - especially for Coach and Puma. The deals were great but we couldn't stay long because Norm had to be back for a conference in Vancouver the next morning. Let the Christmas madness begin! Happy Thanksgiving to our neighbours down south!

Day 8

Today we leave the island and head back to the mainland. In the morning we had breakfast with Norm's old boss. I can tell he wants Norm to come back but yet he was the same guy who scheduled Norm to work nights and weekends while I was home alone. I think that was the hardest part of our venture out west. After breakfast we had an appointment with our Accountant. That's right, we still use the same accountant. Had we more time maybe we could have seen our dentist as well! The weather was truly that of an island. It was so sunny one minute and the next minute it pouring pigs and cows! So with that, we grabbed the 3PM ferry which got us into Vancity right during rush hour. No problem, we'll just hang around downtown until the traffic dies down. Heck, let's eat at Shabusen again! And so we did.