Halloween is still a couple weeks away, but we dressed Mio up in a pumpkin outfit when we visited Dan’s parents on Sunday. Dan’s mom just happened to have an adult size pumpkin costume that she had handmade years ago, and so we took some photos of them together as matching Jack-o-Lanterns! The cuteness is overwhelming:
Some pictures of Mio solo…
Trying on the hat from Grandma’s costume….
Dan’s mom let me try on the costume too, so I could get a couple Mommy-and-Me pictures as matching pumpkins, too! Grandma looks much cuter in it, but here are a couple of Mio and I together, for memory’s sake. 🙂
Look at that belly!
We always have fun at the grandparents’ house! Mio is so lucky to have Grandpa and Grandma nearby…
We have so many pictures from this weekend that I need to catch up on uploading and posting. Stay tuned for more! 😀
A couple weekends ago, we attended a Valentine’s Dinner party with friends in Berkeley the evening before Valentine’s Day. We had a great time with our couple friends — the catered food was amazing, the games were entertaining, and the decor was so cute! A big thanks to Ann Helen and all the other ladies who organized it. Here are some photos…
The lovely table set-up.
Dinner from Ann's Catering - it was so good! I took advantage of some furikake that someone snuck in.
Red velvet cake with ice cream for dessert!
For one of the games, the gentelemen had to get blindfolded by their partners, and the girls each threw one of their shoes onto the floor. The boys had to then crawl around the floor, trying to find their partner’s shoe relying on touch alone. It was pretty hilarious to watch….
Poor Dan… It took him a while, but he eventually got it. haha*
But then the tables turned, and it wasn’t so funny anymore when it was the girls’ turn to find their partners’ shoes.
Crawling around with the weight of my big belly did not help in the search for Dan’s shoe. And mens’ dress shoes seem so similar; I think the ladies definitely had a more difficult time with it. I think someone ended up having to hand me Dan’s shoe because I was one of the last ones left searching for the shoe. Major wife fail….
We also played a couple rounds of what was sort of a spoof of The Newlywed Game. 🙂
They even had a little photo-taking area set up! :) I was a little self-conscious about having photos taken with my now-giant baby bump (“bump” is no longer an appropriate name for it… it’s more like a mountain!), but I’ll leave you with this one of us, taken in our typical dork fashion:
Happy (belated) Valentine's Day from Dan & Misono ♥
Happy New Year! Dan and I just got back to California late Sunday night after spending ten days at my parents’ home in Northern Virginia. We arrived early the morning of Christmas Eve, and I spent Christmas Day/my 28th birthday quietly at home with my family. It feels strange to think that this was my last Christmas and birthday without a child, and that future Christmases will probably be a lot noisier and hectic!
We had a memorable week spent with family, friends, and enjoyed a much-needed break from work during the holidays. My mom kept Dan busy half the time, enlisting his handyman skills to repaint the kitchen. (He did a great job and the kitchen looks like new! My mom is ecstatic.) Meanwhile, I indulged in stuffing myself with my mom’s home cooking, getting pampered by my parents, and treasured the time that I had to catch up with the friends back home whom I missed so much!
Two of my dearest friends and college roommates, Hanna and Yoon, threw us a baby shower the day after Christmas to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our baby girl! Since baby showers typically aren’t thrown until well into the third trimester and since I wouldn’t be back on the East Coast again before the birth of the baby, we initially hadn’t thought that we’d get to have a baby shower with our East Coast friends. We were so touched that they went out of their way during the busiest time of the year to still plan and organize a shower for us! Our friend Brian generously offered his house to host the celebration, and the decorations were absolutely adorable and the food was delicious! The girls planned some fun baby shower games and we were humbled by the generosity of our friends and by all the gifts. More than anything, though, it was just nice to see so many of our friends again, and we felt so blessed and fortunate to be able to celebrate the new addition to our family with them. Our baby (currently referred to as “eggplant“) is the luckiest girl in the world, to be surrounded by so much love before she even comes out!
Here are some photos from the baby shower…
The adorable set-up! I couldn't get over how cute it was.
Classic Pooh + Burt's Bees diaper cake! Yoon did such a great job making it!
Shower favors: beehive candles!
Guess Baby Allen's Arrival Date!
Homemade cupcakes: double chocolate and cheesecake-flavored. Delicious!
Loved it!!!
Pat and I with our baby bumps! We're both expecting baby girls in April, only two weeks apart!
Thanks Greg for stopping by!
All the yummy food!
Snacking around the table.
More snacking! 🙂
The Dirty Diaper game! My sister Miwa, my brother Ted, and his girlfriend Elisa.
Jina and Luice won the game. I missed these ladies!
Matching the candy to the baby phrases.
Guessing belly measurements
Thanks for coming, Jina!
Time to open presents!
The baby's first Hokie gear - a VT bib! Thank you Auntie Windy. 🙂
Dan testing the softness of the fleece baby blanket.
Adorable headwraps from Auntie Erri!
It was Luice's birthday that day - Happy Birthday! 😀
With 3-year-old Audrey. She's the cutest!
So good seeing Liz again!
Ashly and Helly - I missed them so! Seems like yesterday they were just freshmen, and now they're all grown up!
With Erri and Audrey. Erri is my closest friend who has kids, so she's been giving me so much priceless advice. I can't thank her enough!
And of course... my lovely roomies! 501-A reunited! Thank you for throwing me a baby shower I'll never, ever forget. Love you girls so much!
For more photos of the baby shower, click over to the photo album.
(Special thanks to Pat & Theo for many of the photos!)
Some of my friends couldn’t make it to the baby shower, like my best friend Debbie, who’s back in Seoul with her family for the winter holidays. The night before we left for Virginia, we had received this very generous gift from Debbie and our friends Mimi, Michelle, and Stephanie, who all pitched in to get us the Beaba Babycook that I had been raving about a couple months ago! Dan and I were stunned when we received it, because although we’d put it on our baby registry, we were prepared to eventually buy it ourselves because it’s so pricey and we didn’t think anyone would actually get it for us. It’s such a great investment, and we can’t wait until the time comes for us to use it! 🙂
The Beaba Babycook! Thank you Debbie, Mimi, Michelle, and Steph!
I’m a little late in posting this, but I’m catching up on uploading pictures. My friend Catherine from Virginia Tech is now getting her Masters degree in Washington, so she decided to come visit San Francisco over Thanksgiving weekend. She stayed with our friend Sue, who has been settling into San Francisco quite nicely after moving here at the end of the summer. We spent a Saturday morning watching the Virginia Tech vs UVA game at The Bus Stop bar in San Francisco, stuffed ourselves with delicious dimsum at City View in the Financial District, indulged in some shopping, and then ended the day with manicures and pedicures in SOMA (compliments of Sue). Thank you Catherine for visiting (we expect many more visits!), and thank you Sue for treating us!
With Catherine and Sue... Hokies in the Pacific Northwest!
Sue enjoying her Prosecco while getting pampered...
Fast forward to this past weekend, we had a really fun time at the Nakayoshi holiday party, and seeing everyone from Nakayoshi again! There was so much good food that everyone brought for the potluck, the White Elephant gift exchange is always fun, and there was such good company. 🙂 Megumi even came all the way up from SoCal to surprise everybody — I was so happy to see her; I missed her so! Thanks to Dan for hosting and Sam for organizing the party!
White Elephant gift exchange!
Hubby got a beer pong pitcher... haha*
With some of the lovely ladies from Nakayoshi!
Yesterday was actually Dan’s birthday, but I wasn’t really able to do very much except muster up enough energy to bake him a German chocolate cake for his party with his boys on Sunday evening. I was feeling pretty crappy about not being able to do more for his birthday, but Dan surprised me with tulips when I got home from work last night to cheer me up! 🙂 It seems a bit backwards to get flowers from your husband on his birthday, but it was very sweet of Dan….
Lovely tulips from Dan
We went out to an Indo-Nepalese restaurant so that Dan could get some of his favorite lamb curry, and I surprised him with the Leatherman tool he’s been wanting for a while. 🙂 Happy birthday, Dan!
It’s been raining cats and dogs in the Bay this weekend, and I’ve been feeling a little under the weather. During my freshman year of college, my best friend and I kept getting each other sick because we were dorm roommates and were always together, and we used to get each other Jell-O cups with fruits whenever the other was sick. Dan must have remembered hearing me talk nostalgically about those days, because he surprised me by making these holiday-themed Jell-O cups with fruit while I was resting! 🙂
Layers of cherry- and lime-flavored Jell-O with pineapples on the bottom and mandarin oranges on the top! It was a refreshing treat. Thanks for being so thoughtful, hubby! ♥
