R + K: 1 on the 28th

Richard and I will be celebrating our first wedding anniversary on the 28th! In Chiang Mai! I booked our flight and hotel already, thanks to the internet! And I'm so excited that I visit the hotel's website almost everyday. Heehee! I hope the place is as nice as it looks on the picture! I know how some companies pimp out those publicity photos so that when you see the actual one, it can be slightly disappointing. Anyway, more about that when we get back.

For now, allow me to be sentimental. I was looking through our files on the computer and saw old photos of me and Richard. Ok, they're not really old, old but judging from the weight that we have put on since those photos were taken, they seemed like light years away! Haha! Check out my favorite photos that were taken in the last two years.

December 2006 at Buon Giorno Tagaytay, during our traditional Christmas dinner with my highschool friends. This is probably the only photo that we had when we were still dating.

02 December 2006, during Gerald and Dy's wedding. Dy's my college friend and Gerald is Richard's officemate. These two brought us together. Thanks, D&G!

20 January 2007, Janet + Carla's birthday celeb in Tagaytay. Photos were taken by my favorite photographer Marc Parra. I remember Richard just got home from a business trip in Bangkok here. From the airport, he went straight to the party.

Our first family photo. This was taken after we had lunch at the Highlands China Palace.

On a beach trip with my cousins at Munting Buhangin in Nasugbu. This is also our first out-of-town trip together.

Puerto Galera with Kerwin and Ria.

Dad's birthday celebration in Baguio.

02 June 2007, while having milkshakes and Belgian chocolates at The Fort with Pat and Ria. We just had lunch at Zong so we moved to the cafe next door for dessert. Then, we went to the wedding fair at The Tent. I wouldn't have survived our wedding preps if it weren't for my two bestfriends.

More chocolates on the same day, this time at some chocolate shop in Serendra. We just had dinner at Gerry's Grill and we were on our way to the parking lot, but we just couldn't leave without having another round of dessert.

Richard's birthday surprise at TMP. Thanks to Gerald and Tony for helping me set-up!

19 August 2007 during our pre-nup pictorial at the Oasis in QC. I was reluctant to have this, but it came with the package and it was a good exercise to get used to the cameras so that you won't feel awkward during your wedding.

Here's another one, this time inside the studio in another outfit.

26 August 2007, during our (me + my brother Mick) birthday celebration and my despedida de soltera at my parents' house in Tagaytay.

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28 September 2007, our wedding day!! With my family...

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...and Richard's family.

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Here are my favorite wedding shots. I like them because 1) we don't get to do these poses everyday -- hell, this is probably the first and last time that we will do this in front of the camera!; 2) I feel like an artista everytime I see them. Haha!

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Our honeymoon at Plantation Bay. I loved it...the room, the pool and the service...thanks to my husband who did a great job of arranging the entire thing. He really has good taste *ahem*.

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12 October 2007 at Paradizoo, Tagaytay with my cousin Chig, his wife Joanne and my favorite pamangkins/Alyannah's favorite cousins in the world, Gabbi and Moe.

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08 August 2007 during our annual Christmas party with my highschool friends in our house in Sta. Rosa. This was also our first Christmas as a married couple.

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06 March 2008 at Manila Ocean Park during Alyannah's school field trip.

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09 March 2008, San Juan, Batangas. Ria's birthday celebration/Valdez family send-off at Pat's lola's beach house.

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15 March 2008, Alyannah's Kidcore graduation. This was also the day when we moved out of our house in Sta. Rosa and into my parents' house in Tagaytay. We were just counting the days before we fly to Bangkok.

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23 March 2008, Alyannah's 5th birthday celebration/Valdez Family farewell party at Villa Juanita, Taguig. It was also a good opportunity to see our family and friends before leaving for Bangkok.

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28 March 2008. Touchdown at BKK! Our first family photo in our new home. This photo is also on our first post on this blog.

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There you have it...our adventures in the last two years and a showcase of how much weight we have gained in the past months. Haha! Well, if those two years are any indication of what's in store for us in the coming years, then I am sure that it will definitely be a blast!

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Keep on coming back to this blog for more R + K (+A!) updates!

Bake-a-thon on a Lazy Sunday

Aside from shopping, crazy sales and a new pair of shoes, there are two other things that make me happy:

1. When my husband comes home early from work unannounced, and


2. Lazy afternoons at home with my husband and daughter.
   

Believe it or not, there are times when I would rather stay at home with my family than go to the mall. It's not because I'm sick or anything, it's just that there are days when I just want to chill and relax at home. On these rare occasions, I cook, as in cook all day -- breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner...like I'm on domestic goddess overdrive.

At syempre, since bago yung oven ko, ganado ako mag-bake. Here's the result of yesterday's bake-a-thon:

Mid-morning snack: Betty Crocker's fudge brownies.

Lunch: baked chicken rosemary with potatoes and corn.

Our original plan was to stay in the house until late in the afternoon, hear mass at 5:30pm and meet our friends for dinner at 6:30. But Alyannah started showing symptoms similar to that of conjunctivitis so we decided to just stay at home lest we infect other people, especially the other kids. Good thing I had more food prepared so we were happily baking all the way to dinner.

Our afternoon snack...

...which was prepared by our little chef.

Let's go check the pizza!

Looks like it's ready!

Yummy!!

And to cap off our bake-a-thon, we had this for dinner: baked spareribs with BBQ sauce.

With all that food, we definitely have to work harder in the gym to shed off the extra pounds, but happy times like lazy Sundays with family makes gaining all those calories worth it!

Krisan's New Gadget

Look at what we brought home this weekend!

A brand new electric oven!! Yipee!!!

Let's open it, shall we?

We can't wipe the smile off our faces. Can you tell that we're very excited?

*Sigh*

That's the Boss delivering...

...our new baby :)

I actually got the idea from Jenn...Remember the BBQ party that we attended a couple of weeks ago? She brought a carrot cake that day -- which she baked at home -- and it was absolutely divine! I told her that it reminded me of my favorite carrot cake in Manila; the one with the carrot sign that also sells bibingka galapong (the name escapes me now). I was dyahe to ask her for the recipe (ahem, shameless parinig to Jenn! Haha!), but I remember her telling me that she used an electric oven to bake it, because gas ovens are not allowed in apartments here. Her oven is similar to an oven toaster, only it's bigger.

Ok, this is embarrassing, but that was the first time I heard about an electric oven. Ever. Ang alam ko lang kasi was the gas oven and the oven toaster. But I'm glad she told me about it kasi ngayon nagkaron na ko ng pag-asa mag-bake! I love baking! In Manila, I would bake every weekend -- cookies, cupcakes...I even enrolled in a one-day baking class at Heny Sison's school! And my masterpiece?

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Alyannah's birthday cake.

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A three-layer lemon chiffon cake with sugar icing, candy sprinkles,...

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...and teddy bear-shaped butter cookies with sugar frosting.

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Thanks to my mom's KitchenAid mixer, I can easily bake dozens of cookies and cupcakes in a single afternoon. But I don't have that kind of equipment here and since I was super, super excited to use my new oven (as in I had to use it as soon as we got home -- yeah, I was that excited!), I had to call on Betty for help.

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Yes, this Betty. Betty Crocker.

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I know, it's anticlimactic pero ok na yan to satisfy my urge to bake!

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You can just imagine how happy I felt when I found out that it's possible for me to bake here in our apartment! I just need an electric oven! Jenn's idea stuck with me, but I was in no hurry to buy one -- until last week. I was at Central Plaza for lunch and as I was browsing through the small appliances section (I always check out their blenders because it's the next item on my to-buy list but I still haven't found the One), I saw that their electric ovens were on sale at 50% off!!! That only meant one thing...I. Must. Buy. On that same night, while we were having dinner, I made lambing to my husband and he told me that we can buy one on the weekend. Thus, my new baby was bought.

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I heart my new oven!