We miss you Mom

On September 16, 2009, in the evening, my mother-in-law, MommaInLawPie passed away. She had strugged for a very long time with kidney disease, dialysis and just this past year, underwent heart valve repair surgery and had a pacemaker installed. We never, in our wildest nightmares, would think after her strength in going through all of this, would she pass away suddenly. But now we are grateful that she is no longer in pain.

MommaInLawPie was an avid reader of this blog. She was my #1 fan! When I would start lacking on the posting, she would say, I don't know what you guys did this weekend or what we ate! She was a dedicated Mother, friend and wonderful person overall as evident by all of her family and friends at the wake and the funeral.

We miss you and love you dearly Mom and we think of you every day.

"There isn't a sister...Part 1"

Disclaimer: The blog title references an inside joke and not the fact that LilSisterPie couldn't make it to Vegas!

Last week, the Phamily hopped into a rental car and drove to Vegas! We love Vegas! The first night, we stayed at the Wynn. I thought it was going to be impressive and it really wasn't. Actually it was very disappointing overall - the service, the room and the ambiance. I give it a C+. It gets an A for cleaniness and the garden is gorgeous. Also, the toiletries are short, fat and cute - B+Mr. Pie and I ventured down to the pool and it was just ordinary. Our cocktail waitress disappeared for almost an hour with our change. The drinks were awesome though - I highly recommend them! Mr. Pie is reading up on winning... We laid out by the pool and then gussied up for dinner with MommaPie and SisterPie at Charlie Palmer at the Four Seasons! Dinner was excellent. We had been to this Charlie Palmer location two other times - the first time was very good, the second was only okay but this time was exquisite.

Australian version of Kobe beef

So amazingly tender. Best dish of the night! Grilled lobster

Divine! Halibut

Excellent fish Filet mignon

The filet mignon was a bit overdone but everything else was amazing. We also had this amazing truffle baked potato. I think I didn't have a picture of it because we ravaged it. All 4 forks went in and nothing was left. I was shivering in the restaurant and the busboy came over with a matching shawl for my dress! A+ service!

SisterPie's birthday celebration!Happy Phamily!

Happy Pies!

More blog posts to come with our second day in Sin City!

This puppy can't get up!

Happy Friday! This video is hilarious!

"Can you leave the table so it looks like I ate this by myself?"

My Phamily visited from the East Coast and Mr. Pie and I took the kiddies out to Boiling Crab. They loved it. Seriously though, we got crawfish, king crab legs and Newcastle...what's not to love?

Just a Chu and his special Chau

Hair tie? Check! Bibs? Check!

Mmmmm oysters

Can you believe she ate this all by herself?

Crawfish carcasses

5 lbs of crawfish, 2 lbs of king crab legs, 1 dozen oysters and countless beers later...happiness!

Whose black Audi is that?

About a month ago, I had one of my brilliant ideas (haha) and decided to throw a baby shower for my very dear friend, Peldia (and loyal CCP blog reader!). I enlisted the help of MommaPink who so graciously offered up her beautiful home for the shower and to be my co-hostess with the mostess. Then I began the task of contacting Peldia's family to see if they were free that day and also stalked, I mean contacted, her friends on Facebook as well. The outpouring of love was very evident - everyone was waiting for the day Peldia would have her own baby shower! As you can remember, last year, about a few months before Paulita was born, Peldia had to go on bedrest. So we were only too happy to throw her a welcome party! I do have to say, we pulled it off quite nicely and with the help of many others. My only regret was that I didn't have that many photos but Peldia has great friends so there are a lot of other pictures floating around!

Once we surprised Peldia as she walked in the door, the festivities began!

A super adorable diaper cake made by my friend, Wee :)

The kiddies had fun too and cooled off in their little water section.

Cake time!

Paulita is mesmerized by her cake :)

Presents!

Very cute khaki pants for PaulitaShe kept getting stuffed animals and at one point, we couldn't see her!

There's a leg sticking out there - hahaha.

A very proud Grandma and a partied-out Paulita:)

All in all, I think everyone had a great time. It was a truly wonderful event for Peldia and we're so happy for their little family! And not to leave Paulita's Dad, Pablo out (he was golfing with Mr. Pie and PoppaPink), here they are one morning. It is the cutest picture of them EVER!

That Beetle is so big it needs it's own airport!

I love Saturdays :)

Mr. Pie made hamburgers!

Then we napped and he had quality time with his girls :)

While my boy and I had some time together too!

She didn't even say Excuse Me!

Sadly, MommaPink's Grandmother passed away last week. The wake was Thursday night so I offered to babysit my Goddaughter, MJ and BabyPink. Let me tell you, I thought I had it in the bag.

But look at these faces! Who can resist :)

Spaghetti dinner with BabyPink while MJ napped :)

MJ stretchin' her long legs

52 card pick up with BabyPink!

We had a lot of fun and they are such sweet girls. Can't wait to see them again!

4 More Years!

Brought tears to my eyes. Can he run again PLEASE?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/05/nkorea.journalists/index.html

Go Bill!

Is it Asian Night?

The Pies have been married for 2 years now! Ever since that fateful day at Starbucks (read recap below) we have been in love for 11 years :)

Swoon! The flowers Mr. Pie brought to my office in person!We took our cute little selves to Taps in Brea. We've dined here before and were very impressed with their baked oysters. We still are. Delish!

We also chose Taps because we had the Entertainment Book coupon - buy 1 entree, get 1 free. Hey, if I save money on dinner, I get a nicer present, right? I'm no fool.

I chose the lamb with a mint sauce. Um, just ok. To tell you the truth, the fact that it came out with the green sauce on top was not appetizing to me.

Mr. Pie had the halibut. It was better.

Taps use to be much better than we remembered. We do still want to try out their brunch some time.

Dessert was on the house and celebrated us - that was a nice touch!

Happy Anniversary to us!

So I can text now?

If you've been a loyal blog reader of mine or have known me since I was 12, you would already know that my all time favorite band in the entire world is New Kids on the Block. I went to see them with a fun group of girls one Friday night at Irvine Meadows. We had the best time, tailgating in the parking lot and singing along with the entire crowd for 3 hours. I went home, exhausted and elated, relishing in the fact that I've seen them 3x since Oct '08. This is from someone who missed out on their concerts when they were huge in 1989! It was awesome and I was so happy and content because who knew if they would ever tour again? And with that in mind, I fell happily asleep.

Fast forward 8 hours.

I got a text message from MommaPink, thanking me for last night and how much fun she had. I texted back, same here! Then her next text was just jokingly saying, hey, PoppaPink said we should got Vegas tonight to see them. I laughed it off, as did she. But then the texts got more serious. Yes, we should go, PoppaPink was actually encouraging this! I cooked breakfast for Mr. Pie and the texting began more furiously. We should go, we shouldn't go, we are nuts, we are crazy, blah blah.

Fast forward 4 hours.

I was on Travelocity, looking up hotel/airfare packages. This couldn't possibly be happening right? Right?

Fast forward 2 hours.

I'm at the Pinks!

These girls have no idea their Momma was about to board a plane!

Fast forward 1 hour.

We are on the shuttle to LAX!

And then at the airport, we had bloody marys. With McDonald's. Heh.

We took off and MommaPink (bless her heart - she is frightened of flying!) asked me if she could text when the portable device approval was given. I laughed. She is so funny!

(The bloody marys helped her with the fear of flying - hee!)

At the airport, we took a taxi to our hotel, Marriott Courtyard which is away from the strip but very very nice! We loved it!

Here is MommaPink, probably dreaming of Joey.

But no, she's really staring at the crane we have in our view!

We freshened up a bit before dinner ;)

Since the concert was at the Palms,we knew Little Buddha would be our choice for dinner. It was delicious!!

We are a little excited - hahaha.

And then it was time. The concert was kickass. Truly. The show was better than Irvine and again the entire venue was singing and dancing.

I love you Jonathan!

And then it was over :(

But our Vegas trip was just right in the middle ;) We got drinks at the bar and walked around. MommaPink noticed the Poker Room first and then she noticed the Celebrity Poker tournament sign and then she noticed... LUCKY FROM GENERAL HOSPITAL! Hello, only our favorite soap ever. You know Lucky - Luke & Laura's kid! So the poker room manager is watching us stare at Lucky (I still don't know his real name). We thought he was going to kick us out but he said, what are you girls staring at? We told him it was Lucky and he goes, want to meet him? He totally INTERRUPTS Lucky and Lucky himself even stood up to hug us and take pics - in the middle of his game with 10 other people! After that, MommaPink and I didn't know what we should do with ourselves! We got more drinks at the bar and next to it was a lounge area that was pretty hopping. So we went in there and there was a cover band, covering all of the recent songs. It was so much fun! We maneuvered to the front of the stage, the energy was awesome and we danced our little hearts out. Then at the end, the singer was pulling people onstage! I danced on the stage at 2 am in the morning! It was over before we knew it and we headed back to our hotel. We then took a nap :)

Fast forward 3 hours.

We slowly packed up our overnight bags and headed to the airport. It was so much fun and we were sad to leave Vegas (I had to make BabySasa's 1st birthday party at noon that day). I was so thrilled to have shared it with MommaPink! These are our after pics. Hahaha! Now about that cruise next May...