When we went to San Francisco for my birthday, Meg Tsang got in touch with us to shoot some family portraits. Only we didn’t come with the kids, so we turned it into a “love shoot” instead. I was so excited to get some nice pictures of Ben and me together. Meg did my friend Ica’s engagement shoot, so I already knew what she would come up with would be good. For sure.

Now, despite having a blog and sometimes doing outfit posts of sorts, I am so not natural in front of the camera. I feel awkward trying to pose and all I can really do is smile, so that’s what I do, but I think Ben’s always just a natural. Meg was so great because she had these little tips and tricks to get us to interact and made it not so awkward to be in front of the camera. I appreciated those little tricks because I totally need direction in front of the camera. We had such a great time with Meg and she got all these wonderful shots (and more, but I didn’t want to overload you) in just one hour! And how gorgeous is that location that Meg picked out?! It felt so otherworldly!

I am so in love with all her pictures. I think she totally captured how I look at Ben. I always look at Ben with so much googly eyes because he really makes me googly eyed in a very good way. Just looking at these pictures makes my heart all a flutter on how thankful I am that God placed Ben and me together. Ben is truly such a sweetheart and so selfless. He dedicates so much of himself to me and his little girls and I think everything he does is so darn sexy. He’s not perfect (though pretty close!), but I see how God is shaping and growing him to become an even more godly man and leader for our family. We’re both learning everyday what it means to include God in our marriage and I’m so thankful to be one flesh with this man.

Before I make all of you gag because I really can go on and on about Ben forever, I’ll stop now. All this to say, I love Ben a whole heck of a lot!

Thank you Meg for these beautiful captures! Meg is based out of San Francisco, but she does travel (and travels often), so if you’re in need of a photographer, check her out!

meg tsang’s site…
meg tsang’s blog…

Happy Love Day to my Benny (and my girls) and to all of you friends! Don’t forget to gush and pour the love on all those special in your life!!!

This New Year’s Eve was a much more casual affair compared to our other previous NYE celebrations. Instead of going our typical crazy route for our Bratcher Dance Party, we went comfy cozy instead staying in our pajamas all day long. We ate our black eyed peas in front of the fire, while watching The Wizard of Oz with the girls for the first time. After which we took out the strobe light and danced. We called Grandmama to wish her a Happy New Year, since she’s 2 hours ahead of us in Texas, and then proceeded to dance a bit more. We put all the girls to bed a couple hours before midnight, and Ben and I spent the rest of the night watching Prison Break.

There were no fancy frills and it was our perfect way to ring the new year. In fact, we didn’t do a countdown at all, we just knew the year changed right when we got a text message from one of our friends, so we we’re like, “I guess it’s midnight.” Then, we shared a kiss and continued to watch our show. Being with Ben and my four happy girls was all I needed to welcome 2013!

Anyone else stay in pajamas to ring in the new year?

It’s tradition to get together with my family on Christmas Eve. Well, that’s if we’re in town. We alternate Christmases between my family in California and Ben’s in Texas, but there are a few personal things Ben and I were needing to taking care of that prevented us from going to Texas this year. Thus, home it was and Christmas Eve is at our house. This year though, plans had to be altered a bit because when Christmas Eve came around, my dad was in the hospital fighting an infection and undergoing another surgery (he just had one the Thursday prior to Christmas). Our Christmas Eve ended up coming late this year, but it was almost better this way because we were all together (and my dad was much better). My brother worked Christmas Eve, so he wouldn’t have been here until late.

We’ve been wanting to start some of our own Christmas traditions and last year was the first year we started with some. Ben wanted to tap into his Mexican heritage (he’s half Mexican and half Caucasian, and I’m Filipino in case you’re wondering) and have tamales for Christmas Eve. He made everything and then when my sisters came over, we all got busy wrapping them up. I was thankful to have Ben to take charge of the kitchen and I was just in charge of dessert.

Well, my family came over, we ate and ate, read Luke 2 and talked about what God has been teaching us, then ate and ate some more. We made fresh churros for the first time and had yummy Mexican hot cocoa along with all the other baked goods on the dinner table. After which, we all had Glow open her one present (she’s a baby and doesn’t need much because she has 3 older sisters!), we put her to bed (it was way past her bedtime) and then it was the 3 big girls turn to open presents. You can imagine with 3 sets of aunts and uncles (actually, only two full sets because my brother is still available) and grandparents, they made out pretty good. After they got all their goodies, we put them to bed (it was way past their bedtime too!) and then it was the adults turn to open presents. And yup, we all pretty much made out pretty good too.

Ben and I had one last thing on our agenda for the evening and it was this little game, which we altered a bit to have 5 dice in at a time. We told everyone to bring $5 in $1 bills, little did they know there might be a chance they wouldn’t get it back. After that little disclosure, we gave everyone time to back out if they didn’t want to lose 5 bucks, but there might be a chance they would go home with $45, so it wasn’t that bad of a deal and everyone was in. It doesn’t involve brains, but just a whole lot of chance, with a whole lot of yelling. Everyone was so excited and nervous to see who would win the pot. It was so much fun! The lucky winner was my brother and he was so generous that he wanted to give everyone back their money, but we all said no. Then, he wanted to do just one more round, so he gave everyone $1 to do one more round with just a buck. Baby sister’s boyfriend won this round came out with $9. Middle sister and Christian ended up with nothing, but maybe they’ll win next year. It was a game we all had fun with agreed to do again next year and possibly up the stakes a little bit more. It’s just like giving someone an extra Christmas present, except you don’t know who that someone will be.

It’s always such a good time being with family and we all ended up going to bed so late. As much as we love food, presents, and games, I think the treasure of that evening were our conversations about how we still need to be in awe of Christmas. I think that the reason we celebrate Christmas can really get lost in the hustle and bustle of it, and we’re so familiar with the story of Christ’s birth that we lose being in awe of it. Every Christmas I definitely need to remind myself how wonderful the story is and to really be in awe of it. We definitely love Christmas and we especially love celebrating it!

Baby sissy made this video of all the fun we had and it’s basically all of us just being a whole lot of silly…

We had quite a merry day celebrating the birth of Christ. The girls woke up and saw they had a gift waiting from Santa (his cookies were eaten and a banana peel left along with a thank you note) and full stockings, and they were all absolutely giddy to finally be able to open their presents. True and Soul got the Monchichis they were asking for, Brave got a mama-made Spider Man doll, and Soul got mama-made present as well. Another present favorite were the disposable cameras in their stockings. They went to town snapping pictures (I can’t wait to get them developed), though I think most of Soul’s are probably of the ceiling and floor since she keeps both eyes closed when taking a picture. They also had some other gifts from friends who sent them treats.

When Ben and I exchanged presents, we didn’t really have anything on our wish list, so it was interesting as to what we would end up gifting each other. I wanted new sweats (I’m so exciting, right?) and he says he just wanted gardening stuff. Funnily enough though, we both ended up gifting each other posters we made for each other. HA! I totally think handmade presents are the best. True even made her own handmade presents for all of us. She wrote me a book, made Ben a flying card, gave Soul a paper airplane, and made Brave a drawn paper fairy doll. Brave made her a paper drawn doll too. These girls are so thoughtfully creative.

For the girls, Santa always sends a community present. Last year was a record player and read along books, and years prior were a toy kitchen, dollhouse, doll crib, basically gifts that they can all share and play together. This year was a box full of dress up clothes for their costume box. I like that Santa wants to encourage sharing and togetherness. He knows what works best for us.

The day was spent watching Christmas movies, toy playing, making gingerbread houses, snacking on a bunch of cookies all day long, and lots of tamale making (Lots!). We also gifted the girls these wooden dolls, so that we could spend part of Christmas day as a family making it together and that’s just what we did. We (well, Glow was napping) all sat around the table painting the dolls together. Ben and I always enjoy making things with the girls and we think the feeling is mutual from them, so I am glad we had this designated project to work on. Holidays are so busy being busy and doing things for the girls that sometimes I think we forget to do things with the girls, so I was glad we were able to do something for and with them. I’m thinking this will be a new tradition in our gift giving for Christmas, so besides their community gift from Santa, one request from us, they will also get something that we can all work on together on Christmas Day.

We also spent some time talking with Grandmama and Auntia Suzi in Texas and went over to my Aunt’s house for dinner. Our typical Christmas was thrown off slightly because my dad was in the hospital getting surgery (thank you to those who prayed for his recovery!), so we didn’t do our traditional Christmas Eve get together with my family, but doing it a few days later was just as good.

I think usually I feel stressed on Christmas trying to get a lot of things done, but I am so glad that we were able to be intentional and make sure we were enjoying the girls. Ben also made sure to read “What God Wants For Christmas” with the girls because we want them to understand and know the reason we celebrate this special day. Besides all these material presents, God also gave us the wonderful gift of his Son and we want our children to share in that joy too. I love them so much and my heart is happy just seeing how thrilled and thankful they are. I hope your Christmas Day was full of lots of  joy and merriment as well!

And I’m back in this space for real and this week will be on our holiday recaps and next week it will be back to normal. Hello again friends!!!

Brought to you by the Brita Bottle for Kids: Help teach your kids to learn to love water. Learn more. Thank you for your continuous support of my sponsors.

Usually, stocking stuffers are a last minute thing for me, despite having all my Christmas shopping usually done by October! Then, when it’s the day before Christmas Eve, all these little ideas trickle into my mind of what to put in them, but with time constraints, I always just say,”Oh, I’ll do it next year!”

Well, next year is here and this time I am not waiting until the last minute. Ben usually always puts a piece of fresh fruit in all our stockings (he is a true dietitian after all). I usually get an Asian pear, which is one of my favorites. Though the thing I am most excited about is putting in a disposable camera in each of the girls’ stockings (not Glow’s). I want them to be able to take pictures of whatever they want on Christmas. I think those pictures would be so precious and that disposable camera thing is something I want to start doing every year in their stockings. Along with that and a fresh fruit, here are a few other healthy and engaging ideas for kids…

1. Just Blueberries. This is one of our favorite dried fruit companies. Or we may also just pick up a package or two from Trader Joe’s and stick that in. Besides a piece of fresh fruit, we typically also put in a package of dried fruit.

2. Washi Tape. The girls love to steal my washi tape, so I got them some of their own to use for their decorating pleasure.

3. Disposable Camera. I can’t wait to see the memories they capture on their own. This will be a new yearly tradition for sure!

4. Just Veggies. If you’re going to give them some fruit, make sure to add some veggies!

5. Brita Bottle for Kids. We don’t have a filtration system and have always used a Brita pitcher to filter our water, so I was pretty excited to team up with Brita to share with you their kids bottle. We’re all definitely big water drinkers in our home! The girls have some bottles they bring with them to school, but it’s always leaking through their lunch pails, so I think I want to give this one a try!

6. Story Doodles Place Mats. This is a such a fun way to engage kids (and families) at the dinner table. I think creating stories together is a great way to make memories. Roll it up to stuff it in the stocking!

7. Crayon Rocks. These little crayons are so easy to whip out when they want to color and draw. We’ve used them in the past, but I think it’s time for a refill.

The girls are so excited for Christmas and I need to start wrapping presents! Most of our Christmas decorations are up, but there are just a couple more things I want to add. We all love this time of year and getting to experience the joy in scheming to surprise loved ones with things you know they will appreciate and love! Do you do stocking stuffers? If so, I would love to hear what kinds of things you put in!

The big girls had little gifts they made for Soul that I thought deserved its own post. It was so cute because the night before True stayed up working in her closet, with the door closed, making stuff for Soul. We had no idea what. She did come downstairs and asked us to help tape up the box for her present. Ben and I were smiling and giggling about how cute she was being about it.

True said, “I even made her a card.”

I replied, “What did you say?”

She said, “It is the sweetest message, but I can’t remember.” These are heart melting type moments.

The next morning, during Soul’s Rody-O party, they presented Soul with her presents and True made her a bag and necklace! So cute! As you can see, they were made with normal things around the house, but she was so resourceful in how she made them. That girl is so clever! I feel like I may have a future craft blogger on my hands.

I like seeing my girls be thoughtful to one another. They do plenty of fighting, but they do plenty of loving things too.