annual family gathering

This year we had our annual family gathering in Waldport, OR. It really was a blast having all the family together under one roof celebrating life, eating good food and laughing like crazy. Last year we started this tradition in Napa. We were lucky enough to get a gorgeous home for a crazy good deal. This year, we decided to do it at Jaye and Susan's place up in Oregon. It was really great having all the family together relaxing and enjoying each other's company.

We decided to take our annual family picture here in Oregon and as I was walking to get in place for the picture, Jaye asked "what is the name of the baby". I felt a lot of pressure all of a sudden and I responded "Gabriel". She said to make a sign for the belly and I did. When I walked back everyone saw the sign and shouted in joy that I had picked out Buggie's name. And so we documented with a sign, that Buggie was there too!

I knew that I wanted to pick out his name on this trip. I thought it would be a great thing to do while the whole family was together. We had a few conversations about the name and I told them my top 3-4 names. My top two favorites were Gabriel and Nicolas. Everyone seemed to like Gabriel A LOT! Tony and I had created a top 5 list of names and the common one in our list was Gabriel too. So it made sense to pick that name for little Buggie.

I have to mention that Gabriel was always the name I wanted to name my son (at least since high school). I had told myself I was going to do so after a friend name Gabriel passed away from leukemia. I held on to that name for years and when talking about potential names with Tony for a son, I always spoke about the name Gabriel. Tony, however, was not too impressed with the name and I always knew I would have to fight hard to convince him of the name. Well...now that I am pregnant with a baby boy and it is time to think of names, Nicolas became one of my top two along with Gabriel. I started thinking of other names as I knew that we needed options. I couldn't seem to convince Tony of Nicolas and since we were not coming to an agreement on names we decided to write down a list of our top 5 favorites. The funny thing is that Gabriel was on Tony' s list. I actually did not have to fight at all to get him to consider that name. So when Jaye put me on the spot to pick out a name for the baby, I easily chose Gabriel because...really, that had been his name all along.

So Buggie...Gabriel Alarcon Avila it is...I can't wait to meet you Gabe!

its a boy!!!!

I am so excited to announce that little Buggie is a boy! I found out last Thursday and I have been glowing ever since. Honestly, I did not care if it was a boy or a girl as I knew I would be equally as happy with either, but regardless, I needed and wanted to know. Both grandmas were present at the ultrasound with us. They were so excited to have seen the baby on the screen and to find out he was extremely healthy. I was the first to realize it was a boy when the screen was on his midsection. The doctor said "I bet you can tell what you are having" and I responded, "oh my gosh, I am having a little boy!" The rest couldn't see it but I saw it nice and clear. The doctor had to show them once again so they too could see that Buggie was a boy. The funny thing is that what I saw that made me assume that he was a boy was not his private, it was something else, like a leg or an arm. Tony had to show me the appropriate place to look from the print out the doctor gave us when we left. I could not stop laughing because what I saw was clearly the wrong thing and I was shocked how big it was! Yeah, I could have been wrong when I shouted out the sex but deep down inside I always knew I was carrying a little boy. I had a dream that I was having a girl and I just couldn't convince myself that it was anything more than a dream. For some reason I always felt it would be a boy, i guess mother's intuition.

Well my little boy on Thursday, November 18th was 13 ounces. My ObGyn adjusted my due date back to April 5th based on the measurements of the baby. My first 10 weeks I believed I was due on April 5th, then I was told I was due on April 10th and believed that for another 10 weeks. And now we are back to April 5th. based on the first day of my last cycle I am estimated to be due on April 5th so...I guess I will continue believing this for 10 weeks and we will see what happens after.

Anyways, this past weekend I bough Buggie some baby clothes and shoes. I wasn't planning on it but I was convinced as the proceeds of my purchase went to help the family of Tony's coworker. Good cause! so I bought some clothes and some shoes and some hats and some socks and man, I was going crazy! Luckily it was fill a bag for $5, an amazing deal! I just couldn't believe how cute everything was and I fell in love with all I purchased as I knew my little Buggie will one day be wearing these items. Honestly I am so in love right now that it is clearly visible with the glow of my face. I washed the clothes and folded them with so much care. Every so often I go back and take a look at them or the the little shoes and just get so excited with so much joy! I showed up to work with the biggest smile as I have been on a clear high from looking at baby stuff all weekend long. I just can't describe this happiness.

What is best is that Buggie is happy too and he lets me know with little kicks here and there that allow me to feel he is present in my belly. I felt the first kick on Nov. 12th and I was ecstatic! Luckily I was talking to Tony on the phone so I was able to share the experience right away. Tony got to feel the first kick yesterday, as he waited patiently for the little pulsations. I really can't wait to feel him a little more, luckily I have 19 more weeks to go feeling him this way.

my chief!

Tony became a chief in 2009 but in May 2010 he did his chief initiation where he officially entered into the brotherhood of chiefs. also, in November 2010 he attended the Chief Academy where he improved his skills as a leader. Both graduations were amazing and it was so exciting to see him in his uniform and see him glow! I am so proud of his accomplishments and I know he is a well regarded chief.

Oh, one more thing!!! tony you are Chief in the Coast Guard but I am the chief at home :b.

Nov. ceremony

May Ceremony

projects - before and after pictures

I finally got some before and after pictures of some of the projects that I have been working on in the past year. These have been really fun to work on and I am so glad to have found some time to add some pictures to the blog. I am currently focusing on things for the nursery and can’t wait for it to be completed, but first I need to find out the sex of Buggie so I can add the finishing touches. Did I say finishing touches? I still have tons to do! Does anyone know where I can find a vintage Danish rocking chair?


My first chair, I don’t know why I chose such a hard chair to do! Honestly I knew nothing about upholstering furniture. At one point I did ask, “what did I get myself into?!”

Got so excited about my first chair that I found two of these for an amazing deal! One is complete; I have to finish the second one!


I found these gorgeous stools (2) at an antique store in Oregon and I had to buy them! I am not too excited about the fabric I chose and will for sure change it to bring in more color. Most of the chairs I sold/will sell but I think I will keep these stools as they are so useful.


Found this chair for free on the sidewalk outside of a friend’s house. Forced him to put the chairs my car and he did not understand why I wanted to take a crappy thing home. Hope he gets it now! I like the old look of the wood but debating if I should add something to make it look less beat up.


I bought this dresser at the antiques fair with my sister. I was on a mission to find something I could use in the nursery as a changing table and found this reasonably priced piece. I love how the colors add vibrancy to the room!

happy november

Week 19 and 5 days

Today was a fun day, I spent it with my family celebrating my birthday. My mom made some delicious Chicken Marbella and for desert we ate cheesecake, ummm my favorite! It was nice and relaxing, and not too much mess was made (always the greatest thing after having lots of people over your house). I love the month of November, it is my favorite month of the year because it is the month of my birthday and the month when all the fun festivities start for the holidays. This year November is filled with so much exciting things. I got a my first SLR camera for my birthday and I am anxiously waiting for it and should get it next week. Tony, Vicky and I built a bed frame for the nursery and we are waiting for the mattress and baskets to complete the bed (pictures to come in a later post). I am so excited to see the final product as I have been waiting a while for this bed.

However, the most exciting thing that will happen in November this year is that I get to find out the sex of Buggie. I am dying to find out if we are having a boy or a girl. Not that this will change anything, but now I will be able to officially call the baby a he or a she. The nursery wont change much as I am trying to make it pretty gender neutral, but knowing the sex will unavoidably prevent me from making it too feminine or masculine. I also can't wait to begin thinking of names. I don't know but it is just so exciting. I find out this Thursday and I am so excited! My mom and my mother-in-law will be there and it will be their first time seeing the baby via ultrasound. Seeing the baby is such a neat experience, it makes my heart melt and I can just stare at the screen for hours. You just fall in love with every movement the baby makes. So Buggie- mommy, daddy and grandmas can't wait to see you!

our new AMP website!!!!

I am so proud to announce that Alarcon Murakami Photography has a new website!!!! For a while I have been working on this website on my time off and I just couldn't wait for it to be ready to unveil to the public. This is extremely important for us as that is the first thing people ask for...a website to see our work and get more information. I am feeling a little more official than before (he, he). Now I need to rework our blog and continue pushing our marketing forward to get more customers. I really hope AMP can take off and do great things. I really believe we can do an amazing job and we have the passion for it, I hope others can see that too!

Please visit:
http://alarconmurakami.com/

meet little buggie!

I guess it is way past due that I announce the little one growing in my belly. Yup, I am pregnant, just finished my 18th week. I guess that makes it a little over 4 months pregnant. I am already showing as my belly bump poked out after week 16. It is still very small, especially to everyone, but since I am not used to having a bump like this it feel a lot bigger to me. There is a funny disconnect of what people see and what I can see, but of course I am the only one that knows what my body feels like.

My first trimester was a good one, nothing to complain about besides some minor discomfort. I never got any morning sickness and most of the other symptoms that are common I never got either. The one change I did feel is that I would get bloated quite often and this was uncomfortable, but luckily those days are over...(or I just got used to the feeling, who knows!). Again, I never got food aversions and my cravings are very mild and not too crazy (mangoes and healthy food). Honestly it has been a pretty easy ride thus far.

So how did I get pregnant? Well...the PG version, Tony and I (actually I did as he had been ready for a long time) decided to get pregnant in June after the birth of my little niece princess Michayla. I realized how I would love my child to grow up with Michayla and the more I waitied, the bigger the age difference. So during our one year anniversary dinner I told Tony that I was ready and we pretty much spent the whole time talking about the idea of having kids and making plans for this change. We were going to wait until September to start, but then we thought maybe, August...no, but that conflicts with....on and on it went. Honestly, there will always be reasons why not to start having kids and so we decided to not let life dictate to use when to start and to just go for it and adapt to the change. And so we did; we had to wait until July to start as June was almoust half way done.

July came around and guess what? Tony got deployed to New Orleans for a month! How were we supposed to get pregnant?!? Luckily his mother had a plane ticket that she decided to give to me so I could go visit Tony in New Orleans (she did not know about my plans to get pregnant). I decided to go during the time I thought I would be fertile, pretty much I was taking a chance but hey, we were on a mission. We had a total of two full days of trying (half of Saturday, all of Sunday and half of Monday)...and no, that is not all we did, we got to explore New Orleans during that time too. it was such a fun trip and we both were on cloud nine. I came home wondering if it was a successful mission and decided to buy my first maternity magazine to read on the plane. Those next few weeks of waiting were driving me insane as i wanted to know am I or am I not?

Then came the day when I tested. I needed to do it together with Tony but since he was in New Orleans we decided that the best way to do it was on Skype using the video camera. He was able to see my reaction and I was able to see his. The first test I took was unclear. I thought I could see an extremely light line but was not sure if I was imagining it or... just was not clear at all. Decided to do it the following day and again, the line was not that clear and I was not sure what it meant. Decided to try another brand to test and again got unclear results. Decided to make my friend who was visiting, Mayra, take the test to see what a real negative looked like. I still did not feel like it was clear enough for me to celebrate (however Tony on the other hand could not hide his emotion and showed it in his face. An hour later he was at Barnes and Noble purchasing his first daddy book, What to Expect for Expecting Fathers). The following day before going to work I decided to do the test one more time, this time it was pretty clear that it was possitive, I was for sure with no doubt pregnant! Now I believed it too. I guess I had done the other tests a little too early to detect the pregnancy hormone.

We decided to share the news with my family the day Tony returned home from New Orleans. I threw him a "surprise" welcome home party and invited the family to come over for lunch. Five minutes after arriving he announced that the suprise was not for him, it was actually for the family as we wanted to announce that we were expecting a little one. I swear, there was silence in the room for a few seconds. No one believed it and they were all confused. They knew that I did not want to get pregnant at all and so they were not even aware that we were trying. After a few seconds we had the first response from my brother who asked, "wait...you are pregnant? really?" and then the cheers began from Lindsey and Vicky after they realized what we had just told them. My mother and mother-in-law in the other hand were in shock! They kind of did not believe us and though we were playing a joke on them. Only time allowed them to believe it but it did not take long, only one day. Anyways, the rest is history. I write too much and have noticed that this post did not escape my many lines...sorry for the length.


Buggie at 7 weeks and 4 days. By the way, Vicky nicknamed the baby Buggie...


Buggie at 11 weeks and 2 days. Look, he/she is giving us the peace sign with his hand, already such a Berkeley baby!

Buggie at 12 weeks and 4 days, this picture is clear because it was done through the ultrasound machine...the one we will be using from now on. The previous pictures were done with another machine. I am so excited, on October 18th I find out the sex of Buggie, I just can't wait!!!!

six out of six: personal growth

Before I go into this post I must ask why does life get so busy? It is so hard for me to slow down and write what is going on and I feel as if I always have to play catch up. Well, lets just hope that I can find a balance in my life because I am definitely craving to slow down.

Ok, so this post is on personal growth. Honestly, I don’t remember what I was thinking when I decided to include this on the list. Thus, I will make this post on personal and professional growth. Back in May of this year Vicky, Radha and I launched our own photography business, Alarcon Muakami Photography. Honestly I am so proud of all our hard work that went into launching this business. We have applied for business license and so we literally are a legit business. We were also able to get a business loan so that means....we need business to pay it back! Vicky and Radha are the Photographers and I am the Creative Director. Luckily we all three have lots of experience working together as we used to have our own dance group back in middle school and high school. This dance group was successful for many years, we rented a dance studio, we fundraised to purchase our costumes and we held large performances for our families, friends and the community. There was no way that we were going to let that group spirit go to waste and so we have now decided to pursue another love of ours, photography.

Honestly, this has been a lot of work because we all have our own jobs and thus we have to work on the weekend and at nights. We are still working on our official website, should be up in two weeks and finalizing our blog. But we have created a business brochures for marketing and have already started donating to fundraisers to help give back to the community. What we need to work on more is publicity. We need to get our name out there and keep promoting the business. We also need to push on getting more clients. All it takes is time and effort. I give it one more month to get everything set to go and then the three of us will work on pushing this forward. Will keep you updated with how everything is going, but as of now I am so happy we have decided to start this adventure…and it truly has been one!

Please check us out at:
http://www.alarconmurakami.com/
www.alarconmurakami.com/blog
http://alarconmurakami.instaproofs.com/

Minutes before we went live, such an exciting moment!

Our work on display at the gallery.

Delicious food at our Wine and Cheese event.

Announcing the company and thanking all that helped make this posisble. Special thanks to Tony for all his hard work and support. Thanks Honey!

So many wonderful people came to support us!

five out of six: special projects

I have slowed down a bit when it comes to special projects as my life has gotten busier with a full time job. However, to stay sane and happy I DO have to work on something creative and thus try my hardest to continue one of my passions to create colorful things. I have worked on a few chairs That I will display the pictures of once I am ready and painted a few pieces of furniture that I will also display later in the month.

The newest things that I have dipped my toes into is baking. For some strange reason I have been wanting to learn how to bake and have already made my first cake from scratch and cupcakes from scratch. The cake I made for my coworker Angela on the day of her birthday. I made a chocolate cake with chocolate morsels, raspberry mousse filling and chocolate mousse frosting...I don't know what else to call it. It came out AMAZING! I am not a chocolate person and definitely not a cake person but I happened to create a delicious treat for cake/chocolate lovers, who would've figured! For the cupcakes, I made banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. These were done very healthy, but next time I will most definitely go with a different recipe as I know I can make some better tasting banana bread. Well...we will see what I come up with next? Mexican cupcakes with a little bit of spice and chocolate? I don't know, something crazy like that!

No pics of my cupcakes :(

four out of six: family growth

I have been dying to write this post as this one has been really exciting this year...or the past few years. Our family in the States is really small as all my family resides in Guatemala, but little by little it has started growing with all the amazing additions to the family. At first they were family friends, such as Jaye, Susan and Larry that were added when my siblings and I were younger. They have made our family such a strong family and have brought a different flavor and spices to our family pot. The next additions to our family have come through marriage, such as Lindsey through Herbert and Tony through me. These additions have been so great because they come with families of their own that have become part of our little clan. The family gatherings have become much bigger (and louder) as we all have great personalities and we all

want to talk (pretty funny). The good thing about the family is that we have built a strong support system where we all chip in to help each other.

Now...the latest addition to our family has made everyone gone wild as she is the one that has stolen the spotlight from everyone. Michayla Simone was born on May 1st, 2010 (on her daddy's birthday). She is the first addition to the family that is blood related as she is the daughter of my brother, Herbert. This little angel has brought so much joy to the family and our main goal is to spend as much time possible with her. Both Herbert and Lindsey have become amazing parents in such a short time and will now be the wise ones when it comes to child bearing and raising kids.

I have to say that from the moment I laid eyes on Michayla I fell in love. I have never fell in love so quickly with anyone or anything in the world this quickly before, so it was so strange to feel the tidal wave of emotion take over me in less than a second. Imagine, if I felt this way how did Lindsey and Herbert feel? I guess I will know one day....

The day Michayla was born. It had only been 20 minutes or so. She looked so beautiful.

Proud Parents! 2 weeks after being born, she was so tiny....

So excited to be carrying the little one!

She has such gorgeous eyes.

Meeting Kuma for the first time.

She is already daddy's little princes!

three out of six: love and married life

I heard someone today say that once you get married everything changes because of money, kids, etc… I can’t even remember the list. I sat quietly and thought of my relationship with Tony and tried to reflect on how our relationship has changed. I came to the conclusion that yes, our relationship has changed but for the better. I feel our love just gets stronger and stronger…you may say this is cheesy, but I am being honest. We have become a family and we both appreciate what each has to offer. In terms of money, we both decided to have one joint account (*everyone gasps*). There are some that think that they are losing their independence if they have a shared account and so they choose to keep individual accounts and pay a percentage of the bills. Whatever option works for your relationship is fine, but for us we decided that having a joint account makes life easier for both. Actually, this helps us feel more like a unit and allows us to make decisions that are best for the family as a whole. What I love best about our married life is that we have goals for the family (besides our own individual goals). Our short-term goal is to pay off all our debt (minus the mortgage) in 3 years to be able to achieve our long-term goal of purchasing a bigger house in Berkeley. Tony and I get so excited to see our debt number decrease with every paycheck we get and we can’t wait for it to reach ZERO.

But back to married life, I have been married for a year and 2 months now and I have to say I love being married and love being Mrs. Avila. It can be a little challenging that most of my friends…virtually all, aren’t married. They spend their free time going to clubs, dating…pretty much going where the wind takes them. It is fun but I have to say that I am done living my life that way. Actually, getting married did not create the idea that I am now chained to a life of homemaker. I am still very free to travel, to do what I want to do in life. Tony supports me in every decision I make. I will say that my mentality has changed though; I now make decisions that are best for the two of us and not just for me. It feels nice to think that we have started our own little family unit.

two out of six: travel

This past year I had the opportunity to travel A LOT! I was fearful that after graduating from college my traveling would slow down. Fortunately, I don’t think this will ever happen. I have had the travel bug since I was a little girl. I remember back in high school I used to look at study abroad programs and I desired so much to do one but not being able to travel out of the country and not being able to afford it made my dreams…well, just dreams! In 2005 when I became a US resident I was given the green light to travel and that is just what I did. In the past 5 years I have been able to travel to 15 different countries (not even counting all the different states I have been to in the US). I have been to 6 out of the 15 countries twice. As you can tell, I see travel as an investment to my personal development and it is a must in my life philosophy (at least this is what I will tell myself for the rest of my life). I have a few travel logs that I have kept in the past and plan on posting them on the blog in the future, but I will refocus this post on the travel I did this past year.

Oregon: I was given the opportunity to travel to Waldport, OR to visit my godmothers Jaye and Susan back in December and then again in January. Oregon is such a gorgeous state and I love how much slower it is from California. Although I went to help in their business, I got the opportunity to relax, cook, exercise, enjoy peaceful time in the sauna, read, and watch old movies. The best part is that I got to spend time with Susan; it is rare when I get to see her since she doesn’t come to the Bay Area that frequently and spending this time with her allows us to get to know each other much better. I know this sounds funny because she is practically my 2nd mother and has known me since the age of 9. However, due to college, work and the distance, it is harder to get together and I am now an adult.

Puerto Rico: I traveled to Puerto Rico in March to attend Sammy and Becca’s wedding. The trip was so much fun but I do wish I could have explored the island a lot more. I am not going to complain because I love weddings and I was perfectly fine making this trip all about the wedding. I was able to meet a lot of new people as well as enjoy the company of many friends that also traveled to the wedding. We were able to explore old San Juan and enjoy a few salsa dances here and there. The whole time I was there the days were planned with fun affairs: girls night out, snorkeling and booze cruise, ladies’ luncheon, rehearsal dinner, wedding, after party…there was a lot of fun things to do! Nevertheless, I must say it was an exhausting trip. Vicky and Radha were the wedding photographers and I did Becca’s hair and makeup as well as give a salsa lesson during the ladies’ luncheon. This is where we got the idea to begin Alarcon Murakami Photography and I must say that there is no better place to begin a business than in Puerto Rico with some scrumptious piña coladas! I can’t wait to go back to Puerto Rico and next time I will invest more time eating the local food (which is delicious!) and dancing the night away.

Europe (Italy, France and the UK): I can talk for ever about this trip but I will try to keep it short. Susan and I traveled through Europe for 2 weeks. We began our trip in Bologna where we got to spend some time with Leah, Lindsey’s (sister-in-law) sister. On my first night we stayed at a B&B farm that makes parmesan cheese. Ok…I can already see this is going to take forever to write so I will really make it short. We got to spend some time in Bussetto, Milan, Lago di Garda, Paris, Marseilles, Burmingham and London. One of my favorite things to do was antiquing in Italy and vintage shopping in Paris. I got 2 beautiful vintage dresses in Paris (10 euros each!) and an amazing vintage leather purse for Radha’s birthday gift. In Paris we were able to see Susan’s family friend from a long time, Marianne and my friend Livia who I met while traveling on the Scholar Ship. In London we were able to spend some time with Melissa who I also met on the Scholar Ship. It was great seeing old friends! I have to mention that this trip was full of tasty food and great restaurant finds. It inspired me to continue to cook and my goal for this next year is to improve my sauce making skills.

New Orleans: Tony got deployed for a little over a month to New Orleans to help with the oil spill cleaning efforts (he is still there and won’t return until this Sunday). Luckily Terrie had a free flight ticket that she graciously gave to me to go visit Tony. This was a short trip but it was filled with lots of fun and the best part is that I got to spend time with my husband! We explored Bourbon Street, the rest of the French Quarter and we went on a tour of two plantations (one Anglo-Saxon and the other Creole). New Orleans is wonderful and full of rich history, vibrant culture and delicious food. It reminds me of Latin America as the French Quarter is pretty much a colonial city (just like the ones that you can find all over Latin America). The weather, being able to walk around with a drink in your hand any time of the day and the live music blasting from every open door, make New Orleans an extremely festive place.

I tried to keep this posting short but was not too successful.