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!!!!