Handful of Herreras: August Photo Dump

It's a lot, I tell ya. August is only half over, and so much has happened already.

First up, Morgan and Justin's wedding! These two have been together for 10+ years, and they finally made it official on August 8th. Now, I've been to my fair share of weddings, but this one takes the "Wedding That Made Page Cry the Most" award. I teared up during the ceremony, shed a tear during the Father/Daughter and the first Mother/Son (Justin and his mom) dances, and was an absolute wreck during the second Mother/Son (Morgan and Jaden) dance. If there's one thing you need to know about Morgan, it's that she is a wonderful mother to Jaden and the perfect partner for Justin. It was evident throughout the whole day, and I'm so honored to have witnessed it.

When Jaden started crying, we all started crying. This boy loves his mama.

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Last month, Owen started to "crawl". At the time, his way of "crawling" was getting on his hands and knees, moving his lower body close to his upper body, plopping on his stomach, then repeating the whole process until he got to his destination - kinda reminded me of how a worm moves.

"Worming around", however, only lasted for like a week. He quickly learned the mechanics of moving his arms and and knees at the same time, and now he's EVERYWHERE. When we "let him loose", his first go-to place is wherever Wendy is. Owen's lucky that Wendy is pretty submissive; otherwise, we'd have to keep one of them gated.

Wendy: HELP.

And just a couple of days ago, Owen started sitting up on his own! He's still a little wobbly and would tip over and fall to the side, so we're "baby-proofing" his play area (the living room) with pillows.

Pillows. Pillows everywhere.

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And then it was my birthday. I'm not too big on celebrating my birthday, but I'm truly grateful for my family, friends, and coworkers, who made the day super special. First birthday treat of the day was when my mom and brother arrived (she looks after Owen while Ralph and I are at work) with flowers and a chocolate donut (birthday breakfast, duh!).

Not pictured: chocolate donut...due to it being in my stomach.

Second birthday treat being spoiled at work: there were birthday decorations and greeting cards at my work area (forgot to take a picture...weh!); for lunch, Marenda treated me to Flamingo's; and when we came back, Ken, Jackie, and the other nurses surprised me with a cake. *Sigh* You guys, if you're reading this, you overwhelm me. And I mean that in the best possible way.

This was gone in 2 minutes.

Third birthday treat was spending time with my boys. We went to Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour (first time for all of us!), and it was quite an experience. Apparently, it's the place to go for someone's birthday because the staff sang a birthday song to someone different every 5 minutes (I'm not exaggerating). I didn't tell them it was my birthday for that very reason, hahaha.

Owen even got me a birthday card.

He made the scribbles on the left all by himself.

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Then yesterday, it was Fatima's Baby Shower! I'm sad that I didn't take too many pictures because I had my hands full (Owen), and I forgot to bring his stroller...(fail). Oh, and it was hot. So so so so hot. Owen was fussy at times, but he was well-behaved for the most part.

Owen with his Auntie Fatima! He can't wait to meet his best friendS - yep, TWIN BOYS!

Shirt came off soon after we arrived.

Until we see each other again, my dear friend! Love you!

We won one of the Baby Shower games, and the prize was a Starbucks cup with a gift card inside.

I think he's about ready to use a "sippy cup".

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And then today was a big day for Owen - his first haircut. There's a Filipino superstition that it's bad luck to cut a baby's hair before he/she is a year old. Well, Owen's hair was driving Ralph crazy; and to be honest, it was driving me a little crazy too. It was super long in the back and on the sides; and when he got sweaty, his hair looked ridiculous. Ralph and I went back and forth a few times about whether or not we should go through with it; and in the end, we decided it was time.

Here are some pictures from this morning:

Sitting up on his own. *Sniff* What happened to my little guy?

We decided to go to First Cut 4 Kids at The Shops at Mission Viejo. We have passed it a few times before, and we knew we wanted to take Owen there when he needed to get his hair cut. His hair stylist was Margarita, and she was so sweet and patient...not that Owen was misbehaving or anything; he was actually VERY well-behaved. He sat still through the entire thing and just focused on the wheel.

TA DA!

He looks like a little boy now (BRB SOBBING).

I swear, whenever I go to the mall, I don't shop for myself anymore. I only shop for Owen. We stopped by Baby Gap, and I bought him two rompers, shorts, and sandals (to replace the pair he lost on 4th of July); and then Ralph suggested we stop by Build-a-Bear. And yeah, we got him a bear.