Faceys – Page 4 – thosecoolkims

Ruby gets showered … twice!

Ed & I were lucky enough to be thrown TWO showers before Ruby’s arrival. The first shower was thrown by my very creative & talented sister-in-law, Shirley and hosted by my parents at their house. Shirley made the shower my favorite red and white polka dot theme! One of the big highlights was that my Aunt Pam was able to make it out to CA for the event, and she hasn’t been here in 12 years! Here are a few photos of the lovely day:

Aunt Pam, myself and my mom with the cake my dad made and Ruby’s 1st teddy bear that my dad designed at Build-A-Bear:

Ruby’s 1st pair of Converse!

Ruby is gonna be a mod little baby in these onesies:

After all of the diaper cakes I’ve made, somebody made me my very own for Little Miss Ruby! :) This was made by my sis-in-law’s sister, Debbie.

My dad wrote a much more detailed entry of the day on his blog – check out more pics and details there!

My 2nd shower was graciously thrown by my best friend Carrie and her sister, Annie. They put together a beautiful shower in Carrie’s backyard. It was a great day with all of my friends – and so many handmade gifts! Here are a few highlights:

Ruby’s gorgeous handmade quilt by Crystal:

The incredible quilt made in reds, aquas and polka dots by the talented Liz Davidson!

A handmade dress made by Kristen!

Me with Joni & Carrie! Longtime friends, one a bridesmaid, the other my matron of honor, even!

The whole day was just wonderful and I wish I had more words to describe all the love I felt at both events and all of the excitement everyone has to meet our daughter! I feel tremendously lucky and thank everyone for their love & generosity!

The Facey Kids Go to the Symphony!

This past Christmas, our present to the Facey kids was a trip to the wonderful Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Frank Gehry, to see Beethoven in the House, one in a series of concerts for kids put on by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. As Kendall, the oldest, is now a clarinet player in her school orchestra, we thought it would be really cool for the kids to see a renowned symphony orchestra in one of the coolest concert halls in the world. We think it’s awesome that the LA Phil has a kid-friendly concert series that exposes kids to classical music and the arts, so we were only too excited to take the kids here.

Not surprisingly, all of the kids knew the iconic opening of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, but none of them knew that it was Beethoven that had composed it. So, they were in for a treat as we piled in the Land Rover I was testing for the weekend and headed off for Downtown LA.

One cool aspect of the Symphony for Youth series is that during the hour before the concert begins, kids can participate in all kinds of creative activities to learn about music, theater, and art. We decided to make masquerade masks for an imaginary ball. Here we are making them, and wearing them:

The concert itself was great, and the kids thought it was really sad that Beethoven couldn’t even hear his final 9th symphony (which contains the famous Ode to Joy) because he had gone deaf at the early age of 32.

After the concert, it was time to leave the concert hall for the next destination!

It was recently Chinese New Year, and this is the year of the Tiger. To celebrate, the Chinese American Museum held its Lantern Festival near Chinatown. The event had live performances as well as tons of arts and crafts projects for kids.

The kids made awesome paper lanterns, fans, embossed metal plates with their own drawings, and even abacuses!

No trip to LA is complete without a stop at Sprinkles for some gourmet cupcakes. Kendall and Jordan had been here before, but this was the first time for Mikayla and Ethan.

Despite the hour-long cross-town drive to Beverly Hills to get these cupcakes, the kids declared the trip worth it. Ethan summed it up best when he bit into his Peanut Butter Chocolate cupcake and exclaimed, “This is the best cupcake ever!!!” No argument from us; look at them!

Another awesome weekend with the Facey kids. We miss them already! Click below to see the album.

Facey Kids Weekend Feb 2010

Happy Christmas!

I can’t think of anything but “happy” when I think of Christmas this year! I can honestly say I enjoyed every second of the holiday season – it seems like I got to do almost everything I wanted to do! I got to bake with my mom, decorate our house, make some handmade gifts and even drink loads of Starbucks holiday beverages. :) Plus, Ed and I also got to hit a few holiday parties, go to Charles Phoenix’s Retro Holiday Slideshow and check out a Cosmic Christmas at the Glendale Planetarium. But the high point was definitely our family combining efforts to adopt a family this Christmas! There was no stress, and at risk of sounding incredibly sappy – now that we’ve spent both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with both of our families, my heart is so full of love and blessings! It was truly a happy Christmas in every sense of the word.

As usual, we hosted Ed’s family at our house on Christmas Eve … and of course, we had an epic meal with Ed’s culinary masterpiece, the Chile-Brined Ham (make sure you check out the whole story on Day One and Day Two!)! Also on the menu was a balsamic roasted vegetable medley with zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, cauliflower & peppers along with wild rice. But this salad made by Ed’s mom was the tastiest salad I have ever eaten-and it was gorgeous, too!

I found a special bunch of flowers at Fresh & Easy (my favorite!) and I was inspired to clip a few to use for place cards at the table …

Ed’s mom loved her placecard …

Uncle loved hanging out with Ricki …

and Ed served the jus accompanying his ham like a pro!

And then today, we were off to The Facey’s! So much of my love for Christmas comes from my parents, and their house is the best at the holidays!!! They liked the picture frame we got for them:

Then the kids arrived, and it was on! Santa brought them Beatles Rock Band this year, so they were representin’ in their Beatles T-shirts:

We are really excited about our gift to them this year – we’re taking them to the Walt Disney Concert Hall for one of the Toyota Symphonies for Youth. Its a really cool thing where the kids can do arts and crafts beforehand, and then they get to see a kid-friendly orchestral performance about Beethoven. Ed and I haven’t ever seen anything there at the concert hall either, so we are totally looking forward to it!

They were so sweet and each of them picked out their own gifts for both Ed & I this year. We loved each and every one. They are so big now!

All in all – it was a beautiful holiday! We love our family and friends dearly and wish you all a very, very Happy New Year!

Happy birthday Mary Anne!

More to come later but we want to wish Mary Anne a happy 60th birthday! We love you!

Discovery Science Center with Ethan and Mikayla

After our wonderful museum day with Kendall and Jordan, it was time to spend some quality time with Mikayla and Ethan. After an evening with 102 Dalmatians, we started off the day in much the same way as the prior night with Kendall and Jordan…no Facey kids’ weekend at our house is complete without some Guitar Hero! Here’s Mikayla rockin’ out.

Ethan learned how much Sophia loves to be treated gently! Look at her paws – that’s her way of saying, “I really like you!”

So then it was off to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. We took Kendall and Jordan here a couple years back and now that Mikayla and Ethan are a little older, we thought they’d enjoy it too! This kids’ museum is full of all kinds of neat interactive exhibits that are both entertaining and educational.