Christmas time again and the Campas didn't stop celebrating!! First, the Campas had a snowy Christmas at the cabin in Big Bear, where they opened gifts and had crazy snowball fights! Then, we all celebrated at Aunt Becky's house with Pozole, Champurrada, and lots of other delights! The Campas San Diego celebrated Christmas day with the new Hille family in Riverside. Yilin and Linda helped prepare a delicious dinner that we all enjoyed. Then Chuck put on some music and we all danced! It was a great time. Click on any of the pictures for a full album of all the fun.
This Thanksgiving was a full house in San Diego! First Joe, Leesa, Hanna and the twins were down for a pre-Thanksgiving visit. Then Reinel and Barbara came down for a couple days. Then, on thanksgiving day, Uncle Chuck, his new wife Yilin, and her daughter came over for dinner. There was a nice display and it was a very grateful Thanksgiving.
One early saturday morning, a bunch of Campas plus Joey all drove out to Cypress to see Jacki Campa to compete for CIF with her Bonita Volleyball team. The libero played a fierce game, but they did not take home the crown. They gave the other team a good fight though, playing through five games! Click on the pictures to see the album.
Here's some pics from a recent trip down to San Diego where I got to see Makayla paying volleyball with Bear Valley! The whole Campa crew was there, cheering her on. Makayla's got a firm serve and is always ready for the ball. She practices with her big sister all the time!
Then we all went to Roundtable pizza for dinner! It was a lot of fun :)
I have posted more great photos up to the blog for you to enjoy! There were so many partygoers, so much going on, that I couldn't capture it all! Luckily, my mom and sister were there to snap these shots, so check them out!
One early (before sunrise!) and hot (through the grapevine fire area) monday, I drove with Aunt Debbie to pick up Zak from McFarland, CA. This would be the first time that I had seen him in 3 years! My cousin was very happy to be heading home and excited about all the things he missed while being away. I took a few pictures of our adventures, including a visit with Grandma Dossey! We're happy to have you home Zak!!!
25 years and still going strong! My uncle Tim and Aunt Nancy held a wonderful party at their home in La Verne to celebrate their anniversary. There was a live band, plenty of great food, and so many family and friends at the party! I only got a few shots of the party-goers, but hopefully I can snag some more from my sister! Click on the photos for more pictures of the party. Uncle Tim Singing:
Alaina hit a major milestone this year with her August Birthday- the big 2-1!!! We set off for Vegas mid August and thanks to our Uncle Chuck we got to enjoy the luxury of a timeshare suite on the strip! The hotel was awesome! We felt like celebrities. The highlight of the trip was the Cirque du Soleil Beatles "LOVE" show that we attended at the Mirage on saturday. The show was amazing! So beautiful! Alaina was completely satisfied cause she's the die-hard Beatle fan. After the show, we took some more crazy pics, mom played the slots, and we walked around Vegas til the early morning. Weekend in Vegas complete!
So yes, it's been a while. The babies are almost three months old, and I have yet to post
an official picture on this blog. Some of you may wonder, "what's he been doing this whole time? How lazy can you get? Where are the pictures, already?" I assume those of you wondering these things have never taken care of twins.
This summer I have discovered two things: 1) taking care of two babies at the same time is more than twice as hard as taking care of one; and 2) the Octomom is without a doubt, hands-down the most insane person in the history of mankind. In fact, I'm pretty sure my top three would be something like this:
MOST INSANE PEOPLE OF ALL TIME
The Octomom
Jack Nicholson in "The Shining"
Anyone who appears in a Jackass movie
Little-known fact: you can train kids to reproduce like amoebas. Here, David is just about done forming from the top of Hanna's head. It sure beats labor!
David and Elias begin their training for the 2028 U.S. Olympic Men's Synchoronized Diving Team. They're also learning pizzazz: David is dressed as some sort of elf with a stylish vomit stain, Elias is going as Rasputin.
This picture has to be one of my favorites. Neither of them looks like they particularly want to be there.
The obligatory first bath shot, with the added wrinkle that it's a picture of someone else taking a better picture of the same thing. Interesting fact: Hanna's camera is better than ours. She's packing six megapixels and has her name monogrammed right on the front.
Here, David and Elias take a well-deserved breather after a tough morning of sleeping, pooping, farting, and more sleeping.
The boys are very healthy and are growing at an amazing rate. They are both well over 10 pounds and starting to focus their eyes on us. Their eyes are still blue and their hair, eyebrows and eyelashes are all light-colored.
Everyone has been excitedly talking about the recent birth of the Beck twins, David and Elias. They are the first set of twins to enter the family, and to top it off, they are boys (the female to male ratio is slowly evening out)! Grandma and I drove up to Santa Barbara for the weekend to visit; she needed to go apartment hunting because she will be caring for the twins starting next month. We also got to see Joe in a wonderful performance of Max in the play, Laughter on the 23rd floor. Check out the pictures of the handsome twins, Hanna and me playing, and some stills from Joe's show! :)
This fourth of July/birthday weekend was so fulfilling for me. This year I bought some tickets for a concert at the Hollywood Bowl to see a band I really enjoy. My family was going to join me for the event. But, they surprised me by coming up the night before to BBQ for July 4th! I bought some meat and even some sparklers, and late into the night we played a hilarious game of Catch Phrase. My boyfriend and his friends that were visiting stopped by as well, so we had quite the little impromptu party! Sunday was the day of the concert, and I could not wait to get to the lovely Hollywood hills for our pre-concert picnic! We arrived with little hassle, had a lovely picnic and then headed into the concert for a wonderful concert complete with fireworks! Here's a video of the finale! (you can see and hear that we had a great time)
I am truly grateful to have my family close by and ready to party at any moment! There are always good times to be had, and new memories to create!
At the end of June, we had a busy weekend celebrating birthdays and graduations. On Saturday, we had two graduation parties at the same time! First, we hit up Matthew Duarte's high school graduation luau in Fullerton. Click on the photo for the festive party pics! We left the party early and hurried over to La Verne for Kristi Campa's high school party at her house! All the Campas were there and the rest of the family too- little Jake looked like he had a lot of fun! We ate and watched Jacki throw some mean pitches to her cousins and then the girls went for a swim. Tahlya and Makayla stayed and partied through til midnight for her 14th birthday- they even toasted with Sparkling cider! By the end of the night, we were pooped, but really enjoyed seeing family, especially so many times in one month!
We are very proud of Tahlya for graduating eight grade this year! Grandma came down to San Diego with me to attend Tahlya's ceremony and I had a little surprise for her stowed away in my truck. It was a kitty that Mike and I had been caring for, for the last couple weeks. Tahlya nearly died when she found out we had kitties a few weeks back and proceeded to bug our mom for one every day. She was ecstatic when she returned home from the ceremony and spotted a little fur ball in a cute, pink play bed. I took a few pics of her with the kitty and of her opening gits to celebrate her day. Alaina took some more pics, hopefully we can get some more up here. :)
For Auntie Debbie's 50th birthday, the family got together for a rockin' good time! We celebrated in Fontana at Auntie Debbie's house. As soon as we arrived, we could hear music inside, and we entered to a surfin' beach themed party. I snapped a few photos of my crazy parents dancing to Shout!, the family party song. Also, little J.Flo, (Jake), Stella and Ovidio's little tyke, was dancing all night! We all had a great night, and were happy to spend some family time together!
Our very talented sister, Tahlya, performed at the Disneyland Hotel once again, and her team took home a trophy! I met my mom, Tahlya, and Makayla at the venue, and we cheered on the hip-hoppin' dancer! It was a great show, but we missed Alaina of course. We walked down Downtown Disney and our mom treated us to some treats! Check out the photos!
For Lemmy's birthday this year, we had a low key BBQ dinner, and Uncle Johnny, Auntie Linda, Kristi, and Jacki came down to visit!! The first night that I came down, me and my sisters went for a pleasant walk to Crusin' Grand. The Excondido locals line up their vintage cars, and people walk around, and enjoy the atmosphere! We took Loxi, Makayla's dog with us, and she was good for the most part. Then, when my uncle's family got to town, we made crafts, played volleyball, and ate some GOOD FOOD! Then, Alaina took some headshots of Kristi for her graduation photos! We went to the park and had a lot of fun posing her in different positions. Check out the pictures of our adventures.
This mother's day my family and I drove up to West Covina to share the saturday with my Grandma, Auntie Barbara, her friend Betty, Uncle Chuck and his wife, Yilin and her daughter who we met for the first time, Linda. Coincidentally, Reinel was down in San Diego for a bachelorette party, while we were up there!
My mom made a delicious enchilada dinner, my sisters and myself made chocolate dipped strawberries & a yummy [really yummy...] chocolate chip cheesecake, and Reinel hand painted really cute gift bags with presents inside them for the ladies. It was a wonderful and beautiful day that I was thankful to spend with some of the most amazing women I know.
Here are a few photos I took [click on the picture for a bigger size]:
Dad looking at the calendar Uncle Tim & Auntie Nancy made for Grandma.
A few weeks ago the family and I (Alaina) took a trip to Balboa to see Tahlya's artwork in the San Diego Museum of Art (Balboa Park's largest art collection). Students in San Diego County had their artwork handpicked by their teachers to be specially displayed in a section of the museum & families were invited for an evening of drinks, h'ordeurves & cake! Tahlya did a wonderful drawing that was inspired by a poem written by Edgar Allen Poe.
Of course, you can't expect the Campas to go to a fancy shmancy art museum and behave the entire time... We spent the end of the evening going around the museum, taking a few "life imitating art" photos... & even getting scolded for taking photos and were followed around to make sure we didn't take any more...
After the museum we took a stroll to enjoy the nighttime beauty of balboa: its lovely architechture & gorgeous waterfall! As any family time we have when Reinel isn't present, we wished she was there very much!
My good friend from high school, Syreeta, will be getting married this weekend in San Diego. I came down early to help my mom because she is doing the flowers for the event-which is going to be huge, glitzy, and detailed! Yilin (Uncle Chuck's new wife) came down to help us with the preparation. I took some photos of us working, the 700 roses, and the beautiful centerpieces we created! Then, we all went out to Fillippi's down the street in Escondido for dinner. It is a very busy Italian restaurant with DELICIOUS food. It has a real "small town, family-owned" feel and we really enjoyed ourselves. I am really looking forward to tomorrow. I can't wait to see how all the flowers and decorations come together and I am also anxious to witness my friend getting married. It is such a wonderful thing to be a part of such a significant transition in the life of someone you love.
This past Saturday, my mom's brother Chuck married Yilin Ping at a small wedding in Riverside.
My mom was very involved because she was in charge of preparing the flowers (of course) as well as most of the decorating, planning, and helping the bride get ready for her big day. Everything went very smoothly thanks to all her effort and love. We drove up to my uncles house the evening before the wedding and my mom immediately began setting up for saturday. We all helped and then people started crashing one by one. Then, we were all up very early in the morning to prepare because my uncle and his bride were going to be married in court at 11am. The ceremony was quick, but surprisingly very pleasant and enjoyable. I will be editing the video in the next two weeks and will post it here for you to see. Alaina was the official photographer and took some amazing photos that she will also post up once she is done editing them. For now, you can see some photos that I took with my little camera on my flickr. My Uncle was very happy with how well the whole event turned out, and Yelin seemed comfortable and pleased with how welcoming everyone was to have her as an addition to the family. We wish them the best and a long future together :)
On Saturday, March 7th, the family celebrated the soon-to-be birth of our first set of twins to the family. David and Elias are set to enter our family in June, and we had a great party in their honor at Uncle Tim and Auntie Nancy's in La Verne. There were yummy treats, great prizes, and of course, plenty of laughter and unexpected antics! Check out the pictures and you will see the beautiful decorations that my mom put together and the delicious treats that my Grandma brought for the party. Also, see Eric take a dive in the pool for 30 bucks, see Lemmy and Joe juggle babies blindly, and baby gifts that Jo wants to keep for himself.
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