Tey Garcia

Monday was Memorial Day and I was hosting a BBQ for all our family and close friends.  The weekend was long and so eventful that I decided to give this one it’s own post.  Jan and I worked a wedding the day before and we’re a bit tired, but that didn’t stop us.  Jan and I prepared the house and food earlier in the week so it wasn’t too bad.  All we had to do was prep the food and cook!  Jan was in charge of all the main food while I cleaned and made sure we had everything ready.  We had lots of yummy food planned for our friends and family.  Jan’s menu had beef ribs, pork ribs, steaks, tri-tip roast, chicken, salmon, potatoes, corn and asparagus.  Jan had all the marinades and dry rubs ready and that made the day easier for him.  Thanks Bub!  The food was awesome!!   

All of our friends and family also brought good stuff as well.  We had lots of sides, fruits, drinks, dessert and even a chocolate fondue.  It looked like we had lots of food, but at the end of the day it was pretty much gone…yay!  We had about 50 plus people at our house and it was a blast.  Jan and I love to entertain and hang out with everyone.  Here are some pics from the bbq:

Poor Jan!  He was at the grill most of the day, but it was sooooooo good :)  Thanks for cooking!!!

I was looking up thing for the kiddos to do and ran across this water play mat. I thought it was super cute and had to buy it. I think the kiddos had a blast!!!

Here’s Kaisen who’s 7 months.. and he loved it!! Look how happy he was.

Hahhaha!!!  Okay, I know he’s naked, but nothing is showing. I didn’t get a good picture of him at the bbq in the water mat… so this was taken the next day!  My little baby is still cute!

This is Milo…she had on the cutest bikini

Above is Tricia, Traci, Derek and Kaisen… We go way back..high school!

My aunt Chloe and her husband Rob.  They were in town visiting from SF.

My aunt and us..minus Natey.

The girls!!!

The boys!!!

Traci and I

Mary and her friends.

Thought this was so funny… 

Me and my boys.  We all have pretty light hair..don’t know where we get it?

Awwww…best friends forever.  Milo and Natey are 3 months apart.  Yes, Natey still drools alot so he’s always rockin the bib.  Natey looks just like Daddy when he was a baby…

This is most of the peeps watching the Laker game…hahaha!  Too bad they lost

I just realized I didn’t take any pictures of the food…oh well!  You’ll just have to believe me when I say..  ”it was delicious!!!”  Thanks for everyone’s help with the bbq!!!  Hope you all had a great time and good eats!

HAPPY BELATED MEMORIAL DAY!

Friday was a pretty chill day. In the afternoon, I just had to do a bunch of stuff for Natey. He’s sick again and it’s all from his big brother Lucas. He’s getting better though….slowly, but surely. Later that evening, we went to California Adventure with Lille, Tita Peggy and Tita Ad.  It was just Jan, Lucas and I.  We left Natey with Normi.  They’ve never been and Lille had to use her 2fer ticket before Saturday.  Lille ended up converting it to a season pass….yay! Now, Lille can go with us anytime

I did a lot of stuff on Saturday.  My day was full of to do stuff.  I ended up cleaning and prepping the house for my aunt Chloe and her husband Rob and for my Memorial Day BBQ.  Chloe and Rob stayed with us a few days while visiting from SF.  My aunts flight was delayed a few hours so I really didn’t get to hang out with them on Saturday.  After I picked them up we had to get ready for a party at Cameo.  Later that evening we attended Mutya and Mark’s small wedding reception. We had a great time hanging out with family. Tita Din was here from NY, Di came down too and the usual peeps were here. A few of Mark’s relatives came as well. We had lots of good food and drinks…my tummy was full all night!! I’ve been eating like a maniac lately. Check out some pics from the party:

Sunday was a beautiful day. We shot Lisa and Kirk’s wedding in San Clemente. They looked awesome!! They got married at Casa Romantica and had the reception at Talega Golf Club. I was pretty much on my own half the day. Jan and I had to split …he was with the girls and I was hanging out with the guys. I’ll be posting more about their wedding in a few weeks.

I had a nice, but exhausting weekend. Hope you had a nice weekend too!

We had a potluck about a month ago and my friend made this pasta salad that was so delicious!!!  I had to ask her for the recipe.  Well, she didn’t have a recipe, but she just gave me a run down of what to do.  So I’m making up my own recipe.  You can add or take out what you don’t like, but this is what was in the original pasta salad. Thought I would share it with you.  It’s quick, healthy and really yummy

Bow Tie Pasta Salad
Serves 6

1 cup Broccoli
1 cup Cauliflower
1 cup Carrots
1 cup Asparagus
1 Green Onion
1/2 Yellow Bell Pepper
1/2 Red Bell Pepper
Salt and Pepper
Italian Dressing
1 Box - Bow Tie Pasta
1 tsp. Oil

Cut up broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots and blanche them first. Run them under cold water to stop them from cooking. (don’t over blanche them or they get soggy. You just want them to be crips but bring out the color). Cut the asparagus and blanche separately because they cook more quickly. Boil water and add oil. Cook the pasta and let cool. Once all the veggies have cooled then add them to the cooled cooked pasta. Cut up the green onions and bell peppers. Add them to the mixture. Salt and Pepper and any other spice you like. Place all in the refrigerator and chill. Then add Italian dressing before your ready to serve, or you can make your own dressing.

The salad tastes better when it gets close to room temperature.

Hope you find it as yummy as I did. Please send me any recipes you have by providing me a link or emailing me at teygarcia@gmail.com.

I know, I know… I’m so late this week. Sorry, I’ve been super busy these days. We had a big day today. Jan’s cousin Mutchie got married in Torrance. It was a small simple wedding with just family. I’ll probably blog more about it later. Let’s get back to my weekend update!

Friday night was so much fun. Jan and I had our second date night and it was a blast. Our good friends Mark and Jason graduated from USC Grad School that night. We didn’t make it to the ceremony, but joined them later for some fun. We headed out to LA and met up with our friends at Honda Ya for some drinks. Mark was having dinner with his family there, so we hung out with Jason, Tim and other peeps who were there too. We haven’t gone out like this for a long time..since we had kids. It was so fun and totally brought me back to my college days..hahah! After a few beers we headed out to J Lounge in Downtown LA. It was a pretty cool place. You know i’m old when I referred this place as clubbing earlier that night…LOL!! Jan and I saw a lot of people that we don’t normally see and it was fun! We were able to chill, drink and enjoy adult interaction..yay for us!!. It was kinda weird to see all these young girls trying to find guys there. Tim did make me feel old because I was wearing jeans..hahhaha! The in thing nowadays are skirts or tight dresses..hahahha! Yes, I am old because I did look around and nobody wears jeans anymore to these lounges It’s okay… I got a man I had a great time with Bub. I left him alone most of the night so he can have fun with his guy friends. Jan was a bit drunk, but i’m glad he had fun…Haahaha! Here are some pics from friday night!

Bub and I

Wendy and I

Mark, Jan and Timmy

Jan's Peeps

The Guys!

Us again.

Saturday was a pretty relaxing day. I went to Juna’s birthday lunch at Open Sesame in Manhattan Beach. It was fun and the food was pretty good. I got to see my girls and enjoyed a lunch without the kiddos. Jan was on kid duties that day/ afternoon. He ended up having lunch with Timmy and Dennis so it wasn’t too bad. At least he had them to help him out with both kiddos :).  After Juna’s lunch we went to Wendy’s apt. to hang out since we were in the area and don’t get to see the LA peeps that often.  For dinner, Wendy and Dennis took us to this Cuban restaurant called Versailles.  It’s pretty well known in the area and got great reviews on Yelp.  The food was good and it totally brings in a lot of different people.

Sunday, was a weird day. We had made these plans to go to California Adventure with Lille and Mutch. They slept over and we ended up just chillin all day at home. It was a blistering hot day and i’m kinda happy we didn’t. The kiddos would have miserable and don’t even get me started with Jan and hot weather Plus, by the time we were almost ready to leave it was nap time for the kiddos and then we would only have a few hours before Jan and Lille had to go to LAX to pick up Tita Peggy, Lola and Tita Ad. We all drove to Cameo for dinner and on the way we had to make a stop at Yogurtland.. yummy!!! The kids had a good time hanging out. Later that evening I had a hard time getting the kiddos to bed. Maybe it was the heat, but they did not want to sleep. Lucas was getting cranky.. Finally, about 10pm I was able to get both kiddos to bed and relax a bit.

Hope you all had a nice weekend!!

I know I must be crazy, but I just had to do it. I recently bought a whole bunch of fabrics from different places. I found some online and at my local store. I absolutely love the Flying Geese in Tustin. Every 20th of every month they offer 20% off your whole purchase. That’s a great deal because fabrics are not cheap. I also found some great deals online for the Denyse Schmidt Katie Jump Rope collection. It was almost half off so I had to do it. I really love her style and colors. I was kind of scared to buy anything online and especially fabrics, but took a chance. It was my very first online purchase ever…can you believe that??  I was very happy with my purchase..yay!!  I can’t wait to start making some quilts out of these. They’re gorgeous ..check them out:

Look at all the beautiful colors..I think i'm set.

The package ones were bought online..cute packaging!

I got these from Flying Geese in Tustin

They grew up in the same neighborhood and went to the same school, but didn’t date til after they went off to college.  I think it’s so cute how they live so close to each other. It was just meant to be :).  Jan and I had a great time hanging out with them a few saturdays ago.  They got married at the St. Helen’s Church in South Gate and had the reception in Lynwood.  I’ve never been to that area before so Jan and I got there a bit early to check out the neighborhood.  Marisela was a bit worried about where to shoot the portraits, but gave us total control.  We drove around and saw some cool spot so we knew what we wanted to do.  I love it when clients trust us!!  We were able to get some cool shots around Lynwood and can’t wait to show you.  Check out our wedding blog for the goods:

http://blog.jangarcia.com/2009/05/12/marisela-jorges-wedding/

Enjoy!!

I had an awesome weekend. I didn’t work this weekend, but it was still a busy one. On Friday, Jan and I decided to have date night. We rarely have date nights. My sister Mary wasn’t going out so we asked her to baby sit the crazy ones. We waited till they were asleep so she wouldn’t have to handle both kiddos at once. See how nice we are?? I wanted to watch “Wolverine”, but Jan wanted to watch “Star Trek”.  I didn’t mind and just wanted to spend time with my hubby so we ended up watching Star Trek. I thought it was pretty good and funny. I liked it because it was the prequel so you didn’t need to know much about the show. I really enjoyed it and didn’t fall asleep like the guy next to Jan… Hahahha! Jan said he was snoring pretty loud. Poor Jan. I would highly recommend going to watch this movie in the theatre. Just being there with the surround sound going …it’s just awesome. Trust me…we watch a lot of movies at home and it’s not the same.

Saturday was a chill day with the family. We had a birthday party to go to. We went to Loma Linda to celebrate Lola Pat’s 83rd birthday. She looks great for 83 and her sister Lola Azon will be celebrating her 95th birthday this year. We got there around 1pm and hung out all day. We had some yummy food and ate all day long. I think I gain 2 lbs. that day :(. It was nice to see the cousins too. Lille, Mutya, Mark (Mutya’s fiancé), Sara, Ethan and Eddie were there. Check out some pics from the day:

Happy Mother’s day!!! Sunday was a beautiful day for Mother’s Day! We didn’t do much, but it was nice to chill. We had lunch with my mom, grandparents, Mark, Brian, Mary and Jan’s mom. We ate at this Vietnamese restaurant that served 7 course of beef and we had crispy catfish too.. it was delicious!!! After lunch, we took the kiddos home for a nap. But of course, Lucas doesn’t like to nap anymore so it was just Natey and I. Jan had to stay awake and play with Lucas..Hhahah! I took advantage of the day :) Jan had a portrait shoot in Orange later on, so we went to hang out at Cameo (Jan’s mom’s house) and had dinner there. Hope you all had a nice Mother’s day too!!

This is the start of Jan Garcia Photography 2009 weddings.

Alex and Brad were the first couple for this year. They got married early March. We started off at a small church in Laguna and the reception was at the oh so cool Soka University. This school was awesome! What a find!!! We got to work with Amanda from In the Now Weddings again and she was great. Jan and I meet Alex and Brad a year before and couldn’t wait for their wedding. They are so sweet and cute!! They really know how to work it for the camera too Check out Jan’s blog for the goods:

http://blog.jangarcia.com/2009/04/03/alex-brads-wedding-at-soka-university/

I usually do most of the client consultations, but when I had Nathan I couldn’t do much for a while so Jan would do all the consultations. I didn’t meet Mary and Will until the wedding day. I heard so many nice things from Jan that I couldn’t wait. He was right.. they are so down to earth and really nice. We had a beautiful day at the Langham in Pasadena. My good friend Carolyn from The Special Day was the coordinator and did a wonderful job as usual Here’s the blog:

http://blog.jangarcia.com/2009/04/16/mary-wills-wedding-at-the-langham/

Lizzy and Mark are so fun and crazy. They got married at the Ebell in Long Beach! I didn’t meet them either until the wedding day and it was a blast! We had lots of time for some cool portraits so we drove down to the Queen Mary and worked it. They are so outgoing and fun loving. Check it out:

http://blog.jangarcia.com/2009/04/28/lizzy-marks-wedding-at-the-ebell-club/

Hope you enjoy what I do and there’s more to come!!

Friday night was pretty chill for us. I picked up the kiddos from Grandma’s and went home to hang out with Daddy. We haven’t been hanging out at home that much since Tristan arrived from the Philippines so it was nice. Plus, I think it was time to give Grandma a break from the Duke. He’s been sleeping over there a lot lately. We had a nice dinner with Mary at home. We never know when Mary will be joining us so it was nice for all of us to sit down and chit chat. Jan made yummy carne asada tacos with all the fixings! After dinner, the kiddos just ran around and tore up the house, but it was fun.

We worked on Saturday at Arroyo Trabuco. We shot Julianne and David’s wedding. It was a beautiful day!!! She looked stunning and David wasn’t so bad either! They were so easy going and up for anything that we were able to get some killer portraits of them Can’t wait to show you the pictures. I love her colors too. It was green, black and cream… awesome!!! It was a pretty easy day for us, but I was still exhausted. Jan and I got home around 11:45pm. I tried to stay up to watch the Pacquiao vs. Hatton fight and couldn’t do it. I must have been pooped cause the fight only lasted 6 mins.. hahahah!! I still can’t believe it only lasted 2 rounds.

We had planned to go to Legoland with the family on Sunday so we slept over at Grandma’s. We all took our time on Sunday and didn’t leave the house til 11am (Legoland closes at 5pm on Sundays). We got to Carlsbad at 12pm and wanted to eat lunch before we went to Legoland. So we stopped by the outlet and ate. While eating lunch we were debating if we should still go to Legoland or stay at the outlet, so we ended up staying and shopping. We’re so bad because the kids wanted to go to Legoland still and we told them… this is it. So they totally think the outlet was Legoland..hahahah! I didn’t end up buying anything, but the kiddos got some toys and clothes from Grandma

Here’s a picture of the boys at Grandma’s before we left to Legoland. Jan did a mini photo shoot with them and they’re so cute!!