At the beginning of the year, I could not have imagined 2025 turning out the way it has. We started the year with sadness in our hearts, but ended the year with the biggest blessing of all. We are now back in our unfinished home, navigating life with a newborn and a 3 year old. I could not be more grateful for all the blessings in 2025 and look forward to more family adventures in 2026.

January

We started off the year with 2 days at Disney, one at Disneyland and the other at California Adventures.

A also received her first report card. We are so proud of our baby girl!

February

Our annual family trip to Big Bear.

March

We had our second miscarriage. This time, it was a biochemical miscarriage, which I am grateful for since I did not have to experience what I did the first time (at 9 weeks). I had a positive pregnancy test through urine and blood, but actively miscarried the baby at 5 weeks.

April

I probably say this every year, but man, we really had the most amazing trip ever. After a lot of back and forth, we decided on Spain (Madrid and Sevilla) and Portugal (Lisbon and Porto) for our big annual family vacation. We basically spent a week in each country, eating the best food and exploring beautiful castles, cathedrals, and viewpoints. I will never ever tire of seeing our baby girl experience something for the first time. Some people don’t understand why we have traveled with A since she was 4 months old, but her being able to try new foods (morcilla in Madrid), point out fish that she’s read about in her books (at Oceanario de Lisboa), be memorized by a flamenco dancer (in Sevilla) is why we will keep traveling with her. It is certainly not easy to travel with a child, but it is definitely worth it.

Here are some of the highlights:

This trip will always be special to us because Madrid is where our lil’ bud was conceived 🌈

May

We used the last day of our 3-day SoCal Disney pass as an early birthday present for A.

We also took a family trip with CT‘s family to Grand Hyatt Indian Wells. The kids loved the pool and water slides!

June

We took another family trip with CT‘s family to Vegas. Of course we had to go back to our fave omakase place.

We also found out the gender as part of the first trimester screening…… We are having a baby boy! We had thought we were having a boy since I was experiencing different symptoms than I had with A.

July

We celebrated July 4th in Long Beach, but were less than impressed with the fireworks. I can’t wait to watch fireworks off our balcony again.

August

During A‘s school’s annual teacher planning days, we took a short trip to Cabo. We originally planned to stay at the new Park Hyatt Cabo, but it wasn’t completed yet so we had our reservation moved to The Cape. We were initially bummed, but after staying at The Cape, no regrets whatsoever. Location/view 10/10, food (breakfast and rooftop restaurant) 10/10, security 10/10, our suite 10/10.

We took an Uber into town every day. One day, CT and I got a couples massage and then A and I got our first mommy and daughter manicures. Another day, we took a boat tour to the Arch – A did not enjoy this and got a bit sick from the boat rocking back and forth while people were getting their pictures taken. We found food in town to be a hit or miss, even the tacos! Somehow an Italian place ended up being our favorite!

September

Lots of reno progress! We are finally able to see the finish line at this point. Walls are up, floors are in, tiles installed.

October

We celebrated our babymoon during our annual trip to Hawaii. This year, we went back to Grand Hyatt Kauai and it was just as great as we remembered. We were debating last year after staying at Andaz Maui, which resort would be our favorite, and I think it may be Grand Hyatt Kauai. Since we now have Hyatt status, we were able to access the Grand Club, which honestly saved us a good amount of money on food elsewhere. It was definitely not Ka’ana Kitchen at Andaz Maui by any means, but the Grand Club was very convenient for our family, especially perfect for A, who was hungry at 7 and we had very limited options nearby.

We started each morning watching the sunrise from our balcony, headed to breakfast at the Grand Club, then fed koi fish at Tidepools. We swam every day at the main pool as well as waded in the saltwater lagoon. We enjoyed some of our fave food spots: Smiley’s, La Spezzia, Tidepools, Eating House, Konohiki Seafood. And also tried some new places: Koloa Pizza, Break + Feast, Kauai Petite Sweets (best banana bread).

This trip was also meaningful because it was our last trip as a family of 3. I still get emotional thinking about it because I loved our family dynamic and being able to devote all of our love, time, energy, and attention to A, but we are also very excited for lil’ bud to arrive and join our family adventures.

November

With our reno, it always seems like one step forward, two steps back. After one of the biggest storms, we unfortunately noticed water damage in the bathroom beneath our outdoor kitchen. We think it’s the plumbing, but the GC thinks it’s because the outdoor kitchen hasn’t been stucco’d. We’ll see who ends up being right.

December

Baby B arrived on his own terms, of course. His due date was 1/2/26, but we had a C-section scheduled for 12/26/25 since A was an unplanned C-section. However, B decided that he wanted to be a Christmas baby instead, so I went into labor around midnight on Christmas. I had been having Braxton Hicks for a couple of weeks and hoped this was another episode so we could have our Christmas, as planned, but as the contractions grew stronger and became more consistent and frequent in timing, I knew this was the real deal. We grabbed our bags and A and arrived at the hospital around 1:30AM. They gave us the option of a C-section, but CT and A would have to wait in the waiting room since that would be something that would happen within the next half hour or hour OR try VBAC and CT and A could be in the L&D room. Given the options, I decided to try VBAC, since this gave CT time to drop off A at Ba’s house.

Everything was progressing pretty quickly in the early morning. When I checked into L&D, I was already 4cm. I got an epidural after an L&D room was available and I was at 7cm by 6AM, without any help from meds. This gave the L&D staff and myself premature confidence that the arrival of B was imminent. Unfortunately, things started to stall after that point. When I was still at 7cm at the next check in, the L&D staff suggested breaking my water to push things along. I agreed, but I remained at 7cm at the following check-in. Next, the L&D staff suggested a small amount of pitocin to kickstart more intense contractions. I was hesitant since pitocin eventually led to A‘s fetal intolerance and unplanned C-section. I expressed my concerns, but also thought maybe it couldn’t hurt to push things along, so I reluctantly agreed. Within 15 mins of receiving pitocin, things spiraled out of control. B‘s heart rate dropped, and 5 nurses rushed in with the OB. I ended up on all 4s again, but this time, the OB immediately called for an emergency C-section STAT. I was quickly wheeled into the OR where everyone was preparing for my surgery. I think I was only able to stay calm because of the familiarity of the situation and it was only after I heart B‘s cry that I was able to release my emotions and cry out of relief.

Our Christmas miracle rainbow baby was born 12/25/25 at 2:12PM, weighing 7lbs 2 oz and measuring 20.5 ins.