Ethan’s 1st Birthday

Hello, hello ~ Janet here!

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, but thanks to my live.love.create girls, you and I have been able to see all the pretty that’s been happening with us! 😉 Thanks ladies!

I just wanted to take a moment to say that… I moved to Austin, TX! Yup yup! I’ve been out here for a few months and as you can guess, it’s been quite crazy trying to move and settle in to my new environment. As hard as it was to leave LA (and live.love.create during it’s growth), my home is where my husband is and thus supported his decision to move out here.

Settling in has been slow coming and about a month ago, Erica and a few other friends, came for a surprise visit. I was completely shocked and overwhelmingly touched. I love you girls. Thanks to their visit, I finally ventured outside of my home to see what Austin has to offer. I had heard only good things about Austin, so when I went to go and explore, I fell a little in love with the city. For a family, Austin is amazing and everyday I am thankful that Ethan can grow up here (but he will always have his LA roots… Go Lakers! Go Dodgers!). It’s not always easy being outside of my comfort zone and there are definitely moments of homesickness (family, friends and food), but it just makes me reflect on how blessed I am with an amazing community back home and excited for the community I will gain here.

Despite all the changes going on in my life, I am thankful for the things that remain constant and strong, one of them being…. you guessed it, live.love.create! Thinking back on when we began this journey to where we are now, I am amazed to see all the relationships that we have and still are forming with the most awesome people ever! Thank you brides, grooms, vendors and so forth.. You’re enthusiasm and faith in us really encourages and reminds us of why we do what we do. We love you!! These relationships are so special to us because that’s what our vision was really about – meeting and making good friends. I am sad that I won’t be in Los Angeles, to physically be a part of the live.love.create team (I miss you girls so much), but I am anxious for all that’s yet to come (and thank GOD for Google Hangout sessions)! In the meantime, I’ll be updating here and there and will be involved in every way possible. For those wondering if live.love.create is branching out to Austin…. well, we’ll see… you never know. ;P

For now, I wanted to give you guys a glimpse of Ethan and how much he’s grown. The last post was at my baby shower when I was eight months pregnant. Ethan is now fifteen months and always on the run… a sweet, but wild child! Hehehe…

Photos of Ethan when he was a newborn, just two weeks old, taken by Sam Lim

Last December, we flew back to LA for Ethan’s first birthday. In the Korean culture, the first birthday, dohl, is a pretty big deal. In LA, it’s become so big that it’s like a mini wedding reception!!! *And yes, live.love.create does dohls! I pre-planned a few things before I moved to Austin, but my live.love.create ladies helped put everything together while I was away. It was a great night of celebration, thanksgiving and love.

 

  

Doljabi is a traditional Korean 1st birthday celebration where items are placed before a child and the child picks up one of the objects. Each item has a significant meaning, which is supposed to foretell the child’s future. Ethan picked up the golf ball. Daddy was so happy.

Ethan had cake for the very first time. He didn’t really have a reaction.

He seems to favor savory over sweet.  🙂

The best kid picture we could take. Lol!

The birthday boy partied too much… Knocked out! xoxo

*special thanks to…*

Venue & Catering: Little Prince Cafe

Photography: Grace Baek

Little Prince Cake: Julie Jeon (my good friend. thanks love!)

Sheet Cake: Porto’s Bakery

Florist: Commerce Flowers (head table) & live.love.create (centerpieces)

Dduk (Korean rice cakes): Seoul Bakery

Dohl Pillars: Myself and Erica

Design & Coordination: live.love.create

Ethan’s hanbok (Korean traditional outfit): my aunt from Korea sent it 🙂 Thanks eemo!

mycharity: water ~ the best birthday present ever!

As cheesy as this may sound, (and in case you haven’t noticed, we like cheesy-ness) lately, I’ve been encouraged to think about what I can do to help make the world a better place.   (Cue: Michael Jackson “Heal the World”)  I’m an optimist at heart.  I believe that each person can make a difference and do something to change things for the better.  As a collective, we can make a positive impact, whether it be through something like recycling or just by saying a few kind words.  Yes, we all have our own issues, struggles, and checklist of things to be done, but it doesn’t hurt to help out a little and do something for someone else for a change.

Which brings me to something I’ve been encouraged to do this month.  November is the month for giving thanks, realizing everything we have to be thankful for, and hopefully for giving back as well.  November’s also my birth month!  (Cue: “Happy Birthday Song”)  So I decided I wanted to do something a little different this year.  Rather than receive gifts, I’m asking everyone to donate to mycharity: water, a non-profit organization that works to provide clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.  Why mycharity: water?  There are so many deserving organizations, and it was hard to choose, but mycharity: water stuck out to me because they allow you to follow them through the whole process and visually see proof of the projects built.

Since I’m turning 26 years old, I’m asking for $26 or more from everyone I know. It’s not going to me, though. All of it is going to build freshwater wells for people in developing nations.

A billion people in the world are living without clean water – but how much are they really living? Millions contract deadly diseases from contaminated water. 45,000 people will die this week alone. The lucky ones won’t, but still walk hours each day to get dirty water to give to their families.

My birthday wish this year is not for more gifts I don’t need; it’s to give clean and safe drinking water to some of the billion living without it. I want to make my birthday matter this year.

Please join me!  Go to erica’s 26th and donate!

Of course, this isn’t the only way or only charity that you can help.  Right here in LA, and in every city, there are millions of people who could use your love and help.  I’ve linked a few other organizations below so that you can take a look and see how else you can help!

We’ve been blessed to be a blessing.

love,

erica  🙂

Union Rescue Mission

LiNK

Donors Choose

Compassion International

World Vision

please note: Because of charity: water’s unique model, 100% of all donations go directly to direct water projects costs, and each donation is “proved” and tracked to the village it helped when projects are complete.