Merry Christmas from Fern and Carly.

1. Kerrick! Look over here! Hi Kerrick! *makes silly baby noises*


2. Hellooooo! That's good, look at me look at me.


3. There's the smile we want to see. :)


4. HAHA he looks like a tiny grown man!!! Notice the incredibly cute socks that look like shoes?!


5. Loooove the mini varsity jacket.


6. *gasp* What's that?


7. You are so cuuuuuute.


8. :)


9. I just want to pinch his cheeks!

If Kerrick ever becomes famous, I'll be so proud to say that I helped him get there! lol.

In November, Nick and Hitomi took me (and Ryan) to LA's Chinatown for a dim sum brunch. It was the first time the four of us had gone out together... those two are master chefs and always cook at home. While waiting for our table, Ryan and I walked around the plaza and I took pictures of the colorful toys and knick knacks on display.


Two weeks ago I went to downtown Fullerton with Adam to take some fun portraits. I'm pretty sure it was Adam's idea to jump like the person in the mural. I didn't think he could pull it off, because it looked like he would almost have to do the splits... but hey, it turned out to be a pretty cool pic. Actually, it's a lot cooler than all the dumb poses I came up with.


Carly and me. <3

If only life could be this vibrant all the time, hm? :)

... My life is definitely NOT. But I am grateful for happy moments like these.

Disclaimer: I am not married (or engaged), and I don't plan on getting married for another 3-5 years.

I'm at Ryan's house every day. We eat all our meals together, even if it means having to wait until both of our schedules are free. Like on Sunday... we didn't eat lunch until 3:30 pm, after I got back from my photo shoots. Sometimes I wish we would ditch this routine and eat at normal times, but it is nice to sit down and share a meal with him after a long day.

I'm not a master chef, but I definitely know a lot more than he does when it comes to cooking. It has come to the point where he is completely helpless when I'm not around. A few weeks ago when I went home, he resorted to eating bread, peanuts, and water for dinner. I teased him about his "Fern's-not-around" diet, but seriously, that boy needs to learn how to feed himself. It's past noon and he hasn't had anything to eat yet because I haven't fed him. Sadly enough, I (almost always) go through the trouble of making him food because I know he won't eat otherwise. This sounds like the relationship between a parent and spoiled child! At least this time I didn't give in. :)

Last time I went home, my mom gave me a big crock pot to bring to LA. I happily browsed through the cookbook that she put inside it and came across a recipe for beef stew. Yummm. Instantly, I knew what dish I would first make with my newly acquired slow cooker.

The next time we went to the grocery store, I brought a list of ingredients and we enthusiastically stocked up our cart with everything we needed to make that stew. Since I was busy all weekend, Ryan said we could make the stew on Tuesday... today.

Well, this morning arrived, and he was not in the mood to help me out in the kitchen. "I'm going to fail this final," he grumbled at me. Okay... fine. School is more important. I went to the kitchen to start preparing the ingredients by myself.

And everything went wrong. The meat looked brown in its package and the sell by date was three days ago. I couldn't find the vegetable peeler and had to skin the carrots with a knife, which took forever. I gave up after two carrots. The recipe also called for 16 oz of beer, which I couldn't find. After I put all the ingredients in the crock pot, I turned the knob to low.. and realized that there isn't a light to tell you whether or not it's on. If it wasn't on, that hour and a half of prep work and all those ingredients would go to waste. And throughout the process I was stressed out about how I need to cancel my violin lesson tomorrow and how I need to edit everyone's photos by tonight.

He did help me open the can of tomato paste, but that was after he angrily raided the kitchen for a can opener and then threw it down the drain. I tried to take it out but it's stuck.

Whine, whine, whine. I highly doubt the stew will be worth it, but I won't find out until 8 pm. Sorry about the rant, just had to get it out.

- - - - - - - edit - - - - - - -

I went into his room and told him that I made the stew. He said thank you, kissed me a few times, and then offered to buy me lunch. I trained him well! Hahaha. When I said "I thought that we were going to make the stew together," he made some weird noises and acted like a goofball. "You're just doing that so you won't have to answer me!" I said. "It's like that commercial... for Twix. Or Snickers. Or Kit Kat..." He burst out laughing because I totally called it. Then we looked up "twix commercial" on youtube and found that "need a moment" scene.

I feel much better already. :)