Box Double Ponytails w/ Beads

For this style I used:

Coconut oil
Olive oil
Tea Tree oil
Water
Shea Butter

I put equal parts Water and Coconut oil and 1 tbsp olive oil into small spray bottle. I added 4-5 drops tea tree oil to the bottle.

I started by spraying the ends of her hair and finger detangling. Once i finished that, I parted her hair into 3 sections. One large one in the back & the front parted down the middle.
I started each section by parting that section so id have 2 rows with a total of 10 ponies in the back, 12 on each side on the top. I sprayed each ponytail again and secured them with a rubber band. I seperated each ponytail into two then two-strand twisted applying each with homemade shea butter cream. Then put 6 beads on each twist.

I plan on keeping this style up for a week. I usually spray her hair twice a day with this; when she wakes up and before bed.

Potty Training D-Day

As of last week, I am the mother of a 20 month old. It's so bittersweet. I can't believe how fast time flies. She knows almost all her body parts, we Abc's and can count to 5. And I believe it's time to try potty training..

Let me start off by saying that this is not the first try. You see we've done a few "practice runs" to get her used to the idea of Wong potty trained.
Let's go back to January 2012. She had started having what we call "dry spells". She would wake up dry from overnight and would only pee maybe 3-4 times during the day and around the same time each day. We started trying to put her on the big toilet around the times when she usually did her business. I think that made her really nervous because she only did it once and never wanted to see the toilet again. Fast forward to last month. We tried the "3 day and $75" technique. We kept her in panties during the day and a diaper at night. She had a few accidents but by day 2 she was no longer interested and i was having trouble following through with her potty schedule. I think I'm going to try this technique again starting this week because I downloaded a potty reminder app from the iTunes store and it might help having a friendly reminder to put her on her pot. Anyway here are a few tips I'm going to try.


1. Keep the bathroom door open
We usually try to keep it closed to keep her from playing in the toilet, but I do think it's restricting her from using her potty when she needs to. I may end up putting it in the playroom to give her easy access
2. Try to use the potty 2x an hour.
I find it hard and nerve-wracking to put her on every 20 minutes.
3. Using The 70/30method
Okay I make this one up but when I explain youll know why I call it that. I plan on having her in panties during the day time (70%) and after she's sleep (30%) I'll put a pull up on. She usually won't

Okay I'll try to update soon to let you guys know how it's going.

Funfetti Cookies!!

I've been going crazy on Pinterest this past week. I ended up finding a whole lot of things I could do with my kids this summer. But one recipe in particular I had to try. Let me start off by saying these were the cheapest cookies I've ever made and the tastiest I've made. The secret is in the mix: it's Funfetti Cake Mix!! Big surprise right? So equipped with my coupons and cash I rushed to the store this morning and bought my 25¢ cake mix. They were on sale for $1 and I had a 75¢ off coupon, can you say deal? I bought two, one for another date. Anyways long story short, they were made took about 15minutes and turned out good.. Here's the recipe:

1box Funfetti Cake Mix
2 Eggs
1/3 cup of Oil (I used melted Margarine)

Mix it all together until all the cake mix is moist. Spoon out into small 1 inch balls about 1 inch apart. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Let them cool and serve !!

Once again the kids loved them! I didn't even get a chance to take a good picture once they came out because 2 minutes after they came out the ovens they were gone..

Na'Myi's Hair For The Week

I couldn't get her to sit down long enough to take pics, but I did get pics later on in the day. She actually got them done Sunday. I usually do her hair, but her grandma did these for her to hold until her sisters graduation. Anywho before grandma took over, we used the Cantu Shea butter daily moisturizer as well as the Cantu Shea Butter Scalp oil.. Deranged with my fingers and sealed her ends. I also soaked her rubber bands in Indian Hemp hair dressing. Came out very nice..

There's Been A Death In The House

My 3 year old Lappy died today.. Yes my laptop succumbed to its injuries over the years from its family. From juice spills, to short falls; kicks and viruses; fingerprints and all.. I just didn't think it would have crashed so quickly. I tried everything I could to save at least my pictures. Booting it in safe mode didn't work, restoring the system didn't work, I even tried backing up my pictures and baby videos to USB and they didn't even transfer then the screen went black and now it can't find the necessary files to actually run windows 7. Now I'm back at square one!! It took a long time to save for Lappy and now I guess it's best to start saving for Lappy 2. I am going to keep Lappy though. I was forwarded a link by my mother to a place who can try to recover my pictures and videos from the actual hard drive. Good thing I have my iPod so I can continue to blog from my Blogger App.. Yay!! Sorry I'm rambling, but I've got a lot of frustration. On another note, 11 days until Topaz is out of school and spending the summer (and hopefully the rest of the year) with me!! I look forward to this each year..

Summer Bucket List Part 1.

So we began our summer Bucketlist today on Memorial Day!! We kicked it off with a memorial day barbecue as a salute to our troops as well as my great grandfather Buddy. A lot of our family members came over and brought the meat and sides.. My camera died a little before the party started up, but I got a few good pictures of the festivities.

Peanut Butter Brownies

We made these the other day and they were a hit!! I'm still new to this so I completely forgot to take pictures until it was too late, but we will be making more next weekend and I'll have pics up for all to see.

Anyway I thought i'd give you to recipe I used..

PeanutButter Brownies
1 Package of Your favorite brownie mix
1-2 tablespoons of peanut butter

Extras: You will need oil and eggs to prepare them a they say on the box.

1. Prepare the brownies as it states on the box
2. Preheat oven to 350•
3. Pour brownies into pan
4. Add peanut butter on top of brownies in dollops.
5. Swirl Peanut butter into brownie mix, to make a swirly pattern into the brownies
6. Bake, take out when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean
7. Let them cool down for about 5 minutes, then cut with a plastic knife and serve warm.

It's as easy as that!! I like mines warm with ice cream on the side, or frosted. Either way you like, it's up to you!!

If you'd like more recipes comment on this post!!

Our Summer Bucket List

16 days from today will be my daughter Topaz's last day of kindergarten. This year sure has gone by fast. I still remember her first day of school. She was so confident as I walked her to her classroom. I even teared up as she dropped my hand to join her class and make new friends. Anyway, since school is almost over that means summer is approaching and I've decided to make a bucket list for me and my family to do before school starts up and we have to make a FALL bucket list.. I'd like to include as many family and friends that I have to accomplish at least 50-75% of them..

Our Summer Bucket List

1. Have a water fight

(complete with buckets, water balloons and super soakers)

2. Build a sand castle

3. Make root beer floats

(or coke floats )

4. Have a 4th of July BBQ

(Burgers and Ribs and Hot dogs, Oh My)

5. Complete campfire meal

(Cook everything on the campfire)

6. Sidewalk Chalk Drawings

7. Go Fishing

8. Play Flashlight Tag

9. Play miniature golf

10. Make tie dye shirts

11. Go on a picnic

12. Camp out in backyard

13. 1000 piece puzzle of something summery 

(that we'll put together over the summer)

14. Go to the Exploratorium and San Francisco Zoo

15. Have a luau

(Homemade Lei's, punch, bbq, and 2 kiddie splash pools)

16. watch the sunset at a beach

17. go swimming!!

18. Go to 6flags or Great America

19. Go to a fair

20. Bake rainbow cupcakes

21. Go to a waterpark

22. ride a carousel

23. Take a photo everyday

24. Spend an entire day watching Disney movies or movie's with sequels

(aka Harry Potter, Twilight, Scream, Saw, etc.. complete with unlimited popcorn, drinks, snacks & beanbags)

25. Eat s'mores and do chubby bunny

I'm hoping to also get my in-laws involved so we can do some family building activities with each other.. I'll update as the summer goes on and I'll be sure to post pictures!!!

Natural hair Tips I've learned

On January 1, 2011 I decided to stop relaxing my hair and go natural. It had been 6 weeks since my last perm and I noticed that my hair was thinning, breaking off and extremely hard to style because of the abuse I put it through. But after not putting one in my hair for about a year, my hair still wasn't retaining any length. So I looked on YouTube and there were a Bazillion videos on there from Natural hair care, hair styles, what to do, what not to do, etc . I was overwhelmed. But I came across a few blogs that I've been following faithfully since November and boy they've been a lot of help!! I stopped using my normal hair products and began using products that wold help, not harm. I've found a few brands that I like, a few that I love and a few I don't like, but its been a process. I've also used the tips on my daughters. Here a few things that I've learned:

1. Hair Type is not the most important thing to know.
During January/February, I was more focused on discovering my hair type (which i found out is 4b/4c) Although its convenient to know this little bit of information, its mostly for curl sake. It helps to know the type though because I seem to know how my hair will react to the product. My hair is really thick and has about 85-90% shrinkage when I wash.

2. Know your hairs porosity.

THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!Porosity is a term used to describe the hair's ability to absorb moisture. The higher the porosity, the more the hair absorbs.  Your hair needs this moisture!! Hair typically comes in three porosity's: Low Porosity, Normal Porosity and High Porosity. In each of these the cuticle, outer layer of the hair, is different.  I read on a few blogs there are ways to test your porosity. When you comb or brush your hair, take the clump of hair left on the comb and put it in a glass of water for 2-3 minutes. If your hair is floating after that  time, your hair may have a normal/low porosity. If it starts to sink after a few minutes, you may have high porosity hair. My hair has normal to low porosity since I've started taking care of it. Hair needs moisture to grow and stay healthy.'

3. MOISTURIZE, MOISTURIZE, MOISTURIZE!!!

Like i stated before your hair needs moisture to grow and stay healthy. I usually spray my hair with water and apply a daily moisturizer (cantu works great!) But you also need to trap that moisture in the cuticle so usually after that I apply coconut oil, Shea butter, or even some plain hair grease I have laying around and my hair usually is good for the day or 2.

4. PROTECTIVE STYLING!!

2strand twists, braids, & buns are your friends!!! And they also double as 2 styles because when you take them down your hair is another style!! I usually rock 2 strand twists or large plaits across my hair because its convenient and i like the way they look when i take them out. Just make sure you pin them out the way so the elements cant get to them. Plus it prevents splitting of hairs, damage to your ends and helps you retain length. It also keeps me from using my blow dryer and flat iron so no heat damage!!

5. Patience and Consistency

Your hair grows between 0.5-1 inch each month. Mines grows about a half an inch each month. that means my hair grows about 6-7 inches a year. I thought i would never have long hair again but I'm slowly getting there. January my hair was reaching just past the bottoms of my ears when it was straight. Today, May 19, I'm rocking braid out and my hair reaches a little lower than my ears but reaches my neck when its straight.  So I've retained about 1.5-2 inches of hair since January!! But if you stay consistent and patient you will see results!! 

So with this information I've made a few goals for my hair. To retain as much length as possible, little or no breakage and thicker healthier hair.

Na'Myi and I went to my nieces school fair. It was pretty fun!! It cost 50¢ per ticket and I spent about $3. Na'Myi mostly wanted to eat nachos and snocones and push her stroller around, but she played one game. The only game that gave out a live pet (a fish) and she wouldn't play any other one. She did win the fish though, but I gave it to her cousin because we don't need any pets right now lol. We stayed about 2 hours and that still was a lot of energy to watch. Na'Myi came home and went straight to sleep and has been for 2 hours. All in all it was a good day.

Fun Fun Fun!!!

Yesterday we headed out the way to see Topaz and take her out to do something fun. On the way there we found out it was customer appreciation day at the gas station. So we walked to the gas station (it was really nice outside) and Got to play a few games, win a few things, and get faces painted. We even brought my sister Tlyn. What made it even better is that it was all FREE!!!!! And who doesn't like free? Anyway we were there for about 2 hours and they had a blast!!

Waiting in live for face painting. we waited for 45 minutes!!

Tlyn won the ore

She got a butterfly and it took the lady 2 minutes to do it

Topaz Loved her flower.

Na'Myi picked hers out and actually sat there to get it done. took 30 secs.

Anyway I just thought that I would share that with you guys. Thanks for reading

My Fam(ily)

Hey You Guys!!

It's Tiara.

I'm the mother of 2 beautiful girls. 

Topaz and Na'Myi.

This blog is pretty much about my everyday life and things I've tried.

Crazy Ideas, Recipes, Activities, Family stuff and more!!!

I'm new to this so bear with me.

So, This is my family!! 

This was taken about a year ago (clockwise: Nik, Tiara(me), Na'Myi and Topaz)

So a little back story about myself and my family.

I'm 21 at the moment, I feel much older than I am though.

I'm the oldest of 6 girls. YES, 6 GIRLS! All our names start with T.

Anyway, a month before my 15th birthday, I found out that i was pregnant with my  daughter Topaz.

I gave birth to her on March 29th. I never knew how much my heart could hold before I had her. I met Nik 9 years ago, but we've been together for about 2 and a half years. Seems longer than that. 5 months into dating we found out that we were pregnant. We were happy yet scared at the same time because I already had a 4 year old and we had no way to take care of another baby, but we kept her. I believe it was the best decision I've ever made. She was born on Halloween 2010 after the San Francisco Giants threw the last pitch won game 4 making them one game away from winning the World Series. Lol Yes I'm a native San Franciscan.. Born and raised there. But not my children. But For a good cause. Topaz lives 50 miles away with my mom during the week so she can go to this great school in her city with my little sister. Topaz is 18 days away from being a 1st grader and is more than ready for it. She was one of the top 3 students in her class this semester. (they don't tell who's number one lol) Meanwhile Na'Myi lives with Nik and I. Anyway this is pretty much my Family. we're not perfect, but we're perfect to me.