family of five

leap, leap hooray!

2012-02-29T14:30:00.007-08:00

happy leap year! nothing much going on around here today. i did came across an interesting offer online from zappos. i guess they normally have a 365-day return policy for their products, but if you buy something from their site today they're offering a 4-year return policy! whoa. who is going to buy something and keep track of it enough to return in four years? i can't think of a scenario where i might do that.

something a little more interesting - i have been knitting up a storm around here lately, and here is the last thing i knitted...fingerless gloves for emma! lucas wants a pair, sans flower. he asked for flames instead. we'll see what i can come up with, but definitely no flames. i'm not that creative.

(here's the pattern)

cheap and easy DIY bulletin board

2012-02-27T22:18:00.003-08:00

check out what i made a few months ago. it's a HUGE bulletin board to display the kids' masterpieces, and i love it! i have been wanting something like this for a long time, but everything in the stores or online were super expensive. after doing some research, i found this building material called homasote that makes an amazing bulletin board...and it is CHEAP. it's made of compressed paper and works better than a cork board, in my opinion. i paid $25 for an 8x4 sheet. $25! now that's a great deal. the one you see in the picture is 6x4, so i used the remainder of it for my office (which i will post pictures of soon!). i found it at our local home depot. but, a word of warning. it is not popular here on the west coast yet, so no one knew what it was. i had an amazing service rep help me. she called the distributor to find the local dealer of this material, then called him and placed a special order for me. i love helpful sales people. here's a quick tutorial in case you want to make one for your space:

materials

homasote

fabric

4 anchors

4 finishing washers

4 long screws

tools

scissors
measuring tape
exacto knife

level

circular saw

staple gun

drill

how-to

1. cut homasote board to your desired size using your circular saw. you may want to do this outside because it makes a bit of a mess.

2. cut fabric to size, leaving at least two inches on each side to wrap around the board. if you are making a larger-sized board, you may need to sew two pieces of fabric together. or, you can be creative and sew together various fabric designs to cover your entire board!

3. lay your fabric face-down on the floor and center your homasote board on top. if your fabric has a design or pattern, be sure it is facing the right way and that the design lines up with the edges. using a staple gun, staple the center of one side, then the opposite, and then the center of each of the other two sides. be careful to pull the fabric nice and taut before you staple. then, work your way from the center of each side towards the corners.

4. for the corners, pull the point of the fabric down over the corner of the homasote, making a 45 degree angle. fold down the two sides of the fabric and tuck in the excess along the sides (like you are wrapping a present). make this as neat as possible so that there is not a lot of fabric between the board and the wall when you hang it.

5. once your board is covered, use an exacto knife to make a small 'x' in each of the four corners where you will pre-drill holes. (making slits in the fabric will help prevent the fabric from ripping or torquing when you drill the holes.) pre-drill four holes, one in each corner.

6. have your hubby or a strong friend hold the board up to your wall where you want to hang it. level your board. using one of the long screws, poke through the pre-drilled holes to mark the wall. pre-drill for the anchors.

7. hang up your board using the finishing washers and long screws.

8. step back and admire your new bulletin board!

getting back into the flow

2012-02-13T15:11:00.002-08:00

so, i had the best intentions of blogging and posting pictures from our trip to china and hong kong soon after our return, but getting back into the flow of things, especially with it being so close to christmas, was challenging. now that things have settled down a bit, i finally feel like i can (and should) get back onto this old thing and share a bit of what's been happening on the home front. in a few words, not much! december and january flew by. we had a relaxing and meaningful celebration of christmas with my cousin and her family, and my sister and her boyfriend and boyfriend's family. it was nice to have the house full of people sharing a meal, singing carols, opening gifts, and making another great christmas memory for the years to come. we scaled back quite a bit this year with our gift-giving to the kids. it was really, really nice. it was a bit odd at first because they opened their present from us (one each) and that was it. but in the end, and now looking back on it, it was freeing not to have so much "stuff" to deal with after the holidays. it felt a lot less overwhelming. of course, they still had gifts from grandparents and aunties and uncles to open. :)

a new sushi place called mizu sushi opened up in our city so allan and i checked it out last month. it's one of those places where the sushi runs on a conveyor belt throughout the restaurant and you grab what you want as it goes by in front of you. then, they tally the plates according to color to calculate your tab. it was okay. it was nice not to have to wait for your food, but we quickly realized that almost everything was a california roll. they just added things to the top to change it into a different type of roll. for that, we just made our own cali rolls at home, and they were scrumptious.

homeschooling has been the most challenging this year, mainly because both of the girls are no longer napping so i have the two of them to contend with as i try to school lucas. next year will be a new experience as well, since our plan is to start homeschooling emma in kindergarten. you can start praying for me now! i think the most challenging part of homeschooling is the parenting aspect that comes along with it. you can't get away from it. you play both the mom role and the teacher role, which i think is not as true in a traditional classroom setting. (teachers out there can correct me if i'm wrong here.) and all the interruptions of having a three- and four-year old running around you while you try to teach can get exhausting. this may all sound very discouraging, and i admit i've felt that way this year, but a phrase allan and i heard recently got me recharged again. we were reminded that the days with our kids are long, but the years are short. how very true. lucas is turning 7 this month, which means half of his home-time with us is almost gone! in another ten years or so, he'll be off to college and out of our home. thinking on that makes me realize how precious these years are with my kids. and seeing how quickly our little elise (our baby!) is growing is confirmation that time is passing by faster than we notice on a daily basis. sniff. to all my young mom friends, enjoy your days with your kids though they may feel long...for the years are incredibly short! (lucas is reading to the girls as i blog this, bless his little heart!)

we're back from china!

2011-12-06T05:55:00.000-08:00

we're back from our two-week vacation to china and hong kong! it was an amazing experience, for sure! we have quite a few pictures to share, which i will do soon, but just wanted to post and let everyone know that we are home safe and sound, praise God. the last few days and nights have been pretty terrible, with all of us up and not able to sleep even at 3 am in the morning (ugh!), but we are slowly working our way back to u.s. time. to keep ourselves awake on our second day back, we headed out to get our christmas tree and decked our halls so that we are now ready to celebrate Jesus' birthday!

our first day in beijing, at the Temple of Heaven (Tian Tan)

our last day in hong kong, all of us inside one small hotel room

with ALL of our luggage (Packed Sardines)

halloween festivities and a pinch kindness

2011-10-31T23:40:00.000-07:00

so, as last-minute as i was, we still pulled off some halloween festivities tonight...yay! we made a quick run to target this afternoon to pick up candy and the kids dressed up for the trip. we got some looks, but it was fun. a little while later, my cousin and her kids came over and we had our traditional halloween dinner -- pizza! after some face-painting and costume-selecting (they each dressed up as something different than what they wore to target), we hit the streets for some CANDY! at the end of the night, we had quite the loot. at one point, three girls came trick-or-treating at our door and they were each holding a boxed barbie doll. allan asked them what that was about and they said that some house was handing them out instead of candy. interesting! when they saw our girls, they offered the barbies to them. our girls were ecstatic! thank you to three kind young girls who blessed our girls with dolls! now maybe they'll forget about the candy. :) this is just one example of why allan and i think that the tri-cities is unique. we've lived here for 10 years now but continue to be surprised, impressed, and blessed by how nice the people here are. let me give two more quick examples; an employee who was helping us at home depot this weekend held emma in her lap as she was looking up information for us on the computer. not many people will do that. then, today, a serviceman came out to fill our propane tank and ended up helping me start up our fireplace. he gave emma a piggyback ride before he left, and this was after he patiently answered a multitude of questions my girls asked him. you could tell he was a grandpa...we found out he has 9 grandkids. :)

we hope everyone had as safe and fun of a halloween as we did!

my beautiful baby emma!

my pretty little elise!

the motley crew!!

click-clack, ding!

2011-10-30T22:14:00.000-07:00

sometime near the beginning of last summer, i began a search to find a good, old fashioned, manual typewriter. don't ask me what it was that started me on my hunt -- actually, scratch that, i just remembered. i wanted a typewriter to type out bible verses that i am memorizing onto cards that i store in a little wooden address file. yeah. so, i started with craigslist (where i always start my searches), then went to ebay, then to the internet to do some more research, and finally back to craigslist to see what i could find now that i had a better idea of what i was looking for. this is what i ended up with ...

my hermes 3000

my favorite color is green, so naturally i really like the color of this machine (the keys, especially). i really like the shape of it. i also like that it is manual and portable so i don't need to plug it in to use it. the click-clack sounds that it makes when i type and hearing the "ding!" when it comes to the end of the margin is pretty neat. i told allan that i would type love letters to him on this thing. i've typed him a total of 1. :)

in the process of getting this typewriter, i sort of befriended the person who sold it to me. his name is michael. he took immaculate care of this machine (which i am thankful for) and gave me a bunch of tips and articles on the on-setting trend of typewriters. after i mentioned that i had sewed a cover for my typewriter, he asked if i could sew one for his and i gladly said yes. here are the before and after pictures he sent me ...

before

after (it fits!)

and here's my own cover

my lovely green hermes 3000 sits in my new office!, which i will share about another time. i will say, though, that it is a space i can call my own. and, what i appreciate about it most is that it has a door that i can close. :) more on that later!

batman and robin??

2011-10-22T23:01:00.000-07:00

we're only 9 days away from halloween and we haven't done a single thing to prepare for it. no candy, no costumes. we don't even know what we are going to do - take the kids trick-or-treating? ... or ... stay home and pass out candy? since we haven't given a single thought to costumes yet, we will most likely pull something out of the kids' dress-up trunk. anyway, in honor of the upcoming festivities (whatever they may be), here's a picture i dug up recently that was taken back in june 2010 (lucas - age 5, emma - age 3). so STINKING CUTE!

from pasco to minneapolis and back

2011-10-16T21:57:00.000-07:00

towards the end of september, allan and i got the awesome opportunity to travel to minneapolis, minnesota to attend a conference put on by desiring God. the theme of the conference was finish the mission, bringing the gospel message of Jesus Christ to people who have never heard it and/or do not have access to a local church. hands down, allan and i thought this was the best conference we've ever attended! our hearts and passion for global missions were re-ignited and we are excited about the day when every people will confess that Jesus is Lord! allan and i have a hope that one day we will be able to be a part of global missions by being a "goer," living abroad somewhere and sharing the message of Christ. for now, we will do our best serving as "senders." :)

in addition to the conference, we got to spend some time (5 hours!) at the mall of america. it was pretty overwhelming, even for a shopper like me. there is a theme park smack in the middle of it, complete with roller coasters and even a water ride. i have to say, though, that it wasn't all that i thought it would be. there were multiples of the same store scattered on various levels of the mall, which was a waste. my feet were aching by the time we decided to call it quits. i think we spent more time walking from one store or escalator to the next than actually shopping. nonetheless, i am glad to have visited the largest shopping mall in america and more glad that i didn't walk away broke. unfortunately, i don't have any pictures to show for it. so, hopefully you'll enjoy all of the ones we took from the conference (mostly self-portraits!).

our comfy bed in our hotel SUITE. sweet! you can't see it, but our room was huge. we had to walk through a sitting/living room to get to our bedroom!

finish the mission ... here we are!

second self-portrait at the conference ... all smiles!

pastor john about to intro louie giglio ... so excited!

a pic of the conference from our vantage point.

a fighter-verse knight we picked up from the conference. it's standing on the bar of hell's kitchen, an awesome underground restaurant we had lunch at while enjoying some live music. the food was delicious. (btw, the purpose of the knight is to remind us that we are putting on the armor of God every time we memorize scripture. awesome! and, pretty apt, too, for being in hell's kitchen and all!)

got to meet JP after lunch!! mission finished! totally kidding! he was gracious and asked us to keep praying for him. we also got his autograph for his newest book, bloodlines. still need to read it.

our last morning at the conference ... still smiling.

waiting for the train to take us to the airport. goodbye, minneapolis!

p.s. a huge thank you to my parents for coming and staying with the kids while allan and i snuck away! thanks, mommy and daddy!

goodbye summer 2011 ... hello FALL!

2011-10-05T22:32:00.000-07:00

i am SOOOOO happy that fall is finally here! noticing that i didn't blog at all, almost, over the summer, here's a quick look back at our summer.

activity-packed days ...

meeting our new friend, natalie ...

meeting our other new friend, ellianah (born on the same day!)...

lots of park days ...

a visit to husky stadium's hall of fame ...

huskies' end zone ...

on the field ...

jedi knights ...

snuggle time ...

3rd birthday celebration at wallowa lake ...

trips to the grocery store ...

sharing cold drinks ...

story time with miss kelly ...

barbequeing and four-wheeling ...

dinner at red robin's ...

saying "bye for now" to great friends ...

biking ...

climbing ...

boating ...

and the best for last ... SUCCESSFUL potty training!!! no more diapers!

a wonderful summer indeed.

a host family

2011-10-04T16:24:00.000-07:00

this summer, we were given the opportunity to host an intern from china and had a great time welcoming miss schusie into our home! schusie is from nanjing, china and had just graduated from college studying materials science before heading over to the u.s. for the first time. she was able to secure an internship at the national laboratory out here where we live. she came a bit earlier than the rest of the interns so we got to spend some extra time getting to know her. i was most worried about two things being the host family; one was whether the kids would overwhelm her (they didn't!), and two was whether she was going to like the food here in america. we learned that schusie did not care for hamburgers or hot dogs, which was fine by us because we don't eat those very often. her favorite "american" food was pizza. yum! thankfully, she preferred my cooking over most everything else because it was closest to what she was used to eating back at home. whew! unfortunately, we didn't get very many pictures with her because she and i kept forgetting to pull out our cameras. here are the few that we did manage to capture! they are from the day she arrived and the day we sent her off to head home. :(

lucas' turn!

2011-07-20T14:30:00.000-07:00

one of my last posts was all about emma, so this one will be all about lucas. :) he is our ever-inquisitive, articulate, video-game loving, judo master! just kidding about the judo master part, but he IS learning judo at our local dojo and he's having a blast. the other night, he was in his skivvies and we caught him doing judo/karate moves in front of his window for all of our back neighbors to see...so cute! a few weeks ago, we got a great surprise when his sensei called him forward and presented him with a medal for having "the heart of a lion." i was so proud of him! his sensei told him that he was hard-working, aggressive, diligent at practicing and attendance, and had the heart of a lion, which i looked up and found it to mean "a fierce warrior." pretty cool! a couple of weeks later, lucas took his first test and received his first yellow stripe. another proud moment! (2 yellow stripes and a third test will get him a yellow belt.) i could tell he was really proud of himself, which is awesome because he can be really shy sometimes. besides judo, lucas is loving his swim lessons, still very much into star wars and anything that involves shooting a gun, playing soccer, boardgames, and movies. our little boy is not so little anymore. :)

he was very gracious to share his medal with his sisters!

independence day 2011

2011-07-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

we had a quiet and lovely celebration of our country's independence this year. it started out with swim lessons for the kids (no break, even for the 4th of july). it was nice because allan got to go with me and see how great lucas and emma are doing. after swimming, we headed out to burbank (wa not ca) to pick up some fun fireworks. the rest of the day was spent hanging out as a family, cleaning out the garage a little, and then having a friend over for dinner. we had to wait until it got dark before we could set off the fireworks, and lucas was in such agony over it! the girls really didn't like the loud noises, but enjoyed seeing the pretty displays of light. the funniest thing i can remember about this year's july 4th is when i took emma back into the house to go potty. she told me, "i don't like bad moms." i'm like, "what? is she telling me i'm a bad mom?" after some questioning from me, i figured out that she was saying she didn't like the MAD BOMBS. they were the ones that made the loudest boom of all the fireworks we had. so funny.

you can see from the last pic that i'm obviously not the photographer.

he was too busy playing with the explosives.

a night to myself

2011-07-15T23:34:00.000-07:00

allan decided to camp with the kids in the yard tonight. it was a last-minute decision, so no s'mores or campfire, just a tent, some sleeping bags, and 3 headlamps. i was sick, so i stayed in. secretly, i was a little excited to have a quiet night to myself! :)

their tent

my tent

elise pointing out a bug to emma

a little facetime to say goodnight!

an orchard in our yard...almost

2011-07-07T22:53:00.000-07:00

we went to pick cherries a couple of weekends ago and picked almost 20 lbs of bing, rainier, and benton cherries altogether! they didn't last very long in our fridge. so good! we love having ray french's orchard just around the corner from us. in fact, their orchard backs up into the yard of our neighbors across the street. the only bad side, of course, are the pesky little fruit flies that appear. now that cherry season is over, we are looking forward to some yummy peaches that are coming soon. the kids can't wait to bite into a juicy donut peach!

lucas was our "taster," or more like sampler :)

sweet elise peeking out from the trees...her shirt was filled with cherry juice at the end

emma and brayden, so cute

me and my boy

me and my other boy

pretty girl emma

our loot only minutes into the pickin'!

our big girl

2011-06-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

i have been meaning to do a post about emma for a while now. she has just gotten so big and so independent! we've been really busy so i haven't done a great job capturing all that she has learned and accomplished lately, but here's a peek at two of her recent big "moments." i love this girl to pieces!

our local library has a rule that you have to be able to write your first and last name in order to get your library card. emma has reached that accomplishment! last friday, after story time, we headed over to the counter and applied for emma's own library card. she did such a great job!

getting ready for the headshot. don't you love her with her little purse?

cheese...

the librarian was super nice and didn't mind the kids crowding around behind the counter to see the picture

waiting for the card to print out (not sure what elise is looking at)

here you go, emma!

an official library card holder!

emma is also playing soccer for the first time, through the ymca. her very first practice was a bit rocky in the beginning. she didn't want to be out on the field without either me or allan, but now she just runs out there and does her thing. can't wait for her first game this thursday!

and this is just a cute picture of emma holding up her letter cookies. she was so excited that two of them got stuck together and spelled 'hi!'

family time!

2011-06-26T21:26:00.001-07:00

my parents and aunt from hong kong came to visit us last week and the kids had such a great time with them that they barely slept a wink. as soon as morning came, they jumped out of bed ready for another fun and adventurous day. my aunt does tai chi every morning so the kids watched her intriguingly while she did it in our yard. the kids also couldn't get enough of gong-gong and po-po (grandpa and grandma). my mom said that each morning she would find the kids sitting on the floor in her room staring at her until she woke up. they are so silly! we went on many walks, played at the park many times, had lots of great food, went to toys 'r us to pick out goodies (spoiled!), and us girls got to go shopping sans kids one night! the best part for me was getting to sleep in because my mom and aunt took care of the kids and fed them breakfast in the morning...yah! the last time i saw my aunt was 4 years ago. so glad she was able to come with my parents to visit us again!

my three little turkeys

lucas and gong-gong

the whole gang, but separately b/c we needed a photographer

my sweet girls

my aunt (my mom's sister), me, and my mom

fast friends

2011-06-17T21:34:00.000-07:00

last summer i got to spend a weekend in seattle with a gal from my church who is originally from hong kong. it was neat and refreshing to spend time chatting in cantonese with her, which is something i don't get to do very often now that i'm away from home. she was able to teach all three of her kids to speak cantonese even though her husband is caucasian and speaks zero chinese. it makes me really, really want to teach my kids chinese! anyway, we became fast friends and my kids have come to ADORE her daughter and son even though they are way older. they came over for a visit the other night and after lily and riley played some cool tunes on the piano for me (they are both phenomenal pianists!) riley captivated lucas and emma with a bedtime story. the next day, i took my parents over to their house for a visit and here are some pictures of the kids with their newfound friends. pretty sweet.

siblings

elise & elisa

lucas, emma, and riley

doing the robot

a simple room for e&e

2011-06-01T15:05:00.000-07:00

a while ago i posted about elise moving into a big girl bed and the two girls moving into the same room together. i promised to show a picture of their new digs, so here it is. it's pretty simple, just like the rest of our house, but that's the way i like it!

kfp and baby boo-boo

2011-05-30T23:26:00.000-07:00

we had a full 3 days of going from birthday parties to a fun bbq get-together with good friends this memorial day weekend, all the while grateful for the freedom to do so because of the men and women who serve(d) our country. a big THANK YOU.

allan took lucas and emma to see kung fu panda 2 this afternoon, so i headed out with elise to do some galavanting around town. our last stop was to craft warehouse where i happened on a great sale on beads (thinking about getting into jewelry-making). just as i was finishing up on my selection and heading to the counter to pay, elise turned her head and bumped into the corner of a table causing a nasty little gash on her forehead. it took her a second, but she started wailing and didn't stop until we got out of the store and into the car. after that, she was fine and asked about getting an ice pack when she got home. poor thing.

surprise!

2011-05-24T23:46:00.000-07:00

back in march we took a road trip with my sister and her boyfriend to visit my parents because my mom was having some health issues. (she's fine now, praise God!) it was a complete surprise to my mom and, boy, did we surprise her. my dad was really cute, too. he's usually terrible at keeping secrets. he just can't stand the excitement and blurts things out or likes to tell others that he knows something they don't. stinker. well, this time, he did a fabulous job of not saying a thing to my mom. every time he called during our drive he would talk to me in a whisper, which, if you know my dad, is almost impossible. anyway, we left really early in the morning and arrived late at night because we didn't want to spend the night anywhere. when we got to my parents' street, i called my mom and asked how she was doing. (she had friends over and was playing mah-jong with them.) i pretended like i was at home and even had lucas say hi to her. while this was going on, everyone filed out of the car and my dad let us in. emma was the first to see my mom and she didn't recognize her because my mom had zero expectation of seeing us. it was so fun! needless to say, she was ecstatic about us visiting and we had a great time seeing her, my dad, and my grandma. here are just a few pictures of our trip. the rest are on my parents' and allan's cameras.

we were spoiled and ate a ton of awesome food that we can't find here in the tri-cities. we had a delicious chinese dinner to celebrate my mom and dad's 35th wedding anniversary, we had dim sum a couple of times, we had authentic shanghai cuisine (yum!), and we also had awesome japanese food. here we are at the japanese restaurant where emma tried sushi for the first time. she loved it!

here's my mom with a fish eyeball that she's about to devour!

we went into oakland's chinatown and i got to see my preschool! yes, i remember it. :)

this is a sad, sad picture. it's a picture of the family room of my childhood home. our old neighbors (who my parents are still friends with) told us that our old house (the house next to theirs) was raided by the police because they were growing marijuana in it. we couldn't believe it. my jaw dropped when we saw this, literally. so SAD. ugh.

water fun!

2011-05-21T22:57:00.000-07:00

a cool new water park (think sprinklers, not slides) recently opened up close to our house. they had a grand opening on thursday that we weren't planning on participating in, but in the end we were so glad we did! they had invited a bunch of important people to take part in the grand opening - the mayor, some city of richland peeps, donators, and even big top the clown! the most well-received of these was, of course, big top! he had a loooong line of kids waiting for him to create a balloon animal for them. elise got a butterfly and lucas and emma got swords. he is one talented guy. my cousin had her concession trailer there and gave away free popcorn to everyone, which was also a huge hit! the park is amazing...something like 5,000 square feet of play. wow! and, the best part...it's only minutes away from my house! the kids had a lot of fun even though they weren't dressed for the occasion, and a snapshot of us ended up in our local paper. (check out pages 2 and 6. if you're wondering, the thing on my neck is probably a bug or a piece of food. i checked and there is nothing on my neck anymore. and, elise looks grumpy because she was scared of the guy-in-a-bunny costume that came to visit.) can't wait to go again!

a day in the life of "daddy"

2011-05-15T22:43:00.000-07:00

lucas has been dying to visit allan's office for a couple of years now. he is still too young to participate in "bring your child to work day," but allan was able to get us all visitors badges so that the kids could see where he spends a majority of his day. they LOVED roaming through the halls of their daddy's "work," seeing the big conference rooms with the fun drop-down screens and lights, seeing where aunty vicky's office is, where my old office was, and the biggest kick they got out of their visit was the ice machine in the lunchroom. check them out!

deal of the week

2011-05-14T23:30:00.000-07:00

once we moved elise into a regular bed, i realized i had to get her a new comforter. i had already picked out a duvet for her (same one as emma, just to make things easier all around), so i just needed a plain-jane comforter. i really didn't care what it looked like since i was going to cover it with a duvet anyway. i had checked several stores (tj maxx, bb&b, target), but for some reason i couldn't find anything under $25 (at the least). so, i went back to target last weekend determined to find a deal. i was in luck because some employees were working on re-shelving one of the aisles of the bedding department. they were getting rid of the old stuff and getting ready to stock the shelves with new inventory. i walked past one of their carts and saw an extra-long twin size comforter for $9. yeah! i picked it up and figured that i could just cut and sew it to fit a normal twin-sized bed. so that is just what i did last night. it didn't take me long. needless to say, i was excited that it worked out in the end and i didn't botch up a brand new, perfectly good comforter. i love it when blogs have tutorials. even though this project doesn't require a tutorial, i thought it would be cool to include some pictures. i am just thankful the idea came to mind.

all pinned and ready to sew........done!

lately happenings

2011-05-13T23:49:00.000-07:00

just a quick post to share what we've been up to lately. i'm going to make this quick so that i can go and catch some zzzs before the kids storm our room! (the changing up of sleeping arrangements has caused me and allan some rough nights these last few weeks. and, i know i still haven't posted a pic of the girls' room, but i will soon! it's nothing big, so be warned.) hope you enjoy these pics!

lucas and emma had "crazy hair" day at awana a couple of weeks ago. i have been wanting to shave lucas' head just to see how it would look. i was getting tired of taking him to get his hair cut (which didn't happen very often anyway). so for his crazy hair do, we decided to give him a mohawk. we all thought it looked pretty cool!

last weekend, allan took lucas and emma on a fishing outing. so, elise and i hung out together for the first half of the day. we went shopping, ran a few errands, and then went to home depot to return something. as we were walking out, we saw that they were having a kids workshop weekend! look what our little elise made...so proud of her!

here's what our typical morning of homeschooling looks like. (i took these last wednesday.) see the smile on his face? love this kid!

here is emma doing "school" while i was working with lucas. such a cutie pie!

and last but not least, here is elise doing storytime with all of her little friends. she's pretending to be miss kelly, our local librarian. i thought this was the cutest thing!

moving on to today's happenings...

our friend, aliyah, came over to play today. after storytime at the library and lunch at the park, we came home and this is what the girls wanted to do towards the end of their time together. i thought they would have wanted to play dress up or something! i kept having to tell emma to keep her eyes on the road. several times she almost drove herself and her passenger off of the curb!

our little climber

2011-04-22T23:35:00.000-07:00

it is a sad, sad night for me because tonight we moved elise into her own big girl bed. our babiest girl is DONE with her crib! she has been done with it for a while now, but we just haven't had a chance to make the changes. i was also afraid that by switching her into a real bed, her sleep habits would change. from about 4 months old up until about about two months ago, she had slept through the night in her crib, in her own room, all by herself. it was awesome. then, about two months ago, she started climbing out of her crib and opening her door to come out of her room after her naps. it was really cute, but a little dangerous. THEN, just a few weeks ago, she started doing it in the middle of the night! she would climb out, peek out of her door, then run to us and ask to sleep with us. super cute, but definitely not safe. so, with all of the climbing she was doing, it prompted us to take action. tonight, elise said goodbye to her crib while allan and i worked to disassemble the bunk bed in the room lucas and emma were sharing. we moved things around and now emma and elise are sleeping in the same room (our old nursery) and lucas gets his own room back. let's see how things go tonight! i'll post pictures of the new rooms tomorrow...hopefully. for now, here's elise saying adieu to her crib, with me sniffing behind the camera. our baby is all grown up!

craigslist + cool find = big smile!

2011-04-10T16:03:00.000-07:00

i have really been into old furniture lately. in fact, i'm really liking some of the cooler mid-century pieces like this one...

...gorgeous! but allan doesn't see eye-to-eye with me on the mc stuff, so none of it will ever likely show up in our house. anyway, a few months ago i was looking for something to store a bunch of the kids' stuff in (art supplies, mainly). i looked to craigslist because i love craigslist and i love finding a great deal, but i couldn't find anything for the longest time. then one day as i was searching it, i landed upon the exact china hutch that i had seen and wanted to buy years ago when allan and i purchased our first house. (we didn't buy it at the time for a variety of reasons, the main one being that it was really expensive, but i really wanted it!) i was soooo excited to see it in my city's CL (not a larger area like seattle or portland), especially since i found out later that the company doesn't make that particular hutch anymore! i don't have a good picture of it, but you can sort of see it behind us in the picture below and behind the banner that i sewed for emma's birthday. (more on emma's birthday soon!) it has a ton of drawers on the bottom and sufficient storage on top, plus i love that it isn't what you normally expect a china hutch to look like. so, before you go out to buy new furniture, check out your local craigslist. you'll never know what you'll come across!

we heart our cousins

2011-03-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

my kids LOVE having their cousins, bethany and ethan, over to play. here are some pictures from the last few times they've gotten together -- a short, drop-in visit where they built a pyramid in our entryway, a sleepover where they got zero sleep, and a brunch where they got to sit at their own table. they always have a blast together! the neat thing is that i grew up with beth and ethan's mom (MY cousin) and had many a sleepovers at her house when i was young. i never thought that she and her husband would end up here in the tri-cities, but they've been here for 5 years now! bethany was only five years old when they moved here, and now she's taller than me. whoa. makes me realize that time with my kids will go by faster than i will ever want it to, so i'm cherishing every moment. i also realized that i don't have as much time to blog, so instead of getting rid of my blog i'll probably just write less and post more pictures. that should save me some time, right? we'll see! (did you see the christmas tree in the back of one of the pictures? gives you an idea how long it's been since i last blogged.)

happy 2011!

2011-01-01T01:11:00.000-08:00

we just got done playing an awesome game of scrabble with vicky and nate and i thought that i should post something on here to capture this historical moment of 1.1.11 at 1:11 am. we didn't take any pics of our unconventional new year's eve dinner of chinese noodles, cali rolls, and carrot cake for dessert (all home-made from scratch), but take my word for it, the meal was delish and our tummies were in heaven. happy 2011 to you!

striiiike!

2010-12-18T21:48:00.000-08:00

we took the kids bowling for the first time a couple of weeks ago and, to my surprise, they both did really well! the bumpers were up, of course, but still, their scores were pretty impressive. i forgot to get a print out of their score cards, so you'll have to take my word for it. lucas was timid about it in the beginning. he didn't want anyone to watch him. what he didn't know is that most people are focused on their own game and no one else's. emma took to it right away and would stand with her hands on her hips waiting to see how many pins she managed to knock down. elise was scared at first, but was running around laughing and goofing around in no time. at the end of our two games, lucas and emma asked to stay and bowl some more. we would have agreed, except that we were all starving so we had to call it a night. we had a ton of fun, though! i love bowling!

lucas isn't so sure about this sport.

emma's pretty excited about it!

elise is scared of all the noise, poor thing.

the kids are warming up. emma is copying EVERYthing that lucas is doing these days, hence the identical pose.

here he goes...

...look at that form!

emma's form isn't too shabby either!

allan knocking 'em down.

nate, waiting to see his spare.

my turn.

ugh! didn't catch that spare!

vicky's form is the best! :) nate kept telling her that they're going to have to patch up the hole she was going to put in the floor.

elise was all smiles in no time!

lucas' and emma's tiny bowling shoes, commemorating their first bowling experience. we are for sure going to do this again soon!

a getaway celebration

2010-11-23T23:44:00.000-08:00

allan and i were married nine years ago on november 17, 2001 in seattle. the day was GORGEOUSLY sunny. to celebrate our 9th anniversary, we headed back to the place we both love so much...seattle! but, this year, it wasn't so sunny and bright. it was gloomy and rainy, and even snowed the day we left! nevertheless, we had a great time just the two of us. allan surprised me by taking me to dinner friday night at a restaurant that had live piano music. i've started playing the piano again so allan thought i'd enjoy it. it was really cool and very sweet of allan to think of it. we even made a request for "walking in memphis." the next day, we tooled around town and also visited the exact spot where allan proposed to me - the kirkland waterfront. it was COLD. i did the exact same thing that i did the day allan proposed...i asked to get back into our car and out of the frigid weather! i suck, i know. but allan was totally on board with me this time. on sunday, we met up with our old friends, matt and edna, after attending service at their church. we had brunch at their house and caught up on each others' lives without skipping a beat. it was great and their family of SEVEN is just beautiful. i am bummed that we didn't get a picture with them. the neat thing about matt and edna is that matt married us and edna sang at our wedding! nine years ago! it was a great weekend of celebration and i'm already looking forward to seeing how we are going to get to our big tenth anniversary. i love you, allan!

a picture before we head off on our weekend getaway!

arriving into seattle, a view of the traffic.

the beautiful space needle!

the spot where allan proposed and i said yes!

i sat here nine years ago as miss yolanda lee!

brrrr....let's get out of here.

here's to nine lovely, challenging, tear- and fun-filled, encouraging, absolutely wonderful years!

mcdonald's, it's what's for dinner

2010-11-07T23:35:00.000-08:00

we don't eat mcdonald's that often, but every now and then it's pretty darn awesome. we had fun with it and had a picnic in the living room. the kids loved it!

a whole box of candles...almost

2010-11-01T23:17:00.000-07:00

happy 34th birthday, allan! thanks for always being there for us.

we love you!

random pics

2010-10-31T23:43:00.000-07:00

starting to plunge back in...once again. enjoy!

a castle that lucas built.

elise the giant next to lucas' castle.

i bought these clear plates and bowls from target for $0.44 each and love them! now, i don't have to ask the kids to see how much food they have left in their bowls during mealtimes. i just look over and say, "finish your zucchini." and, i get to see their cute faces through them!

lucas and emma enjoying some milk and biscotti. how refined.

sisters being silly.

i knitted these ponchos for the girls. they're still a little big for them,

but they'll grow into them in no time.

princess emma posing for the paparazzi

with lucas and elise trying to get in on the action.

to wrap up october 2010, here we are after a fun night of trick-or-treating and dinner with vicky and nate.

journal entry by lucas

2010-10-30T02:02:00.000-07:00

this week, part of lucas' language arts assignment involved journaling. he had to, without any help from me, write a journal entry describing his thoughts or feelings about something that happened to him recently, that he's looking forward to, or that he observed, etc. the assignment was only to write a journal entry. he didn't need to worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar, or penmanship (like i said, no help from me was allowed). it was a "creative expression" assignment only, and this is what he wrote...

can you decipher it? i thought it was the cutest thing ever when i read it and realized what he had written, especially his spelling of the words. kids are so darn cute!

i LOVE my sweet boy lucas and i love doing school with him at home. it started out a little rocky, but i am thoroughly enjoying homeschooling and really look forward to it everyday. it is so exciting to see lucas learn and retain the things that i teach him. the really neat part is that i am able to reinforce the things that he is learning throughout the day or week as we are doing our normal/natural things together because i know exactly what he is learning; i am the one who is teaching it to him. i wasn't sure how homeschooling was going to go this year, but i have been blessed by it and we are only in our seventh week!

i wanna awana

2010-10-24T23:47:00.000-07:00

a few years ago, when lucas was about two years old, we went to check out my little niece and nephew at their AWANA program. lucas was still too young to be part of the program, but i told myself that i would enroll him when he hit the minimum age requirement, which is 3. well, with being pregnant with emma and elise back-to-back, it seems, i never got around to it. so, finally, we enrolled both lucas and emma into a local AWANA program this year and they are LOVING it!!! i'm loving it as well. AWANA stands for "approved workman are not ashamed" and is taken from 2 Timothy 2:15 in the Bible. i love that lucas and emma are learning and memorizing scripture; impressing God's words into their hearts and their souls. i love that they are learning to know, love, and serve Christ. i praise God for His infinite wisdom, goodness, and grace, and i can't wait for elise to be old enough to join her brother and sister in learning God's word through this awesome program. check out the darling duo in their cubbies and sparks vests...they look so proud!

1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . cheese!

getting into the fall spirit

2010-10-19T18:22:00.000-07:00

i am usually very eager to pull out my box of fall decorations and don the house with all kinds of red, yellow, and brown-colored goodies. but this year, i seem to be having a really hard time getting into the fall spirit. nothing is up and we don't have even one pumpkin on our front porch. we usually have about 6 or 7. to remedy this, i took the kids to the country mercantile pumpkin patch that's here locally and we had a blast, as usual! a friend of mine from another church sent out an invitation to join her MOPS group who were going. for only $3, the kids got to go on a hayride, pick a pumpkin, go through a hay maze and climb a giant haystack, see some animals at a petting zoo, and even got juice and a cookie. what a deal!!! i think i will do it again next year.

posing for me

us on the hayride

jess and levi on the hayride

holding hands, how cute!

brother and sisters, awww!

near the top of the haystack

kings of the mountain!

victorious!

me, elise, and rudy the reindeer

levi, keeping an eye on rudy

a very cute piglet

time for a break of juice and a cookie

the loot!

a rut, it seems

2010-10-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

okay, so it seems like i've been in a posting rut here. i'm just never in a posting mood anymore...not sure why. um, let me think. maybe it's because i am so BUSY????? at least that's how i feel. our schedule this fall is crazy. on top of it all, homeschooling lucas in kindergarten is taking more time than i anticipated. i'm loving it, though, really. not only is he learning a ton, i'm (re)learning right along with him. recently, we've learned about conservation of mass, the egyptians, the romans, weather...interesting stuff i tell ya. do you remember how many points there are on a snowflake?

i have a lot of catching up that i'm going to attempt to do here in the next week or two. for a start, i had the pleasure of taking a group of foreign exchange interns to seattle over the summer. i had a great time getting to know them, especially the girls, and hearing about their lives over in china. they are all top-notch students from excellent universities and i am excited for them to come back to the states to attend grad school. i miss hanging out with them and practicing my mandarin! as part of our seattle expedition, we got to go on the famous seattle duck tour, visit the space needle, go SHOPPING!, and go on a "special" tour of the UW athletic department. it was special because we got VIP treatment. it was personally-guided and we got to see/do some neat stuff like see the crew boats that were sent to the olympics in beijing, go through the football tunnel and step onto the husky stadium field. neat for me. here are just a few pictures from evelyn's and summer's cameras since i didn't have mine with me.

the whole gang

me and evelyn (such a cutie!)

me and summer at the hec edmundson pavilion at UW

at dinner with our new friends (look at elise the goofball!)

sweet lucas and emma posing for miss summer

emma's first horseback ride at our friend heather's house...she loved it!

summa time!

2010-07-28T20:08:00.000-07:00

most of you know that i can't really swim, so i have really wanted the kids to pick it up, to be confident at it, and to LOVE it. so, we enrolled lucas and emma in swim lessons these last 5 weeks and they have done incredibly well. lucas has taken to swimming like a fish in water and his instructor told me yesterday that he is extremely comfortable in the water and is doing great. he has advanced to the next level in each of the 2-week sessions he's been in (same for emma), and we'll find out this friday if they'll get to move up again. i think lucas will, but emma is the youngest and smallest in her class and i have a feeling she'll repeat it one more time. i'm just really proud of lucas because a year ago, allan and i had to drag him (literally) into the pool. now, he's jumping in on his own and even wants to jump off of the diving board (with floaties on). praise God!

here's lucas at his first session with his instructor, miss stephanie.

our newest friend

2010-07-14T09:16:00.000-07:00

we have been waiting and waiting for the arrival of a very precious little girl and finally, at the end of june, she arrived! our friends, jordan and abby, are the proud parents of their baby girl, kamille, and we had the honor of going to visit the new family of four a few weeks ago. emma and elise couldn't get enough of baby kamille (i don't blame them!) and they kept wanting to hold her and give her kisses; abby was gracious and very brave to let them. lucas, well, he and his buddy canaan were just having a blast shooting at each other with canaan's plethora of guns and ammo. it was fun to finally meet kamille and visit with our friends, the proud parents.

my girls and a happy birthday to my sister!

2010-07-11T21:26:00.000-07:00

i love having emma and elise be so close in age (i can only say that now that they're both older!). they love sitting next to each other in the car and are almost always holding hands. so sweet. i pray that they will be the best of friends in the years to come. on father's day, allan took lucas and emma to go see toy story 3 in 3D so i got to spend the afternoon hanging out with just elise. we went to browse at a fun little gift shop and i ended up buying a mini euonymus that i love! i'm not a huge plant person. it has to be the right plant for me to want to water and tend to it regularly. it sounds a little lazy, i guess, but it's true. we also went to a local nursery that has the coolest stuff, including several koi ponds where we get to feed the koi. the neat thing is that allan and i had a koi pond in our last house and we ended up donating all of our koi to this nursery when we got rid of our pond. i have no idea which koi were ours, but it was just neat to think about it. elise loved feeding the fish and refused to leave. she kept asking for more fish food and when i wouldn't buy any more for her, she searched for the ones that dropped on the floor. allan and i can already see that she is one determined little girl. good in many ways, but not in some. our girls are growing up way too fast. the other day, emma told me that maybe she would "shrink down" instead of grow up so that she can stay my baby. awww! must have been something i said to her at some point. sounds like me! i love my girls and am so glad they have each other as sisters. i'm also thankful to have MY sister as a sister. she's caring, considerate, fun, funNY, reliable, and extremely resourceful. she loves the kids and takes as good of care of them as if they were her own. she's my best friend and we all love her! it's her birthday today...happy birthday, vick! we love you!

"sparkles"

2010-07-05T21:15:00.000-07:00

we had another great fireworks show on our street this year, but i have to say that it was a little less great than last year. seems that there weren't as many people out there this year, so there were less fireworks to see. nonetheless, we had a great time with our own stash of explosives. the evening began with some very tasty pork shoulder that we had at our friends', the wilkersons, house and wanted to try to make it ourselves. we used the outback steakhouse rub recipe and it was deeelicious! we also grilled some veggies and had some very tasty baked beans that i ate way too much of. the almond jello dessert put me over the top. it took me a couple of days to recover from such a big and tasty meal! once the sun went down, we lined up our camp chairs and started the show. emma and elise did NOT like the fireworks. they got really scared, in fact. so, i ended up taking elise inside and put her to bed. i was worried that she would be sad to be left out of everything, but she went down without a peep, even with all of the noise going on outside her window. i was shocked. emma wanted to stay up with us, but she wanted to sit inside of vicky's truck. towards the end of the night, i pulled out an old pair of "old school" headphones to cover her ears and she finally came out of the truck long enough to play with some "sparkles" (sparklers). we had a great time celebrating our country's birthday and being thankful for the freedom we are granted because of the many who served and continue to serve the united states of america.

let's hear it for limbo fish

2010-06-22T22:52:00.000-07:00

a couple of weekends ago we headed over to my cousin's store, smoovies, to hear my niece play in her school's steel drum band, limbo fish. they sounded incredible! their teacher, mr. leggett, is amazing. it was a great family outing (minus allan who was on a camping trip with the guys). the kids, vicky, nate, and i had a ton of fun and if you've never been to smoovies before, you need to head on over there...especially on one of their "movie nights!"

still behind

2010-06-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

in my last post of going back in time to make up for my disappearance, i neglected to include some pics from this year's mother's day. the day is now a little fuzzy to me, but i remember that the kids and allan cooked my favorite breakfast for me...french toast! it was deeeelicious! (i can't remember what else was on my plate.) they also presented me with a gift, which was SO precious. you can read about it here on our photography blog. i absolutely loved it and was amazed with allan's creativity and writing. i had him hang it up immediately. i chose a spot near the kids' rooms so that i would walk by it about 50 times a day. :0)

here are a few pics of me with my kids. i love them so much and praise God for blessing me and allan with them. He is SO good.

back at it!

2010-06-04T15:49:00.000-07:00

hello world! it has been QUITE a while since i've been on this site of mine and, honestly, it has been rather refreshing. it made me realize that it takes a good chunk of my time to keep this old thing running. but it's worth it because it's my way of "scrapbooking" my memories of the kids. since it's been so long, i'm just going to post some pics from the recent past without much captioning. here goes...oh, and thanks for stopping by and not abandoning this blog completely!

:: easter 2010 ::

:: emma's 3rd birthday! we celebrated with a princess tea party and played pin the crown on the princess, the princess and the pea, and find the matching slipper. she was honored by the presence of her family and prince and princess friends! ::

:: miscellany ::

cooking update

2010-03-22T21:37:00.000-07:00

so, last thursday was the big day! my friend, irene, and i did a demonstration at linda's (my pastor's wife's) house on basic chinese stir-frying/cooking and i have to say that it went VERY well! i had a TON of fun with irene and all of the ladies that were there and was especially blessed to see my friend and mentor, trina, from when i first became a christian. trina was my first joy in the morning small group leader and later i led a group with her and learned so much from her! okay, i digress. we cooked two dishes - asparagus with beef and bok choy with tofu. they both turned out pretty yummy! we had a great time demonstrating, laughing, tasting, ringing the bell!, and just fellowshipping with one another. so, what did i learn? i am now more confident with my cooking skills and will start having friends over to try some of my chinese food. (so far, my only guinea pigs have been allan, the kids, my sister, and nate.) :) thanks, linda, for encouraging me, hosting, and giving me the opportunity to share some of my heritage! and, thanks, irene, for being my partner in crime!

julia child asian style!

2010-03-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

uh, NOT! i'm no julia child, but i have been asked to do a demonstration later this month on how to do basic chinese cooking/stir-frying. we cook a lot of chinese meals at home, but it's all home-style stuff; not the kind of stuff that you would find in restaurants. my friend, irene, and i are tag-teaming it and i am both excited and nervous about it. i'm excited to be doing this with my friend and to be sharing some of my heritage with others, but i'm nervous about it because i haven't invited even my closest friends over to try my chinese cooking. i've only dared do that with my sister and (i think) my cousin. surprisingly, though, my kids eat the best when it's my chinese food! the other reason i'm nervous is because i HATE doing anything in front of a large group of people when their attention is focused on me. yuck.

anyway, i got to thinking, if you could learn how to make one chinese dish (a favorite, most likely), what would it be? mine would be these things called happy rolls at shanghai cafe in factoria/bellevue, one of our favorite chinese restaurants. another would be the curry from the roti canai at malay satay hut in seattle, another favorite eatery. (the roti canai is malaysian, not chinese, but i would still love to learn how to make it.) if you have a yummy chinese recipe and want to share the love, email it to me!

i'll let you know how everything goes when it's all done!

dancing darlings

2010-02-28T21:51:00.001-08:00

emma has really been into princesses, pretty dresses, SHOES!, dancing, and lots of other girly things lately and today, as she was watching ni hao kai-lan, i videoed her and elise dancing to the intro song. they are so cute together! and, notice elise's piggy tails. her hair is long enough for me to pull it back and she looks adorable, if i do say so myself! :) i am cherishing my moments with our last baby because she is going to grow up way too fast, just like our emma and lucas have. TOO FAST.

money well-spent

2010-02-22T16:54:00.000-08:00

back in september, we had concrete added to parts of our backyard to create a larger area for the kids to play and ride their bikes/scooters. when it was first completed, i was really excited to usher the kids out to play by themselves, but they weren't interested in it at all. the new space was left unused for several months. as a result, allan and i thought it might have been a mistake to pour money into the project. but, all that has changed! lucas and emma got up and dressed and headed out by 7:30 this morning and played outside ALL DAY! it was awesome! they didn't come back inside until allan got home around 5 o'clock. i even sent elise out there for some of the time while i worked in the kitchen where i could keep my eye on her. my friend tammy stopped by with her little girl and all the kids played outside while she and i visited and enjoyed our lattes inside. i had such a great a great day...a redemption from last week! :) here are lucas and emma playing outside on their scooters (don't mind emma's outfit...she decided to put on a pair of lucas' old pajama pants). wahoo!

happy 5th birthday, lucas!

2010-02-20T23:44:00.000-08:00

today is lucas' 5th birthday...whoa! he has been waiting for this day for the last two weeks or so, counting down to it on his calendar. :0) the whole day was gorgeous...sunny and warm enough to be outside. the neat thing is that on this same day five years ago, at 7:25 am when we welcomed our sweet lucas into the world, the sun was shining just as brightly. and, the name 'lucas' means just that - light. what a great way to be reminded of the day lucas was born. my verse for lucas on his birthday is matthew 5:14-16, which says, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." i love this verse for lucas because he definitely is a light in our house!

we celebrated by having a bunch of his friends over for a star wars-themed party where they trained to be a jedi and fought darth vader. ha! they all had a great time together and did amazingly well playing with one another. at the end, they all received their jedi robes and it was so fun to see them running around in them while waving their light sabers in the air. allan and i are pooped from all the preparation, but it was ALL worth it. we love you, lucas!

i give all thanks and praise to God for lucas and the amazing blessing that he is to allan, emma, elise, and me!

pics from his party today...more here
a look back

luke, i am your mother

2010-02-17T23:40:00.000-08:00

so, i woke up this morning with a pretty bad attitude and complained about ALL there was to do even before i bid adieu to allan. i had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. :0(

on the brighter side, allan came home a little early and brought some sunshine back into our home after the kids got to spend the day with darth vader. i thank God for allan. really, i do.

hope y'all had a better wednesday than i did! just trying to keep it real over here.

a fun morning brunch

2010-02-16T21:37:00.000-08:00

about a week ago a friend of ours was in town visiting. she and her husband moved back to texas about a year ago but he was sent back here for a project, so i got to see her! here's a picture of a group of us who had dinner together when they were visiting back in november.

while having coffee with this old friend, i ran into another old friend and mentor of mine. it was so good to see her! she ended up inviting a group of us over to her house for brunch and to see the remodeling she had done to her home. it was gorgeous. they put built-in bookshelves in their family room that flanked an awesome fireplace, and their kitchen was huge and beautiful. one of my favorites was a bay window they installed that shed so much light into their house. it made me want to do some remodeling myself. i wished i had my camera with me. anyway, we all had a great time catching up and updating each other on the going-ons in our current lives. it was sooo nice to have some girl time. the kids had a blast as well (thanks, cecily!). on the car ride home, lucas asked for a dog like theirs...a poodle...because they are non-allergenic! i always thought that i was free and clear from ever having to own a dog again because the kids are allergic to dogs (not that i didn't LOVE our chocolate lab, maddie). but, this presented a new dilemma. let's see how much will-power i'll have to say no to the kids when the time comes! :0)

double fun

2010-02-14T21:47:00.000-08:00

happy chinese new year (goong hay fot choy!) and happy valentine's day! we had a wonderful non-celebration of both! :) we did, however, hang out with my sister and nate pretty much all day, which was fun. we headed to their place after church this morning and i got to watch the last episode of j&k+8 that vicky had taped for me from months ago. i wasn't a follower of the show. in fact, the first time i saw an episode of it was when i was in the hospital delivering elise. anyway, even for a non-follower, i was really saddened to see their divorce unfold in such a public way. honestly, my heart just went out to the kids. sorry for the rabbit trail. back to our day. we went home for naps and then took a walk to our neighborhood park where the kids had a great time just being outside. i can't say that i'm excited about 90-degree weather, but i am looking forward to warmer weather so that the kids and i can head outside more often. vicky and nate brought dinner over to us tonight so we were elated that we didn't have to cook. (if someone offered me 3 wishes, one of my wishes would surely be to have a personal chef!) we had a great dinner, a light dessert, and then laughed our booties off shooting at a target that vicky had balanced on the top of her head. allan won "best shot" hands down! i didn't have my camera on me all day, but here are some recent pictures of the kids.

the kids riding the tractor at brayden's birthday party

our cutie pie

i heart my kids

2010-01-26T23:25:00.001-08:00

if you're wondering why there haven't been many posts about the kids (or in general) lately, well, it's because allan and i have been working hard to revamp our photography blog. we're hoping to debut it soon, so stay tuned! in the meantime, i thought i'd give you a quick read about what my three turkeys have been up to as of late.

i am considering homeschooling lucas for kindergarten (which he will start in the Fall), so allan and i thought it would be a good idea to give it a go right now while he's preschool-age and there's no pressure. we chose a curriculum called sonlight and lucas and i are going through it each day. sometimes emma joins us, but most of the time we do school while the girls are both napping. lucas really loves it and when i've asked him whether he prefers going to school or being schooled by me, he has always chosen me. hmm. it's definitely a lot more work on my part, and i'm not even doing that much; just kind of trying to get a feel for it. i know that if we decide to do it, it will require a lot of effort and discipline on my part, which i'm a little scared about i have to admit. :0/ besides homeschooling, lucas is really into legos, guns/shooters, transformers, bakugan, curious george (still), playing outside with all of his vehicles, and the list really is pretty long. he will turn FIVE (omg!) in february. my BABY is five years old! i'm getting sad just thinking about it. he is still quite the inquisitive and sweet little boy. one afternoon while we were reading together, this question came up: are there any stairs in which there are no steps? he immediately answered in a very matter of fact way, "a ramp." his little brain amazes me everyday. i love him so much!

emma is our little firecracker. seriously. i love her AND her big personality! but, sometimes it's less personality and more attitude. not good. i decided last friday (1/22) to get serious about potty training her after emailing with my girlfriends about it. so after we got home from story time at the library and a play date at the park, i changed emma out of her diaper and put her into a pair of cotton underpants. to preserve my sanity, i put on a pair of pull-ups over her underpants. well, she managed to stay dry for a while but eventually went through 3 pairs of underpants before we laid her down for bed. i wasn't hopeless, but i wasn't hopeful that it would be a quick process either. the next day we stayed home and i just put her in a pullup (no underpants) and took her to go potty all day long. every 15-20 minutes, i think. i can't remember exactly, but she did really well. on sunday, we put her in a diaper to go to church. after church, she told us that she had to go potty so we took her before continuing on to run errands. i was amazed to learn that her diaper stayed DRY!!! i was so impressed and proud! two hours and no wet diaper! throughout the day she kept asking us to take her to the potty (in public, which i hated) and she did not wet one diaper or pullup! YES! in these last two days, she's maybe had one or two wet pullups (not counting the first one of the morning) and no accidents. hallelujah! i am so looking forward to having only 1 baby in diapers. besides the potty-training, emma is into anything that lucas is into. she adores her older brother and wants to do everything that he is doing. she also loves to sing and dance, which is the cutest thing in the world to watch. she got a keyboard with a real, working microphone for christmas and she loves to crank up the volume and just bust out "Jesus loves me" on it! i've also caught her singing "you spin me right round baby right round like a record player" to herself. she is a hoot!

and then there's my little elise. my baby! i love her so much sometimes that i can't even express it. i just hold her and squeeze her tight and then she squeezes me right back (the sweetest thing ever). it's no more or less than i love lucas or emma; it's just different because i know she's our last baby. and i get really sad thinking about her all grown up, like she's getting to be. she's fully walking now! she's just a little bit unstable, but gets around just fine for the most part. she took her first steps in november while allan and i were away and my sister watched all of the kids. luckily, it wasn't much of anything or i would have had to kill my sister. she encouraged it. then, around christmas time she started getting better and better at it. not long after christmas (definitely before new year's) she was all over the place without a walker or anything. sad! she is the best independent player of the three. she's also the cuddliest of the three. she's pretty quiet until one of the kids tries to take something away from her or she wants something they have. then, she sounds a lot like a seagull, allan and i decided. haha! she's also our best sleeper. she goes down with the kids around 7:45 or 8p and can sleep until 9 or 9:30 in the morning. for a two-week period or so, she was sleeping as late as 10:30a! i got worried! emma and lucas both love her so much and it just makes me feel so blessed to see all three of them together.

a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

2010-01-21T23:20:00.000-08:00

thanks to my dear friend and mentor, mj, i got the chance to hear my friend speak at a bruncheon this morning about helping and respecting your husband and, boy, was i blessed. not only did she do an awesome job speaking, but i learned so much from her! i was also reminded of the ultimate goal in marriage: to glorify God! i had a great time getting to know some new women and also just being around and fellowshipping with old friends...such a treat! thanks, a and mj!

um, can we smile any bigger???

a palindrome day

2010-01-02T15:19:00.000-08:00

happy 01.02.2010! we've been busy over here celebrating christmas with family and new year's with family AND friends! this christmas, we had a great time remembering Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and rejoicing in His birth and the promise of His return. the kids (lucas and emma) were so excited each night to open up another door of their advent calendar to see who or what would come next in the manger scene. they took turns opening each night. we found out that lucas is pretty clever. when we got down to the last 4 days or so, he let emma open the doors two nights in a row. at first we thought, "how nice!" but then we quickly realized that he had calculated it so that he could open up the last door to pull out baby Jesus to complete the scene. that sneaky boy!

my mom came and spent about a week with us but had to leave a little early (on christmas day, actually) because we found out that my aunt in california had passed away. i was fortunate to have seen her only about two weeks prior, but i was still extremely sad and shocked to receive the news that she was gone. it made me realize even more how important it is for me to share the hope that i have in Christ because sometimes it can be too late.

all in all, the kids had a great time visiting and celebrating this christmas with their po-po (grandma). they were spoiled, as always, by all of their grandparents and aunties and uncles and cousins. allan and i were pretty spoiled, too. one of my favorite gifts this year was this esv journaling bible that allan gave me (mine is black). i LOVE it and will treasure it for years. what great fun and memories for christmas 2009!

christmas card 2009

a collage from christmas eve and christmas morning
my mom and elise, admiring my mom's yummy fish dish!

lucas and emma enjoying the snow as it was falling on new year's eve
cute lil' miss addelyn and the greene twins (drew and gavin) at the wilkerson's 2nd annual new year's bash

the countdown begins!

2009-12-13T23:10:00.000-08:00

there are only 12 days until christmas and i am so excited!!! it started snowing here yesterday, the day we finally went and got our christmas tree! allan, lucas, emma, elise and i decorated it together last night. we had so much fun! this year, lucas and emma were really into hanging up the lights, the ornaments, the garlands, and whatever else we have on our tree. elise, on the other hand, was really interested in pulling down the ornaments. argh. it was cute watching her, though. :)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
we actually started decorating for christmas (before thanksgiving, even) by hanging up lights in lucas and emma's room. they LOVE them and ask us to leave them on every night while they sleep. check them out!

later, i put up some other decorations around the house, including hanging up our christmas stockings. i still hadn't finished knitting and felting elise's from last year, so i had to bust my behind and get it done. i finally finished it last night and needle-felted it with her name tonight...yay! (some before and afters.)

allan was really on top of things this year and he got our christmas lights hung right after thanksgiving. i wasn't sure about the LED-ness of the lights, but they've grown on me and i love them now!

the reason we got our tree so late this year was because when we were available to go pick one out, none of the tree lots were up and open yet. when they finally popped up around town, we were too busy getting ready to attend my cousin's wedding in california. so, we had to wait until we got back to get our tree. isn't it beautiful? i love sitting in our living room and gazing at our tree. i also love going to friend's homes during this time of year and seeing their trees. if you want, post a picture of your tree on your blog and leave me a note and i'll be sure to check it out!

(one of the artsy fuzzy shots of the tree was taken by lucas, and the other by allan. but, i don't know which is whose.)
finally, here are some random pictures of the kids and also some from our trip to cali. enjoy!

(don't you love the one of elise in mid-sneeze?!)
(the wedding was beautiful and we had a lot of fun!)

thankful for family and friends

2009-11-27T21:59:00.000-08:00

happy thanksgiving everyone! this year, i am most thankful for the health of my family, especially our kids. i praise God and am thankful for the success of elise's surgery and also for her cyst not being more serious.

allan and i have only hosted thanksgiving dinner once...two years ago. all of the other years we were either very blessed to have been invited to a friend's house or we celebrated simply - just the two of us. this year, we decided to host again (thanks to my sister and our good friend, kat) and it turned out to be really fun! i was a little nervous about the cooking, especially the turkey, but everything turned out fabulously! in fact, as we were enjoying all of the food at dinner, we all couldn't help but toot our own horns. it was hilarious! i had a great time eating, drinking, talking, laughing, eating some more, and more, and MORE! thanks to everyone who came...i am thankful for your friendship!

a weekend of aahhhh

2009-11-24T21:42:00.000-08:00

so, guess where allan took me for our anniversary? suncadia resort in cle elum! i had the best weekend EVER and could not believe that allan took so much time and effort to plan such a special trip for us. he coordinated everything, including childcare and even going to the library to borrow a book for me to read and relax to during our trip. the best part was that he kept all of it a surprise from me. i loved it! i have to confess (boast?) that i'm not easy to surprise. i can be very discerning and can pick up on even the slightest of slip-ups. (but if you ask allan, he'll roll his eyes.) okay, so here's how our weekend went down. my awesome sister came over bright and early (7:30a) saturday morning so that we could get an early start to our getaway. we loaded ourselves into the truck and waved goodbye to the kids. we were on the road for almost 2 hours and it wasn't until we drove up to a sign that said "Suncadia Resort" that i knew where our destination was to be! i was so excited at that point! it was beautiful there. i kept oohing and aahing on our drive up to the lodge. the lodge was gorgeous and already decorated for the holidays, which made it even more cozy and amazing to experience. our room was to die for! it had a beautiful hardwood entry, stone fireplace, a private deck, and our very own HOT TUB! needless to say, i didn't want to leave our room. but, alas, there was much to see outside of it so we ventured out after a little relaxation. we walked around the lodge and saw breathtaking views of the mountains and trees. when i look at the majestic mountains and forests, there is no doubt in my mind that God exists. no doubt. after exploring the lodge, we decided to head out and check out downtown cle elum. on our way out, we saw some deer! they were so pretty and so close to us that i wanted to reach out and touch them. allan didn't think it was safe (i agreed) so we just watched them for a little while and then continued on our way. later that evening, we had a very romantic dinner back at the lodge. over dinner, we looked back at the last eight years of our marriage and talked about goals we each had for our future. it was so great to be able to focus on each other and talk without any interruptions. one of the best parts of our meal was the creme brulee! it's one of my favorite desserts and this particular one was scrumptious. yum. our night ended with more rest and relaxation and plain enjoyment of our alone time with each other. the next morning, we had the most delicious breakfast i've ever tasted (seriously) as we watched the snow fall. i could have sat in front of that view all day long. but, we had three little munchkins waiting for our return so we finished up and headed home. what a great way to celebrate and reflect on the eight wonderful years of love, friendship, fun, joy, excitement, and challenges we've shared in our marriage to one another. can't wait to do it again soon!

8 years and counting!

2009-11-17T23:41:00.000-08:00

today is our 8-year anniversary! i can honestly say that love and respect allan more today than ever, and i hope i can say that as each anniversary passes. he is the best husband - always encouraging and supporting me, doing special things for me, helping me with whatever i need help with (especially diaper changes, baths, and letting me have a night off), leading me and our family Spiritually, and looking for ways to improve our relationship with each other and with God. i am so thankful he is MINE! i love you, allan!

we didn't do much in way of celebrating tonight because allan has planned a weekend getaway! i don't know anything about it, so i'm really excited! (i would usually have a clue by now but i was real good this time and didn't try to get the info out of him so that it would remain a surprise.) i can't wait for the weekend to get here!

makes me want a fourth

2009-10-31T00:22:00.000-07:00

pumpkins galore!

2009-10-20T23:26:00.000-07:00

my most FAVORITE time of the year is right now! i love the fall season. the hot, HOT sun is no more, the air is crisp and cool, the colors are amazing, and the smells are irresistible. mmmm. i wish it could be like this all year long. except maybe christmas. i do love christmas! last weekend, allan and i took the kids to a new (for us) pumpkin patch because we heard they had cool pumpkins and great prices. we ended up with a wagon-full of pumpkins of all different colors and sizes. so fun! if you live nearby and haven't checked out job's nursery in pasco, you gotta go! allan and i will be going back for some trees in the near
future. :)

davis lake getaway

2009-10-17T21:49:00.001-07:00

i have never gone on a women's retreat before, so i thought it would be fun to see what one would be like. it was a lot of FUN!!! i was originally going to stay in a plush cabin (i.e., in the lodge), but seeing that the "rustic" cabins were a lot less expensive, i opted for one of those instead. plus, all of my girls from my small group were staying in the rustics. we were lucky and got a cabin right next to the bathroom. it made the super cold mornings more bearable. :) i had a great time hearing awesome messages from some very Godly women, praising God with very moving worship music, learning more about Jesus and why it is critical to preach the Gospel to ourselves daily, hiking, laughing, goofing off, zumba-ing, and just hanging out with some great girlfriends. i am looking forward to this again next year!

(1) FAT file girls (2) davis lake (3) our rustic cabin (4) the girls! (5) me and brenda (6) bre and abby (7) getting ready to hike (8) me and rachel (9) bren, me, and rach (10) rach, me, and bre zumba-ing! (11) devotional speakers, karen and kelli (12) me and erin (13) thesisters cake (14) goodbye shot in front of the lake(pics courtesy of rachel and melissa f. thanks for sharing, girls!)

one short month...two big deals

2009-09-30T22:36:00.000-07:00

september was a big month for our little elise. first of all...elise turned 1! allan and i were excited to celebrate her first birthday, but at the same time sad that our baby is getting to be not-such-a-baby. it was hard to see lucas and emma turn 1 and start walking and talking, but we also knew that we would have another little one to hold, rock, and cuddle. but with elise, she's our last; our last to swaddle, to rock to sleep, to hear coo, to feed a bottle to...the list goes on. sniff sniff. in fact, we want to keep her as a baby so much that we are purposely not encouraging her to walk! how wrong is that?! anyway, we had a wonderful time celebrating our baby girl on her first birthday. we threw a bug-themed party with her friends logan and analise, who both turned 1 within one week of elise. the kids were so cute all lined up in their high chairs waiting for their cake. see for yourself! (pictures to come)

then, on elise's actual birthday, we took her to chuck e. cheese's per the request of her big brother, lucas, of course. check the three of them out riding on the fire engine and motorcycle together! lucas also requested that we dress elise up in his power rangers costume.

the second big event for elise (and for us) this month was her surgery at children's hospital in seattle. she had to have a small cyst removed from her upper chest area and had to be put under general anesthesia for it. sniff sniff, again. we drove over to seattle on tuesday afternoon (9/22) in preparation for her surgery, which was first thing wednesday morning (9/23). praise God everything went exceptionally smoothly! i have to say, it was extremely hard to let our baby girl go in the arms of the anesthesiologist (they preferred us to stay in the waiting room). but the hospital was very good about keeping us informed every step of the way and our surgeon was thorough but efficient. we were expecting for a good long wait, but our buzzer buzzed before we knew it and we were talking to the surgeon about how the surgery went within an hour of sending elise off. it took elise a little while to wake up and recover from the anesthesia, and she did get a little cranky/mad for about 10 minutes after waking up. but, overall, she did GREAT. better than we could have asked for. she did so well that she didn't even need tylenol the next day. amazing. these little ones are so resilient. look at our little trooper of a girl. (the pictures are chronological beginning with us heading over to seattle to right after we got to hold her back in our arms)

school starts again!

2009-09-17T00:30:00.000-07:00

lucas started his pre-k class on monday and so far he seems to really like it! he gets to have his buddy, cody, in his class this year so that is a real treat for him. lucas also has class 3 days a week versus only 2 days last year. he's getting to be such a big boy! :( i really like his new teachers, ms. kim and ms. holly. their class seems a lot more structured and they do a great job keeping the kids focused on the lesson being taught. i'm sure some of that has to do with the fact that the kids are now one year older, but still. i'm liking it!

my sweet and handsome baby boy

yoo-hoo...

2009-09-16T23:08:00.000-07:00

i'll just make this short and sweet...enjoy the pictures!

some park time with our friends, carter and logan.

for my birthday, we made a visit to the darigold dairy in sunnyside, wa, then went peach-picking, and then enjoyed a yummy steak and lobster dinner cooked for me by nate and my sister...a wonderful birthday!

we spent labor day with the kids, just enjoying family time. we took the kids biking and to play at a nearby park. usually, allan is the one to pull the bike trailer, but i have never done it (and have been wanting to) so i wanted to give it a go. i figured if i couldn't do it, allan could bail me out. well, allan hitched me up and i started pedaling and it was EASY! i can't say what it would be like to go on hills, but who pulls 3 kids in a bike trailer on hills anyway?

chop, chop, timber!

2009-08-09T22:55:00.000-07:00

back in the beginning of summer we enrolled lucas and emma in swim lessons at our community pool. emma's class was a parents and tots class (the parent goes into the pool with the tot), but lucas' was not so he had to go into the pool with his class by himself. he would NOT do it. it took a lot of encouraging, coaxing, coercing, and a tiny bit of threatening just to get him to go into the pool. once he was in, he wouldn't participate with the rest of his class. interestingly, though, as soon as his class was over and emma's started, he would BEG to go into the pool. emma and lucas had the same teacher, miss katie, and she didn't have a problem with lucas doing that. well, lucas was a totally different child during emma's class time. we couldn't understand it except that he must have wanted one of us to be in the pool with him. so, instead of enrolling him into a second session, allan decided to teach lucas on his own. lucas has totally thrived with this new plan and is now jumping into the pool on his own! we are so excited to see him love the water and enjoy swimming!

fireworks galore

2009-07-07T22:28:00.000-07:00

we had a nice bbq dinner and then headed out to enjoy the fireworks show our neighborhood puts on every year. it was amazing! elise went to bed early so she missed it all, but i'm sure she'll be part of it next year. happy 4th of july!

honoring allan

2009-06-20T22:16:00.000-07:00

i'm not as technologically savvy as allan is so i didn't even try to put together any sort of slideshow or video for him for father's day. instead, i utilized my own savvy skills in the area of crafts and worked with the kids to make a card (it was cool, if i do say so myself...and i do!) and a keychain for allan. he loved them both! we had a great day honoring allan by going to church, taking him to his favorite lunch place, and then just hanging out doing the family-time stuff. allan is the perfect husband for me and the best dad the kids could ask for. he loves them so much that he's contemplating having a fourth. can you say, "craaaaaazy?!" um, no, and that's my final answer. :p i love you, allan!

a nightcap

2009-05-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

after dinner the other night, we headed out for a walk and ended up at the park that's right around the corner from our house. it was HOT outside, but we had a great time anyway. (if you know me, you know how crabby i get in hot weather.) allan and i tried to find some shade for cover, but the park is brand new so all the trees are still too young to offer any shade. here are some pictures of our "nightcap." enjoy!

a look back on mother's day

2009-05-18T23:47:00.000-07:00

i have to say that last sunday was my best mother's day yet! the reason? i had allan, lucas, emma, AND elise to make me feel like i was the best mom ever! i love them more than i could ever say with words. my day started out with some ZZZs (allan let me sleep in a little), then breakfast in bed with the whole family while i watched a slideshow that allan put together for me. it was so sweet that it made me cry. the original slideshow was much longer than this (and it was in chronological order, this one is not), but i thought i'd share part of it with you guys. don't forget to turn on your volume. what a great way to look back on how motherhood has changed my life for the best!

so far a little better?

2009-05-10T16:57:00.000-07:00

my list this week...argh. this time, it's darn a&w and their 90 cents-floats.

sunday -- root beer float

monday -- rbf

tuesday -- rbf

wednesday -- gum!

thursday -- iced coffee, ice cream w/brownie

friday -- watermelon, rbf, muffins

saturday -- rb (without the f)

i'm optimistic and excited about next week's list! oh, and i have a clarification. this is a list of all the stuff i ate after dinner, not just right before bed. doesn't really make a difference, i know, but my friend made a good point...life's not worth living without dessert. i agree!

so far not so good

2009-05-03T22:22:00.000-07:00

so, are you ready? here's a list of all the junk i ate before going to bed each night last week...so far, not so good. darn those orange creamsicles. (don't worry, they're all gone!)

sunday -- orange creamsicle
monday -- garlic bread, orange creamsicle, cookie
tuesday -- orange creamsicle, an orange, gummy bears
wednesday -- caramel rice crackers, 2.5 chocolate chip cookies
thursday -- otter pops, chips and salsa, gummy bears
friday -- caramel apple cake
saturday -- miniature snickers, root beer float

(i'm hiding my face in shame!)

exposed!

2009-04-25T23:10:00.000-07:00

so i've had this really, really bad habit of "snacking" before bedtime for a while now and i have recently been convicted that i've got to stop. i've been able to have self-control occasionally, but it hasn't stuck. so, as i was brushing my teeth tonight, i decided that every sunday night i'm going to blog a list of all the junk i gave into during that week. i figure that if nothing else, sheer embarrassment will break my incredibly unhealthy habit! and hopefully, it'll only take a few sunday posts before there'll be nothing to post about!

i can't remember everything i've eaten this past week so i won't be able to blog about it tomorrow night, but i will tell you that tonight i only had an orange. so, not so bad, right? we'll see how this goes! oh, and i'm going to try speed-walking because a friend of mine told me that it's a good way to work the tummy (thanks, rachel!). we'll see how that goes as well.
. . .
i captured this tonight...emma and her daddy

playing catch-up

2009-04-16T19:10:00.001-07:00

since i've been so bad about posting pictures of the kids, i thought i better just getter' done. enjoy!

1. emma showing off her "faaahhbulous" minnie mouse sunglasses.
2. lucas dragging his valentine's bag from preschool...he's got a lot of valentines!
3, 4, 5. elise trying rice cereal for the first time (3/24/09). she liked it a lot at first, so i decided to thicken it up a little. i ended up dumping way too much in (i've done this with every one of the kids) and she didn't like it so much after that.
6. elise trying avocado for the first time. eh.
7. elise wearing emma's birthday crown. emma kept saying, "i'm scared," so we let elise wear it. doesn't she look cute with her Daddy?
8, 9. lucas and emma showing off their wicked chopstick skills.
10. emma wearing her new sandals while opening a birthday gift.
11. lucas in his dragon towel from carter. he loves running around the house with it. so cute!
12. elise sitting pretty! she is now able to sit up without falling over. if i leave her alone for too long, she'll still topple, but i'm not complaining. she started sitting up by herself probably about a week ago. finally!

resurrected!

2009-04-12T23:48:00.000-07:00

He has risen! today we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! this year lucas really seemed to understand what easter is about and what it is we are celebrating. it was so fun to see him participate in telling the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. it really showed us how much he's grown!

our easter started out with church in the morning. our pastor gave an AWESOME sermon, which you can download and listen to here. after service, we headed over to our friends' house for some egg-hunting and easter brunch. the food was delicious and the company was even better! thanks for inviting us, erik and brenda! we had a great time with you and the hays!

so, on the note of resurrection, i thought this might be an appropriate time to "resurrect" this blog of ours. if nothing else, it will force me to pick up my camera more often and start taking pictures of the kids again. i used to be so good about it. now, the camera is one of the last things on my list of things to pack when i'm headed out the door with 3 kids! here are some pictures of the kids from today. happy easter!

swimsuit giveaway...woot-woot!

2009-04-10T01:20:00.000-07:00

calling all girls! a friend of mine just brought this to my attention, so i thought i'd give it a try (thanks, rachel!). there is this FABULOUS website out there called fabulessly frugal where these moms go waaaaay out of their way to find us sale-lovers amazing coupon deals and freebies. right now, they are doing this fun give-away on a swimsuit top from modbe clothing. you just have to go to this link at http://www.fabulesslyfrugal.com/2009/04/swimsuit-giveaway.html and enter to win. i just did it, and you should, too! gotta hurry, though, because it ends on april 12!

(i'll post about the kids soon...promise!!!)

long time no blog

2009-01-29T00:02:00.000-08:00

i've been doing a terrible job keeping up this blog (i know), so here's my attempt at it again.

elise has really gotten big these last couple of months. we took her in for her 4-month well-check and found out that she is:

41% for head circumference (41.2 cm)
88% for height (25.5 in)
57% for weight (14.1 lbs)

i haven't had time to look back and compare her statistics with lucas' and emma's, but i'm pretty sure that she is our biggest baby of the three. i predict that she'll be taller than emma, which will prove my theory about younger sisters being taller than older ones (of course, there are always SOME exceptions but for the most part i have found this to be true). allan thinks that elise is our cuddliest baby. he says that she loves to just lay her head on your shoulder and cuddle with you as you're holding her (i agree), and she makes the sweetest cooing sounds ever! we don't remember lucas and emma cooing as much as elise does. her sleeping is getting better. she usually goes from about 8:30 pm to 2:00 am, eats, goes back down until about 5:30 am, eats, goes back down until about 9 am or later if undisturbed. so, she's still waking up twice at night unless you are a morning person and consider her 5:30 am waking to be her wake-up time. i'm not, and i don't. we moved her into lucas' room about a week ago. lucas is the best big brother a little sister could have, seriously. he doesn't complain about her crying and doesn't ever get frustrated with her. in fact, sometimes if she wakes him he'll come out to tell us that he thinks elise is hungry. such an incredibly caring brother! as for firsts, she rolled over from her back to her tummy for the first time at 19 weeks (january 14) ! i was videoing her all along the way, but had to stop to answer a phone call and when i got back she was already on her tummy. i was so bummed. i caught it on video again, but you have to be really, really patient. she doesn't do it right away.

lucas and emma are a hoot together. here is a very familiar conversation between the two of them:

emma: "stop it!"
lucas: "why?"
emma: "cause."
lucas: "because is not a reason."

other famous emma sayings include:
"what?"
"i got it." (this was her first sentence, and she uses it all the time.)
"share-share!"
"tissue!"
"i want gum!"
"solly." (sorry)

okay, here are some videos and pictures of the kids. enjoy!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing"In the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. This is how you know Him. You will find a baby wrapped in cloth lying in a manger." (Luke 2:11-12)

a lot to be thankful for

2008-11-29T01:02:00.001-08:00

we were invited to our friends', the wilkersons, home this year for thanksgiving and we had a great time meeting their family and enjoying a deeeelicious thanksgiving dinner together. the kids (all 8 of them!) had a blast. check them out at their own little table! we have a lot to be thankful for, but this year i am especially thankful to God for our health.

dedication of our girls

2008-11-28T23:10:00.000-08:00

we dedicated lucas to the Lord back when he was just under a year old, and it was time for us to do the same with emma and elise. the neat thing each time we've done it is the amount of friends who are also making the same commitment with us. the first pictures are from lucas' dedication back in 2005. it's amazing how much things can change in a couple of years! praise God for all of our little blessings.

november 5, 2005

three years later november 23, 2008

no time for stories!

2008-11-27T22:53:00.000-08:00

okay, so the title says it all. i have had no time to update this blog of mine because things in our household have been crazy. i didn't think that things would be so hectic with 3 kids, but they have been. on top of having a newborn in our household, allan re-injured his knee playing volleyball so we've had one man down for the last month or so. he recently had reconstructive surgery done and is still recovering from it. it went successfully, but he's still in a lot of pain. the first 3 or 4 days after surgery were incredibly hard because i had to care for the kids 24/7 and care for allan all at the same time, all by myself. thank goodness some good friends brought us some meals because they saved my sanity on those nights. thank you, thank you! i have to share a quote from one of those friends who brought us a tasty baked spaghetti meal. his words of advice to allan were, "keep the crutches, good things will happen." i had to laugh when i read that. it's true though. we've received a lot of sympathetic "oh let me help you!" gestures from all kinds of people when they see me and my hands full with lucas, emma, and elise and allan hobbling around in crutches. can you imagine us?

the kids are all doing great! lucas is sweet, sweet, sweet. he is incredibly helpful and thoughtful, and he is enjoying pre-school. he still doesn't share a whole lot about his days in school, but i get told from his teachers that he's doing great. he is still super inquisitive and will ask you a question until you give him an answer. and, not any answer will satisfy him. it has to be the "right" answer. he knows the difference. he loves music and singing. anytime i hum a new tune or sing a song he hasn't heard before, he'll ask me what song it is and to teach it to him. he picks up tunes really quickly. he's also started memorizing scripture. it has been so neat to see him learn God's word. so far, he has psalm 23, john 3:16, and philippians 4:13 down. the next verse i'm going to teach him is ephesians 6:1-3!

emma is a kick in the pants. she's got the cutest personality. my favorite is when you ask her for a kiss. she'll come right up to you and give her cheek to you. it's the cutest thing. we're like, "hey, we asked YOU for a kiss!" she loves to copy whatever lucas is doing whether it be putting a puzzle together, drawing, hiding from allan when he gets home, or waving a sword around pretending it's a light saber. it is so heart-warming to see the two of them together. emma is also starting to talk a lot. no one but allan, lucas, and i can understand what she's saying, but we can definitely tell that she's learning her words. she is waaaay more adventurous than lucas ever was, which can cause her to get into more trouble sometimes. but, i still love her to pieces!

and, of course, we have our little elise who is just easy, easy going. she has slept through the night on a few occasions. (for you parents of newborns out there, you know that this is the most important skill to brag about!) but, generally, she is still waking up once at night to nurse. the last few nights have been an anomaly because she has been the fussiest she's ever been, which was horrible for us since these were the nights just after allan's surgery. i think it was my fault, though, because for three days in a row i drank a hazelnut iced coffee from mcdonald's (yum!). i think the caffeine was the culprit. so, i've backed off of the iced coffees and things seem to be getting back to the norm. elise is really alert when she's awake and loves to stare into our eyes and smile and coo at us. (i'll post her stats another time since i can't remember what they were.) we think she looks most like my sister so, between me and allan, elise has got to look more like me because allan and vicky look nothing alike. i always say that her hair makes her look like a cockatiel...a cute one, though! i get sad thinking that she is our last baby and that she is going to grow up way too quickly for us. so, we're just enjoying the moments as they come.

here are some pictures to catch you up on how much the kids have grown...enjoy!

a monkey, a lion, a ladybug...oh my!

2008-11-26T23:50:00.000-08:00

(sorry, i couldn't resist the cheesy title!)

we were in our first parade this year! we even had a fire engine escort us just like in a real parade. our halloween night started out with a parade around our friend's neighborhood. it was a lot of fun, but hard work for some of us. (can you spot the incredible hulk pushing the guy in the wheelchair?) it then led to some ringing of doorbells for candy. once emma got down a handful of houses, she was ready to break into a pack of plain m&ms. she was done for the night once that happened. the boys did a good job going all the way from our neighborhood through to brady and shannon's neighborhood. we ended the night enjoying some very yummy desserts and watching our friend erik scare the bejeebers out of his wife with a fake spider. i wish i had caught that on tape because it was hilarious!

seven years

2008-11-14T01:11:00.000-08:00

allan took me to tagaris tonight to celebrate our 7-year anniversary! it was a complete surprise to me because i wasn't expecting to have an evening together without any of the kids! but, our good friends offered to watch ALL three of them. allan and i had a great time just talking and planning our near future together. i have the best husband and am grateful for all that he does for me. our night ended with a poem that allan wrote for me, which made me all teary-eyed. i love you, sweetheart!

family time

2008-10-25T01:55:00.000-07:00

i was so excited that my sister was able to come out for a visit at the end of september. the kids loved seeing her and, since my parents were also here, we got to spend time as a whole family...a rare thing!

school days

2008-10-23T23:10:00.000-07:00

our little boy is not so little anymore! after much consideration, we decided to enroll lucas in preschool this year. (if you are wondering what all there was for us to "consider," we couldn't decide whether i should homeschool him or send him to preschool. in the end, we decided not to homeschool this year because i would have my hands pretty full with the addition of elise. wise decision!) lucas told us that he had a great time at school. he didn't have much trouble leaving us. he was a little hesitant at first, hiding by allan a little, but with just a little encouragement he walked into his classroom and said goodbye to us. he loves being in class with his friends, annie and chase. he looks so cute...and so grown up!

our elise

2008-09-28T22:15:00.000-07:00

elise is almost one month old and she is getting cuter by the day! we are all doing well, mainly because my parents are here to help out with so much. elise is not sleeping through the night yet (still waking every couple of hours to eat), but she goes right back to sleep after her feedings so that is great. lucas and emma continue to love and adore their baby sister. at 2 weeks, elise weighed 7.6 pounds...3 ounces above her birth weight. way to go, elise! but, at almost 4 weeks now, she still hasn't lost her umbilical cord stump. elise is very alert when she's awake and she loves to look around. about 4 days or so ago, i noticed that she looks back at you when you look at her. i could just hold her in my arms and stare at her face all day long. i already feel like she's growing up way too fast and pretty soon she won't be a baby anymore (sniff sniff). look at how she's growing...