Christmas Part I

The girls opened up their stockings and presents from Santa, and then had to wait to open their presents from Mom and Dad. We made them eat breakfast first, aren't we so mean?!After one of her friends brought this game over for a sleepover, she put it on her x-mas list right away. This "new" version has a digital credit card for each player that keeps track of everything!I love that my girls had scrapbook supplies on their x-mas lists!

This was how she reacted to almost every single gift she opened. I love this age (she's 5)!
Payton was confused when she opened boxes that contained clothes. She would hand them to Daddy right away and looked at us as if to say "Um....Excuse me, but where are my real presents?" She did get plenty of real presents (toys that is), that she was very happy with!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!

Dao, Denise, Haley (10), Kaylin (7), Emma (5), Payton (3) & Mushu

XOXO

Snowed In!

It has been snowing on and off for well over a week, now and we are still stuck at home!

She had a bit of a cold, but insisted on playing out in the snow.

Haley and our neighbor, PJ sledding down the driveway.

The "fort" they spent over 4 hours building.

"Bob" the snowman. Kaylin and Emma built this all by themselves!

This is what they had every time they came back inside from the cold, "Snowman soup". Payton's preschool teacher, Connie, gave everyone in her class a little kit of cocoa, marshmallows, and a candy cane. I couldn't just let her have the special kit, while her sisters drooled over it. So they each got one, and it became the routine.

This sled from Costco is super fast!

Here is our daredevil, Kaylin, who decided to "snowboard" down the steep driveway. She's so crazy!

This was a rare moment. She has only gone outside to play twice. She usually chooses to snuggle inside with Mommy and drink her "snowman soup". He worked his butt off, shoveling snow off the driveway. Even helped the neighbors do theirs.

He then took the kids (including some that aren't ours) to the school behind our house for some serious sledding (Payton stayed home with me). I called him 4 hours later, and begged him to bring my children home!

She finally lost one!

Kaylin, my 7 year old, finally lost her first tooth!

She has 3 more that are really loose, and have been for awhile. So we have been waiting and waiting. On Saturday night it was barely hanging there, and I was worried she would swallow it, so I took the initiative, stuck my nail underneath it and popped it out. It scared her half to death. I don't think she was mentally ready for it to fall out. After she calmed down, she washed it and found a special bag to put it in. Then she started crying again. Poor thing was not ready for the Tooth Fairy to come and take it away. I explained that she did not have to put it under her pillow tonight and could keep it for as long as she liked. She decided to hide it that night.
The next night, she decided she was ready. She hid it under her pillow, and woke up with a $5 bill and her tooth was still there! What a nice Tooth Fairy! She knew that this little girl was not ready to let go of her tooth. Congratulations Big Girl!

Chicken and Rice

That is all my poor doggy will be eating for a couple of days. He just had to spend 2 nights at the vet hospital because he could not stop vomiting.
It turns out that he swallowed the tip of his toy that is called a KONG (this one was made just for puppies and I never threw it away!). It is made of a super ball rubber type material, and he swallowed two big chunks of it.

I found the toy without it's tip about a month ago and threw it away right then. I never even thought twice about where the tip of it was (duh!). He had been throwing up here and there ever since then, and it became more frequent. Then Monday, the 15th, he could not hold anything down and if he had any water, that came up to. So as soon as Daddy came home, he was off to the vet. Thank goodness he didn't have to have surgery. Needless to say, he is feeling much, much, better now. Poor little guy!

Grandma came over to visit him soon after he came home. He sure Looooooves his Grandma R!

O Christmas Tree

The kiddos decorated the tree again this year (with a little help from Grandma R)

Unfortunately, due to allergies (sigh) we must have an artificial Christmas tree. Here is Daddy putting the tree together. Last year I splurged and bought one with lights already attached. Let me tell you how awesome it is to not have to spend 4 hours untangling lights!

And...here is his audience. Let's just say, they were not very patient!

This year we had Grandma help the kids decorate. She was staying with us for a couple of months until her new apartment was ready. We were so lucky to have her with is for awhile!

Emma was so happy to pull out her stocking! She wanted to hang it right away, but Mommy had to sort through everything to find the stocking holders first!

Mushu wasn't quite sure what was going on and was shaking a bit, so Haley picked him up and held him to make him feel safe and warm. Lucky dog!

Kaylin's Language Arts class is having two special guests go home with each student (one at a time). Meet Hoshi, the dragon. He is from Japan and is visiting different families to see what life is like in the US. She was suppose to have him for 1 week, but because of the snow days, school went to winter break early, so this lucky girl gets to have Hoshi for over 3 weeks. Do you think she is happy?? You bet she is!! Of course Hoshi has to go everywhere she goes.

More to post on Hoshi's adventure's with us later. Stay tuned...

Thanksgiving 2008

Because family and turkey is what this holiday is all about.

I made these little marshmallow "Pilgrim Hats" for the kids. They didn't turn out as well as I had hoped but the kids loved them.
Dao, his Mom, sister B, and my sis Robin each working a burner. (Actually, I think his Mom was just watching over to make sure they were doing everything right.)
We ate a huge 24 pound Turkey, and had plenty of sides to go with it.

It is not unusual to find a Goo Goo (or two, or three) passed out on a couch or floor somewhere after eating at one of our family get togethers. In B's defense, she was coming down with a nasty virus and was not feeling well. And I really think that Linh may have a small form of Narcolepsy (lol!).

Goo Goo B (Goo Goo means Auntie in Chinese) and Rob brought the Rock Band game. It entertained the kids all night. They stayed until about 11:30pm and the kids were being so good and having so much fun, we let them stay up and play with them.

Thanks everyone for such a nice Thanksgiving!

Disneyland 2008**Warning**Lot's of Pictures**

This was our first time flying to Disneyland with the girls. They were so excited to ride a plane for the first time ever!

They didn't really like all the waiting we had to do, though.

The weather was amazing! It was in the mid 90's all week!

The Parade of Dreams parade had all of the princess's and other favorite characters. Tinkerbell started off the parade and Kaylin, Emma, and Payton could hardly contain themselves, they were so excited.

We met up with Dao's cousin, James, and a few of his friends. The girls had so much fun riding all the big rides with them. After Splash Mountain, Emma decided she would stay with Mommy and Payton. So we went and watched the Parade of Dreams. We had seen it during the day, but it was so pretty at night with all the floats lit up.

We ended up going the same week as our best friend's! They have kids the same ages as Haley, Kaylin, and Emma, so they all paired up for the rides and Payton rode with Mommy and Daddy, and sometimes Heidi (Thank you, Heidi!). We also took turns waiting with the shorties who couldn't ride the rides so that all the of us parents got a turn. This was awesome because Dao and I got to ride on "The Tower of Terror" together, and that was something that we had never done. (Thanks again for hanging with us in Disneyland, we love you guys!)
Captain Hook tried to take off with Kaylin's pony tail!
They had Candy Corn grapes, carrots, and pumpkins. It was really cute!
Captain Jack Sparrow came right up to Emma and took her Lollipop. He said "oh, that is easy" in his flamboyant voice. We had to explain to the kids that he meant taking candy from a baby is easy. One of my very favorite rides is the Haunted Mansion. We go to Disneyland every other October, so we always see it all done up for "The Nightmare Before X-mas" theme. The kids loved it, too!

Did I mention it was super hot??!!

Can't wait until next time!!