Art Day with Daddy

We spent our last day of winter break chillaxing at home. The kids wanted to pull out all of their new art supplies that they got from their Aunties, so I designated it "Art Day with Daddy"! Dao, his Dad, and sisters are super artistic. My family...not so much. So I usually have the kids go to Daddy for guidance, since I have no clue what I'm doing.

The girls pulled out their new easels, paints, and chalks and got to work.

They take art very seriously. Part of this is because they see the things that their Daddy and Aunties have created and they want to do the same.

Kaylin sketched lightly with pencil first.

Then used acrylic paints.

She is working on her brush strokes and mixing colors. Here is her sunset that she finished. I love it!

Haley is using Daddies favorite charcoals.

Em did charcoal and then opted for some good old water colors. She got two paper cuts that morning! :(

Pay started with these cool squeeze paints, but kept squeezing out to much paint.

So she switched it up and started using a brush. The paper was super wet!

Haley also traced first, then used acrylics. Her last stand up easel broke, so she was super excited to get a new one for Christmas. Thanks Auntie Andria!

My girls could do art all day, every day. They have always enjoyed it, and I hope they never lose their love for it!

P.S. Dear Goo-Goo's, Thank you for all the new art supplies! They are ready and excited to have their art lessons with you!

P.P.S. Why do I not have any pictures of the Daddy?? Oops!

Haley's Sleepover

Last week, Haley had a sleepover with two of her besties, Livie and Isabel (unfortunately, her third bestie, Sarah, was out of town for the week). Our good friends the G6 very kindly offered to have all three of her little sisters over to their house for a sleepover, so they had the house all to themselves!

The girls made their own pizza's on pita bread. This is one of the easiest things to make, and the kids love to "cook" and make their own creations. Great for picky eaters, too!

They ate their pizza's while texting (Their cell phones never left their sides!) other friends and each other!?!

Haley planned an evening of facials (with masks) and manicures.

They spent most of the night in her room, gossiping and giggling. Have I mentioned how much I love my daughter's friends? Well, I do! She has a strong group of well rounded girls in her life, and I am so thankful that she is lucky enough to have close girlfriends at such a young age.

Thanks again G6 for taking the little sisters for the night and allowing Haley to have a special night with her besties!

Welcome Twenty-Ten!

Our annual New Year's Eve party/game night was a blast! The G6, and L4 joined us, along with Gabby and Ty (Sheree's lil' bro and sis, also my sisters niece and nephew).

Kaylin, Isa, Luc, and Ty started off the night with a little Monopoly.

Gabby and Haley decided to rock out with Band Hero.

Candy time!

Hubs pulled out the poker table and played the dealer for a little blackjack. This is always a favorite of the kids.

The L4, Gabby, and Ty all had to leave at 11pm, so we decided to get the kids in their jammies and start winding down.

It lasted a little while, but at about 15 minutes before midnight, the little ones started getting really excited! Hubs, and Haley started to fall asleep, and we couldn't let them sleep through the countdown. So....

...we told the kids to to wake them up!

Em and Nana got really silly and started tickling each other.

Pay and Dev started wrestling each other on the floor. I love that he wears a robe! So cute!

We toasted and cheered at midnight.

What a fun, family night!

Besties

The day after Christmas, we chilled and as usual, took down all the Christmas decorations. I know, I do not waste any time! I need to take my house back! That night, we went to the G6's house for a holiday dinner, and when it was time for us to go, the besties didn't want to part, so we took Isa and Nana home to our house for a sleepover!



These two were clearly not ready to wake up, but decided to anyway and brought their blankies downstairs to watch cartoons on the couch. (Notice the balloon animals still hanging around?)

Grandma got Em this candy claw machine (apparently Em's favorite restaurant that Grandma takes her to has one, and so Grandma had to get her a mini one) for Christmas. Em and Nana spent the entire morning trying to pick stuff up with the claw.

They were both so cute with their new design kids that Auntie Andria got them. They take them everywhere together and totally love them. Thanks Auntie!

Husband took the kids outside to play while he took the outside lights down. It was sunny, but cold if you were in the shade. Dao shared his skateboards with Kaylin and Isa, and they played on them for hours (sitting only of course)!

They had to have me come watch them do this swinging thing that caused them to move backward.

They thought it was the coolest thing ever and were cracking up!

The other girls rode bikes and scooters all day. It felt so good to get outside, especially with the sun shining!

Christmas 2009

Every Christmas, the girls wake up at like 6am, shaking with excitement. They come to our room one by one and get on the bed while saying "Merry Christmas! Can we go see if Santa came?". Husband and I make them wait while we get ready to go downstairs, and then we all go down together. Except, for some reason this year, Kaylin decided that we told her not to wake us??? What!! Why in the world would we be so cruel and make them wait?? We did not tell her that, and we are thinking she had a dream about it or something.
Anyway, at 7:30am, little Payton comes in our room and asks to go downstairs. My first thought is that they were so tired from the Christmas Eve festivities that they actually slept in. I mean, it was super quiet downstairs. So I wake up husband, and we start heading down. The other girls doors are closed so I was thinking it was true, but as soon as I rounded the corner to the family room, I see the other three cuddled up, quietly watching TV. They were so excited to see us and begged to start on their stockings. Apparently, Kaylin shared with them that they were not to wake us, and therefore, they didn't.
Now I know most parents would be happy to sleep in a bit more, but husband and I were truly sad that we didn't get to see the look on their faces when they saw that Santa came and brought gifts!

Well the rest of the morning went along as planned, and the girls were very excited to "finally" go through their stockings and open their gifts from Santa and Mom and Dad. They exchange their gifts to each other on Christmas Eve.

As soon as they were done, husband decided he needed to go try his new (little) ramp I had bought him. It was freezing cold and icy, but he couldn't resist the temptation.

The rest of the family started arriving around 4pm, and the Wii is always a big hit to kill the time until we eat (and after). Luc, Dan, Haley, and Brian were really into a game of Wii tennis. So much so that while serving the ball, Dan (who is the tallest in the fam) hit the ceiling with the Wii remote! I should tell you that Dan's arms are tatted out by the kids and their new markers!

Goo-Goo B, let the kids go to town, putting Tattoos all over her. Check out her legs! Goo-Goo's Linh and Xuan were the same. I wish I took a picture with you all together showing your fabulous tattoos! Dang it!

Kaylin made little toe families, so I made them all smile and say "cheese!".

Tito Rob, decided to pass the time in with the new bop it that Haley got for Christmas.

After an amazing dinner of Turkey, ham, chicken adobo, shrimp, pasta, and more, we finally settled down to open presents. Tito Rob (Apparently he insisted on getting his own gift for us!), got the fam DJ Hero! We all went crazy with excitement! Especially, Dao!

Emma with her new, Bella and Edward barbies. Thanks Grandma! She loves them!

Pay and Livi, playing with pays new Zhu-Zhu pets. They played with them for a couple of hours!

Pay, modeling her new necklace from Grandma.

The DJ Hero was opened immediately and Dao was the first to take a turn. Can you see my sister, Andria's hand behind Rob? I think she was trying to be sneaky and take a pic of them without getting in any of my pictures!

One of the most entertaining activities of the night was the balloon animal kit that Dan got from B and Rob. He cracked it open and everyone started making light sabers, dogs, swans and beautiful hats like the one that Brian is wearing. Umm...Is that the "blue Steel" look from zoolander? haha!

Then it was on to dessert. Xuan made these pretty and delicious cupcakes with peppermint frosting.

B made some yummy carrot cake cupcakes with maple candies on top. My Mom made, a couple different kinds of fudge, and we had all kinds of cookies, and chocolate covered pretzels (Thanks Luc and Livi for sharing your yummy pretzels that you made with us!).

I think everyone left at almost 11pm and it was so lovely to chill at home with the family all day.

We are very blessed to have such a fun and loving family. Thank you all! We love you!

Christmas Eve Fun!

On Christmas Eve, the girls and I got to stay in our jammies and have a chill day at home until about 3pm. Daddy had to work all day and didn't get home until almost 8. :(

I didn't do much baking this year, but I did have the girls make these easy turtles that I found on ourbestbites.com . The little ones (Kaylin helped, peel the wrappers off the candy, and then took off to watch cartoons!) put the pretzels and Rollo's on the baking sheets...

and after I took them out of the oven, Haley pressed the pecans and M&M's in. Super easy, and Oh.So.Good!
We finally got dressed and headed over to my sister, Andria's house to make cookies for Santa and eat dinner. This was round two, I didn't get a picture of the first round of kids decorating cookies. :(

My sister, Robin, made a huge batch of sugar cookies for all the kids to decorate. Thank you, Auntie Robin!

We are very fortunate that my kids besties are my brother-in-law, Van's (my sister, Andria's husband) great niece's. His niece is one of my besties, Sheree. This means that we get to see each other on holiday's too! Isa and Kay are super silly with their bunny ears!

Nana and Em are also besties and can't seem to get enough of each other! They play so well and giggle the entire time they are together!

My oldest Haley, and Sheree's sister, Gabby have become pretty close. They text each other and look forward to the time that they get to spend together. They live about 30 minutes South of us, so they see each other at birthdays and holidays. Thanks to Sheree, and Andria for helping to get them together. It means a lot to Haley!

The boys (my nephew Luc, and Gabby and Sheree's younger brother, Tyler) were trying to make them laugh. I guess when you are the oldest (at home) you get used to ignoring the younger ones.

Haley was very lucky and got to give baby Kaydalin a bottle. She is the youngest in the family and is the daughter of J.J., who is Sheree, Gabby, and Tyler's brother, and my bro in-law's nephew. I know it is confusing!

Just before the G6 left to their next party, we got all the kids together for a group photo. Their are 15 kids total sitting in the pic, so we couldn't really get everyone to look. I took this pic right before Madi (the G6's youngest) made a run for it.

This was the only time we say Pay, Livi, and Dev. They were upstairs in the playroom almost the entire night, so no pics of just them.

I wish I had taken a pic of the food. My sisters and Mom made gumbo, pecan catfish, and my fave baked breaded chicken. It was super yummy! Thanks L4 for hosting!

Holiday Wishes

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!

P.S. Thank you so much Connie and Van for sending our girls these adorable jammies and yummy Godiva chocolates! We can't wait to see you in July! xoxo