Portland, OR

I think we must have just had too much Seattle in us, cause one Saturday, completely without a compelling reason, we decided to take a road trip to Portland. Caleb had watched something on the Travel Channel about Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland, and we figured that was as good as an excuse as any for driving 3 1/2 hours with 3 kids in the car.

So after hearing three noisy kids whine, sing, complain, shout, etc., we finally arrived at our destination. But what do you know...guess when they finally decided to sleep. While we were finding parking. Whatever!!

After waiting in line for about a half hour making little progress, we decided to risk it and try to find their new location open somewhere nearby. Thanks to my new BFF, the iPhone, finding a new place in a strange city wasn't difficult at all.



I do have to say we were not too impressed with the Voodoo Doughnuts. They had run out of their most popular flavors by noon when we got there, and there wasn't much in the way of seating except for a coffin shaped wicker lounge chair and about 3 school desks...yes, like the kind where the desk is attached to the chair??? Weird. The doughnuts were okay, but really, I mean, it is doughnuts, not French pastries...how good can you make them?

We drove by my Grandparent's house...it is always so nostalgic driving by since I have so many happy memories (my grandparents passed in 2000 and 2002) at their house.




Well, fortunately, Voodoo was a cover for what both my hubby and I knew we were really in Portland for, but didn't want to really admit it. Tax free shopping.


I do have to admit, though, that marathon shopping (which is usually what you do with a tax-free day in Portland) is somewhat limited with kids. Like the major diaper episode at WalMart...you don't want to really know. We spent some time at the playground for the kids to blow off some steam. We got a few things that we'll need for our upcoming trip to Hawaii. It was a lot of fun, but in the end, we didn't end up buying all that much...which was really a good thing.

We had a nice quiet drive home with three kids sleeping...allowing Mike and I to have some time together to talk. We used to love taking drives together p.k. (pre kids), and it is rare now to get a quiet moment in, but nothing like a day of shopping, doughnuts, and playareas to wear kids out!

I Picked This Just for You!

Kristina wins, again, first prize for hitting another milestone months ahead of her brothers (Matthew hasn't even mastered this one yet, although Caleb is embarrassingly competent)...

Nose picking!

Pure Mike

And now my favorite thing in this world available in a convenient bottle...

Valentine's Day

We have had a recent stretch of beautiful days (for a Seattle February) with clear blue skies, but still pretty darn cold. (30s/40s) Today I somehow felt ambitious enough to take the boys for a walk in our neighborhood. When Caleb realized we were going on a trail, not the park, he cried hysterically (making us quite a sight for passerbys). However the moment we turned on down to the trail, he was quiet, then running, then giggling. We really have a fantastic trail system in our neighborhood, and sad enough, I just have never been stroller-free so I could enjoy it. This trail was alongside a creek and even had two footbridges. It was so gorgeous, almost like a getaway...

Then we headed off to the park where we found they had recently installed a new swingset...sweet! This is a great neighborhood, except if you have to get anywhere when it snows.

I have to say, I really can't wait for some decent warm weather to come around. I can't wait for more warmth and longer days.





So we are going on vacation soon, so it didn't make sense to break the budget and fight for a reservation on Valentine's Day. So after we put the kids to bed, we decorated the family room with candles, pulled out the wine, bread, cheese, smoked salmon, salomi, olives, etc., etc., and watched Fireproof. It was quite a romantic evening despite being surrounded by toys, and we were very impressed by the quality and substance of the movie. Highly recommended.

This sucks...

Well, Godaddy.com has my photos held hostage somewhere on their cyberservers probably next to some sleezy Superbowl ad clips since I refuse to pay them another dime. So all of my blog entries are now "photoless". I have all the photos, I just need to upload them.

So if anyone is wandering around and notices this, I'm sorry. I am planning on working on this asap, but there are probably around 2000 photos that will need to be updated. And this might take some time... :)

So far everything from mid-November to now is fixed.

25 Random Facts About My Kids

In the spirit of the Facebook craze, here are 25 random facts about my children (that I am writing down so I don't forget them)

1. 1 - Caleb wants to be a farmer when he grows up.  He is obsessed with John Deere tractors and horses.  I have no idea where this city kid gets it from.
2. 2 - Kristina does not like to cuddle.  Even at night if she wakes up for milk, when she is done, she will sit up with wide open eyes, and point to her crib.
3. 3 - Matthew hates wearing pants...he often runs around the house in just his shirt and undies.
4. 4 - Kristina has the stinkiest poop I've ever smelled...and I've changed lots of diapers.  I seriously think it should be classified as a biological weapon.
5. 5 - One of Caleb's favorite TV shows is "No Reservations." He loves to mimick the announcer's voice saying in a low tone, "Nooooo Re-ser-va--tions"
6. 6 - Kristina sucks two fingers, never a thumb or a pacifier.  Mike's aunt says that in Vietnamese culture, that means she will love both parents.  She really is equally attached to both Mom and Dad.
7. 7 - Kristina learned how to give "Hi-Fives" on Superbowl Sunday.  She now gives them generously and enthusiastically.
8. 8 - We hardly ever call our daughter "Kristina".  She was exclusively "Princess" before she was born, and now we almost always call her "Baby" or "Baby Girl."
9. 9 - Matthew loves to eat Tim's Cascade Jalepeno chips.  If I let him, he'd eat the whole bag.  The whole time he just says "Spicy!  Spicy!" and pops another one in.
   
10. 10 - Caleb still insists that I fall asleep with him if he needs to take a nap.  This is the one time of day that he always wants Mommy next to him.
11. 11 - Matthew often sneaks into his drawers when he is supposed to be napping and changes his clothes.  It is quite common that he will emerge after sleeping with new underwear and a new shirt...with 4 or 5 discarded the floor.
12. 12 - The major difference I've noticed with having a girl is toy preference.  My boys seemed to gravitate to toys with wheels or other moving parts.  Kristina always prefers toys with faces...stuffed animals or dolls.
13. 13 - The real love of Kristina's life is her stuffed pig.  I bought it for her since she is born in the Year of the Pig.  She will scream and holler and will not sleep unless she has her beloved piggy.  No substitutes accepted.
14. 14 - Matthew insists on putting the lid on his own bottle.  (2 1/2 year olds are supposed to be off a bottle, but he can't use a sippy cup well because of his cleft gum and those teeth that are supposed to be ruined if they use a bottle? already extracted cause they were already messed up)  He holds my hand behind my back as he screws the lid and nipple on.
15. 15 - Caleb is a horrible veggie and fruit eater.  I have to hide pureed carrots in his mac and cheese or give him fruit leather.  Or have Daddy give him the "eye" during dinner.
16. 16 - When asked to do something Caleb usually says "I don't know how..." Even if his younger brother just completed the task with ease. The bad news is that I'm pretty sure he got that trait from me. The good news is that I eventually figured out how to dress myself, pick up my toys, and put my shoes on.
17. 17 - Matthew loves veggies and fruit.  His problem is that he doesn't like meat.  So I often make him egg whites (he doesn't like the yolk) for breakfast.
18. 18 - Kristina refuses to eat baby food...and is the only kid that routinely likes Mommy's cooking.
19. 19 - Caleb often wakes up from naps absolutely screaming and crying.  Nothing I do can calm him down.  He's done this since he was 2.
20. 20 - Matthew talks a lot, but mostly without consonants.  As a result, his words are sometime hard to understand, but very cute.  He loves to please us, and when we ask him something, he always responds with his enthusiastic "O-Jay!"
21. 21 - Caleb has been as far North as the Arctic Circle, as far East as Finland, as far West and South as Saigon.  He has been to Italy (in utero), the Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, France, Taiwan, Hawaii, and Vietnam.  He has flown many times...nearly 60 touchdown and landings.
22. 22 - Matthew has not been on a plane since he touched down for the first time in Seattle.
23. 23 - Kristina?  She's just been to Boise.
24. 24 - Matthew loves to drink his milk lying down on one of the stairs looking up at the sky.  It is very peaceful to watch him.
25. 25 - Caleb has an amazing memory.  He still remembers who gave him which toy (even as far back to his 2nd birthday).  He also still remembers some people in North Carolina.

A Free Woman, a Free Blogger!

I recently made the painful and excruciating choice to abandon something that I have loved, nurtured, and actually paid an obscene amount of money for...my beloved blog URL.

I take great pride (okay, I have pathetically few real accomplishments other than my kids) in the fact that I was a blog pioneer.  Meaning, I've blogged for a full 4+ years!  But back in the old days when dinosaurs roamed the earth and blogging was just beginning, it wasn't an easy thing to do.  So this pioneer begged and pleaded with her little sister, the computer whiz, to set up a blog for me.  But it involved paying for URLs and paying for FTP sites and server space...and it has been SUCH a pain to maintain.  I feel that every few months someone is threatening to take down my beloved blog if I don't fork over my credit card number again.  Plus, I used to use godaddy.com, and I refuse to pay any more money to support their insipid Superbowl ads.

Also, I realize that if I am to chronicle my kids' lives, I want a certain amount of anonymity.  I mean I don't want future colleges to google my kid's name only to find articles about his potty training.  I mean, go ahead and publish his genome and SSN while I'm at it.  So when I have the time (ha ha ha), I will "scrub" this site for personal info (and also replace all the photos that seem to have not transferred) and make us just another happy anonymous family in Bloggerland.

Also, my old blog was so old that it wouldn't use any of the new features that Blogger was developing.  Very uncool.  So even though I love doing graphic design, I was stuck with some rather dull templates and very cumbersome navigating.

While I'd love to spend some time developing a very unique and knock-em-dead layout for my blog, until I am somehow gifted with this somehow hitting the top of my to-do list, I did find this website that has adorable templates, and actually had over five, count 'em FIVE, damask templates to choose from.  I couldn't resist doing my own header, but that wasn't a big deal.

I'm excited to start on a new blog...I've imported Caleb and Matthew's old blog, which is cool now to have all of our blogs in one place.

So welcome to the life and times of our little family...

Update on the Boys

Okay, we just did an update on Baby Girl for her birthday, but how about my boys?

Caleb is growing up so fast...I've been trying to hold on to his little boyishness, but it is slipping through my fingers. He is talking ALL the time. (I can't listen to anything on the radio in the car because the kid won't keep quiet for more than 3 seconds.) He loves acting out scenes in movies. Currently the opening scene from "The Lion King" is on my iPhone as the ringtone because he sings along with it when ever the phone rings. He also just watched "Horton Hears a Who" and loves to belt out "I Just Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore" at any given moment. It is HILARIOUS!

He has recently started giving up on afternoon naps. I've been so lucky to make it to nearly 4 1/2 with him napping every day (admittedly for my sanity as my main goal). I can make him nap about 2 times a week if I'm lucky, but I'm starting to try to teach him the concept of "quiet time". (Refer to what I said about this kid in the car...not easy to shut him up.)

The worst part of him growing up so far is that now, kisses are "icky". Occasionally, he will let me kiss him, and on a rare event, he still will kiss me, but it is so sad to see him move on to being a big boy.

He has even decided whom he will marry (in a ickly-less kiss-less marriage apparently). Well, actually he's told me for 2 years now that he'll marry his friend, Abby. But recently, he keeps telling me about what kind of wedding they will have. I was recently informed by him that they will have a big cake with a "Mr. The King" and "Mrs. The King" (from the movie Cars) on top. It will be a Grandpa's house, too. But fortunately, it hasn't struck him about the whole "leave and cleave" thing yet, cause he is planning on kicking Matthew out of his room so he and Abby can have bunk beds.

And he always sleeps with a bunch of toys...and usually his beloved stuffed horse, Smokey.


Matthew, Matthew, Matthew...well would a mustache count as growing up? Well, he has to wear this silicone patch over his lip scar to help the scar heal (for three months!!!), but keeping a silicone piece on has been quite a challenge for Momma here. It is ALWAYS falling off, and steri-strips, medical tape, etc...nothing keeps it on. My best luck so far has been to cut a bandaid in strips and put it on as shown here.

Normally kids get their lip surgery when they are 3 months old, so it isn't like the doctors have a lot of advice for how to manage with a 2 1/2 year old.

But let me go on record that I have tried my very best to keep that stupid silicone thing on his mouth, and if he ends up with a scar as an adult...it is NOT my fault. Grow a real mustache.


And if a mustache wasn't enough growing up, he is potty training. Now, I don't know if anyone remembers my challenge with Caleb. He had zero interest in the process, and probably would still be in diapers if I let him. Fortunately, Mike potty trained him when he was 3 1/4 the week after Kristina was born.

Matthew, on the other hand, was super motivated. I picked him up from church nursery a few Sundays ago and they informed me that he went to the bathroom. "He peed in the toilet???" I asked in entire disbelief, checking to make sure they'd given me right kid.

The next day, while I was changing Kristina, he walked into her room with a pair of Caleb's underwear in his hand and pronounced "I wear!" I told him to go for it, and though we've had a few incidents here and there, he is really doing outstandingly well. (And I'm so glad we replaced our carpeted bathrooms with tile.)

A Day Off...Sort Of...

Mike and I have decided that we both need some time to just be "Mike" and "Dana" and not always crazed "Dad" and "Mom". So one Saturday a month, he gets to just do his thing (this month, he drove to Canada and back...I dunno why, ask him.) And this Saturday, I got to finish my daughter's nursery.

When my husband spent two full, long days painting it last year with 7 horizontal stripes that really were a pain in the --- to complete, I have to say, true confession, that I didn't like the end result. It just didn't seem to come out the way I wanted it to, which really, describes most of my "DIY" projects.

At least, despite my pregnancy hormone fog, I was smart enough not to insist that he spend another day repainting, and finally this fall, I thought about stenciling.

The trouble with stenciling and small children, is frankly, they don't mix. Kids don't understand that you have a craft project that explicitly is no touch and that does mean the paint, too. Plus, I can't really do it when Kristina is asleep, because, well, she sleeps in her room, and she may tolerate a pea under her mattress, but this Princess will not tolerate the smallest noise while she is beauty sleeping.

So the only solution is to have no children around. Period. So Daddy did a very valiant job of keeping the kids occupied by cutting their hair, watching Saturday morning cartoons, and playing dinosaurs. I loved listening to podcasts on my new BFF, my iPhone, and stenciling a damask pattern.

I even had time to recover her fabric squares in a, surprise, surprise, damask print. I love this pattern, I think it reminds me of my mom and Grandma Mucky...so feminine, but still very modern.

So the nursery is finally complete...and before I know it, she'll want some silly boy band posters on her wall...

Superbowl

We had some friends over for Superbowl, and not surprisingly, our friends these days often have the same "issues" we have. Lots of small kids that is, and well, it isn't like you can just celebrate Superbowl at Joey's with a 4, 2, and 1 year old and hope to make it past the 1st quarter. So for the second time this year (first time being BCS bowl), we invite everyone over, put the kids in the sunroom (with the small TV and lots of toys), and bring an appetizer to share. It is a lot of fun, which is a good thing, because, also for the second time this year, the team we were rooting for lost.

The kids usually run wild for the first 90 minutes or so, and then amazing find order and quiet when a certain something is turned on.


And the winner of the best Superbowl commercial is...

Bridgestone - Space @ Yahoo! Video