Christmas with Ba Noi and Ong Noi

We spent Christmas Day hosting Mike's family.  It was the first family holiday I've hosted for their family since before we got Matthew.  I made definitively non-Vietnamese food like Beef Stroganoff, and like I usually do, cook way too much.  But it was a special time, and the best part was hearing that Mike's cousin, Kelly, whom this fall has been asking many questions about Christianity, has decided to become a believer.  This is especially exciting because other than us (and we rarely see her) there are no other Christians in her family.  She is such an encouragement and blessing!

Kelly with cousin Baby Brooke, Cousin Angelina, Caleb, and Cousin Ethan

Mike's family

Our "little" family

Daddy with his princess.

Kelly and Kristina

Jeff and Baby Amarada

Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma

We spent Christmas Eve with my Dad and Linda.  We had a lovely meal together and enjoyed sharing some family time.

Linda and Katie

Kristina ogles the tree

Look quick...all the grandkids in one shot!

Hudson gets some help opening his present.

In love...with her new kitty cat.

Family portrait

Caramel!

I've been searching long and wide for the perfect Christmas thank you gift.  You know, the one that says "thank you" to the many people you wish to acknowledge over the holidays, like teachers, friends, therapists, etc.  I tried doing cookies this year and got burnt out.  No that the cookies were burned, but me.  After making umpteen batches of shortbread, gingerbread, etc. which none of which were all that exciting to eat, IMHO.

But Mike's boss finally gave me his recipe for the most delicious stuff on earth…and no, it isn't chocolate.  Nothing but dairy fat and sugar….CARAMEL!

After recovering from cookie wrapping burnout, I made a batch, and fell in love and immediately fell off the healthy eating wagon.  I ended up making 4 batches though out the month, and found that this is my new THING!  So watch out dear friends, because I'm about to caramelize you next Christmas!

My favorite thing about caramel is actually how I believe it shows us a little bit about God's love for us.  Evolutionist cannot explain the miracle that is caramel.  Cream at high temperatures caramelizes and creates this fabulous brown and rich flavor.  Cows wouldn't have any reason to "evolve" such a marvelous side-effect to their milk; it never gets anywhere near that hot in nature.  Outside of man's cultivation, caramel doesn't exist.  I believe God designed caramel to delight us with its flavor and remind us that he created things not just for their utilitarian use, but for our pleasure.  So with great praise of our Lord's creativity, I delight in chewy homemade caramel.

Downtown Holiday Magic: "Mom is Crazy at Christmas!"

One of the many traditions I'm trying to establish, despite the insanity of it, is taking my kids to Downtown Seattle over the holidays.  To me, Downtown Seattle has a special holiday magic which has nothing to do with buying gifts.  This is the second year we've seen the Gingerbread House display at the Sheraton, and finally figured out the way to avoid standing in line for an hour like we did last year.  Then we walked around downtown, and at some point were given a voucher for a free photo with Santa.  I don't really do Santa with my kids (long story which I won't go into here), but hey, for free, I'm up for anything.  And I loved how this photo captured the reality of my kids, specifically Hudson wondering why the fat old white guy was holding him.

We're pumped!

One of the many displays at the Sheraton.

The Macy's Skywalk

Santa frightening my little boy.

Uncle Mark and the Garden D'Lights

Uncle Mark came from North Carolina to visit us for Christmas.  What a special blessing it was to see him.  We took all the kids (including nephew, Colton) to the Garden D'Lights at the Bellevue Botanical Garden.  Lots of fun and beautiful displays of light!

Its Happy Hour!

Children's Christmas Program

Our church started this year to put on a Christmas program for us photo-maniacal parents and grandparents without subjecting the entire congregation to the onslaught of 300 children under the age of 10.  Our kids were a riot to watch, especially Kristina waving frantically into the audience "Hi Grandpa!  Hi Daddy!"

Hudson cuddling in the audience.

Kristina waving to her fans.

Matthew, who overcame his shyness to come onstage

Reindeer Caleb

Kristina verifies the twirl radius of her Christmas dress.

Happy Anniversary! 12 years!

Mike and I celebrated our 12th anniversary this year.  At this point we have only faint recollections that there was a time we didn't' know each other.  And as the years tally up, they are a reminder mostly of how old we are getting.  However, seriously, we are so blessed by God's faithfulness in our lives.  He is SO good, and we are SO happy together.  Who knew it would be this wonderful?

We took the afternoon off and went to a Korean Spa.  Be glad I'm sparing you photos of that.  But it was actually our first time going there, and it is our new favorite date hangout.  You don scrub-type outfits and wander around to different theme rooms with different temperatures.  For example, coal, jade, salt rooms all have various levels of heat.  But also a "snow room" that was a chilly 60 degrees.  It was so nice to just have hours to talk about anything we wanted and not worry about a waiter giving us the eye to vacate the table.

But of course, no date with with my husband is complete without good food.  So off to our favorite sushi bar and a visit with our long-time friend, Tony (a Vietnamese guy that owns a Korean restaurant that serves Japanese sushi.  Yes.  For real.)  We never look at a menu, but simply ask him to serve us whatever he wants.

However many years the Lord grants us, I am honored, blessed, and grateful to be married to such a wonderful man who is a devoted father and will always be my best friend.

Ladies Christmas Dinners

Our church hosts a couple evenings of a "Ladies Christmas Dinner".  People sign up to host, and the host sets a table and invites guests who get to enjoy a lovely dinner catered by our church and some fabulous entertainment, and of course, the Gospel message.  Mixing centerpieces and evangelism? I'm there!

I was a bit ambitious (read: crazy) this year and hosted tables BOTH nights, but I'm so glad I did.  (The last few years I've wanted to host multiple nights, but always seem to be pregnant or nursing)  It was such a blast, plus I got to use two sets of china!  The church really made it so easy to host by handling so many of the other details (my favorite begin childcare), and I felt it was a great opportunity to reach out to people in my life that I'm probably a bit to overwhelmed to invite their whole family over for dinner (which would require me to actually cook and vacuum and my kids to behave), but are still none the less important to me.  I had the privilege of having both Caleb and Matthew's teachers come.  Some neighbors, family members, long time friends…what a way to get into the Christmas spirit!

My table for the first night.

A place setting for the first night.

The floral centerpiece.  This is the one piece I reused both nights.

Some of my dear, dear friends.  Most of them were at other tables for the evening, but it was fun to see us all dressed up.

My wonderful dinner guests the first night.  Neighbors, teachers, mentors, friends...

The place setting for the second night.

The table for Night #2.

Cousin Amarada

Welcome, Amarada!  Amarada was born to Mike's brother Jeff and his lovely wife, Rhee on December 7.  She is every so precious, and this hat unfortunately hides her luscious locks of black hair.  Uncle Jeff has been a dear and devoted uncle to all his nieces and nephews and we are all ecstatic that he is finally a father himself!  What a lucky girl!

She's Back!

Well, I have taken a overstayed vacation from blogging.  It is now June 15, 2012, and I'm just now getting our Christmas photos done.  Ouch!

As they say, better late than never, and I am determined (despite my recent reprieve) that I will keep this blog going.  I'm sure my sporadic nature has deterred the two fans I had left, but still, I really keep this more as a journal for my children of their childhood more than anything else.  And what I get out of it is a documentation of the sweetest years in my own life.

So here I go and try to crank out a ton of blog posts before July hits and I go on a TV/Computer fast for a month! (And get yet another month behind on my blog!)

Merry Christmas 2011

I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. - John 10:10

Our Christmas card has John 10:10 on it, and it really fits this year perfectly.  The word "abundant" seems apt for a home with four kids ages 7, 5, 3, and 1 right now.  We are abundant in chaos, abundant in diapers, abundant in homework that needs to be done, abundant in dishes and laundry to clean, abundant in to-do items that multiply better than subtract, abundant in noise, abundant in giggles, abundant in wailings, abundant in legos, abundant in sofa-cushions-turned-fort-walls, abundant in toothpaste tubes without caps, abundant in solo socks, abundant in so very much...but I feel that through all our abundance, we are overly abundant in our blessings from Christ.

The Lord has blessed us with four wonderful kids.  I am abundantly blessed to be a stay-at-home-mom and able to see my kids grow up before my very eyes.  I am abundantly blessed to have a husband with a great job (in a luxury business in a bad economy, no less).  I am abundantly blessed with a fabulous church and the best friends you could possibly imagine.  Though these days with an first-grader, a kindergartener, a preschooler, and a toddler leave me exhausted and always feeling too little done with not enough time, I remember that for the rest of my life, there will forever be a little part of me that wants to go back to the time when I still could cradle Hudson in my arms, when Kristina hated having to part with me (even to go to the bathroom), when Matthew would still cuddle for a nap, and when Caleb would need me to help him with his homework.  This is a perfect time, in a sense, with so much future ahead of us, so many memories to make.  And I'm still at the beginning of a long wondrous journey.

This year has been relatively uneventful, meaning we aren't welcoming a new baby or planning to welcome one.  We were blessed to go to Hawaii during April and defrost in the seabreeze.  It was such a blast to see all the kids take to water so well.  We went with some friends with kids the same age, and we could not have had more fun.

We had a lousy summer for weather here in the great Pacific Northwest, but fortunately the best week was when we joined 16 other families at Cama Beach State Park for a half week of waterfront cabin fun.  Caleb and Matthew biked nearly all day every day.  Kristina simply make a dirty mess of herself chasing everyone all around, and even Hudson was thankfully able to walk around good enough so he wasn't eating gravel all week.

Mike and I traveled to Whistler for a weekend in September and enjoyed celebrating our 12th anniversary.  Who knew you could bike, hike, golf, travel to the peak of the mountains, take a gondola, shop, swim, and dine well all in one day?  Apparently you can, without kids.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my sister, Katie, and nephew, Colton, along with four other dear friends and their families.  We plan on spending Christmas Eve with my side of the family and Christmas Day with Mike's family.

Mike is still at the same job as a jeweler for a diamond wholesaler.  We are grateful for his family friendly schedule, including working only weekdays and coming home by 6.  He is involved in volunteering at the Wednesday night program at church.  We also purchased a waterski boat this fall, which he has enjoyed getting ready to be seaworthy by next summer.

Caleb is now a first grader at Puesta del Sol (a public Spanish immersion school).  He loves going to school on the bus, he loves being at school, he loves his friends and teacher.  Not so thrilled about the homework, but he is really learning lots.  It is so weird to realize he can function in a foreign language.  He had a Cars 2/Lego birthday party with nearly 30 friends for his 007(th) birthday.  He now wants to be a spy and a missionary when he grows up.

Matthew started Kindergarten this year.  He, too, is learning Spanish, and surprises me how much he really loves it.  He loves his friends, helping his mom and dad, coloring, playing legos, etc.  He sometimes gets in weird moods where he cleans his room without asking, picks up his toys quickly, or wants to help me clean the car out.  I love it!  We celebrated his 5th birthday on Memorial Day with a house packed with friends and family for a barbeque and picnic.  Star Wars!!

Kristina is transitioning from toddler to teenager, I mean preschooler.  She is still very tom-boyish, loving cars, legos, Star Wars, etc., but also likely to dress in fairy princess dress-up, pretend to be Rapunzel, and worry about the color of her toenails.  It is refreshing to have a little girl around who gushes about the things the boys would hardly notice, and promises to live with Mom and Dad for the rest of her life.

Hudson is now walking, running, climbing, and occasionally learning some physics, especially those relating to the laws of gravity.  He is a super-easy-going baby, unless you have to wrestle him down to change his diaper.  He loves his baths, but hates getting out of them.  He loves cars and airplanes, and is just learning to say a few things like "yes", "fish", and "cars".  He is the apple of all his siblings' eyes, and I think he mostly likes the attention, but sometimes, especially when it relates to a certain older sister, he is getting easily annoyed.  He is super easy to put down for naps and at bedtime, but way too picky of an eater (foods are yummy one day, but off-the-high-chair-cannon-fodder the next.)  I love each time I hold him, realizing that his baby-ness will soon give way to toddler antics, and I will never hold my own baby again.  Part of me is exited to hear what is going on in his little head, but the rest of me just wants him to stay like this forever.

I am still super-busy taking care of my little brood, but have found fun outlets for myself including being involved at church in Bible study, etc.  I'm doing the newsletters for our MOPS group, which has been lots of fun.  We host a small group Bible study bi-weekly here at our home, too.  I feel so blessed to have such great friends around me which lighten my load with their laughter, their advice, their help with my kids, and their prayers.

We wish for all of you a year growing closer to God and feeling the warm of His blessings around you.  We are thankful to each one of you.  May God shine his blessings on you in 2012.

Great Wolf Lodge

So this is our second year heading out to Great Wolf Lodge in November.  I have to say, I need a couple 84 degree days this time of year.  And especially after pulling off the birthday party of the decade (see previous), I really needed a break as well.

Our first stop was this BBQ place in Olympia.  Awesome smoked yummy meats, and Colton got a crayon mustache while we waited for our food.

Mom and Tina loved the water.

I was a little disappointed that Hudson didn't enjoy it more.  He normally *loves* bathtime, but I think the water here was a little bit cold for him, and a bit intimidating.  He would wander in to his knees, but no further.  And any time he got moved in further, he just clung to us for dear life.  On the bright side, he loved to cuddle when he got cold, so I'll take that any day.

Thanks, Katie and Colton, for such a wonderful trip!

Caleb Dang is 007

Caleb hasn't had a birthday party since he was 4, and boy, let me tell you, #7 is a whole different ball of wax.  A seven year old has fantasies about what a party should be that are extremely creative, but very difficult to pull off.  Building transforming spy cars that turn into all the characters in the movie, a race track that is two feet tall that goes all around the house.  Wow, this kid is full of ideas, but I have to execute them!

After months of deliberation, we finally settled on a Cars 2/Lego theme.  And given the spy theme of the movie, it simply seemed appropriate to announce that Caleb Dang is double-oh-seven.

 

I wanted the party to be a special memory for him.  We had a fun time planning the decorations, the activities, and the food.   It took a lot of time to set it up, but the preparation payed off.  We had it the Friday after Thanksgiving.  We invited 51 kids...and we had nearly 30 come.  I am so glad we had so many kids come...if I only do this every 3 years, I wanted it him to invite anyone he wanted.

Here is the entry way.

I made lots of banners simply by using Uno Cards which were Cars 2 themed. 

The party favor bags were made to look like Lego bricks, and the tags were Lego font, which I just colored in the yellow and red.

Matthew shows off the bags.

I found this 5 piece poster set which made a great place to take pictures of Caleb with each of his guests, and a great way to set the theme of the party.

We decorated the family room with more Uno Card banners, crepe paper, and balloons.

And we had three tables set up for the kids in the sunroom for them to do their activities at, and also for eating. 

All those Duplo Cars themed Lego toys came in handy as centerpieces.

For one of the activities, we made Lego cars, what else?  And in keeping with the theme, they were all in boxes labeled "Top Secret WGP" (World Grand Prix).  Each box had the pieces below for making one car.  The boxes were simply recycled baby food bins.  Other pieces were also put in the middle of the table to add creativity.

I got this great idea at MOPS to take a plain black bag, mark it like a road with yellow tape, insert crepe paper, a toilet paper roll to hold a stick & card, and voila, a centerpiece for less than a dollar.

In keeping with the theme, I made "Mission Cards" for the moms who came with their kids.  Fellow moms always want to help, and instead of spending my time delegating duties, I let them choose their mission (make root beer floats, use the camera, clean up, etc.)  It made a huge difference in how much I was able to enjoy the party, too.  I felt like I was able to concentrate in what was going on and not worry about forgetting anything.

In preparation for one of the activities, I made these root beer bottles into an "Allinol Bomb".  Caleb told me it looked so real it was almost creepy.  I take that as a compliment.

Here is Caleb welcoming Kai and Sam, friends from school.

And goofing off with Micah and Joel.

The first activity was drawing on these poster sets from Cars 2.  My husband was a fabulous coordinator for these activities.

And the presents pile up.

Someone is having fun.

Mike and Jay

And now it is time to build Lego cars.  The kids seemed to really like this, especially since they got to take it home.

Some of the great moms who came and were immeasurably helpful.

Lego girl with her Daddy (and ever present piggy)

I told Caleb this was his time to host, so he went around admiring all his friends' cars.

And the showroom floor.

So Professor Z has stolen the Allinol we need for the Allinol Floats, and he has hidden it as a bomb somewhere in the house.  I made an iMovie with trivia questions about the movie, Cars2, and had the kids answer them to receive a letter-clue.

Sure, a bomb is about to explode, but we're having fun.

Andrew and Coartney answer a clue.

Now the clues are all out.  What does L-A-U-N-D-R-Y spell?

The bomb is found and ready to make Allinol floats!

Time to take make some Allinol (root beer) floats!

The buffet table even included an oil station (a.k.a. Chocolate Fountain)

Yes, you can put 7 candles in a scoop of ice cream.

Someone liked the chocolate.

And Hudson is up to celebrate, too!

And now for the gifts!

Happy Birthday, Caleb!  I'm glad you enjoyed your party.

Gosh, seven years with our very own super-spy.