Nina Can Be....

Nina can be many things, funny, sweet, grumpy, prcocious, tender, insightful, the list goes on and on, the other day however, her older sisters helped her explore a few specific things, they staged a "professional model shoot" and so without further ado, I now turn my blog over to artistic and creative directors Ella and Liana. (all photo credits to Ella age 8)

Nina Can Be...

A Princess

A Dancer

A Cheerleader

A Bride

A Jazz/Tap Dancer

A Zookeeper

A Woodland Fairy

A Doll

A Prisoner

A Witch

A Cat....Meowww

A Chinese Girl

A Babysitter

A Florist

A Hula Dancer

A Waitress

A Ballerina

A Drummer

And a Movie Star

And now here is her Debut Short Film

Happy Anniversary part 2

So my handsome husband is also clever, he took me to Cirque Du Soleil (literally Circus of the Sun). He arranged the babysitting and kept it a secret right up to when we drove up to the arena. It was an incredible show and we had such a fabulous time. A fantastic surprise and a special treat to have 2 dates all to ourselves in as many weeks!

And since we went to a matinee performance there was still time to come home to a housefull of men watching the MMA title fights in our living room - isn't it romantic? It was actually still great for me because I didn't have to cook, just order an additional pizza and Eddie always cleans up after his friends.

Happy Anniversary Baby I love you tons!

Ten Years and Counting.

My handsome husband recently came up with the perfect analogy for our married life, a circus!

We started out 10 years ago with just the two of us in center ring and have been adding side shows at a steady rate.

That said, our anniversary recently happened and it was a wonderful intermission from the crazy!

The morning began with the usual rush of getting everyone ready for school and preschool but was punctuated with a gift of dove dark chocolate and a fabulous musical card from my hubby, including a lovely letter that made me cry. Once the 3 largest were out the door my husband and I went shopping... for clothes, ...for me, ...with only 2 helpers,... who slept through the trip in their stroller.

After the kindergarten pick up we took the younger 4 to a dear friend (You remember Super P from previous entries) who watched them while Eddie and I went target shooting at a local indoor range. Before you all decide to tease My Man about how he celebrated our anniversary let me say that this was my idea, I haven't been shooting in years and have had it on the calendar several times when someone got sick or something else came up.

I had a lot of fun just being with my man at the range and I was pleasantly surprised that I could still hit a target at 25 feet. Of course we were both surprised when I could hit the bulls eye,... at 40+ feet,... on purpose,... more than once!

After the range we had time to pick up sushi takeout from our favorite local joint and ate it in the comfort of the van listening to country music and actually carrying on a conversation without interruption. It was bliss.

We picked up Ella from school, the others from the super Hherroes and went home to do homework and get ready for the new wonders in our life the Deans who came and babysat while we went out to dinner at the Pomona Valley Mining Co. where my husband has been promising to take me since we started dating 11 years ago.

The food was good, the view was better, and the company was the best!

After dinner we walked back to the truck and enjoyed the city lights and starry sky and then my man surprised me with this.

It was a magical ending to a fabulous day, we were both happy to go home and sneak kisses from the sleeping big 3 and tuck the last 2 into bed.

I'm really blessed to love and be loved by such a wonderful man and I look forward to the next 10 years and the next and the next etc.

The happiest family on earth!

I last blogged about Ella and i wanted to give her her own entry because she is special and deserves it, but now I would like to gush for a bit about my family, and more specifically about my parents and siblings.

They are the best ever.


When we knew that Ella would be baptised so close to the holidays we didn't know if any of my side of the extended family would be able to make it, but my parents made a special trip to be here for her special day. A trip from Hong Kong to SoCal is no little deal. They came out a few days early and spent some real quality time with us, it was wonderful to have time without a lot of demands, time where my kids got to really share their personalities with their grandparents.




Saturday morning, my sister and her family flew in from Massachusetts, they stayed with us at a very inconvenient time for them, right in the middle of a household move to Washington state. They cut their move short to be able to be here with us, I can't say how grateful I am for their willingness to do that, and how much it meant for them to do that.


Finally, my baby brother who is not a baby at all, but a highly successful marketing manager with Harper Collins, took time and money, and time (again) away from his lovely fiancee, and plans for their fabulous wedding this August.

Everyone made it in Saturday morning and were there to celebrate Ella's Baptism with us. We spent a lovely Sunday together, mostly just visiting and talking.

Then came Monday.... I am very grateful to my Brother-in-law and Sister for including us in their trip to Disneyland.

This is a feat I have never before attempted, and for good reason. We had 7 adults and 7 children and as far as I am concerned, that is the appropriate adult to child ratio.

We had a lovely day, the children had a lot of fun. Although I personally think "Mr Toad's Wild Ride" should have a bigger disclaimer, something along the lines of "unless you like to be shaken around in the dark with a loud cacophony of sound do not enter here." Thankfully things got much better after we convinced my scaredy girls that not every ride would be like that. Highlights of the day included personal audiences with princesses, Goofy's backyard, and Small World.

We ended the day with a nice sit down dinner at IHOP close to Disneyland, but far enough thst we got to have a whole back room area to ourselves. A great end to a great day.


Tuesday brought with it a reality check, Mark had to get back to work, and the big girls had to return to school. Though Nina enjoyed a morning with her cousins all to herself. My niece L set up a fabulous school for spies, she called her students her "paddo-wad learners" (we ate lunch next to the jedi-school training camp at Disneyland).

Wednesday we said good bye to our cousins and sighed as we got back to our routine, grateful for the fabulous time we had, but now a little more sad because we remembered what we were missing by not living close to this part of our family. We are so grateful for such loving, generous, helpful, family.

Ella

My daughter Ella is a wonderful girl.

She is kind and sensitive to others,

she is funny and smart,

silly and respectful,

strong willed about things that her choice and obedient to things that are rules.

In short she the best combination of traits one can find.

This year she turned eight years old, and in our church that means she is old enough to choose whether to be baptised.

I am proud of the way she made her decision, she asked questions, thought things through, prayed about it and chose to be baptised.

I know that this is only the beginning of her life, but I know that this same method of making decisions will serve her well her whole life through.

I love my Ella girl, and if you know her then you probably love her too!

Catching Up.

Christmas happened, and we enjoyed it!

Christmas Eve we went to San Diego area to see Eddie's godparents Andy and Rose Tong

The girls loved seeing their home which was beautifully decorated for Christmas, A.J. just loved the attention he got from his bonus Grandparents.

We played with their animated singing Christmas stuffed animals, enjoyed the hand beaded necklaces Kieh Mah made for all the girls, and went out for the best Dim Sum you can get, at Jasmine's of course.

We woke up the next morning to see what we got in our stockings!

The twins got to enjoy their first Christmas at home.

They are each only saying a few recognizable words still, but if they could talk I am pretty sure they would say that they much preferred this year's version of Christmas, sitting around in their pajamas ripping paper off of things versus being in the NICU attached to any number of tubes and sensors etc.

We talk about having the Christmas Spirit all year through, so...

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Groundhog Day!

NINA STRIKES AGAIN









I know I have skipped Christmas and New Years etc. as far as journal writing goes, but Groundhog day just happened and after the morning rush of bundling the two oldest girls off to school Nina and I had this conversation:



Nina - Where are we going?

Mom -We are going to get ready so we can go to the grocery store before we pick up Liana.

Nina - Then can we go see Grandpa?

Mom - No.

Nina - Why not?

Mom - Because he lives in Hong Kong.

Nina - No....I meeeeean, can we go see Grandpa in his hole to find his shadow?

(at which point she breaks out in riotous laughter to show me that she has been saving up this joke for quite a while :)

Naughty Grandpa

I interrupt my previously scheduled recanting of the holidays to bring you the exciting adventures of Nina's imaginery friend who is lovingly known as "Naughty Grandpa"

Nina has been creating pretend friends for a while now, mostly she mentions them in the context of something she really wishes she were big enough to do, for example
"My friend Tinga goes to my dance class and we get every color of starburst every time"
We don't have and friends named Tinga, but Ella and Liana go to dance class and recieve candy if they put in good effort, Nina has been promised that she can go to dance class when she is 4, but in her imagination she is happily already there. This kind of imagination I understand, but half way through the Christmas break, Nina started telling me things like this:

"My Naughty Grandpa put a sticker on his wall." (a big NO-NO in our house)

"My naughty Grandpa dropped some presents down the stairs."

"My naughty Grandpa wears swim glasses (goggles) to dance class."

"My Naughty Grandpa likes green, it's HER favorite color."

"My Naughty Grandpa put really spicy in his food and it didn't taste very good so he put in in the trash, so he put juice in his food and it taste very good cuz he likes juice. And he likes jumpin jack cheese."

I must interject at this point that while Nina does have 2 actual living Grandfathers and a few other great uncles etc. none of them in any way resemble these descriptions, though picturing it does make me smile, the Christmas holiday continued and the stories kept coming,...

"My Naughty Grandpa got popcorn for Christmas and it was so yummy and it was so little you have to chew it with your broken teeth"

And most recently....

"My naughty Grandpa was naked and he go-ed to school naked with plain tap shoes."

Certainly, we know now why he is called "My Naughty Grandpa!"

If you are laughing now, watch out cuz her attentions are wandering, now a new character emerges, ...

"All my aunties have light red hair and they always go poo-poo in the potty, and they are coming to meet my church friends..."

Liana at 6!

In the middle of the holiday season, I have an extra reason to celebrate,

Her name is Liana

What makes her so great you ask?

She is there when you need her....

When you need a lift...

When you need someone sweet...

Someone tricky...

Someone to be fabulous with...

Someone sneaky?....

Someone to observe and report...

For all this and more, Liana is your girl!

I'm glad she is my girl all year round!