Happy Chinese New Year!

This is Mom's Birthday

Jared came up with the title for this post. It was my birthday last week, and I was debating whether or not to put it on here. I decided it would be fun to document how we celebrated and what the kids made for me so here's my birthday post in all its glory!

First, Danny showed up at my work in the morning completely surprising me with a dozen multi-colored roses. I didn't take a picture of them if you can believe my ingratitude! I must have been thrown off since I was working. Here is a weak sample of what they sort of looked like. Of course all of the women in my office were in awe of my amazing husband - myself included!


Then right before I was supposed to leave work Danny showed up again to pick me up. He had arranged for my Mom to babysit so we could enjoy a dinner sans children! We drove to Long Beach (wasn't that trip an adventure in itself, Danny?!) to a beautiful restaurant called The Reef. It was right on the water, and as we ate dinner we watched the day turn to night. The night view was just as beautiful with the lights reflecting off of the water. These pictures don't do the view justice!


After dinner we went outside for a bit to check out the view and then headed toward home. I was anxious to see the kids since they had been so excited in the morning that it was my birthday. When we got home everyone was still awake! The kids had made a cake for me earlier in the day with Annette. They met me outside and made me close my eyes and be led into the house. They led me to the table where my cake and homemade cards were waiting! We sang, everyone helped blow out the candles, and then we tasted the cake. A perfect ending!


Thank you Danny for making my birthday so incredible! I loved every minute of it. I couldn't have planned a better day for myself. I love you!

Getting it Down

Shortly after we started Lucas on rice cereal he developed an interesting habit. It's pretty ingenious if you ask me, but I'm his mother so no one is asking me. When they started eating, Jared and Lizzie's little tongues usually pushed most of their food back out; they just didn't quite understand the whole swallowing thing. Learning from his siblings' mistakes, Lucas has developed his own system to make sure that food goes where it's supposed to.

Step 1 - Open mouth wide:


Step 2 - Accept food when offered.


Step 3 - Immediately thrust thumb in mouth and suck food down!


Step 4 - Repeat Steps 1-3.

The kid is brilliant, right?

Rockin' Her Sunbeamness

This post is somewhat belated but Liz became a Sunbeam a few Sundays ago. She was VERY excited about moving up to Sunbeams. I was glad because when Jared moved up he was not happy about - within ONE week of attending Primary he was very aware that he had said goodbye to free playing time in the nursery and hello to structured learning time in Primary. Plus he said there weren't any snacks. I digress.


Jared and Liz walked into Primary holding hands - I love when they rely on each other! The only problem was that Liz refused to sit with her class - she wanted to sit 2 rows back with Jared. The Primary president said that was fine for the first day. I told them to come and get me if she refused to go to her class after singing time. They never came to find me though because she was fine to leave with her class when it was time. (Side note: this past week she was even willing to sit with the Sunbeams - I could tell Jared was a little disappointed!).



When we got home I took some pictures of her - she's starting to look so grown up to me all of a sudden. Not toddler Liz anymore. The first few pictures were very serene; she had her hands behind her back and was smiling nicely. Then she started rockin' her sunbeamness and doing crazy poses. I've included a sampling of shots. She would do a new pose, wait for me to snap the picture, and then change to a new funky pose. At least she keeps me laughing!

Snow Bunnies

My final Utah post!!! Phew! We had too much fun and we did too many things to do them justice on here. Here are a few final shots of the kids' experience with snow. First, my snow bunnies:


Next, both Liz and Jay were enamored with tasting the stuff. We had to remind them multiple times to only taste the white stuff. On the way home from sledding Jared informed me that we shouldn't eat the yellow or red snow. I asked why snow would be red and he said in a very serious tone, "Blood."


Jared was the only child who didn't have to take a nap each day. That left him loads of extra time around the house without any playmates. He often attached himself to the "boys" (Danny, Michael and Shawn) and would play video games with them or whatever else they were doing. On this particular day, it was snowball fighting!




And finally, Grandma made a snowman the last day with minimal help from the kids.

Ambushed!

While playing outside one day Mikey and Danny got the brilliant idea to ambush Shawn when he came home from work. First, they built a mini snow fort in the front yard. Next they prepared their ammo.


Ha! I'm not the only one who thought it was freezing cold!


Then they gathered other soldiers and began their WAIT. Luckily there was a sled run to help pass the time since Shawn was late getting home...


Finally their wait was over and Shawn emerged from the car. He was quickly bombarded with snowballs. He was able to avoid most of the shots but his car definitely did not!

A Ramp Of Our Own!

Probably the highlight of the trip was having 2 sledding ramps in the front yard! On the second day of our trip Traci, Michael and Dan built 2 amazing sledding rides complete with steps on the backside to get up to the top. Here are the steps and the runs:



The kids loved having such a cool adventure right outside the front door. They just needed the obligatory warm clothes (which Jared was continually attempting to shed - that kid is always hot!) and they could go sledding!

Here are Danny and Jared trying out the ramp:


Danny, Liz and Traci:


Kailyn and Liz in flight:


And finally, I wouldn't recommend this particular move unless you grew up in a state where surfing might have been part of your adolescent experience - Uncle Mikey:

Roseola What?

Probably the saddest part of the trip for me and Lucas was the fact that Luke came down with Roseola the day we headed to Utah. It started with a fever and ended with an all over body rash. He was somewhat lethargic and had a fever the first few days we were there. He wasn't sleeping well (which means I wasn't sleeping well either!) and I could tell he just didn't feel like himself. He was extra clingy and wanted to sleep even when he had just woken up. On the 3rd day he broke out in a rash. First it was just on his head and then it spread everywhere. He was definitely out of sorts and it was just sad to see him! I don't have a good picture of his illness (curses to my darn camera battery!) but here is one on our last day in Utah. His rash was fading but if you click on the picture you can still sort of see his spots and his eyes are swollen and red. He was a sad mess but finally seemed to feel better the day we left! At least he finally had a good night's sleep that night. A huge thank you to Grandpa and Michael who volunteered to hold him for me numerous times when I just needed a break. I'm just thankful he's back to his sweet self now.

Food, Folks and Fun

Two times while we were in Utah we went to Dan's cousin Mark's house to see the family and eat dinner. Auntie Cynthia and Uncle Junior were in town from Hawaii and we were excited to see them and spend some time hearing about the family. The first night was a true party - besides our family also in attendance were Charlene Goo & family, Spencer Goo & family, Tammy Lim & family, Joanna Lam and family, and Mark's girlfriend. It was great for Danny to see so many cousins that he hasn't seen in so long. They had a great time reminiscing and catching up on where their lives have gone in the past few years. Here is our family that night!


The second night was New Year's Eve. Uncle Junior made his yummy noodles! We ate dinner, let the kids play, and then went outside to light sparklers. One of the best parts was that Jared was reunited with his cousin, Henry. They are both 5 years old and got along really well the last time we were there too. This time they were inseparable and had a ton of fun running around and entertaining each other. Unfortunately my camera had died so I have a limited number of pictures that I thankfully was given by Traci and Auntie Cynthia. Here is a shot of Jared and Henry together.


Part of our evening included fireworks & toasting the new year!


We also went out to eat one afternoon together at Toscano's. Grandpa and Grandma Fong called from Hawaii and told us to go out to eat on them! We thankfully thought it was a great idea and met at the Brazilian BBQ place everyone loves.

Awesome Aquatic Adventures at the Aquarium

One of our days there we went to visit their aquarium. It was a nice size for our age of children. Plus it had lots of animals you could touch, if you were brave enough! There were also lots of child size toys to explore. Jared enjoyed driving a boat:


The octopus who normally stays in the corner in a ball suddenly decided to stretch.


There was also a Touch Station where you could touch an assortment of animals.



And finally, at the end, there was a section with a man made reef where the kids could crawl through various caves.


A huge thank you to Traci for the use of her pictures! Of course my camera died 3 pictures into the aquarium. Thanks Auntie Traci!

Sledding and Snow Angels

After naps we went to a nearby hill for some sledding! The kids were in heaven (and that includes the "older children" from the last post!). We bundled everyone up and headed out. The hill was great - not too steep to climb back up each time but definitely steep enough to give you an exhilarating ride down! The adults took turns taking various children down.

Elizabeth and Daddy:


Spencer and Grandma:


Traci and Spencer:


Michael and Kailyn:


Grandpa and Lucas (who eventually fell asleep...):


Liz and Mommy (I must say that my blood has thinned since I lived in Utah! I had on 2 winter jackets, long johns, snow bibs, 2 hats, and gloves - can you say wimpy?!?!?) :


And one of our snow angels:

This is the Place!

We spent 1 week of our Christmas Break in Utah visiting the Manahans. To make this easier to eventually publish into a book, I'm going to post each activity there individually instead of posting the longest post ever. Trust me, you'll thank me later.

We arrived late in the day on Dec. 26 and began our adventures on Dec. 27. First we had to finish off Christmas. The Danny Fong family needed to give to the Manahans and the Michael Fong family needed to give to us. Simple enough, right?

Jared received a baseball glove, jock strap and cup from Mike and Jen. He had no idea what it was or what to do with it. Here was his first guess:


With a little help from Uncle Shawn (and another guess on his part...) here was his second try:


We then put the kids down for naps and the "older children" began to play with the new toys.