kylie and kaden

summer 2010

2010-09-13T22:51:00.001-07:00

Since I haven't updated all summer, here is a summary of the things we have done and places we have been to the last few months.

Warning - there are A LOT of pictures! Enjoy!

my kaden...

Kaden is ready to play soccer!

Here is the frame that Kylie made for Mark on Father's Day. I'm so happy she likes to do crafts!

Kylie & Kaden being silly here...

This is better!

Mark & I took a mini vacation to San Francisco to attend Corey & Christa's wedding while my mom and my two neices (KK & Kellie) came over to help baby-sit. The kids were good and Kylie was glued to the girls the entire time. Our trip was eventful, fun, and tiring all at the same time. I got to hang out with Tiffanie & Henk and had shabu with Jaylin while Mark was busy with his groomsmen duties. It was a wonderful trip and the wedding was beautiful!

Check out the view from Phil & Anna's place. Awesome! Thanks again for letting us stay with you guys!

What a beautiful day in San Francisco!

the groomsmen...

Corey & Christa saying I do! Congratulations!!

Mark and me...a little pink.

Devin & Joanne and CUTE little Emma!

soon to be parents, Justin & Steph

Phil & Anna

Frank & Kim

We drove about 45 minutes from Mill Valley to Yontville so we can dine at one of Thomas Kellar's restaurant.

Bouchon!! We finally got to enjoy dinner here, except we were a little hung over.

me & sweet kat...

We took a 6 am flight home to celebrate Kaden's birthday. He was so excited to see us when we got home...or it might have been the balloons we bought for him.

Kaden loves to play with Thomas the train!

Kaylin & Kellina stayed at our house for over a week. I hope they weren't too drained from the kids and had a good time! Wanna stay with us again?

Happy 2nd Birthday, my baby boy!

Kaden loves it when we sing Happy Birthday to him!

We decided to take a trip to Santa Barbara this year with the Hsu family. We rented a 3-bedroom house in downtown Santa Barbara on Bath Street. It was awesome and perfect for the kids to run around and hang out in the backyard. The best part of the trip is that everything was all planned out for us by Wilfred! We didn't have to worry about breakfast, lunch, and dinner and all the places and things we did. That was awesome.

We went to the Santa Barbara zoo for the first time, rented surreys, ate by the beach, and had BBQ's at the house. It was perfect and the kids all got along so well together.

Here are just some of the pictures we took on our vacation...

Sliding down the cardboard paper at SB zoo

Wheeee!

Looks like Kaden is modeling here...

7th Aunt & Mom at the zoo...

There's just so much lovin' here!

Kylie feeding Evan ice cream...

Kylie enjoyed eating dried strawberries that 7th Aunt brought...

After having red velvet pancakes at Crush Cafe, we walked to a giant playground at Alameda Park. It was a pretty cool wooden playground!

Kylie on the monkey bars...

Mark & Kaden going down the slide...

I love this picture of Sadie & Cindy!

Kaden wandering everywhere...

Sadie & Willie

Sadie is so good at posing for pictures! We probably took 20 shots of this picture and shot looked the same. :)

Evan, Kaden, Sadie, & Kylie starring at the turtles across the lake...

Resting at the County Courthouse with mom and sleepy Sadie and Kaden...

Cute Kylie...the helmet was too big on her, so it was constantly falling on her face.

Following the Hsu family in the surrey...

My first time on the surrey. It was hard work! When my mom stopped pedaling, it made me realize that I wasn't contributing that much...she was pedaling more than me. wow! Go mom!

I'm not sure what they're looking at here, but they seem to enjoy sitting in the surreys together.

We celebrated Jordan & Chloe's birthday party at the Irvine Regional Park. There was a bounce house and choo choo train ride for the kids to enjoy. Mark didn't really enjoy himself at the end of the day cause he pulled a hamstring by racing the other guys, not thinking that his body is just not the same as it was 10 years ago. (I think it was an excuse for him not to continue doing the p90x with me at night) haha You rock for trying, hons! :)

Kaden just has that mischievious look!

Kaden enjoying the choo choo train ride...

Mommy writing, Kylie eating a watermelon, and Kaden chasing a ball while Daddy capturing this wonderful picture of us. :)

Jordan blowing out the candle for his and Chloe's cake...

Happy 3rd Birthday, Jordan and Happy 1st Birthday, Chloe!

This year, we were able to catch the last day of the OC Fair with the Wang family. It was our first time there and the kids seem to love it...popcorn, sweets, and food that's not good for you was everywhere! We had a great time!

Frank & Savina going down the big slide!

I think Kylie's favorite is the big slide since she always ask to go on it at least 2-3 times ...and daddy has to go with her cause mommy is afraid of heights. :)

That was fun!!

Mark & the kiddies on the teacup ride...

They're all smiles!

They loved this swing ride!

I think this ride was a little scary for the girls, but they did good.

of course Uncle Frank sat at the end where it's probably the fastest...

I have always wanted to ride on an elephant, but this was not what I imagined it to be. We kind of forced Kylie to go on it, since she already told us she didn't want to go on it. But we convinced her that it will be fun! Little did we know, she cried and screamed through the entire circle. Hmm, I think I'll wait to go to Thailand to get that 'elephant ride' experience.

It looks like this train is kind of boring to the girls. Savina is enjoying that beef jerky she has in her mouth, though. Hilarious!

Mark on the train with Kaden. We can't ever tell if he's enjoying it or not. :)

Sydney is so cute!

We had the Hatakeyamas over for lunch and some crafts over the weekend. The girls had a lot of fun together.

Kaden was sure interested to see what the girls were doing. I still can't trust him with a paintbrush in his hand...otherwise, I'd see paint all over our walls. yikes!

Ally & Kylie loved to go on their daddy's shoulders!

We've been to disneyland over 20 times with the kids, but it's been over 5 years since we have gone ourselves. We decided to spend a day at disneyland without the kids, so we can enjoy the 'bigger rides' and go on some of the new rides we never been on at california adventure. Nancy & Henry decided to do the same thing and spent the day with us. It was so much fun! We felt a little guilty since we didn't bring the kids, but it was a nice break and we got to enjoy each other's company without any interruptions. Loved it!

For dinner, we ate at Napa Rose at the California Grand Hotel. It was our 2nd time there and it was still pretty good.

Yummy! Appetizer dish...

Mark with his two babies...

We celebrated Elise's 2nd birthday at their house. It was a beautiful sunny day to go swimming and you can tell, the kids really enjoyed it...along with the 'dads'.

Harvey with Elise, the birthday girl. Happy 2nd Birthday, Elise!!

Wilfred & Sadie

Evan watering the pool...

Kaden still doesn't like to go in the big pool, but loves to play with water.

This summer, Kylie is able to enjoy swimming more and isn't afraid of the water...as much.

Kaden loved splashing water with Evan. Of course, he got all wet!

For Labor Day weekend, we went to Legoland with the Huangs. Kaden had a wonderful time playing with water while Kylie enjoyed going on all the rides.

my cutie pie

jordan & henry

kaden's first time on the helicopter ride...yay! he's tall enough!

me and my baby girl...

going up and down...

Kaden was wondering why everything was his size...

Little town for the kiddies...

Mary & Dan tied the knot! congratulations! It's about time! :)

The wedding was spectacular! It was so good to see all of Mary's family who I haven't seen in over 15 years!

my Mary.. as a beautiful bride!

Mark's birthday this year consists of Monday night football, my cooking (meatloaf sliders, mac n cheese, and party wings!), and an ice cream cake the kids decorated for him.

It was Kaden's first time eating mini m&m's and obviously, he loved it!

My first attempt at making an ice cream cake!

Happy Birthday, hons!

Also, it was so nice to see Amber, Jun, Caleb, and Nathan!! There was just not enough time...and we have to make a trip out there to visit them. Miss you guys already!

In my next posting, I'll update you guys on how the kids are doing. Kylie is such an angel now and so much easier while Kaden has hit the terrible twos! He is a character, though!

Hope you guys all had a wonderful summer and here comes the start of another school year!

mother's day, d-land, and more

2010-06-09T22:13:00.000-07:00

I still can't believe we're already in the month of June. 2010 is already halfway over!

There are still so many projects I want to work on with so little time. The weekends that are spent with the kids seem to always fly by. I didn't realize how fast my life was going until recently, I get daily requests from Kylie that she wants me to work on a puzzle with her or she wants us to play with her and there's never enough time during the week to just sit back and relax. Working full-time, getting the house cleaned, putting food on the table, running errands, grocery shopping, and juggling two kids (especially paying attention to them) is a lot of work! It's been harder these days since I added 20 more minutes to my commute each way. That just means I have to leave the house earlier and I get home later. Mark and I would try really hard to go on a walk with the kids after dinner, so they can ride their bikes and roam around. But that's if we finish dinner early. The more I think about it, the more I believe time spent with the kids are so valuable and they grow up so fast.

Time is precious. I just got my manager's approval for working 32 hours a week, so I can spend that extra day at home with the kids or take them out for classes. I know this is a great opportunity, and this is what I always wanted...work and life balance. :) The best part of it is that I got my hubby's full support!It's not official yet, but I should be starting my new schedule the beginning of July.

On with the kids...

It has become more and more apparent that Kylie is a very clean and organized person. She always uses her napkin during meals. She always gets a kleenex when she shed a tear. When Kaden drips milk on the floor, she grabs a napkin and kneels down to the floor to wipe the milk away. Whenever Kaden plays with toys and makes a mess, she's right there asking us if she can clean or put it away. Kylie is very possessive of her room and the things in it. She always directs Kaden to come into our room to play with toys instead of hanging out in her room and messing up her things. Yes, it's wonderful that she's neat, but at times, I feel like she's a little neurotic at keeping things tidy. After all, she is a Virgo! But so is Mark, and I don't see him being like that. :)
Lately, Kylie has been able to control her emotions a little bit more. At times, you can tell she's trying to hold in her tears, and the only thing she's concerned about is that she wants us to be happy. She's really enjoying school these days and I'm really starting to see that it's paying off. She's starting to learn how to write her name, draw shapes, happy faces, and do simple math. One of the things I'm really happy about is that she's eating all kinds of food and drinking milk. I'm not worried about her eating anymore because she has well-balanced meals each day.

one down, one more to go...

Kaden's eating has been regressing. We thought Kylie was picky back then, but he's even more picky! Sometimes he would go through the day just eating a bunch of cheerios, crackers, and milk. On a good day, he would eat plain noodles or rice with soup and yobaby. He's definitely outgoing and still loves to run around outside. Lately, he's been very interested in learning shapes, colors, and letters and points to it so we can tell him what that is. He's saying a lot more words now: mommy, daddy, ball, boots, map, (btw, he loves to watch dora), box, and a few letters of the alphabet. His favorites are still balloon and balls. He's showing a lot of interest in music and he's always dancing and clapping. He's starting to throw tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants or screams. We caught him hitting kylie a few times cause he thinks she's taking away his toys.
For the most part, Kaden is easygoing and cheery!

Here are some pictures from the last 2 months:

For Mother's Day this year, we spent it with the Hsu's and had breakfast at Taps. My mom and her sisters got to all hang out together.

Happy Mommy's Day!

Kylie & Evan hanging out at the diner...

Kylie and her class performed a few songs for our Mother's Day breakfast.

Kat came to visit us for a weekend and we made a trip to Whole Foods. Too bad both Kat and Mark had to work all weekend!

Kaden hanging out

Another weekend, Stella, Kellie, Kaylin, and Wesley came over to visit us and played with the kids. Kylie stuck like glue with KK and wanted her to do everything with her, even help her take a bath! You go, KK! Here's a huge bubble KK made for her.

Hanging at the park with the big & little kids...

It's crazy to see that my neices and nephew I used to baby-sit are watching my kids now. So sweet. They are so good with kids. Can they move closer, please?

My two babies

KK, Kellie, and Kylie

Disneyland with the Hatakeyamas! Thanks Scott for the wonderful pictures!

Kylie had a blast on the teacups with Ally. Can you tell?

We watched the Aladdin show at California Adventure. I was a little worried about Kaden sitting on Mark's lap for 40 minutes, but he surprised me! He didn't move at all and clapped when everyone else clapped. When the lion showed up, it was a little scary, but all he did was say, "ROAR!". Kylie loved the show!!

Happy June to everyone!

spring is here...

2010-04-07T15:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I last posted.

What have we been doing the last few months?

We've gone to Disneyland a few times (re-newed our annual passes again this year), took a weekend trip to Big Bear with the Markoskis, a few birthday parties, hung out with family, and had a recent trip to Vegas during Easter weekend.

Kylie & Kaden have been interacting a lot more with each other. Most of the time, Kylie is the bossy one while Kaden just goes with the flow. They copy each other a lot...more often the yelling and blowing rasberries. When Kylie is in the teaching mode, she'll tell Kaden to say, 'mama' or 'dada', or jiejie (sister), or pwo-pwo (grandma) and Kaden usually repeats it. Kaden's favorite word now is "no". He says it with such a soft voice and emphasis on the "ooooo" that I can't stop myself from hugging him. Kylie still has trouble sharing with her brother and only gives him the toys that she doesn't want...ocassionally, she'll be nice to him and give him what he wants. When Kaden wakes up from his nap, she'll let us know that he's awake. She always wants to get him, so as she's walking up the stairs, she'll say, "I'm coming didi (little brother)!" Both Mark and I have been trying really hard to get them on the same sleep schedule at night. Usually, Kaden goes to bed first and we'll have some one on one time with Kylie for an hour before she goes down to bed. But lately, we're trying to put them to bed at the same time and bedtime goal is 8:30 to 9 pm for them. That way, we have some time to relax ourselves before we hit the sack!

Kylie is 3.5 years old and been talking non-stop everyday. She loves the Disney princesses, especially Aerial. She's definitely a girly girl...always ask to wear dresses and loves to put on her Snow White and Silvermist dress...and she does NOT like to get dirty. When she plays with sand and water, she has to wipe her hands with a towel each time to get the sand out. For the most part, she dresses herself and goes potty on her own. Kylie is in between one nap a day to no naps at all. She usually can't last that long throughout the day without napping, and ends up taking a very late afternoon nap. Her eating habits have increased signficantly, eating a variety of food and starting to try new food. She drinks a lot more milk these days, indicating that she wants to get bigger. She knows exactly what she wants and doesn't like to be told what to do. When we say don't touch that, she'll test us by touching it one more time to see what happens. Her temper tantrums are a lot more controlled these days. She still cries, but I can tell she's able to not let it get out of hand. Kylie has become more adaptive to change than before, but she still gets pretty shy when she doesn't know you. It usually takes her some time to warm up to the person or the environment. Kylie is doing very good in preschool. She goes 3 days a week/half days. She's our sweet little princess!

Kaden, who is 20-months old is a boy's boy. He walks everywhere without looking back and loves to go outside. Everytime I get home from work, he hands me his shoes because he wants to go out and play. His favorite food are yogurt, fried rice, rice with bean curd, and snacks. I believe that's all he eats. We go through packs of yobaby every week and constantly introduce him to new food to eat, but we get rejected every time. Kaden still takes 2 naps. He'll come running to us if he's tired, signaling that he wants to sleep. He always gets excited when we put him down in his crib. He loves his paci and hugs his teddy bear to sleep. His favorite show is Little Einstein and Dora. He absolutely loves to play with balls and everything he sees is "ball" to him. Kaden is very outgoing and smiles at everyone.

Our trip to Vegas was wonderful. Mark went to a bachelor party and stayed with his friends the entire weekend while the kids, my mom and I went to stay at Stella's house. It was soooo good to hang out with our family and get to see everyone. We had an Easter hunt, painted eggs, and baked cupcakes! Kylie & Kaden had tons of fun with their cousins.

Below are some pictures we took recently...till next time! I'll make sure to update more often...
Happy Spring!

Easter in Vegas!

we took the kids to the playground and they had a wonderful time!

as usual, Kaden runs off and tries to look for us...

nathan & kk watching over kylie & kaden

after the playground, we came home and painted Easter eggs!

Joey posing next to Kylie who is so concentrated on her egg...

stella joined the fun with us!

a beautiful combination of eggs

After our short stay in Vegas, we picked Mark up at the Vennitian where he stayed for Corey's bachelor party. It took us a few hours to get to Baker where we stopped at Bob's Big Boy to eat a late lunch!

Mom & Kaden

Does Bob want an Easter egg?

Kylie took this picture, which I thought was pretty creative!

OC Great Park Carnival in Irvine - March 2010

Mark on the choo-choo train with the kids...

me and my little girl...

Kylie wanted to go down this great big slide, so here they are walking up the stairs

...and now, sliding down. Wheee!

The inflatable slide with Frank & Savina

"Mommy, say cheese!" You can see that Kylie dressed herself on this day. :)

Playing in the backyard at the Hsu's house...

Happy 2nd Birthday, Sadie!!

Swinging at one of the many parks in Irvine for Brayden's 2nd birthday...

Kaden has the most record for falling asleep on the swing...I wish I had the picture, but he fell asleep again later this day on the swing.

Kylie picked out her outfit today...a pretty pink dress with her 'flower' shoes.

my two babies...

Kaden loves to play ball!

He doesn't look too happy here cause Kylie took the ball from him...boo!

mark and his girl...

California Adventure Breakfast at Ariel's Grotto w/ the hatakeyamas

Ally & Kylie

Kylie with her favorite princess, Aerial

Big Bear trip with the Markoskis February 2010

They had a blast playing with the snow

Kylie first time bowling

underwood family farm

2009-10-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to Underwood Family Farm in Moorpark and met Christina & her family there. Kylie had her first pony ride at the farm, and Kaden loved roaming around the field. We won't be carving pumpkins this year, so Kylie picked out a pumpkin her size to take home. Afterwards, we went back to Christina's house for dinner. It was a wonderful & full day of fun!

me & tina

Kylie's 1st pony ride!

there's kaden in the background anxiously waiting for his sister to get off the pony so he can walk around...

the conyers family

Kylie eating kettle corn

Brayden enjoying his hawaiian ice!

Kaden and his pudgy cheeks!

where's kaden?? he didn't care if we were next to him or not...he just loved walking by himself!

the happy family

finally, a family picture of us!

too heavy for kylie to carry!

so many pumpkins!!

Kaden loved patting the pumpkins

he's becoming such a big boy now!

Brayden throwing pumpkins

this is the pumpkin we ended up taking home. :)

Mickey & Minnie getting ready for Halloween

Mickey taking a "milk break"

Snow White Kylie

Princess Kylie

I'm getting really good at updating pictures!

Hope you guys all have a fun & safe Halloween!

montessori preschool

2009-10-21T16:32:00.000-07:00

Kylie officially started preschool last week and she did better than we expected. We enrolled her part-time and half days. The first week, she was excited to go and cried only a few times at school. This week, I think she realized that I'm leaving her there, so she clings on to me and keep saying, mommy don't go to work...stay with kylie for a little bit. As painful and hearbreaking as it is, I had to leave and hear her cry while the teacher holds her. After I make it out of the room, I stay outside for a few minutes to make sure her crying subsides, and it usually does...thank God.

When I pick her up at noon, I peek in her classroom and I see her eating her lunch with the rest of the kids. It's so cute. As soon as she sees me, she gets her things together and heads out the door. Today, I got the pleasure of staying in her classroom for a few minutes while they ate. Kylie said to me, "Mommy, look at all of kylie's friends"... awww, how cute! I know she enjoys going to school.

Today was her first field trip to Tanaka Farms in Irvine. According to other moms, she did really good. I have the luxury of getting pictures first hand from my co-worker, whose son is also in Kylie's class. Next time, I'm chaperoning too and I'm going to try to get involved as much as possible in her school events, even if I have to ask for some time off. I think it's important for them that we're there.

Also, I think she found a security item while she's at school....her dora and princess books. It seems like she's been holding on to them the entire time at Tanaka Farm. :o)

So, here are some pictures I like to share with you guys. Her teacher is Miss Helen and the teacher's assistant is Miss Jennifer.

hawaii 9.30 to 10.6

2009-10-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

the weekend before we went to hawaii, we went to get a haircut for both Kylie & Kaden. It was Kylie's first time having her hair cut in a salon. She was really good since there was a TV to keep her entertained. I decided to give her a new look by having her bangs cut cause her baby hair was growing out. Kaden's haircut wasn't really much of a haircut... the lady didn't do a good job with his hair but he was still a good sport about it, sitting there watching thomas the train.

Cool Cuts for Kids

BEFORE:

AFTER with bangs!

Kaden's 2nd Haircut

A few days later, we took off to Hawaii so we could attend Anna and Phil's wedding!!!
on the flight to hawaii...we all woke up at 4:30 in the morning! Kaden slept on and off on the flight while Kylie watched cartoons with Savina.

Oahu- Hawaii

We stayed at Ko Olina Beach Villas...this is the view from our lanai...

Kaden hanging out with uncle Corey...

the kids had so much fun together. Mainly Kylie & Savina...but Kaden spent most of his time chasing after the two girls. It took a while for Kaden to get used to sleeping in the pack n' play and the 3 hour time difference definitely didn't help things out either. Kylie, on the other hand, really seemed to enjoy sleeping in bed between us. Most nights, our family of four ended up squeezing on the king size bed..everyone sleeping in a direction. That was interesting! By the time Kaden finally got used to the Hawaii time zone, we were ready to go home.

We didn't take as many pictures as I'd hope for just because things were typically very hectic. The first day, we went to costco & target to buy all the food we needed for the week. that night, we ate at Roy's and got to enjoy dining in a private room. That was exactly what we needed, especially since we were worried that Kaden would get fussy since it was past 9 pm PCT. Everything worked out and he didn't end up falling asleep until we got back.

hanging out in the villa...

best friends, Savina and Kylie enjoying the North Shore view

After lunch, we walked to the Blue Lagoon and both Kylie & Savina got in the water with their dresses on! Next thing I know, Kylie fell over and wanted to get out of the water...fun times!

Early in the morning, kicking back outside the patio eating cereal...

and playing play-doh

Princess Kylie

Kaden all ready for the beach!

He sat by the water and got knocked over by a little wave. He wasn't too happy after the salt water got into his eyes...

Kim taking the girls to the water...

Anna & Phil's wedding ceremony...it was beautiful! Congratulations!!!

Kylie & Kaden getting ready to eat!

wooohoo! Wedding party entrance!

here comes the dance! FIRST time I ever saw Mark groove!!!!

I wish I got it on camera, but Kaden started crying cause the clapping and screaming scared him. AND shortly thereafter, Kylie started crying...not sure why, but she probably thought Mark hurt himself when she saw her daddy jump so high off the ground. :)

cooking breakfast one morning...

shopping at waikiki

International Market Place

sunset by the beach!

my two beautiful children...

going home...

Kaden & Frank

Traveling with two little kids was definitely a lot more work then Mark and I anticipated, but, in the end, we all had a great time and got to watch one or our close friends get hitched... Congratulations again to the happy couple!

picture update the last two months

2009-09-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

here are some pictures from our sony camera...

Here we are at disneyland with just Kylie while my mom watched Kaden at home...it was pretty easy with just one child!

Kylie & Savina at Steph & Justin's wedding

Legoland with Frank & Savina...

getting in line for the boat ride...

it's really easy to make kaden laugh!

our little boy is getting so big!

can you tell kylie really enjoys this ride?

mark and his "lego family"

kylie calls her "lego mommy"

Pretend City with the Hatakeyamas: a little town for toddlers

the arts & crafts room

For Mark's birthday this year, we went to Disneyland and everyone had a blast!

on the carousel with my two babies...

Kaden had a good time too!

going home after a long day at disneyland...

After we got home, Mark and I went to watch a movie and enjoyed a nice dinner to ourselves. Thanks to mamee for making it happen. :) Happy Birthday, hubby!

Amber, Jun, and Caleb came to visit us from Seattle and stayed at our house for a night. The kids played together so well and it was so good to see them interact with each other.

caleb making a funny face...

they are so cute together...

that night, we celebrated Mark's birthday and ate cake...Here's Kylie singing Happy Birthday to daddy...

our family...

bath time!

For Kylie's 3rd birthday party, we had it at an inflatable jump house/play gym this year. It was really nice cause Stella & family drove down that morning to attend the party and got to stay with us for a night. Kylie had a lot of fun and by the end of the party, she had the courage to go down the big slide with me...over and over again.

wheeeeeee!

kids shot!

Kylie's "Boots" cake...

she's been talking about blowing out 1 and 2 and 3 candles everyday...

That afternoon, we attended Elise's 1st birthday party at the park. Happy Birthday, Elise!!

We're getting ready for our Hawaii trip in less than 2 weeks. After we get back, Kylie will be attending preschool. I'm getting nervous!

Hope you guys all have a wonderful rest of September...more pictures to post when we come back!

kaden is ONE! first haircut...

2009-08-05T09:15:00.000-07:00

Happy 1st Birthday, Kaden!!

our little baby turned ONE on July 26!! We didn't do much the day of his birthday because that was the weekend we were at home, potty training Kylie. Mark cooked dinner that night and we sang happy birthday to kaden. We bought some cold stones cupcakes for his celebration..and it looks like Kylie enjoyed the cupcakes more than Kaden did!

We celebrated his birthday the following weekend at The Club in Laguna Niguel. I'll post pictures in my next post, but I wanted to share some pictures with you guys of Kaden's 1st haircut. We took him to First Cuts in Corona Del Mar and he did a great job sitting there while the lady trimmed his hair. I love his new haircut!

Kylie fell asleep in the car, so while Kaden was getting a haircut, Kat was in the car with Kylie...waiting.

Kaden's new hair-do...

Mark & Kat took Kylie to the park while mom and I were preparing food for the party the next day...

kaden loves chasing kylie up the stairs...

kylie, say cheese!

Birthday party pictures coming soon...

summer is here

2009-07-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

warm weather, BBQ's, swimming, bath time fun, legoland, vegas...

We celebrated Savina's 2nd birthday at the beach in Corona Del Mar. It was a beautiful day and as always, Kylie & Savina had a blast playing together in the sand.

cupcake time!

Kylie loved playing in the waves!

Kaden's first time at the beach...everytime we put him down, he would grab a handful of sand and put it in his mouth. So, we try to hold him most of the time.

Kaden is turning ONE at the end of this month and I still can't believe how quickly this year went by. He is officially an active crawler and pulls himself up every chance he gets. He loves balls and always throws the ball in front of him and chases the ball wherever it takes him. About two months ago, he started rejecting the bottle, so I still try to nurse him as often as possible. After trying out all the different sippy cups, we finally found one that he likes. The Nuby. He's starting to drink more milk from the sippy cup and hopefully soon, I will be able to stop nursing.

Kaden have always been a light sleeper, but he's always able to fall asleep on his own. So without any sleep training or anything, he managed to sleep through the night from 8:30 pm to 7:30 am! I am so thankful for that, but I never minded waking up once to nurse him in the middle of the night. I let nature take its course. :)

kaden is still full of smile and laughter. He eats solid food very well. I love his personality... so easygoing and kickback.

Kylie have always been pretty affectionate with her little brother. When he gets hurt, she would run over there and kiss him or pat him on his head. She's been having some issues with sharing her toys with him. Before he even gets close to the specific thing she doesn't want him to touch, she screams. Kylie is starting to talk a lot and putting a lot of words together into sentences. She does cry a lot, though. We're trying to fix that, if it's even possible. Other than that, she's a sweetie!

the kids had a blast at Legoland!

Last year at this time, Kylie wouldn't go on any rides. She's brave enough to go on all the rides now.

This was taken a few months back at the spectrum with Lana...This picture of Kylie totally reminded me of myself when I was a little girl. :)

Daddy & Kaden at the park...

some shots taken before bedtime...

big sis and lil' bro

my two babies...

This summer, Kylie got the courage to go swimming in the pool, except she only plays in the shallow end, going up and down the stairs. We went to the aquatic center and both kylie and kaden had fun splashing water in the toddler pool.

Aliso Viejo Aquatic Center

We had a BBQ at Aunt Lin and Uncle Ron's house for 4th of July and watched fireworks at night.

not sure what kylie & evan were doing here...

This past weekend Mark had to work, so my mom and I decided to take kylie & kaden to vegas to visit Stella's family. I was excited and nervous at the same time because 1) I never drove to vegas all the way myself, 2) I wasn't sure how the whole sleeping situation was going to work, considering both k&k had to be in the same room.

they surprised me. everything worked our perfectly.

On the way there, we stopped by Aunt Rosanne & Uncle Richard's house for lunch. They both slept on the way there. Halfway to vegas, they fell asleep again and we made it to Stella's house without any traffic. From the moment we stepped into their house, Kylie had a blast with her cousins. She followed Kaylin and Nini around and there were so many new things to look at and play with. Kaden was busy crawling and roaming around...up and down the stairs. The cool thing is that one of the 6 kids were ALWAYS watching over them and followed them around to make sure they don't get hurt. I love it. It was so good to see all of them.

The next morning, we decided to go to the Fun Zone with the water slide and pool.

Here they are getting ready to go and putting sunblock on.

Kylie went down the slide without hesitating...little did she know, the water was freezing cold!

"E" and Kylie looking at KK and Nini going down the slide.

lounging by the pool...

After coming home from swimming and eating lunch, Kylie took a nap. She adapted so well there. I took advantage of their naptime and squeezed in some time to go to the casino. Too bad I didn't have much luck. When we got home, Kylie was still napping. We had to wake her up for dinner.

Kaden took a one hour nap and played around some more...

Kylie & Kaylin...

kaden...kellie...yes, we were calling everyone by the wrong name. haha

cute pose!

check out kaden's filthy feet!!

Joey and his little cousin...thinking back, I used to hold Joey like that! How time flies...

we really need to take more pictures together...

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July and looking foward to a cool summer ahead!

k&k playing together

2009-06-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

kylie & kaden have been more and more interactive with each other these days. Kaden is crawling everywhere and starting to pull himself up pretty easily. That means, he's getting into Kylie's toys! Whenever Kylie see her little brother coming and if she doesn't want him to touch her toys, she would take them and put her toys somewhere higher where he can't reach. Kaden doesn't fuss about it. He's just happy that he can pull himself up!

The last few weekends were pretty mellow for us, so we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to start potty-training kylie. But the weather got cold and both kylie and kaden both had a fever. Kylie's fever caused her to get a febrile seizure! We rushed her to the ER, and the doctor informed us that she was okay. The seizure happened because her fever went up too fast that her brain couldn't function. Everything is okay now and we hope that we will never have to experience that again.

Everything we did this past weekend was planned last minute. We still ended up having a full weekend. We went to eat breakfast and shopped around South Coast on Saturday with Annie. After the kids nap, we went to the spectrum and ate dinner with Scott, Carolyn, and Ally at Maki Maki. Kylie slept through most of the dinner and didn't get to play with Ally until a little later. On Sunday, we met up with the Hsu's at Shakey's and went to disneyland afterwards.

Tip of the day: always have your kid nap before or after you make a trip to disneyland.

Other than that, it's another full week of work. Grandma is staying with us this week!

Enjoy the pictures!

Kylie laughing at the LaBron and Kobe commercial...while Kaden looking cool in his niners cap.

We try to go for walks after dinner...Kylie feels like a big girl when she pushes her little brother in the blue car.

he's getting heavy!

hmm, what should we do now?

the look on kaden's face when he's sitting in the prickly grass...

Kylie tickling Kaden's ear with a piece of grass...

Kylie counted to 20 before she made this jump.

pudgy kaden...

kaden loves to pull himself up to standing position...

Ta-da!

spring time fun...

2009-05-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

Kylie & Kaden have been keeping us very busy these days. Kaden just turned 10 months yesterday. He has three full meals everyday and I nurse him at night. Two little teeth have popped out on the bottom. He has been actively crawling and getting into everything. We have to start baby-proofing our house. Yesterday I found him putting the Airwick air freshner in his mouth! He's constantly moving and starting to get into Kylie's toys. Kylie has been really good at sharing with her little brother. There are just a few things she would not let him touch...her shopping cart and her doll house.

Kylie continues to complete her 24-piece puzzle everyday. We bought many different ones for her and now she can almost complete a 60-piece puzzle. During this month, we converted her crib to a toddler bed. She was really excited when Mark was converting her crib. We got her a Princess bedsheet and she loved it. The transition went really well. The first few nights, she did not get out of her bed and still called out for us. After that, she usually comes in quietly into our room. Like I said, Kylie is a great big sister! She plays with kaden..in his crib, playpen, feeds him puffs or cheerios, pats him on the back, rubs his head, takes the paci out of his mouth and gives him a new one, laughs along with him...it's great to see them interact so nicely with each other....so far. :)

Here are some recent pics:

having fun in the laundry basket...

Kaden loves to smile.

pwo-pwo with kaden...

Kaden & Sadie

me & my baby...

playing at the park...

Kaden debating if he should go down the slide or not...

I love this picture!

We taught Kylie to smile for the camera...

I love using Lightroom!

Kylie hanging out with Phoenix...

video clips

2009-05-06T08:09:00.000-07:00

I finally uploaded some videos of Kylie & Kaden and wanted to share with you.

This is a clip of Kaden at 5 months when he just started to sit up while taking a bath. He seems to like the water! :-)

Here's Kylie reading Brown Bear at 2.5 years old.

Here is Kylie completing a 24-piece puzzle all by herself!

our weekends are packed with events

2009-04-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, two posts in one month! I told you I'm going to update more often!

The main reason I'm updating is because I have a bunch of pictures to share because the last 2 weekends, we've been having something going on day and night.

I'm also proud to say that Kaden has started scooting and been getting up on all fours! My little baby is going to crawl soon! Also, we just noticed a little tooth coming out...so he's been kinda fussy lately, but he still has a smiling face. He went in for his 9-month well-check and measured 29 inches (75 percentile), and 18.5 lbs (20 percentile). He's a healthly little boy!

Here are some pictures we took the past 2 weekends:

Two weekends ago, we met the hatakeyamas at panera and went to woodbury park afterwards. It was a HOT day! After running around and being under the hot sun, we departed around 1ish.

scott, carolyn, & ally...

Kylie likes to go down the big slide now.

Kylie is becoming more adventurous these days...rock climbing!

After Kylie & Kaden's nap, we went to MyGym for Lana's 2nd birthday party. Kylie had a lot of fun running and jumping around.

Uncle Frank holding Kaden

Kaden wasn't sure what to do in the tank full of balls.

he loves the swing!

Kylie drinking capri sun while savina downs it.

The next day, we went to Disneyland and met the Hsu family there. Kylie loves It's a Small World!

yes, it was sunny & hot that day!

Wilfred trying to chase Kylie & Evan

Kylie & Evan were so cute...they played so well together and Kylie would copy everything Evan did.

not sure what they're looking at...

So, the weekend after we went to visit Bobby & Vee's twins, Samantha and Ethan. They are so tiny! I had the pleasure of holding Sam the whole time she was sleeping. Oh, I miss newborns already!

Mark & Stacy plus 4

me holding Samantha...

Mark holding Ethan...

We went to Disneyland with the Hsu's again on Sunday (2 weekends in a row!). This time we went on Small World twice, saw the parade, and ate dinner at the park. The kids fell asleep in the car and we got ready for work the next day. Ahh, what fun filled weekends! Now, it's time to take a vacation!

an update on the last six months

2009-04-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

Let's see, where do I begin? I haven't updated the blog in half a year, so I will try my best to summarize everything that happened in the last 6 months.

First of all, Happy 2009! We started the new year with a very bad virus that went around everyone in the family. Fevers, sore throat, cough, running nose...you name it! It probably took a month or two for everyone to be well again.

In January, we had to say good-bye to Amber, Jun, & Caleb because they decided to move to Seattle. That was hard, but I know that was the best decision for them. I'm just sad because another close family member has moved out of California. It's going to be hard to get them all back again!

Ok, on with the kiddies. Kaden is 8.5 months right now. He has grown so much and we can already tell that he's an easy-going, mellow baby. He does move a lot more than when Kylie was a baby and it's becoming harder and harder to change his diaper because he just keeps turning over! He loves to bounce, so everytime he's in the exersaucer, he would make so much noise by bouncing up and down. We wanted to buy him a jumper, but we just have nowhere to put it.

It's so easy to make him laugh, especially when he looks at Kylie. It's beautiful to see them interact with each other. kylie would look at kaden and he would start laughing, which makes kylie start laughing. It's a continuous process and it makes all of us laugh too. He's beginning to sit up better on his own now. He grabs everything and puts it all in his mouth. He's not as interested in watching TV as much as Kylie (thank God). Some things would catch his attention on TV, but he gets distracted from other things very easily.

He started eating solids at 6 months and loves fruit, yogurt, and suprisingly, meat too. I don't think he's too fond of veggies. But we still have a lot of food to introduce to him. I am happy to say that I am still breastfeeding Kaden. :o) During the day, he would take bottles and at night, I would nurse him, put him in his crib, and he would sleep an average of 7-8 straight at night. When he wakes up in the morning, he can play in his crib for half an hour before we go get him. And EVERYTIME we go in to get him, he would have this biggest smile on his face.

Kylie has been talking non-stop these days. She's 2.5 years old and she knows all the letters of the alphabet, can count in English & Chinese up to 20 and Spanish up to 8. (thanks to handy manny), and she can complete a 24-piece puzzle all by herself. She can also read the entire book of Brown Bear, Brown Bear. When she's playing by herself, she loves to sing, "the Wheel on the bus" and "this is the way we wash your hair..." She loves everything organized, so when she takes her toys out, they are all lined up in a row.

Kylie definitely has a unique personality. She gets annoyed when she has lint stuck between her toes. When she goes down the slide, she has her hands on her chest to avoid being shocked. She has to take the puzzle pieces out ONE at a time after she completes it. If two pieces comes out at the same time, she gets really mad. She loves to listen/watch Mary Poppins and she would say, "no mommy" if I try to sing-along.

Kylie is in her terrible two's and has temper tantrums almost everyday. she's been refusing to nap these days and her bedtime process has been a challenge. When she's sweet, she would come over and kiss you for no reason and she would ALWAYS go up to kaden and put her arms around him and kiss him. When I give her snacks or fruit in a bowl, she would say voluntarily, "thank you mommy" and take the bowl to the coffee table. She's becoming more open to try new food. some of her favorites right now is cereal/milk, chicken soup and noodles. Her favorite restaurant is still Fukada.

Last month, daddio and Kat came over to visit. They stayed with us for a week and we got to spend a lot of quality time together. A few weeks ago, Stella and Kellie slept-over for a night. Kylie loves all this company and enjoyed playing with everyone.

So, these are just some of the things that the kids has been doing. My mom is doing well, watching two kids during the day. We're looking into preschools for Kylie to enroll this fall, since it seems like she's starting to get bored at home, and it gives my mom a break. Mark and I have been challenged everyday and we are learning ways to be more patient with Kylie whenever she throws a tantrum.

Other than all that, our weekends are filled with birthday parties, running errands, going to the park, meeting up with friends, and just relaxing and working around the house.
Here are some pictures we took the last few months:

caleb hanging out with kaden & kylie

Kaden @ 7 months

kat & daddio came to visit...Ding Tai Fung in Arcadia.

Beard Papa's...yum!

Rose Hills saying hi to gong-gong...

sun family saying hi to nai-nai...

kat & kylie doing down dog...

Kylie was having fun rolling down the hill...

pwo-pwo and kaden

happy birthday, daddio!

the 2 k's relaxing and watching tv...

kylie looks mad here because it was probably the 10th time I told her to look over here!

Finally, I got a shot of both of them looking at the camera.

Irvine Regional Easter Hunt

Look, they're holding hands. awww...

Kylie loves to open the eggs to find out what's in there. Candies!! First time she's ate a snickers!

After watching Phoenix jump from here, Kylie had the courage to do it. Yay, good job!

Kaden with mommy after bath time...

Kaden with "E"

Kylie & Savina plays so well together...

at Maverick's house, jumping in the bounce house!

daddy and his two favorite little people...

Kylie likes to hang out in Kaden's crib and kiss him all the time...

Here's another kiss to her di-di...

Kaden with his sweet little smile...

Kylie at Christina's house hunting for eggs!

Ok, I promise I will update more often. Hope you guys all had a wonderful Easter!

Update on the last 3 months...

2008-10-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

Kylie's shoe collection

Hi everyone! Yes, a new arrival in the family AND a toddler kept me busy that I haven't had any time to update the blog! So, I'm craming the last 3 months into one post...lots of pictures and stories to share. Everything is going pretty well, except I still haven't had a good night sleep in months. Kaden has grown a lot. He's 13 lbs now and he's eating very well....he's starting to smile and talk a lot. Everytime we play with him, he has a grin on his face. As for Kylie, she's starting to repeat everything we say. Her favorite word isn't "no" anymore...she learned to say, "yes", which is always nice to hear. Her vocabulary has grown A LOT the last month and is starting to put words together.

My mom went to Taiwan for a month and she'll be home in two weeks. During this time, Mark took two weeks off and we've been taking the kids out everyday...it's sooo nice!!! Although we're pretty tired, we're happy that the kids are having fun. Well, mostly Kylie of course. :)

Here are some pictures to update:

Kylie's favorite picture... "Nini pants have HOLE!"

mom and her two daughters - we need to take more pictures together!

Mom and her 8 grandchildren...

Kylie's 2nd Birthday - we made a strawberry white cake for her and celebrated her birthday by going to eat Fukada (her favorite restaurant) and then Disneyland the next day...

Family picture

Disneyland with the Hatakeyama. Thanks for helping us get the season pass!!

Kylie & Ally relaxing in the stroller...

Daddy's little girl...

Picture with Goofy!

Kylie & Savina - say cheese!!

Another shot of the two with their styling vest!

Another trip to Disneyland...with the Hsu Family.

Kylie & Evan playing in Toontown...

Smile!! Kaden is in the ergo...

Picture with Minnie!!

Another family picture...and yes, Kaden's sleeping in the ergo.

Kaden at 2.5 months

Hi Kaden!

Smile, buddy!

Kylie sitting on the step stool.

Irvine Pumpkin Patch

at the pumpkin patch eating with friends, Jordan & Trevor.

Kylie chasing Jordan in the maze...

Kylie loves to give her little brother the pacifier...

Sea World

watching the shamu show...

climbing the ropes with daddy...

at the Sesame Street Bay of Play...

sipping frozen lemonade....yummm!

My two little babies...

waiting to get a diaper change!

hope you guys enjoyed the pictures! I'll try to update more often... Have a good one!

Kaden Tyler Sun

2008-08-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

Welcome to this world, little Kaden! I went into labor on Friday night, 4-5 cm dialated. My water broke at about 3 am. After a push or two, the doctor came. Within one contraction, I pushed and whoosh, Kaden came out. :) He weighed in at 6 lbs. 2 oz, measuring 19 inches long.

Things have been good. Kylie loves her little brother and constantly points at him and says, "babe" and also the word "eyes". She can say those words pretty good, so she's constantly repeating herself when she sees the baby. Kylie has been adjusting pretty well with the new addition in the family, but her eating habits are getting worse. She uses the word "no" a lot and loves to get junk food from the cabinet herself. Oh boy. I think she has hit the terrible two's. Mark has been great...he's been keeping her occupied by taking her out and running errands. That way, she won't be so stir-crazy at home all day long.

As far as Kaden, he's been eating well and sleeping well. I'm really enjoying this time when I can hold him to sleep, but I haven't held him nearly as much as I held Kylie when she was just born. There's just so much to do, especially when you have a toodler to look after.

We took a bunch of pictures, but I'm only going to post a few, since I have to go feed Kaden soon! Enjoy! Thank you for coming by to see Kaden!

Carolyn & Scott came to visit us at the hospital...

Grandma, Ivy, Jiu Ma, and Jiu Jiu came to visit shortly afterwards...

Joanne & Devin came to visit us the next day...

On our 3rd day at the hospital, Grandma, Aunt Lin, Aunt Nana, and Aunt Diane came over...

That night, Nancy, Henry and Jordan came to visit...

At home, Amber, Jun & Caleb came to visit...

Mom and Caleb...

Kylie & Kaden

Kylie loves her little brother...

Here we are...a completed family of four.

Also, the Hsu's came over to visit. We didn't get a family picture of them with Kaden, but here's a picture of Kylie and Evan playing at the park.

Here's a picture of Kaden at a week old and a picture of Kylie at a week old. They look alike!

happy july!

2008-07-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

We made it to July without any major complications! I'm almost at the 'safe zone'...a few more weeks! Things have been progressing a lot. Mark got the baby's room painted, picked up the crib and dresser and now I'll just need to start putting things together in the room. My physical abilities have been pretty limited, since I'm getting bigger and bigger each day.

Kylie has been doing pretty well. She's still a picky eater, but she's becoming more open to trying new food. She's learning to say a few new words, especially the word, "no". That comes out of her mouth really clear and precise! She loves hugging her dolls, especially Rageddy Ann. She goes crazy over yogurt and ice cream...looks like she has a sweet tooth like her mommy & daddy!

We've been doing a few amount of limited activities. In June, we celebrated Savina's 1st birthday at the Irvine Regional Park. Also, we celebrated Evan's 2nd birthday at the Hsu's house. Other than that, we do a few things here and there. This past weekend, we went to Aunt Lin & Uncle Ron's house for 4th of July. It was beautiful there, since we got to enjoy watching the fireworks from their backyard. On Sunday, Kim & Carolyn hosted a mini baby shower for me, which was really nice. Thank you guys!

One more thing I'd like to add...
Today marks the 7th year of my dad's memorial. I miss you so much, baba!

I uploaded a bunch of pictures to share with you guys...
Happy 1st Birthday, Savina!

Kylie showing off at the park...

Little Caleb...

Pwo-pwo dancing with Kylie...

Kylie's night time routine...baby einstein!

here she is again, watching Barney while hugging her baby.

Happy 4th of July! We went to the beach for an hour or so and then headed to Aunt Lin & Uncle Ron's house...

Evan & Kylie surrounded me cause I got snacks!!

playing outside...

The view from their backyard...

My baby shower!

Pregnancy status & overdue pictures

2008-06-10T14:26:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a month since I last updated. As always, we've been busy going out on the weekends and running errands. We did get new KitchenAid appliances for our kitchen, so we're pretty excited about that.

My pregnancy...well, we knew it was going to happen, but didn't think it was going to happen THIS soon! Yup, I got early contractions again...about 4-5 in an hour, so the doctor put me on a modified bedrest. She told me that I can't work anymore and that she'll put me on disability. This is too soon for me, so I asked if it was okay for me to work from home. She approved and I talked to my manager and everything worked out! So, from now till my delivery date or until I'm out, I will be working from home and going into the office only for critical meetings. It worked out really good and I'm thankful I have this option to work from home rather than be on disability this early. I'm still two months away from my due date, but the doctor said by 34 weeks, they wouldn't try so hard to stop my contractions.

Things have been mellowing out...can't really do too much or else the contractions increases...
I'll keep you up to date.

As for pictures, I haven't updated the in the last month, so here it is! Enjoy!

The Hatakeyma's came to visit us...here's Ally & Kylie...

Yeah, we're not all looking at the same camera here either :)

BBQ for Swainer's going away! He's moving all the way to LA! We probably won't see him for a while... Mikey, do visit often! We'll miss you! :)

It was a beautiful day outside for a picnic/bbq!

Frank & Savina

Hmm, what's on Kylie's mind?

Here are some pictures at the Hsu's house. The boys are outside building a swing set for Evan.

The kids love the play kitchen...

Here's Evan tickling Kylie's feet. He was tickling her for like 5 minutes!

They're both pretty fascinated by each other's belly button...

They're pretty funny together...

Snack time!

yum yum!

Evan's new playground set...it took roughly about 10 hours to build! Good job, boys!

some more pictures

2008-05-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

So, the last month has been a little more exhausting for me. Maybe it's cause my stomach is getting bigger and it's harder for me to move around as fast. But it's also cause Kylie has been sleeping later at night and I could barely get anything done after she falls asleep. She is discovering new things, especially learning how to let out her anger these days! Woah, discipline time! We're in the transition of playing around with her schedule since she's down to one nap a day now. My pregnancy is going well...I'm already in my 6th month and crazy to think that within 3 months, we will be having another baby!

A few weeks ago, the girls and I went to watch our old dance team perform at Arcadia High School. That brought back a lot of memories and it just made us all feel old. It's been almost 15 years! Afterwards, we went to eat at Wood Ranch BBQ and I was surprised to see that they each bought me something for our little boy. That was really sweet....thanks guys!! I'm bummed we didn't take any pictures that day...

Other that that, we've just been busy working, cleaning, and taking Kylie out as much as we could. She's starting to get bored at home.

Here are some pictures we took the last few weeks:

Phil came down to visit so we had breakfast at Pacific Whey with the Wangs...

our little kylie...

This past weekend, Amber, Jun & Caleb came to visit. Look how much Caleb has grown and Kylie just loves him to pieces! She's so gentle with him...

I wonder what they're both thinking here...

say cheese!!

here's kylie trying to copy the position of caleb's feet...

aww, she just can't get enough of him!

sea world.organizing.hanging out.park.

2008-04-15T11:33:00.000-07:00

The past two weekends has been pretty busy for us. We're in the process of cleaning out the office and there is still a lot to do. I feel like we're moving! Basically, we're eliminating a lot of things, donating clothes, and giving away most of our office supplies. All my scrapbook supplies has to be boxed, but I'm keeping the little scraps handy, in case I need to make a card or two every now and then. I'm bummed that Kylie's scrapbook is only 1/4 done. If I have 2 weeks of free time, I can get her first year scrapbook done. How cool would that be? Of course, I can't expect that right now, especially since we're expecting another! goodness!

Other than organizing, we've been taking Kylie out. We started taking her to gymboree classes again. They opened one right around our house, which makes it so convenient. We're planning to have my mom take her during the week too. She loves it, especially the clown, Jim-bo. We hung out with the Wang's at their house and had crawfish. Last weekend, we all went to Sea World together. It was a hot day, but we had fun. The dolphin show was exciting and Kylie seemed to have enjoyed it.

Also, we bought the Phil & Ted's Vibe... double stroller! We like it it a lot and got to use it for the first time while strolling Kylie to the park. doesn't this picture look like it's from an ad?

Kylie is understanding most of the things we tell her (both English and Chinese), but she is still hesitant on talking. She's really into the baby einstein shows...always asking to watch tv. Kylie is starting to become more open to trying new food and been eating pretty well lately, but she's still petite and hates to drink milk. So far, we can tell she's a girly girl. She loves to kiss her dolls, feed them, and loves heart pajamas. Most of the time, she walks around the house in tippy toes.

Here are some pictures we took from the past few weeks.

Savina and Kylie are becoming very familiar with each other these days. They both still love to kiss each other.

our trip to sea world...

the wang family...

kylie loves pushing her stroller...

our group shot at the end of the day...except kylie is asleep in her stroller. :)

It was such a nice day this past weekend. We took Kylie to the park...

mommy & kylie

she loves the swing!

daddy & kylie

here's a new thing kylie learned... Yoga pose: down dog!

have a good week!

ringgold, georgia

2008-04-04T13:43:00.001-07:00

Kylie & Grandpa time...watching tv!

Other than our crazy schedule, we had a pretty good time in Georgia. It was nice hanging out with the Sun family, especially since Kylie hasn't seen her grandpa in the longest time. She had fun roaming around the house. We brought the pack n' play with us, but she never got to sleep in it. Instead at night, we would watch baby einstein with her and soothe her to sleep, so she can sleep between us. Mark always wanted to sleep next to her and here is the chance!

The 3 nights she slept with us was wonderful. Her head would be in the opposite direction as us and her legs would move around a lot. She must have kicked Mark in the face a few times, and once or twice on my stomach. In the morning, we would watch her wake up. She's someone who knows how to relax! Once she got up, she would lay next to us for the longest time, playing with her pacifier. That was my favorite time of the day. She's such a sweetie...

We tried to go to the Tennessee Aquarium, but there were too many people there. Instead, we went to grab some lunch, along with some yummy dessert and coffee. For dinner the next two nights, we ate with the chang family and had a great time chatting. They are all so sweet! ... and again, Kylie was entertaining everyone by roaming around the house. I think she gets really excited when she's in a new environment.

So, here are some pictures we took in Georgia. There are a few more pictures we took at the airport (since we were there most of the weekend), but we accidently saved it on my father-in-law's computer. Once we get it, I'll make sure to post more. :)

Happy Friday!

Kylie & Aunt Kat...she's interested in using the spoon now...

silly kylie...

the scenary is beautiful in georgia...

we took a walk around the neighborhood...
our family's first trip to georgia!

having fun with daddy...

kylie loves running up and down the hill...

kylie loves to sign, 'where did it go'?

the sun and chang family...

the sun family...

our flight to georgia and back...

2008-04-01T15:28:00.000-07:00

Well we're back from Georgia after our CRAZY travel times. I just have to share our travel experience with everyone...

Ok, so the problem was not Kylie...it was the freakin' American Airlines flight. First of all, we woke up Thursday morning around 4:30 am...woke kylie up, got ready, and headed to John Wayne airport. We got on the plane and waited an extra hour for some unknown delay. Finally, we take off 4.5 hours later to Chicago. Kylie was good throughout the flight...sleeping through 2 hours of it and stayed in her carseat the whole time. So, we get to Chicago around noon and our next flight to Chattanooga is scheduled for 2:30 pm. Here is where the journey begins. We met up with Kat in Chicago, since she came from San Francisco. Our 2:30 flight got cancelled due to "weather conditions"...but we think they just cancelled the flight cause there weren't enough people on the plane. Our next flight to Chattanooga is now scheduled for 7:30 pm. So bascially, we have to wait at O'Hare for 7 additional hours. Finally, close to 7 pm, we go to our gate....only to find that they switched gates...then we go to the next updated gate and then it was switched again. This happened about 5 times...we finally got on our plane around 8ish and waited on the plane again till like 9 something....OMG~ basically, we didn't get to Chattanooga until close to midnight....and Kylie only survived on two hours of sleep and probably like half an hour in the carseat at the airport. EXHAUSTED~!

The next two days in Georgia was nice....kylie got to see her grandparents and was running around, smiling all the time. All two days, she only slept half an hour to an hour during the day in the car, at the most.....and I have no idea how she kept her energy up, considering she takes 2 (2 hours nap) at home...Ok, so then it was time to leave Sunday morning. We had to wake up again around 4 am to catch a 6 am flight back to Chicago.

The plane ride went smoothly and on time. We get to chicago and had about an hour and a half layover. The plane boarded on time....we sat on the plane ready to take off and the pilot said they had to do some maintenance checking on the right engine. Basically, we waited on the plane without moving for over 2 hours!! and yes, Kylie was getting cranky at this time since we only had 4 hours of sleep the night before. Then, they told us we had to get off the plane for them to do some further testing. OMG!!!

2 hours later, we get on the same plane, waited another half an hour on the plane and FINALLY took off. We didn't get home till late on Sunday...whereas we thought we had a whole day on Sunday to un-wind. When we got home, Kylie slept in her crib for 13 hours straight...she had an exhausting trip as well.

In conclusion, we spent 17 hours Thursday travel time and another 11 hours Sunday travelling. I think we ate more meals at O'Hare than anywhere else this past weekend. Now, I really need a vacation!

If it wasn't for the damn delays and cancellations, everything would have been great. vacation anyone? Just don't take American Airlines to Chicago!! We were both exhausted and not feeling very well by monday morning and had to take an additional day off to re-cuperate.

I just wanted to share my experience with you guys...and Kylie's 1st plane ride. She was such a trooper though...I'm thankful for that.

hope you guys all had a good weekend!

I will update pictures in my next post!

kylie's happy weekend!

2008-03-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

Kylie lounging on her chair eating fruit and watching tv...how relaxing!

This past weekend, Kylie has become so much more active and vocal. She's not saying many words yet, but she sure is babbling a lot these days. It's really funny cause everytime she wants to be held, she would say BAO (which bao bao means "to hold" in chinese). So, we figure we can teach her some new words. I would tell Kylie, say 'please' when she's asking for snacks, and she would say BAO so loud. hilarious!

We saw a lot of babies this weekend and as usual, Kylie just loves kissing them. When Kylie and Savina got together, all they did was kiss each other! Savina has a really neat area in the house that has all her play toys. Kylie totally enjoyed playing with everything. We also went to California Adventure and caught the Electrical Parade and fireworks show. That was a lot of fun.

We went to visit the hsu family and got to meet Sadie for the first time. She's so precious! Evan and Kylie got to play together more this time around...they are a lot more interactive with each other now. Evan got a whole sun room full of toys! We also got to see Caleb! He's so big and alert now! It was just great seeing everyone since my aunt and grandma were there too.

So, my ultrasound yesterday indicated that we're having a boy! We're excited cause now we'll have one of each. I received several warnings of how active a little boy can be and how different boys and girls are. I'm hoping he will be a good baby and sleep through the night by 2 months...like Caleb! :) Now that we know the sex of the baby, we can plan to do everything else now...like clearing out our office and making it the baby's room. Although this is our 2nd baby, there are still a lot of things to get, especially now that we have to restart on buying all boys clothes!

Well, I'm going to end right here and include a bunch of pictures we took the past few days. Tomorrow, we're off to Georgia! More pictures and updates to come...have a good weekend!

Kylie with her monkey...

she loves to ride on the carousel...

our family at california adventure

kylie love to sit on daddy's shoulders...

Kylie & Evan

playing in the backyard...

lunch time!

Mom with Caleb...

Sadie Elise Hsu

little cousin Caleb & Kylie...

Kylie.18 months ~~ My pregnancy.18 weeks

2008-03-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

Kylie and her baby doll...thank you, Aunt Vida!

Happy 18 months to Kylie yesterday! She is officially 1.5 years old. I can't believe she's becoming a little girl now, but she will always be my baby. Plus, she's so small in size that it's hard to believe she's 18 months old! Kylie has been doing well these days. She's definitely a late talker because she still hasn't attempt to say any words yet...just the basics like, mama baba, dada. I hope one day she will just blurt out a bunch of words. She has her 18-month check up tomorrow, so we'll see what the doctor says. She still doesn't like to drink her milk and she's a creature of habit. We bought her a new sippy cup that is the EXACT same style as her old one, but just a different color. She just won't drink from it! Can you believe it? Then, once I give her the old one, she starts gulping her water down. Boy oh boy...

My pregnancy is going pretty well at this point. I'm beginning to feel the baby move...little flutters in my tummy. At my last check up, the doctor told me that I lost half a pound. It seems hard to believe since I'm totally showing now...but I do notice that this time around, I don't have much of an appetite. Hope that increases through the weeks. So, next week we have an appointment for an ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby! I'm excited to find out just cause we can start planning and it gives me a better idea of what to shop for. Plus, we haven't done anything for the new baby and one of the biggest thing we have to do is to clear out the office and make it baby#2's room. Ohhh, not looking forward to putting my scrapbook table away...although I haven't scrapbook in a while, it just makes me a little sad to know that we have to put it away and it just brings me another step away from scrapbooking. Those of you who are scrappers should understand. :)

Other than that next week, we go on our vacation to Georgia to visit the grandparents! It would be nice to hang out with them for a few days and Kat is going to meet us there, so that's an extra PLUS! The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the flight there and back. We leave at 6 in the morning, meaning we have to get up around 3 AM....There's also a 3-hour difference in Georgia, so I'm just imagining how Kylie is going to deal with her sleeping...and at night. I'm glad that we bought her a seat on the plane as well, so that way, maybe she will fall asleep in her carseat on the plane. We have a lot to prepare for since this is our first trip that requires flying. Wish us luck!

So, I'll end this post with a few pictures we took the last week or two. Enjoy!

Here's Kylie enjoying herself on her new couch and watching Seasame Street.

Margaret & Carhin came down 2 weeks ago and we went to a Piggies & Paws party. We got footprints done for both Carhin and Kylie. Afterwards, they came over and had lunch at our place...it was really good seeing them!

We went to visit Eunice & Andrew AND thier new bundle of joy, Audrey who is only a few weeks old here. Here's a group picture of the girls with our babies...and two more to come in Cindy and I's tummy. This picture was taken two weeks ago, so as of 2 days ago, Cindy delivered a healthly little girl, Sadie! Congratulations, Cindy & Wilfred!

One of Kylie's favorite things to do is to flip through her board books. She has no patience to listen to me read a book to her cause before I can finish one sentence, she's already flipped to the next page. :)

Don't you just love her little piggy pj's?

I love this picture of Mark & Kylie...every night before kylie's bedtime, she would sit next to daddy and watch baby or little Einstein.

disneyland

2008-03-05T09:55:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we took Kylie to disneyland for the first time! Although we didn't get much reaction from her, we can tell her favorite ride was Dumbo. She was nodding more when the ride was over. We also went on Pirates and she was shaking her head and wanting me to hold her in the beginning cause it was so dark. She did like the 2 dips though! We went with the Kiel family and she had a great time chasing Dylan around trying to kiss him. It was just the right amount of time to spend at disneyland for us. We managed to stay a little over 6 hours and we were all pooped when we got home. We had a wonderful first experience with kylie and our next trip planned is going to be California Adventure! Enjoy!