Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday I had great plans to dress the kids in nice clothes and go to church.
I left plenty of time to dress them and get there, but when they gave me so much greif about dressing up, that it took exactly an hour longer then I thought I should.
Of course I didn't know that, I only looked at the hour hand on the clock and though we were actually a few minutes early so we showed up, and the service was actually almost over.
And this is the only face I got from Eli all morning.
Oh well, I tried.

Eli's kid's parties

We had 2 playdate Birthday parties for Eli this year, with 2 different groups of friends.

We had absolutely gorgeous weather, so our parties were outside!

We had lunch and played
as well as playing a game, decorating Easter bag baskets, dying eggs, and going on a scavenger hunt. Thanks everybody for helping Eli celebrate this year.

We had a 5th Birthday Party for Eli on March 27th.
Asher thought the presents were for him.

He did get a present too.
We kept all the grown up busy getting the toys out of the packages and assemballing the basketball net!Fortunately the bike was all ready put together!
So Eli immediately took it for a test drive!
Thanks everybody for the great big kid presents!
You'll see more pictures of the party in the next 4 blog posts.

LIghtning Cake

Grandma made Eli a Lightning McQueen Cake! She did such a beautiful job I did not want to cut into it. She let the kids decorate the cup cakes.
Grandma has a wedding cake decorating business.
http://www.cherylsweddingcakes.com/

Eli was so excited!
Asher had one candle on the side for his half birthday on March 30th.

It was finger licking good!

Grandma and Brad's visit

Grandma and Brad not only can for Eli's party they stayed for a few day too.

We had movie night

PlayedDyed Easter eggs
Had an Easter egg hunt
And lots more fun!
We love it when you come visit!

I love Aunt Kathy

We had so much fun with Aunt Kathy and her friend Steph too.

They both went down the zip line!

The girls with mom-mom.

We are so glad you could make it for Eli's Birthday!

And for a few tickles too.
We miss you when you are so far away.

I'm only 2

I'm only 2 and I can swim where ever I want to go with just a noodle.
I'm only 2 and I can tell full stories (without using th or l) that most people can understand.
I'm only 2 and I know all my letters and numbers.
I'm only 2 and I can count to 30.
I'm only 2 and I can say Chinese words too.
I'm only 2 and I can petal a tricycle.
I'm only 2 and I can pee in the potty anytime, but please don't ask me to go #2 in there cause I won't.


I'll eat most things that you put in front of me if I'm hungry, I even ate those peas after I picked them all out first.
I try hard to keep up with my brother who is exactly twice my age right now.
I love Bob the builder and Trucks of all kinds. I like Thomas too, but I think his truck friends are way better then his train friends.
I've been going to the Bible study child care this year and now I run right in, but I still cry when I have to stay for Church or at the Y without mom and dad.

I'm almost 2 1/2 maybe then I'll be as big as Eli!

And I'm only 4!

I'm only 4 and I'm missing 3 teeth already.
I'm only 4 and I can read first grade reading books.
I'm only 4 and I can add, subtract, and do simple multiplication and division word problems.
I'm only 4 and I can swim by myself.
I'm only 4 and I can read Chinese poetry.

I love to write books about my favorite people, TV characters, and colors etc.
I'm very picky about what I wear- only sweat pants and certain t-shirts or long sleeve T shirts.
Mommy and Daddy say I talk all the time, but I just have so much to teach everyone else especially about Thomas the Tank Engine, Lightning McQueen, Roery the racing car, Diego and Kai-lan.
My favorite foods are Fruit, French Fries and Hot dogs, but mommy insists on making the fries and getting the healthy hot dogs. I'm usually good at eating my veggies too.
My Birthday is coming up soon and I wonder what new thing I will learned to do when I'm 5!

Chinese New Year

Eli was the xiao hua mao- Little cat in the skit/song pull the carrot.
(Either a look of when can we start? or do I really have to wear this costume?)
Then they sang e e e a song about a goose.

Chinese New Year fell on Valentines Day this year. Eli started taking Chinese last fall. His Kindergarten class combined with the the 1st grade to learn and perform 2 songs at the Chinese New Year Gala. I'm so proud of Eli for working so hard on learning Chinese this year! He is the only non-Chinese student in the school right now, so he is working extra hard to keep up with the other Chinese speaking 5 year olds in his class (and he is only 4).

SNOW

We had record breaking amounts of snow this year!


It was fun for a while,
but was so deep it made it hard to play in.
It didn't melt till March!

and more SNOW

Eli and I built a snow house!
We used sand buckets and packed them tight,

Then staked them 7 layers high.

Unfortunately we did not have the camera till the next day when the bright sun had already claimed it.

Florida 2010

We spent a week in Florida in January. I thought I was going to be so great to go somewhere warm! Well I think the high that week was 45 degrees for all of 5 minutes. We did end up having lots of fun though. We stayed in a suite we my parents and they were a great help watching the boys. We when to Disney world, Epcot center, the Orland Science center, the Lakeland Children's Museum, shopping, swimming(in the hot tub), and out to eat. We all had a great time! Again pictures are on the other computer and I may past some later if I figure it out.

good news bad new

A few days after Christmas I took a pregnancy test and found out I was pregnant! Later that day Dan left to build a treehouse in Boston. That night I heard a noise at 1:00am. It sounded like the Christmas train going around the track and I though Asher had gotten up and turned it on. I got up to investigate, and I realized in was not the train, but the sound was coming from the down stairs. I rushed down to find the cause but instead found myself laying on the linoliun floor (over concrete)in a puddle of warm liquid. I started to black out but I don't think I did. My first though was that the warm liquid was blood, but it really turned out to be water from the hot water heater. It was spewing water several feet in every direction form the nozzle. After I managed to get myself off the floor and realized there was no blood I grabbed the phone and called Dan. Of course I wake him up and he was confused by my quick question "how do you shut the water off?" I was thinking I'd have to shut the whole house water off but he told me to just follow the plumbing till you come to a shut off valve. I finally got it shut off and the spewing slowed down and eventually stopped about 15 minutes later. So there I was in the middle of the night with a flooded laundry room, garage, bathroom and a partially flooded carpeted play room. I now have a headache, I'm nausios becasue I probably have a concusion(or is it the pregnancy), the lump on my head is contunuing to get bigger(now it feels like half a baseball is sticking out of the back of my head) and I'm soaking wet and cold. What did I do next? Ice my head, change my clothes, google concusion symptoms, call 911, drive myself to the ER, call a neighbor and wake them up(my parents were in florida), start a fire to warm up, clean up the flood? Well I started cleaning up first and I thought I'll just see how I did. I'd took breaks every once in a while to Ice my head and google concussion symptoms. It sounded like I would be OK as long as I didn't throw up and Oh I was trying my hardest not to, I really did not want to end up in the ER. After about 2 hours I had everything mopped up and under control(except the carpet). Dan called back, and I was so tired I just decided to got to bed sleeping on an ice pack and see if I wake up in the morning. Well obviously I did, and the lump was now the size of a soft ball but I just tried to take it easy. My great friend Rachel and her wonderful husband came over the following day and replace the water heater for us, what a blessing they are! The lump took about 2 weeks to go away and, well at least I think I'm back to normal, whatever that is!

Christmas 09

Christmas Eve they gave the present they picked out for each other. Asher picked a truck for Eli and Eli gave Asher some of his Thomas tracks and trains "so I wouldn't have to keep them away from him anymore"- Eli. And strangely enough they do share them better now!

We had a great Christmas morning with lots of presents from people who love us from all over the country. Then in the afternoon Mei-mom and Pop-pop came over with Mom-mom and Uncle Brooke and we celebrated some more! All the pictures are on the other computer so if I figure it out someday I'll post some here for memory sake.