gum

Last Sunday after church, Taylin came in the Relief Society Room and carefully showed me the piece of gum that dropped out of her mouth and into her hair during Primary. Her hair is so long these days that it is no wonder it fell into her hair and not on the floor. Things with spit have a tendency to make me gag so I made Huy get it out.

We remembered a friend's science project where she tested different things to find out what worked best to get gum out of hair, but we couldn't remember what the best substance was, so we called her dad up to find out. They told us hot water. The internet said olive oil. We used both and a fine tooth comb and it all came out. I thought that this may be our chance to give Taylin a haircut, but no such luck - she wants to keep it long.

I can't talk about it much more than that as I am about to gag just thinking about it!

L O O K what we have created!

It is the last day of April so I better get my "creation-for-the-month" posted. The girls helped me plant this wheat grass early in the month for Easter and it was only a couple of days before it began to sprout and then grow so long that we had to give it a crew-cut for the picture. Everyone enjoyed watching it grow and it was fun and festive too!

What did you create this month?

E A S T E R
















We enjoyed a nice Easter Sunday. The kids colored a few eggs with Ba Noi on Saturday (above), the girls let me curl their hair (they never do) and they all smiled for a picture before we headed out the door for church without more complaining than I could handle. Nike swatted an egg around and cracked the shell and wanted to eat it, but didn't get to. Our Easter didn't wasn't traditional. We are so much over the weekend that no one wanted a fancy meal so we ate leftovers. We tried to fly the kites the kids got in their baskets without any success - just not enough wind. And of course, we remembered the reason for this special day!

Ba Noi and Ong Noi visit
It was a delight to have Huy's parents come for a visit over Easter weekend. The kids were so excited to have them come. We took them to see the bats and about missed them. We were able to see a few come out from under the bridge, but most of them had already left for their dinner! It was a good time to watch the train go by and get a group shot.

Ba Noi is facinated with Nike. She is a bit bewildered at how we treat him as if he were our baby, now that Bubbas is a "big girl." It is fun to share him with her!

Ba Noi and Ong Noi are so good to our kids. They play cards and toys and just hang out together. Huy's mom made th girls a super cute dress (I hope to get a picture of them wearing them and post it soon) and they gave Tanner a nice sweater vest that was perfect for Easter. We did our share of eating as well, yummy Asian foods. Thanks for a wonderful weekend, although a bit short. Come again soon!

a p r i l ' s word of the month...

c r e a t e

create joy. create interest. create good. create something about you. create for the sake of creating. create opportunities. create home. create art. create junk. create with paint. create with crayons. this month, focus on creating a life you love.

Happy April Fool's Day! Happy spring. Happy creating!

Watch this!

Four gaps

(This post is for you Grandma and Ba Noi. You are really the only ones that might be interested.)
Tanner had four teeth pulled a few weeks ago and this picture gives you a pretty good visual of it and don't look too closely or you'll see more than you'd care too. He had the four teeth that are in the same spot on top and bottom, left and right - as Kaylie calls them, "the pointy ones." It was nothing compared to having tonsils removed, but he was sore for the day and wasn't too happy about it. The night we had the smores, he thought it was cool to squeeze marshmellows out the holes though. He's good now.

Thanks Lien and The

This is the beautiful picture Huy and I received for Christmas from his parents, Lien and The (pronounced Tay). I was so excited to return home so we could hang it. And finally, after 3 months and much deliberation as to where we should hang it, this was where we decided was best. This picture doesn't quite do it the justice it deserves, but I surely enjoy looking at it and like where it ended up. Thanks Lien and The for this beautiful gift to remind us of our lovely wedding day and the special covenants that we made to one another that day!

Kaylie = perceptive and peculiar

She has this way of making us all laugh at the things she says that are often either very perceptive or rather peculiar for a 5 year old. For instance, a few of the latest that I need to make note of...

At Tanner's birthday party, she traded the tickets she had won at the arcade games for a Daisy Duck stuffed toy. She was so happy about it and was showing myself and Huy, trying to talk like a duck. But then, she asked me if Daisy's eyes looked angry (because the eyebrows that were sewn on were downward facing near the nose). Indeed they did look angry, but I tried to play it off as no big deal and that the eyebrows were fine and Daisy was just happy that Kaylie had chosen her. She was convinced, but only for a moment. She then went to ask Huy. "Do her eyes look angry?" she asked. Huy laughed and also tried to convince her that they were not angry eyes, but Kaylie decided she didn't want Daisy any more because she was angry looking so we had to exchange it for a Minnie! Pretty perceptive of her we thought.

The other night we were watching the Kid's Choice Awards on Nickelodeon. The Rock was doing some sort of Polynesian dance with his knees moving towards each other and then away from each other while walking about. Kaylie announces, "His legs are very mysterious!" Where she learned that word is rather peculiar.

And the last Kaylie story... for today...
While she and I was lying on the floor with Nike, petting him and rubbing his back, she reaches over and pulls at my ears, examining them with wonder. She then said, "You have too small of ears." I guess she thought my ears were to small for my body. I don't know if it was a compliment or not, but I'll think it was. I'm happy with small things. It was kind of perceptive and peculiar that she would notice that.

That's our Kaylie!

Nike Dog gets his first stitches!

WARNING! The second picture, if you can't already see it, is a bit graphic. If you have a weak stomach, look at your own risk.

This is Nike on a typical Sunday afternoon, once Huy has gotten home from church and felt the need to include Nike in on the church attire. This is also the BEFORE picture of Nike and his stitches.























This is Nike after his run-in with the trampoline.
















He had been locked up a bit more than usual on Wednesday so when I was home preparing dinner, I let him out in the backyard to play. I was playing fetch with him and he was loving it. As he often does, he decided not to return the ball to me and just started running around and around and around the yard. About his third time around, he went under the trampoline and as he was coming out from underneath, at full speed, he all of a sudden went down and started to yelp and moan and came to a stop. From the distance that I was watching, probably 10 feet away, I could see a tuft of hair and some white stuff. I could tell something wasn't right, right away. I went to him for a closer look and was sure that the cut he had sustained was more than just a scrape. I could see his insides.

(Another weather related story here - just how Texas weather is - one day to one minute can be so different from another.) After hoping for no rain all day, right at 5pm, Huy headed out to football practice and the rains, I mean a downpour, came. After a few minutes, it had stopped and practice was still on. Point is, I called Huy to tell him Nike had been hurt, that I had called the vet and he was going to stay at his office until I got there to access the damage, and that I would call him when I knew what the vet would do. Huy understood and I rushed Nike to the vet. The nurse took one look and assured me Nike would need stitches so he would have to stay for about 30 minutes. Then the vet came to tell me the same thing, telling me it was a bad cut, that Nike would be sedated, the area shaven, and he would need stitches. The girls and I headed home and said we would return shortly for Nike.

Little did I know that it was about to hail. I called Huy to tell him and he was already in the car heading home too. Practice was going to have to wait until another day. No sooner had Huy and myself pulled in the garage, the hail came and a sheet of white covered the ground. But like I said earlier, Texas weather changes in an instant and before long, the hail and rain were gone and a beautiful blue sky was present. (What the weather has to do with the story isn't much other than it created more chaos than I could deal with at that time.)

Huy headed out to get Nike and called me on his way home, almost in shock himself. He said that I had told him it was about a 2 or 3 inch cut, not a 6 inch gouge that was really bad. And then Nike was all drugged so he was definately not himself so the kids needed to be prepared for this as it was going to be shocking for them as well. And sure enough, it was a bit more than they could handle. As Nike laid on the floor, the kids came to see him. Kaylie cried right away, not wanting to look, Tanner looked from a distance and then began to cry, and Taylin was looking at it fairly closely, then turned to see Tanner beginning to cry and then began to cry herself. We felt so bad and sorry for him. He slept that night and was pretty much himself by morning. He has to take it easy, yeah right, until the stitches come out in 10 days. It is suppose to be covered with a shirt to help him not scratch it, but have you ever tried to have a dog wear a shirt for an extended period of time? Not so easy unless it is some minature dog and Nike is anything but. We had to decide if it would be better to take our dog for a walk with a shirt on or no shirt on and then people would see the big wound? Hummm, tough one.

















"Look at me. I'm ready to play again. Who's in?"

"I'm still cute aren't I?"

S P R I N G B R E A K 2 0 0 9

What a nice break we had! We got a jump start and took the kids out of school on Friday and headed to Port Aransas with the Clarks. We made arrangements several weeks prior to rent a beach house, not knowing the weather forecast, and to our disappointment, it was very wet and cold and windy. But inspite of it, we did as much as we could and everyone was a real trooper.

The first excitement we had was getting to the beach. We hit some major traffic and then there were a few too many pee stops along the way (guess that is what 6 kids and two moms need most) so it was about 6pm before we arrived.

And then, the second big excitement was seeing the beautiful blue house we had rented (see picture below)! NOT. We opted for the cheaper of two choices and quickly, we realized we had made the wrong choice. I mean, how much furniture does one home need when renting it to people. Clearly the owners didn't like to get rid of anything and the rental agency had a few different definitions of what "clean" was. So after the toilet had overflowed, due to poor plumbing I'm sure, and not being able to sit down, and a few other things I won't mention, we (Karmen and I) sent the men to the store as we were going to have to do a little cleaning ourselves. While they were gone, we thought the rental agency should know a thing or two about our unhappiness, at 10pm, so the contract said to "report and problems immediately" and that is what we did. We just wanted them to know that we had a few problems and that some compensation would be nice. The lady was clearly not happy with us and said to meet her at the office immediately. Promptly, I called Huy. He always gets us out, or usually is the one to put us in, but not this time, these types of situations. I am probably going into way too much detail for a blog post, but to finish up the story, Huy was able to one, calm the lady down, two, convince her to let us stay the night there rather than be out in one hour (that was her plan), and three, be the peacemaker in the situation.

We ended up staying in the blue house after we felt we had cleaned it enough to make it work!

So on our rainy days, we cleaned the house, ugh, went to see the USS Lexington aircraft carrier which was fairly cool, visited several gift shops so the kids could find their treasures, and toured the town of Port Aransas.

I just really love the beach. I love the sounds, sometimes the smell, and just watching the kids love the beach too. So when it was finally time to head to the beach, when the rain had broke for a bit, it was great fun. Tanner and Cole started by just sticking their toes in, then they were up to their knees, and finally, the just started swimming. The girls were quick to follow and the little ones, well, they just enjoyed sticking those toes in, but mostly just finding "sheshells" as Kaylie calls them. The kids were darn cold when they had finally had enough and Kaylie's bucket was practically full of her prized "sheshells." I couldn't get enough cute pictures of all the fun they were having!















We decided the best way to describe our weekend in Port Aransas was to call it a "memorable adventure." We had good times, but maybe not as many if the sun had been out. Thanks Clarks for coming on such an adventure with us. Love ya!

But our week continued on... we used some time to get some chores done, mostly yard work, we hung with many friends at the park one afternoon, and instead of going camping (I couldn't recover fast enough from the previous adventure to pack up for another one just yet), we camped out in the backyard and had smores on our indoor fire. The kids thought that was too great. We'll be doing that again shortly I am sure.















We had the Spring Break 2009 grand finale at McKinney Falls State Park which we had never been to before. The weather was what we had hoped for at the beach, but you have heard that story. We hiked around, splashed in the water, ate a picnic lunch, tried a little fishing, met our first pet pot-belly pig, and the kids even did a little swimming - again, the water being a bit cold, but kind of refreshing. Nike had the time of his life. It was a great way to hang as a family and enjoy our last, unscheduled Saturday before the upcoming, sport-filled, ones come.

*Disclaimer... with the number of photos I took, and wanting to post individual pictures of many of them rather than collages, I slacked on getting the week posted. Honestly, I am a bit tired of doing collages, but I haven't found a way to post a ton of pictures as easily as with them, so in an effort to get the highlights of our Spring Break posted, I opted for more collages this time. If anyone has any good, other ideas, out there for me, PLEASE let me know. But know this, I have a hard time choosing just a few pictures as I think every one of them, with my kids in it, or Nike, are cute!*

Now an 11 Year Old Scout

Tanner was able to join the 11 year old Boy Scouts for his first hike. They hiked about 5 miles at Lake Georgetown. Looks like it was a pretty silly bunch of boys, but he had a great time. It was good that his friend Connor could go too and it was nice of his leader to share these pictures.

Oops.

Here are the pictures of the family party! Thanks everyone.

Kaylie's 5th birthday party!

Although her birthday was last week, with her brother and her sharing a birthday so close together, we have to spread them out a bit. She certainly doesn't understand the whole "which day is my birthday" thing because we celebrate one day as a family and then a week later with friends. Wait until she realizes that there are some years she doesn't even really have a birthday - on the calendar that is. She definately doesn't get that one. It actually just makes her upset when you tell her that she is really just one again this year.

So the party was a lot of fun for Kaylie! She loves the attention. She has 10 little girls come and she informed me that they all are her best friends. They enjoyed listening to "If I Were In the Zoo," playing Musical Dots, and Catch the Balloon, and Princess, Princess, Queen, finding hidden balls in the yard, hoola-hooping, and lots of jumping on the trampoline. They decorated visors and made bracelets and necklaces with beads and pipe cleaner. Of course Kaylie's favorite part was opening presents and she received lots of fun toys. Taylin and her friend Kassadi were the best helpers! Thanks girls.

Here are all of Kaylie's best friends - Jordyn, Maddie and Morgan, Kyra, Amanda, Emily, Nicole, Emma, and Halle! Thanks for coming everyone!

Kaylie's actual birthday was on the 28th of February. She started her day not believing that it was her birthday, but then when she started opening all of her presents from the family, she became a little more convinced. She loves her Thumbalina, a soccer ball, a music box (from Aunt Linh and family), clothes and gift cards (from Ba Noi and Ong Noi), more clothes and a CD player (from Grandma and Grandpa), suckers and cookies (from Uncle Vu), and a unicorn and a pegasus. She is one spoiled, happy girl!

It is clear that we adore her. She is so sweet and funny. We are always laughing at some comment of hers. She loves her big sister and big brother and she is lucky to have them love her back. She is quick to give a compliment at how beautiful someone is or how beautiful they are dressed. I think she wants to be a princess when she grows up! She gives the best hugs. We love you Kaylie! Happy 5th Birthday!

Kaylie's Polka Dot Party Prep

It is a bit of fun for me to make such a fuss about my 5 year old's birthday party. It is a bit overboard because I'm not sure how much she, or any of her 5 year old friends, really cared about some of the details. And it is a bit nuts of me to drop most everything else in the house to do it. But you only turn 5 once in your life and it is a good age to celebrate!

Tanner turns 11!

Aaaah, my boy is 11! It doesn't seem possible that I could be that old! Ha. I've loved all 11 years with this kid. He is so likable, fun, and positive, he's a doer, a go getter, and he loves being 11! He had a great birthday. His friends (Connor, Drew, Tanner W., Ryan, Jared, Julian, and Bailey) all met him at Austin Park and Pizza and they got to play arcade games, ride go-carts, play miniture golf, go rock climbing, and eat pizza, drink all the soda they wanted and play more arcade games... as much as they could, all of this for hours and hours. 11 year olds boys know how to not have a care in the world. It was a great time!

Tanner received lots of money from friends and family (which was greatly appreciated), he got a Nerf Vulcan gun (a gift from Dad for the both of them to enjoy), a Lamborgini remote control car, a few clothes, new socks (a gift from Mom for the both of us to enjoy), a water football for summer days at the pool, Diary of a Whimpy Kid books, and his most favorite of all... an iPod touch. He earned (and used some birthday money) and saved more than half of the cost and Dad and I helped him with the rest as his gift from us. It is darn cool and he hasn't put it down much. Taylin says, "Luckyyyyyyyyy!"

It has been a New Year's Resolution of our families to not eat french fries for six months, with the exception of birthdays. This has not been as hard as we thought it might be, except for Tanner. He loves his fries and has missed them. So when he got to choose a place to eat for his birthday, without a doubt, he was going to pick some place that has awesome french fries. He chose Wing Stop. And they were tastey! He ate about 3 wings and a whole basket of fries. Tanner, and the rest of us, are back on track for another 3 months of no fries, until Taylin's birthday and then the resolution will end. Now we have to come up with what we will give up next for the last six months!

As for the cake, I am out of ideas for football themed cakes. Or maybe it is just that I am out of enthusiasm for coming up with new ideas for football themed cakes. I mean, how many years am I going to be making a football cake?!?!? And another thing, note to self... 11 year old boys would rather go play in the park than eat birthday cake!

A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY Tanner! We love you and are so proud of you!

We LOVE Nike too!

I'm not the only spoiled one. Nike gets his fair share of attention and love, no matter the day. Our big dog gets treated like the baby, or should I say puppy that he technically still is. When someone, especially Dad, shows him attention or cuddles with him, everyone gathers round to cuddle him too. At the end of our Valentine's Day, as we were unwinding, I walked in the room to find this! We often wonder how life was without him.

He's a good dog Charlie Brown.

L O V E

It was a lovely day! Huy and Tanner spoiled us girls with beautiful flowers (roses, snapdragons and lilies) and a big, heart balloon. Aunt Tammy sent the kids some candy and a little stuffed dog. Kaylie's had many names - Princess, then Sparkle, then Softie, but in the end, her name was Princess Sparkle Softie. Good choice. Tanner liked his too, but he was too sick to even smile for his picture. And Taylin was quick to pick up the phone to call and say thanks for Sassy, her dog's name.

This year the kids went to the Valentine Bistro instead of The Love Shack. The ownership changed hands and it was given a new name - probably a good thing. They enjoyed Daddy's Best Steak with a seasonal vegetable, broccoli, and a chosen side of Macaroni and Cheese and/or mashed potatoes (the instant kind). The girls had a Sprite and Tanner chose the chocolate milk, but he didn't drink any, again because he was sick. The personalized cake and chocolate chip mint ice cream topped off a great Valentine dinner.

Huy also spoiled me with a gift. I felt bad that I didn't have anything for him, but maybe we can share the new camera he gave me! Woo hoo! I am so excited. It is so nice. Now I'll just have to pull out the manual and read it so I will know how to use it.

Love to you all!

Black Shirts battle

That's my boy. When he's not playing football, he's playing basketball. This season has been a little less than fun because they haven't won many games, but Tanner is still always happy to play and says it is still fun. Their team name is the Black Shirts - some term from the Nebraska Huskers football something. Not sure. You'd have to ask Jeff - the coach - big Nebraska fan. We are mid-season so hopefully the team can win a few more before it is over!

Pittsburg won the Superbowl,

uh huh, uh huh!

It was a very HAPPY day in our house when the Steelers won the Superbowl! Thanks to those who came to support, or not support, Huy and his love for the Steelers. Our living room became a shrine for the Steelers - Huy brought down all of Tanner's Fatheads and vinyls and gear so there was no confusion as to who was to win. They only thing we forgot was to take a picture of our family, all suited up with our Steeler jerseys on, including Nike. But when he went potty in his shirt, the moment was lost. Pittsburgh had the game in the bag, but the Cardinals stormed back in the 4th quarter causing Huy to go "rally helmet" (see picture above) which worked and the Steelers pulled it off. Many screams, taunting, and celebration dances later, the best team prevailed. Sorry to all our AZ friends - sorry that you couldn't be here with us to help celebrate that is!!!

Spring is coming?

Thanks Karmen for the very cool bucket of bulbs that have bloomed into these beautiful tulips. It has been fun to watch them grow and open. Kaylie has enjoyed observing them with me. On these cold Texas days (ha), it has been nice to think of springtime coming.

(P.S. I was having fun doing some photo editing in Picasa.)