A little more update on the Seattle Stevens

My sister declared "You live in the best place ever!" before she left and it's true. We live 15 minutes from city life and 15 minutes from raspberry/blueberry and other fresh fruits u-pick farms and 5 minutes from the water. We've had sunny weathers but not too hot. We did not come up here for hot or cold snowy weathers, though we do have a christmas town called Leavenworth about 2 hours east of here but we're close to the ocean so we stay fairly warm and surprisingly to us not humid at all. We came up here for mild weather and we love it. Mostly we love our electric bills!




Debrie. My Debrie has been so great. She is a sweet and wonderful baby. She eats and sleeps and eats and sleeps some more and now she is a big and chunky baby. At birth she was 9 lbs 3 ounces and 19.5 inches long though we think the length was wrong because at 2 weeks she measured 21.5 inches and the nurse even measured her a couple of times because she didn't believe that Debrie had grown 2 inches. She was probably 20.5 inches or 21 inches long at birth. She weighed 10 lbs at 2 weeks but she has a tons of rolls on her arms and legs now and is very healthy. She has been able to go down about the same time as her big sister and sleeps for about 6 hours before waking up to eat which makes mommy and daddy very happy. She is very easy at feeding and will take both breast and bottle for which we're very grateful. She looks almost identical to her big sister when she was that age. If they were twins they would be identical twins. We are so happy she is ours. She smiles a lot and she is a great addition to our family.

Reena. My sweet Reena. She loves to play the piano and sing to primary songs. She memorizes them quite quickly. She practices the piano more than I do. She has a sweet voice and I hope she becomes a good singer. I used to sing a lot at school concerts when I was little and with my album Little Hand Denny Hancock, my writer is going to incorporate her part of I'm a child of God into his version of it and it's going to be so cute. She still is my shy girl but she told Dan the other day that she wants to go to school. She loves to go pick raspberries and blueberries but mostly so she can eat them right on the fields. She loves her baby sister that's no doubt.

Me. I'm getting back to the swing of things. I try to keep up with blogging as that is the best way for me to keep a history of our family. What else are you going to do when you've got a baby in your arms sleeping? I also just got back to going to the gym. I'm not quite sure when it was that I got back to my prepregnant weight but at 8 weeks I'm back to 105 lbs. I'm pretty happy. My mom doesn't believe that I'm that thin so this picture is a proof for you ma. This is right before I went back to the gym after 8 weeks. Just thought I'd take one for the record.

Dan. Dan likes the rain. We went 2 weeks without rain and our grass is starting to die around here and he said "We need the rain or Seattle is going to look like every where else and not as nice and green." When it finally sprinkled a tiny bit today he said "It's about time!" But of course being the summer we had a teeny bit of sprinkling for about 5 minutes and that was it. It wasn't enough to even moisten the ground. I love it and he hated that. He loves the smell of rain so he's happy. Weather.com predicted it will get up to the 90's and sunny for the next 10 days.

1.2.3. Happy Birthday Reena!!!

My little girl is not so little anymore. She just turned 3 and I cannot believe how fast time flies. Two nights before her birthday she woke up and came into my room so I took her back into her room and tucked her in again and of course she fell back to sleep but I was sobbing like a baby. I looked at her and realized how big she has gotten both physically and mentally. I no longer had to rock her back to sleep like I did not long ago. I didn't hold her in my arms as we both fall asleep like I used to. Tears streamed down my face as I watched her peacefully fall back to sleep at the touch of my hands on her face. I missed holding my little peach but touching her face as she fell back to sleep was so sweet. I don't ever want to miss out on any sweet moment I will have with her. She is the best thing that has ever happened to me and to us both.

At her 1st year princess peach castle birthday party

At her 2 years old strawberry shortcake birthday party


At 3 years old


Since her last birthday Reena hasn't changed a whole lot except she looks more mature now and she talks a lot more. She grew about 2 or 3 inches length wise and hair wise. I did trim her hair and now she's got bangs. It's a different look on her and I think she looks way cute too with bangs. Dan feels bad that she doesn't have a lot of hair because that's from his side but I think a little hair is better than too much hair.


It was a little chilly that day at the beach because the sun was a little hidden behind the cloud so she had on an old sweater. I swear the shirt inside was cute. Though it was at the beach and dressing up too nicely mean the clothes will be stained like her white pants.


She was born to love the Beach!

This was the first time I touched her hair all day long. I was so busy decorating the cake and putting all the food together that I forgot all about doing my little peach's hair or dress her in something nicer than what she'd been in all day long. It's a good thing she's pretty otherwise mommy would feel really bad.

Part of the reason that I wanted to have her party at the beach, besides the fact that it goes with the Spongebob theme is the game part of the party. I bought the kids Krabby patty yo yos and they all got creative and had a great time playing together.







The cake is of course an important part of a birthday party. Reena loved her Bikini Bottom birthday cake!





Others at the party



Opening Presents

We decided that opening presents at the beach might get a little too messy with sand being every where. So Reena had her opening up the presents and playing with the presents at home.

She loved all of her presents!!! Thank you all!!!


This birthday party could not have been as nice as it was without the help of my wonderful sister Thuyen. She got online and found out how to make cute little Spongebob's bags so I don't have to use ugly brown bags. She helped make the invitations for me which took a big load off my shoulders. She also took a lot of pictures for us at the party which is why she isn't in these pictures. Thank you so much Thuyen for all you did to help me!!! I'm going to hold you to what you said about coming out every summer to help me with Reena's birthday parties. You're a great party planner!


Reena brought home some balloons from her birthday party. She even cried when one of the balloons got in the water and started floating away. Anyways since we had balloons floating around the house, she and I decided to make a pinata even though it's after her birthday. Since her Ong Ngoai and Ba Ngoai gave her some money for zoo and museum passes, we're going to take her and Debrie to the Seattle zoo this Saturday and then have an after birthday party with the pinata we made. That btw is my only regret of her party - time with her. It's fun to have your friends there but next year I want it to be a kids birthday party, no parents! (Sorry guys, those who read this please don't be angry at me:)


It is still in its first stage drying so stay tune for more pictures of the zoo and pinata party!

From my camera and Thuyen's

2 weeks of fun fun fun squeezed in 1 page

Last night as we drove home from the beach after Reena's birthday, we contemplated on how neat it was that the last 7 months we have been blessed with many opportunities to have visits and have visited families. At the end of January Thuan's parents came out and visited us on their way to Vietnam and when they came back in February they also stopped by. March we went down to Portland, Oregon and visited Dan's uncle Dave and family. April Thuan's whole family came together for her sister Thao's wedding. May and practically almost June Thuan's sister Thanh came and helped us with Debrie's birth. July we had Dan's parents and Thuan's sister Thuyen also came out. August, Thuan's mom and brother Mike will be out. September, Thuan's dad will be out. October we will head down to Phoenix for a visit with Dan's sisters and for Reena to go trick or treating with her cousins. November we're hoping that we could go to Philly for Thanksgiving and leaving December with another visit from the kids' Nama and Papa. How blessed we feel to be a part of a wonderful family and how much closer we feel to have families that love us so much. We'd like to keep this a regular routine where each month we could see a member or more of each of our family. Here are some memorable pictures of our time together.

From Nama and Papa's Camera of their trip to Seattle
Board walk, Pike place market, Snoqualmie Falls, Beach, Bbq, Space Needle, Fountain, Beach, Locks,Food, Party, and Baseball, life can't get much better than that!

Highlights from above album


Happy Anniversary!!! For Nama and Papa'a Anniversary I made them a peach and apple cobbler filled with yummy whipped cream made into flowers flowing on the top. It was delicious and we were glad they shared it with us.

2009 Family Pictures

We got our pictures from JCPenney (A first!) and we had a great experience. I don't know if it was the color I chose or the fact that the photographer kept telling me how beautiful my children are that made me feel so pleased to be there. In fact I think it got me in trouble in terms of choosing what to buy. We bought a CD of all of the pictures and I printed them out at Costco but must've used the wrong file or something because they were really blurry. If any of you have done this before and know of a better, good, and affordable place to print out pictures, let me know. Here are some of our favorites.