January 2013 A New Year and Part 1 of February

What's my excuse this time for being so late?  Well, there is always an excuse for everything isn't there but who wants to know.  My morning sickness is no where near comparable to many women's morning sicknesses, for which I'm extremely grateful.  Most of my misery, which really only includes some nausea and tiredness came while we were in Germany and France.  It was due to all the driving we did to different Amazon FC's.  As soon as we got home I pretty much just felt tired but I just ate and ate and ate and the nausea was controlled.  So in other words, laziness is the only true excuse here.

Before starting our new year resolution, we pondered all that happened in 2012 and what we would like to change for the new year.  Dan's 2012 included many new exciting tools that he integrated at work.  He traveled to 6 States for work, 3 of those we got to go with him.  He built a gorgeous fence and he and I started building a rock wall.

The highlight for 2012 for me was singing as a Samaritan woman in the musical "Jesus the Christ" and training and then running an ultra marathon.  50K knocked me out!!!  After I ran it I loved it though and wanted to make it a regular yearly event.  However, this year it's on hold.  I'd rather be pregnant than training for a marathon anytime.  It's hardcore.

Reena, my sweet little ballerina.  She is a beauty and so sweet.  I love her.  She was meant to be my oldest.  We've been spending a lot of time scrap booking together.  I've been meaning to do Debrie's scrap book.  I like blogging which is digital history and then when a few years have gone by I print out my blogs into a book.  It consists of pictures and the kids really love it.  But I made a scrapbook for Reena's first year so I need to finish Debrie's first year before baby #3 comes.  We've taken a long break and I have no excuse.  Reena offered to help and she is so artistic.  Her page looks just as beautiful as mine and she is the true driving force for me to continue scrap booking.

Debrie's highlight was probably cutting off her hair.  She had beautiful blond hair, blondest I've ever seen of mixed white and Asian babies.  Her hair started turning more brown so she decided to cut off the blond in her hair.  Ok not really.  She just had a beauty shop playdate with her friend Elyanna and decided to cut it off.  We miss her long hair.  She misses her long hair.

The first of January we celebrated New Year at our house with 4 of our friends, their kids, and cousin Dave's family.  Everyone brought a treat to share and we played games after games after games together.  We had a really fun time getting to know each other better.  Always a treat to have people come to our house.  Later the next week we had our best friends, the Frasers over our house for 2 days.  The kids always have a great time having friends over for sleepovers.  JoLynn and I went shopping and had some girl time together while the guys babysat.  What more could a woman want?

    End of January I believe was when signs of pregnancy came on for me.  I became so emotional, uncontrollably emotional.  I blame it on hormonal changes.  It must've been that because we were weeks out before our Europe trip and I was bawling every night after putting the kids down because we decided to go to Europe without them.  In December when we talked to Dan's parents, they expressed interest in coming up to Seattle for a visit sometime in February or March.  We spoke to them in January and asked about the option of flying them up to be with the kiddos while we go to Europe.  They were excited about the idea.  It was a win win situation.  They wanted to come up anyway and we needed their help so we don't mind paying for their tickets.  My mom has always expressed how much she loves being with the kids when I'm not there because the kids have one on one time with her.  Both moms were excited for the time they will get to bond with their granddaughters and we're excited to have them get to know their grandmas better.  But the hormone kicked in and every thought that crept in my mind about leaving them behind brought tears to my eyes.  I couldn't bare it.  We looked at Europe weather and opted it would be best and everything points to keeping them here as the right decision.

 So, this is how the Disneyland trip came about.  One day, Reena came home from school and said "Mamma, I'm the only one in my class that has not been to Disneyland"  I laughed because I knew she was exaggerating, but her sad little face only made me weaker so I told her "well honey, we're gonna take you to Disneyland".  Dan and I thought about it, did some math and turns out that the money we would've spent of Reena and Debrie's tickets to Europe would completely cover everything to Disneyland, including flights, hotels, Disneyland resort tickets.  So within a week I looked and booked our flights, got on facebook and asked for a few advice on Disneyland and got a tons of feedback (30+) from friends on FB on what to not miss out when in SoCal.  I love how quick we got things wrapped up.  A few days after we got our flights, hotels, cars, rides and such, we were on our way to Anaheim. We got in at 11:30 PM and look at that happy face.

At LAX airport waiting for daddy to get our rental car.  #tooexcitedtothinkaboutsleep!!

 We couldn't have asked for a better week.  The temperature was a beautiful 75+ degrees.  It was perfect.  The lines were short bc it was in February.  We were in the happiest place on earth and our children were stoked. 

We saw many princesses but Tiana we saw the most. Reena got to dance with the group as well.  They picked her bc of her cool face paint.

The fireworks were fabulous!!!  Tinkerbell flying was cool for the kids to see.

  This was such the coolest drink.  It changes color.  I'm totally doing this for the kids birthday party.

 We went on so many rides and stayed 'ti it closes.  Our bodies said enough but we were too happy to care.  We took so many pictures it's crazy of everything.  I'm trying to only select the few with us in it.
DISNEY California Adventure

 

We saw Aladdin the musical before leaving that night.  We loved it.  Aladdin is one of the kids favorite Disney movies so they loved that they recognize the songs from there.

We saw the most fantastic water show with fire that warms up that whole place.  So cool!!!

 Third day, 2nd Day at Disneyland
  Because one day was just not enough..,

No FEAR!!!
This little girl LOVES roller coasters.  She is just a tiny bit shorter than the heigh requirement for most of the rides so she went on this one 4 times!!!  If it wasn't for her parents being tired of this one, she would've gone more times.

 
We went on every ride there was that was possible to us.   We stayed until the end and exhausted ourselves out.  We didn't care how tired we felt again.  We had SO MUCH FUN!!!!  The kids didn't want to leave.  Ahhhh, money worth spending.  The cost of Disneyland and flying Nama and Papa and Ba Ngoai out was the same as the cost to Europe.  Well worth it.

We took advantage of the outdoor heated pool at the hotel.  It was heavenly.

 

Visiting Families -Uncle Brad and Aunt Sheri's family

  We love this family.  Every California trip we make we stop by and see them.  They fed us lunch and we had yummy orange juice freshly squeezed from the oranges in their backyard.  The kids found a bunch of nuts fallen on their front yard and kept themselves entertained.  We got to see the Redlands temple which is 5 minutes from their house and we attended a singles ward there.  We wish we had more time with these sweet people.  Absolutely adore them!!!  Such warm hearted people

 

Visiting Dave and Kim Jones
  We adore these guys also.  They made us dinner and welcomed us in their home in such short notice.  We got to see Kim and congratulate them on their new addition.  It's nice to know our babies will be about the same age.  We love them.