Show & Tell: X or Y

I know I'm behind on this, but I was prepared and took the picture the night before Show & Tell and was ready to post. Then Tuesday morning when I got up for work, I see that her teacher has sent an email about Show & Tell, saying the letter was going to be W. Which is completely not right, because W was an option last week. Since we had already picked out what she was bringing, I rushed around and found a watch for her to bring..no picture! I planned to get a picture of that but never got around to it. It was a Hello Kitty Watch, the one they gave out in the McDonald's Happy Meals awhile back.

This past week, it was the Easter party so ended up no Show & Tell. Figured its time to post, so here's what she would have brought if the letters were really X or Y...Yellow Tweety Bird!

Show and Tell: V or W

On Monday, I remembered it would be show and tell the next day. I told Emmie it was going to be either U or V. She quickly decided on bringing her My Little Pony Unicorn and ran upstairs to get it. She came down with a unicorn candle that used to be mine in high school. She was very excited about it, and we even decided to tie a pretty bow around its neck. Emmie wanted to write her name on the ribbon; which right now consists of just the letter E. She's really perfected it. We'll need to start working on her other letters soon!

Well later that night at like 10 pm, I get the email from her teacher the letters are actually V or W not U or V. I really don't know why her teacher waits until so late to send out the reminder! Of course, she was already in bed, and had her heart set on the unicorn. I turned to Dennis to see what options we had, he said "White Unicorn!" Genius! White Unicorn it was!

Big Birthday Trip - Part I

As most of you know, we decided to take the kids to Disneyland for their birthdays this year. When Emmie was just a wee baby, I had said Disneyland for her 4th birthday. This way we could take her there without worrying about her missing school but have her be old enough to remember, of course at the time I was not picturing a little Drew to be around. But I stuck with my plan, so our vacation plans were set. In the end we decided to make it a multi-leg trip since flying home from Las Vegas was going to be cheaper, we extended the vacation by 2 days and added Vegas to the itinerary. Since we did so much in the trip, I’ve decided to break it up into more manageable pieces. This first post will be about all the traveling joys we had on the trip and the non-Disney, non-snow and non-Vegas things we did.

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

On Drew’s 2nd birthday, we headed to the airport. Since Drew turned 2 that day, we were trying to sneak him on the plane as a lap child and not have to pay for a ticket. I brought 2 passports, Emmie’s and Dennis’s, which I didn’t realize until we were checking in, opps! Well the Southwest ticket lady was having none of that. She asked when his birthday was, and I said March 23rd, which apparently was too close for her not to check. I’m wondering if I had said his birthday was in June or July if she would have let us go. Well she didn’t, so we had to buy a ticket for him which they said we could get reimbursed for if we just faxed in proof of his birth date. Since Drew was born around 11:30 in the morning, Dennis thought about faxing that in saying that he wasn’t officially 2 when we got on that plane. He may still be thinking about it, but I’ll let him fight that battle. Alisa loaned us her Joovy (double stroller), so we had the 2 kids, 2 carseats and the one double stroller to carry-on. The Joovy was a lifesaver because it was easy to maneuver and the carseats stacked perfectly on them. The plane ride was good for the most part, until a certain 2 year old started getting tired and wanted his milk. Well we all remember the last time he had milk on a plane, so I wasn’t about to give him any. So for about 30 minutes (felt more like 2 hours), I walked a fussy loud Drew up and down the aisle. He finally accepted drinking a Kool Aid Jammer and fell asleep. After he fell asleep, it was peaceful. He slept through the landing and woke when we de-planed. Emmie was the perfect angel, relaxing in her chair, checking out her surroundings, coloring in her new book, and of course eating her snacks! Since we had so much stuff, we decided that Dennis should go get the rental car and come back for us. After being cooped up on the plane, all the kids wanted to was run around. I had to keep them contained while watching the luggage cart and the stroller full of stuff. He couldn’t get back fast enough. From the airport, we headed to Dennis’s Aunt’s, Tita Joji. When we got there, Tita Joji had set up a sweet little surprise for the kids for their birthdays. Super cute! We rested for a bit, while Tita Joji wrapped up some work; then headed out to dinner at the Universal Studios Citywalk. Its right outside Universal Studios, there’s just a bunch of shops and restaurants. And of course we got pictures of us at the Universal Studios entrance, so now when they look, the kids will think they got to go to Universal Studios too!!! We ended up at Bubba Gump’s, where we all had some yummy shrimp and they sang happy birthday to Drew with an ice cream sundae. That was all the kids could really handle, since by that time it was close to 10 p.m. Houston time, and we had our big day at Disney the following day.

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

Disneyland post to follow.

Friday, February 25th, 2011

Remember, we had all those things we had to bring for the trip (i.e. carseats, stroller, and luggage for 4)?! Well also included in that was Dennis’s golf clubs because he planned a golf day with his cousin, Carl. I explained to Dennis that Carl had an extra set of clubs he could borrow, but apparently it’s not the same when you don’t play with your own clubs. My original plan was going to be to just hang out at Tita Joji’s, but her house is not too kid proof, lots of breakable things all over! Luckily, Erica, Dennis’s cousin who came with us to Disneyland, was off on Friday, so I took the kids to her house. She’s got 2 little boys, so her house was definitely a lot easier to have the kids hang out at. Plus they had all kinds of toys to keep them entertained. We spent the day at the house playing, watching TV and lounging. It was nice to just unwind, plus it was raining on and off the whole day, so wouldn’t have been good to be outdoors anyway! Dennis finished up his golf round in the early afternoon, and we headed back to Tita Joji’s to rest before meeting my family friends for dinner. Dinner ended up being very far away and on a rainy Friday night during rush hour traffic we headed to Garden Grove to meet my family friends for some Korean BBQ. The kids were fussy and tired for the entire car ride which was close to 2 hours. We finally made it to our destination! The food was good, but luckily both kids ate before we went because they were super grumpy and were not happy campers. At one point, I had one child on each leg and could still eat. My friend was asking how I managed to do it, and I was like you just learn to work around them! It was a very long dinner and a long drive home, but it was great to see my friends that I grew up with after so many years! Funny to see that the little girls, were now practically adults and they were Emmie’s and Drew’s age the last time I saw most of them. CRAZY! Luckily the kids passed out on the ride home!

Saturday, February 26th, 2011

The following day, we didn’t have anything specific planned, so Tita Joji took us to the Griffith Observatory in the Hollywood Hills. We were under the impression that it was going to rain, but it ended up being a gorgeous day! We took in the sights and took loads of pictures. Dennis wanted to see if we could drive to the Hollywood sign, but apparently you can’t, so Tita Joji took us another hilltop that gets you as close as you can get. By that time, Drew had fallen asleep and Emmie was done taking in the sights, so I stayed in the car while Dennis went to take a few pictures with Tita Joji. On the way home, we picked up some McDonald’s for the kids and then stopped by Trader Joe’s to pick up lunch for ourselves. Unfortunately at Trader Joe’s, they no longer had our favorite tortillas, Sun-Dried Habenero, so it was a bit of a let down, but it was still fun to walk through the store and pick out some yummy healthy snacks! Later that afternoon, we headed over to Carl and Elenor’s, Dennis’s cousins, house for a family gathering! We got to see all of the Californian family there, hung out and had some good food. The kids got to play with their cousins and Emmie’s Bieber Fever intensified because Kalea (6 year old) has major Bieber Fever. Good times! It was nice to hang out with the family and catch up since we only see them every few years for big events (i.e. weddings). The big boys took some shots, which some how turned into the kids taking in some shots too!

Sunday, February 27th, 2011 & Monday, February 28th, 2011

Snow and Vegas post to follow.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

After a fun filled week, we were happy to be heading home. The night before I laid there thinking to myself why do we always schedule early flights?! Everything was packed, and ready to go! I got up 30 minutes earlier then Dennis and I agreed on because I was just nervous. So by 6 am, we were all ready to go and head to the airport! I was already getting antsy about getting to the airport, that when we had to drive quiet a ways to return the rental car I was getting even more nervous. Dennis apologized for not looking up directions to the rental car place, but we were going to make it. We drive through the garage around and around to the Payless car rental place. The conversation went like this:

Me: That says Payless Rental Car, not Fox Rental Car!

Dennis: Oh, it’s the same company!

Me: OK!

We pull up, both of us jump out of the car to start unpacking as the rental car man comes up to us. He says to Dennis, “oh you’ve got a Fox car! You’re in the wrong place; it’s about 3 miles down the road. #@*@!!!! That’s right, wrong place with no minutes to spare! We hop back in the car, I’m cursing Dennis from the inside but calmly try to figure out what we’re going to do. I call Fox Rental Car just to make sure they have a shuttle that goes to the airport. No they only have a shuttle that takes us back to the car rental garage that we just left, where then we could catch a shuttle that takes us to the airport. Double #@*@!

We get to Fox Rental Car, not before I get us turned around a little, as a shuttle is pulling away. Triple #@*@! We asked about calling a cab but the guy said it would take longer to wait for a cab that another shuttle is coming. At this point, I’ve resigned that we’re going to miss our flight! We finally get on a new shuttle, and he gets us to the car rental garage where all the other car rental places are except for Fox…we see some cabs so decide to take a chance, we’re in Vegas after all! The nice shuttle man helped us carry all of our things over to the cab, while the cabby tried to shove all our things into his car. It was CRAZY! Luckily everything fits and we’re off! We get to Southwest and go through curbside check-in. Since we’re running so late, we checked the carseats and the guy rushed us through. There was no question about Drew’s age or anything. Phew! There’s a slight delay through security but then we’re running through the terminal trying to get to the gate. And guess who’s the lucky parent pushing the double stroller with both kids strapped in?! That’s right, Mama! I was tired. Dennis later commented that he was holding the loose jackets and backpack of toys...umm not the same!

Luckily we made it, they hadn’t boarded everyone but we were the last ones on the plane. We didn’t get seats together! Guess who was the lucky parent that sat with both kids! Bingo, Mama! Dennis sat catty-corner to me, and turned to mouth “That was awesome!” I shook my head and said he owed me big time! In Dennis's defense, in taking the shuttle at LAX, Payless and Fox car rental did share a shuttle therefore he thought they were one and the same!

After that eventful boarding, the flight was pretty uneventful. Until of course, a certain 2 year old starting asking for milk again! Luckily it was towards the end of the flight, but he was not a happy camper at all. He was definitely “that baby” on the plane that you didn’t want to be by! Walking up and down the aisle, offering juice, candy, gum…nothing worked. It was a crazy landing because he was just all over the place. But we were pretty much able to confirm the theory that he gets motion sickness. He started gagging a few times as we were landing, but since we left so early in the morning he had nothing in his system! Good thing because the plane we were on was going on to Phoenix after dropping us off in Houston. It wouldn’t have been good if he threw up in there and delayed the flight!

After we landed and got off the plane he was a happy camper again! Lolo picked us up from the airport and it was Home Sweet Home! Great trip! The kids had a lot of firsts and we got to spend some quality time with family. Can’t wait to take them on another trip, except we’ll be doing road trips until Drew understands that he get sick on plane rides and I’m only trying to help him when I hold a bag to his face!

Show & Tell Catch Up

It started innocently enough, I fell behind on the Show & Tell posts because we went on vacation. Then it just fell to the wayside, because the following Monday night, she fell asleep on the way home before I could snap a picture, then there was Spring Break. But enough with the excuses.

On the week that we went on vacation, if she would have gone to school, she said she wanted to bring her nail polish (N).

Then there was some time where I think O, P or Q were on the table as options. I tried to convince her to bring a plaque with Quinio written on it, but she decided on a Quarter. But the next morning, I received an email from her teacher saying she could bring in something with a P (I thought we missed P), so I left a note for my mom that she could bring her Ponies (My little, that is).

The following week it was R or S, and she decided on bringing her Stickers (they were all Disney stickers) and she was very proud of them.

And finally today, we have T or U. And obviously, she'll be bringing Tinkerbell to school. The Tinkerbell that she bought at Downtown Disney in LA.

As you can see, from the lack of pictures. I've been wanting to take a make up picture with all the items she selected but my camera on my phone is broken. So yesterday, I decided forget the make up picture I'll just try it with tomorrow's item using Dennis's phone. But Ems said "I need to dance first!" and actually refused to take any pictures. Drew was happy to take her place!

Drew's Belated Birthday Blog

I didn't get a chance to post anything for Drew's second birthday because we were busy flying to Los Angeles on his birthday! He's still too young to partake in the 20 questions interview, but I thought it would be worth while for me to document what I think his answers would be if he could say anything besides: Mama, Daadee, Baba, Mimi (that's what he calls Emmie) and wee-wee!

1. What is your name? Drew Drew


2. How old are you? Two


3. What is your favorite color? Blue! I don't really do colors yet, but I'm choosing blue since I have a lot of blue things and it rhymes with my first 2 answers!


4. What is your favorite food? Rice with sauce (Carboholic just like my sister)!


5. What is your favorite snack? Yogurt (or whatever my sister is having)!


6. What is your favorite restaurant? McDonald's (or anywhere with a playground, I make sure to point out all places with playgrounds)!


7. What is your favorite candy? Recently taken up gum chewing and I love it. I only swallowed gum twice even though Mama told me repeatedly not to.


8. What is your favorite toy? Guitars or whatever Emmie's playing with. If she has it, I want it!


9. What is your favorite book? Blue's Perfect Present


10. What is your favorite animal? Any! I get super excited when I see any animals!


11. What is your favorite TV show? Chuggington


12. What is your favorite song? I jam to almost anything, but this past year my favorites were Party like a Rock Star and Hey Soul Sister!


13. Who is your best friend? Mimi
    
    
14. What do you love about school? I love going with Baba and Daadee to drop off Mimi, because I get to play in the playground. Next year I'll start going to school just like her!
    


15. What do you love about Mama? Everything! That's why I'm a Mama's boy!


16. What do you love about Daadee? Playing with him, especially when he chases me!


17. What do you love about Emmie (aka Mimi)? Morning snuggle time! (Really that's Mama's favorite but he can't say other wise).


18. What do you love about Baba? She spoils me!


19. What did we do for your birthday? In addition to having a joint birthday bash with Ems, we went to Disneyland, played in the snow, and stayed at a hotel in Vegas!


20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A rock star! Have you seen my hair?!
    

Happy 2nd Birthday to my sweet baby boy!!!

Show & Tell: M

M is for mermaid...Little Mermaid that is!!!

Hopefully Ems get to meet Ariel at Disneyland in a couple of days!!!

20 Questions with Emmeline Quinio (4 year old)

Here's Emmie 20 Questions interview for this year. I got the idea from Jessica to record it and it worked out great! She was super excited about doing her interview and watching it afterwards. It was so cute when we were watching it and she could shout out the answer to the questions she was thinking about during the actual interview.

I couldn't figure out how to do put the video directly into the blog, but wanted to get this out before we leave for our big Cali trip to celebrate both their birthdays.



Emmie's 20 Questions - 4 YO

Show & Tell: K

Today Emmie will be sharing all things "Kitty" with her class. Even though she brings her Hello Kitty everyday to school, she wanted to bring her other Kitty, Kitty purse and wear her Kitty dress to school (you can't see it because she's covered it up, but its there). Earlier in the week she had decided to bring a kazoo to school, but then changed her mind yesterday!

This picture was taken on Monday night on the way home from dinner. She was doing a practice run for what she was going to bring to school. The picture wasn't good, so we were going to take another one when we got home...she passed out on the way home, so we're stuck with this one!

Show & Tell: I or J

Today Emmie's bringing jewelry to Show and Tell. I was at a loss on options for her to bring, and kept trying to sell her on bringing the toy ice cream cone (she was not feeling it). Then last night Baba suggested jewelry and I wondered why I wasn't smart enough to think of that. After Baba's brilliant suggestion, Emmie went to round up her jewelry. Here's the bling she'll be sporting for her classmates!

That's 6 rings, 2 bracelets (one you can't see in the picture) and 1 necklace!

Running! Running! Just as fast as we can!

Welcome to the first non-kidcentric post.

On January 16th, 2011, Dennis completed his first half-marathon (13.1 miles) and I completed my very first official 5K (3.1 miles). It was cold, wet and windy but we managed to finish!

The race was slated to start at 7:00 am for the half-marathon and 7:15 am for the 5K and we were told to be there at 5 am to be get situated for the race. We decided to catch a ride with Janette and Khiem. Khiem was also running in the half, but this was just a walk in the park for him because he had just run 20 miles the previous week (Side Note: he was prepping for the Houston Full Marathon 2 weeks after, which he finished and now is working towards doing some tri's). We didn't up getting to the start line until about 6:45 am but it didn't matter because the race was delayed until 7:45 am due to the rain. That gave us plenty of time to wait in line to use the Porty-potties before the run. Janette went to park the car about 1.5 miles away from the start line, so she got to stay cozy warm in the car!

Dennis and Khiem lined up to start the race and they were off. If you look real close you can see Dennis getting ready to take off.

Shortly after they started, the 5Ker's were told to line up. I put myself towards the back because I didn't want to mowed over by faster runners! I tried pacing myself with a girl that looked like she was my level, she ended up leaving me in her dust after the first 1.5 miles. I just took it slow and steady. When I looped around heading towards where we had started, I hoped with all my heart that 5Ker's were suppose to make the left turn towards the start line (knowing if that were the case, then I'd be done soon). When I saw people starting to veer off to the left, I knew that I was going to make it to the end and I did. After doing the Couch to 5K program (a 9 week running program) for 5.5 months, I finally ran a full 5K. I was pysched! My goals for this 5K were:

• Run the full 5K - DONE
• Don't let any half marathoner beat me to the finish line - DONE
• Don't be the last one to finish the 5K - 108 out of 238

Janette hadn't made her way to the finish line yet (since I was so fast), so she didn't capture my stellar finish (37 minutes and 1 second). She got this shot of me after I finished, filled up on after race goodies and found a discarded poncho to cover me from the non-stop drizzle (which also kept me surprisingly warm).

We spent some time in the after race goodies area, mainly to take cover from the wind and rain under a tent. After about 2 hours from when the race started, we made our way to the finish line to cheer for our soon to be finished hubbies.

While we watched, we decided this would be the worst ever full marathon to run in. Not only was it a 2 loop course, but if you were running the full marathon you ran towards the finish line then about 20 feet before you would cross the finish line you u-turned and ran the same 13.1 mile loop you just finished. Horrendous if you ask me!

As expected, Khiem came crossing the finish line strong and fast. He collected his medal and got some yummy food. It was obviously a walk in the park for him.

Then we waited, waited and waited for Dennis to cross the finish line (chilled to the bone and just willing Dennis to show up). Finally we saw him coming down the stretch! I was so proud of him for finishing! He finished in 2 hours and 26 minutes, and placed 509 out of 1,240. He wasn't too happy with his finish since he began a run/walk regime at mile 11. Next time there will be no walking he says.

I'm just proud of us for doing and finishing what we set out to do. Way to go us!!!

After race update

Since the race, I've only run the 3 miles once, trying to get there on the treadmill is just harder. Dennis has not run one step but once he signs himself up for a marathon he vows to train better than he did for this one.

Show and Tell (Catch Up)

In January Emmie started learning the Alphabet. One letter every day and on Tuesdays they're suppose to bring in something starting with one of the letters they learned about the previous week for Show and Tell. Since I wasn't diligent about my blogging, I didn't capture any of January's things, but am committed to making at least one entry per week going forward related to her Show and Tell. So here's the catch up blog for January!

As you can see in the picture, I'm not too far behind. I got Emmie to pose with all the things she's brought to school to date! She was totally into it, of course, so it didn't take too much effort. So the point of Show and Tell is for her to present what she brought to her class, and we practice at home after she's decided what she wants to bring. But every time I ask her if she told her friends what she brought she gives me this side way glance, smiles and says "No. I'm shy!"

January 11th - Between the letters A & B, she chose to bring her Barbie. Yes, the Barbie in the picture is naked (it was the only one I could find at the time), but she really brought her Mulan Barbie to school fully dressed.

January 18th - Between the letters C & D, she chose to bring her Dog. When she first said she wanted to bring a dog, I thought she was talking about her $50 Walk and Go Dog she had to have so Lola got it for her for Christmas, but this little guy was who she was talking about.

January 25th - Between the letters E, F & G, she chose to bring her Flower necklace (aka lei). Honestly I can't remember if E was an option this week, but for sure it was F & G this week because she was choosing between Flowers, Frog, or Giraffe.

February 1st - This week it was just the letter H. So I'm not crazy I think there was a mix up with E. Emmie decided on bringing Hair Clips. She didn't wear them as demonstrated in the picture, but I thought it would make for a fun picture! Maddy and Paige got her these awesome Princess hair clips for Christmas. Pictured are only 3 of the 4 Princesses because Princess Jasmin did not survive the spin cycle like the others.

Now you're all caught up and I'll be better at blogging!

Off to the ER we go!

The Saturday before Dennis was running in his first half marathon and me in my first 5K, we decided at the last minute to carb-up at home instead of going out to eat. Dennis ran out to the store to grab a few ingredients and I planned to start prepping for dinner before Drew woke from his nap. As Dennis left, Drew woke up so I was holding him and Emmie was trying to get him to play with her. He was still a little grumpy so Emmie wanted to make him laugh. One of the best ways to make Drew laugh is to fall down, so Emmie started rolling off the couch acting like she fell. Drew giggled a few times, but then it all went wrong. Emmie was going for another stunt couch roll off and landed on her hand first. She immediately started crying, it was like a cry she's never done before, so I knew it hurt (not even when she took a tumble from the stop of the stairs to the bottom). It took some time to calm her down, but it was still hurting her and beginning to swell. We iced it down with a bag of frozen peas, and she was able to skip dinner and watch 2 shows while she relaxed with her bag of peas.

After we finished up dinner, her hand was still swollen so we decided to head to the ER just to make sure nothing was broken. I had mixed up the name of the small hospital and the ER clinic by our house so we actually ended up at the ER clinic; which turned out to be a blessing since they saw us immediately. I didn't have time to even start filling out the paperwork before the nurse came out and started examining her hand and took us back. It was a good thing because not 5 minutes after leaving the house did Emmie start whining about wanting to go home. She didn't want to see the doctor; I think she might have thought she was going to get some shots or some thing.

They had a nice kids' room, which was decorated with a Noah's Ark theme. We distracted Emmie by talking about the different animals all around the room. When the doctor came in to examine her hand, she shut down immediately. Even as the doctor applied pressure to her hand she didn't react at all, she just stared ahead stone cold. At one point she turned her head to face me, so I'm thinking that's when it hurt the most. She's a tough little cookie! They ended up taking a few x-rays and confirmed there were no broken bones. They wrapped her hand up in a splint, told us to ice and elevate it and we were outta there! It was probably less than 45 minutes!

Afterwards we went for ice cream, as a treat for her being so good. I wanted to get a picture of her little splint but she was not having it. If you look real close you can see the green splint on the right.

After a week, the swelling went down but her knuckles started bruising. It looks like she was in a fist fight. Now she only says it hurts when she wants some kind of snack she knows she shouldn't have. She's a tough and cleaver little cookie!

Holiday Season 2010

This year was the first year that I was able to take off a long period of time during the holidays. Since Baba went to San Diego, I got to spend a two weeks at home with my little babies! It was a good time, but tiring since I brought home a stomach virus that infected the entire family (more on that later).

This year Christmas was a lot of fun since Emmie was really into the Christmas spirit (meaning she loved all things dealing with gifts)! Everything was on her list and she even put things on Drew's list for him. The very first present under the tree was a gift for her from Drew. She picked up that gift everyday and shook it and reminded us it was hers. Even though she was into what she wanted, she also got into the giving spirit. I took one day off in early December to commit to an entire day of shopping, which was a little derailed because Emmie wanted to come with me. Before I said she could come, I told her we would be shopping for everyone else and not herself. I didn't know how well that would go over, but she did great. She looked at things for herself but also picked gifts for the babies and Drew. It was an awesome mommy and me shopping day!

But it wasn't all just about the gifts, we had a great time decorating the house and the tree. We painted about a million ornaments and made that one perfect strand of popcorn garland (which included a giant popcorn mess on the floor)! I might be rethinking the whole popcorn garland thing next year!

Our first Christmas gift exchange was in Austin with the Anderson's! Mica, the brave mama that she is, drove her two little rascals, all by her lonesome, to meet us in Austin to exchange gifts! Emmie and Drew loved staying at the hotel. Every time Emmie sees a Holiday Inn logo she asks "Is that Austin? Can we go see Ella?" So glad that we got to see Mica and the kids got to play. And of course we had yummy food with visits to Pluckers and Kerbey Lane. Wrapping up the adventure at the Austin Children's Museum. After the little Austin trip, we had a gift exchange with the local babies and boy are those babies adding up! (Side note: If you recall, during our trip to NY Drew picked up a Sing-a-ma-jig at Toys R Us! A few days later, I decided that was what I wanted to buy all the babies for Christmas this year. So I went out and bought them up in bulk! I just love those little things even if they do look a little freaky!) Since no one in the group wanted to take the dive and have a get together at their house for the little ones to exchange presents, I decided to suck it up and do it! We had everyone over and the kids all got to tear open their presents. We even attempted to take a group picture of the babies...not so successful...maybe next year! During the first week of vacation, Dennis ended up being home the majority of the week, so we had a lot of family fun! We went for an ice skating adventure at Discovery Green! This was the second year Emmie and Dennis went but mine and Drew's first! We met with Tita Sisi, Ash, Tita Janette and Uncle Khiem. I had purchased discount skating passes for 4 of us, so only Emmie, Ash, Khiem and I actually skated. Emmie loved the baby rink and bravely said she wanted to go to the big rink. The instant she stepped in the big rink she fell to her knees, and I picked her up as quickly as I could (fearing that I might fall on her). But after that fall, she wanted nothing else to do with the big rink, I made it a quarter of the way around and Tita Sisi was sitting at a table there so I handed her over! She rested for some time before she finally decided to go back to the baby rink...where she wasn't shy to show off her skills! Drew was happy to watch us all skate after he ran around the park!

A couple of nights before Christmas Eve, I was invited to an old friend's son's birthday party! I was particularly excited about going since I hadn't seen this friend in years and hadn't had a chance to meet her baby! I got a little less excited when I found out it was up north and Dennis wouldn't be able to attend because he had football. My consolation to Dennis not being there was that Alisa would be there with Maddy and Paige! Well turns out I should have never went to that party since that is where I contracted the stomach virus from hell. The virus did not hit until 2 days later (the first day that Dennis went back to work), and I thought it was food poisoning at first. I spent Christmas Eve cursing Fuddruckers! I was able to get through the morning with the kids on my own but luckily my in-laws came to the rescue and came to watch the kids while I "napped" (waking every 20 minutes to run to the bathroom is not what I consider full on napping). I needed what little rest I got so was thankful for every second I got. After the in-laws left, the Hoang's came over to shift 2. I was just pretty much completely useless so it was nice to have them there to entertain the kids. If I knew it was a virus I would have never asked them over, luckily the Hoang's all have strong immune systems and no one caught the virus. Finally Dennis was home and I just passed out on the couch! Dennis took the kids out for a little bit so I could have some peace and quiet...it was anything but peaceful for him...since that's when the virus hit Drew. Drew threw up about 5 or 6 times while out with Dennis and it didn't help that it was pouring rain and he was waiting out the rain at Target! I slept peacefully on the couch while they were out!

Since I spent most of the day sleeping, I was wide awake that night. I was feeling slightly better so, I was able to prep up all of Santa's gift. I also allowed the kids to open one gift each before going to bed, and they got coordinating PJs from Old Navy! And I was happy that they both were willing to wear them to bed that night (last year my coordinated PJ plan didn't work too well). Only disappointment was we didn't get to bake cookies for Santa as planned. But the gifts still made the impact I was looking for!

Christmas morning, Drew woke up before Emmie, so we just hung out and waited until Emmie got up! And then it was downstairs for some Christmas fun! Emmie got the dollhouse that she emailed Santa about (since she didn't want to sit on his lap at Bass Pro). When she lifted the wrapping paper and peered into the house, the first thing she said was "There's no Barbie in there!" (I had planned on getting a new Barbie for her on Christmas Eve, but that didn't work out).

She got over it the second, I mentioned that she needed to help Drew open his present from Santa! She rushed over and called for Drew but he didn't really want to come over since he was busy checking out the dollhouse. But after she tore off the paper, Drew immediately darted over to the trampoline and started jumping. He didn't care to open anything else, so Emmie was able to open the rest of their gifts herself. Since I still didn't know we had a virus, Drew tends to throw up when he gets sick, we packed up our stuff to head out for more Christmas festivities. First we went to my brother's house for Christmas with the Vinh's. The kids were showered with gifts and the adults had a fun white elephant gift exchange (old and new). We had a good time just hanging out with family and catching up! Then we headed over to the the Quinio's for more Christmas presents! The kids were definitely spoiled here! The gifts would not stop coming! We couldn't fit all the presents to bring home in the car!

The next day, I was finally feeling good enough to eat again! By that time I lost a whopping 8 pounds! Drew was still throwing up and had plenty of dirty diapers for me to change! Dennis called home from work saying he didn't feel too hot...he ended up throwing up at work twice before coming home. So that's when I decided, yes we had a virus! Then we found out that Lolo, and Tita Janette were sick too. And then a day later, we found out that Ashley, Sisi and Keith all got sick while at DisneyWorld! We thought that Emmie got passed it, but turned out she ended up with a mild case of the runs. It was a rough night when she caught the bug since she couldn't sleep with the tummy ache and if she was up, Drew was up! I spent the whole night running in and out of their rooms. She spent the next day sleeping, waking just for a few minutes then sleeping again. Even Baba caught the bug when she got home after I thought we were all fully recovered. Horrible virus that went everywhere and I felt horrible for bringing on the entire family (although no one from my brother's house got sick)! When the McCullough's got back from Disney, we took the whole family out to eat as an apology!

Although the virus wrecked havoc on our Christmas, we didn't let it spoil the upcoming New Year celebration. Dennis stopped by a fireworks stand and got some sparklers and poppers! We lit them up prior to the heading over to Lam's for the annual NYE's party! This year we were Lam's only guests since he planned it so last minute everyone else had plans (shows you how cool we are, right)! We had a good time over there since we got to play some Xbox Kinect! I'll be looking to buy one of those soon! We thought Drew was finally over his vomiting but he ended up throwing up all over me around 930. We packed it up and were home before 10. Emmie stayed up late enough to watch the ball drop in NY! Dennis and I didn't even make it to midnight, but we still had a New Year's kiss before we went to sleep!

It was a tiring two weeks off work but it was a lot of fun nonetheless! We have a lot to look forward to this year, so I'll try to keep this updated more often! February is a BIG month for us!

Bye Bye BaBa!

During this holiday season, I was able to take off pretty much two weeks to spend at home with the babies. Baba decided to go to San Diego and visit her sister, so I had no choice but to take up the rest of my vacation to take care of the babies! Baba left for San Diego on Tuesday, 12/21, and the trip to the airport was good. We said our good byes and the kids and I were back in the car headed home within 30 minutes.


That's when Emmie started asking (ok, really whinning) for Baba.


Emmie: "I want Baba. Where's Baba?"
Me: "Baba went on the airplane to California."
Emmie: "Baba, Baba, Baba. I want Baba! Oh is that Baba's airplane!"
Me: "Probably not! She's still waiting to get on her airplane."
Emmie: "Baba, Baba, Baba. I want Baba!"


That lasted for pretty much the entire ride home...until 10 minutes before we got home when she passed out. I assumed she was grumpy and that's why she was being whiney...but when she woke up she was still looking for Baba! So throughout the rest of the day she was missing her Baba, asking about her every now and then. I thought it would pass soon enough.


But the next day, she must have had a nightmare of some kind because she kept telling us about "a lomb time ago" she rode her bike into some water and neither Dennis or I would come get her, we just left her there...and she was missing us so much. Every time she brought it up, you could see tears building up in her eyes and her bottom lip would quiver a little. So then I realized that she might have thought that Baba had abandoned her. I felt so bad giving her a hard time about whining so I gave her some lots of extra hugs and kisses.


So the entire time Baba was gone (a week), she would ask/whine for Baba in every car ride and when she was going to bed. Of course when we went to pick Baba up, she acted like she didn't miss her one bit. I'm sure she just wanted to punish her for leaving her for a week, stuck with her mean ol' mama. She was excited about showing Baba all her new toys and clothes from Christmas.