Lots of Update...

First of all, Katie turned six months almost a month ago and so we are looking at seven now. She's doing the army crawl, grabbing things and putting it in her mouth. She's sitting up pretty well. Eating alot of solid food but refusing her formula unless she's going to sleep. She had her MD appointment today. Looks like she's pretty tall, in the 75th percentile for her length and then only 25th percentile for weight. Tall and lean. (Hope that lasts.) Below are her six months pics.

Her "serious" look.

Sitting so well.

All "smiles"

Grace update: Turning 5 in April. Favorite saying "I know Mom!" Excited to start swimming classes again. Love, love, love "Sailor Moon", "Pokeman" and "Horseland". Has discoverd Gameboy and Nintendo DS, thanks to D-A-D. Sometimes my greatest helper and sometimes, not so much.

Zander update: Still my comic. Makes me laugh and smile everytime. He's content to play his trains all day. He's learning so fast! The other day he signed "cup". I was so amazed. He could sign chair, table, tree, ball, cat, and Mom as well. Lue and I was impressed! I was wondering where he learned to sign all that. Good ol' "Baby Einsteins". Sometimes I can hear him reading his books. He isn't reading but calling off the alphabets from his book. I still can't believe how smart he is. (I guess I'm entitled to say that because I'm the Mom!).

Lue and me update: We're having another rugrat! Alot sooner than I wanted it but it was decided for us. This was totally unplanned! So....here we go again, round 4!

Katie Update

Katie officially turned 5 months yesterday.

Nothing to report except that she's rolling over and starting baby foods. Recently, she's into sticking out her tongue. I think if Lue had stuck out his tongue as well, I could have used the caption, "Like father, like daughter"!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that her hair will be long and thick like G's. So far, it's taking forever for her hair to grow!!

Grace's Locks of Love

Before

After

After growing G's hair for over four years, we decided to cut it and donate it to Locks of Love. We donated a little over 12 inches. G didn't want to do it at first, but after showing her the website, she changed her mind. The next step was convincing Dad. He was all for cutting it but not donating it. I just took G and to Great Clips we went! G did a great job and the haircut was free because she was donating her hair.

And now that her hair is so much shorter, she could comb her own hair and I don't have to fix her hair as much anymore, which saves us both a lot of time. If she wants long hair again, well it only took her four years to grow it!

Kids and thier gifts.

Sorry for the late update. But I just have to post these pics up.

G and Z's first attempt at making a gingerbread house. Lue helped them with this one. I don't even want to mention the condition my kitchen was in after the three finished.

Z surprised at his gift, a Diego trike from his aunt Pa.

G and her "real" crown from Santa. On her christmas list to Santa, a "real" crown and a Doctor set.

Z's into Thomas the tank now, so he was excited to see the trains and a railroad track to go with. One of the above train actually blow off steam. Kind of exciting for Mr. Z.

And Katie, well, she's too little to actually open anything but she did get a brand new bedding set for her crib, so she's not in Z or G's old crib set anymore. So this means a new project for me.

I can never wait for Christmas and New Years to get here but when it does, in a blink of an eye, it's over.

We spent Christmas Eve up at the farm with Grandma and Grandpa Vu. The Uncles roasted a pig outside. And Grandma and Grandpa Vu invited a lot of people to share in the festivities. We stayed up into the late late hours, while Grandma and Grandpa told us stories of back in Laos and how they got here. It was fascinating!

We spent Christmas Day with the Lee Grandparents. More food and cakes. Yes, two cakes to be exact. Celebrating Grandpa Lee's birthday and Uncle Kong's. We stayed there as long as we could until the big fat snowflakes started to cover the whole neighborhood. We didn't want to get stuck there and so we came home.

The kids had tons of gifts and toys to open. More than half of their toys are still unopened. Thank you everyone for making this Christmas so special!

New Year's Eve, I was stuck at work so I didn't get to ring in the New Year. But I got home about 10 minutes after midnight, walked into a dark living room. Lue had fell asleep waiting for me. I woke him up, told him it was New Years and if he wanted to open up a bottle of wine to celebrate. "Nay", he says. And so new years come and gone!

My New Year's resolution every year: lose weight, pay off debt, and save/make money!

Happy Holidays!

Another year has gone by and a new one fast approaches. Time flies so quickly.

Z turned two and G will be FIVE in the new year! K is 4 months old today and the Doc is talking about introducing baby food already! I just want to freeze this moment. Bottle it and just remember the innocent conversations between G, Z and me and the way K coos at 3 in the morning.

This year we said good byes to our beloved Great-grandpa Lee (Feb. 2007) and Great-grandma Vang (Oct. 2007). Lue and Grace spent quality time during a road trip to N. Carolina for a wedding and visited Chimney Rock (from Oregon Trail) and The Smokey Mountains. G graduated from Water Tot 3 and now she can swim much better than her parents. Z suffered from a dislocated wrist x 2. He also was 90% potty-trained at 22 months (pretty good for a boy). Lue didn't win the powerball again, therefore I have to continue to work. And the best part this year, we happily welcomed Katelyn into our lives.

From our family to yours,
have a wonderful holiday season
full of cheerful joys and
a happy and healthy New Year!

Winter Wonderland Activities

So much snow, so much to do outside.

Z enjoying some sled riding around the house.

Z helping out with the shoveling. There was tons of snow to get rid off.

G posing after sliding down the mini-hill in front of our house.

Making a snow angel!

These activities are only the start of a snowy December.

To do this Winter: Cutting out snowflakes, making Snow Men, building forts for snowball fights, Holidazzle parade, visiting Santa, and drinking......

A cup of hot chocolate with whip cream on top!

Alexander is TWO today!

Happy Birthday to Mr. Alexander

Z is two today. Ahh...the holiday have been so busy that I didn't even realize that Mr. Z turned two. Auntie Pa asked me if I was doing anything for Z's b-day next weekend, referring to the first and second of Dec., and I said, I don't know. Horrible mom that I am, I totally forgot to plan the boy's b-day. So, it was a small and intimate b-day cake that I picked up from Cub on Sunday and Grace and Lue sang the happy song to Mr. Z. All in all, he enjoyed the special attention and ate the cake with a golden fork! Next year...a b-day Z will not forget, because I'm planning it now!

All Mr. Z's accomplishment to date:
1. Knowledge of the letters: A, B, C, D, E, L, M, N, O, R, S, T, and Z
2. Knowledge of the colors: Blue, Yellow, Brown
3. Knowledge of the following animals and their respective sounds: Cow, Horse, Chicken, Duck, Elephant, Owl, Monkey, Sheep, Pig, Lion, Dog and Cat.
4. His favorite phases: "No, no, no", "Go" (although he says it with a th-long o sound), "Momma", "Dadda", "Thace" for Grace (he tends to use the th-sounds for his g's) and many more words. He has yet to use two to three word phases.
5. He loves to be outside.
6. He enjoys playing with balls, blocks, cars and recently Thomas the Tank trains.
7. He loves to read and will bring you books to read to him, he also loves for you to write letters for him to read.
8. And to get him to sit in one spot so that work can be done around the house, play his favorite movies: Little Einstein, Thomas the Tank, Bob the Builder, Curious George, Elmo, Baby Einstein and Teletubbies.
9. Oh and I should say one bad thing about Mr. Z; he doesn't like to share anything. He'll shove the whole candy in his mouth if you ask for a bite, he will hit G if she's so much as touch something of his. It's all about Z.

I still can't believe it, the big T-W-O and the start of the terrible two?! I've got my work cut out for me that's for sure!

Next year....a birthday he'll remember, I promise.