Christmas 2009

We have spent a nice, quiet (for the most part), restful, family Christmas at home this year.


For the third year Aunt Diane and Uncle Ted sent us a beautiful Gingerbread House. It is too pretty to eat. But we have taken it to the church for Christmas Eve services each year and the kids have no problem tearing it apart.

So off we went to the Christmas Eve services with Gingerbread House in hand.



All of the children in Chinese classes at the church performed in a skit. They all spoke in Chinese about the meaning of Christmas. Unfortunately, due to the snow storm last week, they never had a real rehearsal so they were allowed to read their lines.



"Hi Mom and Dad!"













Dallas even got into the act by singing with the English Sunday School class.











Once we returned home it was time for a quick bath and then straight to bed. Santa was on his way!

But first the kids left cookies and milk for Santa as well as a mini bale of hay for the reindeer.




Santa delivered!













Gifts to and from one another as well as many loved ones down south.

Thank you to everyone!!!







Last year Santa surprised us with a trip to Disney World. This year we all received tickets to see "The Princess and the Frog". Dallas' ticket said that he had to buy everyone popcorn!

Other than the voo-doo plot (which was a little dark) the movie was very, very good. The New Orleans background was beautiful! And the food, even though it was animated, looked wonderful. Etoufee, gumbo, jambalya, sauce piquante, and oh those beignets! It made us want to fly home to Louisiana immediately!





The poster for our movie was not available so the kids posed by Alvin and The Chipmunks.

Lesson learned: Tru is not ready for, nor is he interested in, going to the movies. He did not sit down at all and when the popcorn ran out he was distraught. Luckily there were not many people in the theatre.




Lin-Ley's most anticipated Christmas gift was the Cupcake Maker. The following day we finally broke it out of the box and made two cupcakes.





















Ta-Da. The finished product....













Quote Of The Day:

At one of the after Christmas clearance sales Lin-Ley found a pink stocking that she wanted to make her own. I told her it did not look very Christmas-y. She told me,

"Mom, it does not matter what our stockings look like or what color they are. It only matters that we remember that it is Jesus' birthday."

The pink stocking was then placed in the shopping cart. End of story.

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Searching For Santa

Dallas likes to take the kids by the pet store from time-to-time to look at the animals. They especially enjoy visiting with the cats and dogs that are usually there waiting for their forever families.
Last weekend we were walking around Petco and ran right into Santa. This Santa did not say one word to anyone. I told the kids to pose, I snapped this photo, and we moved along to see the rescue dogs. Santa never moved!



We usually make a special trip to the local mall to see Santa and take photos. This year we purposely avoided the mall because we knew that we would see Santa last weekend in Baltimore.
Lin-Ley has been participating in a children's television show for the past three years. They were taping their Christmas show last weekend and we were told Santa would be there. Last year there was a great Santa there and Lin-Ley was able to sit and talk with him for quite a while. Therefore, there was no need to wait in line at the mall. We would just see Santa at the show.


This is a photo on the set during a break in the taping of the Christmas show. Lin-Ley and Tru are on the bottom steps to the right. This was Tru's first time on set and he did not last very long.




We waited and waited for Santa to arrive...


And this was their Santa!!
















So a trip to the mall would be necessary after all!

We had planned to go see Santa yesterday but due to the huge amount of snow we did not risk driving on the roads. Dallas worked for several hours digging out the vehicles and walkways last night so we could go today. After another two hours of snow blowing, brushing and scraping this morning Dallas had Rocket out and we piled in.

When we arrived at the mall the snow crews were still clearing the parking lots and there were not many people there. We walked in to find Santa hoping that he was there. We had already discussed the possibly that perhaps he could not make it in from the North Pole because of the heavy snow.
We found Santa and there was no line!


Lin-Ley and Tru both pushed the button and registered on the nice list.














And there was Jolly Old St. Nick!














And... afterward we went to the pet store....

No, we do not have a new family member!!

It Is Looking Like A White Christmas

It began snowing around 10PM last night (Friday). Now, at 8:45PM (Saturday) it is still snowing.
We probably have around 15 inches now.




We were expecting this snow storm so last night I made sure we had the essentials: bread, milk, movies and library books.
Lin-Ley is now reading the Magic Tree House series. I brought home six new books. They are around 120 pages each. She is currently on the third book.


We let Lin-Ley sleep-in this morning. I finally went in to check on her and found her lounging in the bed reading.






Then at breakfast....







Before lunch....




After nap/quiet time it was time to go tackle the snow. Dallas geared up with the shovel and made his way out to the shed. The snow blower had not been used in close to two years so we had our fingers crossed.


Rocket is almost covered.



Dallas' car.



The kids were bundled up and stepped onto the front porch. The light, fluffy snow was blowing and they both got a face full. That was almost enough for Tru and he was ready to go back inside.



Lin-Ley jumped right in (literally). She began making snow angels and got her pants soaking wet.





Dallas finally got the snow blower started and began with the driveway. He called Lin-Ley over to the fence.





Lin-Ley went right over as Dallas was turning around the snow blower. Bad Daddy! He started the machine again and it blew the snow right onto Lin-Ley.


I hope he knows that eventually she is going to pay him back for all of these little tricks!



Tru enjoyed the snow very much!

The kids were wet and they needed to come in after only around 10 minutes outside. Lin-Ley was wet and covered with snow (thanks to Dad). She was more than ready to go inside but Tru refused. However, once I got him inside he was crying because his little hands were so red and cold.



Dallas resorted to the leaf blower to help clean off the deck.







Dallas handed Lin-Ley an icecicle from the deck.





It is supposed to snow through the night!

Due to the weather our church will be closed tomorrow and Chinese School has been canceled. Hopefully we can make it out to see Santa tomorrow. And hopefully Santa will be there!

See Lin-Ley and Tru On Santa's List

Lin-Ley made Santa's List:
http://family.go.com/santas-list/video/101634-jkh4jkh4/

Tru made Santa's List:
http://family.go.com/santas-list/video/102955-jkh4jkh4/

(P.S. This program would not allow me to spell Lin-Ley's name correctly. I guess the hyphen and second capital /L/ threw off the program. It told me that Lin-Ley's name was invalid! Watch it Santa!!)

Lin-Ley's First Chinese Character Test - 110%

Lin-Ley is in second grade at her elementary school. In Chinese School, however, she is in first grade. That is not too shabby as she clearly has a disadvantage in that she does not live in a Chinese language home. She has made great strides in Chinese School over the past four years and this is her first class where the teacher speaks no English!

She recently had her first true test in Chinese school. They have a quiz each week and she has had perfect scores. Then I learned that they were to have a test where they had to write 30+ Chinese characters as well as know a stack of flashcards.
Well, first of all, thank God for Lin-Ley's tutor. Mrs. Yuzhen is the best!
I helped Lin-Ley study for the test as well and gave her several practice tests.

And the results were amazing! 110%!!!!

This is her actual test:

In other academic news... Lin-Ley is going for Box Top gold. She has collected 220 Box Tops which means she will be entered into her school's contest 22 times. The contest is on Dec 11th so we will keep our fingers crossed until then.

Here they are. Now we have to glue 10 Box Tops to each entry form.












Quote Of The Day:

While helping Lin-Ley study for her Chinese test I was able to help her with some of the characters she did not know. She smiled at me and said:

"You are the best Chinese mom ever!"

Happy Thanksgiving 2009

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We are thankful for (to name only a few):
Our Gracious God
Our family
Our extended family, church family and friends
The men and women in the U.S. military
Stability in these unstable times
(there are too many items to list!)

We are not thankful for:
The critter that decided to crawl into our wall and die. Might I add it crawled into our BEDROOM wall! Mercy!

Gobble - Gobble!

If You're Happy And You Know It Hop On One Leg

Tru has been walking with his prosthesis for about 18 months now. Other than walking with his prosthesis Tru's only other mode of transportation (besides Mom and Dad!) has been scooting on his bottom. Before getting dressed (which includes "putting on his leg") in the mornings Tru is scooting around. After bath time in the evenings he scoots around until bedtime.

The results: holey pajamas.

We have been trying to talk Tru into learning to hop as an alternative to scooting on his bottom. He has shown little interest. He was a little scared because if he is hopping and he would fall there is a great chance that he would land on the end of his residual right limb.

But... finally... last week... on his own... he started hopping all of a sudden. And is he ever proud of himself!
This video is the second evening after he began hopping freely. He is almost worn out but he would not stop.

If you can not see the video above try this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diHBa22HHUQ

Just press the "back" button to get back to this page.

GO TRU!

Sign Of The Day:

(You may have to click on the photo to enlarge it for a better view. To get back to this page just click the "back" button.)

Tru recently took school photos. The company taking the photos sent home this notice. They give specific hints on the way your child should dress for the photos.

Take a look at the upper right hand side where I have placed the blue arrow. Then... look at the little girl's shirt....

Tru's 4th (Vacuum Cleaner) Birthday

Tru is 4 years old! Already!!

Last Thursday was Tru's birthday and it was the first one he was really excited about. So much fun!

As I mentioned in our previous post, Tru is currently obsessed with vacuum cleaners. Anytime he is with us while shopping he insists that we drive the shopping cart by the vacuum section. As he sits in front of the vacuum displays he likes to discuss and compare them, study them, admire their hoses and describe them while also making sure that no one is going to be coming by to turn them on.

We have no idea where, when or why this fascinated started.

The truly odd part is that he is absolutely terrified of them!! He likes to look at them on the shelf or at our house as long as they are not powered on. He talks about them constantly. However, if you do not warn him (so that he can run from the room) before you turn on the power to a vacuum you can see the instant terror in his face and he runs/hops/scoots from the room as quickly as he possibly can.

Still, he is quite taken by vacuum cleaners.

On the morning of his birthday Tru and Lin-Ley had the following conversation:

Lin-Ley: Tru, today is your birthday.

Tru: It's my vacuum cleaner birthday.

Lin-Ley: What kind of cake are you going to have?

Tru: A vacuum cleaner cake.

Lin-Ley: Are you going to have a party at school?

Tru: Yes, a vacuum cleaner party.

There was a birthday party at his school. My oh my - how times have changed! With the severe allergies so many children have to peanuts and other foods these days there is not a lot of oppotunity to make the children's birthday parties very special. We are not allowed to bring home-baked foods. We are also not allowed to bring in store bought cakes or cupcakes unless the store will 100% certify that the cake was baked in a nut-free environment. That will never happen.

So.... our only choice was boxed cupcakes. As I would normally post a photo of Tru's birthday cake here, I will paste a photo of the boxed Tastykake cupcakes:














If we were going to have store shelf, boxed cupcakes I decided that I would just buy a variety of snacks that Tru loves. So the party consisted of cupcakes, cheese puffs, cheese sticks and juice. It was an odd combination and a very non-party feeling party (without a birthday cake) but the kids had no complaints and cleaned their plates.
By the way, the school also does not allow balloons at the parties!


Boxed cupcakes and all - the kids enjoyed the non-party.































We all made it home early and right away Tru was excited that he would be getting a birthday present.

He had not asked for anything for his birthday.










There was only one gift we could think of. Something that he would truly love....
This is a video of Tru receiving his gift. You will see the absolute fear as Dallas makes the initial presentation.



If you can not see the video above you can also click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIPQM9f4_0M
Just press the "back" button to get back to this page.


Tru quickly falls in love with his new vacuum cleaner! He begins vacuuming (and would not stop) as Dallas and Lin-Ley have to finish opening his other presents.

They would show him his presents as he and his vacuum cleaner would walk by.















































Now... if only... it were a real vacuum cleaner!

After this weekend our house would be spotless!!















That night, after Tru put his vacuum cleaner to bed on his Mickey Mouse beanbag chair, told his vacuum cleaner good-night, and almost started crying because we said he could not sleep with his new vacuum cleaner, Dallas and I were smiling just a big as Tru had been all evening.

Who knew?!

Quotes Of The Day:

Tru's birthday.
Smiling ear-to-ear.
Timeframe: Within 4 minutes of receiving his new vacuum cleaner.

"See my vacuum cleaner?"
"I have a vacuum cleaner."
"Look, it's a vacuum cleaner."
"You don't have a vacuum cleaner Lin-Ley."
"I'm going to suck you up Daddy."
"Vacuum Cleaner."
"I have a vacuum cleaner like you Mommy."
"I'm going to turn on my vacuum cleaner."
"Don't touch my vacuum cleaner."
"Vacuum Cleaner."
"The floor is dirty. I will use my vacuum cleaner."

Smiles - Smiles - Smiles !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Minnie Mouse and The Cowboy

Pa-Pa Cowboy and Ma-Ma Linda (Dallas' parents) came for a visit. They came up on Amtrak and visited us for a week.














Tru had a Halloween party at school. This was the first year he was really into Trick-or-Treating.










All of the children participated in a Halloween Parade around the school. At each door there was a parent handing out candy.

Tru was too busy smiling and galloping to say "Trick-or-Treat".






























Tru's whole class.












They had outdoor activities after their parade. This is a sensory table filled with noodles and eyeballs.













Here's another table filled with goo and spiders.





Then they sat at tables and decorated pumpkins. They obviously do not believe in the "a little dab will do you" theory when it comes to using glue.





After nap time it was time for the party.










I think I have a photo of Tru licking a cupcake at every party he has had at school.















It was Pa-Pa Cowboy and Ma-Ma's Linda last night with us. Lin-Ley talked Pa-Pa into a game of checkers.
I warned Pa-Pa that Lin-Ley would cry if she did not win. He said he would be "mad" if he did not win. Luckily I do not think they ever finished the game so there was no loser.



Tru was walking around giving away kisses.





















So Ma-Ma Linda grabbed him as he hopped by.





















Halloween night. Ready to get started with the house-to-house Trick-or-Treating.















You can see Lin-Ley's "silver tooth" in this photo. (She is very proud of it!)






























































After visiting several houses it began to sprinkle so we headed over to our church for the Fall Festival. This year's theme was Noah and the Ark.













Lin-Ley is playing the matching game. She had to match the baby animal with the adult animal. Memory game style.































There was a potato sack race game as well. Since Tru can not hop in a sack (yet) Dallas and Lin-Ley took him through the course without the sack.


Tru played Casting The Net. He would throw the hoops and he got to keep the prizes that his hoops landed on.



Lin-Ley waited semi-patiently for the face/body painting.










Tru takes the opportunity for some more galloping.















Ta-Da.

















Happy Halloween from Minnie and Cowboy.













Quotes Of The Day:

Lin-Ley
After dropping something on the floor Dallas bent to pick it up. Lin-Ley swooped in, grabbed it and handed it to Dallas saying, "Here you go Dad. Kids are just faster than old people."

Tru
At most meals Tru holds out his hands and says, "Let's pray guys."
The night before Pa-Pa Cowboy and Ma-Ma Linda left to go to Louisiana Tru's prayer went as follows:
"Dear God, Thank you for our vacuum cleaner, our napkins, our food, and thank you for fixing Lin-Ley's toy box. Amen."

(By the way, Tru is absolutely obsessed with vacuum cleaners. However, if you turn the power on he will leave the room faster than you ever thought he could....)