Today is my birthday. I feel so blessed to have so many friends wished me Happy Birthday on Facebook through texts. I started celebrating my leap year day birthday on Saturday. One of my favorite things to do is to have dinner with friends. I know it sounds boring, but I enjoy good food and great conversations. 

My husband and I are not big on surprises or romantic gestures. We always know what our gifts are going to be, because we help each other pick out gifts for ourselves. For my special day this year, I got myself a pair of pearl earrings and a camera. Even though I love my Canon DSLR, I don't always want to carry that around. 

Some photos I took with my new camera.

It doesn't bother me that I'm getting older. However, it bothers me that I'm falling apart as I'm getting older. Last year I was diagnosed with Grave's disease. Thanks to the Lord, I don't have that anymore, and my doctor is going to stop all my medication in the next few weeks. Without health, there's really nothing left of us. 

We changed our bedroom arrangement. It makes the room look bigger. 

Husband made chicken stir fry with his homemade sauce and store bought green onion pancakes, delicious. 

We seldom let our kids drink sugary drinks, but I saw these today and thought sure why not. 

These are some photos I took with Retro Camera. Fun app to have. 

It's the Lord's day and we tried to make it fruitful. We had church, of course, this morning. Isaac has been so clingy and whinny lately. I had nursery duty today, and he didn't like to see me holding other babies. I think it's sweet that he likes me that much to not wanting to share me, but the crying and throwing himself on the ground was a bit much. I'm not sure, but I think he might be going through the terrible twos. It just seems like lately he has been upset about every little thing. His older brother was a difficult baby and toddler, so it's like having a terrible twos stage that lasted for a few years. We were used to that though. Issac, on the other hand, was such an easy baby. So, to see him acting like a regular kid now is throwing me for a loop. I'm hoping this will stop soon.

Play

Eat

Friday night

First day without television has been fun. It was a rough morning. The boys were going crazy with cabin fever. I hate to admit, but I sometimes let my children watch TV so I could get things done. I tried to take the boys out to play. Although it said it was 40 some degrees out, it felt colder than that. We went to the playpen at the mall instead. 

The real fun started tonight when my husband put on some great music while he was cleaning up the basement. The boys started dancing. They had their own styles. Eli tried to break dance, and Isaac was just going in circles. So much fun to watch. 

You really can't have nice things when you have little children in your house. Today, our older son broke the big screen TV. We can't be certain, but we think he was swinging his little book bag in front of the TV, and he must had gotten too close. We can't afford another one right away. We have already decided to spend our tax return money on some bills, a new computer, and a new camera. They (experts) say that watching televisions is not good for children, maybe we will see how we do without one. Really though, cable or satellite TV are way expensive these days, unless you have just signed up as a new customer. It's not worth it. Maybe it's not too late to make some new year resolutions. #1- Less television time.

Hungry child

Why are you always hungry? How could that little tummy of yours take so much food? We just had a big breakfast, and now you want more snacks. I know you are going to be just like your dad. He ate a lot when he was growing up too. Now he's a strong tall man, so I think it's a good thing.   

Happy Valentine's Day two days late!

My husband and I are the least sentimental people in the world. We don't even know where we keep are boys' first foot prints. There are no photos on our wall, and we don't keep cards that we have given to each other all these years. I'm sure if we did, there would only be a small handful of them.That's just how we are with each other.

I was sick on Valentine's Day, since I would otherwise be working, we didn't have any planned. I asked my husband to pick up my prescription and get me a lemon. I took a long afternoon nap, and when I woke up, dinner was prepared and the children were all sitting at the table ready to eat. He made my favorite chicken stir fry with his homemade sauce. He told me he got me a lemon just like I asked. After dinner, we watched Midnight at Paris, which was a good movie. It was so Woody Allen and so funny. We had to put the boys to bed toward the end of the movie, as they were getting increasingly loud and annoying. With all that, I felt loved and life couldn't be any sweeter.  

This boy has no idea how cute he is.

Actually as a mom, I think both of my boys are the cutest human beings. This boy though, he loves showing it.

Despite all the screaming, yelling, whining, and troubles from my kids, we still had a great time in Chicago. My husband and I had been there a few times before, but it was my parents' first. Didn't really plan the trip, but I knew there were a few places I want all of us to go. We tried to hit as many places as we could during the couple days we were there. At the end of the trip, we were so ready to go home.

Parents' first Danny's and Chicago Chinatown

Chicago was so foggy. I had never seen Chicago in such mystical state. It gave a different feeling. 

A friend told me I had to go to the Bean. The Bean was dirty that day. 

My mom and I are scare of height. It was beautiful though to look at. 

beautiful Chicago night view from our hotel room

Ready to be home

Today, I took my parents and my boys to the mall. Once we arrived to the play area at the mall, Eli was standing on this thing in the middle of the play area. Then I saw a boy lying on the ground, and Eli was laughing. Apparently he had fallen down few steps. This boy's father went over there to pick the boy up, and he turned to Eli with a seriously angry tone saying "It's not funny!". Everyone was looking at them. My first reaction was oh crap, my kid pushed someone down. I went over and apologized as the father was walking away with his boy. I don't know if he heard me. When Eli saw me, he was afraid I was going to spank him. I must had that spanking look on my face. I was dying of embarrassment. I told Eli he can't push people and that he needed to go and tell them he's sorry. He ended up only telling me he's sorry. 

Needless to say, I was so terribly upset. I thought this is a nightmare. Why can't my kids behave in public? I called my husband and told him what happened. He was telling me to let it go, he said Eli was just being a kid, a boy. Of course we both know that we teach our kids to play nice and be fair to other kids. Also, there have been other kids pushing Eli before, we had always taught him to not take that too seriously. It's what kids do when they play. I know I shouldn't be so hard on him and myself today. I really didn't see what happened exactly. I don't know if Eli had pushed that boy, or he just thought it was funny that the boy fell down on his own. I know my Eli, if that boy was hurt and crying, he wouldn't be laughing. That boy was just lying there and didn't make a sound. If Eli did push the boy down, I'm sure the father would have said something more that just that. I was so concerned by what other people might have thought of me as a mother, I wasn't able to enjoy my time there with my family. I always try to be the best mom I can be, and I hope that's enough.  

We are finally home safely. Home is sweet when you can't wait to get home to smell your bed sheet, even when it doesn't smell fresh. It has been a long six days. Isaac, my youngest one, had never been away from home for more than a coupe days, and had never eaten out this much. By the end of the trip, he had turned into a monster. He was obviously distressed from being out of his element. It was difficult to go anywhere, especially restaurants with him. He developed this strange loud monster groan. He would made that noise when he's upset. We heard it frequently on the trip, which made it not to pleasant to be around him. My sweet father would hold him and keep him occupied whenever Isaac was being crazy. More about the trip and photos later. 

I'm paralyzed with excitement today. 

I still have clothes to fold, rooms to clean, and things to pack. I try not to over pack every time, and I think I'm getting better. I can't call myself a light traveler yet. After all, there is just no way to travel light when you have two messy kids. I got my dress, my headband, but I have yet found shoes to go with. I may not have enough time; I may just have to go shoes hunting in my long neglected, unorganized, packed closet. I want a pair of hot pink or red shoes. They are not as easy to find as I thought. We'll see if I can find something tomorrow. 

I'm usually not a count down person, but I can't help but getting excited about Friday. In two days, we will be driving to Michigan to attend my brother's wedding on Sunday. My parents will arrive at Michigan. I'm excited for my boys to see their Chinese grandparents, and I'm also excited for my parents to see their grandchildren. Okay, I will admit, I like to show off my boys. I think they are adorable. I will hopefully be blogging and showing photos of the trip. On the way back, we will stop by Chicago for a couple days. Love Chicago! Parents never been there, it's gonna be fun. Now I have one more work day, then I will be a day to prepare for the trip. We still need to clean the house. Oh my gosh! So much to do. I don't know about you, but when I'm this excited about something, I don't like to do anything. I like to sit around starring at something and marinating my thoughts in my own excitement. That sounds weird, but that's what I'd like to do. Ta ta for now.

Last time they were all together. 

Who's this baby?! He looks nothing like my Isaac.

Happy 1st Birthday Isaac!

 Yay! Isaac made it through his first year without any problem! We are so proud of our boys. Isaac has been a perfect baby, not that our older son Eli wasn't. Eli just had too many skin issues that caused him much agonies when he was a baby. It still bothers him til these days.

Isaac on the other hand is as happy as a baby can be. Always so cuddly and affectionate. I wish my boys have many more happy and healthy years to come.

We didn't make any plan to celebrate his first birthday, neither did we for Eli's first birthday. I, however, did stayed up late at night to make this little video.

Then I watched the video I made for Eli few years ago. It brought up some happy tears. 

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Egg hunting is fun, but it's not what Easter is about. 

On this day, we remember and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus our Savior. 

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:8-11 

Some activities in this boring house. Playing blocks, or as Eli says it "bocks", and watching tv. 

These awesome blocks are Eli's Christmas gift from great grandma last year, I think. She was a teacher, so she always got Eli educational gifts. These ones she found have Chinese writing on them. Aren't they cool?! 

Then, The Wizard of Oz was on tv. I have never liked it, but Eli was sucked in. I thought the green witch was really scary, and she still is. This movie is really strange, kinda like the Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.  

Eli's new socks. You know having a small child with eczema is really hard. His skin was better, so we weren't as diligent with our routine. We ran out of allergy medicine and didn't lotion him up everyday, and we ended up with mummy legs. Poor child was in such discomfort and pain, that caused few sleepless nights for all of us. He's getting better. 

It was a very nice warm Sunday. Too nice to stay home really. So we went to the park

Found this wooden area that seemed to be a good place for photos.

He looks really little (young) in this one. 

It's good to be with dad. 

This is random, but this house we found near our neighborhood is so weird. It's a PIG!