Summer recap

Summer is almost over. I finally had chance to sit down and do a brief catch up post. We've had a busy busy summer this year.

First of all, as many of you know, we were building a new house in McKinney to be close to David's work. We started the building process back in December last year. Then near the end of it, we found out the city was going to build a water tower right behind our backyard. Although there was a belt of tall trees between our back yard and the water tower, we still had a nagging feeling about it. Finally we backed out of that house. The builder graciously allowed us to pick another lot with everything transferred. It took us lots of effort to pick out another one. Every lot we looked at had some pros and cons. Until one chilly moring, after laps of laps driving around the construction site, Emily picked out a lot for us because several horses across the wired fence kept following her. She told us "I want to build our new house here!" So we stopped searching right there, praying that God will lead us to find the right home. After we went home, David called that he lost his working badge. He went back to the construction site to look for it at all the spots that we stopped. We couldn't find it anywhere. Several days later, David went back to those lots that we had stopped and saw his badge hanging on the fence of the lot that Emily had picked out. We knew that would be our new house! God was amazingly good to us. After we changed our lot, not only we got every options we had picked from the previous house, we also got better price, better air conditioner unit, and many other bonuses that we didn't expect. The sales man told us he'd never seen that happen before. For the rest of the summer, we spent most of our time picking out things and furnishing the new house. Building a new house was definitely a distraction to our normal life. We are so happy to leave that behind now. We moved in last Saturday (August 4th). We are still unpacking and cleaning. Although Andy and Emily kept telling me that they liked the new house better, Andy told me twice that he was ready to "go home". When I told him we didn't have the old home any more, he broke down to tears. We love our new home, but we'll miss our old home a lot. That's the only home that Andy and Emily knew of.

Here is a view from the window of our master bedroom when we woke up the first moring in the new house. We were surprised to see the hot air balloons and the horses right when we opened our eyes.

This is the view on the right side of the fence and breakfast area:

When Emily and Andy helped David to pull out the weeds, the horses came again. They seemed to have their own routine. We saw them everyday at around early morning, late afternoon and 7pm.

The first morning after the kids woke up, Andy found a bird feather that dropped on our back porch. Emily was thrilled to see a lady bug.

Since we moved in, the lot next to us has been building a new house. It went up so fast that it went from the concret floor to roof in one week! The kids enjoyed watching every bit of the building process when they ate. They loved telling Daddy what was going on with the new construction after David came home from work.

We like our neighborhood. Everyone seems to be very friendly. We missed the first street party to meet other neighbors. But people stopped to say hi all the time to welcome us to the neighborhood. We look forward to getting to know everyone here.

Our first tenant left a mess after she moved out in the end of May. We spent considerable amount of time and money doing the repairs and it's still not done. We learned a big lesson from that. Luckily we found a very nice couple to rent out the current house. We've been busy fixing up both houses. We are so glad to leave that behind too!


Other than the houses, we squeezed in lots of other activities. We visited grandpa in Tulsa on Father's Day. We were so happy to see how well Dad was doing. Here is a Father's Day picture with grandpa.

Emily got to attend her first swimming lessons at a City of Plano facility. She totally enjoyed everything. I was so glad we did it and I wished we could take her to more lessons there.

We also had play dates with Matthew and Danniel, Austin and Dillon. We loved spending time with them. Dawn planned an awesome birthday party for Austin. Lori planned an excellent play date themed "the fruit of the Spirit" (a purposeful playdate). Emily and Andy really liked them.

Gayla babysat the kids on our moving day. Our kids love Auntie Gayla.

We didn't take Emily to Prestoncrest's week-long VBS. Instead we took her to GreenvilleOaks weekend VBS. She loved it. Andy requested to go with her but he was too young. I'm sure he'll enjoy it next year.



We also attended Darren's wedding reception in Dallas. It was nice to see some old friends there.

We've never had so many accidents in our house. First, Andy broke a thermometer that contained mercury in our bedroom. It would take up a whole post to write about it. But long story short, we cut out the carpet that was contaminated and called the city to pick it up since we were going to replace the carpet anyway. Then Andy cut his foot at a broken door stopper. He was garranteed to have stitches but the doctor wanted to try dermoglue. The worst outcome would be a scar on his foot. He was so brave the whole time that the nurse joked he would be a surgeon when he grew up. Emily broke out rashes all over her body after she swam at the community pool. We thought it might be the warm kiddie pool. Several weeks later, our air conditioner broke. We took the kids to the swimming pool again and she stayed at the new house on the floor for a night. She had hives all over her body, face, hands, and feet. We didn't know whether it was the extreme heat, or something in the new house, or the swimming pool caused it. It wasn't a pleasant experience!

We love summer. There were plenty of fruit and melons to eat; The kids enjoyed playing in the backyard; We got to see the most beautiful double rainbows after the rain... It's sad that summer will be gone pretty soon. Got to enjoy it before it's gone!

A couple of months ago, I bumped into a book called The China Study (http://www.thechinastudy.com/, http://www.amazon.com/The-China-Study-Comprehensive-Implications/dp/1932100385). Then I watched "Forks Over Knives" and The Engine 2 Diet. I was so motivated to eat healthy and choose the right food for my kids. This diet change is probably the second biggest change this summer following the house change. I highly recommend that you borrow them from the library and read about them if you are health conscious. You will gain some perspectives on how and what to eat.
Hope you all are having a great summer!

May Birthdays, Butterflies, and fun

May started with some time spent in Tulsa with Amy and Dad because of Dad's heart problems. We are so thankful that Dad is improving day by day now. While we were there, we were touched by Dad's friendly neighbors who dropped by to ask about Dad, who brought us pizzas, who offered baby-sitting, who went to the hospital to visit Dad, who saved Dad's life by calling 911 and took care of him when we were not able to ... That's kind of community that David and I have been praying for our new home to be in. And may we be those neighbors to others in the future!
Since Amy and Andy share the same birthday. Dad's birthday was one week after. We had a combined birthday celebration in the hospital.

Here are a couple of pics of Dad with the grandkids. I thought they turned out pretty good except that Sophia's face was blocked and Andy didn't know what was going on since he stood at the very front. Didn't Dad look great?

On Andy's actual birthday, he had a candle on the cinnamon roll for breakfast and played all day at Grandpa's house. He was so proud of himself to be two years old. So did we! During the past year, our baby has grown so much, from speaking in words to talking in sentences; from walking with help to running and spinning; from wearing diapers to putting on the big boy underwear, from sleeping in the crib to staying in the big boy bed ... He knows all the uppercase alphabet and numbers 1 to 10. He can count to 14 in English and 10 in Chinese. He can spell his first name… He loves dancing and singing. He is a people-pleaser and observer. He is so tender-hearted and friendly. He learns and adapts to changes easily. We wish he will always keep these good traits. We are so lucky to have both of our children!

"Wake up birthday boy!" As soon as he woke up in Dad's King size bed, he rolled over and gave Emily a hug "Good morning, Emily!"

This balloon candle is Andy's favorite candle. "Happy Birthday Andy!"

After breakfast, the kids played in the backyard with Amy and David's childhood tricycles.

And they giggled and danced their hearts out

"Now, how old are you, Andy?"

The kids and I came home first. David and Amy stayed several days longer. On the way home, we had a great time enjoying the road trip. We stopped for lunch, potty, and running around at the state line. The kids did amazingly well. They were happy and cooperative the whole time.

We had Dawn and Jarrod over for dinner after we came back from Tulsa. We had a great time. After dinner, Jarrod showed us a trick/talent to spin the ball with one index finger. The kids took on the challenge and wanted to try right away!

We made up for Andy's birthday at home with Gayla and Mary Ellen on the following Saturday. Since Andy loves fish, we made everything fish.

"Gayla and Mary Ellen are here!" They brought Andy's favorite toys: balloons, ball, blocks, bubles, book (all "b"s!)

I made the cake pops per Andy's request

Andy's mini fish cake

Grilled cheese sandwiches before they are grilled

Fish fruit plate: Because I ran out of time, I didn't outline the fish as I planned to.

Andy loved blowing the candles. He asked Daddy to light the candles again several times after he blew them out.

Andy's favorite people:

After the kids took a nap, we played a fish game with home-made fishing pole:

We got this workbench for Andy's birthday. They spent a lot of time building and hammering for the next several days.

Later in May, Dawn and I took the kids to the Butterfly festival at the mall. It was really a neat experience. I think we all enjoyed it more than the discovery garden at the Fair Park.

Andy was trying to attract the butterflies with his flavored q-tip. I guess he wanted the butterflies to land on his forehead so he put the q-tip on his forehead.

Emily picked out her own clothes that morning. I didn't even know she had that shirt in her drawer. It was perfect. See, the butterfly that landed on her shoulder looked exactly the same as the one on her shirt!

Austin tried to catch the butterfly with his q-tip

Butterflies were everywhere!!! The kids were totally amazed.

Before we entered the butterfly tent, the kids played at the play area for a while. Andy quickly made a friend. She did all kinds of tricks to make Andy laugh.

The kids' favorite playmates. Aren't they adorable?

Andy's dancing in the mall on the way home

After the exhibition, we took a Butterfly Larvae home to watch the transformation. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the whole process. Two days later after we ran some errands in the morning, David noticed this huge butterly in the cup.

We released the butterfly in the backyard. It took a while for the butterfly to learn to fly. It hopped from places to places until it landed on a taller grass, then it flapped the wings for almost a dozen times and took off.

Emily's end of year school program was in Mid-May. The theme for the program was sesame street. Emily was Oscar the trash. She did great. She was smiling all the time when she was on the stage and she remembered all the lyrics for the songs!

Emily's last day at school with Mrs. Holly

We attended the first services at church on Sundays in May because David was assigned to serve the communions for the first services. After church one Sunday, we dropped by the Asiandragon festival in Irving. Andy loved seeing the kits contest. Emily enjoyed the bouncing house. We bumped into David's FriendSpeak reader there.

Andy watched the dancing with David's reader

We went to the library for a music instrument program. Here's Andy dancing inside the circle.

We took Emily to a swimming trial lesson. She loved it. Guess we'll get her in a swimming lesson soon.

 Dawn bought Andy some fabulous toys. The kids played with this Bendaroo for days

Below are some random pictures:

 

 

  Emily used  a water balloon as a hair clip

Monkey - Andy's all time lovie

 David took the kids to a place called Cosmic tramplin. It was a huge indoor tramplin place. They had a lots of fun.