Olivia's Mrs. Bear Project

Olivia has this fun little project from preschool where you take this stuffed bear home along with a huge notebook and a suitcase full of outfits. You keep the bear for a week and you are supposed to journal all the outings and adventures you do with Mrs. Bear. So, being the responsible, helpful Mom that I am - we finally took Mrs. Bear outside for some flower smelling fun and photos. Here are a couple pics.

San Diego

We arrived safely home from our trip to San Diego for Linh and Monica's wedding. Linh is Phuong's 2nd younger brother and he married a really great gal...he is really lucky, like the other Le Boys. ha, ha. The plane went fairly smoothly except I forgot the DVD for the trip down. It was a long 2 1/2 hours for Phuong who sat next to Drew. The weather was fabulous - we all got a little tan from our day at Sea World and the wedding in the park. Olivia and Drew both really enjoyed playing with their cousins.

All dressed up for V-day

We went out to yummy Italian food for my Dad's B-day - Gino's in Sellwood. They have amazing food and personal servers. Andrew was feeling great and bounced around getting into everything if he didn't have food in his mouth. Olivia sat and looked at him like he was crazy. Ahhh, the difference between boys and girls.

My question is, does anyone have a toddler boy who is mellow and calm? Do all little boys have as much energy as Drew? It's a good thing he is such a little cutie.

Sorry for taking so long to post though...I was sick for the first two weeks of February - like literally in my bed all day long for 7 days. I couldn't even watch movies. It was pretty pathetic. Then Phuong had my camera for some work projects.

Adventures in Cooking

The main way I am inspired to cook is by looking through my cookbooks - my favorite being all the Barefoot Contessa books. Last night we made Cornish Hens with cornbread stuffing - thankfully Phuong did all the "gross" parts - like stuffing the cavity and cleaning it out. They turned out really good...the cornbread stuffing was really easy to make too.

Today I decided to work on using my Costco bag of limes and make a lime curd tart. I am proud of the end results, but making the lime curd takes a little time and not a good recipe to do with children. I feel like my whole kitchen was covered with lime juice and flour. Too bad I didn't get a picture of that...

Potty Training II

After the inspiration provided by Abby, I decided to take on the dreaded task of potty training Andrew. I read every one's comments, so I felt a least a little better prepared. Olivia literally took, let's just say, longer than some people to master the toilet, soI've been prepared for the worst. I decided to do the "cold turkey" approach like Alice.

I'm crossing my fingers, but Drew hasn't had ONE ACCIDENT yet (for #1 and #2) he runs to the toilet every time, and he is so pleased with himself when everything works out. He doesn't even need a potty bean (jelly belly). I think he's dropped his diaper consumption by 90%. He only has one for naps, bedtime, and long car rides.

Needless to say, I'm such a proud (and relieved) Mom right now. It has been 3 days so far...

Officially Pregnant

We finally went to our first Doctor appointment for the new baby. We got to hear the heart beating and see the little person on the ultrasound. It definitely feels a lot more real now. My due date is July 19th. I had to switch doctors, but I really like Dr. Pew (Thank-you,friends, for all the recommendations). I will try to get the US pictures scanned so I can post those. I can tell he/she is really cute already. :)

Here is another shot from Mindy's photo shoot - we probably would have used this one for our Happy New Year card, but it doesn't look like that will happen now...so here it is anyway.

Posting for the Emmett's Too

We spent New Year's Eve with the Emmett Family - Our second annual Chinese Food Take- Out Party. It was very fun playing Alice's brother's Wii and eating. I had to spend the entire next day recovering from all the good times.

Note Olivia's hair in her singing picture - She wanted to wear one side braided and the other side down. I said OK, but only with the understanding that this hair style is only for going to special people's houses and not for church or preschool.

My wonderful Mom and Dad bought me a new lens for Christmas a 85mm Prime 1.8...it takes super sharp pictures compared to my old one, and a big bonus for me is that I don't have to rely so much on my flash. The depth of field will definitely take some getting used to. I am really enjoying it so far.

The following weenkend we went up to play in the snow and brought Austin along for some extra fun. I was all ready to take cute pics of them all playing together in the snow, but it was snowing SO HARD the whole time we were out that I was too chicken to expose my new lens to the elements. I like the ones of Drew and Austin in the car though.

For those of you who read this, but I don't run into in person...we have some great news...We are expecting baby #3 sometime this summer!!! our whole family is super excited.

Alice hasn't posted in a while I noticed so I took the liberty of posting a few of her cuties!