Celebrating our Freedom 2014

 For Independence Day we go over to my sister's in Rohnert Park because they are about the only city left in our county that allows you to do your own fireworks. So, thank you sister, for living in a fun city!

I thought it might be fun to bring our ice cream maker and make ice cream...this was our first time using it and I was sorely disappointed. I thought as soon as the churning was stopped that we would have ice cream. Not quite so. You have to stick it in the freezer for a while and then it'll set. Oh well, lesson learned. Another lesson learned is to take the mixer blade out of the canister before you freeze it or else it all freezes together. Yeah, lessons learned! haha

 My sister has quite a large backyard. And since we are Asians, it's only fitting that we would play badminton! So much fun!

 We love to bring Pop-Its along. It sets the mood for all that will come later in the evening. Of course, the kids are getting older, so they like to throw it at each other instead of the ground. Thankfully we still have some little ones!

This year, we started a new tradition with a paper airplane contest. I've talked about how competitive my family is and this is right up their alley. Some people were excited to show off their skills and some were hesitant. I would be in the hesitant group. I royally stink at making them!

 Some had a hard landing...like enough to pierce through the leaf of an eggplant plant.

 I'm so glad they always go along with my shenanigans. Now that's how they exercise their freedom! Ha ha ha!

Graeagle Fun

We kicked off summer vacation with a trip to Graeagle, CA. Graeagle is a small town,about an hour north of Truckee. We've gotten really good at road tripping to Tahoe now, that we can make the drive without stopping. Although, we did stop in Truckee for groceries and while we were there, we had Panda Express for lunch! Ack, what was I thinking?!?

Anyhow....

Graeagle is beautiful! It's so small town, so slow pace. We loved it here. Thanks to our friends the Kilbys for sharing their vacation home with us. There was a small fishing/swimming pond down the road that we patronized everyday. Every morning John took the kids fishing, then they'd come home for lunch and naps, then in the evening we went out swimming. It was great! After swimming, we'd take the kids to the General Store and ruin their appetite for dinner by giving them ice cream. But we were on vacation! And it was hot! And it was a treat! And yummy! 

We'd sit on their porch, eat our ice cream and watch for any cars that would drive by. That's because it is so small town that only 1 or 2 cars would pass by in the 30 mins while we ate. Glorious! So different than our town. 

Here, they are exploring the property. No, that is not poop that the boys are playing with. They found ants in the water bowl and stuck a piece of wood in it to see what the ants would do. And the ants! They were so big. Much bigger than the ones we have here at home. 

Isn't that Odin silly! He loves putting himself in a box, or a laundry basket, or a storage cube.

The silly people hanging on for fun. 

On our last day, we stopped at a BBQ joint for lunch. It was nothing worth writing about. We did fill our time posing for some pics. 

As we were driving home, someone had a tummy ache from the BBQ(we won't mention who). We pulled into a rest stop and the children found this little hill. So they ran up the hill, they ran down the hill. It sure doesn't take much to entertain our kids! And whatever the big ones does, the little does too.

Thank you Kilbys for helping us make memories! The best sleep we ever had on vacation!

A Hitman Wedding

 When you have last name of Hitman, you can imagine the envy some people might have for it. Although, if you were really a hit man you probably don't want that as your last name...Anyhow, our friend Brent is not a hit man, although he sports the last name!

We've known Brent for a long time. Ever since he was in high school. For the longest time, he floundered. It would frustrate me so much. It was quite hard to hang out with him sometimes. (Yes, Brent. It's all coming out now!) Then after what seemed like a looong time in waiting, God gave him a girlfriend. She is Kelly. We've known Kelly a long time too. Kelly is the sister to our good friend Ally. We've known Kelly since she was in Junior High.

In the few months that they dated, we saw Brent emerging as a MAN. His heart was huge! He was so wise, so gentle, so encouraging. Where did this come from??? How awesome it is to see this side from from! It's only natural, that Kelly would fall in love with him.

So here is the lovely and beautiful couple on their wedding day.

 Beautiful and happy sister in law and niece!

 Dancing the night away...

You know you've party hard when dancing with your sibling starts with holding hands and then ends with a dog pile.

I think this was the nicest decorated getaway vehicle. Most that I've seen have some sort of crude innuendo written on it. Oh wait, maybe that was because I was the one who did that...

Yay! Now they can have a party of 2...

Thank you for including us in your happy day. We are seeing you grow by leaps and bounds in your trust for the Lord. How wonderful! We love you guys!

Party Like the 80's

In April, our little friend had a birthday party with an 80's theme. Some of us dressed up and some of us didn't. Some of us went right into character...

I'm glad there are some people out there who don't mind the work it takes to pull this off!

I think Lulu's expression explains it all...haha, just kidding!

Happy birthday little one! You have one of the best Aunt and Uncle
 around!

Christmas 2013

We have a tradition that Christmas happens at our house. All my siblings and their kids come over in the afternoon, after they've already had their fill of gifts, and open more gifts at our house. It gets loud, messy, but we always eat well and always have a great time. Someone always tries to play the piano, inevitably a young child goes on the top bunk and needs to be brought down. The fire roars and after many hours everyone gets hot and we open all the windows and doors. Like I said, a great time!

Every year, Magnus makes me a gift that just melts my heart. Mostly, it's a handwritten card/note. But those hits the spot for the mama heart. I love that child!

You can't go wrong with a Chinese finger trap! Magnus got one in his stockings and it must be played with!

 Yes, the more guns the better! My sister has a knack for buying Magnus Nerf guns. I think he has gotten one every year. He loves her for it!

Siblings love! These are all my brother's kids. They range from adults to toddlers. 

We have a very competitive family. Everyone wants to win. So why not encourage that?!? So, we have a snowflake making contest. It usually results in a lot of laughter and a lot of ugly snowflakes. This year, we added Mitten Unwrapping. We had boys against girls and it gets intense! Especially when my brother gets in on it. Oh my, those poor boys. If this was a little league game, he would be banned from it. To help this out, we like to mock him. Yes, I know, very loving! 

I love sharing the joys and blessings we have with our families.

Jordan-Love Deeply

Back at the beginning of last school, our dear friend Jordan came into some horrible headaches. After many doctor appointments, prayers, and treatments it became clear that he had a brain tumor. But let's back up to some history on him.

 Jordan was born a little before John. Their moms were obviously pregnant at the same time, but they were also attending the same church. Basically these two had a relationship from the time they were little. They became the bestest of friends. They survived going through the rough adolescents stage, multiple friends and girlfriends and the discovery of God. 

After high school, John and I got married. Jordan was the best man. A few years later, Jordan started dating my good friend from high school. Soon after we had a baby and they got married. Since then our relationship has blossomed in all aspect. Most importantly, we.laugh.a.lot.

Many years later and many children later, there is a brain tumor. Needless to say, we were all devastated. 

One night before he started radiation, we got together with some friends, in cahoots(our inside joke) and put together a lovely date night for him and the wife. It's only fitting to have one last hurrah before life looks different.  

 On the menu for these two lovely people was their favorite-deviled eggs and pizza from Round Table. But not just any pizza, half pineapple cheese and half olives and mushrooms. I discovered this delicious drink Jordan is partaking from Trader Joes called Sparkling White Grape Juice. Hello-delicious!

 With a lot of candles, and empty condo, and yummy foods, a night of sweetness was to be had!

 These 2 pics are hilarious, but they are also so sad. True nature of the effect of a brain tumor. Holding your head because you have a headache. Which, I never asked if that helps???

And losing your balance therefore dropping your leftovers. I am so glad Ally decided to take a pic instead of crying. I know I would have.

So, many weeks of radiation, many different side effects, and many uncertainty, we have the news that this father, friend, brother, son, uncle, nephew, husband, cousin is well again. The surgery took the tumor away. The radiation radiated what it needed to. Life is still not the same, but I don't think any of us want it to be. Life is richer, love is deeper.

My Mom

This is my favorite picture of my mom. She is so loved by the grand kids. And since she has 15 that is a lot of love! 

Besides her great big heart for her grand kids, she has quite the green thumb. She can make most anything grow. Although when I think about it, it doesn't just grow, it flourishes! One day I wish to have nice green thumbs like her!!!

Ah Emily the Graduate

So this post is way overdue. Like way overdue. Emily the graduate has long graduated. She's even gotten a semester of college under her belt! But, life gets busy, obligation takes over and upkeep on the blog life has to wait. Anyways, that Emily. She is one of my nieces, in my long line of nieces, but not any less of one. 

Emily was just a wee one when John and I started dating. His first little child that he got to interact with. She was around 2 when we thought we would be so cool to take her to the movies. Now, at this point we know nothing about little people. So we took her and another niece in John's hatchback with NO CAR SEAT, that was NO CAR SEAT! She made it through the whole movie of George of the Jungle. Then these awesome babysitters thought it wouldn't be a complete babysitting stint if there wasn't a meal involved. Geniuses came up with the idea to travel all the way to Rohnert Park to In and Out because come on, we wanted to show her the good life! Away we traveled from the east side of Santa Rosa to Rohnert Park with no car seat. Got our meal and then she's sobbing because she misses my mom. My other wonderful niece tried to console her, but nothing would do other than a trip back to Yieh(my mom). 

So that was mine and John's first experience at wanna be parenting. Thankfully we are so much more wiser. Praise the Lord! But thanks to Emily who didn't know otherwise that she was a guinea pig to our parenting skills! Haha

Flash forward to many years later, how much love she gives us. A brilliant, kind, loving sweetheart. Our family would not be the same without her. We are so proud of this accomplishment. Not an easy thing to do with all the emotional toll that life can bring sometime. We love you so so much. 

 Our girl playing in the field while the commencement ceremony was happening. Truthfully I would have loved to be running around instead of pretending to listen to the ceremony. When you've gone to more than a dozen in the last few years, it all sounds the same.

These two could be 2 peas in a pod. Soph looks up to her so much. It might also help that Bong Ly always shares her chapstick with her.

For some reason I love this photo. It might be that I am not in it. It might also be the state that I caught everybody in. This is how they are. So funny. Ok, I might just be the only one laughing!

Three of my many nieces. So beautiful. Youngen on the left there tried to quiz me about the birds and bees. Yeah, no thanks junior higher. One word, hormones...

                                                               The proud parent.

Joey Moving on Up

Oh our nephew Joey. He has a voice and enthusiasm of Eeyore. Loves his Uncle John and always bugging his dad to take him fishing. So thankful for him. He sure adds a lot of laughs at our get togethers. Now look at him. He's starting middle school this fall. 

Those 2 boys sure look up to him.

The fam!

Buddies! Look at all that hair. Yuck, I say. It makes me think of sweaty pubescence boys and lack of showering. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!!!

And this is how our other nephew Jonathan celebrates his brother's achievements, feasting on watermelon. I think this must have been his 5th slice in the small time we were at the school. Love these kids!

Pallet Repurpose Project

Our backyard is very plain and we have lived here for 6 years. Time to do something about it. Add something, anything. I began perusing Craigslist for free pallets. Our first one was from a house around the neighborhood. It had been used to deliver some fencing material. It was nice and sturdy. I was hooked and so excited to get more pallets. In the next weeks, there was a posting for a bunch of free pallets in Petaluma. I, eager to get more, asked John to go get some...It ended up being all the way out by the raceway. Um that wasn't exactly the Petaluma that I was thinking of. It was John's only day off and I sent him on a wild goose chase for some pallets that were not in good shape. The worst part was that his cell was dying as he was gone and we didn't have the charger in the car. I was a bit worried when 3 hours later he hadn't made it home yet. I don't know if I'm ever allowed to ask him to pick up pallets ever again! 

These are reassembled pieces of the pallet. This was a family effort. Magnus learned how to pull nails from wood and how to hammer without busting his thumb. It was a hard lesson.

In the end, this was a lot of work. I would do it again though. Magnus was able to glean a lot out of this project. Plus it does add a lot of colors to the yard. There are huge orange/yellow blooms of begonias, yellow alstroemeria, and purple flowers.

Our 4th

 We had a great time celebrating our freedom! I am so thankful for where we live, that I am not persecuted for being a believer of Jesus or homeschooling my children. With that said, I am also very thankful for my crazy family. The kids played, we had yummy food, and we got to do FIREWORKS!!!! Something that was taken away from our town a few years back. I'm thankful they are still allowed where my mom lives, although this might be the last year. Just as we were celebrating, there was an apartment building on fire due to illegal fireworks. Sad!

   

Having fun!

Lots of giggles!

Soph stealing her cousin's lollipop!

Fireworks by my husband! It was so awesome seeing him play with fire! When we were dating and fireworks were still allowed in our town, my wonderful then-boyfriend would spend a huge chunk of $ and go crazy with the fireworks. It brought back a lot of memorize!

One of the illegal ones that were shot up in the air. Beautiful though!

Every since Magnus has been allowed to have sparklers, he goes a little crazy with it. I don't know how he manages to build a fire, but he does. 

Crazy playing with fire. Just like his dad. The apple does not fall far from the tree!