Laughing

My little man can laugh and he can roll over! So excited that he’s growing up and learning new things, but I’m oh so sad that he’s growing up so fast.

The first time I saw him turn over for sure was last Thursday (2/23) when I was getting him ready for his bath. I helped him a first couple of times and he was able to roll over unassisted a couple more times. Michael and Matthew said they say him roll over about a week ago, but I wasn’t there, so I wasn’t sure that Mark actually did it.
Yesterday, Mark was on the swing and his two big bros were hanging around him and playing. I was in the kitchen and I heard a baby laugh. I ran over and there he was laughing his little head off as Michael and Matthew were jumping around, flapping their arms and hitting their heads with their knees. It is one of the sweetest sounds I’ve ever heard. Once I learn how to upload videos, I will post some.

We had pretty good weather this weekend so we were able to get outside for a little bit. I was disappointed that I had to miss Matthew’s first soccer game of the season. It was at 9 in the morning and still too cold for Mark to be out in the fields. I believe it was still in the 30s. M said that Matthew played really aggressively and was just being very pushy – Daddy was so proud. He only scored a goal, but is team won 8-4.

I did make it to Michael’s game at FC Dallas fields. It was nice and sunny when we got there, but turned cold pretty quickly. His team won 6-1. He didn’t score and goal, but got an assist with his head.

I’m so glad the weather is getting warmer and I’m really looking forward to the Spring.

This Won't Lost For Long

This was one of those weekends that wore me out.  I know there's been a lot lately.  Living with 3 boys, each one vying for attention is exhausting, but it's one of those things that I should be thankful for because there will be a time when they will stop.  And I will miss it.

Every time I feel that I'm at my wit's end, I always think if this song by Darius Rucker, I feel a whole lot better and I want to hold them in my arms forever. They grow up to fast!

In a blink of an eye...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! I think the kids had a great one.  How can they not with all the candy being passed out?

Their day started with a little Valentine's Day gift from Momma and Daddy.  We got Michael a drawing set and Matthew some new Pokemon cards and mini albums.  Marky got lots of love :-) They opened up their gift bags before I can even think about getting a picture.

M went out early to get me some flowers. They were beautiful and he made his own arrangement with the vase we had at home.  With a little tweaking from me, I think it turned out pretty good. We also went out for a quick breakfast at La Madeleine's.

Then it was off to school parties! We celebrated Valentine''s Day and Ms. Neathery's birthday today.  Outside + Donuts + Candy + Piñata + 22 Children = Chaos. 'Nuff said.



Ms. Neathery's 3rd Grade Class



Happy Birthday, Ms. Neathery!

Huge piñata 

Stuffing their faces with Krispy Kreme heart-shaped donuts





This year's V-day box 



After Michael's party, I had to book over to help set up for Matthew's party. 

24 Kids + Candy + Ice Cream Sundaes with Unlimited Toppings = Chaos

Ms. Eads' 1st Grade Class

The class played a game where they put a puzzle together to reveal a name.  Once they have their name, they have to go around the class to find their partner.  Matthew was "Tom."

Aiden was his "Jerry." How cute are they?!

I just hope that that they come down from their sugar high before they get home!

Little Randoms

These are little random moments from this weekend that I want to remember.

Matthew and I were watching the Grammys together last night and when they panned over to Lady Gaga Matthew said, “What the heck?” I’m guessing he didn’t dig her outfit

Michael was supposed to have a soccer game Sunday night at 7:30pm. It was freezing cold and the other team was smart enough not to show up. Michael reported that “it was raining razor-sharp ice pellets.” He may have exaggerated a little bit.

M tired to get Mark to say “da-da” all weekend. Mark did say something very close to “da-da” and M was so excited. I’ll play along.

Mark has been particular difficult this past week. My resolve to keep him out of our bed is gone in favor of sleep. So yes, we are co-sleeping. It started Saturday night.

First Semi-Snow Fall of the Year

We had our first snow fall of the year last night! It was very brief and didn't stick, but I was still pretty excited about it. I'm still hoping for a snow day or two. Not giving up hope just yet. One year, we had a snowstorm in March so there's still a chance!

Lunch and a Movie

Matthew, Michael and I had a wonderful date on Saturday.  We had lunch at their fave spot, Steak 'n Shake and then we went and saw Journey 2: Mysterious Island in 3D.

Michael loving on little Bro

This is my 1st experience seeing a whole movie in 3D.  It was pretty cool, but I felt that my eyes get much more tired with the affect.  Michael watched most of it in 3D, but took his glasses off once in awhile.  When I asked him why he kept doing it, he said his eyes needed to rest.  I guess his eye get tired too. Not sure if the extra cost was worth the 3D, but I figured it would be a new experience.

The movie was good, but the best part was that I had 90 minutes of uninterrupted cuddle time with my little guys - no tattling, no arguing, no whining. Pure bliss. Michael even leaned over in the middle of the movie and gave me a kiss ON THE LIPS.  Lip kisses are rare occurrences now with him.  I'm allowed to kiss him on the head only when in public.

Let me tell you, it was cold, cold, cold outside so we stopped by Starbucks for some coffee and and hot chocolate - coffee for me, not the kids.

Stop by Starbucks for a little pick me up

We did not spend much time outside since it was in the low 30s this weekend.  What difference a week makes.  There's a chance for some snow flurries tonight.  I hope we get some snow.  It would be fun for the kids..and me.  I love it when it snows-so pretty.

I don't love that I've got to be in the office by 7am Monday morning so I can meet up with my boss to drive down to Dallas for a charity breakfast.  Yuck, but it's for a good cause so I shouldn't complain.  

A Day In a Working Mom's Life

Today is Show Us Your Life -Working Moms on Kelly's Korner, so I'm linking up.

I am a Marketing Manager at a multi-unit retail company and a full-time mom to 2 active school-age boys and a 3-month old baby boy. Since my hubby travels a couple of days out of the week for his job, I dabble at being a single, full-time working mom.

Since Mark was born and I’ve started working again, I’m running on caffeine and adrenaline. Although I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck the moment I wake up in the morning, I don’t know if I would do anything differently. I love being a mom and I work to make my children's life easier and establish a foundation for their success the best that I can.

The reasons that I work are mostly financial.  I like to know that I'm contributing and that with my paycheck, we can save, take amazing vacations, and not be stressed about living from paycheck to paycheck.

Everyday is always different for me, but here’s what a typical day looks like.

6:00am – I am awakened by my human alarm clock also known as my 3-month old baby boy, Mark. I feed and change him and put him down in his crib again if he falls asleep.

6:30am – I go to make sure Michael and Matthew are awake and are dressed, and I go downstairs to get their breakfast of champions, also known as cold cereal. Sometimes they get their own breakfast (toaster strudels). I pack up their school bags and put them by the door.

6:45am – I get ready for work.

7:00am – Mark wakes up again so I go get him from his crib and hold him if he’s cranky. If not, I put him in his bouncer and help get the boys ready for the bus.



7:25am – Boys go outside and wait for the bus. I stand by the window to watch them and make sure they get on the bus at 7:30. Sarah, our nanny, arrives.

7:40am – I start my 30 minute commute into the office

8:15am – Answer emails and voicemails. Make calls

10:00am – Status meeting with my group



This is what my desk currently looks like. Yes, I still have my 2011 calendar up



I have a cube with a view. I love that I have a window. There are interesting things that happen in the parking lot when you work in the payday loan industry

11:30am – Lunch/surfing the web, catching up on my blog reading

12:30pm – Work on field marketing plans with RVPs/check and answer emails and phone calls

2:30pm – Meeting to review in-store POP

3:30pm – Visit with co-workers and discuss Housewives/Bachelor for the week . And we also talk smack about people. Hey, I’m human…

4:00pm – Work a little more

4:30pm – Talk a little more smack

5:00pm – Pack up/shut down

5:30pm – Get home to hug my babies, make dinner, eat, give Mark a bath, and pack up for tomorrow

7:30pm – Hang out with the boys and my hubby

8:30pm – Put Matthew and Michael to bed, feed Mark and hold him until he falls asleep and put him in bed.

9:00pm – Watch some recorded TV with the hubby when he is home. If Mark is still awake, I’ll hold him while we watch.

10:00pm – Bedtime if we are lucky, meaning if Mark falls asleep for the night. We’ll have to wake up to feed him twice during the night (on a good night).

Oh My Word!

Last night was one of the worst nights I’ve had in a few weeks with my little Marky. He was pretty much up all night. I got a little bit of sleep when I sat in the glider with him and fell asleep for about 3 hours. I was so frustrated and frightened because I didn’t know whether or not he was hurting. I did not know what to do with him except hold him and comfort him as much as I can. I gave him some gas drops because I thought he was gassy, but that did not help.

I finally had to just sit in the glider and hold him until he fell asleep. I knew that if I tried to put him back in his crib, he would start fussing again so I just sat there and fell asleep with him in my arms. I didn’t know what else to do.

M helped but he couldn’t get Mark to quiet down. He was not a happy Daddy to say the least.

What makes it harder is that I had to go to work in the morning. I am tired and spacey and I hope that I can concentrate enough to do what I need to get done today. Luckily, this is my first week back in the office so I am just catching up.

He’s been so good and calm lately so this was a surprise for us. We thought the fussy nights were behind us, but we were wrong. There’s nothing we can do except expect to have more bad nights and deal with it as it comes. Hopefully, it won’t happen too often.

How can someone so sweet and beautiful cause us so much agony?!

I just didn't want to exclude the big bros.  They have been so good lately.  It sure helps when we have bad nights with Marky.

Our Love Story; LINK-UP

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I thought it would be fun to link up with From Mrs. to Mama for “What’s Your Love Story.” It would be nice for the kiddos to have this story when they are older to appreciate the journey their Momma and Daddy took before they were born.

How long have you and your significant other been together?
We’ve been together a little over 12 years. Our first date was on May 22, 1999.

How did you meet? {What’s your “love” story?}
We met online (match.com) when online dating was in its infancy. No fancy profile matching or anything like that had been developed yet. It was like “here are some people with your criteria-good luck!” I wasn’t really looking for love when I went to match.com-just a free dinner. Ha-ha…Just kidding. It was really for research for a group project in one of my marketing classes. I believe the project was to research and present how technology changed the way people do things and our group decided to research on how the Internet changed to way people dated.

I started a profile and before I knew it, M was calling me for a date. I said OK, being young and having no fear, decided to have him pick me up from my house (I lived with 8 other girls) for our first date. He took me to Il Fornio in the Sainte Claire Hotel in San Jose. It was very fancy for a college girl at the time. Very impressive. The we went to see a movie nearby –forgot the name of the theater, but I don’t think It’s even there anymore. We say “Entrapment” with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Where it all started....

If married, how long have you been married?
We’ve been married for over 10 years. Our 11th anniversary is September 8.

If you are married, where did you get married? Big or small wedding?
We had 2 weddings-a traditional Chinese wedding and an “American” wedding. The Chinese wedding was huge! We had over 500 people at the reception at Dynasty restaurant and it lasted all day and early into the next morning. We had people from all over the United States and some from overseas. It was amazing. Our American wedding was just as amazing but so much smaller. We had a little over 50 guests. The ceremony and reception was at the Elizabeth Gamble Gardens in Palo Alto. I remember the day as being beautiful with perfect weather.

Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!
Not really anything interesting. We call each other “Honey.” He calls me “Wifey” sometimes.

Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals? Neither.

Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?
I use to be a dinner on the beach kind of girl when I was younger. Now, I’m more of the pop in a movie and relax on the couch girl.

Name 3 things you love most about your honey.
He makes me laugh. We laugh all the time. He works really hard to give us the things we need and want, and I love the way he loves us. I love that he’s such a wonderful father and does whatever it takes to make our boys happy. I guess that’s more than 3 things….

Tell us how he proposed?
In the bathtub on a Thursday night. His friend told me later that he told M to plan something in the City for the weekend, but M just couldn’t wait.

Tell us one thing you’d like to do with your significant other one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?
We love to travel so it would be related to that. I would love to take him to visit Cambodia where I was born. To show him my past and where I came from would be something special.

We’ve been fortunate to have been able to travel to so many places already with just the 2 of us and also with the kiddos. We most recently spent 2 weeks in St. Thomas and St. John this past July with our children.

The Ritz Carleton on St. Thomas

Westin Resort in St. John

Having fun in St. Thomas

Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine’s Day
No plans yet. Not that I know of.

Are you asking for anything this Valentine’s day?
I haven’t asked for anything except for some flowers. We don’t do gifts on Valentine’s Day.

Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.
I’ve learned that the fights and battles that seem so important to win at the time won’t matter at all in the grand scheme of things. Learn when to give each other space and when to intrude.

Show us a picture of what love means to you.
These boys are the loves of my life.

A "Winning" Weekend

We had a crazy busy weekend! Michael had his soccer tournament so it was all about soccer last weekend. I didn’t get to go to all his games because it was too cold for Mark to be out, but I did catch a couple of games. His team did great! They won all the games including the championship game.

In the championship game, they were behind 4-1 in the 1st half and I thought that they were destined for 2nd place, but they came back and scored 3 goals in the last few minutes to tie the game up. They had a penalty shootout and won the game! What an exciting finish to a great tournament.

Michael was so happy and so proud. The first thing he said to me after the championship game was, “First place, Baby!”


First Place Odyssey Team- How cute are they?!

After the tournament, we headed out to Frisco to the Chens’ house to watch the Super Bowl with a few other families. We did the squares game and the Fishers ended up winning the 1st and 2nd quarters. We were $20 richer. Yay, me. We had to leave before the game ended because the boys had to get up for school the next day, but they had a great time playing with the other kids and I had a great time catching up with friends. All in all, it was a pretty good weekend.

Enjoying Super Bowl Sunday with friends

3 Month Old!

My little Mark is 3 months old! I can’t believe how fast time has gone. You are doing so much more. I love to watch you play and babble on your play mat. I love to see you smile. The best part of my day is when I go to get you out of your crib in the morning. As soon as you see me over your crib, you smile and move your arms and legs around like you are SO excited to see me. It just makes me forget how hard it is to wake up in the middle of the night to feed you.
You are getting easier and easier take care of. There is a definite difference in your needs from the first 2 months to now. I can put you down and you will entertain yourself for about 15-30 minutes before you will start to be fussy. I now go down for naps without me having to hold you. I can even get you to nap 2-3 hours at a time without having to hold you.

I haven’t really shown us your personality yet, but you are interacting with us a lot more. You love for me to sing and talk to you. I love your open mouth smiles. I love the way you get so excited for your baths. I love to see how you are growing to a healthy and happy. I love that I will be able to watch you discover new things every day. Happy 3 month birthday and I look forward to getting to know you more and more. Love you so much!

What you are doing:

1. Smiling!

2. Starting to bat at objects – you’ve discovered that you can use your hands to reach out and touch things. You prefer using your left hand so I’m trying to get you to discover that your right hand and do things too

3. Sitting up on the swing

4. Playing on your own on your play mat

5. You can hold your head up for a few minutes on your tummy – you don’t like tummy time, but you will tolerate 4-5 minutes of it

6. You are babbling up a storm and I love it!

Sleep: Normally you will sleep at 9pm and wake up for a bottle at 2am, go back to sleep and wake up at 5:30am for another bottle then back to sleep until about 7am. You are napping for longer periods of time.

Feeding: You are eating 4-5 oz. about every 3-4 hours. We are giving you Nutramigen, which is not cheap. Luckily, Daddy can get for free from his connection. Yay for Daddy.

Stats:

I don’t have a current stat, but based on your last check-up, here’s where I think you are at:

Weight – 13-14lbs.

Length – 25 inches

Diaper size: 2

You are wearing size 3-6 month clothes. You’ve completely outgrown newborn – 3 months old clothes

Soccer Tournament

We have our schedule for Michael's soccer tournament for this weekend and it looks like we are going to be busy.  There are 2 games on Saturday starting-a 8am game and a 12:45 game.  I will probably join M for the 12:45 game.  Eight in the morning will be too cold for my little Markey and Matty.

On Sunday, assuming that we do really well and make it to the championship game, the team will play 3 games - 8am, 1:30pm, and a 3:30 game. Again, I'll probably be there for the 2nd and 3rd game and skip the early game.  I'm really excited to see him play!

We've been invited to watch the Super Bowl game the Chen's so we'll head out to Frisco right after the tourney, so it will deinitely be a busy weekend for us.