Chen Christmas, Tooth #13 and 14

Since we were in Kansas for Christmas, we didn't have our Chen Christmas gift exchange until Tuesday evening after we all went out to dinner first.  It was a Christmas/Birthday dinner since my dad's birthday is the 29th and Kirk's is the 30th (Happy Birthday to both of you!!!).  This time of the year is always busy for us!  :)  Here are a few pics from the evening.

Lao Yie and Abby.

Lao Yie and Elliott.

Let the gift exchange begin!

Of course I wasn't able to capture pictures of all the gifts but Abby particularly loved the camping chair from Jo Jo!

Poor Elliott.  He is the victim of Abby's "let's learn how to share" lessons.  Here she is playing with his new toy while he's trying to see what's going on!  She learned how and when to say "MINE!" so you can imagine...

Look at how strong Elliott is!  He's already crawling at 6 months and has been wanting to stand since he was born.  He'll be an early walker!

Ruby a-yi got Abby this pop-up tent and boy did Abby go. to. town.  By the end of the evening after 2+ hours of play time, she was a sweaty mess and had a permanent goofy smile on her face.  She kept calling it her "house" and saying "knock knock" on the door (not pictured).  She happily invited all of her dolls in the house and even made Bryce and I take turns sitting in it too.  We decided the tent needs a ceiling fan...

Peeking through the window.

Out.

And in.  Over and over. 

Totally dominating the house.  Happy baby.

INSISTING Daddy sit in her chair and them promptly plopping herself in his lap.  She learned to say "please" so we are just suckers for it and her wish is our command.  *sigh*  We'll see how long that lasts.

This was just getting ridiculous!

Now it's my turn.  We are all sweating now from crawling in and out of the darn house.

Check out our sweat ball of a baby.  This picture doesn't even begin to capture the shear stickiness going on.  But we are glad she had so much fun!!

I don't mean to make this post any longer than it already is but this video was quite entertaining.   Enjoy!

Abby also got an awesome new table and chair set from Lao Nian and Lao Yie which is now a permanent fixture in our kitchen.  I assembled it myself in under 40 minutes and it's already as useful as I thought it would be. 

I just like this picture.  It's a rare bashful picture and Abby is wearing her dad's Longhorn beanie (which scarily fits her head quite well).

Here she is trying to put the beanie and Daddy's head.

This picture is grainy but I love her smile.  :)

Abby's top 2 incisors are officially out and the bottom two are close behind.  Woohoo!

Christmas in Kansas

As I mentioned in the previous post, this year we spent Christmas in Kansas which we hadn't done since 2008 when I was still pregnant with Abby.  We decided to split the road trip into 2 days since it's 730 miles away one-way (roughly 12 hours without a baby).

 

Abby loves playing with the steering wheel.  Don't worry - the car is parked!  This was taken during one of our diaper change/stretch pit stops.  Vroom vroom!

On our way up, we decided to spend one night in a hotel in Wichita Falls which was the half-way point of
our drive.  We knew it would be a disaster and sure enough, it was.  Abby has never slept in a bed with us and we all only got about 5 hours of sleep even though we were all in bed by 9:15 PM and didn't wake up until 7:15 AM.  The only highlight was that Abby loved the hotel's hot breakfast and she ate really well.  :)

What do we do in a hotel to keep a baby busy?  Stack hot beverage sleeves!!

We finally made it to Kansas where we stayed at Bryce's grandparent's house (mom's parents) and Abby immediately felt right at home.  As with all grandparents homes, there is a plethora of toys to keep her entertained.  In true engineer fashion, Abby had to evaluate how the crib wall went up and down before actually playing with the dolls inside of it.

Up.  and down.  Up.  and down.

Bryce is fortunate to have both sets of grandparents live only 2 blocks apart so it was great for Abby to see Grandma and Grandpa Baker for the second time!  And Abby had fun meeting some of her second cousins too!  As always, Grandma Baker made a delicious dinner and had an abundance of sweet treats to snack on.  :)

The grand and great-grand babies with Grandma Baker: Alison, Abby and Trayvan Baker!  :)

Abby thoroughly enjoyed riding the rocking horse.

"Neigh!  Neigh!  Neigh!"

We had a lot of fun back at the Lance's!  The family tradition is to play a card game called Pitch and Razzle Dazzle (comment if you've ever played these games!).  Everybody knows how to play so eventually I learned as well and I'll admit, it's pretty addicting.  There were 15 people under one roof (and 5 more during the day) so there was always something going on.  Abby LOVED playing with 2 of her second cousins since they are little girls around her age.  Both were so sweet with Abby - it made me happy to see them play together.  :)  Here are some pictures from the week.

Bryce and Abby in front of his grandparent's house where he used to play.

Playing out on the drive way.  Brrrr!!!

A rare picture of Abby and me!

Abby giving Great Granddad high-fives all week!

Funny story of the trip:  On Christmas Eve we went to the evening church service and it was Abby's first time at church.  Again, we weren't sure how quiet she would be so we were prepared for anything.  Or so we thought.  As I mentioned in another previous post, Abby learned to say "Ho ho!" whenever she saw a picture or ornament of Santa Claus.  It's rather adorable because she picked that up pretty quick just this holiday.  Well, the service was just beginning and the pastor approaches the podium for the first prayer of the evening.  He is an elderly, heavier set man with a white beard.  All is quiet except for the prayer and our little angel procedes to scream "Ho ho!  Ho ho!  Ho ho!  Ho ho!" 4 times at the top of her lungs with her chubby little fingers pointing at the pastor!!  {Gasp!}  She would have continued if Bryce did not muzzle her with his hands (in which case all we could hear was muzzled sounds of "Ho ho" over and over again).  Bryce just about peed his pants and I was doing my best to contain my laughter - oh it was terriblely hilarious!  We got many comments after the service and it seems everyone else thought it was funny too.  :)  Perhaps you had to be there for it but I had to chronicle this event for Abby's sake in the future. 

A horrible picture but this is the Baker Family Christmas morning - pajamas and all!

These pajamas were no accident!  Abby was rockin' her Christmas jammies.  :)

This is Eva and Abby with their babies.  Eva is Abby's sweet, sweet 4 year old second cousin.  :)

Abby (21 months), Corrin (28 months) and Eva (4).

We all ended up watching Toy Story 3 after gifts were opened and this picture just HAD to be taken.  All 3 girls were each holding their babies with eyes glued to the TV.  This only lasted 5 minutes but it was so adorable! 

It usually snows every Christmas and we were really looking forward to Abby playing in snow for the first time but alas, this was all we got on the morning we headed back to Houston.

Random side note:  Abby has learned quite a few new words in the last few weeks so here's a quick list.  She says both, milk, dark, bright, please, no, yes, in, out, off, on,  knock knock, house, home, please (although it sounds more like "peas") and jiu (nine in Chinese).  I'm missing a few but that's all I can think of now.  I love how she is recalling things from the past now and really understand everything we say now as well.  She's become quite the little sassy girl and her 'tude is starting to shine but we still love her all the same.  I suppose this was going to happen sooner or later.  :)

We were sad to leave Kansas but it was time to head back home.  This time we spent the night at Amee and Ankur's house in Dallas instead of a hotel and it was MUCH better for two reasons: the first being that we got to spend time with the Meghani's!! And the second being that we were NOT in a hotel.  We learned our lesson on that one fast.  By the time we got to Dallas, we had been in the car for 9 hours so Abby ran amok around their house and slept soundly that night.

Amee masi and Abby cuddling on the couch.

So much more has happened even in the short time we've been home but that will have to wait until the next post.  We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Sneak Peek - Christmas in KS

We just got back from spending Christmas in Ulysses, KS - will make proper post in coming days as soon as the dust settles at home.  But here is a sneak peek of Abby on our road trip.  She did really well - whew!  Home Sweet Home!

Abby "reading" her Kai Lan coloring book.

Random, Haircut, Merry Christmas & 4oo8 Reunion

It's only been 5 days since my last post but boy did we get a lot done!  I love that the weather warmed up a bit again lately since Abby really enjoys playing in the yard. 

Abby has been a regular copy cat and was doing push ups right along side Daddy - too funny!

She got her bangs cut again by Nancy a-yi in preparation for the holidays.  We've done this a few times now so she's a pro.  :)

Abby's new SKR shoes came in and you can see the excitement on her face.  {big smile}  Just like Mommy!  Our not-so-little girl is in size 7 already!  She's also 34.25" tall too (90-95%)!

We spent yesterday at Grandma and Grandpa's to celebrate Christmas early and Abby had a blast!  She played right through her nap and didn't go to bed until 11 PM!  Some highlights to note in the slideshow below: We baked sugar cookies and decorated them.  Some look better than others.  :)  One of Abby's favorite toys at Gma and Gpa's is her orange bowl and wooden spoon.  Of ALL of the toys Santa brought Abby, her favorite (no surprise) was the little Elmo doll in her stocking.  It is now her new bed companion.  Apparently Elmo likes riding in the tricycle with Abby. 

Then today Abby and I went to a-yi's house to have a mini high school reunion.  4 out of the 8 (4oo8) of us met up and all the babies got to see each other again!  Again, I'm not good at taking pictures AND watching/feeding Abby so what you see is what you get.  It was so great to see everyone again - I miss you guys already!  :)

Aaron (13 months), Elliott (6 months) and Abby (20 months).

Aaron eating a Shipley's donut hole, Janice a-yi and Abby (who is sleepy).

Kevin, Ruby, me, Abby, Janice and Aaron.  :)

On a side note, I just finished making all our Christmas cards and the second batch will be mailed out tomorrow.  Done - whew!  I still feel like there is a ton of stuff left to do but that's just part of the holidays, I suppose.  :) 

It's a Christmas Miracle

Why have I been lagging in my posts lately, you ask?  Because I've been busy being a single parent since Bryce left on his CA and Tour de Europe business trip on Dec. 1 and he finally gets to come home today!!  It's been 2 weeks!  Granted I was in CA for 3 of those days but even that seems ages ago already.  These are things I have discovered in the last 2 weeks:  I'm beat - as in warn out.  I need a day to myself ASAP.  My already super dry hands are now bleeding at the knuckles from all the dishes and cups I've washed lately.  No amount of lotion has seemed to help.  I eat like I did in college.  Quick, easy meals coupled with some home cooked meals from my parents (thanks!).  I guess that's what happens when my personal chef is MIA (that would be Bryce).  Abby has had super healthy and well rounded meals though and that's all that matters!  The yard looks like crap.  Period.  Sorry HOA.  And lastly, I discovered there just aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done so I'm sort of used to being in a constant WIP mode (reminds me of my last job...).  However, the carpet is vacuumed, dishes are clean, I'm caught up on laundry and I dusted the house.  So I just want to say to Bryce - WELCOME HOME AND WE'VE MISSED YOU TERRIBLY!

Abby and I both love coloring.  Is it bad that we fight over the crayons?  Don't worry, Abby always wins.  :)

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Daddy's home!!!  I didn't even get a hug because Abby was hogging Bryce!  :P

Jungle gym Daddy.

Eskimo kisses are the best!

Daddy, what's this?  You look like Jo Jo!

Daddy got tons of awesome hugs - she wouldn't let go!  I had to wait until she took her nap to get my hug.  Now I know how it feels to be #2.  Haha!

Old Friends, Family, Disneyland

I'm back!  It's been another whirlwind of a week.  Translation: it was a lot of fun but now I'm just beat!  To begin with, my childhood friend was in town and our daughters got to play together again (1st time was at Abby's 1 year old party)!  Then we met up again a couple of days later at the Galleria and this time our mom's came too.  As always, it was so fun to see both sets of 3 generations hanging out together.  :)

Abby just woke up and I don't know why she was trying to hold Audrey's hand.  :P

Abby spent the rest of the evening drinking out of Audrey's cup and finally decided to share (and it wasn't even her cup!).  Goober baby.

I'm convinced that group shots never work out so this was the closest I could get.  :)

Bryce and I were in CA again this past weekend to attend a work Christmas party so Lao Nian and Lao Yie got to babysit.  They had a lot of fun but I'm pretty sure Abby wore. them. out.  But I know they enjoyed it! 

Here she is trying on Jo Jo's Rockets hat.  Then my dad took her over to a mirror and...

...she LOVED IT - can you tell?

Abby has a love/scared relationship with Zeus.  She loves to play with him but is fiercely afraid of him too!  See how she has protected herself with her elevated vantage point {insert sarcasm}?

This is her ultimate I'm-so-scared-and-excited face!  Eek!

Abby saw my dad watering the flowers in the back yard and decided she wanted to do it too.  So we spent part of the morning pretend watering the flowers and bushes.  She had entirely too much fun!

While Bryce and I were in CA, we had the pleasure of meeting up with a few old friends, visit The Bruery, eat at a couple of delicious restaurants and of course, attend the Christmas party.  This Christmas party was worth the flight out to CA because it was held at the Disneyland Hotel!!!  I warned Bryce that he might see a side of me that he's never seen before...and he did...and he still loves me {whew!}.  I was like a kid in a candy store to the nth degree!  More on that later....here are a few pics from our weekend.  {Sorry, K, I forgot to take a picture with you during dinner!  Next time!}

The Bruery - of course in CA style, this was set up more like a wine tasting than the HH I had in mind but it was delicious.  As you can see, some, if not all the beer are aged in barrels (wine or bourbon) and it definitely adds that extra dimension to your beer tasting experience.

  

This is a small family owned brewery and almost half of their beers can only be found in CA and some don't even ship out of the OC, where they are located.

It was so great to see Lily again!  Much like all of my childhood friends, our mindless chatter felt like we just picked up where we left off last year. 

This last mantage consists of pictures I took while staying at the Disneyland Hotel.  We were in the newly renovated Wonder Tower so everything was brand new.  You'll note towards the end, I got an autographed photo from the 4 princesses (Cinderella, Snow White, Princess Aurora and Belle).  Not just anyone gets this!  I expressed my love for all things Disney while checking in and I think the receptionist noticed the disappointment in my face that we were this close to Disneyland but I didn't have time to visit it.  So she asked who my favorite Disney character was, to which I replied Snow White.  She told me she would be right back and she presented me with a white envelope that she said came from the Princess Vault!  You cannot imagine the excitement on my face when I finally opened it and saw the photo.  Bryce was thoroughly embarassed yet happy to see the joy it brought me.  :)