one of the definite highlights of our new home is having a backyard again.  the kids love being able to run in and out as they please and i love being able to shoo them outside whenever they get a bit too rambunctious inside. of course, they all come screaming back inside as soon as one of them spots a spider, or a mosquito, or a moth, or a roly poly, or a bee, or a fly, or any other small black spot that sort of resembles an insect. it does not appear that entomology is in any of our kids’ futures. ok, if i’m being really honest, that comes…

of jonah tsai! hey!  wanna see what i’ve been up to while mommy’s been busy unpacking? first, i like to start off my day with stolen sips from my sister’s smoothie cup. good thing she doesn’t mind sharing with me.  i even let her kiss my cheek because it buys me more time with her smoothie cup. and when she wants her smoothie cup back?  well, no matter because then my big brother swoops in and hands me his smoothie cup.  i love having lots of siblings! i find this round window very fascinating.  i could watch it go round and round all day long… hmm, what else?  oh yes,…

this is the post i have been waiting a very, very long time to write. we bought a house, survived the escrow drama, signed our lives away, got the keys, and moving day was finally here! this is the day i have been waiting for since i was seven.  that was the last time i lived in an actual, honest-to-goodness home.  not bouncing around every year or two.  not in an apartment, not a motel, not a shelter, not student housing, not a temporary rental unit, all of which i have lived in one time or another, but a home.  our own home. and while it is but a pale…

back in march, we got to spend a weekend at disneyland, thanks to the conference phil attended for work.  at the time, the hotel offered a special deal for us to visit the park again sometime by the end of june.  a hundred bucks for the whole family to come again.  it was a good deal and we figured we had tons of time to use it.  three whole months!  who wouldn’t have time for disneyland?! but we failed to factor in the whole packing/moving thing we’re so fond of doing this time of year. and the whole daddy works eighty to ninety hours a week thing. and the whole…

i must interrupt my series of month-old posts (the goal of catching up is looking to be a rather fruitless endeavor) because today is a special day. today, my baby turns four. remember my baby? hi, baby. and when i call her my baby, this is how i see her.  this is how she will forever look to me.  we even had a discussion about it today.  it went something like this: lauren: mommy, i’m a big girl today. mommy: you are?  how come? lauren: because i’m four today! mommy: that is a big girl number! so are you a big girl or a little girl now? lauren: big girl.…