Friday, January 4, 2013

Our Goals for 2013

Last year's goals:

FAMILY
Have Family Worship once a week ... fail

Update family blog once a month ... fail
Move to a new home ... achieved! :)

MARRIAGE
Date night at least once a month
... fail

CHURCH
Mommy: Connect with a church member outside of "church" once every two weeks
... fail
Daddy: Spend more time with Bible study class ... fail

SPIRITUAL
Mommy: Read through the One-Year Bible (reading aloud at kids' bedtime)
... achieved!
Daddy: Read the Bible more ... achieved!

PROFESSIONAL
Mommy: "Clear" teaching credentials
... achieved!
Daddy: Work harder ... achieved!

SELF
Exercise (at least twice a week)
... fail  
and eat healthy (cook in more than eat out) ... achieved!

This Year's Goals:

FAMILY
Skype with family at least once a week

MARRIAGE
Spend quality time after kids go to bed at least once a week

CHURCH
Pray for church every night at 10PM

SPIRITUAL
Read through the Bible

HEALTH
Exercise at least twice a week
Cook in more than eat out 

A Look Back at 2012


JANUARY

Ellie got sick for the first time with a viral infection.  She had a high fever for a couple of days before breaking out in a rash.  This also happened while daddy was in Utah on a business trip!
 
We celebrated baby Connor with Aunty Jessica at her baby shower.  

Ellie was cruising a lot in this month and she slowly learned to let go while cruising about.  Ethan also reached a milestone this month by becoming potty-trained!

Daddy went on another business trip this month to Los Angeles for a couple of days.  When he got back, Ellie got sick with the stomach flu, which she gave to everyone, but daddy!  Mommy and Ethan were sick at the winter retreat and so many of our church friends got sick, too.  Even grandma, Uncle Steven and Uncle David got sick from us!  This happened on the weekend of Mommy and Uncle Steven’s 29th birthday.

FEBRUARY


Aunty Pia closed daycare for a couple of weeks to celebrate Uncle Carl’s birthday with the family on a Disney Cruise.  During this time, mommy, daddy and grandma took turns to take care of Ethan and Ellie.  We celebrated grandma’s birthday on Valentine’s Day with Uncle Steven and Uncle David.  We got to meet Uncle David’s girlfriend, Jeanie, that day, too!


By the end of this month, Ellie was taking a few steps!

MARCH




We celebrated Ellie’s first birthday at Jonga House in Oakland with family and friends and lots of good food! 

On Ellie’s actual birthday, daddy was gone on a business trip to Illinois.

APRIL

Ellie had her one-year doctor’s appointment this month.  That day she got 4 shots, a blood test and a TB test!  She was such a trooper though!


We went to the Cherry Blossom Festival in San Francisco and tried some yummy food.
 
Cousin Sammy turned 2 this month.  We didn’t get to celebrate with him since he was at grandpa and grandma’s house in Alabama.



At the end of this month, Daddy and Mommy went to Uncle Daniel and Aunty Moon’s wedding in Napa.  Thankfully, grandma watched Ethan and Ellie that day.

MAY


We celebrated many birthdays this month.  We had dinner for Uncle David’s birthday at Han Yang BBQ.  We also had dinner for Uncle Jonathan’s birthday at Ray’s Sushi.  Pastor DeWayne planned a surprise for Aunty Jessica’s birthday, which was a lot of fun.

Aunty Lisa and Uncle Simon were visiting from Washington D.C., so we got to have dinner and dessert with them near our home.

Mommy found out that she’s pregnant again!

JUNE



We celebrated Daddy’s birthday at Buffalo Bill’s with some church friends. 

Uncle Josh came to visit from New York for a job interview in Emeryville.  It was so nice to see him for a couple of days!



We went to Ellie’s first San Francisco Giants game as Mommy got tickets from work since her school band was performing the National Anthem at the game.  It was really cold, but fun because Uncle Steven, Uncle David and Aunty Jeanie came to the game with us!



We went to Uncle JunMo and Aunty Sunny’s wedding in Long Beach.  We got to stay with Uncle Jae and Aunty JuEun at Aunty Joo and Uncle Sung’s house in Buena Park.  Maddie and Isaac were so kind to let us play with their toys!  We got to enjoy yummy food, except for mommy because of her morning sickness.

Mommy went away for the weekend by herself to attend Aunty Layni’s bachelorette party in Las Vegas!  Daddy stayed behind to take care of Ethan and Ellie while she was gone.  Though mommy had a good time, she really missed the kiddos!
 
On Uncle Josh’s birthday, we took Ellie’s first airplane trip to Alabama!

JULY








We celebrated Aunty Renee and Uncle Josh’s birthday in Alabama together with grandpa and grandma.  Daddy came home after spending a week with us.  We got to go fishing and swimming in Florida.  It was absolutely beautiful.  We also got to play with Cousin Sammy.  Mommy, Ethan and Ellie stayed in Alabama for an extra 10 days or so.  We went to the pool, the library and to the zoo with Aunty Renee and Cousin Sammy.  We had a lot of fun.



We celebrated Ethan’s 3rd birthday with grandpa, grandma, Aunty Renee and Cousin Sammy at ChuckECheese’s in Alabama.



When we got back from Alabama, the next day, Mommy and Daddy went to Aunty Layni’s wedding in San Jose, so Ethan and Ellie got to spend time at grandma’s house.

At the end of this month, we had our summer retreat at Angels Camp.  Since it was hot, we got to play in the swimming pool with our friends, Belle and Lucy.

When we got back from the retreat, Daddy went on a business trip to Utah.

AUGUST

We had a joint party for Ethan’s birthday with Lucy from church.  It was at Super Frank’s in Pleasanton like last year.  We had a blast.


Ethan started preschool this month when Mommy went back to work.  Aunty Pia decided to close her daycare so that she could be more available for Jacob since he starts kindergarten this year.

We went to Kingston’s 2nd birthday party.  It was fun to play outdoors and eat yummy food.

We went to Mommy’s Ultrasound appointment at the hospital.  Mommy and Daddy decided to keep the gender of the new baby a surprise till birth, so we didn’t find out if the baby is a girl or a boy.

SEPTEMBER

Mommy and Daddy went on a date to celebrate their 5-year wedding anniversary while Ethan and Ellie stayed at grandma’s house.  Mommy and Daddy tried a new restaurant on Santana Row that day.
Daddy went on a business trip to Japan!!  He was very excited about the trip and had a great time, especially since he met one of his old co-workers at the airport!




Thanks to Uncle Ryan, we got to take Ellie to her first Cal football game in the new stadium!

Ellie started preschool this month!  She’s the youngest in her class, so all the other kids take care of her.


Ethan and Ellie’s preschool offered a “Parents’ Night Out,” so Mommy and Daddy took the opportunity to go out for dinner.  We went to an Ethiopian restaurant in Oakland and enjoyed a delicious meal.

Mommy attended Ethan and Ellie’s first Back to School Night.  It was busy going from one class to the other, but Mommy had a great time learning about what the kids do during the school day and came home with “All About Me” books that Ethan and Ellie made.

OCTOBER



Ethan went on his first field trip with his class to the Pumpkin Patch and came home with a pumpkin he chose.  Ellie also chose a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch the preschool created in the courtyard.  We didn’t want the pumpkins to go to waste, so we made an afternoon activity out of them and carved pumpkins for the first time!

Ethan and Ellie went to Hallelujah Night on Halloween at church.  Though we got there a little late, we had fun going to station to station, doing different activities and getting some candy to take home.

We celebrated great-grandma’s birthday at the end of this month.  We are so lucky that great-grandma is healthy and well.

NOVEMBER

Mommy and Daddy attended Ethan’s first parent conference this month.  We were so happy to hear that Ethan is doing well in his class.  He is learning at the pace of his peers, who are mostly older than him as many have turned 4 years old already.  It’s really been amazing to see him communicate so well these days.



We bought a new house and moved in during Thanksgiving weekend!  Ethan and Ellie love the new place as it is large enough for them to run about without being asked to be quiet for our neighbors.  They also are sharing a room and started sleeping in their own beds!  Ethan says that’s his favorite thing about the new house.

DECEMBER

Mommy and Daddy finished unpacking just in time to host our church’s Christmas party.  We had a potluck with yummy food and a fun time with the gift exchange and Just Dance 3 on the Wii.

We got to meet our neighbors before leaving for San Diego.  Our neighbors are very nice and friendly.  Many of the kids in the neighborhood are older, but Ethan had fun with Tyler, who is in kindergarten.  We connected with people who work in education and in IT.  It was a fun event and we were glad to have been invited.



We drove to San Diego the Saturday before Christmas.  It took a long time to get there, but Ethan and Ellie were great in the car.  Mommy mostly lied down in the back of the van on the drive down.  We got to see Aunty Renee, Uncle Josh and Cousin Sammy in their new home.  We went to the Science Museum and saw lots of houses decorated on Christmas Card Lane.  

We picked up grandpa and grandma at the airport and spent time with them at the San Diego Zoo on Christmas Day.  We also celebrated grandpa’s birthday.

All of us drove up to our new home the day after Christmas.  We stopped in Los Angeles for a late lunch and some shopping.  We didn’t have many activities planned, but that worked out well since we were able to just spend time together as a family.  Grandpa and grandma left for Alabama on Sunday and Aunty Renee, Uncle Josh and Cousin Sammy left for San Diego on New Year’s Eve.