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.
Through the ups and downs, we've experienced God's presence in our lives and are so grateful for all that He has blessed us with. We are so excited for all that God has in store for us in 2012. Happy New Year!
