Saturday, November 30, 2013

Snow Days

NJ really studies his lego instruction books. Even when he's not playing, he's looking through the pictures. 
Where are we going Baba? It's a surprise, no peeking! 
Wow look at the huge tree! 
This was his first pick.
Factory tour of how they're made!
The sit down game (best game ever)! Which squirmy boy can sit longer? One of them was clearly starting to lose it toward the end, I wasn't sure what was going to happen! They had a tie, but guess who were the real winners? Hee, hee, hee...
Of coarse he goes straight for the lego bricks instead of actually playing with the snow.
I grabbed him to do a quick sled at least before going back to building.
Ooh, it's cold!
Biggest pile of colorful bricks!
You can throw snowballs at the targets. 
More brick building.
Cool sunglasses!
Who can lift who? 
Wow thank you for the ice cream, Auntie! 
A little snack while we watch the tree lighting.
The lights and the night sky are so pretty. 
One last ride before we go. The boys went with their dads and us girls rode together. I asked to take a photo of us while she did the responsible thing and said, "Let's put our seat belt on first." Oh right, that would good! 

Friday, November 29, 2013

Cleaning and Decorating

The bathroom really needed cleaning and NJ was volunteered since it's his bathroom.
He wiped every corner, even behind the toilet.
His clothes were all dirty from cleaning so he took them off. How cute he is in his little boxer briefs. 
Leftovers for dinner.
Yay, we have one and a half trees up! This will be NJ's to decorate with his own ornaments. 
We did a lot of vacuuming and dusting. We rearranged NJ's room and removed his wool rug.
It felt really nice to be able to clean, relax at home, and start some Christmas decorating. It's also Ah-goo's birthday today. Happy Birthday Uncle Perry!

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Thanksgiving with the Family

Good morning and happy Thanksgiving! NJ is having his current favorite breakfast of english muffins with butter which he always seems to call cream cheese bagel. I think we've corrected him enough times now that he's not saying it as much anymore. 
I gave him his little bag to put some toys in so he could play with them at our relatives house. He fell asleep on the way there with the bag on his lap!
Wow, he got some hot wheels for his birthday from Auntie, Uncle and cousins! He opened it right away and played with it there. We went to lunch at what was Baba's grandma's house. Now it's Auntie and Uncle's house, but still where everyone gathers. I don't know why I didn't get any other photos while we were there. There was a table full of food and another with desserts. I've grown accustomed to Thanksgiving and Christmas with Filipino food, Tagalog, Taiwanese, and English spoken, and some silly Filipino game show on in the background (that's until someone changes it to football or basketball or something). It's kind of funny. It makes me happy that we are surrounded by so much family especially for NJ. 
I can't believe this is how we're spending Thanksgiving night! Whenever I hear about sales being on Thanksgiving day it makes me sad that people have to work and others find the need to shop! They're supposed to be at home with their families, not trying to make an extra buck. But we asked my mom over for Thanksgiving and this is what she wanted to do. So here we are, I'm a total hypocrite! 
There's Ah-ma with the prize she wanted, a pyrex set! Actually two, one for her sister and that's why we're all here. It's one per person. NJ was patient and went along with this madness! 
NJ eating some cheese puffs that my mom bought him for his patience. And his Ah-ma squished in the back with the tv we picked up for Nate's cousin. We got two tv requests when others found out we were going! We certainly don't need any more tv's or can afford them, but we didn't mind doing it for others. I'm glad we could spend time together whatever that looked like, ideal or not! 

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Pre Thanksgiving Dinner

Ah-gong was amazed at all the legos he has now and how well he plays with them. 
How cute is this, my dad in the tiny chair playing legos with my son. I love it! 
Tonight's dinner was thrown together a bit last minute. We went to get a rotisserie chicken, made a bag of salad, and threw in some leftovers. Not what you'd think of as a traditional thanksgiving dinner, but I figured it's who's at the table that counts. I had very little time to prepare and I wasn't going to exhaust myself doing what was impossible. So dinner was simple and we all got to spend time together as a family. I always appreciate my parents coming together for special occasions or just to spend time with their grandson. I'm thankful for that!
Ah-gong brought some Taiwanese treats that were pineapple cakes and the flakey thin cakes (I don't know the english name of it). NJ especially enjoyed it.
Just like our family to end the night looking at the newspaper or sale ads. 

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Nature Spring Preserve and Home Again


We went back to the same walking trail to stretch our legs before the drive. 

The boys had fun picking up some nature here and there.

At the trading center the boys got to trade in what they found for something there like rocks or sea shells amongst other cool things. Nathan chose a clear rock which I forgot to take a photo of!

The sky is a lovely view the whole way home.

We stopped to have dinner on the way home at one of NJ's favorite places. He loves the sweet soy milk and the corn and chicken over rice. Although I ordered my favorite, the tofu, and he ate most of it almost finishing it completely! Maybe that's his new favorite. I have fond memories of sharing the love of soy milk and tofu with my dad when I was little. 
What a difference good food makes! On the way there we were stuck in bad annoying traffic. NJ was complaining, "I'm soooooooo hungry! My tummy! I can't wait! I don't want to die!" Sheesh, dramatic much? He was groaning and complaining the last half hour to an hour before getting there. Such fun! My mom gave him the talk she used to give me which is that there are children around the world that actually are starving. That he knew when he was going to eat, there's promise of food, but some kids don't know when they'll eat again. Also dramatic, but hey whatever works! It's a good lesson whether he fully understands or not. When we finally ate we told him, "See, God's looking out for you, this is all your favorite food and you have the satisfaction of filling your tummy!"