Dentists and Doctors and Checkups, Oh My!

The week before we left for AZ, my mom flew into town to help me fly back with the girls. I decided to take advantage of the extra help and schedule as many appointments as possible so that I could take the girls for their checkups instead of dragging all three of them to each appointment. SO, Eliana went in for her 5-year well check and Olivia had her 15-month well check at the same time (kill 2 birds with one stone, you know?). Thankfully I was able to leave Addie at home with Achi (Grandma) so she wouldn't have to witness Olivia getting her shots. Everyone got flu shots, Olivia had 4 vaccinations and an iron check, and all three girls had blood drawn at some point during the week. We received some good news and bad news at this appointment. We did allergy testing on all the girls and found out that Olivia is allergic to wheat, milk, and eggs. The bad news is we have to avoid those things in her diet which is a little tricky (particularly the wheat because it's in so many things!), but the good news is now we know what has been causing all of her digestive problems, so hopefully those days are behind us now. Since we have had so many problems with her diet, the doctor was slightly concerned with her growth since her last visit. She dropped from the 50th percentile in height and weight to the 10th, which is fairly significant. So, we're headed back to the doctor in six weeks just to do a weight check and make sure she doesn't continue to drop. Poor thing, she's so tiny! We thought she'd be our largest kid since she was the longest at birth, but she's still wearing some clothes that are size 6 months!

Eliana didn't pass her vision screening, so I have her scheduled to see a pediatric ophthalmologist when we return home. I think there's a good chance that Little Miss will be needing glasses, because I am certain that she knew all the letters and shapes they were asking her to recognize, and I could see them very clearly. Also, Eliana had to have her lipids checked since Miller has high cholesterol. They are starting to do routine cholesterol checks in little kids who are genetically predisposed. Yesterday I got the call, and her overall cholesterol and LDL levels were elevated, so we also have to go back in to see the pediatrician because they want to start her on a treatment plan. I'm pretty sure that just means making adjustments to her diet in order to prevent complications when she gets older. So between Olivia's dietary restrictions and Eliana's cholesterol (not to mention Miller's cholesterol and Addie's peanut allergy), it looks like Mommy is on an adventure to learn some creative and healthy ways to feed her family!

In addition to the doctor, the whole family (minus Olivia) had appointments at the dentist to get our teeth cleaned. This was Addie's first visit at the dentist and she was such a BIG girl. I was so proud of her for not having a scared-screaming-refusing to open her mouth-crying-tantrum-type reaction I was anticipating. :) The good news: the whole family is cavity-free! Please pray for these sweet girls and their health. We're so thankful that the doctors have the wisdom and medical technology to do all the testing that was necessary to discover what is wrong with them. May the Lord be glorified through all this. I didn't take any pictures at the pediatrician, but I managed to snap a few from my phone of the girls at the dentist...



Addie showing us her pearly whites!



Doesn't Eliana look thrilled to be at the dentist?

Thanksgiving with our Cousins

We have all had such an amazing week, filled with family, food, and fun. We celebrated Thanksgiving with Miller's family, as we do every year. His dad always comes back to the U.S. in November because his family commemorates the passing of his mom. While we don't participate in the memorial ceremony, we always attend the family gathering where they celebrate Thanksgiving at the same time. This year my brother-in-law, Manh was visiting from Virginia, along with his two kids, Dat and Kim Anh. I LOVE this family! They are so lovable and fun. Dat and Kim Anh got to spend a few days at our house, and Ly (Mai's sister) decided to join us. The house was full of kids, laughter, wonderful smells of baking, and we all had so much fun. I decided we should all make gingerbread houses and men as a family activity. So we found a recipe online for homemade gingerbread, and Ly and Mai excitedly volunteered to do the baking. They did an awesome job! We each decorated our own gingerbread person, and all the girls decorated a gingerbread house (the boys were too anxious to get back to their game of pool). Once we put it all together, we had an entire gingerbread family and village. All of the kids did a great job, and it was neat to see their individual creativiy. The house smelled so yummy of ginger and cinnamon as the cookies baked, and we listened to Christmas music, sipped on hot cocoa and tea, and ate candy canes. The house always feels so much more cozy when it's full of people, added by the glow of the lights on the Christmas tree. Here are some pictures of our fun-filled week, along with a video clip of some commentary by my niece, Kim Anh, future anchor woman. :)
Ly's house:


Mai's house:


Kim Anh's house:


Eliana's house:


Addie's house:


My house:


Our gingerbread family and village:


All the kids:

Yordy and Mai make Five

...girls, that is. We have unofficially adopted two more girls into our family. If you haven't already noticed Mai in some of our pictures, allow me to introduce you! Mai (she goes by Diana at school) is our niece who has been living with us since June. She just turned 14 (on Thanksgiving Day, actually) and she has been a BIG help and addition to our family. She's great with the girls, and will most certainly make a good mommy one day. She's a positive role model for them- very responsible, a great student, loves to cook and read, obliges when we ask her to help clean, and most importantly, she loves the Lord. We've been waiting on either her mom or dad to come into town to help us finalize the paperwork so that we can become her official guardians. Regardless of the official status, we are blessed to have her in our family.

Back in September Miller took Eliana and Addie out for a father-daughter date night. They went to see Veggie Tales "live" in concert and Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano. The girls were super excited and were thrilled to see their beloved characters up on stage singing and dancing. During the intermission, Miller and the girls went to the lobby area for a restroom break, and there was a table set up by World Vision where people could sign up to sponsor a child. Miller was getting ready to pass by the table, when Eliana asked, "Daddy, what are those people doing?" Miller briefly explained how people were signing up to help needy children and then was getting ready to go back to the concert and Eliana asked, "Daddy, why aren't we going over there?" (SO proud of this girl!) So Miller lead the girls over and asked them to find the name of a child who's birthday was close to Eliana's as possible. They handed Miller the information for Yordy, an 8-year-old girl in the Dominican Republic. Miller signed Eliana up to be a monthly sponsor for Yordy, and we've already received one letter from her. Eliana was excited to learn that she has 2 sisters (just like her) as well as 2 brothers, and loves to paint. I am very excited that Eliana took the initiative to sponsor Yordy, because it serves as a wonderful opportunity for us to teach Eliana to put others before herself, especially as we approach Christmas and the kids are bombarded by ads and images of toys on sale. I'm so proud of Eliana when I hear her make comments like, "Mommy I don't need two paint sets. Can I give one to Yordy?" or "I wonder if Yordy will like to have.... " I've been trying to teach both her and Addie what it means to be Christ-like, and Addie really impressed my the other day when she offered Eliana her Sleeping Beauty coloring page that she picked out from the dollar store. Poor thing handed it to her sister and then broke out in tears because she really wanted it for herself, but wanted to make Eliana happy. I explained to them that that's how it must have been for God when He sent His Son for us. It must have been heart breaking, but that's how much He loves us. That He would come and die for us. All these girls are so special to us, and we are thankful that the Lord has entrusted us with them for a short while.


Mai


Yordy

Baby Dedication Sunday

In October our church held a baby dedication service, and we decided to have Olivia dedicated. Eliana and Addie were both dedicated by our pastor at our Vietnamese fellowship, but he moved to Michigan, so it was a little sad that we weren't able to ask him to do Olivia's as well. First, let me explain what baby dedication is NOT. It is not infant baptism. As scripture teaches, only those by volition who've placed their trust in the finished work of Christ on the cross receive salvation. Baby dedication is not forgiveness of sins or assurance of salvation for the future. Rather, it is us as parents and our church family as a community dedicating our child to the hand and purpose of God and committing ourselves to bringing her up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We commit to instill in Olivia the importance of knowing, trusting, and serving Jesus, and to pray for her daily. We promise to teach our children the things of the Lord by example, and to provide them with spiritual sustenance. It is our hope and prayer that when Olivia is older, she will come to know Christ personally, and choose to give her life over to Him. "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6.

Beautiful Bugs

A few weeks ago our church held a fall festival. The girls decided to dress up as insects. Thankfully we already had a ladybug body from a couple of years ago, so I went to the dollar store and bought red wings and orange wings. I just painted on the black spots for Addie's wings, and tried to paint a monarch butterfly design on Eliana's wings. Then I found Olivia's wings on clearance a few hours before the festival (sometimes it pays to procrastinate!), and just stuck them all in black leotards and tights. Then we made little antennae headbands with pipe cleaners. Nothing fancy, but I think they looked adorable. :) Mai decided to be a cat, so she just borrowed some ears from the girls' dress-up trunk, and I drew on her whiskers and nose. She used one of Miller's black socks as a tail. Here they are, ready to go out and have fun!

The Pumpkin Patch

A couple of weeks ago we visited the pumpkin patch at a nearby church. We let the girls each pick out their own pumpkin, and they all chose little, tiny ones. We had planned to get a large one to carve as Larry or Bob like we've done in years past, but we decided to get one from the grocery store instead, because we figured it would be cheaper. Then when we went to get one at the store, they were all out! So, no pumpkin carving for us this year, but that's okay. We really don't observe "Halloween" in our family- we just celebrate Fall. So here are our little pumpkins at the patch...

Daddy's School Carnival

The last weekend in October, Miller's school held a carnival as a fund raiser. It was a really awesome carnival, as far as school carnivals go. They had the usual games, a bounce house, concessions, and the girls' favorites: a petting zoo and pony rides. The girls went into the petting zoo two times each, and spent a good 20-30 minutes in each time. They LOVED the bunnies, which I thought was funny because I figured they'd be more fascinated with the larger animals you don't see everyday, such as the llama. They also rode the ponies twice, and this was Addie's first time on a pony, so she was really excited. Eliana just couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the pony with its main and tail spray painted rainbow colors. She kept repeating, "I can't believe there's actually rainbow ponies like My Little Pony!" Of course, we eventually told her that we were pretty sure they painted the pony's hair, but she was still fascinated. Olivia was content to just watch the animals from the outside of the pen, and then opted for sitting in the grass and examining individual blades of grass. Silly girl. It was a really fun day for our family to spend time together, and the Lord blessed us with beautiful weather. Sunny skies, rainbow ponies, nachos, and snow cones... What more could you ask for?

Happy Birthday, Eliana!

Eliana turned 5 last Thursday, and we had a really nice birthday party for her on Sunday. We had to reschedule her party twice, so I was a little worried that we wouldn't have a very good turn out, but I'd say we had just the right amount of guests. Eliana chose a Hello Kitty theme for her party, and the original plan was to get her a kitten as her present. Well, Eliana and I were both impatient, and that's why we got Aurora this summer. Unfortunately, Eliana's allergic, so Aurora is still living in our backyard. Anyway, we had good friends come over to help Eliana celebrate her big day. She chose bowtie pasta with Alfredo sauce for dinner. I added zucchini and chicken, breadsticks, fresh fruit and veggies to her menu. Then, Eliana even designed her own cake. She drew the picture for me and asked if I could make a cake that looked just like it. She made sure to point out that she didn't have the right colors because all her favorite color crayons (pink, yellow, and lavender) were broken or missing. She was also adamant that no one should be eating Hello Kitty, so I added a fondant Hello Kitty to the top of the cake as a decoration.




Our friends and family were so generous with their gifts to Eliana. She got some great Hello Kitty accessories, a new piggy bank, walkie talkies, and her aunt even gave her a new bike! Needless to say, she was both thrilled and overwhelmed with all her new presents. What a special day for such a special young lady! Eliana means "God has answered my prayer" and each time we call her by name, it is a reminder to us how great and faithful our God is. She is such a blessing to our family. Happy birthday, my sweet, sweet girl!

Silly Superheros

These pictures are actually several months old, but I came across them recently when I was uploading pictures from our old camera. I had to post a couple pics of these goofballs pretending to be superheros.
Here's Super Eliana showing us her cape flapping in the wind.



And here they are using hangers as bows and arrows to "blast through walls," as they put it. I love that Super Addie's crime-fighting outfit is her underwear! They crack me up!

Our Furry Friends

Well, I thought I'd better post this now, because I don't know how much longer we'll have these guys. Now, I don't believe in luck at all, but for lack of a better term, we haven't had much luck with pets. We've gone through 4 dogs and 3 cats already, and our oldest kid is only 4! Just to clarify, when I say "gone through," I don't mean that any of them have died... just in case any of you are animal rights activists. ;) So two summers ago we tried our first dog, Polly. I picked her out from the animal shelter and felt so proud that I had saved an dog from an untimely death. Polly was a lab/beagle mix and STRONG. She knocked Addie over (who was very little at the time) and the girls were just terrified of her. She was originally a stray, and clearly not used to being confined to the indoors. She tried to dig through the carpet, chewed up tons of toys, and just wanted to be outside. So, we gave her to a family that lived on a farm so that she could have plenty of room to roam. Then came Chica, our little chihuahua. I was never very fond of chihuahuas to begin with, but some friends of ours gave her to us, and for the most part, she was a really good dog. The only problem we had with her is that she had a nervous bladder, and any time anyone reached down to pet her, she leaked. That didn't go over well with me since our house was on the market and I didn't have the time to steam clean our carpet on a daily basis. So we found a nice lady to take her in, and that was the end of pets for a while, because shortly after that I found out I was pregnant with Olivia. Then back in May, on the last day of school, Miller's principal got on the intercom and made an announcement that there was a family trying to find a home for a schnauzer. Miller called me and asked if I was interested and we found out more about him, then later visited the family. Tucker was a beautiful pure white schnauzer. Gorgeous. The family who was trying to rehome him said that he needed to be in a home that didn't have little boys because he wasn't getting along with their son. Okay, no little boys at our house, so we took him. I have to say Tucker was my favorite of all the dogs so far. He was extremely smart and obedient, hypoallergenic and didn't shed, and followed me around the house at my heels like a little shadow. The only problem was that he didn't like kids. We realized his owners were wrong- he didn't just not like little boys. He didn't like little girls, either. He snapped at Addie several times, and after he snapped at Olivia, I decided he needed to go. He is much happier (I'm sure) in a home with an elderly lady that absolutely fell in love with him and is spoiling him rotten. So now we have Moose. Moose isn't the brightest dog... or the prettiest, but he's very well-behaved. He never barks, doesn't run away when we open the front door, he doesn't jump on the furniture or the kids, doesn't lick, and doesn't shed. He is a Lhasa Apso, so he requires a lot of grooming, but other than that he's pretty low maintenance. I got really mad at him last week because he peed in the house, and I announced that I was giving him away, but I'm pretty sure Moose is here to stay. Everyone is pretty attached to him, even Miller, who was completely against the idea of getting another dog. Since he doesn't have accidents in the house regularly, I'm letting that one go..... but I've got my eye on you, Moose!

Now for the cats. Eliana has been asking for a kitten since she was 3 years old. Well, we finally told her that she could have one for her 5th birthday, which is coming up in a couple of weeks. When we realized we would be getting rid of Tucker (and didn't think we'd be getting any more dogs) I started looking for kittens of Craigslist. Even though it wasn't Eliana's birthday yet, I found a lady giving away some gorgeous blue-eyed kittens, and decided to get it right away. I brought the kitten home, and Eliana decided to name her Felicity. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that schnauzers have an extremely strong prey drive, and Tucker tried and tried to get that cat. For fear that my kids would witness their little kitty getting mauled, I promptly found Felicity a new home. Then we got Moose and knew he was such a laid back dog that we could have a cat, so we got another kitten. The girls named this all-white kitty, Lily. Lily was MEAN. she climbed up our pant legs, scratched, bit, and when we tried to approach her she arched her back, hissed, and even made a weird popping noise that I've never heard a cat make before in my life. Even Moose was afraid of her. Seriously. So we got rid of her, and now we have sweet little Aurora (named after Sleeping Beauty, of course). Unfortunately, we didn't keep either of the other two cats long enough for me to realize that at least 2 of my children are allergic to cats. Wonderful. For now, Aurora is an outdoor kitty, because Eliana is very attached to her and doesn't want us to give her away. I just feel sorry for her and think she should belong to a family that can actually let her indoors, or at least pet her. So here our some pictures of our beloved pets, Aurora and Moose.

Eliana Ballerina

This summer Eliana took a ballet class at our local rec center. She really liked it, so if we can find an affordable dance studio nearby, I'd love to enroll her. I'd also really like to sign her up for piano lessons since we finally have a piano again! (Thanks, Renee!). I hope I'm not going to become one of those parents who tries to live out their childhood vicariously through their kids by signing them up for tons of extracurricular activities in hopes that they'll one day be a star... Just kidding- Eliana actually really wants to take ballet lessons. (And I'll eventually convince her to take piano too... just saying!). Anyway, the ballet class was only one week long, but they even had a performance at the end of the week. It was super cute! The dance was entitled "Fun on the Farm" and Eliana even had a line to memorize. She was the "planter." Here is a picture of her during her lessons:

And here she is in her big debut as the planter!



Eliana, you're already a star in my book! It wouldn't hurt to give Star Search a call, though... ;)

Olivia's Big Birthday Bash

I can't believe it, but my little baby is ONE! This little girl is the sweetest baby you'll ever meet. She's so laid-back always content. Maybe it's experience, but it seems like she was the easiest baby I've had. She's always happy, loves trying to keep up with her sisters, and it a little chatter box. She already knows how to say 18 words! Olivia is also a typical youngest child- she is such a CLOWN! She loves to goof off and make all of us laugh with silly faces, noises, and dances. We've had a rough year health-wise with multiple ear infections, the flu, multiple cases of strep throat, and constant digestive issues. It seems that Olivia's gut can't tolerate dairy, soy, wheat, or eggs. Hopefully, as she matures, she'll grow out of her food allergies. For that reason, we're still nursing, but other than that, she's as easy as can be. Despite all the tummy trouble and sickness, she's such a cheerful, smiling baby.

We had a really awesome birthday party for her and were blessed by good friends coming to help us celebrate her big day. I found some cute owl-themed party supplies online, and decided to go with a "Look Whoo's Turning One!" theme. A very special THANKS to Adrea for contributing to the party with your crafty decorations and goody bags, even though you're hundreds of miles away!!!
Here's a few pictures of the birthday girl in her special party dress:



These are the adorable decorations that Adrea hand-made with love.


Check out these super cute goody bags!


I was really excited about making Olivia's cake. This was my first attempt at making a two-tiered cake. I even made the little fondant owl and number 1 on the top (also my first attempt at molding fondant). The bottom layer was vanilla with strawberries in the middle, and the top layer was chocolate with strawberries in the middle. Oh, and the whole think was made from SCRATCH! ;)




Little Miss Olivia had fun opening her presents... mostly because she wanted to eat the tissue paper! :)





We LOVE you so much, Olivia! You are such a precious blessing from the Lord.