Christmas has come and gone

As you can see, Transformers and Lego's were the big hit of Christmas. Jacob kept raving about how great Santa was because he gave him what he wanted. Spencer's response to every present he opened was "Ohh I always wanted one of these!!" Christmas was an amazing day - Khuong didn't have to go in to help out. That in itself is something to cheer about, but we were able to just hang out with eachother and play games. Santa brought Spiderman Operation so Khuong could show off his skills - please, he barely beat me :) To make it interesting Spiderman was having seizures on the operating table. For dinner we went to a Pho restaurant and had some grubbin Vietnamese food. Jacob and I were a little bummed that they didn't have tofu, but we got over it. I think that will be a new Phui family tradition. I have to write that Khuong gave me a gift. You may say - so - but we don't do gifts for eachother. It was so much fun to get a body pillow from Khuong. He had heard me - 6 months ago say that I loved those big pillows his sister had. He said I made him suffer because he had to walk to all these different stores and he was really sore from soccer, but I am worth it. Horray for husbands!! I LOVE YOU KHUONG!!!

This photo is dedicated to thoughtful friends who let us come down the Saturday before Christmas to enjoy a traditional Christmas dinner. It was sooo good. Khuong had a lot of fun because he got to go play soccer with Joseph and I loved that they took all the boys. Khuong was limping in church the next day because he was so sore -aka old and out of shape. This picture is of Cameron opening his present - he was so excited to get a little box of Lego's. This is where Spencer learned the phrase "I always wanted this" it was so cute. It was nice to visit with Michelle and to just relax with friends.

This is what our backyard looked like a few days after the ice storm - it was so BEAUTIFUL - the ice would sparkle making it remind me of Christmas lights.

Kate's blog on 25 reason's to love Christmas got me thinking - especially the one about traditions. We don't really have any. This year I tried to start some - mostly stolen from Kate's blog. I loved the idea of new pajamas to wear - thus the new pajamas the boys were sporting. I also think we will seriously eat Chinese food on Christmas day. If Khuong doesn't really LOVE the traditional Christmas dinner we should just eat food he loves on Christmas day. I also was very aware that we had only six ornaments for our tree this year - my mom gave us some a couple years back. I think we will get a new ornament every year - even if someone gives it to us. This ornament was given to Khuong by our neighbor. I think it is a perfect addition to our empty tree!:) Maybe if I write down our traditions I won't forget them?! We had a wonderful Christmas made possible by family and CRAZY AMAZING friends. We love you all..

Church is CANCELLED!!

This picture was actually the one I wanted to put on the card - I mean that is so Spencer.


Seriously - have you ever heard those words - EVER!! Well last Sunday we got a call around 7 to let us know church was cancelled. We had gotten some ice over night and so you have it - for the first time in my life, church was cancelled. I just had to tell everyone because it is CRAZY!! Most of you have gotten our card by now, and these are some pictures that were taken - and with good reason not picked. My children do not really like to be photographed - Spencer usually thinks that picture time is wrestle time. He can't keep his hands off of Jacob. That is why this years Christmas card picture was not so hot!! I hope you all have and excellent Christmas.

Our Cracker Houses

Can you see these awesome houses we made - that is right. I have been bragging about them to Julie all week but they really aren't that fabulous. Mine of course is the best one - duh.. I as always was thinking ahead because mine can pull double duty - it can be stored and brought out for a cindo de mayo celebration. Khuong was on call so the competition was not too steep.

Spencer tasting his work
&
Jacob hard at work



Now this picture I am sure incites jealousy. You may be saying "where can I get one of these?" sorry but I don't think you can even find one on ebay. This is April O'neal from TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles). Last Christmas I bought a bunch of used TMNT toys for the boys. I got them for an EXCELLENT deal from a friend and I never really went through them all. Anyways this little lady was part of the deal. When my mom was visiting over Thanksgiving she found her and was appalled. Her shirt had been rubbed off in inappropriate spots (natural wear and tear). She also is not dressed very modestly. My mom went in search of a purple marker to make it all better. The only flaw was she used a non permanent marker so it can easily be rubbed off. This poor unsuspecting toy now lays in the trash. I think my mom is AMAZING and CRAZY at the same time - and that is why we love her!!



We had our first ice storm - it was kind of scary and beautiful at the same time. It did not end up being as bad as they thought it was going to be - so I could enjoy the rarity of it without fear. It was crazy - some of the branches on our neighbors trees fell off, so I went out to inspect them. In the middle it was as any living tree would be, but the outside was coated in ice making it so fragile and inflexible. The next day was cold but the sun was out. I got to experience something that was so mesmerizing. I am not very good with describing how incredible it was - but imagine a MAJESTIC evergreen, tall and full - as the sun melted the ice it was as if the tree was weeping. It seemed like all the ice had melted at once creating this instantaneous shower. I had to stop to watch it. It is times like these that I am overwhelmed with the beauty of the earth.

Wei-Wei

Well it is snowing again and my kids love it. It currently feels like 19 degrees outside. The kicker is the two are outside having a blast. I can currently see Jacob doing a dance on top of the play structure while Pence is sliding down the slide head first.:) Oh to be young again.

Now lets talk about what I really want to. That is right Wei-Wei (way-way) that is how I would spell it if I really had a kid with that name. I must go farther back in time for you to be able to get the whole picture. Jacob is baby CRAZY - he really wants more kids. He likes to tell me this every once in a while, and he likes to tell other people this. He once told my friend "my mom looks pregnant but she isn't -when is she going to get pregnant?" You cannot be a hater because it is probably true. Then he told a lady at church that his mother thought her baby was adorable and that he really wanted more brothers and sisters. He might take another angle like "mom, it is so boring with just two kids" -he really has it down to a science. :)

To really make sure I understand his pain, and for him to cope with it he has created a new brother for himself. This is Wei-Wei, the blue piggy bank he got from Jackie many years ago. Now he says things like "I have 2 brothers now and you have 3boys", or "Wei-Wei is hungry" (how convenient that Wei-Wei eats money). I must give props to the boy who could not wait for his mom to get pregnant - so he just created his own sibling. Wei-Wei accompanies us once in a while at the dinner table. He has come on a drive with us and Jacob was sure to buckle him in. All in all it isn't such a bad deal - he is cute and no maintenance.

Pence - you the man

4 years ago today I busted capillaries in my neck and eyes - doing what you say? Pushing out an 8lb 14oz baby cow, oh I mean boy. I have since forgiven him for his big head. Highlights of him as a baby are he was really quiet and not really aggressive (his cousin used to beat him up all the time). He slept well, and of course ate well (he is a guzman :)). To be honest I tend to block out baby things - but I do remember he was very cute and still is.
Today Spencer is so beautiful (that's right I said it - I call my boys beautiful all the time) and little - he just turned 4 and can now wear 3T pants. The neighborhood kids treat him like a baby. The girls carry him around and if he does something wrong they say "he is just little"... nice. He has a serious potty mouth which he really enjoys having. He likes to say things like butt, fart, stinky, poop etc.. In my presence he tries to control himself - so to get around the "mean mom" he says things like he would say a bad word. For instance - "you are a door" or "you are a wall" - making any word he wants into a bad word just with tone (I really can't explain it). He is very stubborn and can have some serious tantrums - both qualities which can be traced back to his parents. I am stubborn and had awesome monster tantrums when I was little, and Khuong is more stubborn than I am and had tantrums. Poor us for having kids like us. I have to write the truth because this is my journal writing. In a stubborn/tantrum episode he might say something like "I want cheerios" - but we are out - so I tell him we don't have any. response - "I want cheerios!" - we still don't have any. response "I WANT CHEERIOS!!" so on and so forth. It usually ends after he has thrown himself on the floor, and he just kind of works it out.
Now for the good stuff - did i tell you that he is precious. He is really attached to me and not really anyone else. Good for me, bad for anyone else. He gives spontaneous hugs and lots of them. If I get him when he is in the kissing mood he will give me tons and tons of kisses(he has the cutest lips). We will even play kissing games where we try to kiss each others noses, but you have to try and avoid the kiss. He puts his little hands on my face to seize the nose. He loves to sit on my lap or just to be with me. He won't even let me take a shower unless he can sit in the bathroom on the stool while I shower (that will soon probably have to be cut off). He says cute things - the other day I was caulking the baseboard in the bathroom and as he watched me he said "what are you doing with that frosting mom?" He loves CANDY - maybe too much!! He likes to jump off everything. When he was 18 months we were at a park - to make a long story short he jumped off a play structure that was probably 8 feet in the air (I was under him telling him to back up). When he did jump I barely caught him by his leg and neck - the other moms almost had a heart attack. Needless to say I got Jacob and we went home. I am not really good at this but Pence rocks and he really is amazing - I am blessed to have him and Jacob in my life. Today he is the MAN!!

We miss grandma

I wonder what Jacob is thinking?

Well I guess Thanksgiving is over. It went by to fast - my mom was visiting from Cali and we had a ton of fun. Doing what you say? I don't know..:) It snowed the day before she got here - Jacob was so excited - he was literally jumping up and down. Seeing it through the window wasn't enough, he had to go outside to see it. He called grandma to let her know and then made her a card telling her. Excited much?

Grandma coming back with Pence after taking Jacob to the bus stop

Having fun with my mom is easy - it could be as easy as talking - A LOT.. The boys would ask when we were going to be done talking (we would sneak onto my bed and talk). Spencer would come and find us to let us know we were "talking for a long time". We rented movies of course. We watched Transformers (my 3rd time and I still love it - I am in love with Optimus Prime - weird I know). We watched Wild Hogs, TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles - my 2ND time and I love it too), and Nicholas Nickleby (it was good and sad - Dickens). We put up the fake awesome tree -it was all free except for 1 strand of lights I bought (I am cheap - I am not saying it looks amazing, but beautiful to me). We went shopping a little, decorated cookies, played games, etc.. Moms are awesome!!! Khuong was on call Thanksgiving day, but he was home by 4pm and didn't get anymore calls, and he had Friday and Sunday off - excellent. As we were saying goodbye to mom we wanted to know when she would be returning, she couldn't say. She is probably tired, poor grandma - every morning in her bed were 2 extra little people.

This is why my mom loved to lay in my bed and talk. When you are laying in my bed this is your view. We have a window seat under it where Khuong likes to lay down and study, aka sleep.:)

Tag your it

I was tagged so I am suppose to admit to 7 things about me. Kam tagged me - this will be interesting because 7 seems like a lot of things to think of. Lets get this party started - FYI this will not be as good as Kam's party.

#1 - I am a HUGE TOMBOY!! Sad but very true. If you know me you know it is true. Here are some facts about me that support that theory.
a - I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE TOOLS!! That is right - especially power tools. Good thing we don't have any money - I just borrow my neighbors. Brian (our neighbor) teases Khuong that I will be calling him every week when Khuong is done on advice for what tool I should buy next :)
b - my dream car is a TRUCK - that's right - my favorites are the Tundra,
F-150, or the Lincoln Mark LT(a truck with some bling). I am trying to convince Khuong that he should drive a truck (in like 10 years), but he is resisting.
c - I love projects - when your husband comes home from work - and where there used to be a door there is now a framed, drywalled, and puttied wall - you know something is wrong with you(in my defense, the door was ridiculous and unnecessary). Khuong just laughs - he seriously thinks I am crazy.
d - I love to mow the lawn because it is a riding mower - it is addicting. I start in my lawn but I have mowed both my neighbors lawns because I didn't want to get off. I have asked Khuong if he wanted to mow the lawn, and he said "no" - his loss. The song should be "he thinks my tractors sexy".. I posted this picture of me to show that I can be a serious girl - I am sure that dress is pink, and my hair is curled. That was before I controlled my own destiny (feel bad for my mom).


#2 - I WILL try almost anything that is physical. I usually am the one encouraging it. I am getting really old now so I at least think twice wondering about how I will take care of the kids if I break something. I remember the first time I jumped off a curb with my skateboard or jumped off a ski jump - both of which I landed on my back - knocking the wind out of me. I remember riding on top of a car. Then there is the infamous story of when I was six and I broke my leg. I had a cast up to my hip pretty much, but I wanted to ride that big wheel down the street. We had a plan - I got up the street on my crutches and then my brothers helped me with the big wheel. I only got decent speed going down the hill because the pedal kept hitting my cast - then it happened. My mom came out - she wanted to kill me. (I had broken my leg riding a bike she told me not to) MOMS KNOW BEST!! My brothers and I still laugh about stuff like that.








Now that I have kids I enjoy safe activities with my family. This last summer we had lots of fun in our neighbors driveway. She thought I was crazy because I was out there trying it all. I was either riding the neighbors bike, razor scooter, pogo stick (i suck but khuong is pretty good), jumping rope or making a whirlpool in their pool.(opps don't forget sitting and gabbing) Here we are in Costa Rica (2006) zipping. The kids loved it and so did we.

#3 - I HATE to workout. Very sad, but again very true. There are those people who love sweets, but love to workout. Then there are those that don't like sweets and don't like to workout (khuong). It all works out for a good physic. I on the other hand LOVE sweets and HATE to workout. I do it but only to try and live a little longer and be here for my kids. Kam I can't say I like kickboxing that much - it does make me sweat, but I look DUMB doing it. I currently try and do a spinning class twice a week, but as he says 20 second push, I think WHY?!! Tangible proof that I don't like working out is that my favorite song of every class I have done more that once is the LAST ONE - my psyche must be telling me something.

#4 - I am crazy about movies!! I like pretty much all movies, and I am not critical at all. Bring it on - Dumb and dumber, Transformers, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Up at the villa - but please no girly cartoons. Recently I have found that I prefer the home theatre experience to the movie theatre. Mind you we do have a 1980something 52" screen, and some bought out of the back of a car surround sound, it is seriously GHETTO FABULOUS!!

#5 - I HATE ENGLISH!! Not the language necessarily.. i just hate punctuation, run on sentences, grammar, sentence structure, so on and so forth.. i also don't like to capitalize or really make any sense... i dislike it because i am not good at it (vain much)..i took ap english in high school so i could avoid an english class in college.. i am more of a math/science person

#6 - I have no sense of style or taste. I don't want your pity, I have come to terms with this. That is why I ask other people for decorating advice, and why I dress like I do. For all those who lived in Ecuador with me, remember "the uniform" it was AWESOME!! Simpler days.. When my mom asked me what colors I wanted for my wedding I said "all of them" - I really think I made her crazy.

#7 - I don't give a hoot!! I have this shirt that I wore to a pajama party here(PA). I had only lived here for about 7 months but everyone thought it was "me". It had an owl on it with the words "I don't give a hoot" written on it. I must give off this, I don't give a crap vibe because this is not the first time people have thought that of me. I began to think - do I need to change this - is this bad?? Nope - it is good for me. Plus I care about some things, I just don't remember what.

I am suppose to tag someone, but everyone I know has been tagged. I hear there are some gamers out there who would like to play again - you go girl!! I tag you..

Being cheap etc..

We have all been there - livin on a tight budget. I have decided that it really makes you do CRAZY things. Here is the provider of my family up in a tree we are trimming. You ask why it wasn't me up there - obviously I am the rational choice since I can stand to break something. (I am confident that Pence and Jacob would be awesome nurses) The reason I wasn't up there is... hmmm... it would really mess up my hair?! The lumberjack in the lower corner is my neighbor - he convinces us we can do it, then he helps.




These pictures are from Jacobs school skating party. He did quite well for his first time. If you must know the truth we totally ditched him for a while to go out and be back in Cali when we were 17. Khuong, Seng (an old "friend"), Spencer (brother), and I used to go out at night rollerblading. We did some insane things, I am surprised we didn't hurt ourselves. Khuong did break his collarbone like a month before the MTC being crazy on blades - that should tell you I am the better skater (or the bigger chicken - you decide) :) Don't feel bad for Jacob we ditched him but left him with fries - he was tired of falling anyways.

Interesting part of the night was the squirrel that felt left out. He too wanted to skate - so he ran in from the cold to dance to the beat of "solider boy", too bad he got a little freaked with all the screaming. He tried to rest under some arcade games, but in the end the beat got to him again and he came out to dance on the floor. He danced right by Jacob and I (between another moms skates), until the ref with the big dice, used the dice to push him out the emergency exit. Oh the excitement.

The last bit of fun of the night was the race. 13 years old and up, including moms, I could not resist. PATHETIC - really I could have lapped everyone (OK there were only 3 in the race). I couldn't bring myself to beat them - although the "free slurpee prize" made me think twice. Khuong agreed with my polite gaming, but my neighbor was disappointed that I didn't crush them. Maybe next time!! I really had to much fun - and let me tell you skating is definitely a cardio activity.

BAD DAY!!

We've all had them. I think sometimes my life is really brought back into perspective. I sometimes have bad days - some reasons for such an event might be:

1 - going to the gym :) jk but I might suffer at the gym more than I wanted to
2 - my children might whine or fight a little to much, you know the whole he touched me thing
3 - just cause

Sometimes I get a little stressed out with things like plumbing problems, or I think about school debt, or I think about work that needs to be done on the house, etc.. Mostly I just have to decide what's for dinner; besides the rice part :).

This whole last month Khuong has been at Hershey Medical (a different hospital than normal) doing SICU (surgery ICU). It was a fairly nice month. Today he went back to CGOH (normal hospital) and what a welcome he had. He forgot his pager and didn't realize he forgot it until like 3 pm (he was in surgery all day before that). I guess a surgery consult came into the er and khuong was paged a couple of times. He did not respond so the er doctor called the head honcho - I mean the head over all of general surgery (for khuong there is not a bigger man). He was called while he was in the operating room performing surgery. He got SUPER TICKED to put it mildly. Khuong said he heard he threw an instrument in the OR - so he called the chief resident and chewed him out. The chief then conducted a search and destroy mission aimed at khuong of course. Anyways, WELCOME BACK KHUONG!! I told him he should have been a dentist - he is starting to agree with me.. His bad days always make mine look amazing!! I don't know how he does it - but I am confident that he will be one of the nicest surgeons ever. I am so blessed to be able to stay home and pretty much do what I want. All because Khuong works like a dog on crack. Khuong you are my HERO!! We all love you!!

FYI - one good thing that came out of this was I got to take Khuong his pager. My neighbor had the kids so we had dinner at the hospital together. That makes for an excellent meal. During our conversation Khuong said - "I don't know what I would do without you Lauren" then he laughed and said "I would probably be drinking" isn't that the sweetest thing you ever heard.. hahaha Got to love that man..

Primary Program

Sunday was our primary program. I had two videos of what should have happened but I am not smarter than the blog and they won't load and show. What makes my life exciting, I guess, is that the boys did not perform even though they had their parts memorized weeks in advance. Jacob had his teacher help him with his part and it was as if he was licking the mic- you really couldn't understand anything he said. Spencer got up there - shook his head no and walked down. It of course did not end there. I could see Spencer sitting up there leaning on the railing/pulpit. He was pushing away and saying very adamantly, "STOP IT" to the little girl next to him, whose arm was obviously in his space. His face was in between the look of anger and disgust - it really was quite funny. I don't think he sang one song. Jacob was occasionally singing with most of the time being dedicated to the removing of his ring, silly face making, and a little swaying and dancing to the music. Next year I expect to receive a letter saying - "I regret to inform you, but your children will not be needed in the program this year" .. They should just be thought of as comic relief. At least 5 people sought me out to tell me that my boys were hilarious. The bishops wife said "my son and I got quite a few laughs out of your boys - and I don't think it will be forever that your son pushes girls away like that" I must admit when Spencer got up there and looked at everyone straight faced shaking his head no I too could not help laughing. I love those boys and look forward to their next performance. Opps I almost forgot they were so cute!!

clubhouse

When my mom was here in September she made a clubhouse for Jacob and Spencer. They constructed it with the boxes from the bathroom remodel. They have loved it, as have the neighborhood kids. They all painted it together. It was a lot of fun.

Home Ownership

Power Ranger underwear___________________$5.00
Toilet __________________________________$150.00
Plumber _________________________________$400.00
Doing it yourself _______________________Priceless

Everyone knows that buying a home is a great responsibility - kind of like having a super power. You can no longer call someone to fix it unless you are going to pay them a LOT of money.
The other day Spencer pooped his pants - delicious.. and I made him clean out his underwear in the toilet. This is a very slow and painful process because he does not want to touch the poop, so he holds it in his two fingers swirling it around the toilet (not making a dent in the mess). During the process I am continually coaching him on how to do it and trying not to allow him to pull the soaking and disgusting underwear out of the toilet. It will drip on the floor if he does.. GROSSSS (which of course happens more than once). I am finally satisfied with his effort and am ready to go in there and finish the job. At this point, in anticipation of the lovely job ahead of me - I forget where I am and I flush the toilet - underwear and all. I think to myself - nice.. I am wondering what the heck I am going to do to get them back, and quickly realize that that is not an option.. But amazingly the toilet does not clog and i think that is a good sign. I also think that this (can flush a bucket of golf balls in one flush) toilet was a good choice when we replaced our toilet a month ago. I forget the incident and go on fixing Pence.

5 days later the night before Khuong is leaving for Cali he goes in the basement and wonders why there is water everywhere.. ooopps!!! did I forget to tell him i accidentally flushed underwear down the toilet some days ago. I was wondering if it would come back to haunt me.. IT HAD!! Well I knew we probably had to call a plumber in to find the power ranger underwear, and it would probably cost $300-400. I told khuong that there were two clean out things in our house - one in the garage and one in the driveway(I paid attention the last time the plumber was out - not my fault!).. I told him to open up the one in the garage, I went to get a flashlight and in my head told Heavenly Father that it would be really cool if the underwear were right there when we opened it up.. Lo and behold it was and Khuong attached a screw to the end of a long skinny stick and fished the Power Ranger underwear out.. I of course washed them and all is well.. Really gross!!! Of course I threw them in the trash - which is what I should have done in the first place, but really he wouldn't have any underwear if I did it every time he had an accident. This experience demonstrates how home ownership can be a perilous job, but none the less can bring a family closer. We all worked together and felt great excitement and accomplishment when the underwear finally came out.. Spencer still talks about it:)

Everybody loves KUNG-FU fighting

Jacob and Spencer love to fight with daddy - I mean LOVE!! The minute he is home they are pouncing on him. Even in public if we see him they attack - I told them to stop the other day and Khuong said "no, I love it".. Daddy must love fighting too. Next time I will do a video of them fighting in my room, because Khuong loves to throw them on our bed.

We had an excellent weekend - we went apple picking, and then the neighbors came over to help paint the club house downstairs. It was a little CRAZY!! Seven kids wielding paint brushes and paint can be scary. My mom made the cool club house with the boys while she was here. She used the huge cardboard boxes that the tub and walls came in. I also put up some Christmas lights above the club house. I will post pictures in a while.

Comments by kids

Tonight when Jacob found out daddy would not be home before he went to bed he whined "again".. He then went on a 10 minute monologue on how I am lucky because I ALWAYS get to see daddy and he doesn't. It isn't fair - I am keeping him from seeing his dad. He never gets to see daddy, etc.. I finally promised him that I would make Khuong wake him up when he got home - he was somewhat pacified.

The other day we were leaving the grocery store when Jacob said, "which is Heavenly Father's favorite animal?"

I of course said "I don't know - I don't think he has one."

Jacob - "Oh I think he does - it is the praying mantis."

me - "Why do you think that?"

Jacob - "because his hands are always praying - he is the praying mantis."

I thought that was super cute.

Spencer is so different - he just says things like "I will stuff you in a turkey sandwich." I am constantly amazed at their different ways of thinking, personality, and expressing themselves.. They both can make me laugh - but in different ways.

Well the videos are out of order - and you can hear me telling them to hurry - I always make my videos too long.

The many faces of who?

I often wonder to myself - who is this kid. Anyways here are some funny faces of the two funny boys in my life. Jacob loves to make faces and he really thinks he is hilarious - he is constantly cracking himself up. Spencer is himself and kind of a ham. I am always fascinated at how much they love to see themselves. (we were trying to take pictures for a quilt but we are going another way - but why waste all their hard work)

Thank goodness for brothers and mothers

Super Bomber Man
Like father like sons :) Jacob and Spencer wanted to play super bomber man too.. It was so cute to see them try and be like daddy and uncle.

Sound a little corny.. well it is.. Anyways I am the laziest blogger but about two weeks ago my brother, Spencer and my mom came to visit. It was of course a visit full of relaxation and fun - NOT!! Khuong took the time off and Pence and Khuong remodeled the bathroom.. It is soo crazy how different it looks now.. The pictures are not totally ready because I need to fix a leak in the vanity. (I am hoping to tackle it this weekend or sooner) I have puttied up most of the holes that needed to be done and all the walls are painted. There is going to be a laundry shoot (I am soo excited) Khuong made the hole, but we still have to do the cabinetry, etc.. It really is going to be awesome - we just still have a lot to do.. A week was not enough time to finish it all.. It was a little or a lot CRAZY!!! But it must be said Khuong had a fabulous week.. He loved every minute of it and was soo sad to go back to life as a resident. He called me three times the day back to say he missed us and that he wanted to be home. He misses my family, but work has kept him extremely busy, and the next 2 months are going to be a marathon for him. We will miss him. Part of Khuong's elation with the week you can see in pictures. No matter what time it was at night when they stopped working (Pence and Khuong) they were sure to play a little or a lot the game supper bomber man, and to watch a kung-fu movie. They were up till 4 or 5am on several occasions.. :) They only missed one night for watching a movie and bomber man was a nightly routine. I on the other hand hit the sac pretty early - I was tired and I didn't do that much. My work is all the finishing and pain in the rear stuff.. Grandma was Martha Stewart while here - cooking and baking goodies.. Spencer's next trip will have to be just for fun, because the boys complained that they didn't get to play with uncle Spencer, daddy, or grandma enough.. Grandma comes back for Thanksgiving and we can't wait..

Jacob and I cried as we left the airport and Spencer was mad because he didn't feel that he gave Uncle Spencer a good enough goodbye. Baby Spencer is always sad he isn't getting on a plane when we go to an airport. The week since they left has been a blur. I haven't been feeling well and the house has needed major putting back together. My porch is finally clean after a dump run and trash day. I am sure my neighbors are glad the mess is gone.

Jacob has been enjoying school and maybe not feeling to well - for the last 3 nights he has told me "I am tired".. He NEVER says that!! We continue to enjoy the nice cool weather - and the kids are outside everyday for almost all of the day. It is fabulous having a family of one kid next door and 5 kids next door to that. Sometimes the boy from down the street comes to visit and that makes 9 in total. It makes for quite a party everyday outside. We have to say thanks to Brian and JoAnn next door who have the best driveway and are the middle house, creating an excellent gathering ground (even if they aren't home:)) All of our backyards run together creating at least and acre and a half for them to run about.

ZOO

Jacob

Becca, Spencer, and David

After the zoo it was off to Burger King. Here we have the Phui and Smalley clan in the on site Batmobile. Becca, Jacob, Spencer, David, and Sarah. This was one of the families we went down with - they are DC pros.

This was actually really funny. I wanted to read everything on the walls about pandas - but you can imagine with the kids you really can't read anything. I did manage to read that pandas can look pregnant while not actually being pregnant. If that is an accomplishment - I can do it too!!

Well we went to the temple on Saturday and after took the kids to the DC Zoo, that is 15 minutes away. It was really an enjoyable trip - we went with friends and took turns watching the kids outside of the temple. Khuong and I got the best deal - we didn't have to watch the kids at all - nice... The zoo was fun and my favorite part was the tigers and of course the PANDAS!! Awesome - I was so excited to see them. Jacob of course was fascinated and enthralled by the sssnakes!! Gross - I await the day that he tells me he wants a snake for a pet. I will have to be a mean mom for my own sanity :) . (he has some earthworms in a bottle - doesn't that count)

Jacob the biker

Well I finally decided to teach Jacob how to ride a two wheeler. I know he has been ready for a long time we just don't have a flat area for him to ride on and the street is too busy to practice on. Anyways after much awaited anticipation from Jacob we went to a friends to ride at their house. I held on for 2 seconds and let go - and I never held on again. I just explained that peddling was the key. He is quickly becoming a pro - he wanted to tell all the neighbors and to call the family in cali to let them know of his accomplishment.