First Time Flower Girls

Congratulations Andrew and Ling!

The two little flower girls.

Ling and Andrew's Wedding Day, a photo by Cheng Family on Flickr. (Unfortunately we were so busy that day we forgot to take a nice family picture together! I wish I would have remembered because it's pretty rare that we're all dressed up so nicely.)

Lilly and Mia had the privilege of being flower girls for their Uncle Andrew and Auntie Ling. Lilly did a great job and walked down the isle holding the ring bearer's hand. Mia was supposed to walk down with them too but she decided to follow behind mommy and daddy instead. Dave and I were both in the wedding party and were the first to walk down the isle. Mia didn't walk down at the right time but it was still really cute! You can never predict how a 2 year old (or almost 2 at the time) will do in a wedding!

Ling and Andrew were married on July 23, 2011 and it was a beautiful wedding. We are so happy for them to be married, and we're equally happy to welcome Ling into our family!

Our New House

Our house, a photo by Cheng Family on Flickr.

(pictures were taken on different days... the front of the house was taken recently and the back of the house pic was taken the day we did house inspections. Our house is actually more of a yellow color rather than white. The backyard has been GREAT for playing in this summer! We turn on the sprinkler and set up the little pool for the kids to play in.)

God has so kindly provided us this beautiful house! It has blessed our family so much this past month since we've moved in. I pray we'll use it to bless others and bring glory to God!

Dave and I want a Bible verse or something on display in our house that reminds us that God has provided this home for us. We haven't picked a verse out or done anything yet. We're open to verse suggestions and ideas!

Buying A House

So we're buying a house! Well we've been actively looking to buy a house for the past 2-3 months. It seems like this journey has been up and down, down down, and then up and down and up again. It's an emotional roller coaster! Even with our changing emotions, God's been faithful to teach us and reveal himself to us during the process.

Here's a list of events from the last few months of our house search:

- We see a short sale house that we really like but aren't sure if we can afford it.

- Weeks go by but in the meantime we find out that we're pre-approved and can put an offer on the house.

- We view the house for a 2nd time and then find out that the day before the house got 3 good offers and they're in the process of ratifying one of the offers. We were too late.

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***Edited on 8/9/11

Sadly this post has been sitting here unpublished for so long! Well since I last wrote this in May, we've put an offer on a house, didn't get it, and then a few days later we discover that we DID get it! So at the end of June we closed on the house and are now moved in!

God is so kind to provide us this house just about a block away from my sister's. We're definitely enjoying the house and sometimes still can't believe it's our house!

I hate to do this, but I'll have write the story of how we got the house at a later time. I only have time to post some quick pictures. The story and more updates will have to come later!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom, Rachel, Yen Yen, and Po Po!

All of these women have been an influence in my life, and I'm so grateful for them.

I'm especially thinking of my grandma, Yen Yen. This is the first Mother's Day without her. She passed from this world on April 10, 2011, but she is now in the sweet presence of Jesus and worshiping God in heaven.

I think Yen Yen looked forward to Mother's Day. Every year the mothers would receive a gift during service, but then there was bonus gift that would be given to the mother with the most children. My grandma would always win because she had the most children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren out of all the ladies at church. She would stand proudly from the pew.

I love her and miss her very much. I have sudden moments when I think of her and can't believe she's gone. I won't see her on this earth but I definitely have hope to see her again. I have faith I will see her again in heaven.

1 Thessalonians 4:14-17

¹⁴ For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. ¹⁵ According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Mia Went On The Potty!

A proud moment this morning:

Mia went poo poo on the potty! What a big girl. :)

Disney World Vacation 2011

We consider this our first real family vacation. We flew to Florida, not for a wedding to visit other people, but to create our own schedule of things to do and see in Orlando. We had a blast! Dave and I keep saying it was the perfect family vacation. The girls had a great time and parents did too!

By God's grace Dave and I were relaxed and didn't get into major arguments over the trip. There were some high stress moments and surprisingly we laughed them off sometimes. Like when Mia cried/screamed almost the entire flight there and the flight back, or when we decided not to bring the stroller to Epcot at night and to carry two tired girls back to the resort. So really, thank you God for such an enjoyable trip!

We couldn't have asked for better weather that week. It was 65 degrees when we got there and got warmer as the week went on. It was 80 degrees two days out of the week. We were able to go to the pool at our resort and Lilly said that was one of her favorite parts of the trip. Both of the girls love water and love playing in the pool! I think Mia threw tantrums both times we had to leave the pool.

Food at Disney was really good! We thought we'd be eating pizza and burgers at every meal but we ended up having a much wider selection than that! Well we did have pizza for dinner one night (it was a really good deal). We decided to go all out and get the meal plan too. I'm glad we did because it was convenient, ate some fun snacks, and saved some money too. Now, if we stay off Disney site in the future we might not get the meal plan but since we stayed at Disney's Polynesian Resort it was good for us.

Some highlights from the vacation:

- Lilly met her favorite princess, Princess Aurora, 4 times that week. She seemed to be excited to see her all 4 times too!

- Lilly's favorite roller coaster was Goofy's Barnstormer.

- We met Aladdin and Jasmine at Magic Kingdom. Lilly showed them her Baby Tiger and told them about Mia's Mustache Bear.

- Mia did not like the animal characters and cried whenever one got too close to her. So lunch at Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom was not a very relaxing lunch for her. All of the characters from Winnie the Pooh visited our table and Mia cried every time!

- Lilly laughed throughout the entire show Turtle Talk With Crush at Epcot. I don't think she's seen the entire Finding Nemo movie but talking with Crush was still really entertaining.

- Pineapple Dole Whip soft serve is delicious! We had it at Magic Kingdom and then found out that our resort had a Dole Whip machine too!

- Dinner at Cinderella's Castle on our last night at Disney and for Lilly's 4th Birthday. It was so special to be in the castle and have the girls dress up in their princess dresses.

Each day was packed with fun-filled family time. I'm so glad we had the chance to go. It was such a blessing to be together, making memories, and vacationing in Disney for an entire week. On our flight home, Dave and I were already brainstorming when and where we could vacation next as a family.

I think I have over 400 pictures + videos uploaded to Flickr. Check them out and read the descriptions to read/see more of our vacation. Look in our Disney World Vacation 2011 set.

Here are a few favorite pics:

Lilly's 4

Sweet, silly, laughing, and often loud Lilly turned 4 on February 3rd. We were in Disney World, at Magic Kingdom the day of her birthday (update on Disney to come later). Lilly wore a birthday button and was wished 'Happy Birthday' by all the workers and characters around the park. She got very good at saying, "Thank you. I'm 4 now."

Lilly's always seemed a little older to us. So it's no huge surprise that she's 4 years old now. I guess she might seem older than her actual age to us because she's a firstborn and she's always been well above average for her height and weight (currently 41'' and 38 lbs.). Lilly also speaks clearly and is coordinated. We think she's athletic. Yeah, we're proud parents. :)

At 4 years old, Lilly loves to be with people. She likes when we have visitors and when we visit others. She likes to go to Sunday school, ballet class, and any other class we go to. Lilly has a great love for animals, especially cats/kitties. She prefers caring for her stuffed animals over baby dolls. Her favorite animals have been changing lately. Mama Tio isn't always first choice these days (a little sad for us to see). Lilly has some new lovies, like Baby Tiger, Mimi Tio, and Baby Simba (bought at Disney). Lilly is still into princesses and claims that she loves all the Disney Princesses (although when asked Aurora's still her favorite). She loves to color in coloring books and play dress up with her princess dolls. Often, when she's playing by herself, she'll break out in song. It'll either be a Disney song or a song from church. Lilly's currently in a dance class learning tap, ballet, and jazz, but I really think she's more of a "freestyle" dancer. :) That's more her personality!

Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with a healthy and joyful little girl. God, we pray you will save her soul and one day she will confess that Jesus is Lord of her life.

We love her, dearly. She's always been our sweetheart. Happy Birthday, Lilly!