Kung Fu Panda 2

Last night we watched Kung Fu Panda 2 with the girls.  Dave and I really enjoyed the movie and we think the girls did too.  They were a little scared of the villain but they still sat through the whole movie.  The scary moments in the movie were pretty short and broken up with a humorous comment or act by the funny panda, Po.  

Lilly was following the storyline of the movie and asking questions like "Why did the peacock think his mommy and daddy didn't love him?"or "Why is he doing that?" But we weren't sure how much Mia was understanding.  Then there was this one part of the movie where the mother panda has to leave and say good bye to her baby panda.  It's actually a very touching moment that got me a little emotional!  I could feel some tears in my eyes but when I looked over at Mia I totally lost it (broke out in full crying tears)!  Mia's eyes were glued to the movie as she watched the mommy leave her baby.  Mia's lower lip was out and then tears rolled down her face!  Oh, little sweetie, understood that this was a sad moment in the movie!  After that Mia kept asking what happened to the baby panda.  She asked, "Where'd baby Po go?"  We had to explain to her that baby Po is okay!  He's now big Po!  Just like Simba (from the Lion King) was baby Simba and then he grew up to become big Simba.  I think she understood that.

At the end of the movie Lilly said she thought the panda was funny and Mia said her favorite is baby Po.  Now Mia's found a panda stuffed animal and says his name is Po and Lilly has named her tiger stuffed animal Tigress.

Anyway, Dave and I laughed a lot throughout the movie and thought it had a good story.  We'd recommend it!

Memorable Birthday Dinner For Dave

Memorable Birthday Dinner For Dave, a photo by Cheng Family on Flickr.

Back on December 5th, we got a chance to celebrate Dave's 31st birthday. We had a special dinner at Seasons 52 in North Bethesda. It's always special for us to share delicious food together, but the night was extra special for me to tell Dave how much I love and appreciate him.

I was in the middle of doing this 30-Day challenge of encouraging your husband. I tried to do the challenge without telling Dave about it. I asked him if he'd noticed that I was trying to give him extra encouragement over the past 24 days and he said no! Haha! Then he said it's been pretty busy. It was a busy month for us, but I pointed out that I thought it had been a good month too. I noticed that as I was trying speak positively and give encouragement to Dave, he would say something encouraging back to me!  We also didn't get into any big fights/arguments that month and we weren't as snippy or short with each other.  I think overall the 30-day challenge was very good for our marriage. I've been wanting to improve on encouraging my husband and doing the 30-day challenge was a good way to get me started. I received daily emails with good questions to think through and ideas for how to encourage my husband. I found myself constantly looking for opportunities throughout the day for me to sneak in some encouragement in our conversations.

So in case I missed a day to encourage Dave, I planned to type out my words of encouragement for each day of the 30-day challenge. And at his birthday dinner I read them to him. We only got to day-3 because Dave said he was already feeling so overwhelmed with love and gratefulness. He asked if we could space it out a few days. :) So now I have many more days of the challenge to read to him.

I love my husband and I'm thankful he chose me as his wife. I see his strong desire to lead me and our family.  I see it in his words and actions. For the past month he's been waking up early in the morning to pray and read the Bible. Many times at breakfast or lunch Dave will tell me about his quiet time with the Lord. That blesses me in so many ways. When he wakes up early, it makes me want to get up early too, and it gets me talking and thinking about God and spiritual things.

Dave is also the best daddy to Lilly and Mia. He plays games with them like castle Legos. He'll help the girls make-believe that princesses have to fight off the bad guys or the evil dragon. Dave is teaching Lilly piano and makes breakfast for the girls pretty much every morning. Thank you for serving me in this way!

Dave, you're so special to me and the girls. We love you so much and hope you had a very blessed birthday!!! :D

side note: this is blog entry is posted by Lindsay, not Dave. :)

Rolling in the Leaves

Rolling in the Leaves a video by Cheng Family on Flickr.

The other day I raked leaves outside. The girls "helped" me too. Lilly and Mia had fun jumping and playing in the leaves, but then Lilly decided that she didn't want to play in the leaves anymore because they smelled. Haha Well Mia didn't have a problem that! She jumped and rolled in the leaves, and she threw the leaves up and rubbed them in her face. Mia had a great time in the leaves, to say the least! When I said it was time to go inside Mia said, "Leaves. Fun!"

Lilly and Mommy Date

Lilly and Mommy Date, a photo by Cheng Family on Flickr.

Lilly finally got a long overdue date out with mommy this afternoon. We went to paint a gift for daddy at the art studio and then shared a cupcake at the cupcakery across the street. It's actually called "Lilly Magilly's" - and it's a really cute store! We shared a pumpkin spice cupcake. Yum!

I so enjoyed spending this time with Lilly. She's such a special little girl and I love her so much. I easily get caught up in getting the every day tasks completed and don't get to spend as much quality time (giving my full attention) with Lilly as I would like.

Dave and I hope to make this a regular thing where Lilly and Mia get to go on separate dates with mommy and daddy.

DSW with Lilly and Mia

DSW with Lilly and Mia a video by Cheng Family on Flickr.

This video cracks me up! Back in September I took the girls to DSW. It's like going to the toy store but they don't expect to buy anything when we leave the store. And mommy's okay with not buying something every time too.

Both girls love trying on shoes. Lilly will always go for the tallest and flashy-est high heel shoes.

In the video there's dance music playing in the background, Lilly goes through a couple different pairs of shoes and shows off some pretty cool dance movies, and Mia struggles to put on and walk around in one pair of shoes! My favorite Lilly dance move happens around 00:34. What's your favorite move?

Homemade Hummus and Homemade Pita Bread

Homemade Hummus and Pita Bread, a photo by Cheng Family on Flickr.

Dave's made a couple batches of hummus and pita bread in the past two weeks. I've been eating a lot of hummus and too much pita bread. I love good bread!

Lilly and Mia's Acting Debut

This past weekend, we had a blast making this movie:

Where's Daddy? from Dave Cheng on Vimeo.

Both of the girls did such a good job following directions and saying their lines! I hope that this'll be the first of many movies to come out of the Cheng household!