True story. I am a banana.

My parents are Taiwanese and immigrated to the states in their twenties.  They worked at many restaurants where my dad trained to cook and my mom served as a waitress.  Eventually, they saved up enough to open a family owned and operated restaurant with my uncle, 3 aunts and my grandmother.  I can remember the long hours they worked, the tired looks, the sore muscles and the determination to work to create a better life for my sister (J) and I. 

J and I were both born and raised in Tennessee. They raised us as best as they could by traditional Chinese standards. One of the main things they focused on was respect. Respect for all people; young, old, rich, or poor.  Upon entering a room one should always "call" or acknowledge the elders. Always put studies first because that's what leads to success. "Use your brain so you don't have to use your muscles" 

They never complained, they never griped and most importantly, they never expected anything to be handed to them. My dad would always tell me when things got tough "you work hard when you're young so that you don't have to when you're old". That stuck with me.  

You're probably wondering "Why is she telling me this?"

A whole lotta randomness

So since this blog is supposed to chronicle our life I figured I should post some of the recent stories, happenings and saying that ive posted on facebook.

Tonight at dinner Anna got in a bit of trouble. Our little climber can't seem to sit on her bottom in her chair. So she got scolded and pouted for a while. When she finally got back to the table, she decided she still wasn't ready to sit down and contained to crawl under the table and around the chairs. After a while I noticed she had finally gotten quiet and still so I look down at her and she is diligently trying to stuff a piece of steak that Addison had dropped on the floor into our air conditioning grate. When I finally got the kid in a chair, I have her a string cheese and about halfway through it I could see that she was losing interest so I asked if she wanted strawberries.. She screamed YES!! And simultaneously chunked the piece of string cheese so hard that it actually hit the window.

2) my Facebook status today was "What's worse than having a two yea old tell you that she flushed her panties down the potty? ... Having. Two year old who can't count tell you HOW MANY undies she flushed down the potty. For the record Anna said she flushed two and I fished a pair out and she was holding a pair in her hands so I'm hoping those are the two she's referring to.

Did I mention she's a climber? She pushes stools and chairs to get hat she wants. Ie. cookies on the cake plate. See pic below.

Addison started singing a little jig the other night. "I always tell the truth and nothing but the truth, now you!" still have no idea where she picked it up.

Ok so that's the majority of the past. Couple of days. More to come. Aj is in Fourth grade now and is turning 9 on Saturday!!!

The Dentist..

When I was a child, I hated going to the dentist. The set up at my dentist's office was that of a big room with 5 cusioned table type seats lining each side. So you could see and talk to pretty much anyone else jn the room. In the back there was a private room; it was enclosed with a big glass window and door. So whenever you saw someone being assigned to "the room" you knew there was going to be a show. Most kids who were put in the room were screamers, squirmers and usually 4 or 5 hygienists would accompany the dentist in to hold the kid down. But even with the door shut, you could still hear the kids screaming. Today, on the 28th of May, Addison was scheduled to have her first cleaning. And while we love our pediatric dentist, I was anxious of how she would do. Out of our 3 girls, Addison has usually been the one to freak out in new situations. I just knew that she was going to be a screamer. We had been talking it up for a few days in hopes that she wouldn't be one of "those" kids and this morning she was so excited to go. What I had failed to do was to prepare Anna that she would NOT be getting her teeth cleaned. (I thought having one kid get her teeth cleaned for the first time was going to be a handful). So when I asked Addison in the car who was going to go first, her or AJ, Anna piped up "I go first!!". I explained that she wouldn't be getting her teeth cleaned and OH MY WORD. You would've thought that I had just scolded her. She hung her head down and those lips and cheeks puffed out and I seriously thought she was going to cry. When we got there the girls played in the playroom and when we were called back, Addison walked right up to the chair, climbed in and laid back. I was so proud. She was a champ! So after the hygienist and doctor checked her she hopped down and Anna hopped straight out of my lap and climbed into the chair and she tells Dr. Anglin "my turn!". We all cracked up. Appointment or not, she was going to get her teeth cleaned. The hygienist was so amused by her determinedness that she checked and brushed her teeth and gave her a new toothbrush and goody bag just like Addison had gotten. So Anna got her unofficial first dental cleaning too. :)

The drama:
Addison and Anna both suck their middle two fingers and Addison has a pronounced overbite. The dentist told us that we need to get her to quit soon so that it doesn't cause bone structure deformities. We had been trying to get her to stop for some time now but when she's tired those fingers go in her mouth. I bought some bitter nail polish to put on their fingers and man, it has been a trying day. Anna whined because she didn't like the taste and kept soaking her shorts with drool trying to spit the taste out of her mouth. Addison mainly sucks her fingers when she goes to bed. She puts two fingers in her mouth and uses her pinkie to tickle her upper lip. Its how she soothes herself to sleep. Needless to say she had the hardest time trying to take a nap. We laid in bed for almost 2 hours and she just cried. She kept saying "I want to suck my fingers" but she didn't dare put them in her mouth. It broke my heart to see her struggling like that. I eventually calmed her by playing some music with nature sounds and then teaching her to tickle her upper lip like she usually does when she has her fingers in her mouth but with the corner of a blanket. We gave up trying to nap when Ken got home and he suggested we try different method- distraction and a goal. So we told her if she went to bed tonight without crying and without sucking her fingers, we would get a big blow up pool and take her to the movies tomorrow. And I'm happy to announce that she did so good!!! She tickled her lips with the blanket and fell asleep not even ten minutes later! Woohoo! And while I realize that this is not the end of the war, I'm counting this little skirmish a VICTORY! So prayers for an easier transition for her would be really appreciated! We're going to need it. :)

If you spill a bag of pretzels

If you spill a bag of pretzels,
Mommy will clean it up.
After mommy cleans it up, she will get the vacuum out to clean up the crumbs.
While she's vacuuming up the crumbs.. She starts cleaning out the pantry. After she finishes cleaning out the pantry she sits back and looks at the fridge. Then she thinks of all the food that needs to be cleaned out. She opens the door and starts cleaning all the shelves and drawers. When she's done cleaning the fridge, she looks over at the pile of dishes overflowing onto the counter top. She cleans off the counter top and looks at all the papers piled on top of the microwave. She clears off the top and accidentally pushes a bag of candy behind the microwave. She calls her husband to come hold the microwave while she retrieves the bows, mail, pictures and candy wrappers from behind the microwave. Daddy helps vacuum and takes the vacuum to clean out the crumbs under the stove. Mommy finishes cleaning the microwave and sits down on the floor. While she's sitting on the floor her eyes lock on the two overflowing junk drawers. She decides to clean it out. After she cleans it out, she does the dishes. And after the dishes she remembers dinner needs to be cooked. She looks around at her clean kitchen and decides its a take out kind of night. :)

Father's day or as we call it.. Daddy Day

Fathers play such an instrumental role in our lives. When we are children, their presence, attention, affection and attentiveness shape who we become as adults. I am fortunate enough to have known 3 great fathers in my life.

The first is my dad or baba as I call him. He was an amazing man. Smart, strong, loving and a hard worker. He was wonderful and I miss him so much every day. It's hard to believe its been three years already.

The second is my personal favorite. My amazing husband Ken. He is such a phenomenal daddy to our girls. Loving, attentive, caring, playful, ... I could go on and on. An active father figure is so important in a young girls' life. It shapes how they see themselves, men and the world. I think its because of this reason that God blessed us with three girls. Ken is the ideal man to raise girls to become strong, secure women. The way he talks, plays with and treats them is something to be admired. truly.

And last but certainly not least, my father in law, Mike. He is an amazing dad and pappy. It is because of him that my husband is such a great father. He had a wonderful role model to watch as he was growing up. We adore him.

So to baba, daddy, dad and all the other fathers out there... Thank you for everything that you do! We love you!!!
Happy Father's Day!

Ken and Annie's Tour de Europe

Click here to view this photo book larger

I just made our photo book chronicling our trip abroad! Feel free to take a look. It may take a while to load..

The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

Being serious.

Ok I'm seriously loving the faces this girl makes. It almost makes up for all the terrible twos behavior lately. :)

Stubbornness and Determination

Well as I said in the last post, Addison finally got the stomach bug this past week. And while I'm sure most of you can imagine what a stomach bug entails, I'm going to elaborate a little for you anyway. ( so if you're the weak stomached type. Skip this first paragraph now.) It was the middle of the night and Addison had been throwing up and of course screaming bloody murder in between bouts of getting sick. I knew by the look in her eyes when she was going to get sick again so I would grab the bucket and hold it in front of her. She would start crying and say "no I don't want to! I don't want to!" and would you believe it that girl held it down several times. And if it came up, she would force it back down or refuse to spit it out. ( I know, I know, GROSS!) but ken and I just looked at each other amazed at how stubborn she was. She had made up her mind that she did NOT like the throwing up one bit and was NOT going to do it anymore. Ha! Can you say strong willed child? Lol! I wonder where she gets that from ;)


Ok so this little tidbit I just thought was cute. Ken was in the kitchen fixing his lunch when Addison came in. "daddy, Anna take buggy upstairs..." (picture her saying that in an "I'm telling on ou" sing songy voice.) a few minutes later Ken hears Anna noisily coming down the stairs and repeating to herself in a soft determined voice "I got it. I got it. I got it.." he looks and Anna ( sweet, little, short, Anna) is carrying her plastic grocery cart down our stairs. She makes it to the bottom, drops the buggy and comes running in the kitchen pushing her buggy yelling "I did it!!!"

Here's a completely unrelated pic of Addison and Anna picking up balls at the tennis courts. Anna spent several minutes trying to get all the balls she found over the fence. :). She also had her first run in with fire ants that day and other than a whiny "mommy!!" she never cried even though they stung her several times on her hand and her foot.

The gift I wish would stop giving...

So Sunday was mothers day and we had a fabulous morning at church then we drove out to Ken's parents new house on the lake. Which by the way is AMAZING! Seriously those views are gorgeous. But I digress, we had a great lunch. My father in law made my favorite grilled pork chops, my mother in law made a delicious fried corn recipe which I'm sure packed on a couple of pounds and then of course we had birthday cupcakes to celebrate Anna's birthday the day before. ( I realize that's a really long sentence. Forgive me)
After lunch we were sitting around talking when Anna climbed up on me and "lost her lunch" on me. Twice. Happy mothers day! Its the stomach flu! The poor kiddo never cried and was so pitiful we ended up going home a little early to get her comfortable. After her nap in her crib, she was back to normal and ready for dinner. Well early Tuesday morning ken got sick, I got sick Tuesday night and Alexis got it Wednesday morning. Thank heavens for my wonderful mother in law who not only came over to take care of the babies but also ended up taking care of all of us sickos and cleaned up my mess of a house. She is awesome.

Thursday, everyone seemed to be better or at least on the mend; so I began disinfecting the house. Floors, doors, walls, remotes, you name it. I was determined to wash or scrub the stomach flu out of the house. And wouldn't you know it, just as we're getting the girls ready for bed Addison walks in the playroom and gets sick.... Great.. Poor thing is gonna have a rough night tonight.

Thank you stomach flu, you have given us enough. Please stop giving.

Test run

Some of you may have caught wind that Ken is doing (what has been named) the Fat Boy challenge. The challenge is to run a 6 minute mile by March 3rd. Since he's been training, he's been eating healthier which has rippled into all of us eating healthier.. Lots of fruits and veggies!!

So Ken and I have decided to take it a step further.. We are going on a juice fast!

What? Annie not EAT anything? No meats? No cokes? I know.. mind blowing.. I type this as I stuff my face with cheetos, and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Stop judging me!!

WHY??? You may ask, are you doing this? While I can't speak for Ken, I am going to do it for a couple of reasons. And while I don't want to sound cliche, its probably going to come out that way anyway so here goes. I am trying to be a better person, I'll keep the details to myself but let's just say eating and feeding my family heathier foods is on the docket. Enter the juice fast! And if I drop a pound or two in the process thats a bonus. :) The juice fast we'll be following is inspired by the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" if you haven't heard of it, you should Definitely watch it.

So this week, Ken and I will be starting our fast. Stay tuned for updates!

The lake!

So we went to the lake for an early birthday celebration for Ken. Ken's parent's are building their house on the lake on the most GORGEOUS property.  We had lunch and bday stuff and then went to see how the new house was progressing.  Ken and the girls tested out their new fishing poles. I unfortunately didn't get to test mine out. I was too busy being a nervous wreck clinging on to the girls waist bands in fear that they would fall trying to throw rocks into the water.

Clean carpets = shopping time?

When we bought this house, we had the carpets replaced. Since then, we've had 2 more kids which equals LOTS of juice stains. This week, Ken and I finally got fed up with our carpet and decided to have it cleaned. It looks AWESOME!     

do you notice what you don't see? Stains!!! Or toys. All of the mess has been temporarily relocated to the spare bedroom while the carpets dry.

So while we waited for the carpet to dry, we decided to get the girls out of the house and run some errands. We got AJ some new tennis shoes. 

I scored an awesome deal on a couple of super cute hand knit sweaters for the little ones.

And we got the girls new raincoats!  Click on the link to watch the video entitled RAINING! on the left side of the page. 

http://englandfamily.shutterfly.com/

midnight ramblings of a hungry insomniac

For the last couple months my head hasn't hit the pillow before 4am. So its a bit of an adjustment to make my body go "on Christmas Vacation". So here I am, chowing down on yummy Christmas ham, corn casserole and mac and cheese and updating you guys! The England home was VERY blessed this year. Santa (whom Addison does NOT like or care to see ever again)

brought the girls a pink wooden kitchen set with lots of food and pots and pans.  Alexis asked for a first aid kit and a bell from Santa's sleigh which she received. And Ken and I surprised her with an iPod touch. (I think that thing is permanently embedded in her hand). My mom got us a membership to the McWane Center which the girls are LOVING!

Addison and Anna are especially fun at this age. Addison is showing such a sweet and thoughtful personality. Here are a few funny/ sweet tidbits from the past couple of weeks.  Sorry for the repeat if you're one of my facebook friends and have already read these stories. :) You can skip on to the pics.

•   One night when I put the girls down for bed Anna was crying and Addison calmed her down. I stood outside the door and this is what I heard: 

                 Addison: "Anna, whats wrong? whats wrong?.. Stop crying. its ok. You want mommy? 
                 Anna: "uh Huhhh" 
                Addison: "its ok. stop crying. we get cereal in da morning okayyyy?" 
                Anna: "ok" :)

• I'm sitting on the couch playing on my laptop when Addison comes up to me:

                Addison: Anna got a booger mommy. I got it. (she brings me the base of a wooden toy tree the she apparently shoved up Anna's nose to get the booger.)
                Me: yup you got it didn't you? 
                Addison: Yeahhhh, Gwoss.

• Addison's favorite movie is Toy Story 3. We watch it AT LEAST 3 times a day.  So she was really excited to get her own Woody doll and Mr and Mrs. Potato head. Actually, the Mrs. Potato head is Anna's but Anna prefers wearing Mr. potato head's glasses.  If you've ever watched that movie, there's a scene where Ken is showing off all his clothing options to Barbie and the background music is that old song "Freak out". So Addison has picked up that phrase. " Mommy, I wanna watch Freak out" Yeahhhh, we're working on correcting that. haha!

• 
  

2 little monkeys jumping on the bed!

OMGoodness, I just realized that I never posted the blog on Addison and Anna's birthday party!  BAD MOMMY!

So here we go.

Since Addison and Anna's birthdays are 2 weeks apart, we decided to have a joint birthday party for their first and second birthday.  We call Anna "chunky monkey" so that was the theme for our party.  I tried my hand at applique and made their birthday shirts.  Anna was chunky monkey and Addison was silly monkey. We had their party at our house and created an outdoor playspace of sorts for the kids.  We had lots of family and wonderful friends to help us celebrate the big day.  Here are some pics of their special day.

I made monkey invitations, cupcakes, and decorations/ favors. The big monkey cake was a custom order from Publix. SO YUM! I was busy getting things set up that I forgot to take more pics of the decorations.  It was cute though! We made lots of tissue paper balls in turquoise and pink in different sizes.  And hung them from the tent. I also decorated freezer cups with each child's name and a monkey face customized to fit each child's personality (sassy monkey, silly monkey, etc.).  Take a look.

For more pics check out our picture sharesite. http://www.englandfamily.shutterfly.com/

If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!

CLAP! CLAP!

So much to update you guys on.  The England house has been a bit busy lately.  Ken has started his  doctorate program at the University of Alabama and he is going full force into it.  I have a feeling that we'll have to make some changes to our schedules and routines to accomodate all of the studying and writing that he's doing.  But I am SO proud of him.  He's a pretty amazing man to be able to handle a demanding job, demanding school schedule and being an active father and husband to our little family.

And the girls are all growing up so fast.  We moved Anna into Addison's room since they love spending time together and its worked out well so far.  I still have LOTS of decorating to do for their room but it frees up a room for my mom to stay in when she comes.  It's nice to have a guest room again. 

Anna is practically running and is still working on vocab.  She doesn't talk as much as the other girls did.  I guess she's just taking it all in.  She'll occasionally bust out with words here and there like "Aday sue" (AJ Shoe) and Doe (Door).  Her little personality is really coming out and its so cute.  She is sweet natured but definitely has a feisty side.  Her feistyness just comes across a little more sly than Addison and AJ's.   Her thing lately has been nodding her head.  When you ask her if she wants something she'll nod her head and go "mmm".  I can't get her to say yes for the life of me.

Addison is talking up a storm now and we have entered the "why" phase.  Me: Addison clean up
Addie: Clean up? why? Me: because its messy Addison: Oh messy? WHY?  hahah! You get the picture.  It goes on FOREVER. But she's such a good girl.  She's sweet to her sisters most of the time unless one of them took a toy she wanted or was even thinking about playing with.  We've got to seriously work on the sharing.  I'm working with her on her abcs, numbers, and colors and she's doing pretty well.  The key is to do the flashcards during her eating time.  Because then she's distracted and eats more and focuses on what we're talking about.   She's also done AWESOME with her potty training.  She's able to stay in panties when she's awake and tell me when she needs to go.  We still keep her in pullups at naptimes and at night though.   BUT YAYYY for Addison.  Hopefully not much longer and I'll be able to get her completely in panties and then it'll be Anna's turn to potty train.  I am SO ready to be done with diapers. UGH!

And AJ starts THIRD grade next monday! Can you believe it? She's grown up so quickly.  She just started her second year of cheering and she is so excited.  I'll be sure to post more pics when the games start. Go HOOVER! :)  I'm having to work with her on her attitude since she seems to have picked up a sassy pants attitude and I do not like it one bit.  I talked to a few other parents and they seem to confirm what I was thinking about her watching too many Disney shows.  If any of you have elementary school kids you probably know what I'm talking about.  Almost all the shows the grown ups seem to be the bumbling idiots and the preteens and teens all smart mouth back to them.  So I've cut out a lot of her tv time and am trying to keep her busy with activities and such. 

As for me.  Most of you know that I've started my own business.  And if you didn't.. I DID! It's very exciting and I'm loving it.  Still trying to figure some things out like work schedule, etc. But I think its going pretty well.  Make sure to check out my etsy shop, blog or facebook page!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/bahbooodesignstudio
http://bahbooo.com/
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Bahbooo-Design-Studio/206786469361043

And help me spread the word too! (For every 2 people you refer to me (that place an order) you get a free monogram!)- Shameless plug right there.

Anyway, I guess I'll leave you with this.  Have a happy week!

One, TWO, Four

Me: Hey Addison, How old are you?
Addison: Addison.

Me: No, I said how OLD are you?

Addison: One, Two ... Four.

So I guess this time next year she'll be four years old.. We'll work on numbers more later..

Today was Addison's SECOND birthday!

For those of you that know Addison, know that she gets cold VERY easily.  And when she's cold, she doesn't sleep.  SO, this morning Addison got up before 7am.  (She usually sleeps until 10:30)  Ken picked her up and we all went downstairs because AJ was itching to give her the birthday present she got her. 
 

Opening her present from her big sissy AJ!





"stashios!" (Pistachios are her favorite.)



She could finish that entire bag of pistachios in a day if I let her.  She loves them that much.  OR maybe she's just trying to keep Ken from eating them ;)  just kidding Ken.

snuggled up, eating pistachios, drinking juice and watching Pingu!
What could be better?



So last week we got in the new "One Step Up" catalogue and she's been carrying it around showing Ken and I the pictures and saying "want it" "get it" of the tricycle, sandbox, and any and all water toys...  So needless to say she liked her "big" present.

Addison's first tricycle

 

I got Wheels!!

  



Check me out! Zoom! Zoom!

"go AJ go!"

She rang that bell NONSTOP for ten minutes... at least. Her legs can't quite work the pedals yet but she likes to push it around or have AJ push her. 

For her special birthday dinner we had all her favorites:

see-weeal (cereal), pancakes, rice (my little chinese girl haha! No meal is complete with out rice), boiled shrimp, leftover chicken nuggets (from lunch). 

Then we waited around for Ken to get home from Tuscaloosa and we had CAKE!

Addison is quite obsessed with Pingu (a claymation penguin cartoon).  So I had this cake made at whole foods!

Then she got to open her last present of the day.

PINGU! PINGU!

Happy Birthday my funny girl.  You make my days brighter. Mommy loves you!