Houston highlights

Trung and Lydia flew out early Sunday morning for home, while Sophie and I stayed behind for my good friend Tiff's wedding in Austin on Saturday. For the next few days, all we did was shop and eat; there really isn't much else to do in Houston.

Monday's lunch at Ruggles Green

My mom gave Sophie a much needed haircut

During dinner Tuesday night at Chuy's, Sophie wrote her first words "HI HOP", which I later realized was an attempt to write her name

Wednesday, Sophie and I took over Chinatown, eating all my favorite foods

We dropped by Jimmy's place bearing gifts for Marshmallow the hamster and Guinea Guy

Close encounters

Sophie can write her name!

Family feasts

Cora and I (joined by niece Jocelyn this year) hit the Houston Galleria for our annual Black Friday shopping spree. We actually didn't buy much and left earlier than usual, but still enjoyed the time away from the guys. After a quick lunch, my sister-in-laws and I spent some quality time together at the hair salon, beautifying ourselves for Mike and Minji's Houston wedding reception. We got our hair done and had fake eyelashes put in; we did our own make-up. Then off to Ocean Palace for dinner where my own Houston reception was held over six years ago!

me, Minji, and Cora

Cousins and cousin's son

Our ever growing family

Tonight we ate at the Taste of Texas, like we do every year, to celebrate Trung's birthday. Our wait was 1.5 hours, but as always, it was well worth it.
Sleighing cousins

Waiting...

Happily stuffed

Thanksgiving 2011

We left LAX around 7 PM Wednesday night and arrive in Houston during the wee hours of the morning. After getting the kids showered, we all passed out until Thanksgiving afternoon, just in time for lunch. Mike and Minji flew in and my cousin Grace and her family drove in soon after, and we had a huge Thanksgiving dinner with my Dad's congregation.

Everyone back together again

My oldest friend Jasper and his wife Bonnie became the girls newest friends.

One is silver and the other gold

Not that I needed the memory space, but I deleted all the pictures I had for Trung's birthday potluck, thinking that I had already downloaded them. Grrr....guess we'll have to relive the moment; homemade triple layered German chocolate cake and everything! Snow, Jess, Christie and their families came over for a Thanksgiving potluck Saturday night and we ate to our hearts content. Great times and great friends!

Wendy also happened to be in town this weekend and we ate and shopped way too much. Trung and I had our first Shabu Shabu, and I got my first "foot" massage...good stuff! Though I've been making some wonderful friends in California, it's nothing like having an old friend around.

Lydia is becoming a pro at taking pictures now!

Stone Soup

Sophie and I left MOPS early today to attend Lydia's school's stone soup lunch. We had homemade pumpkin bread and applesauce also...quite a little feast!

My panda girls

Lydia enjoying her second helping of soup in her turkey hat...gobble gobble

25 kids and parents

Lydia's family picture

Another Day at Disney

Lydia didn't have school again today, so we went to Disneyland for the day. We arrived around 11 AM and were able to go on several rides before the girls got hungry. The nice thing about Disneyland is that they let you bring food in, so I always pack sandwiches and snacks for the kids and we never have to purchase the overpriced food there. We hit our usual spots (Princesses) and saw a few new things. Since the lines weren't quite as long, we finally met Rapunzel and Flynn, and we saw Muppets 3D and the Disney Junior Live show. We left around 5:30 to have dinner at Garden Grove and to buy some Asian groceries, and then home we went.

Christmas time at Disney

Our little trio

Lydia behind the wheel while Sophie plays it cool


Rapunzel and Flynn


Wheeeeeee


My girls


Sophie resting while Crush talks


Chip (or Dale)


An awfully big Christmas tree

The show at Disney Junior Live

Grand opening of ICE

We attended the grand opening of our local outdoor skating rink ICE tonight. We watched a mini-performance and then enjoyed the festivities...face painting, cookie decorating, and ice skating. What a fun night!

Waiting for the performance to begin with Snow and family

Synchronized skating

Olympic gold medalist, Tara Lipinski, was the special guest.

Tara and the MC do a little move

My camera was already zoomed in and Snow didn't want to lose the opportunity for the shot, so here's a close-up of Tara and I.

Cookie decorating...you can never have too many sprinkles

Ice skating Sophie

Sophie didn't care for the big rink; Lydia didn't care for the ice skating

First Christening

We attended our first Christening and Norwegian service for our friends Trond and Guro's son, Julian today. Trung helped take pictures during this special occasion, while I sat with the girls as they flipped through their sticker books. After the service, we went to Lydia's classmate Renata's birthday party on the beach. The weather was beautiful and the kids all had fun in the sand.

Thank goodness for sticker books

With the Petterson's

Fun in the water

Classmates having cake

Swinging at sunset

Clearing my head

It's been hard not to think about my stolen wallet, but my family has helping me to let it go. The one thing we had planned today got postponed, so we just played everything by ear. We had breakfast at home, lunch at Rose Cafe, and Costco steaks for dinner. Family time is truly priceless.

At the parking lot at Rose Cafe

Costco finds

Out with the my girls

Lydia didn't have school today in honor of Veteran's Day, so the girls and I spent the day doing my favorite things...watching movies and shopping. We arrived for the 10:30 AM showing for Puss in Boots, but it was already sold out, so I purchased 12:30 PM tickets. To kill some time, I went shopping at Nordstrom's while the kids played with their new sticker books. After the movie, we had some lunch at the food court and went shopping for their clothes at Gymboree. I guess I must have felt too comfortable in my "home" store that I placed my purse in the front seat of our double stroller, which was right next to the girls as they were glued to the TV. Sadly, someone decided to steal my wallet and made off with it long before I realized it when I went to pay for the clothes. I was pretty bummed and upset with myself, especially since I left more cash than normal in the wallet and a $500 Sprouts giftcard. Hopefully the Sprouts corporate office will be able to deactivate the card when I call Monday morning and I'll feel loads better.

Posing with the chipmunks at the movie theatre

A Mongolian BBQ lunch

Talking Santa hats...Sophie's kept talking itself off her head!

I've seen better days

I got food poisoning yesterday from some kimchi, can you believe it? I ate a bit too much for dinner Sunday night and my body did not like it, so it got rid of it. So I was pretty useless yesterday, barely making it to Sophie's dental appointment and to Lydia's school for pick-up, but I made it.

After much rest and a good night's sleep, I felt much better this morning. I took advantage of the extra hour that Sophie was in "school" and got an annual check-up and a mini-facial. Then in the afternoon, I ran into my latest celebrity victim, Amy Adams, who was kind enough to take a picture with me. Fortunately, I had Lydia with me and she took a picture of us; Sophie managed to sneak into the picture as well. :P

Amy Adams, a fellow Janie and Jack customer

Guro and Golf

After a simple breakfast at Literati Cafe in Brentwood, we paid Trond and Guro a little visit. We hadn't seen them in awhile as complete families and Guro's family is coming in tomorrow for awhile and then they will be traveling back to Norway for a month. So, before all the craziness begins, we went to say "hi" and "bye" to Sheila the dog, since we won't be returning from Norway.

The girls with Sheila, the sweetest dog

At the Putting Edge, a glow in the dark miniature golf place with Christie's kids

Vroom Vroom!

Binging in Glendale

We started this lazy Saturday morning with pastries and French toast at Amandine Patisserie topped off with a mocha latte. Then we headed to Glendale to hang out with our friends Jean and Andrew. We don't get to see them very much nowadays and it's always nice to catch up as the kids entertain themselves. After a quick stop at Portos Bakery for some cheese rolls, we had a seafood buffet dinner at Kyoto. The food was good for the price and everyone left stuffed.

Someone sent me a flower at the patisserie

Brioche shaped liked a samurai

Mischievous kids

The end of swimming

The girls attended their last swim class of the year. It was sad because they have really enjoyed their weekly lessons, but the girls understood that it was going to start getting colder and it was time for a break. Plus, we will take classes again in the Summer if not the Spring. I still can't believe how much they have accomplished this year. Sophie wouldn't even put her head under water at the beginning of the summer, and now she's swimming! Lydia loved the water and would splash around, but now she swims and jumps off the floor of the deep end! I'm a proud mama!

Sophie can swim!

My little Mexican jumping bean

A Day of Sharing

Today I volunteered for Sophie's school again and watched as she presented her show and tell, a scarf wrapped bean bag. It's amazing how she knew to bring it school herself and to tell her little friends about it. Since this week is the last week of the session, Teacher Anna let the kids play dress up all morning...it was very amusing.

Sophie's show and tell

Glamour Girl

After we picked Lydia up from school, I met an old Austin friend Ravel who I met while training for a triathlon. We had some Pinkberry and chatted for a little bit before he was whisked away to the airport. Since we were already on Main street where he met his ride to the airport, the girls and I revisited Books and Cookies, a bookstore whose grand opening Sophie and I attended many months ago. The store was still there and to my surprise, another segment was being filmed. Apparently we were the only family in the store at the moment, so all the video cameras zeroed in on us; I'm glad that I at least dressed the girls cute today. :p

Ravel and I

The kids loved the animal umbrellas...

and cookies.

Tonight's Mom's Night Out, we celebrated Snow's birthday at True Food Kitchen at Santa Monica Place. The food was very fresh, but not very filling for the price. Free dessert for your birthday though!