Sunday, July 24, 2011

A new hobby

Daddy bought a wood carving magazine at Lowes and found an interesting easy whittling projects. He bought some wood and tried whittling a pencil. Then he made this wizard. It was so awesome I wanted to try it too. This owl was my first attempt. It was supposed to only take 5 minutes, but it took me am hour.

So now we're both hooked. Daddy has another project in mind and I tried my hand at a wizard for my 2nd try. We've bought more wood and bettertter knives. We're both excited to see where this hobby leads us! You know what they say about couples sharing the same hobby.... they go broke.


Little Mr Trouble Maker

Little M has been doing a whole lot of trouble making lately. He has been going up and down the stairs for one. Not having a gate blocking the stairs, it's hard to keep him away from it. But we started relaxing when he really didn't wantto go upstairs when we're all downstairs. Then, he changed his mind. Just when we started to relax, he would sneak upstairs. He is pretty much an expert about going up, by his approach to the stairs when we're in the second floor frequently gives our heart a jump start. And of course he wants to go down facing forward. No amount of turning him backwards could get him to go down safely.

He also loves to run. He is always running from one room to the other. Sometimes his upper body gets ahead of his legs and he ends up face first know the floor but he just picks himself back up without even crying and he runs again.

He climbs up on the kitchen chair and then climbs on the table. Sometimes he does his when he sees something interesting but now he climbs up to FIND something interesting.

He opens doors. It doesn't help that our doors have lever handles. His room and his big brother's is a Jack and Jill room and it makes it difficult to keel him away from the bathroom because the door to the sink area has no lock.

Little M prefers me to put him to bed so it makes Daddy a little jealous. We have long realized that all the kids were pretty much Mama's up until 3 years old when they become all about Daddy. But Daddy feels a little sad when the little booger refuses to give him a hug at bedtime.

But with all his mischievousness, Little M is quite the charmer when he wants to. He loves it when he makes us laugh and he is a smart little monkey.


Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Daddy celebrated his birthday early last week. The boys and I took him out to lunch to the restaurant of his choosing. He chose Hooters. We enjoyed the wings, but I don't think Little M enjoyed his seat at the table though. Daddy agreed to be seated at a high-top table because it was the only one available. Fortunately a table opened up shortly after we made our order so we asked to be moved.
Daddy is not too thrilled about adding another number to his age.


Friday, July 22, 2011

Our new gathering place

Little M's room has become a new hangout for us in the house. Little M could play without getting into choking hazards and the older 3 kids just love playing on the inflatable bed on the floor.

But while the 3 horse around, Little M tries to sneak out.


Thursday, July 21, 2011

Pro whittler

One night, Daddy discovered the art or whittling. And just like that he ordered some knives, wood and some magazines. This is his first attempt at a wizzard on a pencil. What at awesome ability! It looked so great I want to try it too. However I might stay away from people and animals. I don't know that this is one hobby I can take up and be good at, but I won't know until I try. In the meantime, I asked Daddy to make about 20 more and we can have a business up on Etsy.


Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Trying our best to cool off

The weather is the same day after day after day. It's 102 during the day and 80 at night. Everyone breaks into a sweat the minute we step out the door. And our power bill....

So here are the kids trying to cool off. This was actually before noon when there is shade in the backyard and the water was still a little chilly. But somehow even Little M tolerated it. By 11:30 we had to come in because the sun was bearing on us.









Monday, July 18, 2011

Dogs are not the kids' best friend

We went to our neighbor's house to play with her 2-year old twin girls. But I had to leave the girls there for an hour while I attend a conference call. When I came back, the girls had red spots on their faces. My neighbor's dogs licked their faces. K found it amusing, J almost had a panic attack. In fact, when the other twins and K got the dogs riled up, J thought they were going to be let inside the house again. J became hysterical. It took me a good 10 minutes to calm her back down.

This entire time, their faces remained the same - red and spotty. But at one point, J rubbed her eye and right before my eyes, her eye started swelling shut. I washed her face and we said our goodbyes and speed -walked back to our house. I washed J's face and hands and drugged her with Benadryl.

This exact same thing happenes with Big M when he was 3 years old. His face swelled up after being licked by a dog. I think it is safe to say that we need to keep all the kids away from dogs. This kind of contact always happen in someone else's house which effectively ends whatever fun we're all having.


Sunday, July 17, 2011

Little M's first time in his own room


During the week of the 4th of July, after family left, we went ahead and moved Little M to his own room. Note that the room has some girly murals that were done by the previous owner of the house. We decided to leave it as it is and only paint the room when Little M is a bit older.

Little M loved the fact that he could run around, but didn't like the fact that he couldn't leave the room when he wanted to. After a day, he also figured out how to expertly open the doors (no thanks to the lever-kind door knobs we have). The room provides a great place for him to play and not get into his big brother's Lego or his sisters little toys. It also allows me to take a nap (on the inflatable on the floor) when he doesn't want to. The problem with this is he gets to do doing naughty things like stick his fingers up my nostrils or tap my forehead over and over again. 

The great thing is that it only took him one night to adjust. He now sleeps through the night. Halleluiah!



Oh yeah, on another day I tried to catch up on sleep in his room I saw this when I opened my eyes. My 15-month old baby using a chair to open the door so he could escape. We are wondering how long it'll take him before he figures out to move the chair out of the way.

First teeth lost

My Android phone is my external hard drive. It truly is. Without it there will be a log or details in my children's life that would be forever lost.

On June 15th, I picked up my son from summer camp missing his 2 bottom teeth. He said the teacher helped him wiggle them and get them off. Thank you! Both Daddy and I were too much of a chicken to really work the teeth out, even though they were barely hanging on. That evening the tooth fairy wired on a personalized letter to leave for Big M. It had $10 enclosed. Yeah, Big M hit the jackpot on that one. The toothfairy set herself up on that one. She would have no one to blame when Big M expects a sports car the next time.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Sweet and sassy girls

With the 3-digit temperature day in and day out, my girls' hair was just getting too long. I also wanted them to look slightly different.
I really wanted to go a lot shorter but I realized that having dance recital in the spring, they would need their hair in a bun. With this cut, their hair would have enough time to grow by then.
We went to Sweet & Sassy where they had a shampoo and cut. They also put glitter on their hair and stamped glitter stars on their faces. They loved it. I wanted for them to have a mania and pedi but it didn't work with the time.


One last goodbye to K's long hair.

She was so stiff with her shoulders and neck that the hairdresser had a little bit of a tough time with her.


K's new look. The back is very short and rounded and it gets longer towards the front.


J looks like she could be 7 years old.


She was relaxed and just watched her long hair fall to the floor.


J's hair is one length all around, but the front just tapers off slightly just to frame her face.


I think the short hair makes them look their age.

4-yr check up

The girls got 3 shots and they were not happy about it. Thankfully, the doctor took K out and walker her down the hallway so she couldn't hear J cry. When K returned she was very interested on the syringes on the table. "What's that? What's that?," she asked. Then just as soon as she finished she realized what they were. "I DONT WANT A SHOT! I DON'T WANT A SHOT!" I just kept saying I would take them out for ice cream.



They rarely wear the same anymore, but they picked this outfit that I sewed for them and also picked the matching bags. They may be trying to confuse the doctor.
(K is on the right, J on the left)


Enjoying the rainbow sherbert. The shots are already forgotten.
(J on the left, K on the right)

Friday, July 15, 2011

Gigantor Kids

My girls turned 4 years old in early June. On their 4th year check up they measured at 42 inches and 42.5 inches, and weighed in at 44 lbs and 44.5 lbs. No wonder we've been confusing them more lately. And they are huge, at 92nd percentile.

I also got their hair cut short and oh-so-slightly different. Pictures to come.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

from SAHM to WAHM

So I am again a work-at-home-mom. I just signed on as a Community Relations Consultant with Plum District Dallas. It is a company that gives you deals in your local area that is brought to you by other savvy moms (anywhere from 50% to 80% off!) It's a part-time job I can do at home while trying to prevent the kids from destroying the house. I've really just given up on having an uncluttered home because with 4 kids, is there anything more impossible than that? I had fun with Minti.com while it lasted. Minti gave me the opportunity to work at home and it saw 3 of my kids being born and I will be forever grateful. It also gave me the experience to land this position with Plum District Dallas. While it's only a contract job and commission-based, it's better than nothing. Let's face it, everything counts when you're a family of 6.


This is a commission-based job and so I don't get paid if I don't get subscribers. So if you would like to help a fellow mom (with twins - if that helps my sob story), please sign up with Plum District Dallas by clicking here Plum District Deals. If you don't click on the link, your effort cannot be tracked back to me.  


You can also pass the link on by copying and pasting this https://www.plumdistrict.com/?ref=u2cd19383a86 . 


When you sign up, you will be able to choose your region so you only get deals that are for you. And if you are in the Collin County area and know of any community gatherings or organization, we may be able to help out by being a sponsor. Just leave a comment below with your contact info and I will contact you back.


Thank you!

Monday, July 11, 2011

4th of July fireworks

We are lucky that just 1 mile away is a large park where the fireworks are held for the city. We didn't have to deal with the hassle of fighting for parking. At 9:30 we took a walk down the street and got to watch the fireworks at the side walk. It was pretty late for the girls but they said they wanted to see it. They enjoyed about 5 minutes of it and then they were ready to walk back home. Cousin B, Cousin J and Big M wanted to finish the whole thing so Daddy walked the girls home. Daddy told me that as they were walking back, J began crying about the noise. She didn't do when she could see the fireworks, but I guess it was just too scary when she didn't know the popping was coming.


The fireworks just started so everyone is mesmerized.


A few minutes later they were down on the sidewalk. The fishing earlier that day drained them.


J hanging around Cousin B.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

gone fishing

One of hubby's nephew loves to fish and has actually taken Big M to fish in NC. So they came with fishing poles and equipment. We took them to a pond 5 minutes away from home to fish. It was under a bridge where I had seen people fish many times. The spot worked well since the bridge provided a shade. The girls and Little M got to chase some ducks. The boys caught a couple of small fish.

Everyone had fun that the next day we wanted to take everyone to a lake 30 minutes away. I thought the girls might enjoy fishing too, so their Papaw bought them their very own fishing poles: K got the pink princess pole, and J got the purple Dora pole. They practiced casting and reeling in the living room.


K on the left, J on the right.


We stopped by a Bass Pro shop to get fishing licenses. While the adults were doing that, Cousin B took the 3 kiddos to the fish pond right outside the building to marvel and feed the huge goldfish. Daddy and I decided to go ahead and buy a 1 year fishing license. Papaw brought a couple of his fishing poles so even I had one. :)


After getting to the lake we had to find a fishing spot. Of course everyone else had gotten the nice spots, I guess, so we had to drive a bit to find a place. We decided on a spot. A rocky spot. The girls got set up to fish and got scared so we packed up and went to look for another one. There was a shady area where the girls (and Daddy) rested on. The sun beating down and the over 100 degree weather zapped everyone's energy.


Only Cousin B caught any fish. The people beside us caught a 35 lb catfish which got us all excited but alas I guess all the fish went home after the mama fish was caught. Cousin B caught a good sized catfish and a few small ones. Then a friendly neighbor gave us another good sized catfish. Someone someone decided  (NOT ME) that we bring home the fish we caught....to eat. I mentioned that I knew how to clean fish so it was left up to me. Can I say though that catfish is one UGLY fish! Here's the rule from now on though, CATCH and RELEASE ONLY!  But I think my elders in the Philippines would be proud of me. I even remembered the trick for making fish not taste or smell so fishy.

Big M was excited about the fish and said that would be his dinner. And so it was. For a picky boy who takes on after his Daddy, I was impressed. The girls chanted "I don't want fish, Mama!" all the way home.


So finally after we couldn't take the heat anymore we drove home. K and Big M were instantly catatonic back there.

family came to visit

Hubby's parents and 3 nephews came to stay with us for a week over the 4th of July holiday. The kids were very excited. Big M remembers his cousins and is very excited about being able to see them again. The girls don't remember their cousins but they were very excited to see their Nana and Papaw.

After a night's rest, we started their next day to a local city pool. There were slides for bigger kids and a huge area for the little ones. The pool was only 3.5ft deep so it was manageable for the girls and Big M. There was a water structure area for Little M that he also enjoyed. We spent a total of 4 hours there. It was over 100 degrees.


After everyone got settled back home, we saw noticed Little M's tan line. If you look from the distance you can see a clear straight line right above his elbows. I always said that once our kids tan there was no going back. Now he will be caramel colored. I applied sunblock on the kids 4 times while we were at the pool and it paid off. None of the kids go sunburn. The adults were another story. I got sunburn on the my back and on my scalp of all places. I had a part on my hair where the sun beat down on. I didn't notice the burn until I got in the shower. Ouch!  Daddy also got a sunburn on his head even though he put sunscreen on his, um, bare spot. But I think he only thought of it after already spending an hour on the sun.

I have no picture of this day, but I must mention about the girls. Both girls wore a vest provided by the facility. As soon as K got in the water, she swam by herself. I was pleasantly surprised since not 3 weeks ago she was holding on to either Daddy or me for dear life. Then she started jumping in the water and splashing everyone over and over again. J was not so confident. She held on to someone the entire time. Papaw got her to jump to him but she always called him back to her closer before she jumped.


The next day we spent another four hours at another water park. This time, Big M was very confident on the water. There was a knee-deep area for little ones but he just kept on walking until the water got up to his chin. Thanks to his Nana and Papaw for keeping an eye on him so that I could enjoy the non-kiddie parts of the water park with Big M.


Enjoying a juice break.


Big M enjoyed the little kid area, too. 


Everyone taking a break from the sun. Yes, this is how Daddy wants to be immortalized on the internet - picking his nose.