Our House

We handed over our keys to our contractor on January 8. Since then, we've obsessively driven by/stopped by our house pretty religiously. We've seen the entire demo process (it's completely different from demo days on TV). We've seen the important (but boring) work of laying down the proper foundation. Right now, I'm just waiting for framing to be done so we can FINALLY see the skeleton of what our future house will look like. I keep telling myself that although the process is tedious (and I have wanted to kill someone every once in a while), it'll all be worth it when we move back home.

One last picture in front of our house till it's not ours for the next year

Everything was taken apart from the inside out

Remnants of our fireplace

Walls slowly being stripped away

Char dancing through our former living room

Almost bare... roof = gone

Our (dead) front lawn and (disgusting) driveway... destroyed!

Destroying everything bit by bit

Our cheap and not-so-functional roof... gone!

This lot will become something beautiful in a few months

And there you have it... our former house

Lots of digging for the foundation work

This house lived a good life for the past five years. However, as time went on, more and more things were coming apart. Our biggest pet peeve were the unleveled floors. A Hot Wheel car can easily slide towards the backyard without any pushing. With our new solid foundation, we will no longer have this problem. 

Containing the children while I look at house stuff

 How the entire family is entered while I look at house stuff

I'm still crossing my fingers that we can move back home just in time for the holidays. 

February 2019

I honestly forgot what happened in March. I guess I was busy with work and school and once again... life in general. Sorry, March 2019. You got shafted.

February was more special because both girls turned a year older. How is my baby no longer an official baby?! 

 The birthday ladies - birthdays are 13 days apart (I couldn't get it to be exactly 2 weeks)

 Save the cheerleader, save the world

 Two year old nerd alert

 Kissy kissy

 Celebrated Char's family birthday at OSF

 My little prodigies 

 Loves HK and girlie stuff just like her sissy poo

She has a love for shoes

 1/3 of what you see was what she got for her birthday

The third child got the biggest shaft birthday-wise. We didn't have a party or a special celebration dinner for her because... she doesn't care! As a veteran mother, I know she'll care by the time she turns three. So, I'll waste my efforts on her birthday next year. Till now, I'm still riding the wave of not officially celebrating anything... yet!

Spring Break 2019... and more

Has it really been more than a year since I last updated? I would like to blame it on life. 

Quite a bit has changed since March 2018. First off, we are no longer in our house. We've temporarily downgraded to a 1/1 apartment while our house is being rebuilt from the ground up! I'm hoping to move back by the holidays. Still crossing fingers... although we're a few phases behind schedule, I still believe in miracles. 

Our Spring Break just ended and we took a quickie one nighter trip to Monterey. Lucas went on a field trip to the aquarium and really wanted to go back again without rushing. 

Ready for our trip

Barely fitting in that clam shell

These three are barely fitting in that shell

Pier of Fisherman's Wharf

Cannery Row (PC: Lucas)

PC: Lucas

Clam chowder samples galore at Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey

Not sure she understands the concept of binoculars

Sister sister

Out of all the kids, Evangeline has changed the most in every aspect. She's a big troublemaker, but she's a smart kid. She's a super picky eater and loves to follow in her siblings footsteps. Sometimes it's not the best ideas to copy them since they're up to no good as well.

 One of their favorite store - Claire's

Panda sisters

 Sharing snow cones

... and ice cream cones

When the trio are together and getting along, they're pretty cute. But on most occasions, the two older ones are fighting and Evangeline is just joining in the mix somehow. 

Lucas and matchy matchy sisters

Annual doctor's appointment - three healthy kids

Evangie loves posing for the camera too now

Little cheeseball

And then there's Lucas... the boy who can't wait to get his own room and get some peace and quiet away from all then noise (aka: his sisters).

Fresh fade for his "modeling" debut

 Thinks he's so cool with his fedora and shades

 Mom thinks she's pretty cool with her sun hat, too

And then there's the family pictures in April. There's Dad's birthday and Easter. This is our sixth year celebrating Dad's birthday at Benihana's. That glob of butter they put on everything took a toll on me when I got up the next morning. #gettingold

Kids are growing like weeds

 Evangie was so happy to sit on the Easter bunny

And that's pretty much April in a nutshell. We are four weeks away from summer. Hopefully there's also crazy quick progress with our house as well. 

Happy 7th Birthday, Lucas

Yesterday, little Lucas Shinn turned seven years old! He was super excited about turning seven; I think he thinks being seven makes him a big kid. Due to the busyness of taking care of two classrooms, prepping for the new school year, thinking about packing boxes to move out of our house, and just keeping the family in order, I didn't really have much time to spend on thinking about a birthday party. Luckily, I was able to pull it off without breaking the bank or spending too much time! Woo! 

 Yearly birthday sign picture

I downloaded a free sign I found off Pinterest and glued it to cardstock paper. One of my Targets had Pokemon birthday stuff on sale so I grabbed all that too so I didn't have to waste time making my own figures. We had Lucas's friends/cousins party at a taekwondo place, which meant I didn't have to do much besides pay money. 

 Quiet bunch of kids munching on pizza and chips

 Happy birthday boy and his crew

 Our abnormal family picture

I shall call this year "the year Lucas grew up". My perfect little boy was no more. Somehow, he managed to transform into a typical elementary aged boy right under my nose! He suddenly had selective hearing, he picks fights with his younger sister, he's messy, and is irresponsible. I expect a lot more gray hairs and baggy eyes this upcoming year. He annoys me more than he's ever had the past six years, but I still love the kid. When he wants to be good, he can be real good.

I've noticed that Lucas gives 100% to things he wants to do. He started tkd a few months back and is determined to move up belts as quickly as possible. Luckily for him, he's a fast learner. When he puts his mind to something, he can accomplish it really quickly. He's also one of the last kids in his grade to swim. I've enrolled him in swimming lessons twice a week and have seen great improvement with him on that as well. He's a very bright kid (and no, I'm not just saying that because I'm his mother/future second grade teacher). His current love are Beyblades, Pokemon, Legos, and electronics. When did my baby boy grow up?!

On his birthday, I asked what he wanted to do. At first, he wanted to go to summer camp. Yay, easier for me. But then I gave him a second option and he opted for option two. What was option two? Spend a day with Mom... but, you can choose to do whatever you want! So, we started off the morning at Target where he picked out some birthday toys. We went to the Apple store so he could play on the iPad a bit. We went to the candy store where he asked for a free sample. We had lunch at McDonald's because he wanted a cheeseburger. While his baby sister was napping, I picked up his bestie and the boys played video games and worked on Legos. Then we had a family dinner at Round Table's and ended the night with Baskin Robbins. That was my boy's dream day. It was also my anti-day. Come on... McDonald's and Round Table's on the same day?! I think I would rather starve! 

 Focused on that iPad

 Every kid's favorite: McD's

 Personalized pizza: olives, pineapples, and sausage

Perfect way to end the day: ice cream!