Sushi Party!!!!

A few weeks back we had a sushi party with some friends. Note*
Chris (with the yellow and brown Wyoming sweatshirt) holding a large Grande Burrito sized sushi?!

My mom overnight-ed me some fresh eel, we had sashimi, yakitori, inari , miso soup, mango pearl drinks, seaweed, rice ball molds, sushi mats and all the fixings for sushi rolls. It was a great time!!!!

Here is Beth, who is 9 months pregnant and I made her drink non-alcoholic Sangria soda out of a wine glass!!!

The me, Julie, April and Beth. We were alone for a lot of the night with the kids because the men were on a mission to get our home theater system working and were on their third? Fourth? trip to home depot/Wal-mart?!

Adam made, what I felt, was one of the most reasonable sized and tasting sushi.

His wife, Julie, opted for the non seaweed sushi mold, option.

April made a beautiful looking sushi/burrito roll! Her husband actually spent two years in Japan on his mission.

Here is my favorite picture of Chris dancing, he's a professor of Musical Theater at the college here in Rock Springs...man, would I loved to have gotten my hands on a picture like this of one of my professors!!! We had such a fun time and can't wait for the next opportunity to hang out with more fun friends!

I got a fever and the only prescription is more...

...Jeremy Lin!!!

The mighty Lin

All he does is LIN

LINcredible Story

He’s a LINtellectual from Harvard

The LIN Dynasty

Oh, the LINsanity

LINderella Story

Knicks Missing LINk

Super LINtendo

LINspiration

...I got me some Lin-sanity!!!! This guy is not only a freaking ridiculous ball player...he does it while being second generation Chinese from Taiwan...and all that entails...he had traditional parents who pushed the whole academic angle (hence his admittance into Harvard-based on his scholastic aptitude and not his ball playing skills), made him speak Chinese at home (while trying to grow up as a normal Californian kid) and go to church...still, after graduating, he wasn't drafted...but he still persevered...alternate career paths he considered...being a pastor, because to top everything off, he's Christian...seriously, Eric...this is your new competition!!!!! When asked about how he left the Warriors he said, "I had zero idea that was going to happen. It was really tough for me at the time but I just tried to hold on to a lot of the stuff in the Bible that God gives to trust, have joy in the sufferings, and trust in His perfect plan. That's what I tried my best to do and I'm happy with the way things turned out." He's articulate, he's respectful, he's an awesome basketball player and he's Chinese...thank you, Jeremy Lin!!!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Eric surprised me with my gift at midnight the night before....I think to ensure that I would remember to get him a gift! So, I did a party foul and re-used the same bag. I stuffed it with all of his favorite treats, almonds, guacamole, chips, candy, red vines, apple pie...

I got Max some treats...he ate the entire box of 'Super Hero Chocolates.'

He was being a little bit of a pill while I made Eric his favorite chocolate pie...I was just about to tell him to get out of his sisters' room while they napped and then he gleefully told me that he left a valentine in their bassinets so they would sleep better....Sweetest. Boy. Ever!

Chocolate pie (fat free).

Just a picture of the girls dressed in their coordinating outfits (it matched mine, too...but I never seem to get a picture in...)

My mom sent Max and the girls some goodies for Valentine's day, too...thanks, mom!!!! We ended the night with Chopstix takeout! Hoping everyone felt love and loved on Valentine's day!!

Just an update...

How cute are they?! We kept saying 'Lia' and 'Kiri' to get them to smile to which Max kept adding, "...and Max!"

I can't believe the girls are almost four months now!

They melt my heart and are the best behaved babies around!

They are super smiley!

Lia couldn't take it and succumbed to sleep!

This is a picture of Max right before church and I asked him to do a "church pose." That kid, I love him so much! He's at play group right now...he's growing up so fast!

This is their, "Happy New Year!" pose!!!

Happy Groundhogs Day!

Not much going on here...snow days are movie days...this morning we went to the library for story time and were informed that today is Ground hogs' day. Just FYI, the ground hog saw his shadow and we will have 6 more weeks of winter. Another FYI...Max did not know what a shadow was until this morning...have I never shown him Peter Pan?!

Here's the cutest picture of Max waiting for his ride to play group last week...*note: he's got his sippy cup, his shoes and hat on and his fake cell phone. You gotta love this kid!!!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Welcome the year of the dragon!!! In light of the New Year, I decided to give Lia, Kiri and myself matching Gold pedicures. I would have done red the other good luck Chinese color...but the girls were still too squirmy to allow me to do a red pedicure well. You can tell that Kiri has the Phillips' second toe and Lia has more of a Chiu second toe!

For New Years, I decided to host a dinner party. The hardest part of the party was deciding who to invite. We have enjoyed our new ward so much that there seems to be an endless supply of interesting and fun young couples to get to know.

I made mochi sticky cake.

Soy sauce eggs, lettuce wraps, peanut meat balls, red Chinese BBQ chicken legs, long life noodles, and everyone got an orange and a red pocket with lucky money (though, surprisingly, most of our guests didn't take their lucky money).

It was a great evening with good conversation and lots of laughing. It's been great having the finished basement because all of our kids just played their hearts out the entire evening and the adults got some much needed adult interaction! Chris, Beth, Ruth & Eric.

Chris, Beth, Ruth, Me, Matt, Crystal, Nick (and his wife April is missing from the picture).

The girls are getting such cute personalities

Here they are showing their glasses...we call this Lia Librarian and Cool Kiri.

The kiddos watching a movie...that's right, Max's slim bum still fits into his Bumbo chair...gotta love it!!!

Lia is so quick to smile and laugh!

Kiri has the sweetest, kindest disposition and always loves to be cuddled and will often pat you on your shoulder if you are cuddling with her.

They are just a pleasure to have in our family and we are so grateful for our three blessings. I remember when Max was a baby, this woman came up and said that my next child would be a 'terror' because nobody is that lucky...well, I might not deserve it, but I am sure thankful for them.

Snowdays and Church...

The girls have been doing so well...they're both about 11lbs and just thriving and have such good dispositions. They're both smiling so much and Lia and Kiri both had their first laugh two days ago. They both sleep through the night, I'm talking 10p.m. to 8 a.m. I'm too anal to let them slept that long without food...so, I wake them up once or twice to feed them.

They still don't have that much to do with one another...they don't seem annoyed at the others' existence...just totally unaware!

We finally went to church all together last week...I figured, they've been blessed...it's time.

We've had such a mild winter this year...thank goodness!!! Sadly, Eric's parents and brother and sister-in-law and baby were going to come visit last week but got snowed out!!!! We were so sad...but at least we got some snow to make snow angels and...

we played around and even made snowman for Max...

It was HUGE!!!! It took us forever to make!!!

Just kidding!!! It was all we could manage to stick!!!