Merry Christmas!

No update right now. :) Maybe in the new year! Just wanted to say Merry Christmas! We're all excited for Christmas and thankful for Jesus.

New Music

Dave and I are on the lookout for some new music. Here's a list of some recently purchased music that we like:

Jason Mraz - We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.
Leona Lewis - Spirit
Wicked Soundtrack - 5th Anniversary Special Edition
Barlow Girl - How Can We Be Silent and Home For Christmas (Christian pop rock group)
Sovereign Grace Kids CD - Awesome God (It's a kids CD but we like listening to it!)

Lilly loves to dance. She's a funny dancer and comes up with some great moves. One move that will get a laugh out is the jump and spin move. Gets her every time! She's been dancing to Jason Mraz and Awesome God kids CD.

Yes, we're still into Wicked music. We saw the musical back in July!

What's on your playlist? Any good music suggestions for the Chengs?

Truck or Treat

The Halloween events are in full swing here. The mall by our house hosted an event called Truck or Treat. They have different trucks, vehicles, and machinery parked at the far end of the mall parking lot. Then the kids are invited to dress up, get candy, and visit all the different trucks. Lilly liked seeing the trucks and kids running around but she was most interested in the candy. She was excited to pick a piece of candy to put in her Hello Kitty purse. I think she'll like going to the rest of the Halloween activities this month. Lilly doesn't eat the candy, but she knows what lollipops are and knows how to unwrap them. She'll just hold it in her hand and maybe take a few licks.

Dave's family came to visit for the afternoon

Pulling the levers on the crane

Fall Outings

This past Saturday we went to the Meridian Heritage Festival and the apple orchard. We all had a great time and it was such a beautiful fall day to be outside.

The Heritage Festival was by the old school house, general store, and pretty much everything from the "Old'n Days". We saw some funny alpacas, watched the traditional Irish dancers, ate popcorn, and took a pony ride. Lilly loves animals. When the Irish dancers were performing she was distracted by the pony giving carriage rides in the background. She pointed and yelled (pretty loudly), "Neeeeeiiiiigh!!" You can guess what we did right after the dancers were done.

I like this picture of Dave and Lilly with the Alpacas. They look like they're all posing for a group shot.


After Lilly got up from her nap we decided to go apple picking. Well our first priority was to get DOUGHNUTS and cider. Why did we pack our Saturday with so many outings? I scheduled to get my wisdom teeth out the following Monday, and I really wanted to eat and enjoy those delicious doughnuts (only found at Country Mill). Mmm. They were good! The apples were good too! The Gala apples are really sweet and I already made some apple bread with some Northern Spy apples. Dave's hoping for some apple pie muffins and apple pie sometime soon.



So good!



Picking fruit is always fun. This summer we picked blueberries and Lilly did more eating than picking there. This time she didn't eat any of the apples that we picked because she's never bitten into a whole apple and doesn't eat apples with skin on it. Lilly didn't try picking apples from the trees. She was very happy to be handed apples to place into the bag. I'm glad she learned the word "apple" before we went to the apple orchard!



I'm so thankful for Saturdays and time spent together as a family.

Just Like Mama and Baba

I like to do the same things as my mama and baba.
They both like to use the computer, and they both wear glasses.















I love mama!
I love baba!

The Gospel Song

Holy God, in love, became
Perfect Man to bear my blame
On the cross He took my sin
By His death I live again

Over the past week or so Lilly has started singing her bedtime songs with me. I sing her a "Go To Sleep" lullaby that I kind of made up and "The Gospel Song" lyrics by Drew Jones and music by Bob Kauflin. It is so sweet to hear her sing. Not only is it cute but I can hear her sing the powerful words, "... cross ... took ... sin ... by ... again." Hehee she doesn't sing every word but she'll jump in on the words that stick out to her.

I know my nephew, Ethan, can sing this song by himself. Even though these little kiddos don't understand that this song proclaims the Gospel message, they have the words in their memory. I pray that one day the lyrics and the message will impact their hearts and lives.

August 2008

August was a busy month for us. We went to two weddings, visited Maryland, North Carolina, Christine and Noah spent a weekend with us, and I went to a Backstreet Boys concert and had an eLLe sleepover. Although it was busy, we have some great memories from all those events.

Congratulations to Loren and JY and Cassie and Carmichael!!!


It's always fun to have Christine and Noah visit us in Okemos. We wanted it to be like a last hurrah for them before they started the new school year. We went to get bubble tea, swam at the East Lansing Splash Park, went go karting, and played a game of putt-putt.


eLLe didn't just have a one night sleepover. It was an entire weekend together. We had so much we wanted to do together! Friday night we drove to the Detroit Energy Theater for the Backstreet Boys concert. It was fun! It was fun together. Saturday we watched the movie The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. We also sang together and recorded 2 songs that night. On Sunday the girls were able to visit our church. I've told them so much about our church that it was nice for them to visit. Our weekend together concluded with a delicious brunch at Dusty's, our most favorite brunch place ... ever.

Visiting Maryland is always a good time. Everytime we visit we rethink moving out there to live by Kelly and Andy. For now, God has us staying here in Okemos and we're happy with that. We love our church here and actually like this quiet town.
Lilly has so much fun with her cousins. She loves Ethan and Evangeline. She also loves the ocean and playing in the water! Our vacation in North Carolina actually started in September. So it should probably go in a separate post. Oh well ... here are some pictures. Look for the rest on Flickr!

100 push ups

Lindsay and I started this 6 week exercise routine that's supposed to have you doing 100 push ups by the end of it. It only takes 30 minutes a week (10 minutes a day 3 times a week). Check it out:

http://hundredpushups.com/

We're only on week 2, but it's kind of fun to get back into working out. We've been doing our sets between rounds of Super Smash Bros and during commercials when we're watching Jon and Kate Plus 8.

Lindsay may be younger than me, but I can do the same number of push ups as her!

Blueberry Picking

This was the first time blueberry picking for all of us. We went for about an hour and a half and got about 5 pounds of blueberries! Dave and I both agreed that picking berries can be addictive. We said a few times that we were going to stop after this bush, but then we would keep going on a few more bushes. The bushes are close together so when you spot some big, plump berries on the next bush, it's hard to leave them unpicked!

As you can tell from the picture, Dave and I wore the color blue for blueberries (not really) but Lilly was just cute and colorful! She picked a few green berries (not quite ready to be picked) from the bushes, but she thoroughly enjoyed picking handfuls of blueberries from my bucket and stuffing them in her mouth!

So far we've enjoyed eating the fresh blueberries and I made blueberry muffins. I'm thinking about making blueberry banana bread today.

We all had such a good time blueberry picking and it's cheaper than buying them at the grocery store. I think we're going back sometime this week/weekend. Hopefully blueberry picking will become a family tradition in the Summer and apple picking in the Fall.

A note unrelated to blueberry picking but something that's come up between Dave and I is he'll say he feels old but I always (or usually) feel young because he'll always be older than me. I just turned 25 and Dave is 27, turning 28 this December. I'm glad God made us with this 2 1/2 year age difference. :)

Real Words

Lilly can say a few real words now. I wanted to document them for my records:

- Mama & Baba
- Woof woof
- No
- I got you!
- Thank you! Sometimes she'll sneeze and then say, "thank you!" Haha! She'll also say, "thank you" when she's handing me something.

Don't worry, she still does her cute, nonsense babbling!

Lilly's already showing signs of being a girly girl. She likes to hang purses and bags on her arm. She also likes to pretend that she's cooking! I washed out some big yogurt tubs for her to play with and gave her a wooden spatula at different times. The other day she put the spatula in the tub and started stirring! Then she'd stop to do a little taste test! It was so cute :) Lilly's also very generous so she stuck the spatula out for us to taste. We didn't really teach her to do these things. She must have learned from watching us or something. Anyway, it was really cute to see her starting this pretend play stuff. I'm looking forward to more fun imaginary play!

Babbling

Babbling
Originally uploaded by Cheng Family

Lilly's been talking a lot more lately. We've been trying to get it on tape for a while now and Lindsay finally managed to capture her babbling!

One thing we've noticed as parents is that people like to think they can interpret what Lilly's saying to us. What do you think she's saying?

14 Months Old

We went to the mall today and a lady asked me how old Lilly was. I automatically said, "13 months. No, wait, she'll be 14 months soon." Well it's either the days with Lilly are flying by or I'm just losing track of the days. Actually, no - it's both!!

I tend to pay more attention to which day of the week it is (I know it's Thursday!) than the actual date (4/3/08). I think it's because I rarely write the date out like for school or on a check. I'm also more aware of mealtime (I'm approaching dinnertime soon) than the actual time on the clock. I guess this is just something I've noticed while staying at home.

Since it's been really sunny out the past few days, Lilly and I have gone outside to play every morning. We take a short walk, dance up and down the driveway, and blow bubbles. She was really excited the first time I brought out the bubbles. She was giggling, pointing, and chasing the bubbles! I wish I could have videotaped it. She wasn't as excited when I pulled the bubbles out the next day. :P


Dave and I are learning, first hand, that it's hard to be a consistent parent. It's easier to give in and let Lilly do what she wants or give her what she wants. I know it's more loving to not always give her what she wants, but Dave and I love to see Lilly happy. This goes along with how Dave and I are such people pleasers. It's one of our greatest struggles. We get uncomfortable with the thought of making people unhappy or making people dislike us. With grace from the Lord, we're working to overcome this. We want to speak the truth and act when necessary. We need to discipline and set boundaries for Lilly because we love her. Proverbs tells us that he who loves his son is diligent to discipline (Prov. 13:24 Yes, with the rod). I don't know if we'll be using the rod now, but I hope we'll be consistent with implementing consequences.

Just an Update

Easter came really early this year, March 23, 2008. Sitting by the fireplace seems to be our place to take family photos on holidays. Haha for all who have seen our Christmas family pic, Dave's wearing the same outfit. That green can work for Christmas or Springtime! Hehe and the bunny has been the 4th member of our family this week.

It's cute to see Lilly carry this giant bunny around. I'll find bunny laying in random places around the house.

Lilly loves being outside. She'll point to snow on the ground and stop and listen to every sound she hears outside. She likes to listen for birds and doggies. There's this dog a few houses down from us that's fenced in. He always barks when she sees us and causes a few other dogs close by to bark too. Lilly is intrigued by it. She'll stand right in front of the house with the dog and just stare at the dog. Yesterday I was teaching her that doggies say, "Woof woof!" The dog growled at us and Lilly growled right back at the dog.

New Friends at Church

God has definitely answered our prayers by bringing our friends to church. They had to leave immediately after the Easter service, but I received an email saying they enjoyed the service so much and they'll be back next week. Great!

God is at work and is placing more friends in our lives who are interested in coming to church. It's really exciting but a little overwhelming at the same time. It sure keeps us busy, on our toes, and totally dependent on Him to reach out to these friends.

Thanks for your prayers!

God Answers Prayers

Dave and I were thinking about inviting some friends to the Easter service at our church. We had been out of touch with these friends for a good 2 weeks. So I was praying that God will open up opportunities for me to talk with these friends and invite them to the Easter service. Yesterday, I ran into one friend at Target in the middle of a workday afternoon, and then when I got home I checked the mail to find an Easter card from the other friend I was praying for! I called her up to say thanks for the card and invited her to join us for Easter service.

It's in God's sovereign plan for these events to happen. Both friends are interested in coming! Please pray for our friends and our conversations after the service.

Just For Kicks: Celebrity Look-Alikes

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

Haaha I don't think they're very accurate. :P

Risotto

We've been so into risotto lately! It all started when we had risotto with sweet potato at Joey and Jeannette's wedding. Mmmmm it was creamy and sooooo good! We're still talking about that meal.

You'll usually find risotto in nicer restaurants. So it must be too expensive to make at home! Nope, it's not bad at all! It's just rice. It's the Italian way of making rice.

I haven't tried this one yet, but Rachael Ray made a spinach risotto on her show last week. Here's the recipe.

What delicious foods have you tried lately? Any recipes to share?

Jury Duty and the Price is Right

Today, I did my civil duty as a citizen of Ingham county and showed up for jury duty. I was actually kind of disappointed that I didn't get picked!

Despite the formal exterior and orderly process, the courtroom actually reminded me of the Price is Right. Someone's name would get called to "come on down!" and then they got to sit in these cool seats on the side.

And it's not like they didn't win anything ... they recently raised the jury duty compensation to up to $40/day! That's potentially $200/week. Not quite "a new car!" but still pretty impressive.

Snow snow go away

I was telling Lindsay the other day that you can tell who's really committed to living in Michigan by whether or not they have a snow blower or not. I used to love shoveling the snow for my parents because I thought it was fun and I liked to help out my parents ... and I guess it's still kind of fun now, but there's just been way too much snow this year. It may be time for us to commit to Michigan and buy a snow blower!

Maammmmma

I love lasagna! It's one of my favorites. Mmm! I can eat a whole piece of lasagna by myself!

Mama makes goooooood lasagna! :)

MSU Cultural Vogue 2003

A few of us girls in CCF participated in MSU's bi-annual cultural show called Cultural Vogue in 2003. Looking at the video now, I'm thinking, this is crazy! I can't believe we pulled this off, or I can't believe I learned and performed such a complicated dance! Well Cassie and Christy did an amazing job on choreographing the body worship (Cassie) and dance (Christy). They also were very patient with us as they taught each step and movement. Thanks girls.

My body would not be able to move like this today. I am waaay out of shape!

If you're wondering who's in the video:
Body worship from left to right: Joyce, Diana, Rachelle, Cassie, Christy, Sewa, and Lindsay
Dance portion from left to right: Lindsay, Rachelle, Cassie, Christy, Joyce and Sewa

Hahaa! Enjoy!

This Weekend

Christine and Noah came for a visit. It was really nice to have them over for the weekend! We don't have as many extended times together as we would like. So this weekend we did some lounging around and some going out. We even did some sleepover type stuff like play a lot of video games (Game Cube) and get slap happy late at night (volleyball in the living room and "Cheese-zzzzzih"). It was actually only 10 or 11 PM but Dave and I were exhausted! Lilly loved having Christine and Noah around this weekend. She'll miss having them around to play with!
Here are just a few pics from the weekend:

Us at Art Unlimited in Okemos

Christine's bowl, my 5 magnets, and Noah's doggie

After driving Christine and Noah back today we decided to stop by Twelve Oaks Mall. We had a pretty big lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Lou and Harry's, so taking a little stroll around the mall sounded like a good idea. Oh, I forgot to mention that Lilly also had a big lunch. Noah couldn't finish his large piece of lasagna so Lilly ate the rest! She also had a little bit of baby food and some of Dave's gyro. She's such a big eater! Anyway, we got Lilly a balloon at the mall. They were handing them out at Nordstrom's. She looked so cute walking around with it! Lilly's fascinated by balloons. It's funny how most kids are. :)

This was just a little recap of the weekend.

Baa baa baa baaa

maa mamaama baa baa baa ...

zooozoozaazaa

uh oh

Trying This Blog Thing Out

I've seen some pretty cool family blogs so I thought I'd give it a try. Dave and I both have Xanga accounts but rarely post new updates. We'll see how this goes. Should the Cheng's keep up this blog? We're taking a poll. Haha and by "keep up" I mean we might post once a week, month ... or year?! Yikes!

- Lindsay
for the other Chenginators