Kung Fu Panda 2

Last night we watched Kung Fu Panda 2 with the girls.  Dave and I really enjoyed the movie and we think the girls did too.  They were a little scared of the villain but they still sat through the whole movie.  The scary moments in the movie were pretty short and broken up with a humorous comment or act by the funny panda, Po.  

Lilly was following the storyline of the movie and asking questions like "Why did the peacock think his mommy and daddy didn't love him?"or "Why is he doing that?" But we weren't sure how much Mia was understanding.  Then there was this one part of the movie where the mother panda has to leave and say good bye to her baby panda.  It's actually a very touching moment that got me a little emotional!  I could feel some tears in my eyes but when I looked over at Mia I totally lost it (broke out in full crying tears)!  Mia's eyes were glued to the movie as she watched the mommy leave her baby.  Mia's lower lip was out and then tears rolled down her face!  Oh, little sweetie, understood that this was a sad moment in the movie!  After that Mia kept asking what happened to the baby panda.  She asked, "Where'd baby Po go?"  We had to explain to her that baby Po is okay!  He's now big Po!  Just like Simba (from the Lion King) was baby Simba and then he grew up to become big Simba.  I think she understood that.

At the end of the movie Lilly said she thought the panda was funny and Mia said her favorite is baby Po.  Now Mia's found a panda stuffed animal and says his name is Po and Lilly has named her tiger stuffed animal Tigress.

Anyway, Dave and I laughed a lot throughout the movie and thought it had a good story.  We'd recommend it!

Memorable Birthday Dinner For Dave

Memorable Birthday Dinner For Dave, a photo by Cheng Family on Flickr.

Back on December 5th, we got a chance to celebrate Dave's 31st birthday. We had a special dinner at Seasons 52 in North Bethesda. It's always special for us to share delicious food together, but the night was extra special for me to tell Dave how much I love and appreciate him.

I was in the middle of doing this 30-Day challenge of encouraging your husband. I tried to do the challenge without telling Dave about it. I asked him if he'd noticed that I was trying to give him extra encouragement over the past 24 days and he said no! Haha! Then he said it's been pretty busy. It was a busy month for us, but I pointed out that I thought it had been a good month too. I noticed that as I was trying speak positively and give encouragement to Dave, he would say something encouraging back to me!  We also didn't get into any big fights/arguments that month and we weren't as snippy or short with each other.  I think overall the 30-day challenge was very good for our marriage. I've been wanting to improve on encouraging my husband and doing the 30-day challenge was a good way to get me started. I received daily emails with good questions to think through and ideas for how to encourage my husband. I found myself constantly looking for opportunities throughout the day for me to sneak in some encouragement in our conversations.

So in case I missed a day to encourage Dave, I planned to type out my words of encouragement for each day of the 30-day challenge. And at his birthday dinner I read them to him. We only got to day-3 because Dave said he was already feeling so overwhelmed with love and gratefulness. He asked if we could space it out a few days. :) So now I have many more days of the challenge to read to him.

I love my husband and I'm thankful he chose me as his wife. I see his strong desire to lead me and our family.  I see it in his words and actions. For the past month he's been waking up early in the morning to pray and read the Bible. Many times at breakfast or lunch Dave will tell me about his quiet time with the Lord. That blesses me in so many ways. When he wakes up early, it makes me want to get up early too, and it gets me talking and thinking about God and spiritual things.

Dave is also the best daddy to Lilly and Mia. He plays games with them like castle Legos. He'll help the girls make-believe that princesses have to fight off the bad guys or the evil dragon. Dave is teaching Lilly piano and makes breakfast for the girls pretty much every morning. Thank you for serving me in this way!

Dave, you're so special to me and the girls. We love you so much and hope you had a very blessed birthday!!! :D

side note: this is blog entry is posted by Lindsay, not Dave. :)

Rolling in the Leaves

Rolling in the Leaves a video by Cheng Family on Flickr.

The other day I raked leaves outside. The girls "helped" me too. Lilly and Mia had fun jumping and playing in the leaves, but then Lilly decided that she didn't want to play in the leaves anymore because they smelled. Haha Well Mia didn't have a problem that! She jumped and rolled in the leaves, and she threw the leaves up and rubbed them in her face. Mia had a great time in the leaves, to say the least! When I said it was time to go inside Mia said, "Leaves. Fun!"

Lilly and Mommy Date

Lilly and Mommy Date, a photo by Cheng Family on Flickr.

Lilly finally got a long overdue date out with mommy this afternoon. We went to paint a gift for daddy at the art studio and then shared a cupcake at the cupcakery across the street. It's actually called "Lilly Magilly's" - and it's a really cute store! We shared a pumpkin spice cupcake. Yum!

I so enjoyed spending this time with Lilly. She's such a special little girl and I love her so much. I easily get caught up in getting the every day tasks completed and don't get to spend as much quality time (giving my full attention) with Lilly as I would like.

Dave and I hope to make this a regular thing where Lilly and Mia get to go on separate dates with mommy and daddy.

DSW with Lilly and Mia

DSW with Lilly and Mia a video by Cheng Family on Flickr.

This video cracks me up! Back in September I took the girls to DSW. It's like going to the toy store but they don't expect to buy anything when we leave the store. And mommy's okay with not buying something every time too.

Both girls love trying on shoes. Lilly will always go for the tallest and flashy-est high heel shoes.

In the video there's dance music playing in the background, Lilly goes through a couple different pairs of shoes and shows off some pretty cool dance movies, and Mia struggles to put on and walk around in one pair of shoes! My favorite Lilly dance move happens around 00:34. What's your favorite move?

Homemade Hummus and Homemade Pita Bread

Homemade Hummus and Pita Bread, a photo by Cheng Family on Flickr.

Dave's made a couple batches of hummus and pita bread in the past two weeks. I've been eating a lot of hummus and too much pita bread. I love good bread!

Lilly and Mia's Acting Debut

This past weekend, we had a blast making this movie:

Where's Daddy? from Dave Cheng on Vimeo.

Both of the girls did such a good job following directions and saying their lines! I hope that this'll be the first of many movies to come out of the Cheng household!

It's Been Quite A Month

I wasn't sure if I should publicly blog about this. It's not that I don't want to talk about it or want to hide it. Well God has been at work in my life and I'm going to share about it. So here it goes:

The Thursday before Labor Day I found out I was pregnant but then just a month ago I found out I was having a miscarriage.

I was only about 8 weeks along but at an early sonogram at the doctors, they told me the baby wasn't measuring at 8 weeks but more like 6 weeks. The doctor said it could mean two things: 1) I'm not as far along as I thought or it could mean 2) the baby isn't growing and this is not a normal pregnancy or I might be having a miscarriage. Dave and I were really hoping and praying for scenario #1.

I think I was in shock when I first heard this. Lilly was also with me at this appointment. The doctor suggested I get blood work done again and another sonogram to double check things. Well I did that and then a few days later I got a call about the blood work results. I found out that my hormones are lower and it looks like this pregnancy will end in a miscarriage.

My heart sank. I was sad to think about losing a baby and scared to think about going through a miscarriage and possibly having surgery to remove the baby. Even with feeling sad and scared, I felt the Lord was near. There are so many questions of "Why?" but God is in control of all things. He's above all and in all. He gives life and takes away life.

By the grace of God, I just wanted to read my Bible and journal after I found out about the blood work results. And since then I've been hungry for more of God's Word and wanting to find comfort in verses that talk about trusting and resting in Him. I've been meditating on these verses:

Deut. 7:9

Know therefore that the LORD your god is God, the faithful God who keeps convenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.

Psalm 62:8

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.

Ps. 145:17-19

The LORD is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.

The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.

I've also been so encouraged by the support of family, friends and our church. Everyone's prayers and sharing scripture has really blessed me. The day after I found out I was having a miscarriage, I had planned to attend a class at church about Biblical Womanhood. I was considering staying home because I was pretty emotional still and wasn't really feeling up for talking with new people I've never met. Anyway, God led me to the class and he blessed me there. At the end of the teaching we divided up into small discussion groups. At the end of that time the leader was asking for prayer requests. I spilled out to the group that I was having a miscarriage (couldn't even get the words out without crying!) and all the ladies immediately layed hands on me and prayed for me. I was so encouraged that these ladies would do that for someone they just met and they followed up with me the week later. They asked me how I was doing and said they thought of me often throughout the week and prayed for me. Thank you! That meant a lot to me.

So for about a week or so after finding out that the pregnancy was ending in a miscarriage, my body actually initiated the miscarriage and the heaviest bleeding occurred while I was at church. I felt pretty overwhelmed so I went to the ER. Dave was leading worship for the kids church service so he wasn't able to leave right away. I still had the kids with me but thankfully a friend said she'd take care of them until we were finished at the hospital. Our friends ended up keeping them through lunch and played with them for most of the afternoon. Even though being at church seemed like a bad place for the heaviest bleeding to happen, I'm sort of glad it did. Friends were there to help us and pray for us - I'm so grateful for that. So Kelly drove back to my house to get me a change of clothes and then drove me to the ER. I was fine and so was my body. I went home to finish off the miscarrying process. This lasted for about two weeks. I was to going to the doctor weekly to make sure my body and hormone levels were going back to normal (negative pregnancy test). I'm happy to say that after a month or so of these weekly doctor appointments and many sonograms, it's done.

James 1:2-4 says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

God, I don't understand why the life that was inside of me didn't grow. Did the fetus even have a heartbeat? I probably won't know the answers to these questions until heaven, but God, you know what's on my heart. I have questions but ultimately my hope and my trust is in you. Lord, pressing into you (praying, reading your Word, being encouraged by others) during this hard time has grown my faith. Thank you for keeping me near and blessing me through family, friends, and church family.

Lilly and Mia Say Funny Things

Lilly and Mia, a photo by Cheng Family on Flickr.

Lilly

My name is Lilly and this is my baby sister Mia! - said after watching many episodes of Dora the Explorer and Diego. She said it with hand gestures too.

My mommy and daddy say McDonald's is unhealthy - said while our friends are babysitting the girls and take them through the drive-thru

Boover - Lilly thought this would be a good name for a boy.

Mia, if you don't eat a sandwich then fried rice for you!!! - Lilly giving Mia options at lunchtime. She said it like fried rice would be given as a punishment.
Puhcuter - Lilly calls the compter a "puhcuter" (pronounced puh-cute-er)
Little Tweezers - We like $5 hot-and-ready pizzas at Little Caesar's but Lilly calls it "Tweezers".


Mia

"Thank you so much!"

Oh Happy Day! Happy Day! You wash my sin away! - Mia's favorite song to sing is "Happy Day".

Hellloooooo! - The girls love listening to this song "Lazy Bones". In the middle of the song a man shouts out, "Hello!" Mia loves to shout it out too but hers is a little raspy "Helllloooo!"

Every night before we go to bed we pray together and ask the girls to say one thing they're thankful for. I love how Mia gives a thoughtful and personal answer each time. She'll say, "Uhhhh .... thank you God for ..." She loves to copy her big sister but this one time when she thinks up an original answer.

She's into saying, "I"m fast!" and she'll run from point A to point B as fast as she can.  She usually repeats this over and over again, at least 3-5 times.

Mia's picked up on Lilly's whining and complaining.  When she doesn't get what she wants or if it's not her turn right away, she'll arch her back or lean her head back and say, "Ooooh, I never."  I don't think she understands what she's saying!  Sometimes she'll say this when Lilly doesn't get her way.  She just likes to copy big sister.


*** I'll have to add more quotes when I think of them!

Claude Moore Colonial Farm

Claude Moore Colonial Farm, a photo by Cheng Family on Flickr.

This was our first school field trip of the year! We went down to Virginia for a 1771 Colonial experience. Lilly enjoyed walking around with her friends, seeing old houses, and playing games from the colonial times. She didn't like dipping the string into hot wax to make a candle or carding or spinning wool. She thought those were too hard. Plus, she was afraid of getting hurt. The people giving instructions gave warnings about the wax being so hot that it could burn you and the brushes being sharp enough to cut you. Yeah, that scared her enough to not want to do them. Oh well, it was neat to go on this field trip together. We saw what life was like in Virginia a long, long time ago. Before we went on the field trip, I showed Lilly some pictures and read the American Girl books Felicity. The stories take place in 1774.

We look forward to more school field trips this year!

Sisters Playing Together

Playing Boat, a photo by Cheng Family on Flickr.

I love to watch Lilly and Mia play together. They've been playing pretend play stuff together lately. Here's a pic of them playing "boat" together. Lilly will tie the blanket to chairs and stools and then they'll dump a bunch of stuff on top of the blanket. Lilly's sitting in the captains chair in this pic. They also play "sick" where they take care of dolls and animals. They'll also take turns being sick. One will be the sick one and the other will play the doctor. It's really cute to see and hear them talk to one another. Lilly gets what Mia's saying too.

Cut Cut Paci

We finally did it. We cut the paci and Mia is weened off the pacifier!

I wasn't sure when this day would come. I think I made the process harder than it actually needed to be. I felt sad that Mia would be losing something she loved at bedtime and something that soothed her. Getting rid of the paci was also like saying that my baby is no longer a baby. That's sometimes hard for mommas to say. But eh, she's still my baby even though she doesn't use the paci anymore!

It was funny, Mia was actually excited about cutting the paci. She kept saying, "Cut cut B!" She calls her paci or binky, B. So when I told her we were going to cut cut B she did a happy dance. Some moms had told me you can gradually cut it down, but I just decided to cut it half way down. I handed Mia her paci and she smiled and put it in her mouth. Her face quickly shifted to a confused and puzzled look. She took the paci out of her mouth and was trying to pull the mouth part out. Sadly there was a hole there now. She handed it to me and said, "Help paci." I told her it was very sad but paci is now broken.

So now at naptime and bedtime I'll try to give her the paci but she'll give it back to me and say, "No paci. Paci broken." Praise the Lord she's slept 2 naps and almost slept through 2 nights without her B. And I suppose momma's doing okay too.

***edit: Mia woke up at naptime today, startled by a loud noise. She called out for her paci and walk looking around her bed for it. :( I ended up staying in the room with her and patted her back a little. She's back to sleep now though.

p.s. - I wanted to mention what finally convinced us to ween Mia from the paci now. This past Saturday we went to the dentist and discovered that Mia has an open bite. Lilly has an overbite but Mia has an open bite. Her front teeth don't fully close down together. We think the paci might of had something to do with it.

First Time Flower Girls

Congratulations Andrew and Ling!

The two little flower girls.

Ling and Andrew's Wedding Day, a photo by Cheng Family on Flickr. (Unfortunately we were so busy that day we forgot to take a nice family picture together! I wish I would have remembered because it's pretty rare that we're all dressed up so nicely.)

Lilly and Mia had the privilege of being flower girls for their Uncle Andrew and Auntie Ling. Lilly did a great job and walked down the isle holding the ring bearer's hand. Mia was supposed to walk down with them too but she decided to follow behind mommy and daddy instead. Dave and I were both in the wedding party and were the first to walk down the isle. Mia didn't walk down at the right time but it was still really cute! You can never predict how a 2 year old (or almost 2 at the time) will do in a wedding!

Ling and Andrew were married on July 23, 2011 and it was a beautiful wedding. We are so happy for them to be married, and we're equally happy to welcome Ling into our family!

Our New House

Our house, a photo by Cheng Family on Flickr.

(pictures were taken on different days... the front of the house was taken recently and the back of the house pic was taken the day we did house inspections. Our house is actually more of a yellow color rather than white. The backyard has been GREAT for playing in this summer! We turn on the sprinkler and set up the little pool for the kids to play in.)

God has so kindly provided us this beautiful house! It has blessed our family so much this past month since we've moved in. I pray we'll use it to bless others and bring glory to God!

Dave and I want a Bible verse or something on display in our house that reminds us that God has provided this home for us. We haven't picked a verse out or done anything yet. We're open to verse suggestions and ideas!

Buying A House

So we're buying a house! Well we've been actively looking to buy a house for the past 2-3 months. It seems like this journey has been up and down, down down, and then up and down and up again. It's an emotional roller coaster! Even with our changing emotions, God's been faithful to teach us and reveal himself to us during the process.

Here's a list of events from the last few months of our house search:

- We see a short sale house that we really like but aren't sure if we can afford it.

- Weeks go by but in the meantime we find out that we're pre-approved and can put an offer on the house.

- We view the house for a 2nd time and then find out that the day before the house got 3 good offers and they're in the process of ratifying one of the offers. We were too late.

-

***Edited on 8/9/11

Sadly this post has been sitting here unpublished for so long! Well since I last wrote this in May, we've put an offer on a house, didn't get it, and then a few days later we discover that we DID get it! So at the end of June we closed on the house and are now moved in!

God is so kind to provide us this house just about a block away from my sister's. We're definitely enjoying the house and sometimes still can't believe it's our house!

I hate to do this, but I'll have write the story of how we got the house at a later time. I only have time to post some quick pictures. The story and more updates will have to come later!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom, Rachel, Yen Yen, and Po Po!

All of these women have been an influence in my life, and I'm so grateful for them.

I'm especially thinking of my grandma, Yen Yen. This is the first Mother's Day without her. She passed from this world on April 10, 2011, but she is now in the sweet presence of Jesus and worshiping God in heaven.

I think Yen Yen looked forward to Mother's Day. Every year the mothers would receive a gift during service, but then there was bonus gift that would be given to the mother with the most children. My grandma would always win because she had the most children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren out of all the ladies at church. She would stand proudly from the pew.

I love her and miss her very much. I have sudden moments when I think of her and can't believe she's gone. I won't see her on this earth but I definitely have hope to see her again. I have faith I will see her again in heaven.

1 Thessalonians 4:14-17

¹⁴ For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. ¹⁵ According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Mia Went On The Potty!

A proud moment this morning:

Mia went poo poo on the potty! What a big girl. :)

Disney World Vacation 2011

We consider this our first real family vacation. We flew to Florida, not for a wedding to visit other people, but to create our own schedule of things to do and see in Orlando. We had a blast! Dave and I keep saying it was the perfect family vacation. The girls had a great time and parents did too!

By God's grace Dave and I were relaxed and didn't get into major arguments over the trip. There were some high stress moments and surprisingly we laughed them off sometimes. Like when Mia cried/screamed almost the entire flight there and the flight back, or when we decided not to bring the stroller to Epcot at night and to carry two tired girls back to the resort. So really, thank you God for such an enjoyable trip!

We couldn't have asked for better weather that week. It was 65 degrees when we got there and got warmer as the week went on. It was 80 degrees two days out of the week. We were able to go to the pool at our resort and Lilly said that was one of her favorite parts of the trip. Both of the girls love water and love playing in the pool! I think Mia threw tantrums both times we had to leave the pool.

Food at Disney was really good! We thought we'd be eating pizza and burgers at every meal but we ended up having a much wider selection than that! Well we did have pizza for dinner one night (it was a really good deal). We decided to go all out and get the meal plan too. I'm glad we did because it was convenient, ate some fun snacks, and saved some money too. Now, if we stay off Disney site in the future we might not get the meal plan but since we stayed at Disney's Polynesian Resort it was good for us.

Some highlights from the vacation:

- Lilly met her favorite princess, Princess Aurora, 4 times that week. She seemed to be excited to see her all 4 times too!

- Lilly's favorite roller coaster was Goofy's Barnstormer.

- We met Aladdin and Jasmine at Magic Kingdom. Lilly showed them her Baby Tiger and told them about Mia's Mustache Bear.

- Mia did not like the animal characters and cried whenever one got too close to her. So lunch at Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom was not a very relaxing lunch for her. All of the characters from Winnie the Pooh visited our table and Mia cried every time!

- Lilly laughed throughout the entire show Turtle Talk With Crush at Epcot. I don't think she's seen the entire Finding Nemo movie but talking with Crush was still really entertaining.

- Pineapple Dole Whip soft serve is delicious! We had it at Magic Kingdom and then found out that our resort had a Dole Whip machine too!

- Dinner at Cinderella's Castle on our last night at Disney and for Lilly's 4th Birthday. It was so special to be in the castle and have the girls dress up in their princess dresses.

Each day was packed with fun-filled family time. I'm so glad we had the chance to go. It was such a blessing to be together, making memories, and vacationing in Disney for an entire week. On our flight home, Dave and I were already brainstorming when and where we could vacation next as a family.

I think I have over 400 pictures + videos uploaded to Flickr. Check them out and read the descriptions to read/see more of our vacation. Look in our Disney World Vacation 2011 set.

Here are a few favorite pics:

Lilly's 4

Sweet, silly, laughing, and often loud Lilly turned 4 on February 3rd. We were in Disney World, at Magic Kingdom the day of her birthday (update on Disney to come later). Lilly wore a birthday button and was wished 'Happy Birthday' by all the workers and characters around the park. She got very good at saying, "Thank you. I'm 4 now."

Lilly's always seemed a little older to us. So it's no huge surprise that she's 4 years old now. I guess she might seem older than her actual age to us because she's a firstborn and she's always been well above average for her height and weight (currently 41'' and 38 lbs.). Lilly also speaks clearly and is coordinated. We think she's athletic. Yeah, we're proud parents. :)

At 4 years old, Lilly loves to be with people. She likes when we have visitors and when we visit others. She likes to go to Sunday school, ballet class, and any other class we go to. Lilly has a great love for animals, especially cats/kitties. She prefers caring for her stuffed animals over baby dolls. Her favorite animals have been changing lately. Mama Tio isn't always first choice these days (a little sad for us to see). Lilly has some new lovies, like Baby Tiger, Mimi Tio, and Baby Simba (bought at Disney). Lilly is still into princesses and claims that she loves all the Disney Princesses (although when asked Aurora's still her favorite). She loves to color in coloring books and play dress up with her princess dolls. Often, when she's playing by herself, she'll break out in song. It'll either be a Disney song or a song from church. Lilly's currently in a dance class learning tap, ballet, and jazz, but I really think she's more of a "freestyle" dancer. :) That's more her personality!

Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with a healthy and joyful little girl. God, we pray you will save her soul and one day she will confess that Jesus is Lord of her life.

We love her, dearly. She's always been our sweetheart. Happy Birthday, Lilly!

Disney World!

It's Disney Day! We're off to Disney World for a family vacation. Can't wait! :D

When I Grow Up ...

Lilly was playing a dinosaur digging game on the computer this afternoon. This was our conversation:

Mommy: Lilly, do you want to be a paleontologist when you grow up?

Lilly: Mmm-hmm, but I really want to be a grandma.

Mommy: Why do you want to be a grandma?

Lilly: Because I like grandmas.

How sweet! Lilly loves her grandmas!