Li Ya turns 1!

Li Ya turned one a couple of weeks ago.  It's hard watching a baby turn into a toddler, but so exciting too.  She has been the loveliest little person to have in our home.  I mean, how can someone so little bring so much warmth and sunshine into our lives? I've never had a baby smile as much as she does.  She will smile at anyone who looks at her, as long as they don't try to hold her.  

When she crawls up the stairs, she looks back at me and smiles like she knows she's doing something wrong, laughing at every step. 

At nap time and bed time, I gather her pacifier and light blue elephant blankie from her bed, drape the blankie over my shoulder, give her the pacifier, and sing to her.  As soon as she hears the first note, she rests her head on my shoulder.  Oh it's just heavenly!  

Just in the last couple of weeks, she's started patting my back when I hold her.  I can't get enough of them!   

She can say "mama" when I prompt her, but I'm not sure she knows what it means.  She raises her hands and says "Ada!" for "all done!" She can nod her head when I ask her a question.  

Fall tax season ended yesterday, so Steve took the day off.  It was a nice and relaxing day.  I even got a nap!

We sent Mei Li and Stephen off to school and then went running.  I ran 3.5 miles with an average pace of 10:04 minutes per mile.  That was the fastest I have run in a long time.  

We got ready for the day, picked up Stephen from the bus stop, and then headed to Costco for some grocery shopping.

Steve had a conversation with an EY tax partner in London about the senior manager position.  Part of me is dying to move to London.  The other part is sad for Steve to leave his perfect work situation here.   He has the greatest boss, who is planning to make Steve partner.

I took a nap after Costco and I really didn't want to wake up.

Li Ya is at such a fun and cute age right now.  She explores everything and makes lots of trouble.  She loves climbing up the steps and then looking back at me to laugh, like she knows she's doing something naughty.  When I put her down for bed, I drape her blankie over my shoulder, give Li Ya her binky, and she rests her head on the blankie.  It feels like heaven every time to have her resting on my like that.  I sing her a song, and most of the time she goes right to sleep without complaint.  She is the sweetest little baby.

Sometimes I am so tired that I forget to be happy, but I need to remind myself to put a smile on my face for my kids.  We have such a great life together.

Tonight I went to the adult session of stake conference.  The couple of hours before it started, Steve was at the priesthood session.  I was busy making chocolate chip cookie cupcakes to celebrate Mi Na's birthday, cleaning up the kitchen, and nursing Li Ya.  It all felt so frantic and rushed, but I had to get it all done before Steve got home so we could have enough time between sessions to sing "Happy Birthday" to Mi Na, eat cupcakes, and have her open presents.

By the time Steve got home, I really didn't feel like going to stake conference.  I wasn't dressed and was feeling pretty ragged.  But Steve saw that I could use some time alone and I'm so glad he encouraged me to go.

Many speakers spoke about the new youth curriculum, "Come Follow Me."  It was designed to better prepare the youth for missionary service.  The mission president and his wife, President and Sister Riggs, both spoke about how to prepare our children for missionary service.  They said that the home was the new Missionary Training Center.  It's important to teach our children hard work, discipline, and getting on a good schedule.

I felt very inspired to improve my own personal habits and help my children develop themselves also.  I have several new goals.  I would like to get to bed by 9:30 and wake up by 5:30.  I need to figure out some way to stay on top of the house work.  I think first I need to purge some things without accumulating new things.  There are many other things I plan to do, but starting out with a foundation of rest and order will make the other things more likely to happen.

Another thing I would like to do is to be financially stable.  I think we're doing a good job now, but someday, I would like to pay off a house completely and feel comfortable in retirement so we can go on missions.  I know that Steve and I would make a great missionary team.

I'm so grateful for the gospel.  It gives us so much clarity and focus.  I am excited to begin the new week with these goals in mind.

I feel like I'm going a little crazy around here.  I have been spending so much money on everything that we need for the beach. I will likely return half of it, but still, it feels so wrong.  We have family pictures coming up with Steve's family in the Outerbanks, NC.  Finding the outfits for such pictures always takes so much time and effort.

We are so excited to be all together again.  The beach house will be great.  Ten bedrooms and twelve bathrooms is luxurious for a family of thirty-one.

Stephen had his last day of preschool yesterday.  Mrs. Winslow loved him so much.  She said that "there's something special about Stephen. He's got it all."  He had a great year, but when it came time to take a picture with his teachers and tell them good-bye, he clammed up and just wouldn't.  He was making a scene and I'm sure I looked ridiculous trying to manage him with Li Ya strapped to me.  We left to pick up Mei Li.  He cooled down a bit so we went back.  We got the picture and he said, "thank you."  The "thank you" part was what mattered most to me.  I wasn't going to let him back out of that one.  He earned a volleyball for taking the picture.

I took the Stephen, Mi Na, and Li Ya to Target this morning.  I impressed myself by leaving the house before 9:00 AM.  I mainly went to buy Stephen some new clothes and I needed him to try them on.  He is growing so big and only one of his t-shirts is long enough.  In the end, we bought eight t-shirts and four pairs of athletic shorts.  He doesn't like woven shorts much.  I can just imagine him in high school still wearing a t-shirt and athletic shorts to school.

Mi Na is just such a funny girl.  She makes people laugh wherever she goes.  She is spunky, talkative, friendly, and energetic.  She did pretty well at Target, but after being there for a couple of hours, she went a little crazy.

Li Ya was happy most of the time and even fell asleep for a little bit.  She is such a sweet baby.

Mei Li came home and did her homework right away.  She is so good about that.  She brought home about eight art projects today.  I guess the art teacher is cleaning out his classroom.  She has a gift for art and I hope I can help her fully develop that talent.

Steve came home a little later than usual.  He helped get Mi Na and Mei Li to bed.  While I was washing my face tonight.  he came up behind me, gently kissed the top of my head, and smiled at me in the mirror.  I love him so much.

I am so abundantly blessed.  I love my family.

Li Ya's blessing

Steve blessed Li Ya this morning in the Belmont Ridge Ward.  She was surrounded by her father, Grandfather Zackrison, Uncle Ken, Uncle Jon, and Uncle Darin.

He blessed her with an understanding of her Heavenly Father's love for her.
He blessed her with confidence in who she is as a daughter of God.
He blessed her with a sensitive spirit, and to be in tune with the needs of others.
He blessed her with a desire to serve and to do good.
He blessed her with health and strength to fulfill her mission on the earth.

It was a beautiful blessing.  I love hearing Steve's tender voice bless our children.  He is such a good father.  I am so very blessed.

We have 9 AM church this year.  It is so wonderful, but it is so hard to get there on time.  Steve has a meeting at 7:30 most Sundays, which leaves me to get for kids plus me ready for church.  We have yet to be on time this year, but that's the goal every week.  Someday we'll make it.

After partaking of the sacrament, I took Li Ya to the mothers' lounge to feed her.  She ate well and then fell asleep.  As I was walking out of the lounge, I saw Steve leave the chapel with Mi Na in his arms, just in time for her to vomit all over him.  I asked Kate Weeks to help get Stephen and Mei Li to primary, and then Steve drove Mi Na, Li Ya, and me home so he could clean up and so I could stay at home with the girls.  We were supposed to have the Selander family over for dinner, but I canceled so that they wouldn't get this virus.

Poor Mi Na just really wanted to go to bed.  I bathed her and dressed her in warm pajamas.  Then I sang to her and put her to bed.  She slept for about three hours, until 2 PM.  She woke up happy, got dressed up in her Sleeping Beauty dress and played with Steve, Mei Li, and Stephen.  Mei Li and Stephen wanted to play zoo so Steve got out our book of animals so that they could get some ideas for playing zoo.  It was adorable to watch him sit on our rug with that open book and those three kids surrounding him.  I love my Steve.  I couldn't dream up a better father or husband if I tried.

By 5:00, Mi Na was ready to go to bed again.  We all ate dinner while she slept.  I made chili and cornbread for dinner.  It was so good.  We had a difficult time putting Stephen to bed.  He just kept getting out and it was quite frustrating.  He probably didn't fall asleep until 9, but he's usually asleep by 7.  Mei Li recently finished Little House on the Prairie and has since moved on to the abridged version of Little Women.  Every night before falling asleep, she reads a book in her little nook.  We bought her a book light around Christmas time and she loves it.  She used to read by her night light.  I hope her eyes didn't suffer much from that.

I gave Li Ya a bath tonight.  She's just the most scrumptious baby. She's smiley and happy and doesn't cry too much.  She started sleeping through the night around 6 weeks and kept it up until she turned 3 months old.  She still sleeps pretty well, but has been getting up once or twice the last couple of nights.  We'll see how tonight goes.

Mi Na was awake by 8 PM, but asleep again by 10.  She just woke up and she feels hot.  We already gave her Tylenol.  We'll have to get some Advil tomorrow.

I love all of my children so much.  It's hard to see them suffer in any way, but none of us are immune to trials.  Sometimes life is just really hard.  I'm grateful for the gospel that strengthens me through it all.

For New Year's Day, we just puttered around the house in the morning.  We watched some of the Rose Parade on our computer.  I went to Ulta to buy some eye cream and then we got ready to go see the Christmas lights at the DC temple.

The lights this year seemed particularly extraordinary.  We watched the nativity, which is always so touching.  We walked around the visitors' center to admire the creche exhibit.  Mei Li and I went around that whole room reading where each nativity was from.  I would love to collect nativities.

We walked around the revamped visitors' center, which was very cool and interactive.  It's hard to bring our kids anywhere these days.  It seems there is no way to have an outing without some whining, crying, or fighting, which is so discouraging to me.  I hope they'll improve because I'm to the point where I don't think we should do any family outings.

Stephen had a hard time going to bed tonight.  He said he was hungry.  We did eat an early dinner, but Steve gave him the opportunity to have a snack before getting ready for bed and he didn't take it.  Steve and I were making salmon burgers for our dinner and offered some to him, but of course, he didn't want to eat that.  We didn't give in and he finally gave up.  He asked Steve if I could lie down with him, but not talk in a mean voice.  I wish I didn't have a mean voice, but I do, and I'm afraid my kids know it all too well.  I'm working on it.

Steve and I watched an episode of Top Chef tonight and it was nice.  I love our night time together.  I love being married to Steve.  I'm so undeserving of his goodness, but I am so grateful for it.