Merry Christmas 2017 !!!

Frankly, 2017 is not my favorite year. The unpleasant events popped up when I reflected on the year of 2017, like my dearest popo passed away, the dreadful fire in California, and all the conflicts around the world… I guessed that I had this negative feeling was because we were out of hot water for the entire Christmas week. What made this unfortunate event even more miserable was that we had three radiators that were generated by hot water. Nevertheless, we still held a somewhat successful Christmas Party last night. Both e’s enjoyed the big family gathering time, especially with the cousins, and they got whole lot of gifts.

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

不知道是不是因為孩子們的關係, 對於過聖誕節真是越來越有興趣了!
今年家裡繼續增添了更多的聖誕氣氛

Camping | Death Valley Fills Our Hearts With Awe

Charles and I love exploring the natural beauty that we’ve never been before, but Death Valley really made us want to revisit again! We had an extraordinary camping experience back in Thanksgiving week at Death Valley. There were so many awesome scenic spots that visitors like us can’t get enough of it. Although it was a LONG five hours drive, it was totally worth it.

Shop For Christmas Gifts

Charles and I are pretty straight forward in terms of Christmas Gifts. We just tell or give obvious hint to each other what we really want. A couple months ago, Charles “requested” this Lego Apollo Saturn V. I was like, “sure, not a problem. I’ll wait till Lego's VIP double points promotion and buy it then,” but the set was so popular and sold out instantly. It had been out of stock for the longest time. “Great,” I thought to myself, “I probably need to postpone it to the next year as his birthday gift.” What went well was that just a few days ago I was thrilled to find out one of the nearby Toys R Us had it in stock! What came even better was that the lady at the register gave me 30% off for waiting in the line for half an hour! Woohoo!  

Travel | Spending a Night at the Zoo

這次留台, 本來預訂了宜蘭民宿, 結果東岸狂風暴雨只能悻悻然取消, 臨時擇日訂下六福莊兩天一夜專案, 體驗與長頸鹿犀牛等動物們共度一宿!

【專案內容】

- 住宿一晚

- 活力早餐

- 風味晚餐

- 六福村主題樂園二日券

- 動物互動體驗二選一(狐猴/羊駝)

- 非洲營火面具節晚間活動

Turning Eighteen Months

小樂的第十八個月一整個是在台灣度過的... 沒來得及照好 Monthly Photo, 就借一下小綠綠吧!

在台灣最後兩周, 沒有與哥哥相處的日子讓小樂充分體驗獨生女的滋味...公公婆婆還陪睡呢! 以至於回家後還花了幾天矯正自己入睡的習慣

Special Edition of Halloween Costumes

I was never a fan of Halloween. I don’t really like the “scary” part of Halloween. For example, decorating bloody tombs and zombies in the front yard or hanging skeletons around the town sometimes made me a little uncomfortable. Nevertheless, wearing costumes has become a part of American culture at Halloween. I’m glad that it doesn’t have to be scary. There are more creative and funny costumes nowadays. This year I wanted to be creative too, so I planned and prepared little en and el’s very special costumes. (Probably only the people live in Taiwan know who they really pretend to be though. XD)

A Little Preview from Our Time in Taipei

這一次查理斯和恩仔很倒楣的停留了兩周"水量"很多的台北, 據說我們抵達之前天天都是萬里晴空! 十月中雨量甚至大到取消了原本預定的宜蘭之旅, 怨嘆啊... 不過回顧照片, 我們還是盡可能的過得豐富些, 尤其與相隔兩年多不見的老朋友相聚, 非常開心!!

Turning Seventeen Months

還沒來得及補上第十七個月的紀錄, 第十八個月都要結束啦...

小樂在第十七個月尾聲發了玫瑰疹, 幸好在出發台灣前燒退疹子發

小樂從表姊那裏接手了好幾箱的美麗小女裝, 上個月整理衣服時, 發現好多衣服再不穿一轉眼就要穿不下了! 媽媽靈機一動, 運用現有的衣服材料玩變裝! 猜猜這位像是哪一位迪士尼人物呢?

Building A Wooden Playhouse

真的不得不佩服查理斯, 週間是通勤上班族, 週末是他人水電工, 真不知道是哪裡擠出來的時間, 居然還可以蓋出一間小人娃娃屋! (未完成) 只能說爸爸真偉大!

Out and About | Birthday Party at the Reptile Zoo

This is the most interesting place we’ve ever gone for a birthday party, the Reptile Zoo. And that place was chosen by the birthday girl!

Out and About | Field Trips with Tiny Tots

What I love about en’s preschool is that I, as a mother, get to participate as much as we want. This program depends on a lot of helps from parents or grandparents, and I’m really grateful that I can be one of them. Both en and I enjoyed the spring session very much so I enrolled him in the summer session as well. Dinosaurs, pet day, and lots of outings! It was so much fun!

Turning Sixteen Months

I bet most mothers have this same feeling that their little ones grow up way too fast. It is indeed the very truth.

Little Kitchen in a Bookcase

Ta-da~ Ikea NYBAKAD 迷你廚房恰恰好地塞入 playroom 的書櫃下!

Play Kitchen Inspiration

還沒有孩子前我就開始收集一些可以用來 DIY 小人物廚房 (play kitchen) 的材料, 比如說要淘汰的床頭櫃啦, 翻修浴室後要淘汰的水龍頭開關啦, 等等...想說只要花查理斯的人工就可以有一個家裡的小人物廚房; 然後在 pinterest 上找了一堆的小人物廚房參考, 整理如下:

以下是出廠的成品, 我特地一個個網上查價, 價格都得百元美金上下:

Source/ Brio Stove

Source/ Ikea DUKTIG Play Kitchen

Out and About | Plan Ahead to Disney California Adventure

Out and About | Lovely Little Santa Ana Zoo

Last weekend we got to visit Santa Ana Zoo where we had never been before. It is relatively an itty-bitty zoo compares to Los Angeles Zoo, probably ⅙ size of LA Zoo I would say. Anyhow, it is the perfect size for toddlers like my little Es’. There’s no big predators like lions or tigers but they have an abundant collection of primates (19 species!)

Turning Fifteen Months

這個時候的孩子們還不懂得暑假不暑假的區別, 天天都有得玩! 不過夏天自然而然戶外活動就很豐富;

Camping | Lake Arrowhead, Stay Close to Nature

Back in February this year we and a few families had a weekend getaway in a vacation rental at Lake Arrowhead. The house we stayed was enormously huge and had a spectacular view of Lake Arrowhead. Such a shame that we didn’t take enough good photos for this trip :(

Fourth of July in the Pool

當居家大部分的角落都告一段落時, 不由得開始動起整頓後院的腦袋, 一直以來都是廢棄建材堆積的後院, 在今年有了新的願景: 游泳池!! 自從坎昆之旅之後, 恩仔一直期盼著任何一個有游泳的機會, 於是我們著手計畫把後院的 shed 小棚屋拆掉; 首先要處理掉裡面歷年來累積的寶特瓶, 鐵鋁罐, 玻璃瓶等回收物, 於是恩仔陪我從年初慢慢回收換錢, 上個月查理斯也開始進行了拆除 shed 的工程, 就在國慶長假前拆除完畢!

Where to Hide the Toolbox

Charles, as a handyman, can’t get too far away from his tool bag. Where to hide the toolbox in the house? We thought about hiding it in the garage with the rest of the big tools. But our garage is a detached garage; it just takes too much time to get a few household tools. The toolbox had been sat on the floor in our laundry nook like forever. A few months ago, I finally came up with the weirdest idea, which we would not recommend to anybody, but somehow it works for us: We hide the toolbox in one of our kitchen cabinets

Charles bought a set of soft close drawer rail to make it retractable:

Turning Fourteen Months

She runs and climbs and eats so well with her only two bottom teethes...

Besta System Touch Up

We didn’t plan anything for memorial weekend so Charles decided to finish up some “unfinished business.” Back in 2013 after our home theater was done, we added a shoe cabinet next to our Ikea Besta system. It was not the best purchase because we found this kind of shoe cabinet hard to use and its poor capacity was not able to fit all the shoes we own. “Why don’t you complete the whole thing with the same system, make it symmetric?” One of our architect friends suggested. So we did, and THAT was in 2015.

The Most Lovable Person in the World

我最親愛的外婆在幾天前離開了這個世界, 我試著找尋手邊的一切的蹤影...

Turning Thirteen Months

想要延續與哥哥一樣的 photo project, 自滿一歲後, 每個月一張便服樣直到滿兩歲...

Revival of My Disney Spirit

自從那天和恩仔一起去了趟迪士尼樂園, 回家後抵抗力很弱地成了迪士尼控, 聽聽迪士尼歌啦, 講講迪士尼的經典故事啦, 最終搬出那箱老是認為 "怎麼可能有時間完成" 的樂高迪士尼城堡, 樂高將之編號成14份號碼袋, 拼起來不會讓人感到綿綿無絕期, 結果僅僅一個禮拜的晚上就把長達490頁的樂高指南給她拚完了!

First Day of Preschool

Life gets busier. Our little en has gone to the local preschool since April. I’m not sure if calling it a preschool is the right way saying it because en only goes two times a week and only three hours each time.

Camping | First Camping of the Year at Cachuma Lake

Last weekend we went our first camping this year to Cachuma Lake in Santa Barbara. This is by far the most comfortable campsite that I’ve experienced. The fair amount of tall trees provided great size of shades. There were bugs around of course but they didn’t really sting us. (however we did have a friend got stung in the eye though… ouch…) I think it’s a very nice spot for first campers. The site even has hot water shower, 50cents every 3 mins! On top of that, Charles booked the campsite that was right in front of the lake. People said the lake used to be like a stream because of the drought. After the heavy rain last winter, the lake-view just AWESOME beautiful!

Turning Twelve Months

想記錄的事情已經列出好長一串, 每每晚間孩子入睡後都不想面對電腦, 以至於小樂樂的週歲之月都要過完了, 竟然都還沒貼上...

比照哥哥週歲, 我們給樂樂過了個簡單但非常開心的生日; 樂樂好像知道自己是主角似的, 本來只能走個五六步, 突然間整個趴趴走了起來!

Wood Anniversary

查理斯問, 今年結婚紀念可以做點什麼紀念物品? 我愣了一下, 等等...已經第五年了?!

第五年, 木婚, 看來他等這年等了一會兒, 要來發揮一下他的木工手藝

查理斯想做個相框之類的木製品, 於是我推薦了部落客 Power Bower 的這個相片架, 比起普通的木頭框有創意多了, 還可以任意更換位置和裝飾

Turning Eleven Months

已經是十一個月半的小樂樂就快要滿周歲囉~

Out and About | Celebrate Birthday at Disneyland

I know it’s a bit too early to take little en to Disneyland. He probably won’t remember anything; but Disney is offering SoCal residents for $50 per day! Southern Californians can enjoy any 3 days before May 25, 2017 (spring break blockout dates applied) for $149. Besides, Charles has never been to California Adventure Park anyway. We get to celebrate en’s birthday, our anniversary, and Charles’ birthday at Disneyland this spring!

Fight Against Coldness

Charles has been working on warming up our home over the years. He tries REALLY hard, seriously. It becomes like a routine must-to-do every winter. I have mix feelings about this. I am glad that he puts so much effort into our home but at the same time he spent so much time in the yard and every time he wrapped the project up around the time when the winter was almost over. Skipping through numerous knocking down the plaster and insulating the house, here are a few exceptional examples of fight against coldness:

Turning Ten Months

我的十月大的小情人, 情人節快樂! 又爬又轉的, 像這樣的 monthly photo 越來越難照囉~

喔! 我有兩個小情人

Headboard Modification

One of my new year resolutions is to update more about our home improvement projects. It may seem that there’s nothing left to tackle, but then there’s always woodworking or DIY projects going on in the house. Home improvement project is something that gets me to continue the blog after all and I don’t plan to stop taking notes about that. We’ll see how it goes :)

I pin this picture a long long time ago and I showed it to Charles. After a few year, (no kidding, a few years) he decided to copy it.

Source

Charles made our bedroom headboard back in 2015. He didn’t take my suggestion to add this hidden shelf behind it because he believed that save a little space between the wall and the headboard could help divert the cold air… A year later, he completely forgot about his theory and really wanted to get rid of the night stand so the idea of the hidden shelf was taken in:

Travel | Swim with Dolphins

Last but not least we had this exciting experience with dolphins! Moon Palace Resort offered $1500 worth of resort credits to be able to used for excursions (additional 16% of tax was not included). Bring little children with us forced us to forget about ATV’s, zip-lines, or even snorkel. There were only a few options that were really children friendly. And one of them was Dolphin Discovery, which we got to swim and interact with real dolphins! I was pretty surprised that children, like 2yr old en, were allowed in the same water with dolphins this close!

Travel | New Wonder of the World - Chichen Itza

從 Cancún 回來要一個月了, 感覺已經是很久以前的事... 不過這個地方不記錄下來實在有點白去了一趟墨西哥:

如果想體驗墨西哥文化深度旅遊, Cancún 恐怕不是個很好的選擇, 被渡假飯店包圍的 Cancún 一點也感受不到當地的風俗民情, 不過既然來到 Cancún 就不能不造訪被選為其中 New7Wonders of the World - Chichen Itza! 至少在這裡可以見到宏偉的瑪雅文化遺址(想知道更多知識)

Turning Nine Months

I feel so unprepared for 2017 and yet my baby girl just keeps growing growing and now turning nine months old…

Little el is no doubt a happy baby, however the time we spent in Cancun she was constantly crying for mommy. All the surroundings were unfamiliar to her. Mommy’s hug became the only place that she felt safe.