Disney Trip #3: Meet the Characters

We went to Disneyland a few weeks ago with some friends. Jacob had two meetings and wasn't able to come until later that night. It was the first day of Chinese New Year festivities and all of the characters were dressed up in their Chinese New Year outfits. Normally Mickey and Minnie are the main characters on Main Street to take pictures with, but we were guessing it was Tigger because it was the year of the Tiger.

When we got to Tigger Jordan wasn't too excited about it!

We did manage to get a family picture though!

Afterward Tigger held Keely back to take one of just them. I was surprised Keely was okay with it and actually smiled!

Daisy tried really hard to win over Jordan and continued even after Jordan began to cry! I had to just get her to go ahead and take the picture and deter her from trying to win Jordan over! It wasn't going to happen!

Maybe one of these times we'll get pictures with the characters with all of the family!

Chinese New Year

February 14 was Chinese New Year. On our way back home, we had to sit on the mini bus a few minutes before it left. The bus drivers had a little table set up with snacks including a bowl full of candy! Several of the bus drivers came to the window and even got on the bus to give the girls candy! The first piece Keely tried was a little gross and she decided to not try any more. But Jordan didn't seem to mind! She even shared a piece with Jacob!!

The fastest trip

Keely was on break last week for Chinese New Year. Our family went up North to visit some friends for a couple days. We took two trains to get there and one of them was on one of the fastest trains! It got up to 350 KM/H (220 MPH)! On a regular train it would normally take 10 1/2 hours to get there, but it only took us 3 hours and 45 minutes!

The girls and I on our first train

The speed train

Our fastest speed

The 3 of us on the speed train

Keely watching a show in Jacob's lap

Jordan pretending Jacob's IPod is a phone

Jordan enjoying her milk

Brrrr!!

Last week Hong Kong got quite cold! We traveled up North for a few days and it was pretty cold. When we returned, we were surprised to find that it was almost as cold in Hong Kong as it was up North! The girls' bedroom was 50 degrees! For a few days we survived all bundled up like this!!

Of course Keely still didn't want to wear her socks!!

Yummy!

"Mmmm! This is yummy Valentine's Day candy from Papa!"

Helping Around the House

A few weeks ago we started doing chore charts. It started with just Keely, but Keely felt bad that Jordan wasn't a part. After the excitement from both of them at the end of the week when we counted the "stickers," I knew we made the right choice to include Jordan too. I found a template with sticker elements to include on the chart and use as stickers here. The chores we included on their charts were brushing their teeth, putting their shoes up (after we come home since we don't wear our shoes inside), emptying school bag (for Keely), cleaning off the table (putting their plate in the kitchen), and picking up toys. The first week went well. The next couple weeks, she didn't want to do anything that would give her two stickers at a time! If she put up her shoes she didn't want to empty her backpack. I have never pushed any of it. This past week though she really got into it and has even been helping in other areas too! When we were in the States, my nieces had a harmonica and Keely has been dying for one ever since. We looked around $1 stores, but never found one. I found one here in the brand of her other musical instruments. So, they are saving up for harmonicas! It seems to be working well for us, and like I said at the beginning they love counting their stickers at the end of the week (as seen in the pictures) and putting their money in their jars.

Jordan's Big Girl Bed

Jordan has been having problems going to sleep since we got back from the States. She got sick right before Christmas, and after that she would wake up in the night a few times a week and wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. Nothing really seemed to be working. On a good night it would take us 30 minutes to get Jordan to sleep but on average it was at least an hour! Then we decided to see if moving her to a big girl bed would help. When we first moved, we bought a bunk bed that could be two individual beds. The extra bed frame has been living under Keely's bed. We went and bought Jordan a mattress and it was delivered last Tuesday night. Jacob decided to go ahead and put her bed together that night. The first night was a little rocky, but night time has been going so much better now! It's amazing!! We put her to bed about 30 minutes before Keely, and it seems that she waits "up" for Keely to come in but she is quiet and resting during that time. Jordan is back to sleeping what use to be her normal 12 hours and 2 hours in the afternoon!! PTL!! For several days Keely told us, "I just love Jordan's big girl bed." It's just like Keely's minus the bed rail!! But I do think they both enjoy being more alike.

Problems with Mold

We have been having mold problems to say the very least. Before Christmas I was going through the girls toys and found some of the girls' stuffed animals were molding. A couple weeks later we discovered mold on our curtains and blinds. We knew we needed to buy a dehumidifier at that point, but Jacob had another week-long meeting and we didn't have time to research and shop. By the time we finally bought one, of course we had more mold! Some of our shoes in our closet had molded and some of the toys in the girls' closet! After the dehumidifier arrived, we realized just how damp our home had been! Things smell and feel so much better and the mold has stopped growing! YEA!! And most of the mold is finally cleaned up too! I just need to keep working on bleaching our white blinds!! Oh the things that come our way that brings extra work! Gotta love it, huh?

A Quick Keely Funny

Keely was telling Jacob that two daddies were in her class today, Brice's and Noriyesu's (I'm sure I didn't spell his name right!). Then she told him that Brice's daddy brought them candy that they ate throughout the morning. (A little candy and chocolate go a LONG way with Keely! Tuesday two boys had birthdays and it sounds like both brought chocolate cake and she had 3 pieces! The girl couldn't focus ALL afternoon long!) My response was, "Praise be to Brice's Daddy." "No, Praise's Daddy wasn't there. There were 2 daddies not 3," replies Keely. My bad.

Disney Trip #2

We have already been to Disney three times and have had our passes since January 15th! We are obsessed so far aren't we? Here are pictures from our second visit:

Jordan and Jacob on the teacups
(not sure if Jordan was enjoying it or not)

Keely most definitely enjoying the teacups

Jordan enjoying them a bit more
(with a mint in her mouth, which calmed her down when we first got on the ride!)

Rest time

Jordan on the carousel watching everyone else on the horses

Keely enjoying the horses on the carousel

Mommy and Keely getting ready for the 3D Philarmagic show

Jordan wore her glasses until a flute "flew" into our faces and then she took them off and refused to put them back on until after the show. Keely said it was scary, but did wear her glasses and watched from in between her fingers.

Daily Orginzational Helps

Last Fall I read a post on The Daily Digi about making life easier. One thing she talked about was Motivated Moms a printable e-book chore calendar/ planner. At that time my life seemed so crazy that even that didn't seem like it was going to help or simplify my life. At the end of this year I thought about it again and scoured the blog to find the link. They have a full sized and half sized sample that you can download. I used the sample for a week to see if it would fit our lives. The nice thing is that if you download both samples, you can see three sample weeks (even though it is January) to get an idea of what different things are on different weeks. What I liked about it is that it has things you may only do once a month or every couple months like cleaning your toaster or cleaning your living room windows. I have trouble doing the extra things that keep a home nice. It also separates tasks like you clean your toilet one day, clean the bathtub another (actually they only have this every other week but that doesn't work with us with kids!) and wipe out the bathroom sinks daily. Because some days I can't do the different chores listed or I add things (like mop the kitchen, entry and bathroom instead of just the kitchen), I actually use this as a weekly master list and then I use Simple Mom's pocket docket (this is two on a page-- she does have a full sized daily docket). You can read more about how she uses her daily docket here. I take my weekly chore planner each night and write on my docket what I plan to do the next day. If I didn't get something done for that day on the planner, I move it to the next day. Simple Mom advises to not have more than 10 things on your daily to-do list and to choose 1-3 Most Important Things (MITs) that if nothing else gets done those get done. I have used the chore planner for the past month and the daily docket the past couple weeks and it really helps. I'm not the type to be a slave to a to-do list, but it helps me remember what I need to do and not chase rabbits and do other things that don't HAVE to be done that moment. If it's a busy week, I only do the basics and not the extras -- but I like having the extras on there so that hopefully they'll get done the next time they are listed. It also helps Jacob if he has a free moment to check the list and choose something he can help do. I hope these little tools may help you manage your home a little easier too!

Jordan

Saturday Jordan turned 20 months old! As Jacob pointed out, it's only 4 months until she'll be 2! CRAZY! I think I actually forgot what 20-month-olds got into and the funny character building things they do! Of course I was 7 months pregnant and on modified bedrest when Keely was 20 months. She wasn't alone as much as I was trying to do things because I was laying on the floor in the air-conditioned den/playroom entertaining Keely and trying to keep cool and keep Jordan from coming early! I have found myself taking lots of pictures of Jordan lately -- and some are while she is in the middle of mischief!! But she is definitely always keeping herself busy!

Jordan helping Daddy get some papers off the printer

Jordan delivering the papers to Daddy

Jordan playing peek-a-book behind our chair

Coming out of hiding for a photo op (one of Jordan's favorite things!)

Jordan in the middle of a goldfish mess!

Jordan trying to convince me it is time to go bye-bye

Jordan enjoying a snack on her favorite perch

Jordan just being cute

Jordan reading by herself

Jordan showing off the apron with Daddy

Jordan playing in the tunnel

Jordan showing off all her necklaces

What do you think?

I'm getting caught back up with more regular blogging and regularly updating our Project 365 blog. Many of the pictures I take end up on the Project 365 blog with a little journal entry. I don't think a lot look at that blog a lot (which is fine because it really is for us so it'll be easier to make a book at the end of our year of pictures in June), but I don't always post the pictures and/or stories on this blog because it takes a lot of time to repeat myself! Would it be of any interest if I put links on the pictures I post on this blog to the journal entry on the Project 365 page so you can read more about that picture if you are interested? If I do that, are there any suggestions in how I do that? I could put a link on the picture? But there is a possibility the picture isn't on the Project 365 page and so you would just get a blown up version of that picture. Would that be ok? Or I could make a list at the bottom of a post? Or is there a widget that could help me? Or maybe it's ok how I have been doing it. Any thoughts, ideas or opinions?

Sick Day Fun

A couple weeks ago in the middle of our craziness Keely got her typical cough she gets with a cold. By the end of the week the cough wasn't much better, she was tired from all of the excitement of our life and had a low grade fever. I was suppose to help in her class the next day so I thought maybe keeping her home would keep her from getting more sick and developing a higher fever. It was a pretty warm day and her teacher said it was humid in the classroom so it was probably a good idea. In between her bouts of tiredness and just wanting to lay on the couch her and Jordan fit in some fun activities too.

Keely found these two empty boxes and the girls found different ways to entertain themselves.

After some sitting in them, they would knock themselves over.

Then they played golf with the boxes being the target.

Keely celebrating her ball going in and Jordan retrieving the ball.

Then the girls dropped balls into the boxes. This was really more to distract Jordan while Keely golfed, but of course Keely wanted to do it too!