Autumn fun

Summer is over. It started to rain and we need to pull out all the winter clothes and make sure the heater at home is working.

Luckily there were still some nice weekends. 

Salmon days festival last weekend. Ellie rode on a pony for the first time! And we did some other fun things like the train ride and bouncy house.

This week we went to pumpkin patch. Got a few pumpkins of different sizes for our Halloween art projects.  

We also got to go to the Seahawks game. The stadium was so loud I had keep the ear plugs in Ellie's ears the whole time. But we had fun and Seahawks won too.

This is the tie dye bandana Jen helped us to make at her party.  She loves being a pirate!! 

Every Tuesday it's daddy's game night. Also me and Ellie's sushi and michael's night! Trying out a Halloween hat here.

First gardening experience

This summer our friend Ian and Jen gave us several plants (tomatoes, cilantro, pepper and thyme). Some of them grew bigger and some of them died or got eaten. When my parents came my dad made a gardening box and moved the plants in the box and bigger pots.

Dad also built a temporary deck and put the plants there. I moved them to the sunnier area but deers came and ate some of it😔.

Ellie helped watering the plant. We both had a lot of fun taking care of the plant! No fruit yet.. Hopefully we will get something before it gets cold.

This is the cactus rian and I brought back  4 years ago from HK 長洲. It was the size of a penny when we brought it back.  It is amazing to see it stays alive in the gloomy Seattle weather. (Very long and skinny due to the lack of sun).

Maui adventure

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We are on a vacation in Maui. This is the 3rd time to Hawaii since Ellie was born. I love Hawaii, it's warm and sunny weather and beautiful beaches. 

This time around we are here with 公公grandpa, 婆婆grandma, auntie eve, uncle Wallace, iris and Tristan. We got 2 vacation rental in the same complex with ocean view. 

The trip has been quite relaxing so far. We all got some sunburn but enjoying the family time. Especially Ellie, she has been following iris everywhere.

Ellie was scared of the ocean so we built a little baby pool for her. She had fun splashing water.

It was Tristan's birthday. He got a birthday present that can connect to vegetables and play piano. Pretty funny!

Another family picture by the beach sunset time. The beach gets really windy every afternoon.

Got to spend sometime with grandma. Grandma gave her candy and she loves it. And she learned to say 婆婆俾。

3 years old!

Time flies! Our baby is now a big 3 year old! She always said she is a big girl and she wants to be big like mommy and daddy so she can do dishes, laundry, cook on stove and drive!!! Well let's see if she will actually do that when she gets big enough to do all this!

We are going to Maui this weekend with my mom and dad and my sister's family. So excited! Can't wait!

Busy busy busy as a working mom

Many times I just wanted to log on and blog about how tired and exhausted to be a working mom. But, of course, when you are dead tired, blogging is probably the last thing you want to do.

I was fully prepared for how baby ellie will change my life, but it still took me by surprise on how much more work and stress I need to face and deal with on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong. It's still worth it 100%. But once in a while, I just feel really exhausted and just want to bury my face into a fluffy pillow and cry and be a baby myself.

I am still surprised how my priorities have changed. Me, and anything about myself (my look, my weight, my hobbies, my tummy, etc.) are all low-priority. With this new priority system, I am still struggling finding a balance and not overstressed myself. The past week I have been planning for a vacation in May. Hopefully a little bit of time off will help.

Enough vent. Baby ellie is still the cutest baby. She is now 8 months old and has 2 teeth and been trying out solids. She doesn't eat very much at all, but she loves yogurt. I have been obsessed about baby-led weaning and making her food for a couple months now. She is still not so interested in eating but then that is normal. She is still a baby and everything is a new experience for her.

Other than that, all of us have been sick on and off and on and off for quite a while now. Seems like sickness has become part of our life. I know, it is typical for daycare kids and parents, what can we do? Just hope that she will have a super strong immune system by preschool.

Winter is finally gone and it's now early spring. Cherry trees are blossoming and it's pink everywhere. I can't wait for the summer to come and we can have more fun outside with my wonderful family!

Do I look like the girl boo from Monster Inc?

Our 1st anniversary....

Flowers and home-made root beer =)

This is how she treats her bath toys

happy baby~

First time riding in a shopping cart

Woodland zoo, dancing with dada

Cherry blossom

broccoli day

First haircut

Ellie had her first haircut during our stay in Gillettle in Christmas. It was a tough job because she moved so much. I did the cut at first but then daddy didn't like it to be too even. So he fixed it.. I guess it looks ok?

First christmas!

We spent our christmas with Rian's family. We flew to billings the Friday before Christmas. Baby slept through most of the time when we were on the flight, so I'd say her first experience of flying was not so bad. After we got there, we first went to Lewistown see baby's great-grandparents. We had to cut the visit short because of the weather condition. It was snowing quite heavily the first night. Then we went to Gillette and spent the rest of the week with Rian's family. It was relaxing and was so good to see everyone there.  Ellie met her Auntie Alisha for the first time. We all had a fun time and ellie got tons of Christmas gifts. (I actually started this post when we were still in Gillette but then after that trip, we all got so crazy busy with life, work, and all... oh well)

Dear grandma

Goofiness...

Christmas morning, baby fell asleep when we were about to open presents

Thanks for all the new clothes!

Having fun with Kade and Levi