thanksgiving.

our thanksgiving this year was once again a simple affair with just our family since phil was post-call the day of and has to work the rest of this weekend.  but i like the low-key time to spend together just the same.

and even though it's just us, i still like to make it a special affair and try to make as much of it from scratch as i can.

adding a new kid every couple years kinda complicates the whole cooking all day thing though.

but i'm happy to report that this year was my best yet with the brined turkey, the creamy mashed potatoes, the cornbread-apple-sausage stuffing, the rich gravy, and the spinach-arugula salad with asian vinaigrette dressing.  even the cranberry sauce was homemade this year and was a hit!  who knew it was so easy and sooo much better than the canned standby?!  (1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice boiled with 1 cup sugar until sugar is all melted.  add in one bag of fresh or frozen cranberries and bring back to boil for 10-12 minutes until cranberries pop.  chill before serving- here's a printable recipe).  even phil had a few servings and he usually avoids the cranberry sauce.  yeah, baby!

gathered 'round the table for our annual really bad thanksgiving family photo.  it's always dark out by the time we eat and i'm always too tired to bother with better lighting and so our tradition has been to get a quick snapshot of ourselves before diving in to the food.  also tradition to go around and share what we're thankful to the Lord for.  and we have so, so much to be thankful for.  God has been so very good to us.

phil hamming it up while carving up the bird.

i believe the taste of turkey has really grown on the kids since last year.  it was enjoyed by all this time around.

this one still liked the stuffing and cranberry sauce the best, though.

and this one was up to her usual antics.

the littlest one took down quite a bit of the feast, too.

as long as he got to pop in what phil calls his "thumb chaser" in between bites.

creating our own family traditions and making great food memories for my loved ones...  that's the stuff i live for.  :)

hope your thanksgiving was wonderful, too!

dedication.

last month, we had the privilege of dedicating lauren and jonah at our church.  this was something i had been wanting to do for lauren but the timing never seemed to work out.  and then jonah joined our family.  and then we thought we would be moving away.  but then the Lord led us back and everything fell into place as is always the case when it's God's timing and not ours.

the sunday we picked to do the child dedication also happened to be grandparents' day at church.

that weekend also happened to be the one time my parents would be staying over at our place since they had a wedding to go to on saturday night.  they haven't been able to come for an overnight visit since last spring due to their work schedule.

so God perfectly orchestrated all these events so that it would work out for my parents to come to church with us on that particular sunday, feel especially welcome since there were many other grandparents also there, get to see lauren and jonah's dedication, and most importantly, hear the gospel message that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

my dad is not a believer.

i'm thankful that i was able to share a little with him the night before we went to church and that he was there listening to the message at church, too.  now i'm just praying that God would allow those planted seeds to take root and grow into saving faith for my dad.

for my dad to be saved would be huge.  words simply cannot express what that would mean to me.

i asked my dad to take a few pictures for us while we were up there.  he took two.  this was the better of the two.  heh heh.  thanks, dad.  ;)

the kids love whenever the grandparents are able to come visit.  they were especially excited that they were able to come to church with us this time, too!

a picture of the kids is projected up on the screen during the child dedication and i was hoping my dad would get a shot of it.  he didn't (he said he didn't want to be too disruptive during the service), so here is the picture that was shown.

in any case, it was a wonderful sunday in which we got to commit ourselves to raising up our children in the Lord, to pray over their salvation, and where their grandparents were also able to be there with us.  it was truly a God ordained "coincidence" and a special time that we all got to be together.

displaced baby.

lots to catch up on a variety of subjects but short on time to get caught up.  i get the feeling that may well sum up the next decade or two of my life.  huh.

well, no time to dwell on that either.  : p

so, homeschooling.  so far so good, i'm happy to report.  though i'm currently going through a major identity crisis in terms of curriculum and just recently changed up pretty much everything.  but more on that later.  for now, i just want to zero in on one thing.  er, person.

lauren.

she is the bowling ball thrown into my juggling act of bowling pins.

i can't blame her much though as this would have been the year she would've had mommy all to herself at least for a good chunk of time every day as her older sibs would be in school and her baby brother takes his morning nap.  not that she knows this of course.  but i do, and i think that makes all the difference in my feelings of guilt when it comes to my baby.

my displaced baby.

still figuring out how best to squeeze in special moments just for her to let her know she's still very much loved and very much needed in our family.  and in my heart.

and a couple months ago, the perfect special moment presented itself.

i arranged for a surprise call just for her to let her know what a good helper she's been to mommy.

the special caller?  none other than princess ariel herself!

and yes, it made her day.  and mine too.

because really, it's always the little things.  <3

superfans.

phil has always been very, very good about planning both dates and family outings for us.  rare have been the times we've gone out without his having something up his sleeve for us.  so much so that it usually doesn't even occur to me to ask what we're doing or where we're going because i know it'll be something really fun (for family) or really good to eat (for date nights).  so i'm pretty content to just wait and see where we end up and so far, i have yet to be disappointed.

it's something that is easy to take for granted, because it's something he's always done for us.  but it's something i really do appreciate about him.  :)

and it was the same way back when we were dating, too.  he usually liked to keep our dates a surprise and i usually didn't ask for specifics beyond what i should wear- casual, formal, jacket needed, and the time to be ready.  you know, just the basics.

so this one time, phil said we would be outdoors, it was a sporting event, and we would eat there.  i threw on a t-shirt and overalls (because it was somehow socially acceptable to wear overalls waaay back then) and was ready to go.

he was decked out in ucla gear when he came to pick me up and informed me that we were going to a ucla game, so did i want to put on some ucla gear too?

now before we started dating, i had been to a handful of games and cheered along with everyone else, but it actually never even occurred to me to wear college colors and such.  i didn't own more than maybe one ucla shirt at the time.  hey, that stuff was expensive!  so i guess you could say that i was not what one would call a super-fan.

but as it turned out, i was dating, and eventually married, one.

so on our way to the rose bowl (where ucla home games are held), phil informed me that we were going to be tailgating before the game.  i had never heard of tailgating before this point but didn't want to let him know how woefully clueless i was.  so i just smiled and nodded and tried to look excited about it.

we got there and he started pulling out an ice chest, TONS of food, and a weber smokey joe charcoal grill.  he laid out a blanket for us to sit on, then he proceeded to grill hot dogs and hamburgers right there on the grass beside the car, then piled them on plates and added potato salad, chips, guacamole, deviled eggs, cookies...  it was comical how much food he brought for just the two of us.

but i sure enjoyed it!

and afterward, as we packed it all back into the trunk of his saturn, i casually asked him if we were going to go tailgating now that we'd finished eating.

i tell you it's by God's grace alone that we ended up together.  :)

aaanyway, that was a long time ago and i've learned a thing or two about attending sporting events with phil since then. 

things like how it's expected to wear your team's colors to show your support and to experience being part of something bigger than yourself. 

and because phil doesn't want his kids to be 21 (the age i was) before they know what tailgating is, he decided to outfit the whole family for a tailgating party.  but because they're also my kids, they thought that tailgating meant you had to actually sit in the back part of the van for it to really count.

i found it comical again how much food he brought for just our family.  but the brand new ucla sunshade came as no surprise.  i've known the way he operates for thirteen years now and some things are just to be expected.

there is something about passing on the school pride and igniting the excitement in our little ones that i really love too.

especially when these sweet faces are involved.

so the kids finally ventured out of the back of the van while daddy grilled up burgers and hot dogs for us.  he's since upgraded to weber portable propane gas grill.

see that there?  yes my friend, those are in fact fried eggs sitting atop those burgers!

because the tailgating was taking place on a golf course, the kids found this handy little sand pit to dig in.  all the neighboring kids were having a field day in this giant sandbox.  which i understand from my brother is utter sacrilege to all the golfers of the world.

but i couldn't worry about that, for there was this burgerific beauty awaiting me.

that right there is a mommy who now loves every part of tailgating.  especially the eating part.

and yep, our little monkeys found lots to love about tailgating too.

especially when daddy has bruin t-shirts and hats for everyone.

and stickers to put on these impossibly cute baby cheeks.

as for mikey?  rest assured that he is now a bruin fan for life.

go bruins!

as if the tailgating wasn't fun enough, there was also the game to behold!

and that's where mikey got the foam finger he's been wanting for a long, long time.

also where the girls got their bruin bears that they didn't know they always wanted until they got there.

bruin touchdown!!

pretty fun to be part of this sea of blue and gold.

staring contest.  i believe jonah won.

towards the end of the second quarter, someone was getting tired.

"mommy, i'm too wittle and tired to cheer anymore."

and her immediate reaction when daddy offered to get her a treat.

there's very little in this girl's world that cotton candy can't make all better.

another bruin touchdown!!

you'd never know it because phil is usually very calm and reserved in everyday life, but he can yell louder than anyone i've ever heard when cheering for his team.  he has a voice that carries impressively far.  and he doesn't hold back at all when we're at a game.  even when he's holding one of our babies.

he is, and always has been, a superfan.

and now, it appears that he's succeeded in making superfans out of all of us.  and because it makes for great family memories, i'm ALL for it, too.

reality.

in the name of accurately portraying what our picture sessions really look like...

just keepin' it real...  ;)

halloween.

so this year...

mikey wanted to be a ucla football player!  (he's been VERY in to football this season.  mostly because his daddy has had more time this year to do things like watch football with his son.  it's been really, really fun to see them bond this way).

and allie was our ucla cheerleader girl!

and lauren?  well, she was our sassy ucla cheerleader girl.

she really does just play by her own rules.

and this is about when she said, "mommy, i'm too wittle and fweezing out here."

but, but, i had to get a pic of the special mommy-made hairbows first!

our three baby bruins.

and as for our "trick or treat rookie"?

well, he was the football, of course!

the best i was gonna get at a shot of all four of 'em.

in fact, it was a whole family affair!  daddy was the coach (he had a ucla clipboard to complete his look but had to abandon it in order to hold the squirmy football who kept trying to get away), and mommy was the fan with the foam finger.

on halloween night, we attended our church's annual fall festival.  this was our fourth year going and has definitely become a much-loved family tradition.  the games, the crafts, the jumpers, the food, the storytime, the candy...  they love it all!

mikey making a spin-art picture.  mommy trying not to pass out from dizziness.

allie asked the balloon man for a flower.  he upped the ante and made her a bear holding a flower.  this pretty much made her night.

another highlight?  when mommy put these stickers on her ears so she could pretend she was wearing earrings.  her second thrill of the night.

and what big sister gets, little sister invariably wants too.

had to get a picture with the cutest little in-n-out worker we've ever seen.  :)

posing for their annual fall festival photo.

and look!  their cousins came, too!  so glad they were able to make it because it wouldn't have been the same without them there.

the tsai football men.

the coach with his football.

i didn't get to see much of this one the whole night because he was so busy running all over the place.  but he informed me as we were leaving that he had the Best Time Ever.

and that makes it all worth it for this mama.

mikey won a 10-cent goldfish at fall festival.  mikey named him "tom thumb tsai" and he promptly became a member of the family.  which then meant that we ended up spending $20 for the bowl, rocks, decorative tree, and fish food for our new pet.  which may or may not survive the week.

hope your last day of october celebrations were great, too!  :)