home

this is the post i have been waiting a very, very long time to write.

we bought a house, survived the escrow drama, signed our lives away, got the keys, and moving day was finally here!

this is the day i have been waiting for since i was seven.  that was the last time i lived in an actual, honest-to-goodness home.  not bouncing around every year or two.  not in an apartment, not a motel, not a shelter, not student housing, not a temporary rental unit, all of which i have lived in one time or another, but a home.  our own home.

and while it is but a pale shadow compared to the heavenly home that awaits us, i can't seem to come up with the words that go deep enough to express my gratitude for this earthly home God has provided for our family.  or my gratitude to phil for how hard he's worked to make this happen for us.

it's still sinking in.

so while words are failing me, here are some breathtakingly unawesome camera phone pictures from moving day and the first few days in our new place.

we've used these movers for our last three moves and let me tell ya, soooo much easier than trying to do it ourselves.  probably is also the reason why we still have friends.

it was all very surreal.  even more so because my dad had taken the kids to his place so it was just phil and i the first few days.  the first night we were there, phil asked me if it felt like our house yet.  i quickly responded, "no, it feels like we're just crashing at carl's house."

funny little side story-- the former owner of this house lived here for over fifty years with his wife.  his name is carl.  his wife passed away two years ago.  her name was eileen.  carl and eileen...  carl and ellie... we live in the UP house!!

the kids soon rejoined us and the house instantly filled up with life and laughter and quickly began to feel like home.  despite the decidedly southwestern feel of the house which i would like to change sooner than later.  see that grand canyon stained glass window up there?  yeah, not exactly something i would have chosen.

enjoying our first meal in our new home.  peach pork chops, corn on the cob with garlic butter, and caprese salad.  on a table built to have guests join us.  so who's coming over?  :)  (heh heh, i'll make sure phil is not quite so casual in his attire.)

while the kids were away, we had their rooms painted and i hastily put up a few decorations so that we could surprise them with a very pink room for the girls.

and a blue room for the boys.  both rooms are works in progress, as is pretty much the rest of the house.  but now we can take our sweet time working on it to make it our very own.

because we're home now.

and always ready for friends to come visit!  just ask mikey, he'll hook you up.  :)

disney, revisited

back in march, we got to spend a weekend at disneyland, thanks to the conference phil attended for work.  at the time, the hotel offered a special deal for us to visit the park again sometime by the end of june.  a hundred bucks for the whole family to come again.  it was a good deal and we figured we had tons of time to use it.  three whole months!  who wouldn't have time for disneyland?!

but we failed to factor in the whole packing/moving thing we're so fond of doing this time of year.

and the whole daddy works eighty to ninety hours a week thing.

and the whole four kids and just keeping them fed and alive thing.

and so the disneyland passes kinda slid to the back burner of life until i woke up and remembered it in the middle of the night one night.  and woke phil up to ask if they had expired or not.  he said he'd check in the morning.

turned out we had a whole four days left to make good on 'em.  so we picked the day that worked best and off we went.  which coincidentally was three days before our move date.

we tsais like to live on the edge.

of sanity.

anyhoo, like i said, who doesn't have time for disneyland?!

the girls decided it was a pink frilly skirt kind of day.  (it's a pink frilly skirt kind of day everyday around here so really, not a big shocker there).

this guy gets away with a whole lot.  a whole lot.

i think it has something to do with his face.

it's very distracting.

the lines were longer than usual for their favorite kiddie rides so we had lots of time for silly pictures.

this is when i told him there was a giant worm right behind him.

man, i love this kid.

finally we made it on to the ride!  mikey and i even got to be in the very front.

making the rounds to the kids' favorite rides.

daddy decided this was the year to start the kids on pin collecting.  this one in particular was all on board with that idea.

ahh, the "sit down and rest ride".  with food.  mommy's favorite.

another version of the "sit down and rest ride".  i woulda climbed in there and joined them if i coulda.

it is a new day folks- the little sister is now big enough to be in the driver's seat.

the view was blocked by too many people during the princess parade so their daddy did what he had to do so they could see.  what a good daddy.  also, he likes to make exaggerated faces to make me laugh.  added bonus.

another sign of a new day- 3 of the 4 tsai kids are now big enough to ride without needing a parent right beside them.  er, make that 2.5.  lauren scrambled over the seat midway through the ride to sit next to us.  but don't let the disney police know that.  no telling what would happen to us then.  wouldn't want to end up in some mickey mouse prison or anything.

little guy was fascinated.

and the last ride of the day!

feeling all lit up inside.  love how this place never gets old no matter how many times we come to visit.

and nope, they couldn't get that sword out of the stone.

second strength!  still nope.  maybe next year, kids!

my forever baby

i must interrupt my series of month-old posts (the goal of catching up is looking to be a rather fruitless endeavor) because today is a special day.

today, my baby turns four.

remember my baby?

hi, baby.

and when i call her my baby, this is how i see her.  this is how she will forever look to me.  we even had a discussion about it today.  it went something like this:

lauren: mommy, i'm a big girl today.
mommy: you are?  how come?
lauren: because i'm four today!
mommy: that is a big girl number! so are you a big girl or a little girl now?
lauren: big girl.
mommy: are you a big girl or a baby?
lauren: big girl.
mommy: but, aren't you my baby?
lauren: no, jonah is!
mommy: but, aren't you still my baby too?
lauren: yes!
mommy: so you're a big girl to everyone else, but a baby to mommy, right?
lauren: yes.

whew, i'm glad we got that cleared up.

because no matter how big this girl gets...

and it really does seem like she turned into a big girl overnight...

she will still be forever my baby.  it's just how it is with this one.

and i fervently hope her love of twirly dresses sticks around for a good long time, too.  because i just can't think of the day when she won't want to twirl anymore.

so i'm holding on tight to precious today.  because today, she loves girly dresses, loves wearing her hair up "fancy", loves rapunzel, loves her pillow, loves her siblings, loves her mommy and her daddy, loves to sneak into our bed sometime in the night so that i wake up to find her snuggled up next to me in the morning (i not-so-secretly love that too), and loves being her sweet, sassy, spunky, four-year-old self.  this girl does crazy things to my heart and i thank God so much for adding her to our family.

happy four years old, my baby!

semblance of summer

i am still unpacking.  i may be unpacking into eternity. oh woe.

but in between the seemingly unending days of unpacking and settling in, we are trying to squeeze in a few days of summer fun.

remember when phil declared our family diehard angels fans?  well, we're looong overdue for our annual trip to root for our team.  as in, we seem to have missed the entire 2011 season.  aw well, no matter, the time is NOW for us to jump right back on that bandwagon.  (by the way, anyone know how our favored team is doing?  hard to gauge from the one game we attended. which was a win though- woo hoo!)

ahem.  anyhow, on to the pictures!

a nice stranger behind us offered to take a picture for us.  i love when nice strangers offer to do that because it's the only time i actually get to be IN the family pictures.

the youngest tsai really enjoyed his first game.  (btw, that is the exact same shirt lauren wore the last time we were here.)

daddy buying him his very own hot dog definitely made this the best outing ever in his book.

homerun fireworks!

still cause my children to plug their ears while everyone else is clapping and cheering.

some things never change...

but all noise complaints were silenced once the ice cream sundaes in plastic angels caps were placed in their hands.

and when all's said and done, there's nothing like being at the ball game on a warm summer night.

so i'm very thankful my little guys get to grow up with these kinds of memories.  even if we only manage to do it every other year.

go, angels!  ;)

girly girls

a couple weeks before we moved, our good friends james and jami came to hang out with us.  they are among our kids' favorite people.  you'll see why in a sec.

even jonah, who is sometimes randomly particular about who he likes and who he doesn't, took right to uncle james like a fish to water.  he kept wanting uncle james to hold him and thankfully, james was a good sport with this selectively high maintenance baby of ours.  (mikey was also standing in this picture, but unfortunately didn't make it in since i was already pressed against the wall to fit these three in.  he didn't make the cut.  ha ha.)

so while the boys went out to pick up dinner, my girly girls put auntie jami right to work.

first they asked her to braid their hair.  auntie jami can do such cute things with their hair.  they know this.  they also know their mommy cannot do such cute things with their hair.  which is why a visit from auntie jami is a special treat, indeed.

then they asked her to paint their nails.  not just one color, but five.  one for each fingernail.

auntie jami is also a good sport and not only used all five different colors, but put two coats on each nail.  she says she enjoys doing stuff like this.  who knew?  and see that little sister there in the corner?  she cracks me up.

because while she was patiently waiting for her turn, she narrowed down her nail color choices to just ten.

waiting patiently for one's turn seems to come with the territory of being a little sister.  and i must say she does it well and it is something her daddy and i really appreciate about her.

finally the big sister was done.  and was rather pleased with the results, i'd say. ;)

then came the little sister's turn.

and the little sister was happy.  because auntie jami actually did use all ten colors on her nails.  two coats on each nail.

auntie jami and uncle james?  they're good apples.  especially with our under 4-foot crowd.  can't wait to see you guys again soon!! (because um, the girls are wanting their nails painted again! heh heh...)

mother's day, father's day

hello, hello!  i'm still alive!  we moved in to our new home (YIPPEEEE!!!) a little over a week ago and it's been hectic and crazy and chaotic and wonderful all at the same time.  more on that later.  but first, i gotta catch up and stodgily go in order.  starting with... mother's day!  it wasn't that long ago, was it?

phil surprised us with dinner at the melting pot for mother's day.  it's one of the kids' (and my) favorite places to eat. 

spearing delicious morsels and then dipping them into lovely cheese sauces like this "loaded baked potato"... what's not to love?

me and my girls.

me and my boys.

and then there was this action here.  this was moments before jonah decided to turn around and drop daddy's iphone into the tiny space between the booth and the wall.  did i mention that the booth was nailed into the wall?  or that i had to spend most of the evening (in between the server's visits to our table) crouched down in the booth using a spear to try and coax the phone within grabbing distance?  or that there were plywood bars between my hand and the iphone and it was only through sheer determination and a scraped-up hand that i was finally able to retrieve that now dust-covered iphone?

hmm, i seem to sustain some type of injury each time i visit this restaurant.  maybe i need to pick a new favorite restaurant.  one that's less dangerous to my physical self.

ah, but the cheese sauce... pretty much makes up for the injuries i've suffered trying to get to it.

and the chocolate sauce at the end ain't half bad either.

so while celebrating mother's day feels like it just happened, apparently a whole month has actually flown by.  so here's one from this past sunday.  cuz it was father's day and all.

and a hard workin' daddy like theirs sure deserves a nice dinner out and lots of hugs from his little monkeys, too.  it's hard work being their hero, but he does it with a smile and that's why they love him.

and that's why i do too.  :)