enter the dog.

once upon a time, i as a little girl asked for a dog.  a cocker spaniel to be exact.  my dad had wanted to get me one, but finances and circumstances just didn't allow for it.  my parents got a divorce instead.  and my dad has always felt bad that he never got to give me the dog i wanted.  or so he said when he bought us this (with our prior agreement of course):

not a cocker spaniel, but my favorite dog in recent years.

meet daisy the dog.  mikey's over the moon for her.  although he was initially disappointed that she wasn't a boy dog because now, as he said, "our house is full of girls and only two boys!"

we have to keep a close eye on lauren when she's near daisy.  the first day daisy came, lauren was all about holding her but is now a bit skittish around the puppy.  so she loves her from a afar but hasn't held her since.  allie only pets her when someone is holding her and otherwise says, "keep an eye on the dog!" while she bolts in and out of the room when daisy's out of her pen area.

phil says she's thinks i'm her mom.  well, i am the one who feeds her and cleans up after her and bathes her and is potty training her...

she's very tiny.  and looks like a wet rat after her bath.  the kids think that's hilarious.

she is a welcome addition to the family though.  she's very sweet and comes running to stay around my feet whenever she notices i've moved away from her.  it's kinda fun being the favorite human.

although mikey is most definitely her favorite boy human.  he's always very careful and gentle with her.

and so enters the dog.  cuz my life isn't crazy enough as it is.  : p

now she's two.

completely without my consent, my sweet tiny little infant newborn turned two last week.  and seemingly overnight, she's done away with her babyness and sprouted arms and legs that dangle all over the place whenever i try to cuddle and rock her.  phil laughs whenever he sees me try to hold her in my arms as she yells and squirms to break free.  apparently we no longer have a baby in the house.  i will have to pause and ponder that thought at a later date.

in any case, we celebrated her second birthday in grand tsai style.  meaning, we went totally ghetto.

after phil got home from work, we took her out for a birthday dinner at...  souplantation!  hey, it may be ghetto, but it was right up her alley in that they have a lot of her favorite things to eat.  and being that this girl has always been a big eater in a peanut-sized body, it was kind of fitting.  and she was happy.  :)

the next day (cuz we got home kinda late from dinner the night before and were all kind of tired), came the moment she'd been waiting for.  lauren has the last birthday of the year in our family and so has to endure four "happy birthday" songs and four blowing out of candles before she finally gets her turn.  needless to say, she's been practicing blowing out all manner of pretend candles for months.  and finally, this oreo ice-cream cake was her big moment!

she jumped the gun a bit and blew the candles out as soon as daddy placed the cake in front of her.

so daddy re-lit them and we hurriedly sang to her while she eyed those two candles the entire time.

and then finally came time to blow out the candles!  with a little help from big brother.  which she didn't notice or else would've loudly voiced her objection to any and all intruders.

one of the few times in life when you can have your cake and eat it too.  and how sweet it is. 

"how old are you, lauren?"  she can't hold up two fingers on the same hand, so she improvises by holding up her two pointer fingers.

and this is what happens if you ask her one too many times.


happy birthday my not-so-little baby!  we are so blessed to have you in our family.  you bring us so much joy and laughter every day and we just couldn't do without you!

legoland.

phil had a few days off before starting life as a fellow.  because most of those days had to be used for the move/cleaning/settling in, we didn't get to do too much fun stuff.  i was starting to feel bad for the kids who have been troopers throughout the whole process and had to entertain themselves much of the time while i tried to unpack.

so, we took one day and whisked the kids off to legoland for some family fun.  turns out it's not too far away from where we now live and so phil bought the 3-month pass so we can hopefully squeeze in another visit or two.  we haven't gone there since lauren was 7 weeks old and were looking forward to going since the kids were bigger now and would be able to ride more things.

unfortunately, our peanut lauren still wasn't tall enough for a lot of the rides.  and i still don't get why she couldn't ride the boats when they only go five miles an hour.

it's so sad to be the youngest and smallest.  but thankfully, she didn't seem to mind *too* much.

meanwhile, the older two got to ride twice, once with daddy and once with me.

but not to worry, we tried our best to make sure she still felt loved.

and entertained.

yet another ride lauren couldn't go on.  now she was starting to mind a bit more.  but this time around, allie was big enough to ride and mikey was almost too big for this one.

but he was thrilled that he was finally old enough to ride the bigger cars and had a blast.  we let him go twice.

meanwhile, there was more waiting for these two.  but at least they had each other for company!

joy of joys, we finally found a ride with NO MINIMUM!  she was dying to finally get to ride something.

my little thrill-seeker loved whipping around the hairpin turns (ok, they weren't really hairpin and we were really only going like two miles an hour).

all smiles on this train ride that was just her size.

until the ride came to an end, of course.  so we had to go on it two more times.  she would've stayed on it all day if we let her.

but we had to pull her away because we wanted to see the sights...  ooh...

ahh...

then we hopped over to the aquarium part of the park.  my little shark embryo.

a rare and highly unusual species of fish.

twas a fun family day and so nice to get away for a little while from our current crazy life and enjoy some time together.  looking forward to going back again sometime soon!  maybe i can find some shoe lifts for lauren in the meantime...

the fourth.

wow, i'm still way behind.  the fourth was over two weeks ago, but to me it feels like it was just yesterday.  the days are flying and i can't seem to catch up on anything.  it's driving me nuts.  and when i feel nutty, i'm kinda grouchy too.  my poor kids.  must be nicer to them tomorrow.  : /

but since i feel like the fourth of july was just yesterday, i'm gonna go ahead and post our pics from that evening while it's oh-so-fresh in my mind.  ha ha.

my girls.  i was surprised that allie didn't put up a fuss about having to wear jeans while lauren got to wear a skirt.  couldn't find allie a jean skirt just then but thankfully it wasn't an issue.

like with many things we tsais do, this little celebration was thrown together helter-skelter at the very last minute.  because four out of five of us were taking a very late nap and didn't wake up til almost 7pm.  we ended up eating dinner on the rusty table in our backyard because phil was out there grilling, the sun was setting fast, i still wanted to take a family picture, and the kids were getting excited because neighbors all around us were setting off fireworks even before it got dark.  it's um, an interesting neighborhood where fireworks are still legal.

i love that we get to see the sun set every evening from our backyard.  not that we do every night, but just having the option is nice.

this little boy was super excited about the random fireworks going off and the loud noises accompanying them.  he thought fireworks were set off with a gun and so got one too to shoot pretend fireworks.  this year, we decided to stay home and see if we could see any fireworks from our backyard rather than going out in our new area to try to find some.

and we lucked out and were treated to a nice show put on by the city.

the fireworks were rather far away and the girls were getting cold and grumpy and scared with all the loud booms in the dark.  so they retreated into the house with phil while mikey said he wanted to stay outside with me to (in his words) "keep me company."

we stayed out there for the whole show, my boy and i.  he's as big a fireworks fan as his mommy is.  i'm glad at least one of 'em is.

ultimately though, the mosquitoes were having a field day with my flip-flop wearing feet and so we finally gave in and went inside too.



but not before we caught the grand finale!  juuust kidding!  we went inside to find daddy and the girls watching the macy's new york fireworks spectacular.  but mikey still insisted he had more fun being out there with me anyway.  i love that kid.

fun memories made, even though it was last-minute and all.  :)

lemon bars

in honor of our new lemon tree...

(thanks kate for the recipe!)

if you have any other lemon recipes, please do pass them along!  happy friday!  (it's awesome to have fridays actually mean that daddy's off for the weekend.  we sure could get used to this!)

********

Lemon Bars

Ingredients
1/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs
2 tbsp all purpose flour
2 tsp finely shredded lemon peel
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp baking powder
powdered sugar to sprinkle on top

Directions
Beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add 1/4 cup of sugar. Beat until combined, then beat in 1 cup of flour till crumbly. Press into the bottom of a 8x8x2 baking dish. Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes or just till golden.
Meanwhile combine eggs, the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, lemon peel, lemon juice, and baking powder. Beat for 2 minutes until combined. Pour over hot baked bottom layer.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges and center is set. Cool...sprinkle with sifted powdered sugar, cut into bars.

Printable recipe

goodbye, hello.

ok, so the very next day after phil's graduation was our moving day.  it was a whirlwind of a weekend, to say the least.  but now, the dust has settled and most of the boxes are unpacked or stored in the garage.  the rest just might end up staying where they are, since we're only here for a year.  that's been our mantra lately whenever we come across things we don't like.  as in...

"it's so smoggy.  and HOT."
"it's only for a year.  it's only for a year."

"the 50s wood paneling is not my favorite."
"it's only for a year.  it's only for a year."

"the red carpet is also not my favorite."
"it's only for a year.  it's only for a year."

"five sliding glass doors, really?"
"it's only for a year.  it's only for a year."

"it's rather...  chinese-y around here."
"it's only for a year.  it's only for a year."

you get the picture.  but life with phil the fellow has been so much nicer than life with phil the resident, so we really can't complain.  here's to a year of new adventures and seeing where the Lord leads!  if we survive the summer heat, that is.  : p

goodbye, old house.

hello, new house.  (so cute, right?!)

while it seems like the new house would be light and airy and the old house looks somewhat dungeon-like, looks can be deceiving.  the old house actually had quite a bit of really nice natural light inside whereas the new house is somewhat dark, especially in the kitchen/dining room.  but again, it's only for a year and we're making the best of it.  and there are some pretty cool redeeming factors about the new house, like...

a lemon tree!  (i LOVE that i don't have to buy a lemon for a whole year and can just send mikey to the backyard whenever i need one.  it's AWESOME.  and fresh-squeezed lemonade in the summer just can't be beat!)

done. sort of.

so last month, we had the privilege of attending phil's residency graduation.  the day we'd been waiting three years for.  no wait, make that nine years, since we've been aiming toward this day since the day phil started medical school.  it felt like it would never get here.  it felt like a loooong time coming.  and then suddenly, the day was upon us.

though this day wasn't quite as exciting and milestone-ish as we had been anticipating.  mostly because the extra year of fellowship training was unexpectedly tacked on just when we thought the end was near.  but we put aside those thoughts and celebrated anyway, because phil worked extremely hard for a very long time to get to this point, and i was so proud of him for it.

we were also very glad to have my brother's family and my dad join us in the celebration.  phil had decided not to invite his mom because he didn't want her to have to fly down for it (she really dislikes traveling) and because, as he explained, she'd probably be happiest for him when he's actually done and working a stable job.

the residency program is very small with only 4 to 5 residents per year.  so here are this year's graduates.

because the program is so small, it tends to be a tight-knit group what with spending so much time together and all.  phil became pretty close friends with anu and was especially happy when it turned out that they'd be in the same fellowship program for this year.

a picture of the outgoing chief with the incoming chief.  like a passing of the baton, if you will.

the graduate with his three monkeys.

my two girlies in their new matching dresses special for the occasion.

and this.  well, i simply have no words for this.

she decided she'd had enough of the picture-taking fuss and high-tailed it back to her peeps.

daddy's "small computer" (what mikey calls the iphone) keeps 'em still and quiet and sometimes you just need that.

finally the sip-champagne-and-mingle-outside hour was done (much to my relief!) and it was time to come inside for the ceremony followed by lunch.  each of the graduates had a reserved table for their guests.  we chose the one closest to the doors.  i'll tell you why in a minute.

phil checking his program to see if his name was really there.

and it really was.

mikey and jeremiah having a moment.

phil and johnny also having a moment.

the ceremony included a somewhat long-winded speaker but thankfully, all the kiddos did great.  for most of the time.  this little one though, decided to throw out a "WOO HOO!" right when it got particularly quiet.  just to see what would happen.  i wanted to sink through the floor.

but aside from that, the kiddos were good about being quiet and staying somewhat still.

for the most part.  but little kids can take being still and quiet for only so long before it all starts going downhill.  which is why i selected the table closest to the doors.  so that i could shoo them outside with grandpa when they couldn't be still and quiet any longer.

but they came back just in time to see daddy get a big present.  (it was a frame for his diploma.  er, certificate of completion?)  unfortunately, the frame was empty since he still had to go back to work for ten more days before he was actually finished.  why they do that, i'll never know.

and we were pleasantly surprised when phil also got the "junior blade award".  it's akin to being voted 'resident of the year' by the attendings.

here's phil getting ready to dance a happy jig.  just kidding, he was merely headed back to our table.  but it kinda looks like he was about to bust a dance move just then, no?

all kidding aside, a pretty cool honor for my hubs.

ok, so this guy is a pediatric dentist who did a year of anesthesia training with the residents.  he was well-liked by all because he was both hard-working and pretty generous.  so he decided to bring his own gifts to give the graduates.  lauren decided she wanted to go up and get a closer look.

and decided she liked the laugh she got from the audience so there she stayed.  til daddy had to scoop her up and bring her back.

oh, and in case you were wondering what the gift from the dentist was?

like i said, the dentist guy was well-liked and pretty generous.  but this pretty much floored us.  and this totally made mikey's day cuz now he gets to play on  (in his words) "a BIG small computer"!

as we were leaving, mikey said, "WOW, daddy got so many presents today!"  he definitely did and so well-deserved was this day of celebration and good cheer after a residency so well done.

so proud and happy for you, honey!  you did it!!!