Traverse City Part 3- The Arrival of Dianne

Here is Dianne arriving with her mom, dad, big sister and brother on St. Patty's day. They all came from Chicago to help celebrate Peter's 4th brthday party. She is getting so big and it was nice to see her since we last saw her Labor Day weekend.
Kiersten and Dianne meeting for only the 3rd time. Kiersten defintely was interested in her little cousin and couldn't resist a little touch...a little pinch.
Wasn't I right about Dianne sporting her dad's look? Thinning, but not quite bald yet look! Haha
My mom, Dianne's mom along with some friends were all in the kitchen cooking for Peter's big party so they weren't in most of the pictures.

Grandma Ann and little Dianne

Traverse City Part 2

We spent many days at the local mall (so little compared to what I am now used to) & we played at the tiny play area.

Scaling the walls. Kiersten looks like she is going to walk maybe within a month.

Crawling through the 'fallen log.'

A little wave for mommy.

Visiting with Grandma Ann. Ann has been part of our family since I was 2yrs old when we came to the United States. She was pretty much a private tutor to my brothers and I and she is our 2nd mom. My niece Dianne is named for Grandma Ann.

Happy belated St. Patty's Day!!!!

Traverse City Part 1

Peter David, Kiersten and I took a trip up to chilly Traverse City to stay with my parents for 2 weeks the first part of March. We were very busy up there and I always find that it is extra work when you are living away from home. At home, I have all my gates in place and everything I need is available. The kids and I played, went visiting with friends, babysat, play outside when the weather permitted, celebrated Peter's birthday and just bonding with everyone.

Taking advantage of an empty basket to hide from Mommy. (the kids are not good at playing hide and seek yet)Finally, at my parents home.

Ladee, the family cat, showing that this house is her domain and that Kiersten is on her turf. Ladee is a really sweet cat and she is about 9 1/2yrs old. Kiersten and Ladee were having a stare down before she took a gentle paw to Kiersten.

Playing with 2 friends, Julian and Camren. It was like having 2 sets of twins since the 2 older and 2 younger are very close in age. I was exhausted at the end of each days with the 4 kids. My family is currently babysitting the 2 kids 2 days a week.

We took advantage of a semi-warm (34 degrees) day and went to the civic center playground.

Kiersten watching the boys run around.

Julian and Peter having fun and getting tired out (that was the plan) and then we went and got ice cream afterwards.

Kiersten helping Grandma cook rice. My mom has started growing some of her vegtables inside so that she can plant them outside in her garden late April or May. Kiersten couldn't help, but get into everything!

We went to watch my nephew, Calvin who is in 3rd grade, at his winter concert. He is the kid in the back row, dead center with the blue shirt. Calvin is the 2nd tallest in his class. I was always the child in the front row since I was and am short. Calvin is 9yrs old, 5 ft tall and 107lbs. He is my height and weighs more than me already!

Another picture of Calvin particpating in this class song and dance.

Happy 4th Birthday to Peter David!

Peter turned 4 last Sunday, March 26. Wow....still hard to believe that our son is now a 4yr old little boy. Everyday is a new day with the kids. I have been having conversations with him since he was 2 (for the most part). Pete & I have to watch our mouths b/c he repeats a lot or will ask us why we said what we said. Its great havig a potty trained child and buying pullups is much nicer than diapers! Peter was a great baby for us. He slept in his crib in his room since he was 1 week old because I wanted to get him 'trained.' He slept through the night from 6 weeks old and he took 3 naps a day until he turned 11mths old and transitioned to 2 and 1 naps at 1yrs old. He is a really smart little boy and we do 'homework' everyday for at least an hour. That's my alone time with him when Kiersten is napping and he loves to learn!

Since he was 3, he has been full of questions. Now he doesn't take an excuse such as, JUST BECAUSE, for an answer, he wants a real answer!!!

We celebrated Peter's 4th birthday up in Traverse City on 3/18 and I will post pictures as soon as I find time to download the pics.

I have been researching pre-schools for Peter this fall. While kids do not need it to go to kindergarten, I think that it really helps get children ready for kindergarten mentally, socially and has real educational value to it. Depending on whether we move next year, Peter will probably be in private school. Waterford Schools are not highly rated in Oakland County and we had planned on moving at some point, we need more space and when we have baby #3, we need another bedroom!

Can't Sleep....It's really too late to be up!

It's really late here in Waterford or really early. I had a small piece of chocolate, some Pepsi and 15mins of Jay Leno before I tried to hit the sack. Big mistake, I know and I will pay for this when the kids wake up. These first 2 pics are some random pictures I took last month of the kids since I haven't downloaded the new pictures from March and my trip to Traverse City. I was so swamped last week and was sick last Sun through Tues. I had a bad reaction to one of medications (I threw up 4 times in 3 days) and now I am feeling so great since I stopped taking it until I can get back to the doctors' office. Since today was so beautiful, we spent the entire afternoon out shopping & playing.

Since Spring is here, it made me think of our bunnies we had last summer in our yard.

There are certains chores in our household that we divide up. Pete does most of the outdoor stuff and mowing the lawn is his chore. He had classes all last summer and I was home with the new baby & couldn't help out with the yard work.

There was a period of 3 weeks in July where the lawn just didn't get mowed and the grass obviously grew kinda tall. Right next to where I park the grass was a bit longer b/c we use to grow flowers along the driveway.

One fine afternoon, Pete finally mowed the lawn and I was cleaning inside. The next thing I hear is, "Lammone, Lammone, Lammone, come here!!!!" Of course, I thinking something is wrong. I get outside and Pete tells me he almost ran over some baby bunnies in the tall patch of grass. Yes, somehow...we managed to get a bunnies nest in our front yard and never noticed even with all the traffic and Peter running through the yard.

All of a sudden the bunnies just scatter, one went under my car into my neighbors yard, one went under our front porch, I actually caught one (see pic) and the other went went into the street barely missed being hit by a Ford F-150. I did some quick research and put the bunny I caught back in the nest and by 9pm that evening, somehow all 4 bunnies were back together. I had to get tough with Pete b/c he wanted to mow over the bunnies nest and I told him NO WAY and that the grass (even if it did look really odd) was going to stay the way it did until they left the nest. They stayed with us for about 2 more weeks.

Kiersten & Dianne

This is a picture that we took at Sears Portraits in Traverse City for the Grandparents for Easter last Saturday. Both girls are on different sleep schedules, so we only took 3 poses and bought one. It was hard to get them to stay sitting and to smile at the same time. We figured if they weren't crying, we were pretty lucky. Both girls did very well together. Kiersten is more interested in Dianne since she is older and more mobile.

Kiersten now has 6 teeth. 2 more popped out while were were in TC. She is a speed demon crawler and scales any possible surface she can get her hands on. She is very vocal and very affectionate. She will be 1 years old in less than a month (4/18). She hates her diaper (yeah, we can get her potty trained quickly), clothes (she prefers to be naked), and is very stubborn!

Dianne is getting so big. She is creeping along right now and will probably crawl within a month or so we think. She is also very vocal and likes to laugh and play. She is pretty spoiled since her older half sister is 17 and older half brother will be 14. Dianne gets A LOT of attention from everyone in her family. We are looking forward to seeing Dianne and the family next month for Kiersten's birthday party. She will be 9mths on 3/29.

We're Back!!!!

We have a lot of pictures to post and news to update all of you with. At the present time, I am still unwinding, unpacking and having problems uploading pictures to this site. We had a very busy, but good 2 weeks away. It is good to be home, but we're still just as busy as ever(I have to get invitations mailed out for Kiersten's 1st birthday very soon!!). Pete & I are definitely looking forward to our (just the 2 of us) little vacation (belated anniversary celebration to ourselves) we plan to take in May to Toronto!

See ya in 2, maybe 3 weeks!

So long and farewell for the next couple of weeks! Peter, Kiersten and I will be in Traverse City for half of March. We're getting kicked out!! Just kidding. Our trip has been planned for a while now.

Most of you know that Pete has a really busy work and school schedule. He is currently in his 4th semester (part time) at U of M Ross School of Business working on his MBA. He has been taking 2 very difficult courses and will begin a 3rd class next week. This 3rd class is a very intense 7 day course (3, full Friday & Saturdays & an additional Sat) that between everything else will require his full attention. You can imagine that the kids and I bring a lot of distraction! It's just we're too cute for him not to pay attention to us when he gets home. This 3rd class will allow him to have the spring & summer terms off to spend more time with us. Now, only 2 more years to go & he'll have his MBA!! YEAH!!! The past 2 years have flown by, so the next 2 years will be just as quick!

So, Peter, Kiersten & I are being picked up by my brother and nephew this weekend. Pete & I will celebrate our first wedding anniversary tomorrow by having lunch & doing some shopping for my trip up north. Then we're off to stay at my parents home and create a little chaos up there. I will have lots of pictures to post when I get back! Peter's party, Kiersten & baby Dianne.

By the way, Kiersten's top 2 teeth are in and now the tooth on each side is about to burst through and I think they'll come through within a week. She's making up for lost time!

Have a great few weeks & St. Patty's day!!!!!!!! Happy Birthday to my 2nd oldest brother, CJ. who turns 34 today!

Teeth, Destruction, Climbing..Daily life of a baby!

Kiersten's top 2 teeth are coming in. I finally noticed them last weekend during one of Kiersten's "I want to bite mommy' sessions. I thought they would have come in much earlier because by this time, Peter had 6 teeth already, but thats okay. I have been trying to take a picture of her new teeth, but it is rather hard. When she sees the camera...well, lets just say if she can get a hold of it, she will destroy it. I already had to replace my cell phone(she broke it), then I had to replace my replacement phone (not her fault) and got a brand new phone out of it thanks to my $50 deductible I had to pay.

Here she is playing with Peter. Anywhere that Peter goes, she goes. Anything that Peter touches, she must have. By the way, Kiersten can now climb up a flight of stairs (8 steps-she would climb up all three flights of stairs in the house if I would let her). I don't have any pictures since I have to spot her, quite cute watching her little butt move up the stairs.

Dianne Bouttavong

This is my niece Dianne (my only niece) and she belongs to my brother, Pong and his family. Unfortunately, the last time we saw Dianne was last September during the Labor Day weekend. This is not because we don't want to see her, its just that they live in the Chicago area and driving 5-6hrs with 2 little kids is not the most fun. Also, Pete is too busy with work and school so we don't have too many free weekends. Luckily, Dianne will be coming up with her dad, mom and older sister and brother to help celebrate Peter's 4th birthday. We will be celebrating Peter's 4th birthday in Traverse City on 3/18 instead of 3/26 (his actual b-day) due to some scheduling issues.

I can't believe she celebrated her 8mth birthday already. She was born June 29, 2005 and that makes me exactly 27yrs and 1 week older than she is. And she is finally growing some hair! For a long time, she was sporting her dad's look (thinning, but not quite bald), but it looks like she is making progress. For a long time, she looked a lot like her dad, but mom's features are emerging. Many people would comment that Peter David looked like dad, but the past year, (he has both of our features) you can see a lot of me in him now.

I know Dianne will cry when she sees me, but it'll be a lot of fun to see Kiersten and Dianne together now that they're older and more mobile. My family consists of mostly males, these 2 girls were definitely a welcomed surprise! All of the estrogen will be a challenge for my dad, 3 brothers, Pete, Peter and my nephew Calvin.