Easter pictures...one more!

one more picture, because I love this one of Millie! She is such a funny little girl!

Happy Easter!

We had a great time in Chattanooga with Grandma and Grandpa this Easter weekend. It was a short trip, but always fun to be with family. Grandpa woke us early Saturday morning with his famous breakfast...bacon, eggs, biscuits and grits swimming in butter. The kids look forward to this meal every time we go to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Of course Grandma did her share of cooking too--it's actually amazing how much you can over eat in one weekend! We brought the bikes and it was neat to watch my children ride up and down the same street I used to ride my bike on when I was their age. We even got to spend time with Uncle Bryan--what a bonus! He's back in the country...to stay! We are so glad to know that and looking forward to seeing Ubeny and the girls when school is out.

The kids were a little concerned about the Easter Bunny finding us in Tennessee, but what a surprise...He found us! We woke up to 3 baskets full of goodies. Then we got to go to church to hear Grandpa preach. This is always a treat for me.

These kids sure do love Grandma and Grandpa!

I got to spend a little time with my friend Christy. We have been friends since Mrs. McNabb's 1st grade class...dare I say how many years ago? (33 years--YIKES!!! How can we have been friends that long when we're only 29 years old? Right Christy?!) We were friends all through elementary school, middle school, high school and then became room mates in college in 1987. People always say don't room with your friends, but it sure worked for us. We even lived together for a few more years after college. I can't believe that Chloe is now the age we were when we met. I hope that Chloe (and all my kids for that matter!) are as blessed as I have been to have such a great and life long friendship.

And I am thinking about an arranged marriage for Millie and Mills (how cute is that!?)

Here we are with our sweet babies Millie and Taylor (obviously from the picture it is clear that we are NOT old enough to have been friends for so long--apparently I miscalculated!)

Christy is the proud (and extremely tired)mother of 4--yes, I said 4 boys! And they are all so very handsome and were so kind to share their things and play so well with my children. Definitely a sign of excellent parenting!

And here's the whole gang! Do you know how hard it is to take a picture with this many kids in it? So I am glad at least some are actually looking at the camera. My kids had such a great time playing with Jack, Hayes and Mills--they wanted to stay forever and Mills actually wanted us to all spend the night! I never actually heard how Christy felt about that! I had a great time holding and squeezing that chunky little Taylor and catching up with my dear friend. Eliott has already asked me when we will see his new friends again...I hope it won't be long.

Happy Easter!

Apparently we're done!

Well, I have prayed that God would help us decide whether or not to have #4. I know what you're thinking...WHAT?! ?4 KIDS!?!?! YOU CAN'T EVEN HANDLE THE 3 YOU HAVE!!! And I must admit that exact thought has crossed my mind many times. But when you think you are supposed to have 4 it is hard to get that idea out of your head. And perhaps I am a little crazy.

Getting sick didn't help our time frame for having #4. I feel like I should have another one by now, but since I had to take medicine for 6 months (that made it impossible to have a child), here we are...Millie is 2 and 1/2 and I do not have another baby. I have certainly cried about it...no more babies!? I have been having babies for the past 7 years and I really don't know how to move on. And now Millie is getting so big. It is hard to believe that I am done with this chapter of my life.

Look at this sweet little baby in her new big girl bed (with her little baby doll right beside her)!

We took Millie's crib down and put up a twin bed last week. It is real. This is it...no more cribs in our house. Since we put it up (summer of 2000) we've never had to take it down ...just move one kid out and put a new one in. But, apparently we're done with babies.

And apparently we don't have any room left in our huge king size bed anyway! I am coming to terms with this and I am starting to feel a lot less sad about it. Now finally, I do believe that our family of 5 is just right. I have begun to realize that all the activities and things involved with parenting my 3 children would make it difficult (perhaps even dangerous!) to have another. We already have "KidsForChrist" on Sunday morning, t-ball on Tuesday night, Wednesday night church, soccer on Thursday night, t-ball and soccer games on Saturday...and Millie doesn't do anything yet!!! The reality is that our schedule is only going to get fuller and more chaotic as time goes on. I know people with more than 3 children and their husbands do not work in Sweden, Poland or Canada (all of which Jeff spent time in last year), and they probably live close to their family and have lots of help, or perhaps they are just way better at time management than I will ever be. So, we are done and I am OK with that. (At least for today...ha!) No, honestly I think God has truly answered my prayer by taking away my desire for another baby. I do love so much what I have and am so thankful for my precious little family. I guess it's just time for me to be content.

Here are my 4 favorite people in the whole wide world at the circus a few weeks ago. We had so much fun! It was neat to just watch their faces. They loved it so, of course, we loved it too! But can you believe how much it costs to go to the circus! Wow! We almost had to take out a loan just to buy cotton candy...$12! Thank goodness it only comes once a year.

Chloe's favorite part was the elephants.

Eliott liked the motorcycles riding around in the big ball.

Millie liked all of the animals.Why would I ever think I need anything more than this!??!

Also this month we have had lots of sick kiddos! Eliott had 5th Disease--looks like he got slapped in the face (he didn't!), but it also came with a fever.

No one else got that one--surprisingly enough, but...a few weeks later Chloe had the flu. She was the only one who didn't get the flu shot and the only one who got the flu. Guess what...we're all getting that shot next year!

So I guess that's my monthly update...circus, no more cribs and a few sick kids. Oh, I almost forgot...Millie was attacked by a leprechaun today...

a leprechaun with a very green cupcake! Eliott actually said "it looks like a leprechaun threw some frosting on Millie!" He's right!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I will do my best to write sometime before mid April, but I'm not making any promises.

It's been a long time...

It's been a while hasn't it!? I can't seem to find the time to blog lately (or to fold the laundry, or vacuum, or make my bed...) I'm too busy eating girl scout cookies! Why are they so good??? And didn't the boxes used to be alot bigger?

This will have to be one of my catch up blogs because so much fun stuff has happened since--well...a month ago!

First of all we are so proud of Chloe. She participated in her 2nd year of the Sherwood Forest Elementary Science Fair. She did an experiment with water in glasses and changed the sound made by changing the water level...it was genius if I do say so myself. :)

The same week she was asked to be an anchor girl on Eagle Eye News (her schools news program). She was great--Look out Ann Curry!

And Baby Cole turned 3...I guess I better stop calling him baby Cole now! He is getting so big. Joy threw a fabulous bug party. There were bugs everywhere...all over the walls, the furniture, hanging from the ceiling, in the punch. There were bug masks and bug houses to paint and even a bug game to play.

It was great and the kids loved it. Joy doesn't hold back when she throws a party...she picks a theme and runs with it!!!

And we got a little Aunt Laurie time in while we were in Greenville.

What a cute little bug this is!

And it looks like we caught a very strange bug in the elefun net--I liked this bug so much I decided to keep it!

We were trilled by a spontaneous (and way too short) visit from the Scales. What fun! It only made us want them to move back even more than we already did. But of course remided us that our friendship is greater than the miles between us. In the short time that they were here we managed to sqeeze in an amazing amount of time together. Friday night KL made some amazing chicken enchiladas and I made a salad and mexican chocolate cake (I said I'd give you the recipe so here they are!). We didn't make Bekah cook since we weren't sure if she could even keep anything down at that point--but thankfully she was able to pull through! Isn't it interesting how much we love to eat together?! Actually I love to eat even when I am alone, but the food is much better when we are all together. :) And then Gabe and Eliott had a sleep over. They were so cute. Chloe actually slept in the same room in the bed because she didn't want to be left out.

The kids played all day on Saturday...they played dress up, sword fought, played with polly pockets and played ball...My kids were so thrilled to spend time with Gabe and Ansley (and I had fun with Amelia!) and both had complete melt downs (I kid you not--- they were wailing!) when it was time to say good bye. But who can blame them? Nobody likes to say good bye!

Valentine's Day was fun. Not only did we have a suprise snow day--we also had a romantic (HA!) dinner at Moe's with our friends David, KiKi, Bekah, Luke and of course all the kids. I surprised Jeff with a copy of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (just happened to come in the mail that day!) only I added my face to the cover. Somehow when I gave it to him he didn't notice? What!?! You mean he doesn't look at the face?

Now the last month here in the Trinh home has been a bit of a challenge. Millie is in the "I do it!" stage of being 2 years old. She wants to do everything herself and then gets frustrated and cries or screams when she can't. She likes to wash her hands with out any help, brush her teeth, feed herself and she likes to dress herself. Obviously she doesn't always get it quite right. But she is so proud!

We are working through her strong and very independent spirit. She is certainly not lacking in confidence---but I am certainly lacking in patience! She can really frustrate me to no end, but I just love her so much and know that I have probably created the beast because I give in to her WAY too much! And sometimes it's just easier that way. But I know it won't be easier in the long run, so things are about to change around here! According to Mandy it's not too late to repair the damage done. I'll let you know how that goes.

Well, I guess that's about all for the past few weeks. Maybe I'll try to be a little more frequent with my updates in the future. But, let's face it, Jeff was right...I don't have time for a blog! But I have one anyway, so I'll try to keep up.

It was a DIME!!!

Yeah! It was only a dime (honestly it looked much bigger stuck in her little throat!)and now it's out. We're all quite happy about it...what a great birthday present!

9-1-1

Yes, I have, for the first time in my life, called 9-1-1! Last night my precious little Millie choked down a quarter. I saw it in her mouth just when I laid her down to change a diaper. I saw a big silver circle fall to the back of her mouth. I immediately turned her over and said "spit it out!" (She is quite familiar with these words) That's when she made the choking sound. I tried to reach it, I tried hitting on her back, I tried the Heimlich (not only do I not know how to spell it, I really don't know how to do it!) all as I screamed for Jeff to get our neighbor (she used to be a nurse--and I never have been--so it seemed logical at the time!?) while I dialed 9-1-1. Millie wasn't making any noise and I have always heard that's bad...really bad, so I was in full blown panic mode. The conversation went something like this:

"911 how may I help you"

"yes, my 2 year old is choking on a quarter"

"Ok, we will send an ambulance, what is your address"

"5224 Mountain View"

"You said she is 2?

"yes"

"Are you sure it was a quarter?"

"I think so...it all happened so fast...maybe it was a nickle...does that matter?"

"what is your child doing right now"

"well, actually, she seems to be... breathing...?"

"she is breathing?"

"yes, she is. she's just sitting here breathing."

"ok, that's good. (well, now isn't that the understatement of the year!) try to keep her very still. does she seem to be acting normally?"

"she does seem to be acting normal, but I am in a complete panic!"

We continued on the phone for several more minutes (with Jeff back and all of the Sidden Family) while I am wondering how in the world my tiny little 2 year old could physically swallow a quarter---is this possible? and then the EMTs arrived. They checked her out and decided she was fine (breathing normally, vital signs normal and talking) and assured me that I would be getting my quarter back in just a few days. But they said if it would make me feel better we could go to the emergency room and have her x-rayed. They would even take us if we wanted the bill!

We decided to wait and talk to our pediatrician---who also agreed we would see our quarter again soon. Unfortunately I am the one who has to be sure we actually get our deposit back (so to speak). So I am the official poop smoosher--thank goodness for latex gloves. Nothing so far, but I will be sure to keep you all posted on the "out come".

I definitely have never been so scared in my life--although Millie was quite the joke at church this morning, last night it was not remotely funny. I don't know how I would handle it if anything ever happened to one of my precious little babies. I said an little extra prayer of thanksgiving last night. God was with us and we are all a little richer (about .25 cents richer!) for it.

Snow Dance!

We were very excited to hear that there was an 80% chance of snow on Thursday. Could it be!?! We came home from church Wednesday night and Chloe read us all the book Snow Dance. Then Eliott led the family in a snow dance--complete with cotton balls (our symbolic snow balls) flying in the air and wearing his silly elf hat-- as he, Chloe and Millie dance around and chanted "let there be snow...let there be snow!" And in case that wasn't enough we all (yes, Jeff and I did participate in this) wore our pajamas inside out. I am not sure how that is supposed to make it snow, but we were willing to give it a go.

We had so much fun I didn't even care if it snowed the next day!

Well...a little snow would be nice...

And we got it!

We woke up to a beautiful Winter Wonderland. The kids were so proud because felt they were completely responsible for the big snow. Everything was white and snowy, and even though there was still a slushy mix of snow and rain coming down, we bundled up and went out to play in it. (We didn't work this hard to stay inside and look through the window, and who knows if it will all be gone by noon!) Chloe and Eliott threw sad little wet snow balls at each other while Millie ate ice and said "mmmm". They loved every minute of it and I truly enjoyed just watching them. I can remember how much I loved to play in the snow when I was little and I don't think we have had enough of it in the past few years---we still don't even have enough for a snowman, but I will at least be thankful for a few snowballs.

After about 20 minutes in the mess of wet snow we spotted Lukie and Bekah and invited them over for hot chocolate. Millie's little fingers were starting to freeze and we needed to thaw out.

We spent the rest of the day inside with absolutely nothing to do. It really is nice to have a day off from the rest of the world every now and then. Of course I am definitely ready for school to be open tomorrow...PLEASE! Is there such thing as a "no snow dance"?