Kicking off the Christmas Season

We went to a local festival the day after Thanksgiving and it will definitely become a new family tradition! It totally exceeded our expectations and we had a great time. I took about 175 pictures-partially because there were that many fun things and partially because I LOVE experimenting with the new camera.

This was one of our favorite trees-simple but beautiful

Ella loved this ornament. We got lots of ideas for our annual ornament exchange with Chris' family

Besides 500 decorated trees, all kinds of vendors, live music, storytimes, pony rides, a carousel and food, there were animals!!! I never pass up a chance to touch creatures and Chris was up for touching the largest one there.

Ella and I both love crafts and spent a long time in "craft corner" at the festival. This was mostly because the really nice craft-helper-guy kept bringing us new crafts to do for free after we paid our 2 tickets for the first one! (and we got the tickets for free from people who were leaving and had extras!)

The Kids rock band Milkshake was performing and since we have their CD we were excited for Ella to see them in person. She was oddly fascinated and horrified simultaneously. Even with her hearing aids off she covered her ears the whole time and looked terrified but didn't want to leave! She wanted to be off to the side, way in the back, behind Christmas trees and watch from afar but somehow enjoyed it!

I really loved the snowflake tree

Here are a lot more pictures (not all 175, just the good ones)

Thanksgiving #2

Thanksgiving with Chris' family was a lot of fun :-) 4 kids under 5, 2 large dogs, and 13 adults all sat down to a great meal. Other highlights-watching my nephew Silas learning to walk, laughing until it hurt about Farrah Fawcett (don't ask), and having many joyful "conversations" with Lau-Lau, my SIL's MIL who only speaks Chinese (think talking mixed with sign language and a lot of nodding in ignorance!)

Some of the spoils of Pie Night!

One thing I love about events and Chris' parents house is the constant piano accompaniment! Chris' dad is a professional pianist and I love getting to listen! Even if we are scurrying around getting food ready and scolding kids, it lends serenity to the whole night.

It took 2 people to carve the 32lb turkey! Ella got to help pick it out at the Turkey Farm.

Not the best pic but this is almost everyone!

Chris' brother Dave (as if you can't tell from the resemblance) and Julie enjoying after dinner conversation.

Aunt Debbie, who I really love. We don't get to see her often so I was really glad she and Uncle Dave made it for this holiday!

And finally a fun pic of Amy which she might make me take down. But it's hilarious! (AND for any photography nerds, it was an experiment at an ISO of 100 so it's a miracle it turned out so sharp!)

Ella is FOUR!!!

I know this is long overdue but better late than never, right! We had a great time celebrating Ella's 4th birthday and she was SO excited to have a gymnastics party at a local gym. We also got to celebrate with my family at GG's house and at Red Robin with Chris' family. Birthdays last all week when you're four. It's a lot of fun to see her blissfully happy and so excited about all the special celebrations. Ahhhh to be four again!

More Conversations...

We were talking in the car about why I gave money to a homeless man
Me: Some people don't even have a place to live so we want to share some of what we have
Ella:Yeah. But there's one thing we don't give away.
Me: What?
Ella: Money. We save it in the bank.
Me: But we also give it away to people who need it.
Ella:Well, I'm going to save my money and buy us a house with stairs and a basement.
Me: (chuckling) Ok.
a minute later
Ella: Mom? You're right. We have a lot of stuff and we just keep getting more! I think we have enough now. We should share.
Me: I agree.


At lunch with my sister
Ella:Ok, who is one of my favorite people, who lives with Abuela, who is very funny?
Marissa and me: (laughing) ummm...we need another hint
Ella:ok...oh! He loves diners!
Us: Popeye!!
Ella: You got it!! Let's play again!
(she had just invented this game and we kept playing for a while and she was always surprised when we guessed right!)


In the car after picking Ella up from school
Ella: Mom? Does God ever tell you stories?
Me: Ummm...what do you mean?
Ella:You know, I hear God tell me stories all the time!
Me: Really? What does it sound like?
Ella:I dunno
(then I tried lots of voices but none of them sounded like God apparently)
Me:What kind of stories does he tell you?
Ella:ones like the kind Daddy makes up
Me: Oh! Those are good ones. When do you hear Him telling stories?
Ella: all the time! Like when mommy or daddy aren't talking to me...
Me: You hear it in your head when you're by yourself?
Ella: yeah, or when it's night time. He just tells really good stories.


After my dad read her bedtime story when he was over for dinner
Ella: Mom, Popeye is one of my favorite boys. He's great. He's so great at reading books and everything. He's my favorite boy. And I really like Daddy too.

More Thanksgiving Day Excitment...

So, during Pie Night my SIL Ping was having contractions and by the next morning (thanksgiving day!) they headed to the hospital and less than 2 hours later she had the baby! Evangeline Wong-Chien Heiliger is here! (totally not sure about the spelling of the chinese middle name-sorry Ping). She was 21 1/2 inches and 9lbs 11oz! I have no idea how such a big baby came out of someone so small! Mom and baby went home the following day and everyone is doing great. So thankful for this new baby in our lives!





Ping's mom is a THRILLED grandma!

Thanksgiving #1

Since my parents and Chris' parents live 10 minutes from each other we're able to do 2 Thanksgivings in one day. This year my parents house was at 11am so that gave us a little extra time to get hungry again before eating again at 6pm :-)

The whole group :-)

Ella being silly

Ella had fun digging through the drawers in my parents dining room and choosing special spoons for each person. Random, but she was engrossed in for about 25 minutes.

Since it was a brunch Thanksgiving there was bacon which Ella's never really tried but was WAY into this time! A girl after mommy's heart :-)

Thanksgiving was my Grandmother's 91st Birthday! We celebrated last weekend but it was still great to celebrate her loving, generous, fun-loving, vibrant spirit again! We LOVE her so much and are so thankful for her.

Potrait experiment of my beautiful sister

This pretty much captures the spirit of my always-laughing Dad :-) Lots to be thankful for!

Preschool Turkey Day!

Last week I got to volunteer in Ella's preschool class for their Thanksgiving party. It was fun to see all the adorable things they do and get a feel for some of the other kids I hear about all the time. Those teachers have their hands full but it was fun to help out in the controlled chaos that is 14 3-4 year olds!


Ella kept turning around and waving to me during circle time

The kids made a ton of crafts! Door hangers, Turkeys, Squirrels, a headband with feathers, and wrapped bread dough around ice cream cones to make cornucopias to hold their snack in! I was impressed.



I got to be in charge of helping each kid make their Squirrel craft. It was fun to interact with each of them and get to talk about the little sign the squirrel is holding and how Thanksgiving is all about saying thank-you to Jesus!

Before snack the kids had a little music/dancing time and Ella got really into it! It was fun to see Ella in her environment especially because though she's always loved school, she LOVES it this year and talks about her friends from school so much more than before. I hope I'll get to go back and visit again soon!

Pie Night 2009!!!

Tonight was Pie Night! It's an annual family tradition started by Chris' mom and loved by everyone. There are usually about 30 people and about 35 pies get made in the course of the night. Nancy (my MIL) prepares everything so people can get to work making apple, sweet potato, pumpkin, and cream cheese pie (it's sort of like cheesecake). This year butternut squash pie and a chocolate pie were added into the mix. I'm all about extending the holidays so starting to celebrate Thanksgiving the night before is perfect! Thanks Nancy for all the work you do to make this happen every year!

PS-if you notice any difference in the picture quality it's because we finally decided on a dSLR and it came in the mail yesterday! We still have a lot to learn but I'm already really happy with the purchase.


Ella was really excited to help cook this year and did a great job. We brought home the pie she made (almost) completely by herself!

Lau-Lau is my SIL Ping's mother and she was able to come to her first pie night! Nancy was showing her how to make pie crust and then Lau-Lau took the rolling pin and schooled us all! She's quick! Decades of rolling dumplings comes in handy! (by the way, Ping was in labor at Pie Night and will probably have the baby tonight or tomorrow!)

Ella and Hannah were chatting away like teenagers while they got some food. It was like a vision of things to come. How fun to have a cousin who is only 9 months younger!

I mostly worked on apple pies. They're my favorite :-)

Ella did help but she also got pretty excited about licking butter off every single finger! And sugar...and eating apples...and pie dough...

It was a really fun night. You can check out more pics here

Behavior Modification Part 2

So, Ella would live on carbs, sugar, and milk (which has both!) if she could. I've been feeling frustrated lately with her lack of interest in vegetables and fruit and the battle it is to get her to eat them. And, I've decided 4 is too young to get away with eating what you want because you wear Mommy out. So, we're going hard core. Chris and I decided that we are going to assume our rightful roles as the ones who determine if our child is healthy or not. So, Operation Fruit and Vegetables is in full swing. Here's the plan.

Ella needs to eat a serving of fruit (at breakfast) and vegetables (at lunch and dinner) first. That's all she will be served when she sits down to a meal. If she eats ALL of it (no more bargaining with "3 more green beans!!) she can have the rest of the meal. If she doesn't eat it, she gets nothing else to eat. We feel confident she will not starve if she misses a meal (although this does pull on my heart strings) so we're going to hold our ground.

Drinks are another issue because since birth Ella has been a milk lover and would gladly consumer all her calories in liquid form. So, we already limit her milk and (diluted) juice intake but these will also be saved for after veggies/fruits are consumed so she can't fill up on them. Plus, if she eats more healthy stuff she may not need her regular prune juice to keep her "regular" (she's also been constipated since birth-sorry if that's TMI but come on, this is a mom blog).

So, we started yesterday and she's doing GREAT! I'm sure rough spots are around the corner (and this is much harder to enforce if we're not home) but so far she's been a hero! I must confess she did cry the first morning and said through tears "Mommy, it will hurt my feelings if I have to eat vegetables every day." I validated her feelings of sadness (I am a therapist after all) and then we talked about how Mommy and Daddy are in charge of helping her grow up healthy so we're doing this to make her healthy not sad. She got over it and ate her oranges :-)

Today she ate a bowl of peas at lunch and didn't even bat an eyelash. Last week she probably would have eaten 3 peas after whining about it and then fed them to the dog while I wasn't looking or just eaten all her sandwich and said she was too full for peas. Well girl, I'm on to you. The dog is in her crate for meal times and you can't be full because you can't eat anything else first!!

So, we're excited and perhaps naively hopeful, that she'll develop a like for more fruits and vegetables through this experiment. I really do love most vegetables so I'm hoping I can model that. We've told her that when she starts to eat all her veggies without complaining, we'll know she's ready to have them served with her other food. So, wish us luck! We're psyched!

Behavior Modification Part 1

I promise I'll post about Ella's birthday soon but that involves looking through 400 pictures (literally) so it'll have to wait.

I did want to document some new "behavior modification" measures we're starting this week. If you remember, we've used the school bus for a REALLY long time. It worked well but the novelty wore off and wasn't specific enough (she got kids on her school bus for any positive thing, lost them for any negative thing). So, we borrowed an idea Amy (my SIL) who borrowed it from another friend: a sticker chart where Ella gets stickers for certain behaviors. Here's the list (the ones with stars are the ones that have recently been causing a lot of problems):

I obeyed right away! *
I got dressed without whining! *
I fed Raleigh!
I stayed in my bed at night! *
I stayed in my room for rest time! *
I ate a serving of vegetables! *
I ate a serving of fruit!
I drank a cup of water!
I cleaned up my room!

Then it has this verse as encouragement for Ella and for us :-)

“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up”.

Galatians 6:9 (New Living Translation)

We started it Saturday and right now Ella has 9 stickers!! The rewards are as follows:
10 stickers: piece of candy
20 stickers: a little toy from a treasure box (this box is still in the making)
30 stickers: gets to go to/rent a movie or get ice cream

I'm a little uncomfortable with food as rewards (especially in light of Beh. Mod. Part 2) so we may rethink that but for now I think it's ok. It makes her really happy and reinforces the idea that treats are "sometimes" foods not things we have every day (thanks Sesame Street!).

So, we're excited about the new chart, Ella's psyched about it and is doing pretty darn well. I hope this builds into her a sense of responsibility and respect for authority and self-control. I also hope that our responses to missteps give her a solid understanding of grace.

I'll let you know how it goes!

New Hiking Spot!

Last week we were introduced to a great new spot to hike that is kid-friendly (lots to see and touch but a nice wide, paved path!). There was a really impressive waterfall (complete with signs letting you know "people have drowned here") and a cool suspension bridge we got to walk over. While we were there Amy got some great pics of Ella. We are TOTALLY in the market for a nice camera like hers!






And finally one horrible sad one :-( I think she was crying because I wouldn't carry her. What a horrendous face!! Way to capture the moment Amy!