First Snow of the Season

Well, we knew it was coming and were prepared for it. It started to snow on Sunday afternoon, but it didn't stick. However today, everything is white outside. It's been snowing all day long. The snow melted a little around 2 pm, but it started to snow hard right before Sean's bus arrived home. And it's COLD!! The high tomorrow is supposed to be 25 F and all the snow accumulated today isn't going anywhere for the next couple of days. Unfortunately, we are planning to go to Boise on Wednesday. I checked the Snoqualmie Pass road condition and it is not good. In fact, the entire path to Boise is covered with snow now. We have to wait and see what it is like tomorrow afternoon and make the decision. We are thinking of delaying the trip until Thursday, which means we'll be all cramped up in the car while America is having a warm meal of Turkey, dressing and pumpkin pie.

It's 11 pm now and I just got a call from Bellevue School District and it is an official snow day for Sean tomorrow. The school is closed. The timing of it is so ironic. The weather has been rather warm up until last weekend. Humph... So is life...

The kids had fun in the snow today though. Aly and Noah played on the deck for a little while. They were stumping around and making their foot tracks, touched some snow, sat on it and discovered that their bottom is cold, and tried looking at the falling snow to see what it looks like. After a little while, it was too cold for them and whimpered to go inside. Noah's nose mucus all the sudden had a surge in production from the cold and it took me a while to clean all of it out. Sean wore a pair of snow boots today to school and had lots of fun playing in snow. It was freezing cold, but he wanted to play outside in the snow after school.

We'll see how this snow business is going to be tomorrow. I am glad I installed snow tires on my minivan!

Family Portrait

Things were pretty good at first.
You can't see in the photo, but Mike and I were on the side holding on to Noah and Saya and let go when the photographer signaled. That's why Saya looks like she's falling forward. She must have been leaning forward to my hand.

Sean's classic fake smile. I am sure I would even miss it when he's grown up and won't even let me take a photo. Mike liked the composition of this portrait, but I was disappointed that Noah's face is in the shadow.

Mike was struggling to keep the boys still. He still managed to smile at the camera.

I was shouting "forget about Saya's boots!" before the shot.

I like this picture. Aly looks super adorable and I like Saya's expression. That's her. Her personality is captured!

It's the portrait time again before the Holidays! We didn't think it was going to be easy and it wasn't. Now that the twins and Saya are in the wiggly stage, it was actually harder than last year. Aly and Sean were pretty good at first, but they both started to misbehave later by running off or turning away from the camera. Noah didn't want to stay in one spot and was whining pretty much the whole time. We had to carry him or hold him down. Saya wasn't in a mood for pictures, either, and wanted to run off from the studio. The photographer said she should be able to get about 18 different shots, but I think she changed her mind.

But I think all troubles were well worth it in the end. The pictures turned out better than I thought. The kids looked adorable in their outfits. I particularly liked the girls' outfits. They looked like big girls wearing a stylish outfit. Mike looked good in his new skinny shirt. The boys were very proper looking unlike their usual sporty style. I like looking at smiley faces in the family portrait when everything is quiet in the house at night. It all sums it up for me despite the chaos and stress, we are a happy family. My next agenda is to buy frames and find good spots to appreciate them!

Fall Colors and somewhat new Noah

Saya, the Whale Rider.
At the Lake Sammamish Park, Mike pushing Noah and Saya in the stroller.

Kids invented this game where you throw leaves on my car.

Sean and Aly running around the front yard.

Aly looking at the water and birds.

Now that the fall is in the full swing, the kids are mesmerized by the bright colored leaves and changing scenery around them. Sean asks why leaves are falling, why it rains a lot these days, why it's dark outside when he leaves his therapies, trying to register what changing season means in his little head. Kids love to play with the fallen Japanese maple tree leaves in our front yard. The tree is over 40 years old and is magnificent. Unfortunately, it stands right in front of our house, covering a big part of our roof and makes a humongous mess pretty much all year around. It's a lovely tree though and it's a part of our life now.

Last Sunday, we took the kids to Lake Sammamish State Park since we had extra one hour in the morning and was sunny outside. We are so lucky to be close to such a beautiful park. There were ducks, geese and all kinds of wild birds paddling around and one little friendly (or very hungry) duck who came close to us looking curious. The lake was serene with a few dead logs on the beach, surrounded by fall forest. Saya and Noah had to stay in the stroller, but they had fun looking at the birds and water. Sean and Aly were running around, throwing sticks in the lake. It was a little windy and chilly, but we were glad we took the advantage of an hour we gained and enjoyed fresh air.

I am happy to say that Noah is responding better to therapies now. He makes more eye contacts and he is definitely there, his mind and body making good connections with what is going on around him. We had speech therapy this morning and he was looking at the therapist and me very intently and made a lot of appropriate sounds. He said "eating" at the ABA therapy at home yesterday. My beloved therapist, Malawaina, said she got teary hearing his sweet voice. Since he mainly makes sounds like "bababa" "da da da" we don't really know what his talking voice sounds like. I've heard it a couple of times and he has the most angelic voice I've ever heard. When his eyes and mine lock, I feel like everything stops around me. I just love it. It's happening a lot more often now and I think this is a beginning to him coming out from his little shell.

Aly has been using potty for a couple of weeks now. She still wears pull ups and has occasional "accident", but she tells me when she has to go. All I have to say is, "ok, go upstairs to potty" and there she goes like a big girl. We are doing construction right now for downstairs guest/multi-purpose room (I say multi-purpose because I know kids will take over it) and the garage. We finished the laundry room project and they are working on extending the garage space forward. It looks awesome!

Little Miss Saya is talking a lot and she is just a funniest kid. She loves bath now finally and she gets really mad at Daddy when he pulls her out of the bath. The other day when that happened, she cried for me as Daddy put a diaper on her. When he brought her downstairs, she stated "Bye-bye Daddy!" as if she is saying "ba-bye, you can disappear now" and when Mike tried to carry her, she gave him a major cold shoulder by turning her head in an exaggerated motion. It was really funny.

Anyway, I can write more believe me, but I should stop because I probably lost the audience already.

Halloween Fun

Saya the peacock and Charlie the alien staring at each other.

Aly was busy playing with their toys.

Noah looking cute! You can see Saya busy trying on shoes left by the guests.

The Cat in the Hat, aka Tina, and her husband Eric the cow.

We had a game of making all daddies mummies.

Saya had a really good time but was sooo tired by the time she got home.

We curved pumpkin on the Halloween day. We made a friendly Mr. Pumpkin.


Well, it was the case of three superheros and a baby peacock in the Campbell's house. We reused two costumes from last year, the supergirl for Aly and muscle man for Noah. I figure if they fit and they ain't complaining, why not!?

We went to a Halloween party on Saturday at Liz and Tom's house and we had a blast. Again, they thought of us and served some gluten and casein free donuts, rice crispie balls and brownies for our special diet boys. They are so sweet. Sean was busy playing with house full of boys that were there and Aly followed them around. Saya was quietly working on her project - trying on all the shoes left by the front door. Noah found a few favorite toys and played amongst other children. The kids had a lot of fun and they made some new friends!

Thanks for having us Tom, Liz, Andy, Charlie and Finn!

On the Halloween evening, Mike took the kids trick or treating around the neighborhood. Unfortunately, I was ill on Sunday for some odd reasons so I could not participate. I was looking forward to seeing the kids trick or treating, but I am glad my kids were able to enjoy it. Mike told me that Sean said to our neighbor after getting some candies, "thank you! bye-bye! I love you!" as he walked away. He is a crack up! I normally don't mind the candy giving duty, however I was in my robe looking groggy and it wouldn't have even passed as a bad costume. Oh well, I managed to scare some people anyway! We had a decent turn out but apparently not enough according to all the left over candies sitting in the pantry. I am wondering what I should be doing with them...

Over all, we had a really nice Halloween. Seeing my children being so excited and immersed in the Halloween rituals made us parents very happy as well!