Year of the Dragon

Vietnamese New Year's was on January 23 this year.  It's the Year of the Dragon.  Both Jason and I are dragons- supposedly, dragons are symbols of good fortune.  People born in Dragon years are to be honored and respected.  Dragons are known to be innovative, enterprising, flexible, self-assured, brave, passionate, conceited, tactless, scrutinizing, unanticipated, and quick-tempered.  Hmmm... Which ones describe me and which ones describe Jason?! Hahaha


Since our family has been soooo busy, we ended up ringing in the new year with a pretty low-key celebration.  We knew we wouldn't be able to celebrate on the actual day since it was a school night, so we went out for Vietnamese food over the weekend.  Over the years, we have typically gotten a rice dish for the kids to share, but more recently, Grace has started ordering her own pho (Vietnamse noodle soup). 

 

Grace has gotten pretty good at using chopsticks!

Jeremy with his yummy rice dish.

Happy New Year- Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

Our Annual Gift Exchange with the Wienses

We started a rather different type of gift-giving tradition with our friends, Aaron and Christa, a few years ago.  Here are this year's "treasures!"

The rules: the whole point is to give something that is unusual- the tackier, the better, has to be less than $10 and it has to be displayed all year!  Who do you think won?!

Welcome to 2012

2012 started three weeks ago and I'm only now blogging... Yikes, I wonder if that's any indication of what this new year will be like- crazy busy! 

Ok, first things first...  I need to back up and recap our 2011 holiday season (this is for my memory's sake).

Jason and I were so disappointed to find out that our districts' Winter Breaks would not match up this year.  We decided to stay close at home this year instead of going out-of-town for vacation like we have in years past.  It turned out to be a good choice- it has been so nice to relax and take it easy!  

Christmas Eve

Summary:  Since I didn't really grow up with Christmas traditions, it was really important to me when Jason and I got married that we created some for our family.  I love our Christmas Eve!  For the past few years, we've had the same delicious meal (that is only prepared on Christmas Eve), we've gone to our church's candlelight service, we've read the Christmas story together (the kids reenact it with our Fisher Price nativity set), we enjoy cookies and sip hot chocolate while opening gifts, and we give the kids only 3 gifts (something they read, something they'd like, and something they need).  It has also been very special to have Jason's mom join us for the past few years.

Special Memory:  Every year, Jason and I have intentionally chosen to only give our kids 3 gifts because we don't want the focus to be on receiving gifts- we don't want to overspend and get hooked into all the commercialism.  How ironic that this year, the one thing I worried about was whether or not our kids would be completely disappointed when they opened up their gifts.  What ended up happening was a lesson I hope I will never forget.  In addition to getting us small gifts with her own money, Grace excitedly gave us one final present to open.  It was small and flat, but she had still wrapped it.  Inside was a sweet, thoughtful letter she had written thanking us for all kinds of things, and she wrote about how much she loved us.  I cried as I read it- she clearly understood what Christmas and gift-giving is all about: LOVE.  What a gift she gave us!  I am so grateful for such a tender-hearted daughter who consistently reminds me of what is important in life.

Christmas Day        

Summary:  The kids were so excited to see what "Santa" had left them in their stockings (when Santa comes to our house, he only fills stockings).  We ate a fantastic breakfast before heading to church, and then we headed up to Jason's mom's home for his family's Christmas.  It was a wonderful day- we ate delicious food, the grownups talked, the kids played, we opened up gifts, and even played ping pong (for the record, Jason and I beat Jen and Dan).  Jason's family was once again, incredibly generous and we left with many blessings.

Special Memory:  It was neat that Christmas was on a Sunday this year and we're glad that we were able to join our church family on this special morning. Jeremy insisted on wearing his superhero cape that Santa left in his stocking (he's been completely fascinated by superheroes in the last few months, learning about them from his friends at daycare).  During the service, the children were invited to go to the front for a special children's feature.  Grace held Jeremy's hand and they went up.  He got a lot of attention for wearing his cape and mask!  Our pastor asked the kids what they got for Christmas, and surprisingly, our usually-bashful Jeremy shared into the microphone about his cape and mask.  It was so funny... and pretty darn cute!

New Year's Eve/Day

Summary: For years, we've spent New Year's Eve with the same group of friends- the Wiens, Lee, and Co families.  The Cos spend every other year in L.A., so this year, it was only our 3 families.  Like last year, we headed up to our family's cabin at Shaver Lake and spent the whole weekend there.   Unlike last year when we practically got snowed in, there was only a few patches of snow here and there.  We found other ways to spend our time- it was fun to hang out, play games, eat, go for a walk, play outside, and watch movies/football... On New Year's Eve, the guys did their usual beer testing (blind taste test this year), and the girls did our usual gabbing.  Fun memories!

Special Memory: The whole weekend was enjoyable- we value spending time with good friends!  I must say though, that we sure missed the snow!  

I wonder what God has in store for our family this year... Hopefully, it'll include many more special memories of valuable time with family and friends!

From Our Family to Yours...

Christmas is in the Air!

Earlier this month, we met up with our friends, the Macks and the Cos to walk Christmas Tree Lane.  There have been years when we're driven through the lane in our car, but it is always much more memorable to be able to walk it with friends.  I'm not sure why the kids wanted a picture in front of the Abominable Snowman when there were sooo many other Christmas-y things along the lane, but when I look back upon this picture in years to come, it'll trigger for me the night of Crazy Gracie (she unleashed her wild side that night!).  When we got home later that night, we poured on the praise and rewards for Jeremy (cookie and hot chocolate) and sent Grace to bed with nothing.  Talk about a role reversal for those two!    

On Dec. 11, our church held our annual Children's Christmas Program.  Both kids were as cute as can be. 

Grace (back to her regular, sweet self), recited part of a Christmas poem and sang some songs with her Sunday School class.

Jeremy did great with his Sunday School class on stage.  We thought he'd be a deer in the headlights, but he surprised us by singing along and proudly ringing his bells. 

For reasons we haven't been able to understand, mine and Jason's school districts have different winter breaks this year.  I certainly enjoyed getting off school last week and having a few days to myself this week.  This change in schedule also allowed for me to finish up Christmas shopping, cleaning house, fitting in doctors' appointments, etc.  I even got to volunteer in Grace's classroom for her Winter Party.  I was so glad to be able to come and help out.  The kids got "sugared up" and then were sent off to vacation!

It's such a busy time of year- now that our whole family is on Christmas break, we look forward to spending some quality time together!

5th Grade Trip to Sacramento

I don't often blog about my work, but part of the reason why my life has been so hectic as of late is due to my work!  My grade level partner, Michelle, and I took our classes to visit Sacramento during the first part of December.  We went on Amtrak through their incredible program, Kids N Trains.  A lot of work went into planning the trip, but once the day came, everything pretty much went off without a hitch.  It was a very long day- I left my house at 5:00am and got back at 8:30pm. 

This school year has been without a doubt, one of the hardest I've had in my teaching career.  I have had my faith and confidence shaken, many trials, meltdowns, and sleepless nights.  It has been hard to hold onto the positive moments... Maybe that's why I had to blog about this particular day- it will certainly be a highlight of our year. 

Thanksgiving at the Family Cabin

I better hurry up and catch up with my blogging before Christmas!  The last few weeks have been quite the whirlwind!  First up was Thanksgiving.  We are lucky that we both got an entire week off during Thanksgiving.  We headed up to the Isaac family's cabin at Shaver Lake.  Last year was wonderful because there was so much snow on the ground.  We all have fond memories of playing in the snow and seeing the beautiful snow-covered trees.  This year, not so much!  Jason ended up driving to find areas for the kids to go sledding.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to join in the fun this year because I wasn't feeling well.  That did mean that I got to rest, relax, and stay cozy at the cabin.  Here are a few pictures from our time at Shaver!

Thanksgiving with family... Doesn't get any better than that!

Jeremy's Soccer Season

We have had such a fun time watching Jeremy play soccer this year.  He understood the point of the game, continually went after the ball, learned how to change the direction of the ball, became very good at dribbling, and near the end of his season, he even learned to "share" the ball by passing it to other kids.  He scored many goals and despite being very tired in each game, he endured, and was tenacious. 

Part of what made the season so fun was being with his friends, Jackson, Luke, and Jacob.  At the start, we were ok with the season being only 6 weeks, but honestly, we wouldn't have minded if the season had been a little longer.  Fresno's next league sport is basketball and we have opted not to sign him up for that.  We definitely can't wait for spring and the start of t-ball again!

 Jeremy's adoring fans!

Happy Halloween!

 This year, Grace asked to be an artist (I'm serious- it was her idea), Jeremy asked to be an astronaut, and Jason, well, he decided last minute to add some things to the shirt he was already wearing.

The only thing I wanted at the church carnival was cotton candy, and thanks to Cheryl, I was one of the first ones to get it!

  The kids had fun playing some of the carnival games- a carnival favorite was Angry Birds!

 We went trick-or-treating with Charlotte and Levi to some houses around the church's neighborhood.

 Happy Halloween!

Grace's Artist Birthday Party

October is definitely a party month for the Isaacs!  As soon as Jeremy's birthday party was done with, I switched gears to work on Grace's party.  This year, she definitely had her own ideas on what she wanted, so that made it a little easier for me.  Grace asked to have a party centered around painting, so we had an artist party.  As soon as her friends arrived, they used fabric markers to decorate their own personalized aprons.

We invited our artist friend, Ashley, to come and teach the girls a painting lesson.  It was wonderful!  She did an amazing job teaching the kids different painting techniques as they painted on canvas. 

I had to post this picture- Jeremy didn't get to paint with the girls, but he was completely fascinated and stood completely focused on Ashley as she taught her lesson.

 

 The girls showing off their artwork and aprons

Grace's masterpiece!

Grace was very specific- she wanted a rainbow cake that looked like an artist's palette... I'm so glad she loved her cake!  I can't believe it has been 7 years that she has been in our lives.  I am so grateful for my sweet, beautiful, intelligent, sensitive, caring, and thoughtful girl!  Happy Birthday, Gracie! 

Pumpkin Patch

It's an Isaac family tradition- we go to the pumpkin patch every year on Grace's birthday!  Here are a few pictures from our visit. 

Jeremy's 4th Birthday was a Blast!

With every birthday that our kids have had, I have tried to make each one special and memorable.  Now that they're older, they definitely have an idea of what they want!  Jeremy told me a few months ago that he wanted to have a "space" birthday party.  I searched online for all kinds of ideas- thank goodness for the internet!  We feel incredibly blessed to have many friends who have boys all around Jeremy's age. 

As soon as the boys arrived, they had "Launch Preparation" in which they decorated paper rockets with stickers.  Afterwards, they had to "Gear Up" by getting ready with jetpacks that Jason and I made for each boy.  We headed towards the empty lot next to our home to the "Rocket Launch."  I am lucky that Jason is so handy- he found directions online on how to build a rocket launcher using an air compressor.  We had the boys take turns launching their rockets.  Unfortunately, since some of the rockets had been made with Scotch tape as opposed to packaging tape, some of them exploded in the air due to the air pressure- some boys were on the verge of tears!  Oops!  It was very cool and exciting to see some of the rockets launched into the air.  Boys young and old enjoyed themselves!

After the rocket launch, the boys played a game called Alien Attack using nerf guns.  While waiting for our "Pizza Planets" to arrive, the boys got a chance to play while we sat and chatted with friends.  

Here is Jeremy with his rocket cake.   He absolutely loved it- in fact, he had gotten up first that morning, and had tried to sneak some of it.  When I saw it a while later, parts of the frosting and outline were missing and I had to do some rocket repairs! 

We are so thankful to have this amazing little-big boy in our lives!  Our Bear is a goofy jokester with a great sense of humor, is passionate, intelligent, caring and endearing.  We love him so incredibly much- happy 4th birthday to our Jere-Bear!