Kids are so quick to pick up on things.

This morning, Brooke told me she does not want her toy laptop on the couch. I asked her why?

Brooke: “It freaks me out”

BACKSTORY: She has this toy hamster, the beloved Zhu Zhu Pet, that she likes to point at my toes and let loose. I was cooking and did not pay attention and it seriously feels like a real rodent was nibbling my toes! I scared “OMG! That freaked me out.”

And this morning, we get Brooke’s version. :)

Kids are amazing. They are truly sponges. Here they are working the routine from the flash mob Dad learned a couple weeks ago for a proposal for our friend JonJon. We caught them singing and doing this a couple of days ago during their play time. LOL. Love these guys.

I came home from work today and Mah-mah showed off: “Aidan, what are you getting Mah-mah for Christmas?” Aidan: “A diamond!” Excited by this, I asked if I get one too! Aidan: “No, you have too much already!” (Obviously, Dad’s been coaching…)

Laguna Beach, CA

Congrats to the lovely couple! I teared up so badly at this. LOL. (Also note my slick husband dancing in this!)

With 2011 coming to an end, I started thinking about my life and all the things I have to be grateful for. And there’s a lot.

I am so blessed to be the mother of two beautiful, fun and loving children. I look back at the day they were born, in NICU, feeding tubes and all and then I look at them now…stuffing their faces where I have to remind them to chew. I’m blessed that they are healthy and happy.

I am blessed with an amazing man in my life. Not only is he a good father and husband (I learned this year a good man does not automatically make a good father and husband) but he’s my best friend. We’ve known each other since we were teenagers and very much grew up together – and I’m grateful for this. So easily we could have grown apart, but we somehow manage to grow to be the people we are today – as individuals and as partners. I can’t imagine going through this adventure with anybody else but him.

I’m grateful to grow up in a crazy and loving family. As I grew older, I realized my family isn’t perfect. But at the end of the day, I grew up happy. Mom, dad, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins…we have our differences and it’s normal. We’re all different people. But at the end of all the drama, I grew up with a lot of love and I’m grateful for that and hope my kids grow up w/ the same time of relationships I had with my extended family – my aunts/uncles were like additional parents…my cousins were more like siblings. Some of us have grown apart which is a shame. But I’m grateful for the ones still in my life and the ones that are not…I’m happy for their successes and hope they are also happy.

I’m grateful for my own sense of happiness. I don’t think there’s been a year that I ever felt so at peace with myself and my life. I’ve learned so much this year about what it takes to be happy – and at the end of the day, the only person who controls that is you.

And I can honestly say, I am happy.

Last night I was cutting the kids nails. I started with Brooke:

Brooke: “I want to do it.”
Me: “No, you’re too little to do it, Meimei.”
Aidan: “Yes. Only Mommy do it! Mommy and robots!”

(He was so sure of himself when he said this I didn’t have the heart to ask about these robots…wondering if the robots will bathe them and put them to bed too though…)

Our good friends the Pearsons have always taken the most amazing holiday photos. Junie has been telling me for a while that I need to try their guy. In the past, we tried to take them ourselves and use family and friends who have taken photography classes and the results have been wonderful. But this year, the kids are older and I felt bad soliciting family and friends so I bit the bullet and booked Oliver.

Oliver is super affordable, super chill and SO good with kids. We shot the photos at Irvine Regional. I see Brooke’s face as Oliver approaches us and thinks, “Here we go.” I asked her, “Brooke, can you say hi to Mr. Oliver? He’s going to take pictures of us today.” Nothing. Just that Brooke stare. Then the magic happened. He said hello to her and did an impression of Donald Duck. Oh how quickly we changed! She smiled instantly to which Bao and I exclaimed, “That’s it?! That’s way too easy. It hasn’t even been a minute!”

The photoshoot was very relaxed. We were just hanging out while Oliver took pictures of us. After about an hour and a half, we were done. Mike and I left thinking, that wasn’t a lot of photos. We realized after he sent us the proofs that he’s just a very good and non-intrusive photographer because we had about 200 good shots! I am in love with our photos this year and will be using Oliver for as long as he’s willing to shoot my family.

3×5 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Just ordered cute thank you cards for the twins’ birthday.

One of Brooke’s favorite things are jump houses. Mid-summer, this type A mom decided to book their birthday party. (My justification – there are only so many Saturdays in a year, alright?!) So a good friend of mine recommended Partyopolis in Lake Forest, California…and this place ROCKED! We had around 23 kids and their parents show up. They let everybody jump here. The parents were having more fun than the kids! Haha.

Happy birthday to my perfect children…I could not be happier or more proud to be your mom. I can’t believe you’ve been in my life for 3 years already…and at the same time, I can’t remember how I felt any happiness before you both…