Daytona Beach

While we were in Florida, we stayed a few days in Daytona Beach. The night we got there we went out for barbeque. Tean was so funny. He was eating ketchup like crazy, so we were putting it on the menu and letting him eat it from there, so we look over and there he is licking it off the menu. The condo that we stayed in was right on the beach, so we went to the beach one day. It was COLD! Tean liked playing in the sand, but he hated it when sand got in his sandals. We also went to a chocolate factory that they had there. There was a football and a basketball that was made out of chocolate. Tean just wanted to play with the chocolate ball. There was also a box of chocolates where the box was even made out of chocolate, so the whole thing was edible. We also stopped by the Daytona 500 Speedway, but it was raining super hard and we were too cheap to pay for a tour, so we just took pictures of it from our car.

Gatorland

One day while we were in Florida, we went to Gatorland. It was really cool. There were lots and lots of alligators and crocodiles. We saw a guy wrestle with an alligator and put an alligator asleep. Tean loved watching the guy wrestle the alligator. There was also a petting zoo there. Tean was a little afraid of the goats because they were pretty big goats. He loved all the animals there. We saw them feed the alligators. They put chickens on a string then had the alligators come and get them. I realized that alligators are lazy animals. One alligator was so lazy that it had a piece of meat hanging out of its mouth and it didn't do anything about it.

Universal Studios Adventure Island

This past week we went to Florida with Jake's family. The first day we were there, we went to Universal Studios Adventure Island. It was a pretty cool place. They had the best roller coaster that I have ever been on there. It was really cold the day we went and we weren't very prepared for it. Tean only had a jacket, so we ended up buying him a sweatshirt there too. He was a lot happier after that. There was a Dr. Suess land there that Tean liked. He loved riding the train and didn't want to wait in line for it.

He cried every time a train car went by that he wasn't on.

Tean even got to see the Grinch. Jake's Dad and brother in front of Hogswart. We went on the Harry Potter ride and saw Hogswart and the place where Harry Potter goes to buy school supplies. Jake didn't like the Harry Potter ride at all because it jerked around a lot, and spun and had a huge screen in front. We also went on the Hulk which was pretty cool too. We had an awesome time at Universal Studios!

Painting the Piano

Four years ago for Christmas, Jake bought me a piano. It was very used. It was missing a leg and the bottom board that covered the piano parts at the bottom of the piano. It was dirty, but it sounded pretty good, so we got it with the intention of redoing it. Well, we finally did! I wish I had pictures of before, but I can't seem to find any on this computer. We replaced both legs so that they looked alike and got a board to fit into the bottom piece. Then Jake sanded off all the varnish that was still on the piano. And then it sat for a while. Then we bought a better sander that worked a lot better, so Jake was able to finish sanding everything without a lot of effort. Jake took the piano apart, and then we started painting after we picked a color. We used this paint: I love the piano now. I think it looks great! It needs a little bit of touch up still, but I'm loving at how it looks! It's a HUGE improvement from before.

Trip to Vegas, Cali, and Mexico

We went to Vegas, California, and Mexico (Tijuana) the week before Christmas. We had a great time! Unfortunately, we lost our camera on Christmas Eve that had all the pictures on it, so all of our pictures are lost:( The pictures that we do have, we got from Marta.

We had a great time in Vegas, visiting my sister and walking around the strip. We went to M&M world, where Tean saw his first 3D movie. It was funny watching him. He kept putting his hands out, thinking that he could touch what was in front of him. We also went to Hoover Dam and saw the huge new bridge that they built by it.

After that, we headed to L.A., where it rained the whole time we were there. We stayed with Jake's aunt and uncle. We went to a cool museum, saw the beach, hiked to the Hollywood sign, went to the L.A. temple visitors center and went to a Thai Buddhist temple (We took Lhin, a Thai foreign exchange student with us on the trip, along with our foreign exchange student, Marta). We went down to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. The day we went there, it just poured and poured rain. We had on our rain coats, Tean held an umbrella over him in the stroller, and Jake's phone got ruined from the rain. We were still all soaked by the time we were done there. This duck tried to take Tean's food that he was eating right out of his hand. We even got to see a lion and lioness fight a little bit.

One day, we went down to Tijuana, MX. It was a great day to go down, because it was kind of gloomy, so there weren't a ton of people walking everywhere. It only rained really hard for about 10 minutes, and that was while we were eating lunch. The best thing about going to Mexico was we got to eat real Mexican food. It was SO GOOD! On our way back to our car we saw a dentist office, so I said, "Jake you should get your tooth filled while we are here." (He had a filling that fell out a while ago and he has just been putting temporary filling in it ever since.) Well, he went into the dentist, and the dentist only charged him $40 for the filling, and it only took him about 25 minutes to finish! It took us forever to get out of Mexico. We were probably in line for about 3 hours, waiting to go back into the States.

On our way back, we stopped at Temple Square and saw all the lights. Our exchange students thought it was pretty cool, and Tean loved it too. We had a great time on our trip, and we got home just in time to celebrate Christmas.

Christmas Morning

I loved Christmas this year! It is so much more fun when you have kids, and to see how excited they are about all the things that they got. Jake and I had a lot of fun playing "Santa" this year. Christmas Eve, after Tean was in bed, we got out what Santa was giving to him and put it all together. Jake decided to get some play time in before Tean. Jake and I both slept horrible. It was like we were kids again, too excited for Santa to come to sleep. So, we got up early and made cinnamon rolls, because I remember having them most Christmas mornings growing up. At 9:15 Tean woke up, so we got him up and brought him in to see what Santa brought. I think he was a little shocked about all the toys. He was so excited about all the things that he got. He really loved the train and the truck, but his favorite toy of all? Balloons! Marta even enjoyed everything Santa brought her, but she woke up feeling sick, so that wasn't a whole lot of fun. After we opened up all the presents, we Skyped with my parents and they got to see everything that Tean got. After that, we went up to Jake's parent's house, got more presents (thanks!), and just hung out there for the rest of the day. Tean was in heaven with all the cars and the trains! We hope that everyone else had a wonderful Christmas!

Tean Dancing

I put some music on one day to listen to, and Tean was dancing in the living room while I was in the kitchen, so I just had to video it.

Decorating the Tree

The day after we cut down the tree, we decorated it. Since then, Tean has knocked it down once, and redecorated it many times. Marta and Lhin enjoyed decorating a tree for the first time. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Cutting Down A Christmas Tree

After Thanksgiving, we went out in the forest and cut down our Christmas tree. When we got to where we were going to cut down our tree, we saw 3 deer. They stayed there for a long time and then when I finally decided to take a picture, they ran off, so if you look close, you can see the deer. Marta and Lhin came with us to find the perfect tree. We finally found the perfect tree, Jake cut it down and we took it home to decorate.