New pictures!

I hate the blogspot 'posting' features... the pictures jump all over the place, and the copy and paste doesn't work with pictures... ugh!!

So anyway...

We thought it'd be time to post some new pictures.

Kai got a hair cut. After being complimented by strangers how cute of a girl he is, we thought it was time. So though I was super sad to see his curls go, I do see Justin's point of him establishing his identity in this world as a boy :)

Kai can climb onto the chair all by himself now, and he can eat at the table like a big boy. He loves it :) (though I still put him in the high chair most of the time)




Our house-warming party: Justin's work friends came, and Kai likes to be in the middle of the action.

Kai and Owen. They are just so cute...

And Even more pics!

Some Pics!

so we have a house :)

I won't even apologize for our slacker-ness anymore. It's really Justin's fault, not mine. He's supposed to be in charge of this blog!!



So to those that didn't know, we've finally moved to Oregon at the beginning of May, after Justin has successfully completed ALL of the classes required for graduation. Yay for Justin. I was pretty proud of him for finishing an online biology class in 36 hours (sleeping time included!) and got a pretty good grade in it too.

After we moved here we stayed at Jami's house for 4 weeks, I think Jami was happy when we finally moved out :))) It was really fun for us, and I think Kai missed seeing his cousins everyday after we moved out.

However, we did find a house that we absolutely fell in love with that had everything we'd wanted and then some. It was only the 9th or 10th house we saw, and we almost didn't give it a chance because the photos posted online were not impressive(to say the least). But I (the smarter one) saw potential from those photos, and our realtor took us to see it. And the rest is history. The offer went through, the loan got approved fast and at an incredibly low rate, house inspection was great, we closed on the house within 25 days of putting in the offer. We really believed it was meant to be.

So the house is 2300 sqft, 4 bdrms and a bonus room, great room and dinning room, tandem 3-car garage, on a little lot of 0.12 acres... so plenty of room for now if anyone wants to come and visit!! ;) Especially now we've painted over the ugly burnt-orange and moss green that used to be downstairs, hopefully it'll be a little more pleasing to the eyes of our guests.

That's really it for now... we are trying to save up for many things at once to beautify our house... but doing so at a very slow rate so our house might seem empty for a while... but it's ok :) we are just happy to have a house.

Ummm so it's been 3 months...

It makes me feel better when I look at the list of our friends' blogs and realize that we are not the only ones not updating in a timely fashion.

So it's been three months since we've updated our blog... can you tell it's been a busy time for us? The funny thing is though, there's really not much to be listed despite how busy we've been.

Here's the update.

*Kai at 8 months.

In Janurary we were all very upset that there was still a whole semester ahead of us, and because of the cold and snowy weather it seemed even more depressing than it really was. Late Janurary Kai had his first real sickness--the stomach flu. Thankfully it only lasted for a couple of days, and he was so good---not fussy, not whiny,happy as ever--such a little trooper!

*Seconds after this picture was taken, we had an accident in the tub...

In Febuary Justin and I had our four-and-half-year anniversary on Valentine's day... which to celebrate we made yummy dinner at Sheryl and Dave's place, and played our new favorite game--Pirates Cove--afterwards. Then three days after that, on Febuary 17th, Kai started walking (on his own, not holding onto anything), at which time he was 9-months-and-a-week old.


In March we made a trip to Monterey California, and for the first time since our marriage had all of Justin's siblings, their significant other and babies all under the same roof. It was so fun! Kai was able to meet his littliest cousin Owen for the first time, and Ethan, Henry, Kai and Owen (all born within the same year) were so cute together... they became instant friends :)
*All the grandbabies...

Now that we are in April, the end is finally in sight! Justin will be done with school and attend graduation this month, and we'll be packing up and moving to Oregon.

In case we get busy and forget to update in May, here are some anticipated events:

Justin starts working on May 4th.

Kai will turn one on May 9th.

We will be looking at houses/apartments, and hopefully have one under our name by the end of May.

Christmas Vacation and Family Pics

Family Pics!!

Yuan and I recently (okay it was November!) took family pictures and thought we should share.

also if you want to see more, they're posted at http://akstudio.typepad.com/photos/mitchell_family/

As for a quick update:  I'm finally done with the semester from hell! YAY!  I really enjoyed all of my classes...I was just way too busy.  Hopefully next semester should be much better, though still challenging.  I have 12 credits of engineering classes, and 6 other easy credits.  We're still on track to head back to Oregon in May, which we are both very excited about.  

We had a fantastic break.  Jared, Shannon, and Henry visited us in the beginning of December, and then Tara, John, and Ethan visited for two weeks at the end!  It's been great.  We went to a nearby public pool with the babies and loved it.  Here are some great pics (too bad we didn't have the underwater camera when Jared, Shannon, Henry came)

Slackers...

It's been a while since our last post...ok I agree that we are slackers. The truth is, I don't think Justin even remembers that we still have a blog, so I'm here struggling with two blogs (I have a Chinese one to myself), and not being successful with either one.

Another reason why we (I) haven't updated is that our laptop broke...yeah, pity. The graphics card went crazy and the screen just goes black. Fortunately it's still under warranty, so it's being fixed in some far away state right now... Illinois, I think. Hopefully our computer will be back in a week or so. However, right now Justin is definitely not missing it... because, I'm typing on our new computer right now. He was so excited that I'd finally agreed to get a new computer 1. because he needs a faster computer for his final projects, and 2. the laptop broke just in time. Though this new computer is for his 'school work', he'd already bought a blue-ray player for it, and installed his video game and RC stimulator. So I guess we'll see how much good it really does for him in a couple of months or so.

Onto more important things...Kai is crawling now! Yay! (It's scary how fast this boy is growing...) So this is how I discovered (following material includes some bathroom scenes, be aware...): It was the 14th, I remember because that whole day I kept reminding myself to call my mom and wish her happy birthday (China is 14 hours ahead of us, in case you didn't know; so it was already the 15th there, which was my mom's birthday). Kai woke up from his afternoon nap, and we played for a while in our room. Then I left him on our bedroom floor to go to the bathroom. (Since I've had Kai I have never gone to the bathroom with the door closed unless I know there's someone watching him... It's a little gross but I think the moms will understand :)) So Kai started whining when he realized that I wasn't in the room anymore, and I just had to talk to him while I was in the bathroom. Pretty soon I could see his little head poking out of the door trying to see where I am. When he saw me he stretched his arms out and wanted me to hold him. For obvious reasons I couldn't, so he decided that he loved me enough to crawl to me so I can hold him. It was pretty cute though if anyone was watching they'd think that it's gross and funny at the same time.

So that's the latest development of Kai. Oh he also has been trying various different kinds of foods, some of which is probably not suitable for baby. (Do Not try this at home...) He's already had a taste of egg, vanilla ice cream, bread, cheese, fries, paper (this one is not intentional), soy milk, etc. So far he seems to like everything, which makes Justin and I very happy :)

Other than that, life is the same old same old. Oh I'm going to see Twilight with Kerry tomorrow, and I can't tell you how excited I am! The new Bond movie is pretty good, though in my opinion not as good as Casino Royale.

And we are going to California on Monday! Can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving already!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Ummm...

Well I admit, I really don't have much to say, which is why I haven't updated our blog for so long... but just in case someone's wondering what we've been up to...

First off, Kai's got two teeth now. About a week and half after he got his first one, we discovered that his second one was on the way. It broke through not long after that, so Kai's got two little glistening white teeth to show when he smiles now, and he's pretty excited about that (we think). He's slowed down in his growing (which makes me kindda sad, but my arms are not complaining), in the last two month he's only gained a little over 2 lbs... I know it's not bad, but do know that he gained 4 lbs a month in the first two months of his life...

So another exciting thing that Kai's learning to do is to crawl. He started getting on all fours and rocking back and forth a little after his 5-month birthday. Still hasn't gotten the hang of it, but oh boy he sure gets mad when he's not moving like he wants to. Toys are no longer interesting to him, and he's been trying to get to everything else around the house (by rolling). He rolls like a tornado, and is always happy when he rolls across a shoe of ours and gets to taste it.

Last weekend the Jeffs kindly invited us and a bunch of friends to spend a night at their family cabin. It sure was fun and weird at the same time to get together... fun because all of us have been great friends for a while, and weird because ALL of us have kids now. It was the cutest thing to watch the babies interact with each other, and I think Kai thoroughly enjoyed the interaction. It wasn't the best night of sleep I've ever had (Kai and Makayla kept waking each other up), but other than that it was a blast! Oh and I think Makayla stole Kai's first kiss... oh well.

What else... Justin and I are the same old same old. Our car had a little trouble and had to be taken into a shop, which we were not happy about. But fortunately I did a little extra work for the church at the beginning of the month, and my salary came to just about covered the cost of fixing the car... so Heavenly Father does know what we need. We are very grateful for that. Justin is still working away at school, but the worst part is almost over now. My job is still going well, except for there's just no getting used to the 'get up at 7 o'clock' thing, especially when we don't go to bed until 12...

Anyway, the last little bit is to inform anyone who's in California or going to be in California during Thanksgiving... we are coming, we are coming~~

A tooth!

This is going to be really short post, cuz essentially I just wanted to inform everyone that Kai's got his first tooth :) We are so excited!



Kai's been drooling like mad since about a month ago, and on Monday he discovered that he can bend over and chew on his highchair while I'm trying to feed him. I realize now that it
probably felt good for him to have his trying-to-come-out tooth against something cold and hard. So yesterday morning as Kai and I had our usually cuddle time together, he grabbed my finger and stuck it in his mouth to gnaw on, and for the first time I felt something hard and sharp on his gum. I had to use both hands to push down his lip and hold his tougue out of the way while I got a better look---and there it was:a tooth poking out on the bottom left side!



I had been trying to get a picture of his tooth, but it's impossible with one hand holding the camera and the other trying to get his mouth open, so you'll just have to take my word for it :) So far he's been doing really well--not really fussy or anything (which is why I didn't realize that he got a tooth until I felt it) and I'm hoping he'll always be this good during teething.






So that's it for now... I'll keep trying to take a good picture of the tooth :) meanwhile,here's a good smile on the day we discovered his first tooth (I keep wondering if the faint white shadow you can see on his gum in this picture is the tooth, but I can't decide, click on the picture to get a better look, and tell me what you think :))

Balance...?

All the people that feel neglected because I haven't updated our blog...sorry, you'll have a take a ticket : ) Things at school have been so busy the past 4 weeks, I'm not 100% sure Kai still recognizes me. I've been going to school on the 7:11am bus, and coming home on the 7pm or later bus, the last two weeks I've had one night that I don't go to sleep, just code the night through. It's been frustrating, there is no such thing as finding a balance in school. You do your homework until it is done, sleeping and eating are done in you 'spare' time.




But enough complaining...now for some optimism! I am really enjoying what I'm learning in my classes, and I do take at least a half day off Saturday and Sunday so I do get some quality(not quantity) time with the fam.

Yuan has started some (very) parttime work for a charter school teaching Chinese. She has 3 boys in her class, ranging from 12 - 16. She's so glad to get out of the house and do something else, even if it is only 4 days a week for an hour. She's also getting into makinng different kinds of foods that Kai can eat.

Kai is STILL growing like a weed. I thought he was starting to slim out...but it turns out he's just getting taller. He weighed in today at a 21.2 lbs naked. He's loving solid foods (did anyone really doubt he would?). He's been sitting up well for a few weeks now, in fact now he complains if you set him down in any other position. He can also stand if I give him a finger to balance with. He's just getting so strong, I wonder how much longer it will be till he crawls...heaven help us : )!

Yum!!!

What do you mean that's all?! But I'm still HUNGRY!

He's still got chunker thighs : )

Life as it is...

Well Justin's been doing a fine job keeping the blog updated, but I can't help but add some of my writing here too just so that it's balanced :)



Come to think of it, I had a lot of thoughts last night about what I want to write on here while I was trying to fall asleep, and many of them seemed wonderful at the moment. Well you see the problem with having such thoughts at such a time is that you can never keep them in your head until the next day. So here's a quick update... maybe some of those thoughts will come back while I write the boring stuff.



Ummm I'll start with Kai, since he's the main focus of my life right now.



Kai will soon be 3-months old (this coming Saturday to be precise), and is continuing to grow at the same rate that he has been growing since birth--that is, approximately 0.8 lbs./week--the result so far being that he's 18.3 lbs. (as of 5 pm today, I measured him on the wii fit). So he's a very good live version of the Michelin tireman--but don't let him hear you say that, he'll cry in protest.



He started smiling a lot since about two maybe three weeks ago, and now will even giggle if he's really having a good time. Cooing and talking is another sign of his intellectual development (and I'm going straight down the tube on this aspect, seeing that I just had to double-check the spelling of 'intellectual' on the internet :p) He especially likes it when we repeat what he says, and will almost smile every single time we do it (I don't know, he probably either thinks that we are having a real conversation with him, or that we look really stupid doing it...) . Also, he recently found his fingers, and really enjoys sucking on them. I am grateful for this, because he still doesn't take a pacifier, and fingers are a good alternative--easy to find, hard to lose, and can be brought to his mouth whenever he feels like it. Please don't tell me how hard it is to wean children from sucking their fingers, I'll worry about that in two years. The strange thing is that he is a index finger-sucker, which I've never seen other kids do (probably for a good reason too, cuz I've seen Kai suck his finger a little too hard and almost gagged himself...).



So that's that about Kai... overall he's growing well and a very easy baby to take care of. I am grateful everday for that.



Justin is about to be done with the Summer Semester, and I think he's very glad that it's coming to an end. Both of his classes are going well (according to my standards I think he's doing great, but he can be an overachiver sometimes, and hopes to do better :)), and he will have his finals next week. He's working on a project right now, thus the reason for me updating our blog at 12:03 am... After Justin's finals we are going to California! I'm so excited and can't wait to see all of our family in Cali, it's going to be so much fun! And Kai will meet cousin Henry for the first time, and see cousin Ethan again, YAY for the 'meeting of chubby babies'! Other than that, I guess there aren't anything new about Justin... he IS losing weight according to his plans, which I
think he's secretly happy about :) haha



As for me, there isn't anything new at all. I'm losing weight too--I think all of my calorie intake goes to Kai--but not feeling any smaller. Can a person lose pure muscle and not any fat?! I've made a goal of 'exercise for 30 minutes everyday--or do things similar to exercise such as going grocery shopping with Kai strapped on me'. Don't laugh at me :), with Justin being gone so much I can hardly get out of the house... Not that I have any problem with that, because everyone that knows me know that I'm a ひものおんな (an indoor person in short, though the word means much more than that :)), and is very content being indoors as long as I have some books, a little food and the computer. But I decided that I need to make an effort to go out more for Kai's sake, so here is me working on it.



So that's our life updated. My brilliant thoughts didn't come to me so I had to bore you with this post, what a shame.

All settled in to Provo

So the three weeks have been busy busy. We've gotten all settled in to our new place in the basement of Aunt Karla's. We were amazed that we were able to fit so much of our stuff, but it's all in and we're very comfortable here! We're going to have a great 10 months :) Justin has gotten into his classes, and even aced the first tests already. The experience gained at Intel this last year is proving to also be extremely useful for school. Yuan has been working out religiously on the Wii fit and has trimmed right back down to her pre-baby size. Most of that weight has gone straight to Kai. He had his 2 month checkup on Thursday, and we were all NOT surprised to find that he was (with rounding) in the 100 percentile for weight. He's a whopping 16 lbs and 24 inches already (lookout Ethan and Henry, this boy doesn't want to be the little one of the pack). Last night was also the first time he slept through the night, which we weren't expecting yet, so we woke up for him. All in all we're super happy right now, and doing great! Here are few pics from the last months: