airborne

a group of friends and i decided to take a stroll to the farmer's market today. i was really excited because i had borrowed a double stroller to use on our walk for the first time. things were going great (weather was nice, sky was clear, kids were behaving...you get the picture) until halfway to the market, as i was about to push the stroller up onto the sidewalk, the front left wheel of the stroller broke, catapulting emma out of the stroller face down on the concrete. i couldn't believe what i had just seen...my baby emma flying into the air and landing upside down on the ground. i was horrified. it actually took me a second to realize what had happened. i was in such shock that my friend, cristy, was actually the one who turned emma back over. luckily, emma was strapped nice and tightly in her carrier and the shade of the carrier was pulled over her so that no part of her body hit the concrete. she let out a big cry after she landed upside down, but quieted down once i held her in my arms. it was unbelievable to see her fly out of the stroller and land face down on the concrete; it is even more unbelievable that she didn't have a scratch on her. thank God for protecting my little girl. moral of the story: seatbelts work so use them.

announcing our new baby!

this one didn't take us 9 months (it took more), and was a lot more work for allan than it was for me (a change from our last two babies).

we are pleased to announce the arrival of

allan tuan photography!

we're very excited about our new venture and would love your prayers and support. thanks, in advance!

good times

we had a fun-filled labor day weekend! saturday night, we enjoyed some tasty homemade beef stroganoff with our friends, kat, tony, theron, and the dickhauses. the three boys were uncontrollable! (that is, lucas, carter, and theron - not allan, brady, and tony.) then, on sunday, we were off to the columbia river with some more friends for some kayaking, canoeing, floating, volleyballing, frisbeeing, eating, and general horsing around. it got dark fast and we found ourselves trying to load up all of our stuff (including the boats) with little light. kind of sad because that means that summer is nearing its end, but a lot happy because that means that fall is coming! my absolute, hands-down favorite season of the year is fall. here, in the tri-cities, we get to experience all four seasons. so, fall is even more awesome than what i remember it to be when i lived in california. i didn't capture any pictures of our day at the river, but i know how much i enjoy looking at pictures when i read my friends' blogs, so here are some from july and august of the kids that i haven't shared.

:: :: ::

emma's two favorite things to do as of late
are sucking her hands and playing with her feet.
you should see her in action. it's adorable!

lucas is great with his little sister.
he is super gentle and loving. he's being a ham in the first
picture and, by the look on her face, emma is calling him on it.
in the second picture, lucas is showing off his
badges of courage - from a fall he had on the tennis courts.

our little darling - and her tongue.

emma and her friend, lexi.

a night on the town

we enjoyed a nice dinner with tammy and rob, some good friends of ours, tonight. we ate out on the restaurant's patio and the weather couldn't have been more perfect for it. after our meal, we headed over to robust, a new coffeehouse and wine bar that opened up in our area. the atmosphere was really nice and it had a lot of charm to it. it also displayed the works of local artists, which was cool to see. we all agreed that the only thing missing was some live music. (even the bathroom was nice!) it was really neat to come across a place like this in the tri-cities since there aren't too many others like it. it definitely outbeats a typical starbucks any day. if you're a tri-citian and you've never been to robust (or d.s. watkins, as it was formerly known), you should check it out! you'll be glad you did.

emma's grown!

emma visited the doctor's office a few weeks ago (august 6) for her 4-month well-check. our doctor gave her two big thumbs ups in terms of health, growth, and development. here are the stats for our little girl:
height: 25 inches (75%)
weight: 13 lbs, 12 oz (55%)(she's lighter and longer than lucas was at 4 months.
check out lucas' stats at 4 months to compare.)
even though i've gone through it many times with lucas, it still pained me when the nurse came in to give emma her shots (all 4 of them). emma cried more than lucas did when he got them at 4 months, and it took her a little longer to recover.

since we're doing comparisons, here are pictures of lucas and emma, respectively, on their tummies at 4 months old.

benton county fair

we had a very fun evening at the benton county fair this year! lucas was a little older, so he was more aware of the animals (still a bit hesitant about some of them, like the cows) and more excited about the rides. he also got to go with his buddy, carter, so that made it extra fun. of course, it was emma's first time at a fair so that made it extra special as well. we grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading off to see all of the animals. we got to see a dairy cow get milked by a machine (sort of like a breast pump, i guess) - very interesting. we also got to pet a cute calf that decided that my shirt was a tasty treat. luckily a lady saw it in time otherwise i would have been down one article of clothing for the night. lucas' favorite animal was the sheep. he actually got close to one and petted it. after the animals, we sat down and enjoyed the music of charlie daniels. the boys must have liked the band because they were grooving up a storm! before it got too dark, we took the boys to go on some rides. they rode on an airplane (their favorite), a dragon (similar to the teacups), and a gigantic slide. you can see from the pictures that we'all had a great time!

the LBC, OC, and TO

we headed down to los angeles last week to attend my friend's wedding and to visit my sister, some old friends, and allan's family. we had a fabulous time doing all of the above. the trip made me realize how much i miss my sister (we miss you vicky!). we also had an awesome time catching up with friends from college, and meeting kids of friends from high school.

thanks to all of our family and friends for hosting us and making our trip so fun!

see more photos from our trip at allan tuan photography's blog!
.: san diego zoo :.

.: helen and eugene's wedding :.
.: visit with willa, lisa, danny, and kayley :.
.: visit with tuan family :.
.: visit with ben, jen, riley, jethro, michelle, leah, dan, gabe :.

(this part is for my own memory-preserving purposes, but you can read it if you've got the time!)

our trip began with our flight into long beach. we were greeted by my sister. it was SO great to see her! amazingly, we were able to fit one large and one small suitcase, three backpacks, one good-sized camera bag, one pack 'n play, two car seats, one stroller (not the umbrella kind), two purses, two kids, and three adults into a volvo s40. if you don't think that's an amazing feat, then you need to visit volvo's website and check out the s40. once we got loaded in, we headed over to our hotel in huntington beach and proceeded to grab some tasty chinese food (yum!). friday morning, we weaved our way through some typical socal traffic and drove down to the san diego zoo. our little emma had a meltdown right around oceanside, so we stopped at the marina to feed her and to give her a break. it didn't really work because as soon as we got back into the car, she continued her wailing. finally, she cried herself to sleep as we continued on to sd. since both of the kids were asleep, we decided to drive through my old stomping grounds, ucsd, before going to the zoo. boy, has it changed! they've added a new college and moved my old college (erc) to a different part of the campus. it was really good to see my old school again. by then the kids had woken up so it was zoo time. we saw some birds, flamingos, a lot of monkeys, pigs, an animal that looked like a mix of zebra-horse-giraffe, a hippo, and other cool animals that i'm not remembering at the moment. lucas had a great time and emma was worn out by all of the walking.

on saturday, vicky spent the day with lucas looking at boats, visiting the library, sharing a jamba juice, and doing other activities while allan, emma, and i went to my friend's wedding in marina del rey. it was beautiful! she was beautiful! allan and i got a chance to catch up and reminisce with my college friends/roommates. the time went by too fast and we had to say goodbye before we knew it. it better not take another 5 years before we see each other again.

we headed over to allan's old stomping grounds, ucla, on sunday and visited westwood. the best part was indulging in a diddy riese cookie ice cream sandwich. it was deeeeelicious...and only $1.25! can't find that anywhere nowadays. in the evening, we visited with allan's college friends and met kayley, a sweet little girl. again, our time with them was too short but it was fun seeing them!

we spent the next few days with allan's family in the thousand oaks area and enjoyed their awesome swimming pool and hot tub. it was so relaxing! we also checked out ventura beach, which was fun but very windy. lucas and emma had a great time visiting with their aunty jo, grandma, and grandpa.

wednesday was our last full day before heading back to the tri-cities. we spent the day with my high school friends and their kids. it was a great little mini reunion. gabe is one little cutie, and riley is absolutely precious!

unstoppable

emma rolled from her back to her tummy for the first time today! we were all having lunch and emma was playing by herself on her floor gym. i heard her making some funny noises, so i looked over to see what she was up to and, lo and behold, she was in the midst of turning over! of course, her little elbows got in the way so she cried out for some help and i was quick to her rescue. i don't have any pictures of her in action, but here's one of her playing on the mat where the milestone happened. the second shot is of the little cutie pie playing in her bouncy chair.

over the hills we love to go

it was off to seattle this weekend. allan was attending a conference there, so we decided to tag along and join him for a little fun afterwards. we enjoyed some good eats and also took lucas to the flight museum where he got to see lots of airplanes and even fly one all by himself! emma did wonderful, as always. she spiked a fever overnight, but recovered the next day. i got to spend some one-on-one time with her at the hotel while allan took lucas down to the pool for a swim. she konked out on me shortly after some emma-and-mommy time.

tagged...twice

okay, so two of my friends have tagged me for this meme game thing. i've put it off for long enough, so here it is!

the rules:
1: each player starts with 7 (8) random facts/habits about themselves.
2: people who are tagged write a blog post about their own 7 (8) random things, and post these rules.
3: at the end of your post you need to tag 7 (8) people and include their names.
4: don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

my random things:
1. i am a rules-follower. before typing my list, i looked back at the rules i received from my two friends. one set of rules asked for 7 random things about myself. the second set asked for 8. i had to do 8 because if i only did 7, then i'd be breaking the first set of rules.
2. i have to sleep near my alarm clock. i have restless sleep if i think i won't be able to read the time when i wake up in the middle of the night. i have pretty poor eyesight, so even with my big-numbered alarm clock you can imagine what "near" means.
3. i love green tea ice cream. i hate that they give you so little at restaurants.
4. i don't like driving over anything on a road because i'm afraid that it's actually a bomb and my car will blow up as soon as i drive over it. so, i do all that i can to avoid driving over anything in the middle of my path, even if it's just a leaf.
5. i like to type. i test my speed every so often and my current speed is 86 wpm.
6. i love road trips.
7. i am a craigslist junkie, though i've only purchased a couple of things from it.
8. my favorite runts candy flavor is banana (this is for sarah, who was the first to tag me).

i tag: allan , shannon, bing, tammy, emily, vicky, karen, & adriana.

the real thing

we did it! we took both of the kids camping for real, and even brought along my second cousin, chris, who was visiting from hong kong (it was his first time tent-camping!). we ate well, slept well (emma did GREAT in her pack 'n play and lucas did well sleeping with us on our air mattress), played hard, and all in all had a great time with chris, the dickhauses, and the rosses at bumping lake. allan and i have nice sunburns to show for it.

land of the free, home of the brave

allan's family came for a visit over the fourth of july and we had a great time with them! they met emma for the first time and got a taste of the non-stop talking lucas is doing these days. during their stay, we celebrated the independence of the u.s., ate some great food, and planted some bushes and a tree, which look beautiful.