2010...What A Year It's Been!

We've had quite a year...lots of changes! We decided to build a new home and little did we know that soon after deciding that we'd find out that we were expecting baby #2. What a rollercoaster that would put us on. As I sit here on New Years Eve (knowing that I will more than likely not make it until the ball drops) I think back to the challenges we faced through trying to sell the house...while raising an active little one and continuing life as we normally would :) In the end everything worked out and we got to live with Vinh's parent for a month, which Addy LOVED!! We are so happy to be settling into the new house now being here for about a month and enjoying the holidays. We hosted the Chung family on Christmas Eve and the McCabe family on Christmas Day. Vinh was in heaven cooking for everyone and we were excited to host our first big events in the house! Today I finally got around to unpacking neutral baby clothes and putting things away in the nursery. As I sat in the rocking chair in the baby's room I was reminded at how excited we are to be adding to our family! I had a doctors appointment yesterday and the doctor wasn't sure if the baby was heads down yet so we got to have another ultrasound. It was such a treat as Addy and Vinh were with me...Addy definitely knows where "baby" is, but it was fun watching her see the baby on the screen! We were able to confirm that the baby is in fact heads down so that was a relief...no worry of having to try to "turn" the baby or possibly plan for a c-section. YEAH! It was fun seeing the baby's pudgy cheeks as well...we never had an ultrasound this far in the pregnancy with Addy so it was fun to see. Thought we'd share some pictures from the past few months as well...

Our 1st Christmas Tree Hunt...Addy loved it!

Addy's favorite hang out spot in the house

Our 1st dinner at the house...Five Guys with the Dorns!

The Office

The Dining Room

The Great Room

The Kitchen

More holiday pictures to come! We hope everyone has a Happy New Year...have a cocktail for me :)

Update on the McChungs!

Everytime I blog I commit to doing it more often...clearly I'm not living up to that goal! Well here's an update on the McChungs and our adventures over the past few months. First of all, we've been on quite the rollercoaster and I must say, I've got one of the best hubbies who has been a great support to his pregnant hormonal wife throughout the entire thing :) Where to start...

We moved out of our house about 3 weeks ago as it turned out we found amazing people to move in and see a great friendship starting with their family! We feel it all worked out for a reason on both sides. The move out of our house was quite the ordeal as we underestimated just how much "stuff" we really had. We filled up 2 storage units...to the point of pushing things in to get the storage unit door to close :) Off we went our suitcases in hand to live with Vinh's parents in St. Paul. Addy, of course, has been in total heaven getting spoiled rotten by A-Ma & A-Ya at all hours of the day and night! I was most worried about her in this whole transition, but she seems to be doing the best out of all of us!! I've been really busy at work so working long hours and some weekends which has been tough on Baby Wang #2...but he/she keeps reminding me of their presence by being a pretty active "mover-arounder"...at all hours of the night and day! Our motivation has been solely on getting into our new house and starting to finally get settled. It's amazing how unsettling it is to even be in your previous house having to have it "show ready" all the time...the stress was really wearing on us. Now it's just a different type of stress...being anxious the get into our new home and for me to be able to "nest" before Baby Wang #2 comes. Needless to say, that process hasn't been the smoothest up to this point with our new house...there have been multiple delays where I get my hopes up and then something comes up. Again, Vinh has been the rock to keep us all together and ensuring that it will all be worth the wait! I must say, I have to also thank all the family and friends who have been supporting us throughout this process as well...YOU'RE THE BEST!

So now back to the fun stuff...I just had to share this picture of Addy as she loves visiting A-Ma & A-Ya's restaurant. We've been "visiting" coincidentally around dinner time multiple nights out of the week and have been spoiled rotten by A-Ma's cooking...YUMMY! As you can see Addy enjoys helping A-Ya take orders from the customers...

That's all for now. I'll hopefully be able to post some pictures of the new house after we get settled in...keeping our fingers crossed that we close early next week!

MN Zoo Trip w/ The Burds and The Hoffmans

We headed to the zoo a few weeks ago to meet up with our friends the Burds and the Hoffmans. It was a "beastly" hot day, but Addy was introduced to her first splash pad near the grizzly bear exhibit...and as you'll see below, LOVED it!!

There was no fear looking directly into the spray holes and waiting for the water to gush up into her face...HILARIOUS!

Clearly she was into RUNNING around the splash pad...which was a little scarey for Mom & Dad!

I LOVE THE ZOO!

Happy 1st Birthday Addison Jean!

Happy 1st Birthday to our little girl...who turned 1 on July 29th! We can't believe how fast the first year flew by...(and we survived) :) Addy enjoyed her favorite pasttimes on her actual birthday...going to Chucky Cheeses and unrolling the toilet paper...both very FUN!

Addy's 1st Birthday Party!

Of course we were excited to throw Addy her 1st birthday party and much like her 1-month party...her Dad just couldn't resist!! This time the non-resistance party item was a bouncey turtle, which was so large we almost had to put it up in the neighbors yard. Oh and based on the size of the turtle the rental company threw in a snow cone machine to top it off...I'm pretty sure Vinh was drooling the entire time! In between drooling he managed to take over 400 pictures from the day...hence why it's taken me this long to update the blog...I have the attention span of a 1 year old and just picked out a few to share...ENJOY (we sure did!) :)

Will it fit? (Vinh supervising the set-up of Mr. Turtle)

Addy & Daddy enjoying the first bounces...check out the head on Mr. Turtle!

Mr. Turtle was just so kissable!

Addy had a blast bouncing around...literally, she didn't care how many times she fell down and rolled around!

Her favorite position...try this bouncing around!

Pre-birthday cake outfit


Family and friends singing "Happy Birthday"...and Addy just watching us all going..."you guys are crazy"!!

This frosting stuff is merely coincidental as Addy wasn't that interested in eating the cake or frosting...it just "happened" to get all over her! (hence the bath water was blue/green when we quickly washed her off!)

New House Pictures

Addy & Daddy with the house in the background

Addy loves the big open soccer field that is our backyard!

Here's a pic from the house looking onto the soccer field

Addy admiring the view from the 3rd floor bonus room

Daddy & Addy on the landing to the 3rd floor

Baby Wang #2's room (note the garage backing up to the window...we're already planning for sneakouts...pretty sure Vinh will still have the video montior going when the kids are teenagers!)

Big sister Addy's room

Front of the house...come on in!

Kitchen...Addy standing on "the island"

Daddy & Addy in the greatroom

We're still here!

I've had a blog update on my "to do list" for quite some time! Instead I live vicariously through all of you, my friends/family, that are regular updaters!! You're an inspiration :) As much as I love the pictures posted...I have to apologize b/c I'm only going to put my posting up and hopefully pictures will soon follow :)

There's so much to catch-up on and of course so little time. Where to start...to add to our craziness of life with selling our current home, building a new home, keeping up with an almost 1 year old, work, school (the list could go on)...we're managing all of this amidst my 24-7 nausea and tiredness...yep, I'm pregnant :) I'm almost done with the first trimester which I'm hoping means the nausea and tiredness will subside. We are REALLY excited about the baby and Addy has absolutely NO idea what's going to be hitting her. She is learning to say "baby" and I think it's clear as mud :) We're due January 30th so Miss Addison will be a whole 18 months! Vinh, of course, has been amazing letting me sleep in and take naps as much as possible...he's such a great Dad & Husband!

The new house is coming along...it seems SO fast at times...but I think that's just because we're patiently (anxiously) awaiting the sale of our current home. We have the electrical walk through on Tuesday and have been in the house quite a few times throughout the process. It's amazing to be able to see where all the plumbing is running through the walls...never thought about that before. With baby on the way it makes me even more anxious to be able to get into the new house some time in November and be able to settle in somewhat before baby comes. Along with that I'm ready to be done keeping a clean house 24-7 in case of a showing...it's amazing just how quickly it gets messy...Addy may have a little something to do with that!

We hope everyone is having a great summer!

Twins Game

We finally got to our first Twins Game this season in the new stadium! We actually got a 2-for-1 as we got to see the last innings of the prior night's game and then the actual game. We've been hearing from lots of people how great it is to watch baseball outdoors...and we would have to agree. My team at work had our company suite for the night. The suites are amazing (oh and the dessert cart was only the kicker!) as we could get both the outdoor seating feel and indoor space for Ms. Addison to roam and play. Addy LOVED the excitement of the game which made her Dad pretty excited as he's been a life long Twins fan and hoping she follows in his tracks :) We thought of Grandma Jeanie, Great Grandma Connie & Great Grandpa Jack during the game, too...as we knew they were glued to their TVs/Radios watching/listening to their favorite team, too!!

Mother's Day Weekend at Ruttger's

We had another great year at Ruttger's for Mother's Day weekend. Besides the fact that Vinh got the stomach bug on Friday night, the fact that it snowed enough to cover the ground and cars when we woke up on Saturday, and the fact that I got the stomach bug on Mother's Day...the weekend was a lot of fun relaxing and enjoying being together with great friends! The Quan's, Ruska's, Oejler's, Johnson's, Omang's and Eisenmenger's were able to make it this year. The guys golfed on Saturday afternoon...after the snow had melted...that' true MN dedication!

They had a harpist at the Mother's Day Brunch...Addy loved Grandpa Gary's beard!

It was a great 1st Mother's Day...I can honestly say it's the best job I've ever had :) Addy has been an amazing addition to our family and we are having more and more fun everyday!

Ime's Preschool Graduation

Our niece Ime graduated from preschool last night. Addy and I were at ECFE class in the same building so we snuck in and caught the last song and the official certificate hand-off. It was SO cute!!!

Meeting Ms. Cecilia!

We got to meet the newest Roth family addition, Ms. Cecilia Anna! What a cutie she is :) Addy can't wait until she can crawl after her and chase her around. It was amazing to me just how big Addy was compared to CeCe...it seems like just yesterday she was that size. It was so great catching up with Maria and Eric as we don't get to see them as much as we'd like to. They are doing great and are absolute naturals at the whole thing!! We can't wait for our next playdate guys :) Congrats!!

Neighbor love

I just had to post this adorable moment we caught! We had our neighbors Chad, Kelli and Kennedy over to grill out on Saturday night. Kennedy is 2 years old and loved playing with all of Addy's toys. He's going to be a big brother so it was good practice to see all the baby toys :) Vinh and Chad think we've got quite a pair on our hands...

It's Official...

Addy is CRAWLING! She just started this past weekend. She's been crawling backwards for a few weeks, but just couldn't get going forward. She's pretty excited about it!

We just started back up with ECFE classes on Tuesday nights. Addy's in class with the 6-12 month olds. We hadn't been in class since she was about 2 months so she's changed a lot in the past 6 months! She is now able to get to all the toys on the mat and we've realized that we have a pretty agressive people person on our hands (we wonder where she gets that from?!)! She loves any toy that any of the other kids are playing with. Any toy her new friend Joey would pick up she was all over snatching it right away!! We just looked at eachother and shook our heads...how do you teach "sharing" to an 8 month old?! Addy loved meeting all her new friends and especially LOVED singing all the songs. Her favorite, by far, is still "Hello Everybody".

Mom's decided that she prefers Tuesday night ECFE class over her Monday night Managerial Accounting class!!

We're Building!

Where to start?! We've made the big decision (one that I never thought I'd ever do) to build a new home! It was quite the decision for Vinh and I, but after a lot of looking around and talking it over...we decided to go for it. We are building in The Lakes at Maple Grove development with Toll Brothers as our builder. Here's our future home!

We've put our house on the market...I'm pretty sure it's never been as clean as it is right now! (and will hopefully stay that way untill we sell) We are sad at the idea of leaving our current neighborhood as we love all of our neighbors. The good news is that we've already met some of our future neighbors and we're all at about the same stages in our lives with young families so that will be fun! The kicker in the whole deal is that we've already been invited to a neighborhood happy hour...SERIOUSLY...do they just know me so well already or what?! :) It seems like a pretty tight-knit neighborood so we're excited about that.

We had our first selection meeting this week which was SO MUCH FUN! In a matter of 3 hours we selected floorings (carpet, tile, hardwood...you name it) all the way to backsplash tiling detail...thanks to our designer Kim for all her great insight and help!! Of course, we're not done yet...next on the list is plumbing and lighting selections. I've enjoyed guessing which selelctions Vinh would choose throughout the process...the great thing is that we have mostly agreed...which I've heard isn't always the case :)

To the Zoo!

Addy got Vinh a family pass to the Minnesota Zoo for his birthday. This weekend was our first chance to try it out! Both Vinh and I couldn't remember the last time we'd been to the zoo so it was fun to experience it all again. It was a beautiful day so we enjoyed the quality outdoor time we got, too! Addy was more interested in the people than the animals for the most part, but did really enjoy the fish. All in all it was a great afternoon and we look forward to going back again!

Addy & Mommy in the Tropics


Addy loving Mr. Bear!

Addy & Daddy checking out all the amazing fish...Addy thought she just might catch them with her own hands!

Future Olympic Curlers!

5th Annual McChung Bonspiel

The 5th Annual McChung Bonspiel had an Olympic theme this year! In fact, Vinh opened the spiel with an oh so inspirational speech that the winning team would receive a bid to the 2014 Olympic games!! Each team represented an "unrepresented" country with team Fiji taking the bonspiel...and of course the traveling trophy! All in all everyone had a great time...including the losing teams that had to grace us with their mad karoke skills...

Team Yemen (Novotny's) bringing down the house with a rendition that was quite memorable...they come from a land down under!!

Grandpa Jack and Mom led us in the "Grand Ole Game" song...after Grandpa explained that he has led that same song many times over in years past...only usually after a "few hookers"! This of course led to a crowd of laughs...ending with Grandpa explaining that "hookers" actually meant drinks :)

Here's the crew after another successful bonspiel...it's amazing how tired the day makes all of us!!

New this year was the McChung daycare for the bonspiel...Grandma Jeanie had her hands full with Addy and her friend Xavier Haffley. The kids enjoyed their playtime and naps...like mother like daughter...I remember basically growing up at the curling club :)