Year of the Dragon!

Happy New Year! It’s the year of the dragon so here’s a little good luck to you from us and hope the new year brings lots of love, happiness, and good fortune.

It is really hard to get Lucy to sit still and pose for us, so here is a montage of photos of her in her Vietnamese dress called an ao dai.  It was a gift from my aunt in Vietnam.  So we dressed her up in her dress, put on a little bow and attempted to get a photo of her, it was a struggle so we’ll have to try again this weekend. 

 
She doesn’t ever look directly at the camera

Or she blows raspberries ALL the time

Getting Braver in the Water

Grandma Nicki came out to watch Lucy’s second swim lesson.  Lucy did really well!  The instructor sang some songs and had the kids float on their backs and their fronts and blew some bubbles underwater too.

An underwater shot


Doing the back float


The reason why I put this photo in is if you look  in the background, look how far she tossed her baby to her husband …. I was impressed!   Their baby was so cute in the pool too. 

Lucy at her second swim lesson

Lucy grabbing the toy underwater

First Swim Lesson

I’m not a fan of deep water or getting in a bathing suit, but we did it this weekend all in the name of Lucy’s first swim lesson.  It is an introduction for infants and toddlers to the water/swimming so they aren’t afraid at a later age.  I think I needed these lessons years ago

The pool had salt water instead of chlorine which is not as harsh on your skin.  Lucy was a little in shock at first because it isn’t exactly the temperature of a bubble bath.  It took her a little bit to adjust to the temperature but she did great.

Our friends generously gave us an underwater camera case as a wedding gift. It definitely came in handy for this occasion to capture her first swimming experience.

I think we’re both adjusting to the water

Some of the thing they teach you include floating on your back, floating on your tummy, looking down into the water, blowing bubbles, reaching your arms out to reach for toys which mimic reaching out to paddle, turn side to side and then paddling the legs.

Washing her hands and arms

Front float

Back float

Here’s some videos to enjoy

Lucy’s first swim

Lucy and the back float

Lucy underwater

Holidays with the Cramers and Nguyens

 

Our holidays began with an early Christmas dinner with the Cramers.  We had a delicious potato and ham dinner, played a fun and competitive trivia game (go team Katie and Carolyn!), opening gifts and listening to some live holiday tunes.  It was a lot of fun getting together and catching up with everyone.

Ong Ngoai and Ba Ngoai came from Seattle to visit for a few days.  Here is Ong Ngoai feeding Lucy.  They are both having a good time.


Here’s a couple formal pictures with Lucy in her new holiday dress


Lucy figured out how to stand on her own in about a week maybe two.  She loves this mirror that is on the floor of our bedroom.  At least she is playing with the mirror instead of the bathroom floor!


It was a fun chaotic time with all the relatives from Houston, California, Seattle, Tri Cities and even Vietnam!


Cousins, sisters, brothers, grandkids


We visited a couple wineries in Walla Walla.  The first one we stopped at was L’ecole.

Holidays wouldn’t be complete without some photos in our photobooth.  This year the theme was …. mustaches