Watching Movies

Everyone watched Tyler and Cody's Christmas concert, but alas there was no room at the inn for everyone..

At least someone knows to smile at the camera 

Boulder and the Med

I took all 4 kids to Boulder today, well 2 kids and 2 Grandparents.  We got a chance to enjoy Boulder creek, slip in a treasure hunt, before eating at the Med, a trip to the bookstore for Granddad and finally a visit to cheesecake factory.

Not much water today, mainly ice

Can we stop taking pictures and throw more snowballs at Tyler and Cody?

Eating our way through the Med Tapas menu

TV Addicts

It is hard to tell who is the biggest TV addict in the house.  You can sometime drag the kids away, but Siew Gin is a little tougher.

Here they are watching Cat in the Hat on Sunday Morning..

TV is gooooooooood

Swimming Anyone

Tyler and Cody are quite the accomplished swimmers now, so when Grandma and Granddad came to visit they have been showing off their swimming skills.

Tarzan cant do this

Of course I know how to dive

Just Splashing around

The Living Lights

Our local butterfly pavilion held their annual living lights event again this year, so we took the boys and Grandparents to check out the butterflies at night.  They are much more active during the day but we still got to see quite a few, and three out of the four millsers did touch Rosie the spider.  Grandparents not so keen strangely.

Is that a bug behind me?

Who says Siew Gin is the best photographer?

Yes, that is a Spider I am touching

Check out those three fake smiles

Check out those four fake smiles

Hello Grandma and Grandad

Grandma and Grandad are visiting from England, so Tyler made them signs welcoming them and then stood at the airport with Cody waiting for them to arrive.

After 2 hours (well a little shorter) and everyone else had come through security they eventually arrived with tales of how 'Gravy Powder' is considered a class 1 substance and has to be sampled by some official Denver dog or something similar.

All is well that ends well, the boys were very pleased to see them, and so far have really interacted well with Grandma and Grandad.

Hopefully this will continue and we wont be disturbed by the boys in the morning for the next 10 days or so.

Can you read the sign?

Kids School Christmas Party

I was on double party duty as Siew Gin was working, so rotated between putting up the decorations for Cody's party and checking that Tyler wasn't eating too many pies for his party.

Check out those cool table decorations

Okay so the big kid decorations may be a little better

Broadcom Christmas Party

My company had a Holiday Party on Friday and with Sabrina babysitting the boys, we had a rather relaxing time at the party. It was held at the Boulderado Hotel, in Boulder. I've never been there before to eat and was quite looking forward to the experience.

The hotel had some character because it had the old posh look. The food was so so but overall, it was a nice experience. Never had lamb at a company dinner before!!

Anyways, the highlight of the night was getting my name pulled out in the raffle to win a new Samsung Galaxy Note!! I've never won any raffles before, so i was mighty pleased! Though to be fair, we had 22 people, 16 giftaway and 10 of them were tablets. So, if you did NOT win, you were really pure unlucky!!

Me and my tablet!

Alan and I

It turned out that this was the last Holiday Party the company is going to hold.. so, i'm glad i made it! :)

Putting Tyler and Cody to work

Siew Gin finished our Xmas letter and put the boys to work putting stamps and stickers on the envelopes so they can be sent out.

Keep sticking boys

Twice Baked Potatoes

The boys helped out making dinner last night, and were mildly interested in sticking forks into potatoes and converting them into mash.

Here they are working hard on dinner

Why do I have to do this?

This is harder than I thought

Cody, smile please..

Cody graduates from swim class

Cody has been attending swim lessons during school and we signed him up for after swim class as he really seems to like swimming lately.

He has been practising his swimming skills and can swim around half a width of the big pool as well as flip on his back to rest and swim some more.  I think another few months and he will swimming much further.

This week he finished his swim class and was given his graduation certificate.

Swim Master Cody

Welcome Home Daddy

I took a quick business trip to Las Vegas on Monday, in and out the same day on Southwest.  This is the second time that my return flight has been delayed and this time it meant that I ended up having to drive home in the snow.

Tyler and Cody made me a Lego Christmas tree and a card to welcome me home and I have to say that Tyler's art work has improved.

Welcome indeed

Xmas Tree Decorating

We had a very very busy day yesterday after buying the tree and didn't get a chance to decorate till today after all our naps(including mine)!

The kids found it funny to hear all the stories of how the decorations came about and they laughed at the Coca Cola ones as they know it's their daddy's favorite thing :) Cody also kept asking how come he's not in many of the family ones. Tyler was quite happy to explain to him that he's still in my tummy! hehehe..

Here are some pictures:

It's a scuba diving Santa Clause

Cody hanging up the decorations

I found it funny all the decorations were on the floor!!

Teaching Tyler how to hang up baubles(sp??)

Tyler doing some decorating, always in the same corner

After i convinced him to decorate a different corner!

Ta-da

Another view!!

Swimming Party at the Apex

Tyler has been invited to two pool parties this year. For both of them it snowed on the day (what are those odds) so we were happy to be inside keeping warm.

This one was at the Apex for Aidan's birthday, and of all the pools we have been to this year, this one seems the nicest.

Tyler got to ride on multiple tubes/tunnels so next year he should be ready for Water World..

Backwards?

Ready to go again

More cake please

Hot Pot at Uyen's

It was a cold night on Saturday and Uyen planned the perfect dinner, Asian Hot Pot!! Though we only managed to get 1 out of 3 pots to actually boil, it was good food and great company!

Yumm.. yumm...

Tangkwa's hot chilli

The Heides

Us

After dinner, since we were still dressed up after going to see Santa, i tried to get people to get picture of us by offering to take their Christmas pictures. These were what we got!

Tangkwa and her nice poses

Tangkwa and Tim

The Heides and the ever so cute Sienna who insisted on wearing a tiara! 

So, i think the family pictures turned out great! But when it was our turn... this is what we got!!! I tell you, girls sure are easier to photograph!!!!

Our Xmas pic 1

Option 2

Option 3

Option 4

What do you think?

Pictures with Santa

We've never had pictures taken with Santa before. Not successfully at least. Tyler was terrified of anybody in costume as a child and Cody is anti-social. So, between those two, we have zero chance of coming close to anyone that looked like Santa.

Anyways, we got invited to a special Meet Santa event by one of our badminton players and decided that maybe we would have a chance this year. Turns out Tyler is now good buddies with Santa and Cody is still anti-social. So, one out of two is not bad!!! :)

The event turned out to be quite pleasant. Lots of coloring stuff for kids, home made cookies, lots of friendly people who actually are trying to be your realtors. And of course, a nice looking Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Here are our pictures:

I guess this is not bad for the first try

Sure beats having this picture:

Alan thought even though they kids are bunch of grumpy chops, no reason why WE can't have a good picture!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!! 

Hair Cut day again..

Since we had a little bit more time after our tree hunting trip, we stopped by the hairdressers to get the boys' haircut before we went to go see Santa! It was a little local place near our house and it was a bargain $8!! Woo hoo!!!

When we got in, it was a one-woman show and even though the whole place was a little run down, they had a seat in the shape of a car!! It's been quite a while since we visited one of those fancy places hair cut shops that charges an arm and a leg, so the boys got quite excited!

So, i don't know if this place just has a small car or the kids have grown. They looked like giants in the car, which of course, amused me no end!!

haha!!

Cody looking dubious!!

And for once they kids got a decent hair cut!! So, i like this cheap place!! :)

p.s. I didn't get a picture of the "after" haircut. Just look in the next few blogs!