Pluto No Longer a Planet

Ayden told me the other day that she's been learning about the planets. She was able to name most of the planets, she knew how many there were, she even knew which ones were gas planets, and that the green planet is earth. Then she told me that Pluto is no longer a planet. Since Ayden doesn't always have her "facts" straight, I agreed with her but I didn't really give it much thought. To my surprise, I recently learned that Pluto is really no longer categorized as a planet. The next day I video taped her and sure enough, she couldn't tell me anything she had told me the previous day and she claimed that Pluto was no longer a planet because God lives on Pluto. Fun times!

This past week, Taylor tested for her yellow stripe in Tae Kwon Do. She did a really good job and passed. Here is a picture of Taylor accepting her yellow stripe and a video of her test. It was 1 1/2 hour test of endurance. I was exhausted just watching them. Each person is in a differnt phase of the test which is why some finish their steps sooner than others.

My brother Paul and my sister-in-law had their second child this past week. He's adorable.

I had to include this picture because Ayden looks hilarious. Your eyes do not deceive you. Our Christmas tree and garland are still up. The girls love the tree so much that they decided we should keep it up until June. They eventually compromised with us and the tree will be coming down by next weekend.

JUSTICE!!!!!

We received our decision today and we won our lawsuit. Though we did not get the entire amount we sued for, we did get very close to the original amount we asked the Defendants, Dan Elenbaas and Ann Hackel Elenbaas, to pay prior to suing them.

We were extremely satisfied as it was the principle and not the money. The Defendants counter sued us for a bogus claim which they did not win. For two people who were negligent in their actions, and still felt it was their right to do whatever they pleased, we are thrilled that the judge saw through their lies and justice did prevail.

Thank you to everyone who provided moral support and gave us advice through this process. We could not have done it without everyone. Even though we were truly victims in this situation, it was extremely nerve recking to have to go through this process. When you are going up against people with no morals and low standards of integrity, you just never know what will happen. We feel thankful and blessed for the outcome and look forward to putting all of this behind us.

Ayden Home Sick

Ayden Stayed home sick today. Well, she wasn't really sick. She had a cough but she felt that she was sick enough to stay home. It was funny because Taylor had Girl Scouts tonight and they went on a special field trip so Taylor didn't get home until 8:30pm. Around dinner time, Ayden asked, "Where is TayTay? She's been gone so long and I miss her." When Taylor came home, Ayden was already asleep so I told Taylor about Ayden missing her. Taylor said that she also missed Ayden. She especially missed Ayden when they were doing fun activities at Girl Scouts that she thought Ayden would enjoy. It's nice to know that as much as they fight, they really do love and miss each other.

Taylor will be testing for her yellow stripe in Tae Kwon Do this Saturday. She's only been going to class for about a month and a half but has learned a great deal already. Here's a video clip from their class last Saturday. Ayden's the little one in the front row that the instructor eventually comes over and has her kick his hand during the low kick. Taylor is right next to her with the two braids. It's a little dark so you might not be able to see them well.



To end tonight's posting, I wanted to share something from Dr. Chopra's book. Something to think about if you are feeling despondent and unsettled.

"Happiness seems to be the goal of all other goals, and yet most people seek happiness in a roundabout way. We have material goals, such as wanting a better house, a better automobile, or items of luxury. We have goals that deal with relationship. We want to feel that we belong...Some of us might want wealth or power...But if you ask people why they want these things, the ultimate answer remains the same: They believe that if they attain these things, then they will be happy.

...If we make happiness our primary goal instead of our secondary goal, then we easily accomplish everything else we desire...When our life is an expression of the inner state of happiness, we discover an immense reservoir of power within us. This power gives us freedom from fear and limitations, and allows us to realize all the abundance that we aspire to. Even more significantly, this power nurtures all of our relationships and makes them truly fulfilling...even nature responds to our intentions."

Great Book

As I was looking for a book for my sister-in-law and her husband (they are expecting), I came a cross a book for Kong and I. Finding this book came at such an interesting time. I have recently been thinking a great deal about my goals as a parent, and the things I want to change. Though I know what I feel, it was extremely challenging for me to put my wishes and my aspirations into words. I said a small prayer, put a thought in the "universe" about wanting to find a way to verbalize my thoughts and sure enough, two days later, I found this amazing book.

I stumbled upon Dr. Deepak Chopra's book, The Seven Spiritual Law for Parents. I finally found something that put all of my thoughts and ideas into a coherent book that I could follow. I could relate to Dr. Chopra's philosophies and as I was reading this book, I felt as if he had written it just for me. The book was so good that I went to our public library and checked out other books by Dr. Chopra. I'm currently reading his book Power, Freedom, and Grace: Living from the Source of Lasting Happiness. So far I love the book. More to come...

Philip's Birthday

It was Dlaab Philly's birthday today. Here is a small video.



Kong went pheasant hunting over the past weekend with his good friend Pete. It was a hard hunt but they came home with 4 pheasants. While he was gone, Kaohly made a New Year video of the girls.

New Year...2008

Hoping to start the new year on a good note. Over the Holiday season, I gained 4 pounds. Starting on January 2, I went back to my normal eating habits and have lost 3 pounds. My hope is to get back into exercising and losing 4 pounds over the next week and a half.

The long awaited lawsuit finally happened today. It was so hard to read the judge. It went nothing the way we planned. It was so nerve recking and frustrating. I hope to never have to sue anyone again. The Defendants lied through most of their testimony. Kong and I were floored and baffled at how these people could live with themselves. We were just happy that we had 4 witnesses who either refuted what the Defendants said and support our story.

At first it seemed the judge was buying into their story but as the case continued, they began to contradict themselves, the judge had to pull answers out of them and the damaging testimony of our witness ended up hurting them. At least I hope so. You just never know until you get the judgment saying you won. I still feel sick to my stomach thinking about the case and how it went today. All of the things we should have said...it's done now so I need to not think about it anymore.

Like Kong and I said after the hearing, we never once lied or even stretched the truth. All we did was present the facts and refuted their lies. We have to believe that justice will prevail. We've done nothing wrong to cause the damage they caused our property so we have to faith that the judge saw their lies. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

It's Been a While

So...now that Christmas is over, I have a little breathing room to provide an update. It was so nice to be able to spend time with my siblings, their spouses and the nieces and nephews. I love my family so much. With each passing event, I grow more thankful for who God chose to be my family. We'll be visiting Kong's family this coming weekend. Can't wait to see everyone.

Christmas was a very stressful for us this year. I was put in a very tough position with the photographer I was using for the girls pictures. I was extremely disappointed at the quality of the photos, the results of my Christmas cards and the professionalism of the photographer. I did not plan to write a Christmas letter this year as I was anticipating an amazing custom Christmas card but things did not turn out as planned. Though this photographer has a great eye, and takes wonderfully artistic photos, she seems to lack knowledge when it comes to the technical aspect of photography, how to run a business and work with customers. For the final products that she produces, amateur prices is more appropriate. There's too many issues to post so I'll spare you the details.

With the recent issues with this photographer, I decided to learn more about photography. I don't plan on ever taking pictures as a professional but I want to be able to take nice pictures of my girls so that I can do fun things with the photos. Here are a few of my attempts to understand the different settings on my own digital camera, lighting, etc...I tried to take pictures during the day time with natural light, and at night time. I wanted to see what type of images I could capture. It was fun and interesting.

Here's the same shot with a different focus.













Our Christmas tree.


















Taylor's first Christmas ornament.