everyday life - week 7

Happy Sunday!

We have been alternating back-to-back night shift schedules for the 8 days, Eugene was gone this week and I was sick at home with the kids-- but by God's grace we survived and lived to tell the tale. Hooray! He is good. So thankful that especially in our weakness (and hot-mess-ness), God's presence and help feel so real and near. This week was definitely one of those weeks. So hard (being sick while trying to take care of two littles who both take turns refusing to nap is not the most fun...) but also, so good. Lots of hard lessons learned while learning how to fully depend on Him for the strength and physical/emotional energy to get through each day and how we can choose to have JOY and GRATITUDE, even in the midst of the chaos. My body feels  shot but I finished the week with a heart refreshed and re-energized by a kind of strength and joy that only He can provide!

So here's what this week looked like:

Asher helped me grocery shop for REALZ for the first time! Finally the perfect height for these little shopping carts - and he can finally practice some self control and follow instructions (lol!) and it was so much fun and surprisingly VERY convenient, haha! I just pushed baby in the stroller while giving him all the groceries to put him "his" cart. Cant wait to go again!



Every morning I woke up feeling so gross and thinking "maybe i'll just let him watch tv all day today, i dont think i can make it through the day"...but somehow, I managed to get myself to leave the house and it surprisingly made me feel so much better. Fresh air is good for the soul. Here is asher saying hi to the chicks that he's been able to see grow up at Pretend City!



Enjoying some art therapy


Sick mama means we ate pho TWICE this week. So thankful for a free kids meal coupon which meant I didnt have to share my noodles hehe!


Spontaneous play dates are my favorite. Being able to grow up with baby friends is also my favorite!


For most of this week Asher took 15-30 minute naps (and so did Avery, *sob*) but on this particular day I felt soooo sick and was soooo tired. And Asher napped for almost 2 hours!! And then he wanted to just stay in his crib to read for another 30 minutes so I was able to sneak in a nap on the floor in his room. I was so happy and thankful I could cry.



Lots of quiet inside activities at home this week.


I am becoming a big time AZN coupon lady and I love it. Coupons are life. And this chicken- prosciutto salad from Medocino farms is EVERYTHING. Roasted veggies. thick layers of prosciutto. Tangy balsamic dressing. It's my jam. (And I used a BOGO so Eugene loved it too!)


Asher has recently become obsessed with mangos.


Fun at disneyland!!! First of many, many play dates to come! SO. MUCH. FUN!


All four kids stopping by for a snack.


The most chaotic part of the day when Eugene is gone for work is the 2-3 hours from dinner, bath to bedtime. My dining table becomes a place of chaos during these hours and we eat out of tupperware and have dirty dishes and bottles and random things from the day everywhere.


This little lady is going through some sort of growth spurt or leap and has been taking the shortest naps (20-30 mins) and waking up more at night. I've been letting her start the morning with me in bed and it has been my absolute fave. I could cuddle and kiss her for hours! I love her so much..


Chick Fil A is literally God's gift to moms. I love CFA. We spent the whole day here, literally. Came for breakfast and then ate lunch there.


Someone is still obsessed with alphabet and this Usborne book has been so much fun to look at together! We love our Usborne books so much!


This week was so cold. We also did a lot of clean-out-your-fridge meals this week. This veggie udon was perfection in a bowl and Asher ate so much broccoli this day and made me so happy.


He seriously loves his letters. Currently also obsessed with playdoh.


Baby girl is also recently so curious and playful and wants to touch EVERYTHING (which makes Asher really happy if you can imagine....) So much fun seeing her grow up and develop but it's too fast this time around! :'( Where did my baby baby go..


This was my view almost all week because I would lay on the floor trying to get some rest while watching Asher read and look through his books. I love that he loves to 'read'. :)


Babygirl going cray on her jumper.

Afternoon, post-nap reading time.


Usborne book delivery!!!! Got so many free/discounted books and I don't know who was more excited: Me or Asher. Probably me.


Also, a good capture from this week that I found on my babycam. (Seriously, this was me all week) Trying to nap train Avery in her crib (failed so hard...) and constantly having to sneak in like a ninja to try to help soothe her with her paci while hiding so that she doesn't see me.



Excited for a new week! Have a great week everyone <3

everyday life - week 6

happy monday! (now tuesday -- eep!)

doing these "everyday life" posts are making it hard for me to find reason to post any other kind of posts -- hehe. I've really loved being able to capture little moments of everyday. Without further ado - here's what this week looked like:

A has always had an interest in food/cooking - he LOVES playing with play food (though we don't have a play kitchen set yet.) He is always super interested when I'm cooking and loves to try to help when he can (and when I let him!) He's been begging me to let him cut stuff so I let him "help" me make some curry by slicing up some of the zucchini (We even added it to our curry together, hehe! So cute!) We had to review almost 20x that mommy's knife is "REALLY BIG OWIE" and to only touch the ones we give to him. Hopefully I dont get mom-shamed for this -- ITS A BUTTER KNIFE YALL. I'll be safe.

Looking to maybe get this knife set for him someday!

My days usually consist of Avery laying on the floor with us on the mat while Asher brings me endless amounts of books to read. Here he is telling me stop taking pictures to read him a book.

Here he is again. As tiring as it is read him so many books over and over everyday - I LOOOOVE little moments like this. I love everything about it! I love how small Avery is. I love how Asher is just starting to ask -- "what's this?" and how he repeats it after saying "ohhhh!" I love picking Avery up to give her a smooch and then putting her on her belly - and how she props her head 90degrees with a deer in the headlights look. I love it all.

Slowly starting to brave some outdoors time with both babies finally. Avery hated being in any wraps and bjorns when she was little so it was so hard to come outside to chase A around. but the weather was perfect and we loved our fun outdoor adventures! Hoping we can do more fun things outside together, especially as baby gets older!

Captured this week moment when Asher was having a man-to-man talk with daddy after getting in trouble.
Warms my heart.

Made a veggie-filled pasta in the instapot. It was really hearty. and meaty!  Best of all - Asher had no idea and ate up all the sauce (har har har).  I used to say that I didnt ever want to hide my veggies but just teach my kids to love veggies. Oh, pre-motherhood sharon - so cute. so naive. LOL. Will post a recipe soon!

I had a lot of random shifts for work this year so had some limited family time but savored whatever I could! There's truly nothing sweeter than spending time with my family!

So happy on daddy's shoulders.

Ended my work training early so we were able to sneak off for a lunch break.

BOGO coupons call for treat yo'self meals. And UMAMI's chicken tender's kids meal has the craziest portions ever. And that Ahi burger. With truffle aioli - SO YUM

This guy LOVES ketchup. And loves sounding out the letters of his name!

Quiet afternoons are a rare occurence in this stage of motherhood but sometimes it happens and it's pure magic. Not enough praise hand emoji's in the world.

Asher has recently been into playdoh and I have been loving the fine motor practice that it has providing. I'm trying to feed into his new obsession by giving him lots of fun activities after his naps (esp because he usually wakes up super cranky after his short naps!)

We were #blessed with a date night the day after v-day and of course we had to have KBBQ. This dinner was amaaazing! We ate quietly, in peace and had a much-needed catch up date. We are not crazy valentine's day people - but it's actually our dating anniversary (Eugene is so embarassed!) so we celebrated 8 years of God's faithfulness to us!

We have been IN LOVE with these bitty beginnings A-Z write n' wipe activity cards. I printed them larger because Asher is younger and doesn't have the best pen control yet and this size was perfect for him. He actually found them before I was able to cut them and hole punch them - and it ended up being the best little activity for him! He loves going through each page to practice tracing and saying the letters and the little pictures on each card.

I'm planning to do a seperate post soon of all the goodies we have from this awesome shop - but if you want to grab some for yourself, use promocode: SHARON20 for 20% off!

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Have a great week, everyone!

everyday life - week 5 + 6

A little catch up post on the last two weeks.

To be honest, these last few weeks have been more challenging than usual. We finally ended the month of (what felt like) nonstop work and scheduling mishaps and we've been dealing with a lot of tantrums/meltdowns/toddler-esque behaviorisms with big brother and lots of skipped naps, bottle training drama and fussiness from baby girl. There were a lot of long nights and a lot of weary days but still so much fun and so much to be thankful for in the nitty gritty of the everyday.

We've been keeping busy. I've honestly felt like a hot mess almost every day these last few weeks. I went to sleep almost every night with a sink full of dirty dishes, clean laundry in the dryer for 3+ days and toys never picked up and put away at the end of the day -- I've just been having a growing desire to want to offer up each day to the Lord and to just be faithful. Even if outwardly, things are messy and imperfect and hot-mess-ish -- I've just been desiring to focus on and prioritize the important things (being present with my kids, taking care of my working husband and tending to my soul) rather than being too preoccupied by the endless to-do's and the tugging desire to "have it all together." As a result, I've found a lot of freedom of just letting go and doing my best to be faithful (not perfect!)

It's been sweet.

Here's a peak:

There are a few things I love more in life than family time. I am so blessed that my parents (and sisters) love to spend time with me and my kids when Eugene is away and am always so thankful for their company. My family's favorite place to go is Honey Pig. It's like a running joke because it's so hard for us to deviate from this place.. but it's so delicious! (And Asher looooves the endless supply of kimchi, lol!)


One of the most fun things about this age is PRETEND PLAY! Especially when its with friends. and FOOD! 


This kid seriously LOVES books.


And it makes me SO happy! (Here he is at Costco..he wouldn't let us leave for like 30 mins...)



Our favorite way to end a Costco trip: BERRY SMOOTHIES (split into two cups. with Asher's watered down hehe)


sweet girl in pink.


A boy and his imagination. (Construction is currently going on outside every day so he's had nonstop entertainment in the afternoons!)


January is always so busy with my etsy shop! Sending off some of these pun-ny valentines day cards! I'm almost down to my last few sets! Hooray! (Click here to SHOP!)


I had to take a photo of this because I couldn't stop laughing. Eugene chose this drink because it's "healthy" (peach me sweet tea at Tastea) I also got him a large because you know - why not, it's healthy! And its not like it doesnt have 2,000 calories and probably 120g of sugar. LOL (He deserved it for helping me watch the kids all day while I was working/sleeping after my night shift!)


Testing out different things in my instapot. Here are two VERY large and VERY frozen pieces of meat. 60 minutes on "Meat/Stew" options on the instapot, compeltely submerged in water makes these two almost-hopeless pieces of meat SO juicy and tender. WIN! I love not having to thaw meats.


I always try to do at least some kind of meal prep before my night shifts. This took place after our grocery run to Costco so we had some new meat to cook and lots of veggies! It was so yum! and made so many on-the-go meals for us!


A hosted my first Facebook Party as an Usborne consultant a couple weeks ago and it's been a ton of fun! I have another one tomorrow (well, technically tonight!) which I am so excited about. Planning to do a few posts on here about my favorite books -- stay tuned!


Asher loves H so much. So thankful to be able to do life with friends!


Lots of tummy time recently. Our favorite thing to do is tummy time whilst watching big brother play and read! I'm totally diggin this time while she's a bit more immobile (so much easier to handle the both of them!) but I'm looking forward to them playing together soon!!


I've been in a crazy printing/cutting/laminating frenzy recently and it has been such a great way to "wind-down". Everyone asks me how I have time to do all of this worksheet/learning materials prep but it really is moreso for me. (SO MUCH THERAPY!) I love listening to my own music (and not Pinkfong's baby shark 100x in a row), watching a movie or listening to a podcast (current fave: Risen Motherhood) while letting my hands do mindless busy work!


Books and breakfast - best combo!


Books and Coffee (should I start a series?)


Books and train rides! I love this little love bug.


And cant forget my baby girl. This is a couch seat at Barnes and Noble. I sat here to nurse Avery (covered with my Milk Snob nursing cover) when she laid out the most humungous and juicy fart. There was a family sitting behind me (back to back) reading books and they all turned around and I saw them in my periphery. I COULDNT EVEN SAY ANYTHING because I know for sure they thought it was me. Because i was sitting behind them. and the fart was so loud and adult-sized. and Avery was hidden inside the nursing cover so they couldn't see her and probably didnt know I was holding a baby. UGH. I love you anyway baby girl. I'll take this one for the team. I gotchu.


4.5 months because I kept forgetting to take her 4 month photo.


Nibbles is our FAVORITE book right now.  We've read it everyday for 2 weeks. And most days at least 2-3 times.


So rare but sweet when we all get together! I love my sisters.


I got this for Asher when he was about a year old and it was great for fine-motor practice. Now he finally understands how to properly play with it and it's been a great quiet activity that he can do on his own. We love this Little Hands Button Art Activity!!


A few weeks ago, we became brand reps for bitty beginnings! We have ALWAYS loved their little activities so we are excited to be able to share in our love and excitement for all the fun things this shop has to offer! Here is Asher and his friend H doing a worksheet from the Do-A-Dot A-Z activity! (Click HERE for the Bitty Beginnings etsy shop and use promocode "SHARON20" for a 20% off discount on ANYTHING!) Will post more activities soon!


Practicing their korean.


Been trying to simplify our morning schedules to have more time to slowly start the day. Mornings like this have been my favorite recently.



A cool and sweet treat to get through humpday.

I found these instant pho packets at the korean market and they have been lifechanging especially because I crave pho almost every day. LIFE CHANGING.


Trying to take more photos together finally. I love this girl so much!


One of our current favorite books from Usborne are these "Big Books". He's currently been obsessed with the "Big book of Sea Creatures".


Tummy time for days. Please get stronger so you can sleep on your belly at nights. <3


How does this always happen? Literally. How is it possible that I seriously only have one of each pair... Guess someone is gonna be wearing mismatched socks for a while.


Working on letter recognition (This week was the letter A) and trying to get him used to doing quiet activities.


Ended the week with a sisters coffee date which ended up just being semi-chaos juggling cranky and hangry kids but the company and the iced coffees and bear latte art was ALL worth it.



Cheers to a new week!
<3