Dear Santa,

What will you ask for from Santa?
Elaine: "A present"
- what kind of present? -
"Green one."

Natalie: "Toy puppy that is hard that you can draw on."
The girl knows what she wants!

Peter: "A real humpback whale, cookie set, and a ball"
- where will you keep the whale? -

Natalie chimes in "In our pool!"

Natalie's Christmas program

Natalie was so excited for her Christmas program day! We've been hearing new songs being sung at home by her and were excited to finally hear them on stage!

A funky sister posing in front of the Christmas tree in the morning!

Natalie did pretty well on stage. Not the loudest, but certainly not too shy!

Natalie the Christmas tree with her new friend, Meghan

The program ended with this message from the preschoolers:

Natalie with her best buddy, Thomas,

and with her teachers, Miss Connie...

and Miss Sarah!

Peter's Advent prayer service

Early in December, Regina had an Advent prayer service that was lead by the kindergarten class. Peter got a speaking part!

"Advent is a time to get our minds and hearts ready for the coming of Jesus..."

He practiced the line for days and delivered it quite well!
It was a very proud-parents moment!

Happy 6th Birthday, Peter!

Our little man turned 6!
We had a small birthday party at home with some of his friends from school. It was - no surprise - a Mario theme party!

His cake this year were the more simple cupcakes.
The birthday boy chose the (green) 1-Up cupcake over the (red) Power Up ones - makes sense if you're going from 5 to 6 years old! :)

We had some Yoshi Egg races. Elaine was Natalie's personal coach in this game.

Finding Mario party stuff proved to be near impossible, so I made most of the decorations (thanks to my color printer) and the pinata (thanks to yellow streamers, my ribbon collection and USPS box).
It was a HUGE hit with the kids!

It was great group of kids who all had a great time!

Our neighbor gave him an electronic piggy bank that he loves...he must be saving up for his 7th birthday party! :)

Funny interpretation

Peter: "The storm was so loud that I bet the boss of Regina heard it!"
Mommy: "Who's the boss of Regina?"
Peter: "Superintendent Miller."
Mommy: (totally shocked by his answer..was expecting the principal's name)

Natalie: "Wow! Is he a super hero?"

Thanksgiving 2010 in Iowa!

For Thanksgiving weekend, the Lau/Matsunaga family loaded up in Anthony's Sequoia "bus" and made the 14-hr road trip to visit us in Iowa. It was a very quick 3-4 days, but between all of our cameras, we managed to snap over 1,100 pictures.

After long deliberation, I narrowed down to 14 pictures to help summarize a fun holiday weekend with my family.

This time, the turkey was all on me! How nerve-racking, but my mom was right there to give me advice. Luckily, it turned out brown, juicy, and yummy. Thanks, Mommy!

Our Thanksgiving table

Skype is so nice, especially when you can talk and see family all the way in Vietnam on Thanksgiving day!

Fun times were a plenty, such as passing down the knowledge of how to make chocolate milk in a sippie cup. Elaine appreciated Ai-Yi for this lesson and took it to heart!

Our sibling self shot, in birth order...of course.

I guess Alex will have his wishbone wish come true. Sorry, Alysa! Better luck next year!

Let the Christmas crafting...BEGIN!

This is our Thanksgiving table after dinner. Yes, snacking on chips and looking at Black Friday ads. It's a serious addiction, but we can't seem to pass up the good deals!

Being one of the first 100 in line at Old Navy after midnight paid off...free Xbox game!

...which Peter and Cau Cau loved playing!

Yes, we even braved the crowds at Target for the few treasures we wanted. Funny how sleep deprivation will make you still feel successful after waiting in line for over an hour to check out. The chicken biscuit helped too!

Some glamour times with Pau-Pau, long lashes and lots of lip gloss!

Lots of bear hugs from Cau-Cau!

Through the turkey, Christmas prep, midnight sales, Thanksgiving was all about being thankful.

I was VERY thankful for being with my family!
It's all about FAMILY!

What are they teaching in preschool?

This is something Natalie learned yesterday at preschool:


"Thumbs up, knees apart, knees together, bottom up, tongue out, eyes shut and turn around" and the rest is way beyond me!