February Update: Organizing & Sickness

Two very different things, we know. They don’t have anything to do with one another. Well, they could. But not for us. After getting all partied out at the beginning of the month, Melody got a runny nose, and then from there, we were all a bit under the weather. It cut into our organizing challenge. So, to keep it simple, here’s what went down for this short month…

Jadyn’s 5th bday @ Pump It Up
Melody’s 3rd bday @ Ice Creamery
Superbowl Party @ Jen’s house
Bridesmaid’s dresses try-on @ David’s Bridal
Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner @ Joyce’s parents
Doctor’s appointments @ CV Pediatrics
Ash Wednesday Service @ FPCH
Meet with Jen’s wedding coordinator @ FPCH
Pinewood Derby & Chili Cookoff @ FPCH

Somewhere in there, throw in a 2 trips out to SF to visit with Norm’s family and to visit CIBC, and trying lots of new recipes (of course), once for Jen when she came for dinner. Along with that, Joyce is geared up with planning Jen’s bridal shower with the other lovely lovely maids Eileen, Crystal, and Barbie. And our baby Emily is turning one, so we are throwing a big bash for her. We hope to be done fighting off sickness.

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And in case we missed anything, check out weekly updates and weekly photos:
Week 6 of 52 Update | Photos
Week 7 of 52 Update | Photos
Week 8 of 52 Update | Photos
Week 9 of 52 Update | Photos

January Update: Rain, Rain

This month seriously flew by. Because of the weather, much needed rain, we didn’t get out too much.

On the first day of the new year we headed out to San Francisco. It had been awhile since we last crossed that bridge. So we had lunch with Norm’s family. Then, since his cousin and her family were still up here from Huntington Beach, we ordered some Hawaiian food and visited with them for awhile. The kids (all girls!!) had way too much fun playing together.

The next day we went to my uncle’s house to celebrate my cousin’s son’s 1st birthday. There was soooo much food, and you know we’re all about the food! Now Melody wants a cake just like Cousin Aiden’s cake for her birthday.

Continuing on with birthdays and food, mid-month we had our favorite engaged couple, my sister Jen and her fiance Aaron, over for his birthday. Melody loves her Uncle “Ah”, as she used to call him when she was little and couldn’t pronunce his name. She helped to cook some of his favorite breakfast foods for dinner, since we never eat breakfast together. Then we went to Ice Creamery for Aaron’s free birthday sundae. Much, much better than Baskin-Robbins or Coldstone’s tiny scoop. Oh, Melody also helped to make a pound cake…and earlier in the month we made snickerdoodles.

To close the month, there was more…, you guessed it, eating. The youth at our church had a spaghetti dinner and talent show to raise money for their Mexico missions trip. There was also a silent dessert auction. The food was great and the talents of songs, musical instruments, and dancing was entertaining. Quest leadership team did a drama/pantomime to Lifehouse’s “Everything”. Very powerful message.

One last thing going on is the communion servers’ and usher’s training that Norm will be attending this coming Sunday. And that’s our January. We hope you had a good time Keeping Up With The Moys this month.

Highlights of the month: Melody’s potty successes and Emily’s mobility

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December Update: Food and Eating

So I should probably be doing the January update soon, but I’m still on catch-up mode, so here we have our December update for you. With having Thanksgiving dinner at our house, we wanted to do something quiet for Christmas. And we did in fact stay home half of the day this past year!

Let me back up to the beginning of the month though… We did get to go to one storytime this month (the last 2 weeks, they didn’t have storytime because of the holidays), and we met up with an old classmate of mine, Anne. We’ve known each other since 2nd grade. Her son is in between the age of Melody and Emily. No plans to do anything since it’s always time for Emily’s nap around that time, but we caught up a bit.

Then, there was the staff Christmas dinner for church. It was a great time talking with everyone outside of church. And I do believe we have a new version of the song The 12 Days of Christmas, but it’s The 12 days of First Presbyterian Church of Hayward. And we were also all set to go to another church friends’ holiday open house, but our car maintenance servicing took longer than we thought it would (doesn’t it always), so we missed it. Heard it was all good fun!

And it’s not an update without more talk of food and eating. We crashed the Secret Santa at the Tangs, but I don’t think they minded because we provided 1/3 of the food (Top Thai! Yum!). It’s nice to semi-catchup (see, lots of catching up to do… and I say semi because it’s hard to completely do so when you have kids to feed and watch). Dinner with Kristi and Stephen. Something simple (Papa Murphy’s) in hopes of catching the High Voltage light show, but in case no one has told you, babies (and kids…sometimes even grown ups) are pretty unpredictable when it comes to when they sleep and for how long. We did get to see some lights.

Christmas Eve service at church did not involved food, but it was fantastic nonetheless. I think this was the first Eve service I’ve been to. Melody tried to sing Away in a Manger for everyone, but we forgot to tell her that she had to sing into the mic.

On Christmas day we had to seriously push through a crowd of crazy customers to eat at Kome in Daly City. It was where the old Todai was. We have something to say about this place, but we won’t say it here. What an interesting place…

We did end up going to watch the High Voltage light show and Melody had a fantastic time (we’re definitely going this year), and we did also go to see the Christmas lights on Thompson Ave in Alameda. The first event did not involve food, and 2nd one did. We will now be starting a tradition of going to Sushi House before our 30-minute+ walk down the avenue to view all the wonderful lights and decorations. Gotta burn off calories, right?

Wait! I forgot one more food-related event. Norm’s department at work went out to eat for their holiday meal at Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine.

November Update: Scattering of Events

Not too sure how many storytimes we actually made it to this month, but there was plenty of other things to keep us busy in November. There was more time spent with family, friends, and food. At the start of the month, there was Jen and Aaron’s engagement/housewarming party. It was great to see family that we have not seen probably since the last time someone got married. Cyanna dropped by to pick up a few things, and Melody wanted to show her everything. Congrats again on the little bundle on the way Cyanna and Andrew!! The girls (Jen and her attendants) went dress shopping for bridesmaids’ dresses. It was a bust, but Melody had a great time dressing up in big poofy dresses that costs way too much. Thanks Aaron for cooking up a yummy dinner for us that night! Norm went on an all-day retreat with church staff. He had a great hike there. We hosted an early Thanksgiving dinner with family at our place. Emily had her 6-month appointment. In another 6 months she will be 1!!! On Thanksgiving, we went out with Norm’s family and uncle and aunt to Little Potato in Union City. On Black Friday, Norm went out for his first BF morning experience, and he did snag a few good deals. Later that morning, Sean and Andrew came to play with Melody. To end our month, we headed across the bridge to Far East Restaurant in Chinatown for Toby’s Red Egg and Ginger Party. We are so blessed with wonderful family and friends.

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October Update: “When It’s Time to Change, It’s Time to Rearrange”

So we never got around to September’s monthly update. Oops!

This was a month of change for us. We started out the month with 2 birthday bashes – Ashlyn’s 3rd birthday at Superfranks and Davina’s 21st birthday at her place in Dublin. The following weekend, we had a blast at Moore’s Pumpkin Patch with Alice, Sean, and Andrew. The next Saturday we went to Melody and Emily’s future middle school for Pathway’s dodgeball tournament to raise money to save lives in Africa. Then, Norm flew down to SoCal for training. Joyce hung out with family and friends, including a storytime with Theo.

The weekend was a full one for Norm. He played for the Community Festival at church, while Joyce was in Millbrae with the girls for Lydia’s Sweet 16 birthday party. On Sunday, Norm was at church by 8AM to man the soundboard, was home for lunch and “naptime”, then back to church for practice for Pastor Steve’s installation service which was 5:30-7:30PM. On a spontaneous note, we headed to the Ice Creamery with random people. And the very last day of the month was the grand opening of the new Castro Valley library building. Then we were party poopers, turned our lights out and watched It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Norm finally blogged about the reason for some changes around here.

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August Update: More Celebrations

Could summer have passed by any faster? We had a great time this month with different friends and family members. We had some CIBC friends over for dinner. That Saturday, we had a yummy ice cream cake to celebrate Joyce’s sister’s birthday! The next Sunday, we headed out to SF (our first time in a loooong time) for Allison’s bridal shower (okay, Joyce went anyhow). It was a lot of fun. (Love the little quiz that Calvin took.) The next weekend Norm’s cousins and families visited us. We went out to Rigatoni’s and Yogofina. The next day we celebrated Jen and Aaron’s engagement at Daimo. It was great meeting Aaron’s family and hanging out with them for dessert at his parents’ house. Norm and Joyce celebrated their 4th wedding anniversary at Wakamatsu. We ended the month at Anita’s house for a get-together of First Praise and the choir members from first service. Emily turned 3 months old and Melody turned 2 1/2 years old this month too! At this time, in a few years, we will have backpacks packed and the girls will be heading to school. It does go by fast.

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July Update: Friends, Family, Food

What happened to summer vacation? We hope the girls will be able to enjoy those lazy days jumping through the sprinklers or riding their bikes around the neighborhood (is that safe anymore?) We’ve had a wonderful, eventful July though. As always, we got to spend time with lots of friends, family, and food.

We celebrated Sam’s first birthday with a lovely dinner. There was another birthday celebration for Norm’s uncle, Stephen’s (Norm’s cousin) Uncle Joe, and Stephen’s cousins Andy and Garrett. The picnic was at Point Richmond. The weather wasn’t too agreeable but Melody had a great time with all the kiddos. The following Saturday was Christy and Dave’s wedding in Moraga. This time we got the opposite weather. It was HOT HOT HOT! The lovely couple will make their home in DC. Have a safe move Christy! Norm will miss seeing you on BART. Another cause for celebration is Norm’s parents’ 34th wedding anniversary. We had some yummy food at Chef’s Experience China Bistro.

On Emily’s 2-month birthday, Norm’s Sunset friends Mat and Janet visited with their daughter Hannah. She’s 3 months younger than Melody. What a great time the girls had playing in the swimming pool, even without the water in it. Hannah will be a big sister soon too! Her baby brother will be 3 months younger than Emily. At the end of month, one of the Tylers came to visit. He brought his parents Tim and Kim, along with baby brother Toby! It was great to meet this little (actually he’s big because she’s in the 98th percentile in height!) guy.

The biggie news of the month was Jen and Aaron’s announcement that they are engaged!! (and Joyce will be the matron of honor!)

So that was our month. We are looking forward to August’s get togethers with family and friends…and of course, food!

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June Update: Back in the Groove

With the kiddos keeping us so busy, time seems to be flying by. There is always something/one that needs to be wiped, washed, changed, fed,…. Things seem to be getting back to “normal”…as in, we sort of have a routine down. Emily had her 1-month check-up. Besides the baby acne, and spitting up, she is doing well. Joyce had her 6-week appointment (even though it had actually only been 1 month). Recovery was quicker this time around. Thank goodness!

We started going to storytime again. Melody was happy about that. Miss Tina, however, has been on vacation. It is also been great to get back to church and see everyone again. Norm has been already back already but the first month was hard to get all of us up and out the door, so we opted to watch service through the streaming video online.

Another exciting thing is visiting with Joyce’s sister’s family again. We were over at their house for Father’s Day lunch and her nephew was so happy to meet his little cousin Emily. It has also been nice to have our usual Sunday dinners at Joyce’s parents’ house. They had been visiting us so we would not have to pack up the house to see them.

Norm had training in SoCal at the end of the month for 4 days. It was quite an experience for Joyce, Melody, and Emily, especially Melody. She would expect Norm to be there each day to play with her. Our families have been great about coming over to help us out and cooking food for us. Thanks!

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May Update

Between the doctor’s appointments (Joyce’s and Emily’s), we were able to enjoy a few special moments before Norm started his new job at the end of the month. We got together with Norm’s cousin and her family. Melody liked showing her 2nd cousins the Batmobile at the Ice Creamery. They did not want to leave.

The next day Norm had a “worship meeting.” It was actually a surprise baby shower for us. Since we obviously were not informed that it was a baby shower, Joyce and Melody went home to nap. That night we had a scrumptious dinner as “the kids” cooked for Joyce’s dad’s birthday. The following weekend was the annual Rowell Ranch Parade. Melody was not as interested as last year, but we did stay long enough to see some horses and cowboys.

And of course, we all know Emily arrived early on May 13th! Needless to say we have been busy. Besides the usual challenges of having a newborn…and a toddler, we are doing well…for the most part. Norm brought Melody to the special family storytime since we haven’t been able to take her for the usual Wednesday storytimes. She got a free book and made a sunflower craft. We thank God for His provision of Norm’s new job, and His timing is PERFECT as usual. And plus, it was time Norm got back out there…What is it they say? “Distance makes the heart grow fonder.”

– Joyce and Norm

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April Update

Church
Norm led worship on Palm Sunday and Melody “performed” on stage with the kids. Then Norm will be taking a short paternity leave in May.

Big Sister and Baby
We celebrated Melody becoming a big sister (soon) at the hospital’s Sibling Celebration. This is Joyce’s last month of biweekly doctor’s appointments. We will see Dr. Sohl every week now…but since Melody’s prediction is that baby will arrive 5/7 or 5/10, it will just be 1 more visit. =p We toured the hospital. No room sharing! Yay! And we finally got around to meeting with our pediatrician.

Job
The job opportunity at the first company that Norm interviewed with fell through. But this month he met with yet another recruiter. And also another company was interested in him. He had a phone screen with HR one week, 1st round interview on Monday, and he was called back for 2nd round interview on Thursday. We should hear back soon!

Celebrations
We surprised Frank for his 50th birthday. I wonder what he thought when he came back from his weekend birthday trip and saw 80 people in the middle of the street in front of his house. Then, we celebrated Norm’s 30th birthday!! There were a few Easter festivities. Melody had a lot of fun – sleepover and Easter Egg hunt with Uncle Aaron and Yee-Yee, outing to Marina Park, singing onstage at church, and learning the Easter story. Lastly, we were able to celebrate with Sean for his 2nd birthday party.

Random
Joyce donated her hair for the 3rd time. Read about it HERE and HERE.

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