emily's

finally a reason to eat fortune cookies after you dig out the fortune.

and a reason to shop at walgreen's the day after valentine's day.

good thing my name is emily.

otherwise,

my mom would have never bought me the most delicious 

chocolate covered fortune cookies to have ever been made.

PHEW!

writing his 7 letter name 13 times

{brennan asked me to read every conversation heart in his entire box when i was making dinner last week. one by one as he ate them he would hold it up, i would read it, and then acted out each one i read. 

it was so SO cute. and then when he was going to bed he told me i was his valentine. i love that sweet boy.}

..........

yesterday i bribed brennan to power through writing his name 12 times in a row.

poor chap has 7 letters in his name.

and do you know what i bribed him with?

that he could make a valentine for himself at the end:)

i.e. writing his name for the 13th time.

don't judge,

it was at his request.

happy valentine's days!!!!!!!!

and happy birthday to valentine valerie

aka grandma gibson

born on valentine's day, in st. valentine's hopsital, and named valerie.

delivered by dr. love.

ok, that last part isn't true,

but everything else is.

always a vision in red!

it's her color;)

i hope your day is full of conversation hearts and smooches with the ones you love.

kung hei fat choy {chase finally sleeps}

{he sleeps in a room full of fairies and flowers--HE SLEEPS!}

....

last night chase slept.

the entire night.

like NEVER woke up.

not once.

i miss being up with him already.

spoken like a woman who's had a full night's sleep.

ha!

he looks older today.

must have been the good luck of the chinese new year.

....

{my mom used to live in asia. i spent a lot of time there when i was little. 

we love to celebrate chinese new year.}

.....

last night we celebrated chinese new year.

a day late.

b/c we were busy on sunday.

but had no plans on monday.

here's to the year of the snake!

i can already tell it's gonna be a good one:)

mom got out all of her famous hong kong china.

that she special ordered in hong kong.

20 years ago.

6 sets, complete with spoons and serving dishes.

for $250. 

when she went back to get 2 more sets a few years later,

they wanted $250 more for the two more sets.

she said no thanks.

and then she told me that hong kong had changed a lot by then.

and how they marketed their goods to the world was different.

more expensive.

good thing we only needed 6 sets last night:)

she and gigi went to the Vietnamese fish place to buy two cooked fish.

they were closed.

b/c it was the day after chinese new year.

so she called her Vietnamese friends to find another Vietnamese fish place that was open.

and she and gigi drove to it.

imagine two american ladies walking into a Vietnamese shop.
in  utah.
they said it caused quite the commotion.
but in a good way.

they bought two whole fish, 6 orders of spring rolls, and a duck.

and then they went to the grocery store to buy everything for the broccoli beef and shrimp.

we are improvisers in my family.

good ones.

and then mom cooked everything for all of us to eat.

brennan loved the duck.

max loved the fish.

i think she ate an entire half of one fish by herself.

and chase devoured one whole spring roll.

i learned that duck ALMOST tastes like chicken, with tougher skin and darker meat.

i've had it before, but i didn't remember that.

it was a feast.

the menu:

duck

2 whole fish {with heads AND eyes}

spring rolls, egg roll style

beef broccoli

rice

grapefruit shrimp avocado salad

dessert:

lucky red envelopes

oranges

ice cream

KUNG HEI FAT CHOY!

{happy new year in cantonese}

sweep out all of your misfortunes and old wrongs,

tidy up your loose ends,

turn over a new leaf,

and

start afresh!

if you believe in stuff like that.

wishing you a happy new year, lots of luck, and prosperity!

:):):)

with love,

the gibson's

angry as a wet hen or a lamb in a lion's den

closet iphone watcher and binky sucker under that blanket up there.

everything is always more fun under a fort.

this is always SO SO true.

chase thinks he's old enough to play with the phones too now.

he will CHASE a phone down across a room faster than a lamb in a lion's den.

not so fast baby man.

slobbery babies such as yourself don't work with the iphone ports. trust me.

he was piping hot when i took it away.

like,

he had himself a regular toddler tantrum at 10 mo old on the little stairs.

buried his head into the carpet screaming.

and looked up at me with a face full of snot.

his little crying face was so cute.

i fought the urge to pick him up just b/c it was so so cute looking down at him like an angry wet hen.

and then one day it won't be cute anymore,

but today it was.

i have never seen him get that angry about anything.

have mercy.

i could kiss his little toothless baby mouth all day long.

bock, bock, bock {our little zoo}

this is what happens when you're nursing a baby in the morning,

and you're 3 year old wakes up and needs to go pee.

whoops.

the little darling never even thought to climb out of the crib.

bless my children and the cribs they love to stay in past the age of 3:)

poor thing was so sad that she'd peed all over her ballet shoes.

tragic and hilarious all at the same time.

tragic for her.

hilarious for me.

thank you washer and dryer:)

too bad i can't put the doll house in there too.

b/c max decided to "decorate" it this morning.

brennan pointed out every little area where the orange crayon and baseball pen had made their marks by the fingertips of max.

making sure to let me know he didn't do it with her.

but didn't she do a great job?

i cleaned off some,

then max cleaned off some,

and then i thought we should leave some.

despite my inner desire to have it all off.

good grief.

tragic for me.

a work of art for her.

touche.

i love our little zoo:)

{they'll climb in, but never out. PRICELESS!!!}

other weekend antics...

caboose on the loose!!!

CHASing them with a hammer.

scaredy cats.

"bock, bock, bock, bock, bock"

he's sexy and he knows it.

PLUGS

how you take a bath when you have tubes in your ears.

PLUGS.

round and squishy like playdoh,

but smooth like gak.

roll 'em up into a ball,

spread 'em out like pancakes.

vwallah!

baby man ear plugs. 

his first bath in over a week.

who knew i'd be so lazy going to the store to buy ear plugs?

wait...

yes, the tongue is always out.

and the chest is always wet.

ELLIOT

 MEET ELLIOT.

i think his trunk is so cute.

i bought him for his trunk.

{#totallyworththeextrasixbucks}

brennan is obsessed with eating his steam.

and turning him on and off.

humidifiers are my right hand man.

glory be.

i want one for me.