Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Busy Busy!

Life has been exciting around the Lieu house since Samantha has been crawling. 

It's getting a little harder to finish drying her after her bath.  She seems to want to crawl away instead of getting dressed. And her favorite thing is to crawl to the Cetaphil or diaper rash cream and grab those.
Baby Rumpus in our little playgroup.
A little glimpse of eating and drinking these days.  Samantha eats sooo much (will have to get a video that actually shows her shoveling the food into her mouth for literally an hour at a time)!  And she's a pro with the sippy cup.
Busy crawling around the family room.
Riding her fire truck with Daddy.
Now she's always sitting up waiting for me at her crib when I come to get her after her nap.
Singing with daddy.
We like listening to Daddy play guitar.
Pumpkin baby!

Early morning crawling- lost her under the kitchen table!
Found her!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Nine Months!

Samantha turned nine months while we were in California so it's taken me a while to get to her monthly post with all the wonderful pictures from California we had to share.  Now that she's almost 9 and a half months, here are some photos to share.  The month sticker didn't stand a chance this month!
At her 9 month doctor's appointment Samantha was 17 lbs 2 oz and 28 inches - still 25th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for length. She also got three shots and her first blood test.  She was a trooper, not even crying for the five minutes it took to squeeze the blood out of her little thumb.
She is still interested in everything this month.  Really examining lots of stuff!
She tried to pull herself up a bunch, but could never really make it until two days before she turned 9 months, although her pull up hasn't been replicated back in NJ.  She also tries to crawl/climb into our laps all the time.  Now if only she would stay there and cuddle.
She also figured out how to clap two toys together this month and she now makes music by hitting the drum and shaking the shaker eggs.
She is still smiley all the time and loves to giggle.  Her favorite activities include climbing on mommy and daddy, eating (pretty much all the same things as at 8 months), drinking from her sippy cup, going for walks, and playing peek-a-boo.
And the big news is the day before she turned 9 months she started crawling (see previous blog post).  In the last week or so she has gotten so much faster!
She can now crawl on carpet and hard surfaces.  She's also crawled inside and outside.  We have a little explorer here who won't sit still!
Toy fave number one these days- smart phone!  
These days she's wearing size 3 diapers, size 9 month tops, and size 12 month bottoms!  

Love you 3/4 year old little girl!

To compare:
8 months
7 months
6 months
5 months
4 months
3 months
2 months
1 month

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

The Main Event- The Hu-Lieu Wedding!!!

Finally, a blog post on the main event of our California trip-  the Hu-Lieu Wedding.  Andrew's sister, Christine, got married to Stan Hu, on October 5th in Palo Alto. The weather in Northern California was gorgeous and the location of the wedding and reception- spectacular.  It was wonderful to see many of the members of the Lieu extended family and get to meet some family members and friends that we hadn't had a chance to meet yet.  Congrats again, Stan and Christine!  We're excited to have a new brother-in-law (and uncle) and we are so glad we could be part of your special day!

How unique and beautiful was the church?!
Andrew walked his mother down the aisle.

And then after the bridesmaids walked down the aisle, our little flower girl made her way into the church.  She was escorted by two amazing ring bearers.

We were worried for weeks about how this little ride would go, but she was a wagon pro and charmed everyone as she went down the aisle.

Here's some video of this moment of cuteness.
Stan attempted to acquire some footage of the ring bearers and flower girl going down the aisle so he attached a go-pro to the wagon.  Apparently, though, Samantha had other plans and refused to allow herself to be filmed.  She held that go-pro  tightly the entire ride.

Which resulted in some pretty hilarious footage!  Not exactly what was intended, but that's one cute pudgy hand!
And then Christine and her dad came down the aisle to meet Stan.  What a beautiful backdrop and couple!


Married :)
There were lots of pictures to take of this cute munchkin.  She loves her Daddy!
Father and son!
Samantha loves her Grandma (and all shiny necklaces these days).  Oh and notice the lack of headband- she realized part way through picture taking that she could take off her own headband- fun times.  At least we made it down the aisle with it on.
Ruth, Sparrow, Andrew and Samantha! Sparrow was very happy to meet her second cousin.
And just because this is actually what most of our life looks like these days...

Haha :)
Love this little one!
Family shot
Then some beautiful formals from the photographer.  Can you tell they are siblings?!
Love this one!

The whole Lieu immediate family.

Lieu-Hu Families!

The extended Lieu (Andrew's dad's) family.

And the extended Zau (Andrew's mom's) family

The reception was held at Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country Club.

And because I was wearing Samantha much of the time, I didn't take too many photos.  But it was a gorgeous reception.  There were 40 kids there- and Christine thought of all sorts of neat things for them- from a coloring book table to special kids entries- which Samantha really enjoyed (salmon and curly fries- yes please!)  In addition, they decided to forgo the traditional dances with parents for some unique and fun alternatives.  Stan and Christine played a trivia game with Stan's mom in which they had to guess "which twin was which" (Stan is an identical twin) from baby pictures.  And Christine and Dad played a quick ping-pong match.  So fun!

Samantha and I headed home before the dancing started (she was a trooper though- staying up way past her bed time!), but before we left S snagged a picture with her Aunt Christine.
Yay!  What a wonderful day!  Congrats again Christine and Stan!  

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Visiting Northern Cal

After five days in Southern Cal, we made the trek up to Northern Cal for Christine's wedding.  It was a six hour drive up the California coast, and it was the longest Samantha has been in the car.  She did great, though!  Lots of talking, playing with empty water bottles, and thumb sucking.  This was my view from the middle of the back seat much of the drive.

When we had checked into our hotel, we got to see Aunt Christine.  And we were greeted by her trademark Care Bears that she brought all the way to Palo Alto from SF.  Samantha liked them :)
That night we had a delicious dinner with some of Andrew's family.  Here's Samantha with her Great Aunt Lucy.
And with her Great Aunt Mary.
There was course after course of delicious Chinese food- most of which I was trying for the first time.  Yum!

We had a very busy day planned on Friday, so we were really glad that Wenhai drove down to have breakfast with us.  
After Samantha's nap we headed out to spend a few hours walking around Stanford- what a gorgeous campus!  Last time I was there I was doing research for my senior thesis- now over eight years ago!  Fun to imagine what life would have been like if we had gone to school here.


In the afternoon, while Grandpa supervised naptime and Andrew had a meeting, Grandma and I headed out to get our nails done with Christine.  Here's Christine and her new sister-in-law, Nancy.

Ready for the rehearsal!
Samantha made friends with the ringbearers.
Here she is waiting with mommy and daddy to head down the aisle.  Notice how S is out of focus in both pics- she's always moving these days!
Jumping up and down in the pew.  
Family shot at the rehearsal dinner.
Samantha wasn't the littlest baby at the Rehearsal Dinner.  Little Leila is only one month old and S looks like a giant compared to her!
With Aunt Christine!  
The day of the wedding we had breakfast with Chew, Grace, Grandma and Grandpa, while Andrew went on the group run.


Loving her new hat from Grace!
Samantha ends up in crazy places now that she is crawling.  After some afternoon playtime we headed to Aunt Christine's wedding- more pics to follow!
On Sunday Samantha had her first dim sum. Yum!
Lieu young ladies- Christine, Ruth, Sparrow, Samantha, and me.
The Lieu brothers- Uncle Noel, Grandpa, and Uncle Peter.

Grandma and Samantha :)
Samantha and Grace.
After dim sum we got to hang a little with Christine and Stan- we felt so honored to get some special time with the newly married couple.
Love this little one and those little feet!

Playing with Aunt Christine and Uncle Stan was very tiring :)
Sunday night we had dinner with Amanda and Daniel- so fun to catch up with both of them.
We had a wonderful time with Grandpa and Grandma.  Samantha misses you both already!