2014 in review

happy new year day, folkies!! this year has been like a crazy ride on a shinkansen! before we knew it, it was the birthdays, then christmas and then here we are, wrapping up the year!! madness!!

in jan, we kicked off the new year with a trip with pals to bali and had such a lovely time just chilling with them right before they become parents and probably sharing a few too many scary baby stories! its crazy talking about it because the baby in their belly now is an amazingly adorable cutie patootie and its hard to remember life without him!!

we also spend a bit more time exploring singapore and a few too many afternoons at gardens by the bay playground. it's blake's happy place and he's SUPER fast! but the days of me spending every waking moment with blake came to an end when he started school! looking back at our schedule before that started makes me laugh a bit! maybe i didn't need to be so nazi and should have just spontaneously taken him out a bit more! but school's great and gave me an open window to get some fitness routine started and a bit of time to myself.

speaking of fitness, i found a sweet spot. i have a bunch of girls we meet up for yoga twice a week and then lunch and coffee after. when one gets lazy, someone will be there to remind you of your resolution and we laugh weekly as how much drama it is just getting there on time. but im proud to announce that there were more hits than misses (in the name of solidarity, if one doesn't make it, we all skip and go for breakfast or massage! LOL!) and have gotten a tad bit more flexible! this year, i hope it step it up by slipping in a ballet class on one of the weekdays!! victoria secret runway bod, here i come!!

our second trip of the way was ALSO to bali! this time with my folks! they had a blast and we decided that this will be the new norm. a nice and easy vacation with no boxes to tick.. just a lot of time for everyone to do silly competitions and lie on each others shoulders! :)

and then, lucky lucky!! we got our own place! (sneak peek of our old place) we're still very excited about it and its tiny but filled with all our favorite things and is perfect in our eyes!! maybe one day we will save enough pennies for something bigger or fancier but till then, this is our first property that we lived in together!!

i snuck out of town for a girlie getaway with my pals! and that was definitely a highlight of my year! with one little bubbie in tow (in tummy), we joked that it was like unleashing of the caged tigers. lol truth is, we could have sat in any coffee shop and have had a great time! and man you should have seen the luggage bags we came home with!! what can i say, its not everyday you get to spend a week away without a care in the world (thank you, hubbies!!)! i also started work in the later half of the year, such a blessing to be able to find a great match for my current interests and still have time to be a mother! daniel also found a great routine with his work and keeping up with his exercise regime. and we even snuck in a little getaway back to our old haunt in phnom penh. 

while we were busy conquering the world, we started noticing big milestones in bubba's life. in this year, blake has abandoned the bottle, sleeps on his own in his own room and is the easiest little traveller. physically, blake is very can do! he will try handstands, tumbles and is proficient at climbing anything with zero fear. im preparing my heart for a few broken bones because its inevitable. he speaks rather coherently in sentences and has great spacial awareness. still working on being less centered but i guess there's only this much you can expect from a 2-year old single child. but we're working on it. oh and first ER visit .... CHECK!! 

every year we say this.. that we are grateful for who we have in our lives and if that's all we get in life, we are ok!! but this year, we picked up a few more unexpected but very welcomed pals along the way! and are very lucky for their love and the fun they've brought into our lives!!

each of them bring out something special in us! and we started noticing a trend in the people in our lives and hope to never to do without everyone of you!! 

we also welcomed a few new bubbas into our "family"! we are soooo thrilled to celebrate the safe arrival of these cutie patooties (hello! this is harry!)!! and watching each of them grow up is such a joy. can't wait to see more of them and have them join in the fun when they wake up from their newborn sleepiness!! we're also welcoming a few more little ones in the new year!! good times ahead!

we also snuck in a trip down under to run the sydney marathon, see a bit more of beautiful oz and caught up with the cute yeo-yap clan. its a little sad that we're so far away now and they're one of the few friends we wish we could grow old with! but it was lovely to see how well they're getting along and how special each and every one of the littles are growing up!

we also got to catch up with dad, who then introduced blake to raisin toast and he's been all about raisin toast ever since!! 

and what's a year without spending some time in japan right!? we spent a week in fall with bubs in tokyo & nagoya and got to spend some time with his cousins! such good fun! 

we rounded up the year with this gorgeous sun-filled photoshoot at home with an old but new friend, kerry. thank you for blessing us with your talent! we will be using these photos excessively when our boys aren't as photogenic and we're old and saggy!! just sayin'!! 

 i often judge a year by how many adventures we've had and was particularly disappointed the year we were forced to take it easy (blake was a newborn, so for good reason...) but this year had the right mix of exciting new conquests with a good chunk of time to get to know people around us a little better and reasonable effort for us to set down some roots! so in all, quite the solid year for us as we gain our wings.

ok.. i better stop rambling because i don't want to be, as my girlfriend describes, "the kinda people that are so happy i wanna give (them) one big tight slap!" lol. love you, Q! you say things as they are!! :) 

each year i say, i can't believe how the year can beat the current year. and without fail, it always does. so as we start this year new with our munchkins in our arms, we'd like to give thanks! thank you to the readers of this blog for being so kind and always looking out for us. thank you our dear pals for the coffees, spontaneous manicures and "its not us. it the world that's crazy, right" chats this year. thank you to melamine sponges so im not as neurotic as i really am. thank you to our troops that are the best cheerleader our little family can dream of. and most of all, thank you for sending daniel, musashi and blake into my life. im so undeserving of their love but so so grateful. 

so bring on 2015. im very excited about the 365 days to come. 365 new chances to break a world record, inspire someone, be a better friend or have a mindblowingly awesome day. hope you have a good one! 

*big hugs all around!* xx,

zhing