2017 Begins

The year of anticipation, change, and so many things to come. In some ways I feel like I wish we had breezed through it already, but I know that's only a dream.




When I saw this picture posted on facebook the other day..somehow it felt like my soul.
I crave peace and tranquility and deep thought, yet I know the future as chaotic as it seems must be for my heart to get there. I pray for a day that we can all be in peace and happiness despite all the craziness we must face.



Amazingly my dear cat can feel me when my nerves are on edge. And her warmth and humming brings my jitters to a smooth rhythm.

Our New Years gathering was fun and the kids enjoyed family time.



Arya loves Jasmine and she can see it in his eyes. She has a beautiful soul. God bless her and always keep her in the best of His care. I am so thankful for all the joy she brings us.




The next day was followed by treating our stomachs to a fun filled lunch of ribs. Thankfully I didn't overdo it.

The boys on the other hand...well you know how it is :)

End of 2016

December had been a long month mostly due to cold/flu season and hoping for relief from the sicknesses. Also, even as it is so beautiful outside, something about winter always seems to make me more tired or lazy. Is it just me?

Arya was very happy to start the 2 weeks off and got used to it. :) I think when we go to school these times off are like gold! You can watch tv, play video games, go on the computer..etc, etc. And not have to have any structured routine. We start it off traditionally though by attempting to make a gingerbread house which always ends up falling apart. Next year I am hoping to get those premade ones to just decorate. The sticky stuff just doesn't work for us!




Lots of fun times to lay around, watch youtube and be silly!





And of course there's family time and eating.











Oh the eating...



All in all it was a nice break for Arya and we ended 2016 happy
and thankful.

Arya lost his first tooth!

After many many many many days / weeks/ years of waiting. It finally happened. Our baby lost his first baby tooth. And he amazingly took it out while wiggling it so much. :)
He was the happiest today I have ever seen! :) Too cute for words MA.

Thanksgiving 2016

This is Arya's favorite holiday out of all the holidays. He says we are always thankful to God for everything and every day should be Thanksgiving. But it's nice to have this time off and enjoy it all even more. Mashallah. I truly believe it too.




It was a great day and the family came to our house this year.



Jamil and Arya wore their happy Thanksgiving hats and having Jasmine as an addition was a real joy.



We are thankful for our dear Nana and Papa to be with us and so we can enjoy food and time together.




The food was good like always and there was plenty to eat. We had the usual turkey and an extra slab in case we ran out, as well as stuffing, mash potatoes, candied yams, green bean casserole, cranberry jello, pink fluff fruit salad, pumpkin rollade, as well as pumpkin and pecan pies.





Ali got to spend some time playing with Jasmine and she enjoyed his company :)



And Maloos loved just laying in her dog bed :)

Arya gets white belt from Hackingtons Code School!

Whenever I see his face gleaming like this, it warms my heart. He truly loves this stuff. Who would've thought my son would follow my footsteps? Although he found his calling way before I did.
I was attracted more to mathematics and art, but found computers to be somewhere in the middle. I think for Arya it's more the gaming and fun side of things :) which I'm happy about for him.



This is a snapshot of his project that he had to create. Being that he's younger he gets to use Scratch (a tool that allows you to implement logic rather than type the code yourself). Which for his age it seems better to learn about that first then what the tags are and so forth. This one is a mouse maze to get to the Cheetos.

Room Remodeled!

Arya's room needed a makeover.

He still had a lot of his stuff from yes I dare say it "Kindergarden." And frankly, for a 3rd grader, I just didn't think that was fitting for his development. Soooo, we decided to redo it a little bit.

BEFORE Side wall


Before, there was no room for clothes at all. His little closet and the dresser was all that we had. And the toys were stuffed in the little bins made for baby toys. So I moved his shoes and night stands into the closet with added lighting thanks to Kami. And The closet was nice and clean (it was pretty bad before, I don't have a pic).



We got some storage closets from Ikea and also cubes from Lowes, and re-organized everything. This gave us more storage and gave the place a face lift I guess you could say :)

AFTER: Closet area with lego shelf


AFTER side wall

3rd Grade begins!

Arya started this year with big smiles and ready to take on another fun year of school!

Mashallah, this year begins with a new nice teacher Mrs. Jansson. And it is in the portables area (in the back) where the AC is good! 

A lot of his old buddies were in his class. And some were in Mrs. Chi's class and Mrs. Wagoner's class.





They got to play together at recess :)
The only sad news was his friend since kindergarten (Sophie) got moved to another school to be with her teacher mom. But since we are good friends we will see them still here and there.



We had some fun the week later and got to go to old sacramento and shop a little bit and go see the movie Nine Lives. It was pretty funny. I laughed :)



So, Arya's new friend that he's been playing with is James. He's a little bit crazay! But I think Arya likes that :) It seems like he's into the same things as Arya (Minecraft & RoBlox) and he likes gaming/programming. Nerds rule!!! :)