Happy Birthday Joe!

Joe turned 25 this last week. Wow... A quarter of a century, huh? We did a lot of fun things to celebrate his birthday over the course of a week, and we got to enjoy lots of food!

First, last Wednesday (or Thursday, i don't remember), we went to Coldstone to get the free ice cream "like it" size creation for his birthday. They only asked 30 cents extra to upgrade to the next size, and that's what we did! We got French Vanilla ice cream with oreos, and it was perfect for our little family of three. (Yum, yum...) We didn't share a cup because Joe was feeling sick. Alden loved that he had his own little sample spoon and got to scoop up his own share. :D

On Friday, my brother Dohyup's in-laws came to America to visit his wife. We had a big family dinner at home with mom's best friend Jane Birch. We celebrated both Joe and Jane's birthday (August 15th) with good food and a cheese cake. Jane blew out the candles first - we only had 10 candles, so each of them had 5 candles - then we sang for Joe. Since he was feeling sick and didn't want to blow on the whole cake, Alden got to blew out the candles for Daddy instead. He blew them out one by one, except the last two, he was able to get both of them at the same time (he's increasing his lung capacity much this summer from hours of blowing out candles, blowing bubbles outside, and blowing bubbles in his drink).

On Saturday, my mom bought us Brick Oven pizza (One of Joe's favorites) for dinner. We brought them home and enjoyed them very much (even till next day for lunch). We got Alfredo Chicken and Garlic Chicken pizza, and Alden loved them a  lot too!

On Sunday, we were invited to dinner at our friends house, Cody and Kyra's. They made wonderful taco soup with corn bread, and Joe got to play Eagle Eye on nintendo with Cody and me. Alden had his own controller and had fun watching (although he's really confused about the whole controllers-having-wires-attached-to-them concept). Joe was especially excited because he had been telling me about him playing the game in junior/high school just the day before.

On joe's actual birthday, Yearim, my little sister, made Joe a cake, and I made shrimp/italian sausage pasta for lunch. Joe came home for lunch, and we got to enjoy lunch together. :D

This is the cake Yearim made. It's plain yellow cake (Joe's favorite!) and Mario!!

Alden realized that those white powdery stuff on the cake tastes really good. He started digging in the cake even before we blew the candles and stuff. lol.

Then on Wednesday, we went to Tucanos for lunch with Cody and Kyra. Tucanos gives you a buy-one-get-one-free-meal coupon for your birthday, so we get to go to Tucanos twice a year (it's a little over priced otherwise). Joe loves all the food there, and my favorite is garlic sirloin and barbeque chicken. Alden, for the first time in a while, loved the food and ate a lot of fruits and meat. His favorite was BBQ chicken, and he kept asking for more. Since he's been obsessed about using tools (wrench, chopsticks, tongs, etc.), he loved that they had tongs there to grab the meat. He used them to feed me and himself fruit I cut up for him. :D

Sorry I didn't have more pictures, but it was a great birthday. We had a lot of fun, not just on his birthday, but got to enjoy Joe turning 25 for the whole week! :D We can't wait till Alden's birthday comes, when he will get to enjoy his own cake and blow out candles on his cake (and open presents... :o).

Indoor Summer Fun. :D

We've been having a lot of fun just around the house lately, and here are some pictures of Alden doing fun things.

Cereal for breakfast is great! Alden's favorite cereal is Life.

Indoor bowling. :D

Alden loves talking on the phone. He talks to his grandpa, grandma, and whoever he can on the phone. He doesn't really say much when he's on the phone but he loves to listen to the person on the other end.

Alden's showing more interest in reading books now. He likes to listen (sometimes) to us read to him, but mostly likes to turn pages and point at the pictures. He also likes to follow the actions that the characters are doing.

His all time favorite treat for the summer! Otter Pops! :D He's gotten pretty good at eating these now, and needs almost no help finishing it.

Playing with toys in his room. :D

Using tongs and wrenches to grab stuff off the floor! :D

Barker Reunion

July 31st was the Barker Reunion. We went up to Uncle Larry's in Eden to see the familiy. We got to drive up with Sophie and Laura, and it was so much fun. Tom had to work and couldn't come, so instead, Sophie and Alden got to have a blast in the car together. They were talking to each other, telling each other what was outside the window, sharing snack, etc. So cute! There was an inflatable water slide set up, and Alden and Sophie kept slowing walking up to it, even though they were told not to. They weren't even wearing their swimsuits yet! But they kept taking turns taking a few steps up, and then the other one would walk up as well. They eventually got all the way to the slide, and Joe had to go grab them. lol.

The Barker children. Eleen, LaVere, Bill, and Bettie. Grandma Rigby is the oldest of them, but she looks the youngest!

And of course, Sophie and Alden got to blow bubbles together again.

He didn't end up going on the slide (he's very shy when it comes to slides.. He gets scared and does not want to go down by himself. Sophie did really well and only needed help climbing up. So I had to change him back to normal clothes.

It was a good reunion. It did get very hot towards the end, because the shade we were sitting in moved away from us as we watched the program.... The best part was Al getting to play with Sophie. They play so well together! :D Alden does try to say Sophie's name, occasionally, and he says, "'Eee."

Al's latest interests

Alden goes through different phases of showing interest in different things. Lately, he's been showing interest in these following things.

1. Peter Pan: He loves watching the old Disney Peter Pan animation. He gets so excited when Peter Pan first comes on scene and is standing on the Darlings' roof. He tries to imitate different actions in the movie, such as putting his arms out and pretending to fly, running around and being hunted by Indians, making the tick-tock sound that the crocodile makes, etc. It's so cute when he puts his right hand up and says, "Haaaooo" when the Indian chief talks. Even at the Barker reunion the other day, Alden kept saying "Hao" seeing the man dressed like a native american.

2. Toy Story: I'm guessing everyone's already familiar with Alden's obsession with Toy Story. I won't say much about it, other than that he can recognize Woody and Buzz's names and the theme songs from the movie. When the space song comes on during the credits (yes, we watch the credits too), he holds up his arms and pretends to fly like Buzz.

3. ABC's: EVERYWHERE we go, he points out the alphabets A, B (D), and O. He has really good eyes, too. He can find those letters in almost any font and size, and gets really excited in the car when he sees the letters he knows on  billboards, etc. He loves to do that on TV or any object in the house as well.

4. Blowing bubbles in his drink: He always asks for a straw when he drinks, so he can blow bubbles with his drink. Milk seems to make the most bubbles and stay the longest. He loves to drink milk more than ever now. It gets him to drink more too, even though it takes a little longer to eat now.

5. Blowing out candles: Alden loves to blow out the candles too. My mom has candles on in the kitchen to get rid of the smell of food, and Alden always asks if he can blow them out. We can't wait to have him blow out the candles on his birthday cake in october. Although, we are a little bit worried that he will complain about us not relighting the candles... lol.

6. Chaos: Alden loves anything that falls, drops, get out of order, or makes loud noises. He loves to run around on my mom's hardwood floor and make stomping noises with his feet. He purposely lifts up his legs higher up so he can make louder noises. He also loves to knock down blocks/toys or wring his hands together while jumping up and down.

7. Pointing people out in photographs: My mom has framed pictures around the house, and Alden goes around pointing people out in the pictures. We were surprised that he was able to recognize me in a picture that was taken almost 10 years ago. He can point out everyone in my family and Joe's familiy (he doesn't know Joe's siblings' names yet though), including grandma and grandpa. He can only say "엄마 (mommy)" and "Daddy" now, but we can't wait till he can say everyone else's names so he can point AND name everyone.

8. Cheering: He loves to cheer. He puts both arms up in the air and shakes his arm in the air. Whenever we say "Hooray" or "Yay," he lifts up his arms and cheers. He loves to do that whenever we clear a game while playing the wii.

Pioneer Day

We got to enjoy our Pioneer Day weekend with the Powells. They are very close family friends and the kids are half Korean and just the cuttest ever! :D I used to babysit the kids all the time, and now they've grown enough that they can babysit mine! Ha ha. They came down Friday night, and we enjoyed some fireworks.

Kennedy is writing "Alden" with the sparklers.

Alex working on "Joe."

Next morning, we went on a hike/walk along Provo River trail. We were gonna go to the Timpanogos Cave, but found out someone had reserved all the tickets and we'd have to wait three hours once we got there. Instead, we took a walk from Nunn's Park to Vivian Park, and went fishing at Vivian Park.

At the Bridal Veil Falls. All Alden wanted to do was throw pebbles in the water.

Fishing with daddy at Vivian Park. We didn't catch any, or even get any bites....

Afterwards, we picked up some Subway sandwiches and went to the BYU Duck Pond to eat and look at the ducklings. Then we went to watch Despicable Me. It was such a cute and funny movie. Alden loved it and watched the whole thing even though he had only gotten 15 minutes of nap that day. Alden played with Alex and Kennedy really well, and was following them around everywhere. He was so sad that they had to leave and pretended not to understand when we told him they had to leave. So sad...

Latest Videos

Blogger's giving me trouble with uploading the HD videos.... maybe it has to do with the size... Click on the link to watch the latest videos!! Sadly, you can't watch them in HD quality anymore...


Knocking off blocks with uncle Jamie
Alden was playing with Jamie, knocking down blocks with a ball. He got really good at it and was able to hit the blocks almost everytime he threw the ball!
http://www.facebook.com/v/762709541979

Laughing at himself while watching the above video
Alden LOVES to watch videos or pictures of himself.

This day, we spent an hour looking at his pictures and watching videos. He was cracking up so hard while watching the video of him knocking down the blocks with a ball, I had to take a video to remember the moment. What an awesome kid....
http://www.facebook.com/v/763675366459

Where's A?
Alden's learning the alphabet and can recognize a lot of the alphabet. He can point out A, B, D, E, L, M, N, O, and R. He can also say A, D, and O (he call B "Dee" as well). His favorite alphabet is A, and everywhere we go, he'll point out A's on billboards, t-shirts, signs, etc. It's soooooooooo cute. If you have a shirt on with the letter A on, he'll most likely point it out and say "AAAAaaaaaaaaayyyyy." :D

http://www.facebook.com/v/764437613909

Blowing bubbles with milk
This morning during breakfast, Alden realized that he can blow bubbles out of his milk! Lol. My camera ran out of space, as well as batteries.... :P But you can hear him blow bubbles in the cup. lol.
http://www.facebook.com/v/764438382369

Grandma's house

Grandma and Grandpa Rigby has a little bird familiy join their neighborhood. The birds built a nest under their roof and i got to take pictures of them. Grandma and Grandpa also have really beautiful garden and I HAD to get some pictures of their flowers!! Enjoy!!