:S

So.. there are so many things i should be posting about. Updates about our family, mainly the kids, and what fun things we've been doing... But i don't want to do a super long one post, so please bear with me as I catch up for the last month and publish like five hundred posts at onces... Plus my internet's been really slow, so please be understanding about the lack of pictures.. i will post them as soon as we've got the internet issue resolved...

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

Joe and I have this thing with Valentine's Day, and every year, someone ends up getting sick (me, Joe, or one of the kids) and something happens and we have to change our plans for Valentine's Day. So this year, we didn't even bother making any plans for the day. And of course, Alden started getting sick on Sunday (cough and a slight fever) so Joe had to bring him home after sacrament (that was after Ellie pooped all over herself and Alden puked during sacrament). Alden is such an active kid, even when he is sick, he refuses to slow down. He will run around the house and take off his socks and jump around, etc. So yesterday, we just let him watch tv all day. He sat in my mom's heated bed and watched Dora the Explorer all day long (he finished season 2, which has like 25 episodes in it). In the afternoon, we got a text message from Joe's brother John that grandpa had had a stroke and was being transported to the hospital. Thankfully, it wasn't too bad and he is doing okay, but we decided to visit him at the hospital. Joe didn't get off work until later so we didn't end up leaving the house until 7. We left Alden with my mom and took Ellie to visit grandma and grandpa. On the way up, we got our Valentine's dinner at Wendy's and ate on our way on I-15. :)  It was good to see the family and visit and to see that grandpa was doing okay. We even got to see Jamie (a rare treat. lol). We didn't get home until Valentine's day was almost over, but it was a pretty good day considering we gave each other good gifts and we also got to spend some alone time in the car during the drive (with a sleeping baby in the back). Joe gave me some nursing garments (he says they're not exactly the type of lingerie he wanted to get for me. lol) and a really pretty jar of canned peach. I specifically asked him not to get me any chocolate or candy (I can only take so much sugar) so that was such a nice gesture for him to get me the peach beacuse I LOVE canned peaches... I got him a set of black gold toe socks (which i have to return to Costco because Joe says they don't fit).

The Saturday before Valentine's day, we went up to Bountiful/Centerville to visit family and celebrate Joe's mom's birthday. We went to Joe's dad's house around noon, and Joe took a Kaplan practice test for the GMAT. Sophie and Laura came by for a while to play, and we got great pictures of Alden and Sophie. They also had great time together.

Then we visited grandma and grandpa and had a great time there. Alden loved playing with the toys, and Ellie loved being held by grandma. :)

For dinner, we went to Applebee's for dinner. It was my first time there, and I LOVED it!!!! We ordered two two-for-20's. We got a stuffed meatballs with fetuccini, sirloin stake, spicy riblets, asian salad, spinach and artichoke dip, and mozarella sticks. EVERYTHING, I mean, everything tasted so wonderful, and considering the fact that we've been very disappointed last couple times we've eaten out, i was soooooo happy and satisfied with the food. Except for the time Ellie pooped all over herself, it was a very nice evening. :) I am definitely going back to Applebees!

Oh, and on a side note, we've given up on potty training Alden for now. He's been sick for over a week, and everyone else in the family has been sick for a couple days too. We feel so bad for ellie because she can't breathe and has so much phlem, she keeps coughing but can't produce anything, which makes her throw up sometimes.... Poor little girl...

Alden has also beens studying very diligently. He practices writing the alphabet everyday and loves to read books. I bought him a few jumpstart type CDs from the DI, and he loves to study with them. Right now, his favorite one is Arthur's Reading Game. It reads him a story with animation, and he can play word games.

Tom's birthday

Tom had a birthday party last week, so we spent the weekend up in Bountiful and had a wonderful time with the family.  On the way up, we dropped by the Planetarium at Gateway to look at the big marble run.  As soon as we walked in, Alden couldn't take his eyes off the marble run... And here's a picture to prove it. :)

He just had a blast looking at the marble run, and he thought it was awesome! And he was having the greatest time.  It was so cool because he would just keep looking at it and we were there for more than 40 minutes... Most other kids just took a look at it for a couple minutes and left, but Al was really focused on it.  He has great attention span.

Then we went to Joe's mom's house for dinner and to hang out with Sophie.  Tom and Laura had a birthday party to go to (not Tom's), so Sophie and Alden had a blast together watching Toy Story and playing with each other.

Tom's party was on Sunday, and Sophie and Alden were just so stoked to be able to play with each other again. They had so much fun running around, taking turns on the slide, etc.  We had cupcakes and ice cream. They were both very, very good. :D  We also got to try out Tom's Kinect.

Posing for the camera.

With grandma!

And Ellie got so much love from everyone!

Cutie pie Ellie

I got down on the floor and took some pictures of Ellie. :) She is so cute, and she definitely doesn't get enough pictures taken... We seem to still take more pictures of Alden, so i'm trying hard to get more pictures of her so she doesn't look back and say, "Hey, how come I don't have any baby pictures!?"

A bonus picture of Alden's artistic expression. :)

Updates

Yes... I've gotten really, really lazy. With two kids constantly needing attention, there hardly seems anytime to just sit and type anymore. lol. I've been faithful in uploading pictures and videos on facebook, however, so you are welcome to go there to check on anything you may have missed out on in the last couple months. Ha ha.

I wanted to update everyone on how Alden and Eleen are doing. First of all, Al is now 27 months old. He has mastered all the alphabet, Capital letters and lowercase. He is starting to learn how to spell things already, and he loves to read books. His favorite book is the Cat in the Hat (he calls it the "hat book.") He can count up to 15 in English. He has mastered using the laptop. He can open up internet explorer, go to Youtube, and type in search keywords such as ABC or Mario and watch what he wants to watch. He is really good at using the mouse (he can double click now). And he is realllly good at playing the Wii. His favorite word's got to be "Wii." He is really good at manuvering the wii remote, and he can play most games by himself. His favorite games are Super Mario Bros Wii and MarioKart. He loves playing Mario, and he even calls Mario, "Al." Mario is also Joe's favorite character, but now that Al always plays Mario, Joe only gets to be Luigi, which he doesn't really appreciate much. Al can get through relatively easy boards pretty well, and can usually finish a lap in MarioKart in about 1 minute.

Ellie has been great. She is already past 11 pounds and has grown out of a lot of her clothes already. She has these chubby cheeks that are so kissable, and Al loves to give her kisses on her cheeks. She has been having trouble sleeping lately, and she refuses to sleep unless someone's holding her, which has caused some uncomfortable nights on the lazyboy for joe and me. She seems to sleep better tho if she is sleeping on our bed, and we tested that theory last night and confirmed it after she slept for 7+ hours straight. (But I kept waking up throughout the night cuz there wasn't enough room on the bed...

All in all, having two kids is about the same as i imagined, but I'm fortunate to get a lot of help from my family. I get to take naps and rest when my family helps. :)

Welcome Ellie!

Eleen Sihyun Rigby was born November 30, 2010!!! Sorry, she's already 3 weeks old, and it's taken 3 weeks for me to update everyone on the news. We are so excited that she is here, and she is so cute! She is very adorable, and Alden loves the new baby and is being a great big brother.

November 30 was our last regular check-up with an OB/GYN. I had been feeling that she would be coming really soon, but I wasn't really sure because the due date was still a week away. The due date was December 6th, and we were supposed to go to Salt Lake on December 4th to see the people from Korean consulte so that I could renew my passport. Because they require a finger print scan, you have to actually go to a consulate in person and I would've had to go all the way to San Francisco if I had missed them on December 4th. We were really worried that Ellie was gonna come a couple days early and I would have to either try to escape from the hospital or fly to San Francisco to get it done... :P  Well, when we went in for our check-up that morning, the doctor did a vaginal exam and was very surprised that I was already at 4 cm! He said Ellie would probably be coming pretty soon, either that night or the next day.

All day, Joe and I were very anxious all day and waited for the sign. Joe had a big final presentation for his class next day, scheduled for that day because the due date was next week, but he had to postpone it to the week after because we were very likely to be in the hospital the next day... He even came home early from work that day because he couldn't focus on his work. But he did have a group meeting scheduled that night to prepare for the presentation at 8 pm. After having dinner, we decided to go to BYU campus with Joe because Alden had been sitting at home all day. So we wanted him to get out and be able to run around a little. We also put the basket of library books so we could return those to the library. There was little chance that we would have had to go to the hospital that night, so we packed our hospital bag in the car.

Well, while we were busy packing, I started having cramps. I had been having false labor, and I just figured they were cramps from running around and trying to pack. Well, they didn't go away and they just kept coming in regular intervals. I kept glancing at the clock while I was packing, and noticed that they were about 6-7 minutes apart. I still didn't think I was going into real labor because I thought real labor was supposed to start really slow! I mean, they tell you to relax and wait and count the contractions for an hour or two. I thought I was supposed to start having them like 20 minutes apart and have time to shower and maybe even take a bath..

Anyway, we proceeded to drive to BYU, and on the contractions were now about 5 minutes apart. We kept driving to Campus and went to the Tanner building where Joe was having his group meeting. He started having his meeting, and Alden and I went around the building once, throwing a ball and running down the hall to pick it up again. By the time we had gone around the whole building once, the contractions were 4 minutes apart, and I decided it was really time to go. Joe had to leave his meeting early (he had been there about 10 minutes), and we drove straight to the hospital.

We got there around 8:30 pm, and a nurse came and checked me and told me that I was at 7 cm already. As soon as she told everyone I was at 7 cm, we noticed that everyone started running around and prepping me. The anesthesiologist was in the room in 3 minutes or so and got started on giving me the epidural right away. The nurses called my doctor, and he called the hospital twice on his way over to make sure I hadn't delivered yet.

We were kinda hoping that Ellie would be a December baby, but the nurses and the doctors told us that we had no chance. :P Well, I started pushing around 9:30, and at 9:43 pm, Eleen was born! She was 19.5 inches and 7 lbs 6 oz. All in all, the whole labor only lasted for about 2 hours, and we barely made it to the hospital in time for me to get the epidural.

The next two days at the hospital were full of adventures, talking to financial office and stuff, but I'll save that story for later. (Right now, I'm really distracted because Joe and Al are playing Super Mario Bros on the Wii).

My family made it to the hospital very quickly, and my brother and sister-in-law watched Alden in the waiting room until Ellie was born.

During labor (of course, in between contractions... lol.).

Welcome Ellie!

Holding daddy's hand.

Meeting the big bro for the first time.

Cutie pie Ellie.

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun halloween this year. Alden dressed up as Woody from Toy Story. It was his favorite movie for a while, and he loves playing with his Buzz toys and reading his Toy Story books. I am a really cheap mom, so I didn't buy him the nice Woody costume from the Disney store. (It's like 40 bucks!) Since I buy all of our stuff from the DI, I decided to gather some costume stuff from the DI. So in the last couple months, I've been trying to find anything related to Woody's outfit whenever we went to the DI (and trust me, we go there a lot). I was able to find a pair of cowboy boots for $2 and a hat that looks cowboyish enough for $2 (even though it looks completely different from Woody's hat). I also found a bunch of cow-print fabric to make the vest with for $3 (there was about 50 sheets of 12x15 in fabric in there). I only used 4 of them (2 to make the actual vest with and 2 that I experimented with) so I have no idea what I'm going to do with the rest of them... (any ideas?) I also found a red handkerchief at the DI for 50 cents that I cut into a smaller size to fit Al around his neck. And I bought one of those foam sheets from Michael's (It was 99 cents and I got additional 40% off with a coupon) and made his sheriff badge and his belt. Anyway, the original plan was to have me dress up as Jessie and Joe as Andy, but I ran out of time (I spent too long sewing up his vest by hand - the sewing machine is broken and I don't know how to use it anyway). But I think his costume turned out okay enough (even though no one realized he was Woody and all thought he was just a plain cowboy... lol). The best thing ever was that Alden learned how to say "Woody" and loved going trick-or-treating. Here are some pictures from the day. :D

Getting ready to go to the ward party.

Sheriff Woody with my mom. :D

Only picture I got of Al alone with the hat on.... lol.

And the only family picture we got that day... lol.

Inspecting/enjoying the day's harvest. He actually got a lot more but I hid the ones i didn't want him to eat. lol. Joe and I will eat those....  (Joe says they are tax)