Happy Halloween!

This year for Halloween, i wanted us to have a Super Mario theme. I started planning and preparing for it more than a month early, visiting the DI and internet blogs for ideas. Slowly, i put the costumes together, and i'm proud to say that it turned out really well, and we got a lot of compliments!

Mario: I bought Joe and Al's overalls from the DI. I made the yellow buttons out of felt. I also bought Al's red shirt from the DI, and Joe wore a red shirt that he already had. I bought a couple of red caps from the DI that I modified to make it look like Mario's, and I also got them some white gloves from Walmart.

Princess Peach: For Ellie's costume, I found the perfect pink dress from the DI. I found a pink shirt for myself from the DI and also some light and dark pink fabric that I used to make my skirt and the additions to Ellie's dress. I bought my wig and our tiaras. For Ellie's wig, the wasn't any baby size wig, so I bought a Bratz hair doll and cut up her hair and glued it to a baby size beanie with a hot glue. Ellie's wig took the longest to make, about 3 hours.

Thursday before Halloween, our ward had a Halloween Party, so that's where we showed off our costumes for the first time. We had really yummy chili and cornbread for dinner, and Alden got to hang out with his babysitters and join some activities that the youth prepared for the primary. After. The ward party, Joe's friend Invited us to another party at her gallery just two doors down from T-Splines. We went and enjoyed her paintings (she's incredibly talented).

On Friday, Joe's high a hook friend Austin and his wife Jlisa invited us to a group date they prepared called the Amazing Race. It was a scavenger hunt type of date with lots of driving involved, and one of the rules was that you cannot contact anyone for help, and you can only access google on your phone! Anyway, long story short, we had to give up early because, it turns out, we were the only ones without smartphones, and they didn't expect anyone to NOT have a smartphone... Joe's dad was babysitting for us, so we went to Nielson's custard to have our own date night.

On Saturday, we slept in, and Joe's mom and I had lunch, went to the playground, and went to tjmaxx while Joe fixed the lights in our car with his dad (we got pulled over the night before, because we were missing the left brake light, left blinker light, and the license plate light to to mention the left headlight that the officer didn't catch). We went and visited Joe's grandparents too but the kids were too cranky is we had to leave early.

We had a relaxing day Sunday, and on Monday, I took the kids to Thanksgiving Point Farmland with my friend Lara, her husband, and her kids, Yumi and Yuri. Yumi is Al's age, and they always play really well together. We got to see lots if farm animals, and even feed some sheep, goats, and llama some leaves. Alden also got on a pony, and he really enjoyed being on the horse. We also went on a "wagon" ride, except a tractor was pulling the wagon, and the horses were tied to the back of the wagon... Lara and Michael bought us a really nice lunch, and Alden and Yumi really had fun playing together and eating lunch. They wer eating spaghetti noodles, and we're competing to see who could make the noodles disappear into their mouths faster. Ha ha. We decided to go trick-or-treating together later. Yumi went home, and I wanted to go to the mall where they were supposed to have Halloween activities, I thought Al would fall asleep in the carm but he stayed wide awake, so we went to the Provo Towne Centre. They weren't supposed to start the trick-or-treating until 5, but they had small activities like coloring and candies and stuff. But it wasn't too exciting, so we went and played at the playground for a minute. I was gonna head home around 4:30 so Al could get at least an hour of sleep before heading out again with Yumi, but I also noticed that some of the stores had already started handing out candy. So we went around to several stores and stayed there until 5. Alden did a really good job, walking up to the store person and saying, "trick-or-treat!" he was really getting into it, and he kept saying, "more candy!"

After we got ready, Yumi came over with her sister and mom (they go to the Korean ward, so they didn't really have a neiborhood to go to), so we went and visited the families in our ward. Yumi got a little scared of some of the decorations, but Al kept saying, "Halloween not scared!" he really enjoyed going out with Yumi, and Ellie even got some candy! (although we had to go through and take about half of the candy out and send them off with Joe to work the next day since they had peanut warnings).

It was a good Halloween, and I had fun getting the costumes ready. I don't know what next year will bring yet, but I think i'll have fun again on a new project!

Jamie's Football Game

Yesterday, we went to see Jamie's football game. We were actually planning to go last week, but Alden got sick and was throwing up, so we couldn't make it. For lunch, we met up with our friends Moa and Yohan at 장수장 (Korean restaurant in Salt Lake) for lunch. The food was soooooo good (Joe said it was the best Korean food he'd had since Korea), and everyone, including Al and even Ellie, ate a LOT.

Then we dropped by the distribution center and the DI in Bountiful. After that, we picked up Joe's mom and drove up to Ogden. We got there close to the end of first quarter. Jamie was playing on the special team, so we didn't get to see him play that much, but I was able to take some close-up pictures of Jamie using my super 250mm lens.

Ellie and Alden were being so good, and they were clapping and cheering with us. :) Mom bought us ICEEs, and that got Alden through the first half of the game. During half time, we met up with Joe's dad, Faye, and Jon, who were sitting across the field in the family section (we had general admissions so we couldn't sit with them). Alden discovered the track field and the shotput field, and he was running around and making sand (rock) castles. He got really bored during the second half, so Joe took him down back to the shotput field. He ran and ran and ran around with new friends he made (other kids who didn't really care for football but were there because of their parents. lol), and he even tried long jumping with big kids.

Weber State ended up losing, but we had a fun time, and we were glad that we could make it out to Jamie's game. :D

Al and I making a sand castle. [I made my shirt last week (Joe's as well) by cutting up white fabric and hot gluing it to the shirt. I used iron-on for Alden's shirt.] As we were leaving to go to the bathroom, he kept telling Joe, "Don't break the mountain! Don't break the mountain!"

Ellie visiting with Dad and Faye

Ellie fell asleep on Joe's shoulders... lol. As we headed back to our seats, everyone stared, pointed, and said, "Look. Aw... The baby's asleep..."

Happy Birthday Alden!

Alden is now "Kree."  We had a week-long celebration, and I'm sure he enjoyed being able to say that it's HIS birthday. (He gets to blow out candles on other people's birthdays. lol)  His birthday was on a Monday this year, so we decided to have separate parties up in Bountiful and down in Provo so people wouldn't have to travel long distances. On Saturday, while Joe went to the priesthood session, the kids and I hung out with Joe's mom. We went to McDonald's to celebrate then went to Walmart. We bought some clothes for the kids and some cupcakes and a birthday cake. After Joe got back, we lit some candles on the transformers cupcakes (and of course, he picked out yellow candles to blow out).

He picked out YELLOW candles to blow out

Ellie was sad it wasn't her birthday

Blowing out candles..

Oops.. He got too close and almost burned off his eyebrows!

Yummy icing!

On Sunday, we went to Joe's grandparents' to watch the morning session with them. We spent some time together having lunch and looking through old mission pictures, then went over to Joe's dad's house to watch the afternoon session. Joe and I both fell asleep during the session, and Dad, Faye, and Jon watched the kids for us (thank you!). Jamie and Sam, and Tom, Laura, and Sophie, and grandma and grandpa came over later so we could celebrate Jamie's engagement and Al's birthday. We watched the video of Jamie's engagement, and sang Happy Birthday to Al. This time, we had a bigger transformers cake and Joe almost dropped it on my lap trying to angle it better for a picture!! Dad and Faye got Alden a "monkey pajamas (Alden asked for it)" and Tom and Laura got Al a cool cape and a mask with an "A" sewn on the back. :)  Sophie and Al played very nicely and enjoyed their time together as always!

Monday was just like any other day. Even though it was Al's birthday, we didn't really do anything special since his party was on Saturday. Well, he seemed like he was started to get sick, so I did spoil him by letting him eat whatever he wanted (consisted of juice, crackers, plain macaroni noodles, and popsicles) and played the wii together. In fact, he got to play as much game as he wanted the whole week because he really was sick, and we wanted him to get better by Saturday when we were scheduled to go to the Kangaroo Zoo for his party. He got to play a lot of Super Mario Bros. and he got really really good at it. lol.

Alden got these as a birthday present!

For his birthday, I wanted to try making a red mushroom and 1-up mushroom cupcakes. I had never tried using fondant before, so this was an adventure. I stayed up until 3 in the morning, kneading fondant and adding food coloring to the fondant....

Starting Saturday morning at 9 until about 2 pm, I finished making the cupcakes and made the "star" cookies for the party. I also had a round cake made from left over cake mix, so I made a mario world cake with pipes and a block with coins (Joe's idea). It took a loooooooong time to bake everything, but I think it turned out okay. (And thank goodness, Joe had the energy and will power to do all the clean up after I made all the mess in the kitchen. I don't think I could've done it.)

I made the shirt he is wearing (half of mario overalls)

At 3, we played some super nintendo mario world to celebrate the birthday theme, and then sang a song and blew out candles and opened presents. Then we headed to the Kangaroo Zoo. It's basically a warehouse full of bouncy houses, and the kids (Kelly, Anna, Ben, Alden, & Sophie) just LOVED it. They found this round bouncy house with a mushroom looking thing in the middle and spent almost an hour just jumping on and off the mushroom!

Anyway... All in all, it turned out to be a great birthday, and I think I'm going to try making those sugar cookies again (they tasted pretty good, kinda like those danish cookies you get during the Christmas season). :D

Latest on the Kids

My blog posting has been very scarce lately, and I apologize. I have no excuse but to say that I've been lazy and mostly been on the iPad for my internet needs. It's very inconvenient to post on the iPad, plus I don't have any pictures on there..... :P
Anyway, Ellie has hit her 9 month mark, and Alden is turning 3 pretty soon. It's probably about time I wrote a little about their developments.

Ellie is just a fun-loving baby who laughs easily and loves her brother. She has started to crawl now, and she loves to climb up (or at least attempt to) the slide backwards. She loves to pull herself up, although she cannot crawl yet. She loves to "talk" and will talk back to you if you talk to her. She loves to show affection, and she will stroke Alden's cheeks, and sometimes go to extreme and pull his hair and pinch his face too. She will laugh and whatever and anything that Alden does. She also loves to eat, and always surprises me with eating a very large amount of food (sometimes more than Al, and almost as much as me). Her favorite food is probably plain rice, and she likes it more than bread. She can clap and stick her tongue out, and also smack her lips and click her tongue. She LOVES to dance, and dances to whatever music that's on. She sleeps through the night (almost every night), and will sleep for an average of 12 hours straight. She also loves to get into Alden's things (books and toys), and always wants to do whatever he is doing (sometimes Al gets frustrated, but he's really good with her and patient). She's been putting everything that comes in her way into her mouth, and does a pretty good job of vaccuming the floor (just kidding). She knows how to melt her daddy's heart, and a lot of times Joe is late to work because she stares into his eyes and "talks" to him. (Once she cried as he left the room, and he stayed 15 minutes extra even though he was already late to work.) Yesterday, my mom put her on a little riding thingy that looks like a car, and she was pushing herself forward!

Alden is a very good-natured kid, and yes, he is a kid now! He does so well with his little sister, and very protective and loving. I can even take a potty break and put him in charge of the baby. Whenever the baby cries, he says, "울지마 (don't cry), baby!" and "괜찮아 (It's okay)." And if he sees her putting stuff in her mouth or getting into things she's not supposed to, he pulls her hand out and says, "안돼요 (You can't)." He loves to play with her and entertain her, and a lot of times, he will do things to make her laugh, like jump or run or dance. He also likes to crawl beside her to keep her company (he taught her how to crawl by showing her how and saying, "Like this!"). They love to wrestle. A lot of times, Alden will stare at the baby and all of sudden say, "Baby's cute! And pretty too!" He loves to stroke her cheeks or pinch her cheeks, and also give her kisses and hugs. He is also very good at sharing his toys with her, and brings toys to her when she seems bored or unhappy. (He says, "Here, baby.")
As far as his reading skills go, I haven't had much time to teach him new words, but here and there, he will pick up new words, and recognize it in a book we read before going to bed. He's vocabulary has increased exponentially, both in English and Korean. He is speaking a lot more in Korean now, and that makes me very, very happy. I was worreid that he wouldn't learn Korean, but he says the most random things in Korean and surprise me now and then. We've been enjoying going to the park in the summer, and he has a few favorites (yellow slide, park slide, red slide, tree slide, train slide, etc. - different names for different playgrounds he goes to). He loves to make new friends at the playground and is very social. (He's always asking me to go to the playground to see his "friends.")  He also loves to take baths in my mom's room. Her tub is so big that it fits two floaties, so it's more like swimming. Al and Ellie sit in the floaties and play with toys. :)

Ouch!

We've been really enjoying going to the park lately. Alden LOVES the playgrounds at the parks (we have so many to choose from in Provo/Orem area), and he LOVES meeting new friends there. We went to a new park today (Scera Park in Orem), and 3 minutes into playing (he had gone on the slide like once), he was running and lost his step. As he fell, he flew forward, and where he landed was a metal bar that was supposed to be a step up to another slide. He hit his face really hard on the bar, and he immediately started crying and bleeding. He was bleeding pretty bad, and the face was swelling up quickly, so I told him we needed to go home to put ice on his face. He was crying so hard, but not because it hurt, but because he didn't want to go home... I kept offering him different things like ice cream, ice chips, nintendo, tv, etc., but he just refused to go home. He wanted to play more. Poor thing. I had to just pick him up and force him into the car to bring him back home. I put an ice pack on it for 15 minutes and gave him a popsicle. He had some tylenol, and I think it helped with the pain. I'm so proud of him for not complaining about the pain, not just once. What a trooper. I love my boy!!!

"I love yellow!"

We read a book titled "yellow" before bed. Alden's favorite color is yellow, and he kept saying, "I love yellow!" the book goes like this.

"I wave good-bye to the bus driver. The school bus is yellow.
Grandpa hangs up my raincoat. My raincoat is yellow."

Anyway, you get the point. The next page says,

"I eat a banana. The banana peel is...."

I paused, hoping that Alden would recognize the word, or more, the pattern. He yells out, "Yummy!"

Next page. "We feel the warm sun. The sun is..." "Sunny!"
Next page. "Grandpa feeds the ducklings. The ducklings are..." "Eating!"
Next page. "grandpa counts the chicks. The chicks are..." "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve!"

Ha ha ha. He is just awesome.

Another funny story. We always take our shoes off in the house, and Alden always forgets to take his shoes off when we go inside. Today, we were in the garage and wanted to go to the back patio. He sits down next to the steps and starts taking his sandals off.

"oh, that's okay, you don't have to take them off. We'll just be quick going to the back."
"oh. This way?" (pointing towards the open garage door)
"No, through the house."
"oh... (with a perplexed look on his face) That's funny."

I guess I'm supposed to be consistent about the rules on wearing shoes in the house. Lol. Everyday, I learn something too.

Okay, baby?

Today as we were trying to fall asleep for our nap on my bed, Ellie was in a really good mood and kept squealing and laughing. I was trying really hard to get Alden to fall asleep but he was having a hard time relaxing and falling asleep. Finally, he turned over to Ellie and said, "Baby! We need to quiet. Mommy, Daddy, Alden asll sleeping, okay? That's not loud. We need to quiet, okay?" ha ha ha. I was trying so hard to stop myself from laughing out loud....