Testimonies

Yesterday during sacrament, Alden kept asking what was next. We had a lot of sustainings and a baby blessing, so I guess he was just wondering when it was going to be over...

He asked the question again when the young men were going around with the water, so I told him that after that, people were going to go up and bear their testimonies, talk about how much they love Jesus, etc. Just for fun, I asked Al if he would like to do that too, and to my surprise, he said yes!

I kept asking him, over and over, just to make sure that he wasn't just saying yes. I wanted to make sure that he understood what he was about to do, standing in front of all the people and speaking into the microphone. He was pretty sure he wanted to go up, so we discussed what he would say. After deciding what to say, I asked Ellie if she would want to come with us too because I was pretty sure she would freak out if I went up with Al and left her there. She said she wanted to come too!

Well, I was getting more nervous than the kids because I knew I would have to bear my testimony too if I went up there with them, and I hadn't done that in a long, long time... But worrying about the kids and trying to talk to Al (maybe secretly hoping he'd change his mind), I didn't have much time to think about what to say.

Anyway, we went up there, and Al's testimony went something like this.
"I love Heavenly Father. I love Jesus. I love my family. When I get scared, I can say a prayer and not be scared. And I have a picture of Jesus in my room to help me not get scared. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Ellie's testimony was, "I love Jesus."

Then it was my turn, and I didn't know what to say, so I said something like, it's great to have kids old enough to want to bear their testimonies so I have to too. Anyway, after I came back down, I realized it wasn't much of a testimony. I remember, a few years ago, an apostle (I don't remember who it was) recommended sharing our testimonies with our closest people, our families, and not just to the ward members when convenient, on a fast Sunday. So I would like to share some thoughts here, things that I didn't get to share yesterday.

When President Monson announced that the women can now go on missions at age 19, Joe and I joked about how I could've gone on a mission too. I had always thought about going on a mission, but had not really set specific plans for it. I had medical school in the future, but both my brother and sister had served, so I thought it might be good to go. When I shared the thought with Joe (we were dating at the moment), he said something to the effect of not being able to wait for me. (He says he was joking now, but I'm sure he meant it...) I stayed, got married, and had kids.

Sometimes, I think it would've been wonderful to go, build my testimony, teach people, etc. but now I know that that wasn't for me. I'm grateful to have married this wonderful guy, I am grateful that I was able to finish my education, and most of all, I'm grateful to have these wonderful children who are such great examples to ME and inspire me to become better. My life couldn't have turned out better, and I love where we are in our lives now. Joe and I have no worries, and we are so blessed to have a house, a job, and a wonderful family.

I am grateful to have this true gospel in my life and to be able to be with my wonderful family for eternity. People say things like, "I would give anything to be with my loved ones." Well, I know what I've got to do to accomplish that, so I'm going to keep it up and be the best I can. Thank you for all of your great examples to me! I love you all!

Alden's Birthday Party

I consider birthdays to be pretty important. I want to make the person feel special, and If anything, it's a good excuse to plan a party. :) If you knew in college when I was single, you would know how much I love parties. I would always host potluck parties, movie nights, activities like haunted houses or laser tag. Anyway, now that I have kids, I spend most party planning focused on their birthday parties.

Joe always complains, "I only got like once birthday party growing up, so why should the kids get a party every year?" Well, I remember a lot of parties that happened on my birthday, and they are pretty good memories. I would like to do the same for my kids.

Last year for Al's birthday, we had a Mario theme. I stayed up all night making mushroom cupcakes and Mario cake and star shaped cookies. Al had a Mario shirt (I sewed on blue fabric in the shape of overalls on a red shirt) with a 3 sewed on the front, and we went to the Kangaroo Zoo after the party at home. 

This year, he said he wanted an Oreo ice cream cake. I called around Coldstone, Dairy Queen, and Baskin Robbins to see how much they were, and the cheapest on was $25 and was too small to feed everyone that would be coming to the party. I found one at Walmart for $15, and Joe said that was still too expensive. He said, "With that money, we could buy a whole tub size ice cream. Why don't we just put candles in the tub of ice cream?" 

With that, I had an idea of making an Oreo ice cream cake, relatively easily. I decided to make several ice cream cupcakes, and arrange them into a shape of a cake. I got some whipped cream, Oreos, and ice cream. All of that ended up costing about $15, but we had lots of left over cookies and ice cream, so I guess we can't complain... 

For Al's party, we decided to go to Cornbelly's. We were planning a trip there with Sophie and her family anyway, so we invited everyone else in the family to come with us. Joe's dad, Faye, John, Tom and Laura and their kids, and Jamie and Sam were all able to make it. The kids were sooooo excited about it, that was all Al could talk about for a few days. He even made his own "corn maze" during dinner one night!

Sophie and Al were so excited to lead the company. They ran up ahead and kept saying, "I think it's this way... We came from there so we have to go this way... This way is blocked!"

Half way though, however, I heard Al say, "I don't like this anymore. Let's go back." ha ha. Thank goodness we didn't have to back track. We finished the maze in just under an hour, and considering we had four year olds lead us, I think we did pretty well...

After the maze, we went around to play with other attractions they had, and the kids had a blast, and the adults had fun watching them (and some adults also enjoyed jumping on the jumping pillow...). 

We came home for pizza and ice cream, and before I knew it, the boys (the adult boys) had pulled out the Nintendo 64. I guess that was expected because Jonathan Broadwell, Jonathan Rigby, and Tom could not stop talking about games all night... We started a Golden Eye tournament, and the night turned into a party for the adults (the kids had fun watching but it was way past their bYed time and they were all so tired). 

Everyone had turns playing, and the most exciting game has got to be the one between Joe's dad and my sister Yeagi. Neither of them had played the game before, and they don't usually play games anyway, so it was a really close game. They picked it up pretty quickly but at about the same pace, so everyone in the room was so nervous watching them try to kill each other. It finally came down to the last kill (4:4), and Yeagi ended up winning (Jonathan B was so proud of his wife, he was jumping up and down). 

Alden really enjoyed the party, and he is still excited about his real birthday and turning 4 years old. Today, we went to Jump On It for the last time (at least for free) since he will need to pay starting tomorrow. Al and Ellie had so much fun, and they went to sleep excited about another fun day tomorrow. Everyone is starting to come down with something, so hopefully he doesn't feel miserable tomorrow.

Alden's turning 4!

Alden is turning 4 this week! It's crazy how fast time has gone by. Joe and I still can't believe we have three kids and our oldest is 4 now. We've been so blessed to have such nice kids, and Alden is awesome. We couldn't hope for anymore.

Alden is still pretty short and small for his age, but that doesn't mean he's behind in anything. He can jump and run and play well with other bigger kids at the playground, and he sometimes leads bigger kids in playing games like tag or hide-and-seek. He is very friendly and will go up to other kids at the playground and ask, "Do you want to be friends?"

He is a really good brother to his little sister and brother. He looks out for Ellie and is so nice when playing with her (most of the time). He will share toys with her and take turns. When Ellie wakes up in the morning, he will go get her since she can't open the door on her own (she's now in a toddler bed. She she was in the crib, Al would take toys to her cuz he couldn't get her out). Sometimes he takes advantage of her and give her smaller portions of food or less turns, but most of the times, they play really well. He will play and try to get Ellie involved so she can have fun too. He loves Eli too, and is always asking to give him kisses and hugs. We have to hold him back a lot of times because he will try to kiss or touch Eli when he's asleep...

Al's been reading like crazy and can read at 1st grade level. We like to go to the library and pick out new books for him to read in the easy reader section. He's read so many books this last summer, and he reads probably 4-5 new books every week. His favorite books are the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Williams. Even though they are pretty easy for him now, he still enjoys reading them and have read each book a dozen times. He is also learning math. He can do simple addition and subtraction that is less than 20. He can do 6 + 10, 5 - 2, etc. in his head and will say, "Let's do it in our heads!" He can also count by 5 (5, 10, 15, 20, etc.). The biggest number he know how to say is "One hundred million three thousand hundred!" and he will say things like, "I love Eli one hundred million three thousand hundred!"

He loves music and loves to play the piano. He can play the Popcorn Popping on the piano, and we just started learning Follow the Prophet. Since we don't have a real piano, we are borrowing Jonathan Broadwell's electronic keyboard. Al loves to turn on the music (mostly classical) on the keyboard and dance to the music. He recognizes a lot of the classical music because they are on the tv show, Little Einsteins When he recognizes the music, he will shout, "Little Einsteins!" and jump and dance saying, "Look at my cool moves!"

Just last week, Alden started praying all by humself. It's mostly the same prayer every time, but he does a pretty good job covering the basics. Whenever we ask for a volunteer for the prayer, Al and Ellie both shout out, "Me! Me!" so we have to have them do rock, paper, scissors to decide who gets to pray. When we go to church, he likes to sing along the hymn now because he can read the lyrics. When he comes across a question he can't answer (like "why do we have two arms?"), he answers, "That's because Heavenly Father made it that way."

We can't believe how fast time flies. Before we know it, he'll be going to school!

양념치킨 Sweet & Spicy Chicken

During college, I used to make this Korean sweet and spicy chicken all the time. I guess I still do too (it's Joe's favorite), and since college, I have made some changes and improvements to the recipe. I've shared the recipe with many friends, and I wanted to share the new and updated recipe with everyone.

I wanted to apologize in advance for the horrible pictures.. Bad lighting in the kitchen, and I was experimenting with some settings on my camera... I'll replace the pictures next time I make the chicken again.

Ingredients:
1 pack - Bonless Skinless Chicken Thigh (mine was 2.5 lbs)
1 Tsp - salt
1/2 Tsp - pepper
2 Tsp - sesame oil
1 Tsp - garlic powder
1 Tsp - curry powder or cumin
1/2 cup - milk
1 Large Egg
1 tsp - baking soda
1/2 tsp - baking powder
4 cups - flour
4 cups - frying oil

Sauce
1 cup - light corn syrup
1/4 cup - Korean hot pepper paste
1/4 cup - ketchup

Step 1

Cut the chicken into bite size pieces. I've found that boneless skinless thigh works the best. Bnls skls breast is too dry, and drnsticks are tricky to fry. Unless you have a deep fryer (I don't), I don't recommend using drumsticks or whole chicken. Plus it takes much less time to just use bnls skls thigh.

Step 2

Season the meat with salt & pepper, garlic powder, sesame oil, curry powder, and milk.

Step 3

In a small bowl, mix the egg with baking soda and baking powder, then mix this in with the chicken.

Step 4

Shake the chicken pieces from excess liquid and put them one batch at a time in a large bowl with flour. Cover the chicken with flour.

Step 5

Prepare the fryling oil. Set the heat at Medium High. Drop a little bit of flour or a small piece of chicken to see if the oil is ready. The oil is ready when the flour mixture sizzles and floats up right away.

Step 6

Put the chicken in the oil once piece at a time, after shaking the excess flour off. Take them out when the chicken turns light golden brown. (The chicken will darken more as it cools so you have to take them out a little early).

Step 7

When all frying is done, prepare the sauce in a separate pan (use a wok or a pot so you can mix easily later). Heat the corn syrup in medium-high heat and add the hot pepper paste and the ketchup. Mix throughly (it'll mix better as it heats up) and let is simmer a little on low heat. If you prefer a really sweet and thick sauce, simmer for a long time, but if you just want a light coat of sauce on the chicken, take it off the heat early and mix in the chicken before it cools down.

Step 8

Coat the chicken with the sauce and enjoy!

Try the recipe and let me know how it went!

"I love you, baby!"

Elijah is referred to as the "baby" in the family. Ellie used to be called the baby a long time ago, and I'm not sure exactly when we stopped calling her the baby, probably only a couple months before Elijah was born... Everyday, Al and Ellie shower Eli with hugs and kisses, to the point that I have to restrain them and stop them from suffocating the baby. They just LOVE their little baby brother and can't get enough of him.

 

 

 

 

Scripture study

We read the scripture stories with pictures for our family scripture study before going to bed. We have the Book of Mormon Stories and the Old Testament Stories. Ellie loves to look at the pictures and pretend to read it, or she points out things in the pictures. For example, she would point at a sick person or people fighting and say, "아야 아야 (Ouch)." or pictures of food or fruit (the tree of life) and say, "eat, eat." Or point out fire and say, "아뜨 아뜨 (hot, hot)."

Alden's gotten really good at reading, and he can read most of the stories without any help (occasionally he needs help with reading words like shadrach meshach and abednego). A lot of times, he has favorite stories he likes to read repeatedly, and lately, it's been the story of David and Goliath. 

It's really wonderful to read stories from the scriptures and have the kids become familiar with them, but sometimes it gets really hard to explain things, especially when Al asks questions that I don't exactly know how to answer.

Alden: (dramatically) Goliath came at David to fight. Then David put a stone in his sling and threw the stone! ... Why did he throw the stone?

YY: So he can hit Goliath.

Alden: But hitting is not very nice.

YY: Yeah. But Goliath is a very bad guy. (Then I thought hitting shouldn't be permitted even if it's at a bad guy.) Well, hitting is bad but during a war, sometimes it's okay to hit bad guys.

Alden: The stone hit Goliath in the head. Goliath fell to the ground! David took Goliath's sword and CUT OFF HIS HEAD!!! Why did he do that?

YY: Um... So he can ... Um... Well, that way, Goliath can hurt REALLY bad and not be bad anymore. Heavenly Father said it was okay.

Anyway... It goes on like that during many nights, and sometimes I just pretend I didn't hear the question. Oops... Hopefully he can grow up and understand better the way Heavenly Father works...

Here we go...

I have had a horrible experience with trying to post from the iPad, so I've stopped posting altogether since it's very inconvenient to have to get on the laptop when I've got an iPad... Well, joe had an idea of just having me write on the notepad or in an email then just getting on the laptop for a few minutes to just post what I've written. So here it is...

I am not even sure where to begin... I guess I should update on Elijah's 2 month check up.

Numbers first... His weight and height are in the 89-95th percentile, and head circumference is in the 70th percentile. He eats pretty well, considering I don't produce enough milk. Supplementing with formula had been working okay, and he takes warm, cold, lukewarm milk all very well. He eats about every two to three hours, but that has been getting longer in the last few days. Longest he's gone is 6 hours so far, and I'm hoping that he'll start sleeping through the night pretty soon (he wakes up once anytime between 2-4 now).

He loves attention, and he smiles when we make faces at him. He's also cooing a lot. He only poops only once a day, and for a newborn baby, we are glad to only have to change a dirty diaper once a day. He's a pretty calm baby, and only cries when he's hungry, tired, or has a wet diaper. He puts up so much with his older siblings always wanting to hug and kiss him. 

We think he looks a lot like Joe (or any of the Rigby boys when they we babies), but we can definitely see the family resemblance between all three kids.

I will try to keep the blog going more now. Maybe try to catch up on what's been going on while not getting any further behind...