Thank you, 2012!

2012 was a very good year for us. We had so many blessings that we were thankful for. Here are some examples.

1. Ellie's burn - Back in February, Ellie pulled an electric skillet full of hot boiling soup over herself. She had 2nd degree burns all over her face and her right arm. We rushed her to the emergency room and made several trips to the doctor's office to have her treated. By the end of the month, she had healed up so nicely that we couldn't even tell that she had burned herself. Now, she only has a small scar on her upper arm. We were so blessed to have her heal up so nicely.

2. Joe's new job - Joe's old work, T-Splines, was bought out by the biggest CAD company, Autodesk. We received a generous severance package, and Joe was able to spend a few months with the family at home, vacationing, studying, working on his resume, and looking for a new job. Joe found the perfect new job at OrangeSoda, and he's been really enjoying his new job.

3. Citizenship - I became a US citizen this year! :D I was sad that I couldn't keep my Korean citizenship, but I'm excited to belong here and have the same status as the rest of the family. :)

4. Elijah Juyoung Rigby - We were so blessed to welcome a new addition to our family, Elijah! We are so happy to have him, and he's such a great baby. He sleeps well, eats well, and plays really well. We love him so much!

5. Our new house - After 4 months of house hunting (long story), we were so blessed to have found our new house! It is the perfect first home for us, and the kids love it! It is just perfect for our little family, and it has the BEST location! We've enjoyed living in it for the past few months, and we are looking forward to the next few years we will be in this house. :D

6. New toys - Joe and I have been very frugal and saving money ever since we've been married. We have been very careful with our money and have been happy with buying second hand things and being without the newest toys. This year, we decided together to treat ourselves to nice trinkets. I got a KitchenAid mixer and a Dyson, and Joe got a Nexus 4, something that's been on our to-buy list for a few years now.

There are always ups and downs in life, and there were definitely many ups for us last year! We are excited to welcome a new year and are enjoying and counting our blessings!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Mozart!

Well, okay... He's not composing or anything yet, but here is Alden, playing and singing Follow the Prophet on the piano. We haven't really been working too hard on practicing lately, so we need to get going and get him to practice more... :P

 

 

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Ellie turned 2! We can't believe she's already two, but also can't believe she's only two.

At her two year check up, her stats were, weight 30% and height 48%. We are glad that she's not as short as we thought she was... She is still afraid of the doctor from when she got burned, but she definitely did better than last time we were at the doctors...

For her birthday, we went to the Kangaroo Zoo to celebrate. We invited our neighbor friend, William, to go with us. The kids had a blast, and we were there for 3.5 hours! I was so tired from chasing after the kids with Eli but they still had enough energy to come home and ask to bake a cake!

After both kids took really short naps, we baked funfetti cupcakes and made icing. The kids helped decorate the top of the cupcakes, and we got to sing and blow candles out when daddy came home for dinner.

Kids licking frosting off the hand mixer

While we waited for the cupcakes to cool, we practiced decorating cupcake tops with watercolor.

Kids showing off their work.

I was afraid Ellie wouldn't know how to blow candles out, but she was a champ!

Next day, we had a small party with some family. I got a mini cake from Smith's since I knew we wouldn't be able to finish a whole cake (and I ran out of time to bake one).

Ellie is really, really verbal. At age two, Al could only say maybe ten words (not including the alphabet). She can say full sentences, and pretty much say anything she wants. We think it is because she has an older brother that she follows around everywhere, but she sure is smart, too. She knows most of the alphabet and is starting to catch on with the numbers. Considering we haven't taught her as intensively as we did with Al (he was studying the alphabet and numbers for hours everyday), she has learned so much without much effort (on our end).

She loves to play with Al, and they love to run around the house playing Zombie tag, hide-and-seek, house, doctor, and whatever else their imagination can conjure up. Right now, they are both playing on nintendo ds, and Ellie does a pretty good job pretending to play (with the stylus).

She is so loving and not at the same time.. She will cuddle up to people (familiy members) and give hugs and kisses, then turn around and hit people... (sigh) We are still trying to teach her to control her temper. Threats of time out works most of the time, and sometimes, she just gets reallys stubborn and would rather go in time out than give up and do what we say. (But she always crys when she goes in time out). Sometimes though she feels really generous enough to share her special "blankie" and gives it up to me or Eli.

She's always loved to dance, but she's starting to get into singing. She follows along the Korean nursery songs we have in the car, and her favorite song is "Tomato," just like how Al liked it when he first started singing.

Here she is, with her first piggytail, all ready for church! And yeah.. the purple hair thing only stayed for like 5 minutes before she pulled it out.

I'm grateful for...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of yummy food and time with family. :D It was so wondeful to have Joe home for several days in a row, and the kids loved having daddy around.

On Thursday, we went over to Joe's dad's house for Thanksgiving Dinner. Joe's grandparents were there too, and Faye made wonderful Turkey. There was mashed potato (it was like the best I've had), green bean casserole, corn, rolls, etc. Joe and I kept eating and munching even after our plates were done.

Grandma adores the baby. :D

After dinner, we hung out, and Tom and Laura and the kids and Jamie and Laura came to visit. The kids, of course, ran downstairs to watch Phineas and Ferb and the men helped dad move his newly refinished cast iron tub into his bathroom.

Grandpa's favorite.

 

Kids watching TV

Discussing how to best transport the tub.

Kids playing

That night, we decided to go over to Walmart. We wanted to check out the $2 movies. Joe stayed home with the kids, and Tom, Laura, Jamie, Sam, and I went over to Walmart. We walked in 10 minutes before 8, and just as we walked in, the people standing next to the pellets started to rip them open. We walked past the crowd of people to look for the DVDs. We all got separated, and I picked up some pajamas for the kids. I couldn't find the $2 DVDs, and I found Sam and Jamie. They said they couldn't find the DVDs either, and we waited for Tom and Laura who had found the DVDs and were digging through the movies. They got really good deals on very nice movies.

Later that night, I was supposed to go shopping with my sister at Walmart, then at the mall. Since I already went to Walmart, they decided not to go shopping. I took my cousin, Dan, to the new outlet mall. We got back home around 2:30am.

On Friday, we had dinner with Yeagi and Jonathan. Since we already had turkey Thursday, I wanted to make Korean food. I made pork neck bone stew, and Yeagi and Jonathan brought all the traditional Thanksgiving food. Her turkey was actually really, really good. She just bought some turkey breast, stuffed it, and it tasted really juicy.

 

After dinner, we put the kids to sleep. Joe and Jonathan played video games (finally finishing up Chrono Trigger), and Yeagi and I took Dan to IKEA, Macy's, then home. After we got home, they played Zelda for a while longer. It was Jonathan's first time playing the game, and he kept yelling out, "I LOVE this game!"

Saturday, Joe took the kids out to the backyard, raked the leaves up, and let them play in them. They had so much fun.

Joe's dad needed help with the tub a little more, so we drove back up to Bountiful. On our way, we drove up to Ogden to pick up my Dyson vacuum. :D After helping dad with his tub, we went up to Joe's grandparents. We helped them set up their Christmas tree, and the kids had so much fun helping grandma putting up ornaments on the tree.

 

That day was also Small Business Saturday (by AmEx). They reimburse $25 if we spend more than $25 at a qualifying small business. We decided to eat at Rib City in American Fork. The ribs tastes so good and tender (they cook it for more than 24 hours). The kids enjoyed the BBQ chicken and fries.

Sunday was another relaxing day, and we had a lot fun. We can't wait for Christmas break, so we can have another fun, relaxing days with Joe at home. :D

Kimchi~~~ (What Koreans say instead of "Cheese~")

So.. I've finally decided to write down the recipe for my Kimchi. Anyway... I may have to go through a lot of revisions to make the recipe understandable, so if you have any suggestions, let me know! :)

Kimchi 김치 - Pickled cabbage

Ingredients
- 4 heads of napa cabbage (배추)
- 6 cups of salt

To get the cabbage ready to make Kimchi, cut each of the napa cabbage into a fourth. Run water over the cabbage so it'll be throughly wet. Fill a large size salt shaker with salt, and salt the cabbage "generously" between each leaf. (My mom just makes a really, really saturated salt water and dips the cabbage in the solution, but I've found my method saves time in the longer run, even though it may initially take longer.)

*Koreans usually have a large size tub, just to make kimchi, but I just use the sink. I just scrub it down before and after, and it makes it easy to prep and rinse the cabbage later.

After all the cabbage quarters have been salted, sprinkle more salt over all the cabbages (be very, very generous - I used about 6 cups of salt total for 4 heads of cabbage). Then fill the tub (or the sink) with water so that the cabbage will be submerged under salt water.

* Here, I used a plate and a bowl full of water to make the cabbage stay under the water.

Leave the cabbage in the salt for 3-4 hours, rotating the top and bottom layer half way. When you think the cabbage is ready, pick out a small size leaf (3-4 inch long) and test it (make sure to throughly rinse it under running water). When the leaf bends easily and you can taste a little bit of salt (you don't want it too salty), it is ready. Rinse the cabbage a couple times and squeeze most of the water out.

Kakdugi (깍두기) - Pickled radish

Ingredients
- 4 Korean radishes (무)
- 1/2 cup salt

To get the radish ready for Kakdugi, peel and wash the radish and dice it into bite size.

 

The easiest way is to cut it into 1-inch disks.

Cut the disk into 1-inch chunks, then slice it (1/4 inch thick).

Sprinkle the radish bits with salt and mix.

After half an hour (30 minutes - radish doesn't take long at all. Be careful not to leave it too long), rince it a couple times under cold running water.


Kimchi Sauce

Ingredients
- 2 cups of chopped Korean radish (half a head)
- 1 medium or 1/2 large onion
- 1/4 cup of minced garlic (or 12-15 cloves)
- 1 cup of fish sauce
- 1/4 cup of sweet rice flour
- 2 tablespoon sugar
- 1 1/2 cup of chopped green onions
- 4-5 cups of hot pepper powder (고추가루)

Prepare the radish by chopping it very thinly or using a slicer.

 

 

 

Blend the onion (add the garlic if you are using the garlic cloves).

 

In a small pot, mix 1/4 cup of sweet rice flour with 1 1/2 cup cold water.

Heat up the mixture over medium heat, strring occasionally.

*As the mixture heats up, you will start to see little chunks. When this starts to happen, keep mixing, until the whole thing turns into a glob of glue...

In a big metal bowl (or any bowl you don't mind getting stained), mix the radish, onion juice, garlic, sweet rice glue, chopped green onions, fish sauce, sugar, and the hot pepper powder.

 

 

 

* My mom says this is the best tasting fish sauce that she could find in Utah (and one of the most expensive). I haven't tested any other brands, but I'm sure they'll work too.

 

 

 

* If the sauce looks too dry or too thick, you can add 1/2 cup of water.

 

 

* The sauce is ready!

 

Final Steps

For Kakdugi, mix the sauce with the pickled radish.

 

For Kimchi, apply the sauce to the pickled napa cabbage, and make sure to get each and every single leaf (this is why it takes forever to make kimchi, but it's well worth it).

Enjoy! and let me know how it went if you do try my recipe. :)

* Make sure to wear gloves when handling the sauce. It will stain your skin and clothes.