A Day in the Life of Isabelle

I figured her day had to be more exciting than mine.  It turns out it was!  I don't really know what time Isabelle woke up, because she colored for a while before she came in and woke us up at about 8:30!



Here we are watching cartoons. 
Sadly most days in our house start out this way.
Not Sundays of course, we are late enough for church without TV.

 

After the TV wore off we thought we'd make some banana bread.

First peel the bananas like so...

Then make sure you get all of the dough off the mixer.

You better get a sample, all great chefs do.
 I can't stand banana bread dough, but Isabelle loves it.
Cookie dough, cake batter and brownie dough on the other hand - YUM! 
Have no fears if you eat food from my house, that spatuala did not touch the food again!



Finished product - just perfect.

Now its time for school.
She got 100% on her spelling test today.
cats, pigs, beds, bugs, tops, and best!

Time for some food.
Too bad the only thing she would eat was kimchi.

Piano practice went great.

She also had her piano class this morning.

Isabelle is so excited for her performance next month!

All work and no play make Isabelle a cranky girl.

Play away :)

Off to TKD. 

She loves it when she gets to be the leader.

I wonder where she gets that from???

But seriously, her TKD instructor is sooo good looking.

I bet he has a totally awesome wife back at home!

Good form kiddo! 

Clean up, clean up, everybody clean up.

Ahhhhh.  Thats much better!

Reading is becoming a daily habit.

I am so glad she has started enjoying it.

Finally, eating her banana bread and watching a bedtime movie.

She is a great big sister, most kids would freak out if their little brother was stealing their snack.

Throw in about 20 potty breaks, carrying her brother around, chasing the cats,

and visiting with Grandma...I don't know about Isabelle,

 but I am ready for bed!

If we didn't have Isabelle in our lives it would be

pretty boring around here!

BOOK REVIEW: THE HORSE AND HIS BOY

The Horse and His Boy
Written by C.S. Lewis
Number 3 of 7 in the Narnia Series
Number of pages: 224
Number of stars I'm giving: 4

I loved this book.  It was a very quick and fun read.  If you don't have any children interrupting you every ten minutes it will only take one day to read.  If you have children but ignore them from time to time it will take two days to read.  If you have children and are a perfect mom it will probably take you 3 days to read.  In my case it took two days to read.
The reasons I didn't give this book 5 stars was because I didn't feel like it was as much of a pull between good and evil like "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" was; also it didn't make me want to be a better person like "Les Miserables" does. 
In this book you fall in love with the little hero Shasta. All of the trials he has to go thru in life make your heart strings pull for him.  You will laugh, be excited, and if you are a baby like me you will probably cry just a little too.  My favorite part is when Shasta is speaking to Aslan.  When you understand the symbolism there I don't know how you could not cry.  The fact that the Savior is there for us whenever we need Him, even if we don't realize it, is an amazing gift.  Also I loved the way this book shows the Saviors mercy and His justice.  It also teaches us that we should always choose to be merciful.
I can't wait for a couple more years when Isabelle and I can read it again together.  Prince Caspian: Here I come!

Haircut for William

Here's William after his haircut. 

 Please note the alligator tear by his eye that may still be there. 

People say that a picture says a thousand words,

but I think a tear can too.

Today was NOT the day I should have given him a haircut. 

My entire day has just been "off".  Not bad per say, just "off".

And poor little Liam has a fever and is trying to finish the rest of his teething.  

I could no longer stand the hair in his eyes or the fact that I could do a cute ponytail in back if I really wanted too.  In fact yesterday Isabelle suggested we put a bow in his hair and today Soungsik suggested the same thing.  That was it, I had to at least do a little trim on him.  Thats really all he got, but calling it "just a trim" does not give me the justice I deserve.  Now I am not a hairstylist, nor have I ever claimed to be.  Of course I have never been accused of it either, I would probably have to do something cute with my hair every once in a while for that to happen. 

Anyways, back on track...I am pretty sure that cutting William's hair is akin to, I don't know shaving an angry cat.  Which by the way I have done, and I know first hand is not easy.  He was not thrilled at all with my idea, and refused to hold still for even a minute.  Also just as a side note, hair sticks to tears really, really well.  We survived it and I even forced him to get his fingernails trimmed afterwards. He really hated that idea too.  I am not saying its the best haircut, heck I am not even saying its a good haircut, but we both survived and he is taking a recovery nap at this very moment.

I guess I could splurge 20 bucks on a haircut for him but that just seems crazy to me for his age.  Also why would I pay someone to have that amazing bonding experience when I can do it all over again next time?

It helps ALOT to have a beautiful assistant who can dance around the chair and sing while holding the comb you need. 

Magicians have the right idea!

BOOK REVIEW: THE HOST

The Host written by Stephanie Meyer
Number of pages: 619
Number of pages it should have been: 325
Number of stars I am giving it: 2

I was a little late getting on the "Host" bandwagon.  The reason for that is I have started this book about 5 times.  Everytime I just couldn't get into it.  This time I just made myself a firm committment that I would finish it, and finish it fast so that I could say I had. The concept behind this book is pretty cool, and I wanted to like it.  Many of my friends loved it, so maybe I am the weird one. There are two reasons I am giving it 2 stars instead of 1.  The first reason is that it does start to get interesting in the last 25% of the book which helped me to finish it, and the other reason it gets 2 stars is because it does have a "happy" ending.
The book starts out in a very confusing way where you don't even know who is talking.  It stays this way for at least a hundred pages.  It also starts out very BORING.  She goes over and over and over the same emotions.  And just when you think your eyes will fall out from boredom she goes over and over and over the same emotions AGAIN.  Just when you are about to give up something actually starts to happen.  Don't get your hopes up though.  With a change of scenery in the book the writer can now go over and over and over and over what the scenery looks like.  I get it already its a cave, the dirt is purple, its a cave, its dark, of course its dark, ITS A CAVE! And then she talks about the food they eat over and over and over again.  How many times does a person need bread explained to them?  I have seen bread, I have even eaten bread myself so I don't need it explained 400 times.  The amount of time she spends on food, people eating food, people thinking about food, people preparing food, people getting food, people getting food for other people, people getting drinks, people thinking about getting drinks...its amazing.
The weirdest thing in the book is the relationship between Jared and Melanie. They are suppossed to have this beyond amazing relationship, but in the whole book it isn't believable and just comes across as really strange and based out of desperation and lust.  I couldn't have cared one way or the other if their relationship lasted. The other relationship between Wanda and Ian is much more believabe and seems to be based on more than just lust, so of course this relationship takes on less importance.
I don't like that she portrays the human race as being almost competely hate filled and selfish.  The last 25% of the book, while more enjoyable, was filled with more holes than a block of swiss cheese. 
So there are only about 25 humans left and they only managed to get 1 gun?  Really, I guess my husband or brothers didn't make it then.  They were suppossed to be fanatical survivalists, 1 gun, I don't think so.
Their plan to abduct 1 alien at a time and change them back to humans...hows that going to work when there are 3 billion people on Earth?  And of course they can't kill the aliens, they have to ship them off to space so that there is no violence.  The only problem with that is they are using the aliens to ship the other aliens back, how are the shipper aliens going to get back?  At some point aren't the aliens going to fight back seeing as they are much more advanced?  Also a large percentage of the people that had their minds taken over were small children and infants.  After you take the alien controlling their brain out what memories will they have exactly?  I could go on and on and on...just not as long as Stephanie Meyers can.
I really enjoyed the Twilight series, not that they were great books, they were simply enjoyable.  I would give the Twilight series 3 stars.  Much more worth your time.  Will I ever read The Host again? No.  Will I ever go to a movie made after The Host? No.  Do I hope Stephanie Meyers writes another book?  I really coudn't care.  Sorry for the negative review. My blog, my opinion.  I really feel cheated out of the last 3 days of my life :)

My Roller Coaster Moment.

I've got  a bad feeling in my stomach.  There's nothing I can do about it now.  I have never enjoyed roller coasters or anything else that takes the control away from me.  But that is the exact feeling I have right now.  Only 6 Sundays left in the year and there's nothing you can do about it!  Not 6 Sundays 'till Christmas, 6 Sundays left in 2010.
In a moment of desperation, after my pirmary class was finished, I thought to myself  "How many more weeks do I have my little dears for?"  I teach Isabelle's CTR 4 class, and with the exception of a couple of short breaks have taught her since she 1st went into nursery.  Today we had our Primary program, and all of our kids did great...until of course the program was over and we got back into actual primary.  Whew, there were literally kids bouncing off the walls, a couple of them were in our class. 1 of them was 15 month old William but after about 30 minutes with him I surrendered and took him into Soungsik's class, I didn't say anything, why would you in a prisoner exchange?  I just dropped him off and ran out the door as fast as I could, before Soungsik could realize what I was doing do him. 
As far as primary goes I don't think I have seen anything like it before.  I know I wasn't alone in my feelings, because 1 person even broke down crying because she had worked so hard on her awesome sharing time and the kids were well...naughty.  The naughtiness didn't decrease when we took our 7 kids and crammed them into a small room.  Fortunantly by this point my expectations of getting a proper lesson in had completely flown out the window.  I think that happened when we opened the window to let in the perfect fall breeze.  We put the chairs away and took off our shoes.  My plan was to read stories about service to them while having a cookie party.  Luckily for the kids I remembered my huge bag of cookies.  Unluckily for me, I forgot most of my lesson at home.  With the help of a water break, head shoulders knees and toes, do as I'm doing, and my amazingly patient partner (Angie Geigle) we survived the day.  Isabelle almost didn't make it as she had a complete breakdown and began sobbing for no reason about 10 minutes before class was over.  I asked her what was wrong she said "I don't know".  I think it was a shared feeling for many. Those are the events that occured to get me thinking about the number of Sundays left in the year.
Now that I have had a hearty lunch and a 2 hour nap I have a much better outlook. I love the kids in my primary class it has been amazing watching them turn from little people learning to walk, to big kids who can read, have humor, show great love, and have understanding in complex life lessons. It is very bitter sweet when I think I may be losing my "litte dears" in just 6 weeks.
However, I am still feeling very overwhelmed like I have just been enjoying the roller coaster ride, not realizing that we have been steadily climbing a large hill and I now sit at the front of the coaster on top of the biggest hill.  The view of the fall leaves and the clear sky might be nice, but it will inevitaby come to an end.  We have Thanksgiving, Christamas, New Years and all that goes along with them rushing to our sides.  It would help if I was at all prepared, but this year preparation just hasn't happened yet, and may not happen.  I chose to get on the ride, and I have enjoyed the twists and turns so far.  I may be screaming for the rest of it, but things are coming now if I want them to or not, if I am prepared or not.  And my instincts tell me that once the year rushes to a close I will step off the roller coaster and shout "That was AWESOME, lets do it again!!!"  And we will!



Cardinal Rules

I probably shouldn't be typing this right now as it is midnight and we just finished game night - my brain is mush.  Oh well, I will give it a shot!

I have had a few cardinal rules since I was a kid such as: never eat yellow snow, always examine your zipper, don't talk to strangers - unless they are family, don't let your teacher catch you with gum, never give in when your mom is trying to make you eat tomatoes...

Of course I added a few rules when I was a teenager like:  don't get caught when speeding or skipping class (I said rules not morals), don't forget to check for your keys when getting out of the car, when the gasoline thingy points to E - it means it, don't do doughnuts in a church parking lot while speeding and skipping class (or your mom will tow your car and scare the daylights out of you by telling you police impounded it), don't get too serious about 1 boy in high school...

Now that I have gotten just slightly older I have added a few more:  don't make a promise you can't or won't keep, don't make threats you can't or won't keep, don't watch infomercials really late at night, never judge yourself for eating too much chocolate at certain girlie times, also never make any major life decisions at certain girlie times, never give your kids a nap after 5:00 pm,  but one of my biggest is never, never, never ask a woman if she is pregnant unless she is clearly 9 months pregnant with triplets...

That being said I guess rules are made to be broken and I just HAD to ask the tiny framed woman wearing the overly large empire waste shirt if she was pregnant...and of course she wasn't.  Now after having been pregnant 2 times I know that when I apologized and she said it was "okay" that deep down she was trying to decide if she could run me over in the parking lot and get away with it. 

It is one thing if a little child asks you they really don't know any better.  If a man asks you, especially if he has kids you can think that he is a little on the dumb side for about 5 minutes until you realize that, like my husband, he probably means it as some kind of twisted compliment and/or he was totally unaware of the bodily changes during his own wife's pregnancy.  But when a woman who has had children recently asks you, the only recourse is to shoot laser beems from your eyes and melt her brain. 

I am going to go back to sticking to all of my cardinal rules, I have put them there for a reason.  There's a saying that curiosity killed the cat, well I am confident that the stupid, stupid cat was asking a lady if she was pregnant...and you can guess the answer as well as I can!

Soungsik's having an affair???



Now I have seen my husbands affair with my own two eyes.  You never believe it could go this far, I mean at first they just seemed like good friends.  Then one night you wake up and you're all by yourself in your big bed, only to find him in bed with a younger and much prettier woman.  To be truthful it's only Isabelle, but I am positive she is plotting to keep him forever!  I don't blame Soungsik at all, he is no match for the little nine tailed fox! 
We have always let her come sleep in our bed whenever she wants, yep that was the first mistake, letting the fox in the hen house! I can hear other parents scream "Noooo, its horrible to let your children sleep with you, we would never do that!"  To those people I say, one of our main priorities at our house is sleep.  I woud much rather have you come in my bed and sleep than have to hear you whine about whatever at 4 in the morning.  Also looking back on my own childhood sleeping in my parents bed was strictly forbidden, in fact even going into their room at night was forbidden.  If there was a monster under my bed I had to decide "What's worse a huge child eating monster, or waking up my parents"  most of the time I decided that waking up my parents was the much scarier option. I have many child eating mosters I made as friends to this day, I am just holding them in reserve just in case I ever need them!!!
 It has now morphed into Soungsik taking her back to her bed and staying with her, because unlike him I can't sleep with someone punching me in the face and kicking me in the back...oh and the hair tickling my face...I have enough hair on my own to worry about while sleeping.

This occurance used to happen just occassionally now when I put her in bed she tries negotiating.
"Mom when dad comes home will you let him sleep with me?"
"No, get your own husband, here have a stuffed animal."
"Mom, you had him last night, you told me people should always share. How about you get him 1 night and then I get him one night?!?"
"Sure, you had him last night so he can stay with me tonight!"
"Or maybe I can have him two nights and then you can have him two nights?  Then I can have him tonight?"
"No, go to bed."
"Okay, okay, okay.  How about this...you can sleep with my husband when I get one?"
Yeah thats an offer I turned down.  My philisophy used to be "Never negotiate with terrorists or 2 year olds", I think I need to update that to "never negotiate with terrorists, 2, 3, 4, or 5 year olds".  I wonder at what age negotiations will become a viable option?

Don't get me wrong, I am actually enjoying my husbands affair.  It has some major benefits.  I can understand now why Lucy and Ricky slept in different beds - even though they were small!  I love sleeping in the middle of my king bed with lots and lots of blankets that no one is trying to pull off of me.  There's the fact that I get an extra pillow, but the BEST part is that when Isabelle wakes up early in the morning, guess which parent she wakes up with her?  Ka Ching!  And just like that I get an extra half an hour to hour of uninterrupted sleep alone in my king bed.  Eat your hearts out mommies, you may want to think about an affair as an option for your husband too!

A itte probem

The "L" key on my aptop doesn't ike to work.  Its not that it never works, it stil works a good 30% of the time.  Just enough that if I don't proof read everything everyone I email or tak to on facebook thinks that I don't know how to spell.  I know perfecty wel that its most ikely due to some sort of food debry stuck down in there.  And you probably won't beieve me, but I am pretty sure that debree is due to one of the 2 ittle cracker monsters that roam my house.  It is true that many things change when you have kids.  You can forget your movie night out twice a week, eating now consists of fine dining at chick-fi-et, my wardrobe is shot to heck but my kids ook ike rockstars, and now I have even given up the precious "L" on my aptop.  

It turns out that blessings come in smal packages covered in cracker dust.  If ony I coud get my bessings to stay in one part of the house I woud have it made!  Don't misunderstand, I woudn't trade my itte cracker monsters for al of the "L"s in the world.

*Any misspelled words using the letter L were probably intentional...any other misspelled words I bame on the Santa Anna's (if they are still around).*

Fun in the fall leaves

This was Sunday November 7th.  I think it may be one of the last beautiful days we get this year!  As a matter of fact it is snowing as I type. We went with Camille and her family to see if we could get some cute pics. She did all of our family pictures and then I snapped some of the kids. Soungsik was patiently dragged along with my girlie idea - sheesh pictures! William just wanted to run around everywhere and Isabelle wanted me to take about 5,000 pictures of her. I hope her bubble doesn't burst too much when I tell her I won't allow her to be a model later.

Just stuff that we've been up to...

This was Halloween 2010.  It was also the day after Jenny had a new baby

 and the same day mom and dad were moving back.

Needless to say the boys had their hands full of boxes and Camille and I had our hands full of kids.

I am most certainly not going to be one of those amazing moms with 11 kids. 

I would end up in an institution within 2 weeks.

It was also freezing cold so we went trick or treating to only 5 houses and then told the kids if they wanted to go home we would load up their baskets.  Strangely enough the kids thought that idea was awesome! 

We wanted to make sure they had enough sugar intake for the day so Camille made spider cupcakes.  You don't want to rely on Halloween candy alone to get your needed sugar supply!

Here Isabelle is at her gymnastics class.  With her instructor, Mrs. Gloria, a cat, mermaid and a witch.

It was very entertaining watching them try to do cartwheels and balance beam in costume!

Needless to say Isabelle's hat came off before all that started.

Welcoming baby Wesley Steven Cain on October 29, 2010. He was 8 lbs 8 ounces.

Here is is with big sister Lily.

And here he is with big sister Natalie.

 Here he is with Isabelle.

I am afraid he might get loved to death with all of the little girls we have in our family!!!

The sugar is gone!

Say it's not so!!!

Hello bright eyes! 

 Isabelle's 1st piano recital was in March.  She had been taking from Sister Fox for about a month (I think).  She played 2 songs that were each about 4 measures long...Soungsik and I coudn't have been prouder. 

 Its a little scary how much she likes the stage and being in front of people,

that is NOT something she got from me!

Grandpa has a fan club, but I think William does too!

William in the back of a truck with Grandpa, it doesn't get better than this...

 Just kidding, it gets way better. 

Grandpa and a tractor thingy is WAY better!!!

 Add a few rocks and you're in heaven!

 Fun at the splash park.  The dads got pretty soaked too...except for Keith...I think we'll need to remember that for next time!

 

 Isabelle is LOVING gymnastics.  Mrs. Gloria is such a great (and patient) teacher!!!

 Dad & Isabelle riding around the block.

Dad & William riding around the block.

Just try to get that cell phone back!



PLEEEAAASSE...Don't pee on  my laptop!!!



 

Mommy's little jailbird.

Happy 1st Birthday William!



  Happy Birthday William!  It has been a busy and very fast year. 
Even though he is pint sized (only 16 lbs) he is like mighty mouse.  He can and will climb everything.  He loves to run, in fact the only problem we see developmentally is that he doesn't seem to bend in the middle.  This makes sitting almost impossible but we are seeking medical help, psychiatric counseling, for mom and dad of course. He is fast becoming a pro at Taekwondo, punching, kicking, and Aye Yahing all over the house!  He fell out of his crib just a few weeks after his 1st birthday and so he has advanced to a big boy bed.

She loves being a big sister.  Soon we will just turn over all of the raising responsibilities to her!

 My handsome litte Korean.  I think his Hanbok (korean clothes) will fit him for 3 or 4 more years!

 It didn't take long to catch onto opening presents.
And its even easier with LOTS of help.  We love all of the cousins and are so glad everyone was with us!

By the time we had cake he was exhausted.  He still managed to eat TONS even though he was crying ALOT!  He was so tired he fell asleep IN the bathtub after the cake was done!

He wasn't digging the birthday hat.

They are fast becoming best friends. I hope it really lasts forever!!!