Our School Work Boxes

We have started using a work box system in our homeschooling.

Its not extremely different to how I was doing things before,

but it is going to help greatly in the areas of 

 planning, organizing, and creativity!

I was so excited when my "work boxes" arrived in the mail.

Its really just a scrap booking organizer.

First Isabelle and I had to figure out how to put them together.

It didn't take us pro's very long to get that out of the way!

Here's the finished product including her daily progress "stickers".

Here's what our school was like the first day of "work boxing".

We start off with a devotional - which for us right now is just a

quick scripture story.  We follow that

  with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Box #1 - Science.  We read about Armadillos. 

Did you know they can hold their breath for up to 6 minutes and they

 walk on the bottom of stream and rivers?  I didn't. 

That is one great thing about homeschooling,

I get to learn and re-learn right alongside Isabelle.

Box #2 - Math.  We discussed calendars. How many days are in a month. 

 Days of the week and months of the year. 

Each day for math right now Isabelle also counts by 5's and 10's.

Box #3 - Spelling.  This is not one of her favorite subjects,

but she is pretty good at it.

Water Break - Yes this is scheduled. 

Water breaks don't happen at other times or they

would be happening ALL the time.

Box #4 - History.  We read from "The Story of the World." 

Today we read about hieroglyphics. 

Isabelle thinks they are very cool.

Box #5 - Isabelle's reading.  She reads a small story and then from our

Hooked on Phonics workbooks. 

 She is currently working on the HOP 2nd grade workbook.

Box #6 - Story time.  I read to her out of a book. 

We are currently reading the 2nd book in the

American Doll series "Meet Kirsten".

 This book is called "Kirsten Learns A Lesson." 

 She loves these books and so do I!

Potty Break - Also scheduled, but this one I will allow anytime!

Box #7 - Korean language practice. 
She is learning to write the alphabet and

then we went over some vocabulary cards. 

 She thought is was hilarious

when she learned "fish" in Korean. 

Fish is pronounced mul golgi. 

In Korean mul means

water and golgi means meat,

so it is literally meat in the water.

Box #8 - Logic Links and Pattern Blocks. 

She would play with these all day if I let her.

Box #9 - Journal.  Isabelle draws a picture of anything she

wants and then writes anything she wants about what she has drawn. 

It is always interesting to see what she will come up with. 

It usually involves unicorns, birthdays, Christmas, butterfly's, ect.

5 minutes of stretching or wiggling - WHATEVER!

Box #10 - Art project. Today she started a paper mache "mulgolgi". 

 3 days later it still isn't finished, hmmm.  That is unusual.

Here's what William was up to while we did school.

If we don't do school while he is sleeping then he gives us

lots and lots of assistance!

I have to add I only have about 3 pictures of him sleeping

ever.  He wakes up if you even think about opening the door!

Well that's a sample day for us. 

Each day changes a little as I put different things in each box. 

She has loved doing this. 

She asks me everyday "when can we do school?"

I hope that she feels the same way for a long time to come.

We chose to home school before we even had kids. 

We knew we at least wanted to try it.

It has been so fun. 

So far I have not had one day of regret in our decision.  

 Homeschooling may not be for everyone,

 but it is PERFECT for us, for now and hopefully forever!

Korean Language Class

Isabelle and I started Korean language classes last Saturday.

One of my new years resolutions is to learn better Korean.

I was super excited to go to class. 
I have missed being in a classroom setting as a mom.

I was excited to have a teacher and my own little school book.

Yes I know this sounds pathetic, but still it's the truth.

All of this excitement vanished around 9:30 the night before class.

Excitement was replaced with nervousness.

"Wait a minute" my brain said.

"You like Korean people, but have you forgotten that they are very scary.

Have you forgotten the stories of getting hit with rulers when you get an answer wrong?

Have you forgotten that according to every Korean on the planet Korean is the easiest language to learn,
 and only a truly idiotic person wouldn't be able to do it?

Have you forgotten that you dropped out of Japanese in high school because your tiny brain couldn't handle a language from the East?

Do you even know how to get to the building?

What if they refuse to speak any English at all?

Aren't you aware that you will have to get up very early
EVERY Saturday morning? Just give up now."

These are all of the things the mean little
voice in my head kept whispering.

I refused to listen...this may have been a good or bad choice,
I am still undecided on that.

I woke up bright (not really) and early Saturday morning.

I really wanted to go back to bed.

I showered and tried to make myself pretty, assuming this would
somehow help me learn a new language.

Well at least it might curb some of the
laughter that would surely be coming my way.

I loaded Isabelle into her car seat and waved to my proud husband bidding us farewell at the door,
at least someone was still happy about this decision.

I discovered that when I am very nervous
I might have just a touch of road rage.

I apologize to anyone I may have nearly ran over.

When we got to the building, a Christian center, I saw lots of Korean people walking in.

"What are they doing here?" my brain started up again. "Don't they already speak Korean?  Where are all of the other American wives of Korean men?
Shouldn't they be here too if I have to be?"

When we got inside my hopes got dashed even more.

There weren't even any mixed kids like Isabelle. 
I was actually a little more surprised about this, but what is a girl to do?

We were there, and there they  were. 
Many Korean people speaking Korean,
and writing in Korean, and staring at me like I just walked off Mars.

"This is going to be a fun two hours" sneers my brain.  "Shut up" says one of the other voices in  my head.  They quickly make me pay for may class and brain says "You are actually paying to be humiliated? HA HA!"  After paying they whisk Isabelle off to her torture.
She looked at me like I had just sold her for $5.00.

I had to hang out in the foyer for a few more minutes to let people stare at me.  By this point I had decided that showering and getting pretty was the only sane idea I had that morning.  Then a lady says "come with me". I follow her up a staircase into a small classroom with a blue wall, a red wall, and one of the ugliest crosses I have ever seen. 

"Hey an American!" my brain yells!  It was true there was an American man in my class.  He is older than me and his name is Steve - this couldn't be bad if he has the same name as my Dad. This is what I thought up until the minute he informed me that he lived in Korea for 6 and a half years.  The only other student in my class was a college student girl named Stephanie who is half Korean and she speaks Korean with her mom all of the time. 
So one of my worst fears has been confirmed, I am the only beginner.

Our teacher seems nice enough and
I don't see any rulers for her to hit me with, so that's a big relief.

I can read, a little, in Korean.  My teacher thinks this means I should also be able to write full sentences in Korean after she reads them to me. You have got to be kidding me.  We wrote a lot in the first hour of class.  I misspelled about 70% of my words and another 10% of the words were completely omitted from my work.  My teacher starts to think I need some help.  She brings in a boy who I guess is a college student to help me.  She tells him to help me with my writing.  They both must have thought that laughing at me while I was trying to write was very helpful.  He just sat there and was like "Nooo, you silly lady.  How OLD are you anyways?  Maybe you should just give up."  He didn't actually say that, but I can read in between the laughs. 
Of course it could have just been my brain speaking up again. 

I was happy to find out that I do know more vocabulary than I thought.  Sentence structure - not so much.  Then the teacher had us play a memory game where we go around the circle and name a fruit and then the person next to you says one and then adds on and so on and so forth.  I am doubtful I would be good at this game in my own language.  I got up to about 15 which was not bad I thought. 
 When it would have been my turn again
I would have had to say about 20 fruits.
My teacher mercifully stopped before my turn.

I was literally sweating when we got our break time.  I never realized learning a language was a new sport.  Another shower would be in order if I made it out of this church alive. During break time I went to check on Isabelle. If it was this bad for me,
it must be just horrible for her.

Then I saw it.
My daughter sitting at a table with about 10 other children. 
Drinking juice and eating cake and getting ready to watch a cartoon. 

"Hold the phone!" my brains excitedly yells.  "How much more money would you have to pay to be in this class?  THIS is totally the level you are at. Quick find out before they make you go back to the red/blue room."  They didn't let me stay, I think they thought I was crazy.  Maybe by this point I was, I have blocked it from my memory.

Back at my class we moved from writing - Hallelujah -
 to speaking - bummer.

Also 2 more Korean people came and sat behind me, to observe.  I am thinking to observe me, that's just great!  That won't make it harder for me at all to concentrate.

I survive one more hour and after my teacher tells me my writing is "really....really"..."bad" I say.  Uncomfortable silence. "No, no," she says " you just need a little me practice.  Try to catch up on the last 13 chapters by next week.  Have a nice day!"  I got to leave then.

I went and picked up Isabelle from her class.  She asks if we can come back every day.  I shoot laser beams from my eyes.  We head downstairs to see if I can get the workbook I need to "catch up" on. Of course they are sold out, but she politely says she'll have one for me next week.  Super, I guess then I'll have 14 chapters to "catch up" on.  I need some air.

I pretty much ran out of the door to the car. 

As I am loading Isabelle in she starts doing the potty dance.

"No" my brain says. "You just escaped from that building, once a prisoner breaks out, you should never go back."

You should try explaining this to a five year old.  They don't get it.

So back in we went.  Nothing bad happened.

I drove home listening to Isabelle tell me how cool her class was and how she had no idea what the other kids were saying to her and "Isn't that funny, they kept talking to me, but I had no idea what they were saying."  I am still trying to find out where the humor is in that.

Tomorrow I am due back there. 
The people were so nice and my teacher was nice.

I just hope they understand I didn't have my workbook to get "caught up" as if that's even possible in a week anyways. I won't give up.  I hope that I will actually learn the language after going through this!

Internet Fix

I hate to admit it, but I think I may be becoming an addict.

My internet hasn't worked for about a week and it made me crazy.

I never realized how much I actually do on the internet.

I couldn't update my blog, sad.

I couldn't check my emails, annoying.

I couldn't spy on my friends lives on Facebook, missed laughs.

We had to watch our Korean drama on a super slow computer, frustrating.

And many other inconvenient things each day.

It's pretty pathetic how dependant I have let myself become.

It may sound like I spend all day on the computer, this is not the case.

I do however enjoy my time each day catching up with the "outside"word.

This is another reason why I would have hated living at any other time in the world.

For now I am happy to be back up and running again.

I have got my much needed email fix, and I am off on my blogging again!

I have a lot to catch up on and may not get much else accomplished around the house in the next couple of days!

C'est La Vie!

Meet the Kitty and So Long Kitty

We have had a couple of kitties for a few months now.

A flame point Siamese and a seal point Siamese.

They are brothers.  We thought getting 2 kitties would be a great idea.

They coud play with each other and each of the kids

would have a cat to torment.

We named the kitties Aslan and Prince Caspian.

Isabelle and I are big Narnia fans.

Here's a picture of Aslan.

Here's a picture of Prince Caspian, or Caspian.

It didn't take Soungsik and I long to figure out that we have a 1 cat limit.

Were you  aware that

1 cat + 1 cat = 3 cats fur and 4 cats poop?

I wasn't either.

We also discovered that when you have 2 cats, you will never see them.

That is unless you are feeding them or cleaning up their business.

That kindof takes the fun out of having a pet.

It only took us about 2.5 seconds to decide which cat to keep.

Prince Caspian.

Aslan really lived up to his name. 

He only came around on his terms, and very rarely.

Caspian is pretty lovable and nice to a fault with the kids.

William loves to lay on him like a pillow.

 William is actually pretty gentle with him, this picture is a little deceiving.

This picture shows the most common situation.

William follows the kitty everywhere.

Up stairs and back down again.

Into dark basements and up on furniture.

Under tables and inside nooks.

They make a great pair.

Isabelle also loves him, but Caspian kindof seeks out William.

Maybe he is a suicidal cat?!?

I hope Caspian is part of our family for a long time to come.

The Return of the Hermit

The inevitable has happened. 

This happens to me every year.  It usually hits me around January 5th,

so I would say that making it all the way to the 12th is amazing progress!

Every year without fail I start having the same emotions.

I transform into a hermit.

I don't want to set one foot outside of my
house until at least the end of March

and possibly longer.

Some people would go stir crazy but I am here to tell you that

as long as I had my health and a good supply of
life necessities I would be in heaven.

It may be that I have that "seasonal mood disorder", but if I go to a doctor to get diagnosed with it then he would probably find many other brain "disorders" as well.

That's a chance I am not willing to take.

I know that I have some Indian blood in me. 
Probably from those Indians that came from Southern Florida. 
I know I couldn't be from Canadian Indians.

I think my Indian name would be "Sleeping Bear". 

There are many reasons why this is a fitting name for me.

Not only could I hibernate, but I also enjoy napping even when the weather is perfect, I also love fish, get cranky for no apparent reason, protect my young to a fault, and I like fur coats.

I have pioneer ancestors too.

My pioneer name would be "dead".

There's just no way I would have made it.

I am sitting here in my heated house with my sweater and

warm fuzzy socks on complaining about the cold.

When I go somewhere it will be to the garage to get into my heated car.

When I return home if I need to I can whip up a cup of hot, hot chocolate.

I know it's spoiled and selfish, but I still wish I could stay home for the next few months.

This too shall pass, it does every year.

The Princess and the Chicken

A bedtime story created in the mind of Isabelle Kim.

Once upon a time there was a Princess and a chicken.

One day the chicken came and asked the princess

"Do you have any chicken legs?"

The princess said "No".

The next day the chicken asked,

"Do you have any chicken legs?"

The princess said "NO".

The next day the chicken came back and asked,

"Do you have any chicken legs?"

The princess said "NO!!!"

On the fourth day the chicken came back and asked,

"Do you have any chicken legs?"

The princess said,
"If you ask me that one more time I am going to shoot you!"

Then the chicken said

"Do you have a gun?!?"

The princess answered...

"no..."

The end.

My review of this story,

funny and ironic.

What a smart princess.

 She knows the best way to get chicken legs!

I must admit our children are exposed to

guns at a very young age.

Education is power.

I am holding my breath that our children

won't end up too morbid!

Jinxed!

Last week I was so excited about getting back on schedule.

I was certain that nothing could stand in my way!

Boy was I wrong.

Monday started out just great, so it really got my hopes up.

William had a bit of a cold but he wasn't going to let that slow him down.

Our day went like this...

Exercise - check (for a whole hour I might add),

Clean rooms and make beds - check,

Do LOTS of school - check,

Practice piano - double check,

Reading practice - check,

Clean most of the house - check,

Catch up on laundry - check,

Scripture Reading - check,

Kids happily sleeping by 8:00 - check!

Pretty much a perfect day.

Then on Tuesday a water line broke at Nathaniel and Jenny's house.

I take full blame for this happening, it was my fault for saying

everything would follow "my schedule".

I guess the universe wanted to show me who was boss!

At any rate we got house guests.

It was much, much harder for them than for us.

The girls couldn't have been happier!

The rest of the week went like this...

Play - check,

Play dress up - check,

Watch movie - check,

Play house - check,

Snacks - check,

Play Wii - check,

Watch movie - check,

Color - check,

Read stories - check,

Watch movie - check

Run around - check,

Play Wii - check,

Giggle - check,

Fight - check,

Make up - check,

Watch movie - check

Play games - check

Kids to sleep at 8:00 - ha ha ha ha ha!

Kids to sleep by midnight - check, check, check, check, check!

Poor Nathaniel and Jenny couldn't go home until Saturday! 

When I told Isabelle they were going home she said

 "not all ready", in her whiniest voice possible.

Saturday morning Isabelle woke up sick.

This was the universes' way of making sure I

still didn't get back on schedule.

Here's a picture of my sickly little girl...

So very sad! 

All she wanted to do was sleep and lay on the couch.

She wouldn't eat anything!

This bowl was originally placed by Isabelle 

"just in case" she needed it for something.

It didn't stay by her for very long though.

William decided it made a great hat

and an even better drum.

You can fit a bucket load of toys in there too!

On Sunday I went to church and left the kids home with Soungsik.

It was so weird to have to sit still and not have anyone jump

on you or rip holes in your nylons.

I didn't have to take anyone out because they were crying or stinky.

On the upside I got to hear some great talks.

One the downside,

 church is longer and more boring without distractions!

We made it back to another Monday

and the amount of work I got caught up on today was

pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

Don't worry universe I am not even thinking about planning

more than a day in advance.

Tomorrow will just have to be a surprise.

Please universe let my children stay healthy and my

families' homes stay in one piece!

BOOK REVIEW: A THOMAS JEFFERSON EDUCATION

Written By: Oliver Van Demille

Number of Pages: 141

Number of Stars I'm Giving It: 5

This book is basically a handbook for some homeschooling families.

I had taken a class on this at the homeschool convention

I attented in last June.

It has literally taken me 4 months to read this book.

That may sound like a contradiction since it is less

than 150 pages and I gave it 5 stars.

This book was a little hard to get into and seemed

quite repetitious to me. I just kept picking up other

books instead of finishing this one!

That being said I really agreed with the content.

It is a book that everyone should read

 because it will change the way you view education.

It had many worthwhile and memorable quotes such as:

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world"

Ghandi

"You were born with potential.

You were born with goodness and trust.

You were born with ideals and dreams.

You were born with greatness.

You were born with wings.

You are not meant for crawling, so don't.

You have wings.

Learn to use them and fly."

Rumi

And perhaps the one that hit me the hardest and made me think was:

"...the world's greatest civilizations have progressed through this sequence:

from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage;

from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance;

from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency;

from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependancy;

from dependancy to bondage."

Alexander Tytler

This quote is also in "The 5000 Year Leap" I believe.

Another book I highly recommend reading.

I believe as a people we are now somewhere

around the complacency in that sequence.

It is clear that education reform is desperately

needed in our society.

While I know that the method taught in this book in theory would work

amazingly well, in real life this is not something that would work for us.

I am sure there are many families who find great success with this method.

I am going to incorporate the classics heavily into our curriculum.

While it is a book used a lot by "homeschoolers" this method

could and should be applied, at least in part,

 in all schools and at all levels.

Our children need a return to virtue, honesty, mutual respect and

great expectations.  By choosing to homeschool,

I feel the weight of my childrens futures more heavily on my shoulders.

It is my responsibility to prepare my chidren for the

trials and joys this life has to offer.

It is both a burden and a blessing,

but I feel a sense of peace and

comfort in my decision.

I am so grateful to live in a country and at a time

where I have the freedom to make this choice!

Back To Normal

After basically three weeks of "vacation",
we started getting back to normal.

Well at least as normal as anyone in our household can ever hope to be.

Taking a break from school, taekwondo, gymnastics, piano, and

 extra chores was only planned to be two weeks,

but we checked out a week early this year.

We had a lot of fun but I was more than ready to get some structure back.

Three weeks must be my limit for chaos.

Isabelle was not so excited to get back to regular life.

Today she decided she hates all things associated

with her past life of 2010.

This was what she sounded like all day,

"Mom, I hate making my bed.  Why do we have to do school,

can't I just play the Wii all day? 

I like my hair messy. Piano?  I hate piano."

I understand that she doesn't actually mean any of those things -

except for possibly the hair and bed parts. 

 She is just lucky that we didn't have more
 "regular" stuff on the schedule today.

Liam went back to some kind of new normal.

I think a switch must have gone off in him again.

He has always been a climber, but he is starting to venture off into extreme sports.

He can't seem to go more than 30 seconds without getting into trouble. 

Soungsik's mom had to sew leather patches on the

knees of his jeans when he would get new ones because

 he would wear them out so quickly.

I desperately hope that isn't a heritable necessity. 

I left Liam in the kitchen for literally 10 seconds alone. 

When I had come back he was standing in the middle of the table. 

I had to run as fast as possible to catch him before he could

"run away" from me off the edge of the table.

He kept getting up on the ottoman and jumping onto the couch face first. 

He must have done that at least 50 times. 

He was also missing a lot today and I kept finding him in the

 pitch black basement hanging onto the cat by his tail.

As a side note he is also sick, with a bad cold. 

He has a sore throat, cough, and extra runny nose.

I am getting nervous about how much trouble he'll be able

 to get into when he has his full health.

Is it bad for a mom to pray to keep her child just mildly sick?

Today has gone as smooth as I could have hoped and
I got many things accomplished.

I wonder how long we will be on our normal schedule before

I am begging for another three week vacation.

I am hoping for one week at a minimum!

I'm Loving It

The first Sunday of the new year, and you know what that means... 

A new church schedule!

I was a very happy girl this morning.

Our ward moved to the time slot 11:00 to 2:00!

I have been counting down 52 weeks for this Sunday.

It was so perfect just waking up to sunshine and not an
alarm clock this morning.

Not that we use an alarm clock on any other day of the week. 

I just have an aversion to alarm clocks.

I didn't have to go shake my kids and Soungsik awake and watch them

pitifully try to eat breakfast while half asleep.

I didn't have to beg anyone to take a bath or get dressed.

We were even on time for church today with very little effort on our part.

Isabelle got to move up to CTR 5 and

Grandma and Grandpa are her new teachers.

She was sitting behind me in sharing time and kept poking me

and saying "Mom I really miss you."

I got a new class with only 4 little people,

they are so cute and funny, it's going to be a fun year.

The rest of the day was just a typical Sunday at home.

Ending with a little pajama ballroom dancing with daddy.

Yes I think I am going to be enjoying the next year of Sundays quite a bit!

Happy New Year 2011!

It is another new year and I must say I am looking forward to it.

2010 flew by way too fast and I have a hunch 2011 will do the same.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this year will be a

little less eventful than last year.

Last night was New Year's Eve and I probably should have

taken some pictures of our get together.

I was too busy having fun to think about the camera.

Actually that isn't the whole truth. 

There were many times when I thought
 "I should go take some pictures of this",

 but I was too lazy to go get the camera. Oops.

Last night we didn't have a huge group just our family, Mom and Dad,

 Nathaniel and Jenny's family, and Soung-Jo and his family

 came by for a couple of hours.

It was Jee Hoon's 11th birthday, so that was a great excuse for
some cake and ice cream -

 as if we ever really need an excuse! I do have 1 birthday picture, yay!

After cake and ice cream we played lots and lots on the Wii.

And then we played card games and aggravation.

Mom and Dad won aggravation about 20 minutes before

the new year for possibly the 1st time of 2010!

 I started the new year off with a HUGE mistake.

We let all of the kids stay up until midnight and the

dad's were playing on the Wii.

We discovered last night that the clock on my stove

 is about 5 minutes too slow.

Which explains a lot of things,

like why we are always 5 minutes late to church and

 also why it always looks like it takes 12 minutes to get the kids in the car.

I made the boy's turn off the game so that we could

all watch the ball drop, that's when we found out it was 12:01

and the ball had already dropped. 

 We got to watch the very last of the confetti though,

which it not exciting at all. 

We also got to watch a replay of the ball dropping on

some people's camera phones,

which is also not exciting at all.

Isabelle was crying on her way to bed because she

thought we had missed the new year.

I had to explain to her that we still had plenty of year left.

Nathaniel and Jenny's family stayed the night. 

Isabelle and Natalie slept in Isabelle's room and they

didn't go to sleep until around 1:00.

It was amazing that the kids didn't fight at all today, but all of them

took turns crying multiple times today for no particular reason.

We all just sat around and ate snacks and played all day.

Not the most productive way to start the new year,

 but that is what Monday's are for.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this year will be a wonderful one.

I hope and pray that everyone we love will be safe and healthy!

We may not be able to get everything we want,

but hopefully we can have everything we need.

I am grateful to start our the new year with

family and friends we love, with good health,

and a comfortable house.

We are truely blessed.

The Recovery

I have spent the majority of today cleaning the house and
putting away the Christmas decorations.

It is always amazing how fast the time goes between
Halloween and New Years.

This year I just blinked and it was gone.

I love putting up all of the decorations for the holidays, especially Christmas,
but there is something so refreshing about boxing them all back up again.

Isabelle was practically in tears as I dismantled the trees.

Although the house seems to feel a little empty now,
it also feels like a clean slate.

Yesterday I spent the day cleaning and organizing the school/play room.

Well one thing leads to another and cleaning that one room
required me to also clean out 3 closets.

I was going to wait until January to start getting the house organized,
 but I already have a big headstart.

Its not the most exciting post I know, but it has taken up two days
of my life so it deserves a paragraph!

I am so very tired.  It's time to hit the hay!

You're a 5 Year Old

Every year for my kids birthdays we get pictures taken.

I have loved that tradition.

This year I am feeling broke and cheap at the same time

so I didn't go to a studio like we usually do.

I took Isabelle to the Joseph Smith Memorial building
to see what we could come up with.

It would have been better if Isabelle had smiled,
but I think we got some cute ones. 

It's sad to admit, but that really does look like a 5 year old.

She's becoming beautiful instead of cute.

She was in love with that chandelier.

"Mom, it's so pretty, I can't believe it!"

Thanks for the nice backdrop Salt Lake City.

She had to take her "Fancy Nancy" doll with a matching dress.

I had to limit the number of pictures Nancy could be in.

How many cities can you get a picture like this in?

Sometimes she felt like this about the pictures...

Sometimes she felt like this...

I always laugh histerically when I see a nativity scene too.

Welcome to being a big 5 year old Isabelle.

I am so excited to see what will be in store for you in this next year!



Wii Fit...Wii Wish!

I got the Wii Fit for Christmas this year.

Yesterday was the first time I got a chance to try it out. 

I think it is going to be pretty fun.

I am not sure I like the idea of my games being able to weigh me

and tell me what my BMI is.

When you turn it on it goes through a setup process and it has you

try out some basic balancing techniques.

I am not Jillian from Biggest Loser,

but I consider myself to be in somewhat good shape.

Of course not as good as before I had kids,

but I could hold my own in a tug of war.

After I did my balancing practice the little digital "me" says

"I don't think balancing is your forte."

SLAM!  What a little snob digital "me" has become.

That really hits you where it hurts.

If she told me "I don't think being a chemist or a professional opera singer is your forte", then I would have to agree.

Isn't balancing just one step above breathing and brushing your teeth?

I mean it's lower than walking in terms of physical fitness. 

It's a miracle I even manage to get out of bed in the mornings.

Come to think of it maybe my "me" has a point, sometimes

I do find getting out of bed to be difficult,

could it be my poor balancing skills are to blame?

I refuse to give up though. 

I pledge to work on it every day until snobby digital "me" has to eat her digital words.

At my funeral all of my friends will say

"She might not have been a genius, but that girl sure had good balance!"

Christmas Day

The countdown finally came to an end!  Santa didn't fly by!  He came!
The kids got new jammies on Christmas Eve, one of our few traditions.
I tried to get a picture of them together in the new PJ's but alas my children never
hold still, and certainly never at the same time!

We are fortunate parents, our kids didn't wake up until 8:00.

I wonder how many more years we'll get away with that.

William was feeling partly cloudy and mostly just wanted to be held all day.

It wasn't too bad, but he didn't get overly enthused about his presents.

A Pillow Pet is the only thing she really wanted!

She wanted the unicorn one, but Santa thought it was too ugly to buy.

Fortunately Jee Hoon was nicer than Santa and got the unicorn for her.

2 Pillow Pets in one day!  Life is sweet.

William needed one as well. 

I think Santa might just buy duplicates of everything next year.

We got Isabelle this dog because William got one for his birthday and she is
stealing it ALL of the time.

The age recommendations are 6 to 36 months. 

There is no way I am going to tell her it's a baby toy,

I am going to let one of her friends break it to her when she's 7.

Paybacks!  That'll teach you to steal my dog!

He wasn't excited about his presents but he couldn't get enough of Isabelle's!

Daddy's toys.  He was saying "Mine" to Isabelle.

I am 98.8% sure that he was joking!

This tent was a spur of the moment buy at the last minute.

This was the favorite of both of the kids.

They played in it for hours and when it came time for bed

we had to clear off Isabelle's bed and put it on top.

It was there that she slept for the night with a pile of blankets,

her new pillow pets, and all of her Christmas loot.

The last thing she said before going to sleep...

"This was the BEST Christmas EVER!"

Victory is mine!

Oh yeah, what did I get for Christmas? 

Well besides my Wii Fit I got the best thing ever,

a 2 hour nap!