Las Vegas and Other Vacation Stuff.

After going to the Grand canyon we drove up to St. George.

We all decided after being in the car all day that swimming in a cool pool would be very refreshing.

It was.  This was William's first time in a real big pool.

It was hilarious.  If you can imagine a group of piranhas attacking a 

leg of lamb then you know what William looked like in the pool.  

Isabelle almost drowned in the 3 feet section.  I was holding her and I was telling her "Stand up it's only 3 feet, stand up!"  She was yelling back "I can't, I can't, I - oh wait it's not deep here!"  William swallowed so much water in the pool that he threw up in the hot tub.  That was slightly embarrassing - luckily we were the only ones there - except for 2 teenage boys.  They were very nice about it!

On Saturday we drove down to Las Vegas.  This was my first time taking children there.

Vegas was not intended for children.

Shocker - I know.

 

Please notice the flip flops on Isabelle's feet.

Shortly after this elephant picture Soungsik started carrying her on his shoulders.

One flip flop fell off somewhere.  This was very bad.

Soungsik ended up carrying her all over for along time until we could get back to the car and get some more shoes.  Isabelle was crying and saying "I hate Las Vegas - it took my new flip flop away!!!"

People were already looking at us like we were insane for even having children AND for wearing clothes.

Now they were looking at us like 

"You hillbillies, buy that creature some shoes!"

 

Here we are waiting for the buffet at the Bellagio.

Just for those of you who think the buffets are cheap,

it's $25.00 per person at lunchtime.

They wanted to charge for Isabelle - luckily I talked them out of it.

Isabelle went to dish up with Soungsik and came back with 

a plate that had 1 slice of pizza and a whole bunch of desserts.

When I looked at her plate she looked at her plate and then at me and said

"Hey mom, what can I say? I'm on vacation!"

You can't argue with that logic.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas I guess!

I went back for at least 3 extra plates of food, 

not because I was hungry or that it was really good food, 

I just wanted to get my moneys worth!

 

By the lions at the MGM.

 

The kids made us stay here for a long time!

 

Here are the kids at a store called "It's Sugar".

I think they should call it 

"It's Sugar Stupid!"

This was a favorite of the kids.

 

The monorail was by far the kids favorite thing!

I think it was my favorite thing too.

There was air conditioning, almost no people,

and zero pornography!

We rode the monorail a lot!

 

I had on at least twice as many clothes as any other woman in the town.

It was bizarre.  It didn't matter how fat, old, or ugly they were, they were all half naked.

I think I almost lost my buffet lunch at least 15 times!

Isabelle saw a naughty picture on the sidewalk and she said

"Mom that lady forgot to put her clothes on!"

Soungsik and I decided a trip to Las Vegas required a lot more money and a lot fewer children than we had.

 

As we were leaving Vegas Isabelle said,

"Mom, you are SUCH a mommy!"

I was having the exact same thought,

and I took it as a compliment!

The next day we went to Zion's.

This was also different with kids.

We decided to go for a hike.

We went about 15 feet and the kids

(well Soungsik and Isabelle) started whining.

It's hot.  It's soooo hot.  My legs are tired.

I can't walk anymore!

Oh brother - back on the shuttle bus we go!

So we didn't get to the narrows or anything, but it was still so beautiful.

I think I prefer Zion's and Bryce's to the Grand Canyon.

I prefer pretty much everywhere to Vegas!

I think I prefer home to all of the above!

The Grand Canyon 2011

We went to the Grand Canyon a few days ago.

This was my first time taking children. It made me feel slightly old!

  

I only have one word for you...GRAND!

 

No backdrop required.

 

I always dress my children in matching outfits for vacations.

That's just how organized I am - NOT!

Completely coincidental.

 William LOVED the Grand Canyon.

I mean there are rocks and dirt everywhere.

There are huge cliffs you can throw rocks off of.

You can climb, or attempt to climb everything in sight, that is until your 

overly protective mother tells you "NO" for the hundredth time!

 

Isabelle looked at me after we had been there for a few minutes and said

"Mom really, I am 5 and a half - I can walk by myself."

Arrggh - stop growing up!  I can't take it.

I will still want you to hold my hand when you're 20 - get used to it!

Isabelle loved spotting lizards! 

 

2 cute people + 2 non cute people =  1 awesome family.

I am pretty lucky!

 

Isabelle named this the

"Momma Bear Cave".

 

Isabelle and Soungsik on a HUGE precipice.

I had to turn around and avert my eyes.

 

Isabelle and Doo-Il on another huge precipice.  

I am terrified of heights - is this my daughter?

 

This is Isabelle on top of the precipice by herself.

It's windy up there!

My mom would have had a heart attack if she saw this!

 

Just us girls.

 

And the boy club.

 

Soungsik and I made the decision on this trip to give up our 

career dream of becoming a professional modeling couple!

 

We all loved the burro!

Soungsik on a cliff doing the splits.

If you can I guess you should!

 

You can't beat these views for lunch.

I am here to tell you if you happen to loose a paper plat to the wind here,

you will never see it again.

 

I really, really LOVE these men!

William might be tiny, but he may rule the world one day!

Stand back!

Exciting Things!

Today I had 4 exciting things happen. 

Most of them are because of William.

First and most importantly William started saying

"Mommy, mommy"!!!  

He has said it before in the middle of the night, but it's like a switch went off and he was saying it a lot today.  

Second he also started saying "Grandma" today.  Strange that it was on the same day, but Grandma was almost as excited as I was.  He has been saying "Grandpa and Daddy" for ages!

The third exciting thing is not really a good thing, but it was very exciting!  I was changing William into his pajamas and he peed all over me!  I thought only newborn babies did that.  He thought it was hilarious!  Me - not so much! Maybe this was some sort of trade off for the "mommy" thing?  

Lastly - we got a puppy today!!!  This was not a planned dog.  Like much of what happens in our life, it was pretty spur of the moment.  Once I get an idea into my head, not matter how smart or idiotic it may be, it doesn't take me long to materialize the idea. The puppy is a 3 month old Chihuahua.  I must say, we've only had her a few hours, but I am fast becoming a fan.  Mostly because she doesn't bark much,  or bite, and she hasn't peed in my house or on me even once today.  I wish I could say that much for some of my children! Right now puppy has no name.  Isabelle keeps calling her Buttercup and Sally - but I doubt they'll stick.  Isabelle is in heaven.  William seems to be pretty happy about it as well.

She won't be very much bigger when she's full grown.

 

Puppies usually don't have a very long life expectancy at our house.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will be the puppy for us!

Now off to bed to prepare for another exciting day tomorrow.

I wonder what will be in store!!!

School's Out For Summer!!!

Well we are officially on summer vacation until the

first of August.

I was planning on school going until the end of June, but I started feeling that the teacher needed some R&R! 

That means the pupil probably needs it too!

Oh how I LOVE summer!

Summer means more time for...

SWINGING!

 

DIGGING!

 

PLAYING MONKEY!

FALLING IN LOVE WITH LADYBUGS!

 

 

Today we celebrated the end of school by...

PLAYING WITH FRIENDS!

 

GOING TO THE MOVIES!

(We saw Kung Fu Panda 2 - Loved it!)

 

FOLLOWED BY LUNCH AT MCDONALDS!

 

Hooray for summer!

We'll be taking a break from all kinds of work,

but you don't get a vacation from some 

"business"!

Even toddlers have jobs to do!

Keep up the good work William!

Asian Festival 2011

On Saturday our taekwondo centers did a 

demonstration at the Asian Festival.

They have been preparing for it for quite a while.

The students did a really awesome job, 

and it was so much fun. 

Isabelle was so nervous because there were so many people watching, but true to her form once she stepped on stage she did GREAT!

After they were done Isabelle said "Mom, even though I was really nervous, I smiled the whole time!"

 

We had a pretty good showing of students.

 

Here's a picture of My Masters!!!

 

They all did demonstrations - and it was so cool!

The audience was cheering really loud.

I have a pretty cool husband,

if I do say so myself!

 

Isabelle and her daddy - Master Kim!

She still looks like a baby sometimes...

please stay that way kiddo!

 

Isabelle and Master Lim.

We are going to miss him so much 

when he goes back to Korea!

 

It was so fun hanging out with friends!

 

Isabelle and Ann.

Ann is the big sister Isabelle wishes she had!

All in all it was  a really great day, 

and we can't wait to do it again next year!

Piano Recital Spring 2011

 

Isabelle had her spring piano recital tonight.

All of the kids did very well.

Isabelle has been working so hard, and she was 

very relieved that she finished her songs

without mistakes!

Her first song was called 

"Wind in the Bamboo Tree"

 

Her second song was called

"Trumpet Tune"

 I missed recording the first part of this song.

She started it so quickly - she was pretty nervous!

Here is Isabelle with all of her fellow students

and her kind and wonderfully patient 
teacher Betsy Fox.

Isabelle's cousins Jakob, Corrine, and Sariah
performed also and did great!

 

 Isabelle is really loving piano.

It's teaching her that when you work hard at 

hard things, they become easier and can

even become enjoyable!

Bye, Bye Binky

I gave Isabelle until she turned 2 to give up her binky.

Liam is a man, so therefore I only gave him until 22 months.

Just kidding that has nothing to do with it.

What happened was we were down to 1 binky, or so I thought.

It was bedtime the other night, actually it was 2 hours past bedtime and 

I was done being mommy for the day.

But oh the horror- where was binky?!?  He was no where to be found!!!

Luckily Liam just went to bed.  He was so tired he didn't even care about binky.

That's when I decided that binky would be banished forever.

The next day at nap time I found the lost binky and threw him in the garbage.

This is how Liam felt about no binky at nap time...

 

After screaming in his room for about 10 minutes 

I heard singing coming from his room.

What on Earth could have brought this on I thought.

It can't be good, I'd better go check...

What the????  He found another binky?

Is there I binky stash I don't know about.

That's how you know people have an addiction, when they hide extra ones in "special" places.

So for one last time, he got his sweet friend binky back.

I decided to be devious and give binky a trim.

When it was bedtime again Liam discovered that binky was broken!

At first he laughed, then he realized that broken binky is no fun.

 

This didn't stop him from going to sleep with it for about 5 more nights.

Sometimes he would just set it on top of his mouth.

Sometimes he would hold it in his hands.

Every time I would ask him if we should throw it away he gave me a resounding negative head shake.

About a week later he is doing great.

It was a pain free process for me, and just a little heart wrenching for Liam.

I am so glad that he is done with the binky phase of life.

On to the next phase!

He has discovered that when he is really upset picking his nose can be quite soothing.

 

This is a weird and disturbing new habit.

It's not like I can trim his finger or accidentally "lose" one of them.

I really hope this doesn't turn into a new addiction!

So this is why they say being a mom is challenging!  

I am going to have to get more creative!

How to Shave a Cat

I love our cat.

He is the best pet.

Very calm and loving.

Cute and mostly quiet.

But every spring the cat hair starts to make me crazy.

I've had enough and decided he needed to be shaved.

Usually I make Soungsik help me with this, but he said he's not going to do it anymore.

Why?  Because shaving a cat sucks!

I decided today that I would try it by myself, this sucks twice as much ad doing it with a friend.

Here are the directions if you want to shave a cat.

Step 1 - Put older child in charge of younger child.  Children DO NOT help in this process.

I put Isabelle in charge of William. No worries, she's on the ball! In fact in a couple more years I am just going to turn him over to her to finish raising entirely, because honestly I don't think I know how to raise him!

Step 2 - Clip the cats nails - DUH!

I learned this lesson the hard way a few years ago.

Step 3 - Shut the door - Double DUH!

Cats don't enjoy being shaved and they will run away the first chance they get. I learned this the hard way too.

Step 4 - Put on protective gear.

I forgot to do this.  A painters suit would be perfect if you have one - it will keep all of the hair off of your clothes.  A mask is a great idea too - unless you want a cat hairball in your throat.  

Step 5 - Cut most of the hair off first with scissors.  This will make your cat look freaky, but it will improve your coordination and mental focus so I recommend doing this to help postpone dementia and other mental illnesses. 

Step 6 - Break out the electric clippers.  We paid about $100 for our super powerful specialized cat clippers.  I don't think they work at all.

Step 7 - Do all of these steps above for at least an hour.  Then give up and decide to do the rest on another day, and you too can have a half shaved cat that is afraid of you.

Step 8 - Give the cat a bath.  Don't worry, cats just love baths!

Step 9 - You will need to clean the bathroom at least 3 times to get rid of all of the cat hair.

I am going to make Soungsik finish up the rest.

I think I did the worst of it - maybe!

As a side note - once it's done it is completely worth it!

Good luck and happy shaving!!!

Other People's Children

June is always a month that I love to hate, or hate to love.  

It gets pretty busy in our house this time of year.

Last Saturday was no exception.  

Soungsik had black belt testing.

 

This is Peter, one of our students and a family friend.

Overall it was a great test.  And I for one am very happy that Soungsik has other people to help him with testings now and I don't have to go anymore!

I had the home school convention the same day.

Thanks to Grandma babysitter I was able to go!

I like the home school convention.

It is always motivating and encouraging. 

Most of the classes are good, and there is always at least one that is just completely crazy and you wonder for an hour how you got stuck in there and if it would 

be rude to get up and walk out.

There are usually a lot of crazy people there too.

Oh sure normal people come, but they aren't as fun to watch.  I wonder if other people thought

I was one of the crazies?!?

I got Isabelle's math curriculum ordered and I am so excited to get started on school next year. I am sure Isabelle would appreciate a little time off first though.

After belt testing and the convention we had my 

niece and nephews baptism.

This was such an awesome event and 

we are so happy for their family.

 

Here's Cameron.

 

And cutie pie Elyssa!

Someone dropped the ball and didn't fill the font.

We had to wait for a while to try to get enough water in.

The sister missionaries were running back and forth with bowls of warm water trying to get it heated up.

Despite all of their efforts little Elyssa was turning purple after!  And because there wasn't a lot of water in the font she had to get "dunked" 4 times!  Poor little girl!

Now that the cold has worn off I am sure it will help them remember this day forever.

 

What would a baptism be without a plate of cookies?

Isabelle is counting down days until she can get baptized.

It's going to be a while!

That's how other people's children kept us moving and shaking last Saturday!  What a great day, and now I only have 3 more Saturdays to survive this month.

I think I can, I think I can!

BOOK REVIEW: PRINCESS ACADEMY

Title: Princess Academy
Author: Shannon Hale
Number of Pages: 314
Number of Stars: 2.5

This book was a New York Times Bestseller and a Newberry Honor book.  I think possibly our standards need to be raised.  I realize that this is a juvenile book, but it is ridiculously immature.  Hale's other book "The Goose Girl" was much better. 

Things I liked about this book...ummm, thinking, thinking, thinking...it's wholesome.  No bad language or immorality. 

What I didn't like about this book...I HATED the picture on the cover.  That girl is not at all how I wanted to picture the main character.  So her just staring at me all of the time was annoying.  This book was so predictable.  Too much so.  There wasn't even a faint glimmer of hope for a different ending.  A large portion of this book was spent on "quarry speech".  It really didn't make any sense, and I wish the author could have found a way to remove it from the story altogether, it was pretty lame.  If you are between the ages of 8 and 12 and you are a girl, you will disagree 100% with my review and you should read it.  If you are a mom, please, please go read something else!