the grass is always greener...

or it should be. my grass did not turn out very green at all. and i actually forgot to ice four extra cupcakes to make my 'field' bigger, so i didn't even use the scoreboard or bench that i made. but it worked out all the same.
i made a 'dora and friends play baseball' themed cupcake-cake for the kids' birthdays this weekend. lily and topher love the show. topher admittedly loves boots, dora's monkey friend, but yes- he loves a 'girl' show. chris doesn't really care, since he just calls dora topher's girlfriend. that makes him a ladies' man, and apparently there's nothing wrong with that.
anyway, i need to work on taking better pictures of my cupcakes, cause i thought i had good pictures, but when i looked at them, i realized they kinda stunk. weird lighting, therefore weird flash.
anyway, i made my own buttercream icing. that added about an hour to my process. and that's not including the dishes. oh how i loathe doing the dishes after making buttercream and washing it out of my icing tips! at least i use disposable icing bags. i am attempting to try to get ready to do more 'homemade' stuff and less 'from the box/can' stuff. it's time consuming though. and it already took me about 6 hours to make all the little figures for the cupcakes. maybe i could do it faster, if i did it all in one sitting. but i did it over three nights, after the kids went to bed, and i watched lots of GLEE (awesome) and American Idol (terrible) all the while. dora did not turn out the way i was hoping she would. but backpack did! and i really enjoyed making the trees and flowers.
the kids recognized their 'friends' boots, swiper the fox, map, backpack, and dora, so i guess my cupcakes were a success in their very young, and non-descriminating eyes. hope you enjoy these pics as much as my kids enjoyed stuffing these sweet confections in their faces.

Toto's Two

when i look at topher with his new haircut, i see topher-from-the-past. when he was a skinny little baby with a big ol'head, without much hair. now he's a skinny little boy with a big ol'head, without much hair!

saturday we celebrated topher's 2nd birthday! yowsers. we went to liberty market for brunch with topher's only state-side imo- grace, and charles. topher ate most of my grilled bread pudding, which meant i had to eat most of his pizza. it worked out pretty well, especially since he got my bread pudding for free! (thanks again Joe!)then we proceeded to chandler mall to ride the train, again. except chris was around and got to ride the train with the kids for the first time!

geez louise kids. try not to look so exicted...
the day was looking alot like lily's birthday, so we decided to mix things up a bit and go to church. it's funny, but because lily and topher are so close in age, i sometimes take for granted that they are two different human beings. topher often gets the short end of the stick because he is smart and easy going. he almost talks as much as lily does. and he almost pees on the potty as much as lily does. but he's a year younger than her! he just moved into his big boy bed, and he is going through the exact same transition issues as she was at his age. he either wakes up really early (a bit before 6) and stays up, or he wakes up at 4ish, cries to make sure he is not alone in the world, and quickly drifts back off to sleep. and it made me so mad at first, because i was tired, and cause i already went through this crazy stage with lily. but topher is very much entitled to have a turn too!

topher is a great little monster. he has the best poker face in the world. maybe he will make millions on the world poker circuit. you can't always tell if he is scared, sad, happy, or elated by the expression on his face. that always makes me laugh. sometimes when he speaks, his nostrils flare automatically. again- very funny. the way he calls lily 'noona' is one of the sweetest sounds. he loves his noona. he also really really really likes food. if there is food on the table, topher is at the table. he always finishes eating before everyone because he always starts eating before everyone. he has to have his first bite before we start our mealtime prayer, and often struggles to swallow his first taste of whatever goody someone has given him, so that he can say 'thank you' for the treat.

topher, you are so very special to dad and me. we love you SO MUCH. and we are SO THANKFUL that God blessed us with such an incredible, cute, hilarious, and tender-hearted little guy like yourself. i am sorry i expect you to act like a three year old (read: a 20 year old actually) even though you just turned 2! topher, you are a superduper kid, and though you are loving on the superhero- batman, pretty hard right now, he ain't got nothing on you.


this pic was from a week ago. he loves his hand-me-down batman uniform (from sungu!)as you will see in a second...


birthday batman to the rescue! 'what? this cupcake needs to be demolished? no problemo!'


batman, half man, half bat, totally incredible. happy birthday bubba. we love you so much!

Good Bye Glorious Hair!

i have made two attempts in topher's life to cut his hair. the first attempt was not that bad. the second... was horrifyingly bad. i was banished from the use of scissors (which makes cutting coupons an extra special task.) just joking. i am allowed to use scissors. just not near topher's head.
then chris and i decided it was time for a change. mostly cause topher's bedhead was starting to look like a bird had built a nest on his head and was awaiting the arrival of little baby birds.
so tuesday night was the fateful night and here are pics from our awesome adventure:

topher with his gorgeous, those sparse, locks:


patiently awaiting his turn while papa jerry got his hair trimmed up first. he was pretty excited about this whole hair-falling-off-of-your-head business!


loving his first hair cut from someone other than mama!


who needs hair to be good looking??? not these three studs!

The Darndest Things

lily is a pretty bossy little lady. today as we were all just playing hide-and-surprise (you hide under the covers then yell surprise. even if there is no one around to surprise). topher was not wearing a diaper or undies, so i kept reminding him that it's not ok to pee on my bed. then lily took over, as she very often does:
"topher, tell mom if you have to pee. topher, no pee on the bed. topher you have to tell mom if you have to pee pee on the potty. just pee pees on the potty. topher no pee pee in my eye. ok? no pee pee in my eye."
wow. that's a good rule that i never thought to make.so far, so good. topher has not peed in anyone's eyes.
then as we were finishing up our snack of yogurt and muffins, the kids got out of their seats with mischief in their eyes. topher slowly sauntered over to lily's spot, took her untouched muffin, walked around the corner to a spot where i could just see him smirking, and jammed the muffin in his greedy little mouth.
this was the perfect oportunity for lily to grab the rests of topher's yogurt and polish it off before he cam back. both kids were fully satisfied by their 'stolen snacks' and all-around deviousness, so much so that neither recognized that not only had they stolen something from the other, but they in fact had gotten robbed as well.

Lily is 3. THREE. Dang!

three years ago, at this very moment, i was laying in a hospital bed, playing cribbage with chris and robert, peeing through a catheter, and waiting for lily to arrive.
seven hours later, i would meet my little/huge daughter. that day she went through the birth canal, entered the world, met her mom, dad, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and most of my awesome friends. that day she also learned how to eat using her mouth, and how to pee and poo in a diaper. a big day for everyone.


two years ago, around this time, i was still really pregnant, hoping topher would not arrive early, because we were having a big 1st birthday celebration for lily. she was just mastering her walk, learning to eat 'real people' food, and figuring out how to wind daddy even tighter around her little finger.


this day, last year, we had a fun little birthday party for our little lady at mc donalds. she was not saying much, but thinking plenty.her favorite past-times included crying, playing, running, watching the backyardigans, and hanging out with her cousin sungu, and brother topher.


today is lily's third birthday and i cannot believe she is already three. it's craziness. sheer and utter craziness. this morning we went to mc donald's with chris. we played on the slide, ate some 'eggs' (are those really eggs?) with 'fancy ketchup' (that's what the package says), and had a gay old time as a family. then chris went to work and the kids and i proceeded to chandler mall (again!) to ride the train and play in the play area. more fun ensued. now are home, topher is napping, lily is reading this post behind me, trying to correct my grammar as i go along.

we have had our ups over the last three years, and we have had our downs. we have taken turns acting like giant, stubborn, unreasonable, and selfish babies. i probably had my turn for longer than i should have. maybe as the mom, i wasn't ever supposed to have a turn actually... but in the midst of lily's growth over the last three years, one of her finest qualities that has really shone through has been her deep love for her family, especially topher. this love dislpays itself through many hugs and kisses, through the words: "i love you", through emapthy when someone else is in pain, through making sure everyone stays quiet while topher naps (even though she should also be napping!), and especially through her forgiveness- not keeping any record of wrongs, especially all of mine.

anyway, i just wanted to wish my precious little lily a super happy birthday, because you make me verry happy.

are you crapping me???

topher is now in a big boy bed after a ridiculous incident when chris went to check on him in the middle of the night and he was climbed half-way out of his crib. ugh. i knew this day was going to come, but i was kinda hoping it was going to be when we were back into a house, and topher was like 5. he's been getting up twice a night, and we have been resolute to get up and put him back into his own bed every time. it's exhausting. and i could lock him in his room, cause i know that works really well for lots of people, but of course topher is kinda sick right now, so locking him up is not an option. at least not for this moment.

i don't know what topher is sick with right now. it's like a terrifying mix of insomniatic pms plus the flu. he's not really an insomniac. he is sleeping. but he wakes up so much that i guess i feel like the insomniac. and he doesn't have the flu. he just occassionally has a fever. and he doesn't have pms. he's just really moody and only wants to eat sweets.

so yesterday we had a GREAT morning. even though we had a TERRIBLE TERRIBLE night. we went to the zoo with our friends samantha and leila. i will have to post pics later. then the kids took a nap in the car and we went to chandler mall to play in the kids' play area and eat and look around. it was a pretty kid-centered day! we got home at 3ish and just hung out in front of the tv. i suddenly remembered that my wonderful photographer friend jenny, who took the kids' pics on tuesday, said she might post some pics of the kids. (i will post those soon!) so i went to my room to check it out. we have a laptop in the living room, but it's kinda slow. and i was going to be real quick. but of course, i was not quick enough, though i was out of the room for 3 minutes. THREE MINUTES.

i come back into the living room to find topher standing in front of the entertainment center smearing something on the top of it. i did the quickest assessment i could of the situation and deducted that he was smearing his own feces on our wonderful ikea furniture. this was deduced by the odor, the small serving of soft serve poop on the carpet, and topher saying 'poopoo!'. are you crapping me kid?!?!?

i picked topher up, yelled at lily not to touch ANYTHING or go near anywhere, and went straight for the bathtub. topher was wearing a diaper, but was squatting while watching tv, not leaving enough room for his excrements to fill the diaper, only allowing it to overflow out the back of the diaper, onto his pants and the back of his shirt, which in turn landed on the carpet, which of course he stepped in, and eventually got on his hands, which is when i found him, defiling our furniture.

i sat on the edge of the tub, and proceeded to undress the dirtiest kid in the universe, very carefully. sure there was dung everywhere, but there didn't need to be dung in his hair. cause kaka in hair is supergross. i washed his hands first. then his backside. and this was no ordinary excrement folks. it was like mortar. i could have built a fine, yet stinky brick wall with this stuff. most of it i was trying to get off of my hands, and down the drain, some of it i tried to put in the toilet, cause that's where poo belongs- IN THE TOILET. are you listening to me topher!?!?! (this wasn't really his fault. he was wearing a diaper. i don't know who to blame for this right now, but when i figure it out, that person is going to get an earfull. though i have a sinking feeling that this is partially my own fault.) then i washed his feet, cause his heels were covered in the stuff. i was amazed at 1.how he could have made such an insane mess in such a short time. and 2.how his beautiful little body could have produced such foulness. and 3.how i had yet another poo-related story to blog about.

lily was very good during this whole ordeal. she came over and sat on the edge of the tub with me. it was a little dangerous (cause it's the side of the tub, and cause there was crap everywhere.) but very sweet. she was a great support with all her head shaking in dismay, and "eww. gross topher."s.

i feel like a first-time mom these days. really tired, and surrounded by explosive excrements. it's all a labor of love though- the waking up in the middle of the night, and the getting tons of poo on my hands, and the shampooing of the carpet once again. and i just have to remind myself of that. and boy will i remind topher of all this! probably when he's older. and probably in front of a girl he likes, and a bunch of his guy friends.

Ostrich Festival

this weekend was the ostrich festival in chandler. i think back in the day, chandler used to be an ostrich hotspot. so to commemorate the past, the city puts up a fair where there are regular old scary fair rides, a petting zoo, pig races, and even ostrich races. we decided to go saturday afternoon which was a bit of a mistake. we had evening plans so we weren't going to be at the festival for very long. but parking and waiting in lines took way longer than we anticipated, so we actually didn't get to see any animals at all! except for the ostrich's and camels that we drove past on our way out. the kids were actually both too short for all the kid's rides, but they got to go on a few of them cause they were accompanied by a parent. there were good things and bad things about the festival, but all in all, we had a great time as a family.

here are some good and bad pictures from our hour and a half at the festival:

topher and his mama


chris and lily


chris and lily on these swings that spin around. lily loved it! she was a bit too short to go on the ride, but they let her anyway, since she was accompanied by her dad, who happened to be wearing these shoes:

(i'm no photographer! and i was holding a very sad and squirmy topher while i took this terrible shot.)

topher on one of the few rides he could actually go on! choo choo training it up with his dad


one of the biggest reasons to not go to the ostrich festival, or other big public fairs- outhouses! portajohns! whatever you want to call them. yucky germ-infested stalls

"Eww. Gross Topher"

this is lily's favorite line of late. or it's my favorite line that she delivers with such gusto, a few times a day. topher is kinda gross. he's a boy, so apparently that's ok. but he's been pouring on the grossness pretty thick the last two days.

yesterday, topher was pulling on my earrings. i've been trying to 'dress up' a bit more lately. more for my husband than anyone else. and not that he made a comment about my appearance or anything. the mirror makes comments, and i just feel bad for the guy sometimes. so yeah, been trying to wear earrings to make it look like i am making an effort on my looks. and the kids love it. they really like looking at my giant fake jewels, and occassionally pulling on them. the hoops i was wearing yesterday were very kid-friendly. they 'snap' shut, so if they get pulled on, they come undone quite easily with no ligament damage to my ears. topher pulled both of my earrings off and then wandered off. i didn't really care. until about 5 minutes later when he was dropping off the browns to the superbowl. or in this case- the little plastic ikea green potty bowl. him pooping holding my earrings wouldn't have been a big deal if he hadn't dropped one of my earrings in his poop. murphy's law or something like that, right? good bye earrings. you may be kid-friendly, but you are not poop-friendly. one of those earring are in the trash, the other is floating in the pipes, in the midst of topher's poopies.

then this morning, topher was in a loving mood. which was wonderful. he was full of hugs and kisses. one kiss in particular landed right smack on my lips. which is usually so sweet and wonderful. little kids' kisses make my day. i love when my kids give me hugs and kisses for no reason. but this kiss in particular was gross. cause topher had a bit of a runny nose, and when he ran off after giving me a kiss, i was left with a booger on my lip. eww. gross topher. i love you too. but that's gross.

we went to walmart this evening. i put topher in his undies cause he peed right before we left the house, and i was planning on getting him to pee once at walmart too. and he did! it was so great. (by the way, after we got back from vegas, don't remember if i've already mentioned this, but topher is not 'potty trained' anymore! argh.) when i was getting ready to put him in his car seat, i gave him a kiss (no boogers!) and then felt my arm getting warm. at first i thought it was the warmth of the love running between my beautiful son and i. but no. it was urine. running through his undies, and his pants, onto my sleeve. oh topher. i would have been mad, only i was so happy that he urinated on my arm rather than his car seat. cause my sweater is easy to throw into the wash, his car seat cover- not so much.

so, that' my disgusting son for you. but i feel like i need to share something else that happened at walmart. cause i blog for you readers- to learn from my mistakes. cause i really make so stinkin many of them! anyhoo, after we had our wonderful time in the walmart bathroom, where both topher and lily peed, we were just walking around having a gay old time. when all of a sudden lily fell out of the shopping cart. when we go shopping, i put the kids in the basket-part of the shopping cart. they just stand in there and do their thing. it's not a big deal. or it wasn't before today. anyhoo, lily was standing at the edge of the shopping cart and fell backwards. like she actually did a flip in the air before landing on the ground, kind of on her stomach, but a bit of her head did catch the ground. of course. so there she was screaming and crying in my arms. i know there were some people around me, but i hardly noticed them. topher was sitting in the shopping cart, also crying, cause i guess he felt like crying was the cool thing to do. i was not crying, cause it's not pms week for me. but man did i feel like a giant loser. and i felt so bad for lils cause that really must have hurt and scared the crap out of her. it scared the crap out of me! one mom who saw the whole thing, came up to me and asked if we were ok and then asked if lily wanted a piece of candy. cause candy cures all. it was very nice of her but i declined. i would hook lily up with a treat in a bit. but the other mom said exactly the words that any mom needs to hear in this kind of terrible situation: "don't worry. that's happened to me before. you're not a bad mom." thanks lady at walmart! i needed that.

as for lily, she's doing alright. actually, she got over the fall pretty quickly as we started doing some grocery shopping and she saw that i was getting yogurt drinks (her favorite). i also let her pick up a box of cheese nips and carry them all over the store. she did tell me she was hungry and wanted to eat. that alarmed me since
1. we had some oatmeal before leaving the house and 2. she never says she is hungry. i thought maybe she was having a concussion or that the fall had turned her into a person who suddenly liked to eat. we had some rice at home and that seemed to appease her just fine. no bruise or bump, no throwing up, no passing out. i think we were pretty lucky this time!

so, if you take anything away from this post, i hope it's the knowledge that your kids can, and truly might, fall out of a shopping cart. or that it's not safe for your kids to poo while holding your earrings. or that you should wipe your kid's nose before they kiss you.

Amy's Baby Shower

this weekend i had my first gig as a cupcake provider! i am certainly not a baker, as i used a box recipe. i was going to make some home-made chocolate buttercream frosting, but i ran out of time and patience, so i used store-bought frosting too. BUT i made all my cupcake toppers by hand, which is why i ran out of time and could not make icing.

the theme of the baby shower was 'boy or girl?', because my friend amy is crazy and does not want to know the sex of the baby. (crazy!) the shower was thrown by kim and bre, one of my wonderful mothers-in-law, and sister-in-law (also one of many!). they did a great job, planning just the right number of games, having a great array of foods, and just making amy feel special and wonderful- cause that's what she is!

good luck to rob and amy, who are expecting their first bundle of miraculous joy some time in april!

here's amy with her cupcakes:


a picture of all the cupcakes. i accidentally put the girls' cupcakes on the blue side, and the boys' ones on the pink side. didn't notice til i looked at this pic today. oops! will pay attention to all details in the future...:


'girl?' on a daisy. just discovered i love fondant flowers. could have shown up better had the icing been chocolate as i originally planned. :


some girly trinkets- ballet slippers, tiara and wand, tea party, on top row. bottom row of cupcakes was the same for the boy's side and the girl's side- blocks, baby items, teddy bear.:


some manly things- cars, rugby ball anbd jersey (cause rob loves rugby), and other baby items in blue:


baby rob sitting on a canadian flag (cause rob is canadian. and that's awesome.) there was a baby amy sitting on an american flag, but someone ate that before i could take a pic. oh well:

Ham Time!

I love my family. But I only get to see my parents about twice a year if I'm lucky. Back in the day, it didn't matter as much if Chris and I weren't able to make the trek to Canada to see my folks. But now that there are grandkids involved- everything is much more complicated! This was actually only the second time that my dad has seen Topher. That is a sad fact and makes me feel like I need to start selling drugs (as a pharmaceutical rep people! like i really want to get arrested by my own husband!) so that we can buy plane tickets every other month.

We had a great week and a half in Vegas with the 'whole family' (minus my three bros), and then it was supernice to have my parents in Arizona for an extra four days. Especially since they drove back to Arizona with me and the kids from Vegas. I really don't know what I would have done without them!

Here's our two weeks together in pictures:

Lily and her halmuhni


Feast. Prepared by my mom. In literally 20 minutes. Everyone gains about 15 pounds when she is around. Considering how much time I spent with her recently, let's just say not all my jeans fit the same anymore.


Chilling with harabuhji. Washing feet and stuff.


Toph and his harabuhji.


The ladies chillin at Texas Road House. A personal fave of my mom's.


Early birthday celebration for the kids. They got hooked up!


Going for a little bike ride and stroll around the apartment complex.


Final pic before more good byes.

Au Revoir Ma Soeur

sometimes when i feel sad, or full of thought- i feel french.
today i am thinking about my crazy sister who is 14 hours away (by plane). we said our 'good byes' exactly a week ago today in vegas.
i didn't think i would be sad about our seperation. i mean, we had spent 15 months living with each other slash pissing each other off, in a loving way that only sisters can live with each other slash piss each other off. then she was 3 hours away, but we still managed to see a lot of each other. but now she's gone, and i am left here feeling kinda... triste. (sad in french. stay with me here folks)
my whole life, i have been with my sister. either sharing a bed, or a room, or both. she is three school years ahead of me, though only 30 months older than me (i got my reproducing-like-a-rabbit gene from my mother. my brother is 15 months apart from my sister and me.) we lived together until she left for japan after she finished university. that was kind of a sad moment in our relationship. we thought it would be the end of our time together forever. si stupide! so stupid!
i went to visit jeehon for about a month in japan. that was pure awesomeness. then she moved to korea and that's where she stayed for a few years. unbeknownst to us, our paths would cross again about two years later when i graduated from university, and we ended up living together in a small apartment, sharing rooms, in seoul.
then jeehon got engaged and was getting ready to move to texas. we were sad because we were sure that this would truly be the end of our time together. she was getting married, was moving back to the states, and i was staying i korea, hanging out, waiting for my crazy boyfriend to figure out what lay ahead for us.
jeehon and i said our good byes in toronto after her wedding, though we saw each other again in texas once, and then at my wedding the following year.
and then jeehon moved in with chris and i about two weeks after my wedding. and she stayed with us for 10 months while james was in basic training for the army. then we kinda said our goodbyes as jeehon prepared to move back to korea, with james, and the army. but by now, teary goodbyes had lost their lustre.
'see ya later' became our new mantra. or, 'a la prochaine', which is much more accurate, which means- till the next time. and as you know, the next time came a year and a half after she had left, when james got deployed to iraq.
so now my sister is in korea again, expecting to have a baby soon, again. and they are supposed to be in korea for a few years. we are hoping to go out there once, and hopefully we will see them again at another family reunion (though hopefully not in vegas). but for some reason, our good bye felt different for me this time. kinda like the days of yore when we really didn't know what the future held and were pretty sure 'this' was going to be the last time we would live together again.
maybe it's my pms that's making me mopey. maybe it was the talk from my parents that i need to keep up with my french that is making me think 'en francais'. i am just hoping that one day, my sister and i will be able to live together on the same continent, in the same CITY, without having to live in the same house. je reve... i dream...


here's jeehon and my mom, all fancied up to watch a cirque du soleil show in vegas

the ham women!

jeehon's final farewell to her niece and nephew. it was pretty sad, especially since my kids were completely asleep for the whole thing.

ABC Gum + No Diapers + Buffet = Disaster Night

we are finally back from vegas! we had a great great great great time. except this one night when we went out to the buffet at mandalay bay...

from the title of my post, in case you don't know, ABC Gum means: Already Been Chewed Gum.

gross. i know lily. anyway, we were sitting at our booth, which had a planter of fake plants in it right behind us. when lily had finished her meal, she was just playing around in the thing. she wasn't really messing with any of the fake plants, just occassionally picking up a rock or something. i saw this blue rock she was holding and didn't think too much of it. until we all had finished eating and realized the 'rock' was actually an old piece of gum, and she had stretxched it out, and tried to make a necklace out of it. which is how she got gum on her neck and in her hair:

no one was more amused than my bro-in-law, james. he took tons of pics. lily was not amused. especially when we tried to get the gum off of her skin. james googled it when we got home, and one website recommended we get a warm wash cloth and rub her neck, and to also chew another piece of gum and try to get the old gum to stick to the new gum. so i was a rubbing, chris was a chewing, lily was a screaming, and everyone was a laughing.

but that was the end of the meal. before the meal even began, i took lily to the bathroom cause she had to potty. good girl! (this was pre-gum fiasco.) topher was dead-asleep with chris and james, or so i thought. he hadn't napped that day (or for the greater portion of our vegas week-and-a-half) so he passed out in the car on our way to the buffet. but when i got to our table, james showed me this beautiful picture:

sure it looks like a happy father and son hanging out together. only the son's pants are wet with urine, which you can't really see in the pic. and the dad's pants are urine-stained too. which you CAN see in the pic.
being the mom of two nearly-potty-trained kids, my diaper bag is not very big these days. i carry around a spare Pull-Up, an empty plastic bag, and spare undies and pants for lily and topher.
but for some reason, i had used my new, little diaper bag to go out earlier that day, so i took all my kid-essential things out of the bag, and only had my wallet and camera. lotta good those things were going to do for me. jeehon, for some other odd reason, had no diaper bag with her. but she did have an extra diaper and set of clothes in her car. so james went out to their car to retrieve the very big items (Sungu, though only 9 months older than toph, wears lots of 3T and 4T stuff. toph still wear lots of 18-24month stuff) for his nephew.
though we had a really rough start and end to the night (oh yeah, sungu crapped his pants when we were leaving the restaurant, but he was wearing a diaper, only we had no more clean diapers to put on him.) the middle part was expensive, yet delicious.