it's all in the hair

as you all know, i am married to a stud of a man.

he has had the distinct pleasure of being able to look like a total homeless bum for the last four years, but then the tides at work changed and he was forced to shave.

 

he was sad. i was not:

 

look at the adorableness! this is the face i fell in love with 8 years ago.

 

but, this is also one of my fave look- a bit of facial hair. chris was still unhappy about being told what to do with his face by the fine people of the fine city he works for:

 

here's chris looking like a crazy transient. how many woodland creatures can you spot in his beard?

 

the last time chris had a clean face was when topher was a baby and lily was a wee toddler. so when the kids woke up and were greeted by their clean shaven dad, they were both very surprised. topher said that chris looked like a little boy, and lily said that she thought chris looked very handsome.

mia also loved her dad's unburly face. she was all about giving him kisses. so sweet.

 

then we had mia's birthday party and it was a hairy mess.

well, not really. but it was funny.

my 4 year old nephew is growing out his hair. he looks so handsome! so ready for a lunch meeting at the drop of a dime :)

chris hasn't seen gabe in awhile, and when he saw him running around in our backyard, chris had to ask who that was. not a shining moment for chris as an uncle i guess...

anyhoo, then gabe was playing basketball, and he made a basket so chris said: "great job gabe!" (way to come back uncle chris!) gabe said: "thanks uncle chris!" and looked in the direction of the voice that spoke out such wonderful words of encouragement.

and then gabe got really confused. he never took his eyes off of the man who was speaking to him, but gabe calmly asked his dad, who was sitting right by him: "hey dad, is uncle chris here?"

the boy was staring right at chris! classic moment.

anyway, after chris and gabe were reintroduced we took this picture of them:

 

preciousness.

 

stay tuned as we continue on this journey of chris' hair. which for the record- he is back to not shaving and creating a nice home for the stray cats in our neighborhood...

Mia Moo Moo

where did that nickname come from? why do we call her 'moo', 'moo moo', 'mia moo'? i don't know. cause she looks like a sweet chubby baby calf? the name started randomly and has stuck.

our sweet little baby turned one two weeks ago. her birthday was on saturday the 10th, which was perfect timing for a little family party. and by little- i mean with chris' parents, grandparents, and brother's family, and cousins et al. but still, it was small compared to the kinds of parties lily and topher have when we invite friends too.

anyway, the nice thing about a first birthday party is that the guest of honor has no idea it's their birthday, and also has no idea how to request their needs (properly) let alone their desires.
so, i picked a minnie mouse party theme cause i thought it would be pretty and easy. i got lots of awesome ideas from Pinterest (i joined it! major time waster!!!!!! but i love it so...) and i executed them... moderately well.

i hate cake pops cause i cannot master them. but i did rice crispy pops and they were easy, gluten free, cheap, and moldable. my new favorite birthday party treat.

Mia and her lovely Aunt Lindsay. Hail the queen :)

Mia and her Papa Jerry. Notice she is wearing the same dress that Emma wore to her first birthday party 9 months before, which is the same dress that Sunha wore to her first birthday party 9 months before.  

Oreos are the best decorating tool! Mia was interested in her cake but did not attack it with the vim and vigour i expected her to.

 

then we celebrated her birthday again this last friday with my sister and her family, and our friends charles and grace. we also celebrated charles' birthday, cause he turned 40 earlier this month- even though he doesn't look a day over 21.

 

Mia attacked her gelato cake with the enthusiasm i had originally expected.

we did the traditional 'dol jahbi' tyhat one year olds do at their first birthday parties. the reason we didn't do it at her original birthday party is cause i thought Jeehon had her han bok (the traditional korean dress she is wearing). but then Jeehon just informed me that i still had it, and when i looked- i realized i did. Oops!

here are the elements for Mia to choose from- a wisk(to be a baker/chef), a football (any athlete. not just a football player, though with her current girth, she would make a pretty good linebacker), a guitar (to be a performer), a thermometer (to be a doctor), money (to be mad rich), thread (to signify long life), and a book (to be a scholar or sorts).

and Mia chose...

thread. she wants to live forever folks! or she wants to be a crafter. who knows.

but she really stood in front of the table and studied the different things on the table and chose carefully. i love this little monkey so much!!!!

 

anyhoo, i know i make a lot of jokes at Mia's expense about her weight- but before you call CPS (again), i do it all in jest and cause she is a chubby baby- just the way babies should be.

here are her 1 year stats:

-weight: 20 lbs 6oz (50th percentile)

- height: 30.5 inches (90th percentile)

-head circumference: 18.5 inches (didn't catch that one)

 

our girl is growing and developing so quickly we just want her to stop! she is a babbling, walking wonder. Mia moo- you are perfect and we just want to that you for giving us such a magical year filled with so much love, joy, wonderment, and laughter. we hope your LOOONG life is filled with more of the same.

empty promises. from me. not Jesus

its been two weeks since i said i was going to post about my husband, and then halloween happened (seperate post), and then chris and i went to a parenting conference (should do a post on that...) and then mia turned ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (seriously gigantic seperate post), and then today happened. nothing crazy. but just something i want to remember. and since it requires no pictures to be uploaded, i will just tell you about today instead of all the other stuff i will hopefully get around to blogging about.

so today the internet guy was supposed to come between 1-3. of course, i pick lily up at 1:05 and her school is 2 minutes away from our house. surely the internet guy wasn't going to come at 1. right? right?!?! wrong. i was at lily's school at 12:50, in hopes of being the first mom in line- i was the second. and at 12:53 i get a call from the internet guy saying he was about ten minutes away. i told him we should be home by then- which was a LIE cause there was no way i was going to be home at 1:03- unless i wanted to get home without a lily. so i started praying. a retarded prayer that didn't warrant any attention from the Lord who has so much more important things to deal with. but i prayed nonetheless. i prayed for the internet guy to get stopped at every red light possible, or to realize he had a thirst that needed to be quenched immediately at a local nordstrom's cafe- a mere 10-15 miles from my house.

i sat and waited impatiently for lily's class to come out, and when they did- it was 1:05. dang them for being punctual and not early! and then the car in front of me handed lily's teacher a sack, and had a conversation! WHAT!?!?!? it is a serious offence to talk to the teacher while she is ushering kids into their cars. and i was seeing the rule break for the first time on a day when i needed no words to be spoken and for me to be able to be in two places at the same time a la 'walk to remember'.

lily finally got in the car after i had lost about a liter of sweat through my arm pits. i raced home and i was stuck behind a van. it was the internet guy! he parked in front of my house about 2 seconds before i pulled into my driveway. the kids went into the house and i went to greet this seriously tardy internet guy. at this point it was 1:12. where the players dwell (that's the name of an R&B band and from one of their songs...don't worry about it... i digress) i told him how thankful i was for our sunchronized timing and i mentioned that i had prayed for this to happen. he didn't pay too much attention to my babbling, but mentioned that his GPS sent him to the wrong place.

moral of the story: Jesus can and will mess with your electronics when He wants to. technology has nothing on my Jesus.

so i shared this story with my high school small group girls, and i shared it with my kids, cause it's important for us to see Jesus at work around us. and i am not very good at sharing my faith with my kids, but i am trying. and one day i will print my blog into a book for my kids to have, and i want them to remember this story (cause they were not paying attention when i was telling them about it today. kids!..)