october fails. november's wins

So! it's been almost a whole month since I last posted. October was full of failures- writing two blog posts, keeping the house clean, not eating too much candy, taking a good picture of all my kids in their Halloween costumes, etc, etc.

but alas, none of those were earth shattering events, so we move on. this was a very busy week in the Watson household. as many of you know, and were even counting down with me, maurice's time in our family expired. November 8th was the big day, but I wasn't as excited as many people thought I would be. why? cause I know something else was coming. and that something else is named Sven:

look how svelte that bad boy is! sure you can kinda-almost see the contour of my ruggedly handsome husband's face. but not enough! the kids do not like sven very much. but Sunha does!

she's such a sweet girl- loving her uncle no matter what is living on his face.

 

then we drove to san diego. again. for a quick 43 hour visit. we left Friday night after school, got stuck in some terrible traffic, and got to the Malloy's house by 11:00pm. which is terrible since we even gained an hour when we got there, so our trip took about 7 hours! and we didn't even stop to eat a meal or anything. that was painful.

 

then Saturday we had a birthday extravaganza for our precious little Mia. I 'made' a cake for her, as in I made a Team UmiZoomi figure in fondant, and stuck it on a kinda plain cake that I bought for $8. it was so great not slaving away baking, and icing, and creating something amazing- when I had someone else do all that for me for almost the same price!

We went to Chuck E Cheeses which is my kids' and Sungu's favorite place.

More easy fun was had by all. Especially James and Chris:

it was her party so she cried when she wanted to

lily and topher on a pretend roller coaster

happy!

sad!

sunha trying to get more tickets!

cake time!

mid-happy birthday song relighting of the candles. mia got ahead of herself.

love that smile!!!!!!!!!

opening her presents

James, Chris and Sungu trying to get lots and lots of tickets.

 

AND THEN after that, we went to the beach!

man, the Malloys really know how to party. the boys set up a tent for the kids to play in, we had hot dogs, cup ramen, hot chocolate, marshmallows, and the best time ever!

so stinkin fun.

Mia passed out after Chuck E Cheese. Sugar coma or just tired? Hard to tell.

beautiful day to be at the beach!

I love my precious girl!

Mia loves her precious daddy! And he loves her.

Sunha!

Mia is loving her cup ramen :)

 

And believe it or not, all that happened before 7pm. Jeehon and I helped load the kids up and then we ran away to an outlet mall! it was so great! I didn't buy anything but the fact that I was out childless was so fantastic!

 

 

2 weeks. lots of kids!

fall break is over in about 14 hours. my kids haven't been in school since September 27. that was a LONG time ago. what is fall break you ask my Canadian friends? it's a break for kids who start school in august. but my kids started school in july, so they get two weeks off, not just one. I live on the west coast now friends, no one here has any real respect for labor day. by the time east coast children are getting ready for school, my kids are getting ready to wrap up semester 1.

anyhoo, for our first week of fall break, we spent it with Gabe, Corban, and Emma. they were not on fall break, but their parents were! I am so glad that Robert and Lindsay got to get away for a few days just the two of them. I admittedly was TERRIFIED of having six kids for four days, but it ended up being just fine! i can't say it was GREAT, cause then chris is going to get some idiotic notion in his head that I want to have six kids. which I DO NOT. ever. but the kids played great together, and my nephews and niece were on their best behavior! so proud of them. we never went out in public together, cause that would have been a guaranteed lose-at-least-one kid situation. and
my minivan is not properly equipped to hold six kids in the back (oh how I wish I had an odyssey or sienna! Asian car makers know how to make a minivan right!) but I had to go to church on Wednesday with all of them, so lily and topher were allowed to take turns sitting in the front seat with me and they were SO HAPPY! they are really looking forward to growing up, but I do not want it to happen as quickly as it's been happening.

did I tell you a few weeks ago I woke up to mia calling out for me. that's not unusual, but instead of saying 'mommy!' or 'mom!' she was calling out for 'jihae!' it was so stinkin hilarious. she is the only one of my three kids who has ever done that. she is a baby comedian. a disrespectful one, in the eyes of hard-core Koreans, but still a funny one.

anyway, after my blondies left the nest, we also abandoned ship and drove to san diego to hang out with the malloys. (we unfortunately had to leave chris behind. but he survived! just barely. but he survived.) but the rest of us had so much fun! james was a champ and let jeehon and I have plenty of time to hang out together. our first night together, we went out and watched a movie. in a movie theater! it was amazing! I seriously cannot remember the last time my sister and I watched a movie together in a movie theater together. maybe 6 years ago- pre kids? we watched 'we're the millers' and it was hilarious. it might not be for everyone, but it was for us.

my niece sunha is in school twice a week and she is so dang cute. my sister packs her a turkey sandwich pretty much every day, and every day she tells jeehon that she finished her 'hamwich'. SO CUTE! kids can be annoying, but they can be so cute and that's why we keep em around. I told jeehon to start making her 'jamwiches' to switch things up.

the kids are at a great age where we basically didn't do anything too amazing, but they were just so happy to hang out with their cousins! if gas and food wasn't so expensive the last two weeks would have cost me next to nothing!

and, to cap all this kid-filled fall break madness, I got a brand new niece! Sarah Joy Zahn was born to Josh and Aly on Sunday October 6. she was born 36 weeks and 6 days, but her little lungs were not exactly acting the way they should have been, so the pretty little lady had to hang out in the NICU for over a week. but she finally went home TODAY!!!!! (yippee!!!!!) can't wait til she is up and at em and raising heck with the rest of her cousins!

I love this picture cause Gabe and Topher were in trouble so they had their arms in the air- Korean style. (not clubbing style) then Emma came up and thought they were dancing so she joined them.

we ate a LOT of fruit snacks. it kept them quiet, happy, and they were eating fruit for pete's sake! it's good for them!

if Mia thinks people are dancing, Mia is dancing.

 

hanging out on a boat, in san diego, in the rain, and the wind. great time!!!!!

at the san diego zoo! a baby elephant is getting sprayed behind them!

sungu is a beast. he is almost as tall as me. and he's only 6. I need to buy some new heels.

 

crazy smiles. beautiful outfits :) and beautiful girls

san diego is so beautiful!!!!!!!!

matching is my fave.

my precious niece a few days before getting to go home!

 

Aly is a champ and is already a superstrong and awesome mama!!!

 

Cray Cray

that's my new name for Mia. it used to be 'chubby', cause she was chubby and delicious! but grandma did NOT like that at all, and then Mia lost her chub almost simultaneously, so yeah- it would have been mean to keep calling her that. Mia is 22 months old and she is C.R.A.Z.Y, thus her new name- 'cray cray'.

yesterday Mia fell down the stairs while holding a little bowl of grapes. I didn't see it happen, I just heard thuds, some screaming, and a final thud, and a cry. I ran downstairs to console my precious girl and to see if she was ok. she was pretty upset- understandably. but do you know why she was upset? cause she dropped her grapes. she hopped off of my lap to look for her wayward grapes.

then we went to the store today and she saw a baby with his mama and she kept saying she wanted to go and hug the baby. I told her that was kind yet creepy. if we go into a store with mannequins, especially kid mannequins, she needs to hug them  when we walk by. she is such a little lover.

she is hard to be with in public because she loves to RUN. and if I call her name, she thinks I am playing a game and proceeds to run away from me. it's pretty bad. I have to spank that out of her, but I haven't yet. cause she's just a baby... or she's my youngest... whatever. don't judge me.

but being at home with her is the best (except when she is tumbling down the stairs). she is fun to be with, she has the sweetest little voice and is learning SO MUCH. some of her sentences are four or five words long! she blows me away. and I can't even brag or take credit for that cause lily didn't talk til after she turned two, and topher spoke earlier, but I can't remember if he spoke in sentences before he turned two. I guess lily and topher can take credit for their little sister trying to be just like them.

 Mia brushing her teeth just like Lily and Topher. She has a tooth coming in so that is contributing to her being Cranky Cray Cray.

Mia is not aware of the fact that she is wearing a Darth Vader towel, but she is and it's ridiculously adorable. One day she will just be able to dry off by rolling around in Maurice...

 It rained a few times a few weeks ago. it was glorious. it's still 105 degrees here. not happy about that. but Mia was happy to play in the rain with her friend Maggie.

Mia polishing off a plate of ice cream at Bucca Di Beppos. She was also accidentally given a cup of lemonade instead of water. When the mistake was discovered, I gave her a cup of water and she took a sip, and then pushed the cup over to me and said "here you go mama." as in, 'give me back my sugary juice.'

 all dolled up with nowhere to go. I love when she puts on sunglasses (which she calls goggles) cause she tilts her face up and puckers her lips to keep the glasses on her face. it accentuates her cray crayness

 

 



Ham Time!

time for some Asian love!

 

oh creepy. I bet if you googled that a lot of inappropriate things would show up...

 

anyhoo, I got some pics from my brother's wedding, and I feel like my family doesn't make it onto the blog very much cause I don't live near them.

 

so here we go:

 

the original SEVEN of us hams-

 

(left to right)

Edwin, me, my dad, Alex (the groom), my mama, Jeehon, and Edward

 

 

 

 

and then seven turned into FIFTEEN

 (sixteen if you add my aunt who flew in from Korea!)

 

James, Jeehon, my dad, my mom, my aunt, Edward, Edwin, me, Chris, Mia

Sungu, Amber, Alex, Sunha, Lily, Topher

(looking at this picture makes me realize just how short the Hams are and how obscenely tall James and Chris are. And all us women are wearing serious high heels!)

another family pic



 

my three bros

 

flower girls!

 

 

ring bearers!

 

I love this pic of Sunha :)

 

my brother and amber danced to Lauren Hill "You're Just too Good to Be True"

and they actually had some choreographed moves. it was the cutest!!!!

 

Topher was not as confident as his uncle on the dance floor-

 

 

my poor brother is so Asian! look how red his face is! embarrassed? no. beer? yes.

 

Mis is amazed at something up on the ceiling

 

lovely lovely lovely wedding. more fun could not have been had. a better woman could not have joined our family.

 

 love you alex and amber!

 

 

nap time

the glorious magic of nap time.

lily and topher are at school right now. my mia is napping, and I even have one other baby napping in my room right now. the quiet is heavenly.

I have lots of other things I could be doing right now, but instead I sit. and I write. wait, i'm gonna drink coffee too. cause I can multi task...

 

excellent. you know what I could use? some chocolate. any chocolate. as simple as a twix bar, or a brownie, or maybe a twx bar melted on top of a brownie, with some marshmallow fluff in between. oh yeah. that sounds GOOD....

 

but I don't have any of that stuff in my pantry, so I will continue to write and be content with what I have.

 

this idea of contentment is a funny one. I have been struggling with it for quite some time. chris and I live on a budget. we don't hardly eat out, which means i make almost three meals at home every day. (sure one of those meals is cereal and milk, but i still get the bowl and spoon out and then wash em after they've been used. all of that goes with the labor that is known as 'making a meal happen at home.') anyway, i really want to go out and buy stuff. new shirts, new shoes, a rug for the living room. just stuff. pretty stuff.  but not necessary stuff.

 

remember how i got a kate spade purse for my birthday from my phenomenally generous and magical sister? i was SO anal about that purse. i wouldn't put things in that purse that might tarnish that purse in any way. for instance, at church chris would give me his empty travel mug after finishing his coffee and he would say: "can you put this in your purse?" and usually, my response would be "sure". but when kate came into the picture, my response changed to a firm "no. kate doesn't hold coffee mugs."

 

and then one day, i was having a lot of things go wrong. a lot. i was in my van with topher and mia, and the driver's side window rolled down but wouldn't roll back up. all i could see were dollar signs fluttering out of the open window. so i called our car repair guys and they told me to come on over. but before i called them, topher told me he really really had to pee. so i got an empty water bottle and he started to pee in it. cause i am a multi-tasking fool, i called our car guys while i was still holding topher's personal little urinal. cause i'm awesome like that.

 

mid way through my conversation with the car guys i started to put topher's urinal away. why? i assumed he was finished peeing. it had been quite awhile since he started peeing. but you know what they say when you assume something- you just make an ass out of you and me.

so before i knew what was happening, topher was STILL peeing, and wouldn't you know- he peed on kate.

 

the horror.

 

fortunately, my car window rolled back up. and fortunately, it was just a little pee. but it was still pee. but i could hear Jesus laughing at me, cause he has a serious sense of humour. and he was laughing at me and my love for stuff.

 

"do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. (and children urinate) but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven... for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

-matthew 6:19-20 (i added the part in parenthesis)

 

and with that- nap time is over. time to do some serious multitasking now that both littles are awake! and there is a strong chance that pee will be involved, as usual. 

life lately

besides school- here is what's going on with the kids:

lily:
the other day we were finishing up with dinner. lily finished first so she started to clear the table. she was like a hard working little waitress. it was so beautiful to witness! she would ask if someone was done with their plate, take it to the trash, throw anything out that needed to be thrown out, and then she would put the dish in the sink. if I had some money I would have tipped her! that girl is so ready to get a job.

topher: "noona! I am using the force to choke you!"
me: "topher, do not use the force on your sister."

topher: "it would be so cool if our house was made out of gum balls! it would be slippery and sticky. it would be awesome! I should pray about it: 'dear Lord Jesus (that's how he starts all of his prayers. so sweet), can you please make our house be made out of gum balls? amen."
so spiritual for a five year old! (and crazy, for wanting to choke his sister and all..)

mia:
pretty much everything she does is hilarious. or extremely dangerous.
she is talking so much more and has the cutest little voice. she loves to show off for her daddy and after I do lily's hair for school, mia comes over and says "my turn!" and I put her 17 hairs into a tiny little elastic and make a 'pony tail'.

see? 17 hairs= happy hair pony tail

getting ready for school and hiding in the rose garden

topher fishing for his breakfast

topher the farmer

loving hanging out at nana and papa's new place

I love these monkey children of mine