christmas

christmas and the month of december was busy as usual this year. jimmy was working a lot making the $. and i was doing everything else here at home....getting all the gifts for the kids, teachers, and family members (making many late night trips to toys r us, michaels, bed, bath and beyond, the mall, and every other store in this area!), sending out our cards, mailing packages, cleaning, organizing, and decorating the house, doing preparations for 2 birthdays this month, planning and preparing for our christmas dinner menu.. which of course takes a ton of trips to multiple grocery stores (you just can't get everything at one place! there's whole foods, kroger, korean grocery.), etc. i'm tired... and full from all the food that i've been eating. :P

but amidst all the craziness with traffic, crowds, and lines and hectic schedules, i am reminded that christmas time is still a joy for so many reasons. I've said this before in a previous post, but what the heck... I'll say 'em again... :). for one and most importantly, it a fresh reminder of the birth of Jesus and then ultimately His death in which He died for our sins... the gift of eternal life. then two, it's time with our family members that we may or may not see as often. it's a time to reflect on our relationships with our loved ones and to live and love with a clean heart. and three, for myself personally, i get to experience christmas through my kids. I get to be a kid all over again. i get to see the sheer excitement in addison and ellie's eyes. it makes all that holiday stress so worth it. ellie was slowly getting into it this year by watching her sister go crazy over the unwrapping of gifts. but it was addison who squealed with giddy delight with every gift. And the thought of santa coming to OUR house and delivering gifts was just beyond amazing for her. so it was a joy as a parent to witness such innocence, happiness and wonder.


addison's note to santa. she had to clarify which stocking was hers. hehe



cookies for santa and carrots for rudolph (because "he needs energy to lead the pack")



opening presents from santa... with bed head and all



horse on a stick! hehe it was one of her favorite gifts this year.



ellie got a new doll stroller.... because she puked on her old one during her stomach bug so then we threw it away.



loving her rocking blue dog...even backwards! santa did good this year!



addison wrote a letter to santa that she wanted "princess things"... so this is what she got. can't get anymore princess than princess figurines, i guess!



"this is really early....it's still semi-dark outside."


and then later that day....

halmoni and hadabogi enjoying a gift






and then the food. mostly american... pork tenderloin, stuffing, green beans, sweet potato casserole, corn, shrimp cocktail... with a korean chicken dish and some kimchee. hey, we're korean.. it wouldn't be a korean holiday dinner without some kimchee and rice! :)

a little christmas dancing...

i turned on the radio while i was preparing for our christmas dinner. and as i was cooking, i looked down and noticed that ellie was really getting down! i had to capture it on video.

i think tap dancing is in ellie's future. michael flatley, eat your heart out.. haha


and we can't forget addison. here are both of them movin' and groovin'...


merry christmas, everyone!!

jimmy's 3_th birthday

jimmy's 30-something birthday was yesterday. we actually had cake with the kids the day before because yesterday jimmy, myself, his brother and his wife went out to dinner and a movie last night. i baked a cheesecake (his favorite). i think it was my first time making a whole 9-in. cheesecake. i think i made mini cheesecakes in small ramakins before. it was a bit of a messy ordeal. but it ended up turning out pretty yummy.


addison, ellie and i were waiting in the dark to surprise him while he was bringing in the garage cans from outside. just because it's your birthday, doesn't mean you get out of household duties! :)



surprise!!



conducting us while we sing him happy birthday



happy birthday, old man!



just kidding. you still look like a youngen. but you definitely act like one too! haha :)
happy birthday...love ya!

preschool holiday program

we had addison's preschool holiday program yesterday. she didn't tell me anything about her play. she said she wanted it to to be a surprise. i have to say it was a nice surprise and all so super cute! the program this year was so much more involved than last year's... i guess it is because she's in an older class. the best part of it all for me and jimmy was that as we were watching, it turned out that she had a pretty big role in her play! just to clarify, i think it was a last minute change-out.... the part she played was actually someone else's role. but that person was too shy to do it so they gave it to addison. it was so cute.. i was a proud parent. :)

here is a song they sang first...



and here is the play. this is a little long...





addison, the littlest tree. she looks like she's going to work in the rice paddies with that hat on! hahaha

addison's piano recital

addison had another piano recital today. sorry this video was taken from so far away. i was scrambling with my camera and barely got it to work in time.

the song her and her classmate, william played is called "cukoo". and personally, this song is a bit cukoo. i'm not a big fan. i wished the teacher chose something a little more melodic or something? but regardless, they did great. another sweet moment in addison's life that we get to experience. :)

so get ready to strain your eyes and watch that little black dot in the video that is addison.... :)



i was slightly mortified on how she got off the piano bench. ah well. we'll talk about performance etiquette later. :)

dressing up

dressing up (mainly for addison) is a daily occurance here. other than meal times, nap times and when we go out in public, you will pretty much always find addison digging into her costume basket full of princess attire and slipping into whatever costume she's in the mood for at the moment... she'll be cinderella... or sleeping beauty... or a superhero princess... or just some fancy lady going to the ball. she's certainly girlie. i thought she might have outgrown this princess stage by now, but clearly she has not! it seems she has taken it to a whole 'nother level! :) well, since she's always head first into that basket, ellie has taken notice. ellie likes to mimic addison and play with what she's playing with. sometimes addison doesn't like it. but when it comes to playing
"fancy ladies" or "cinderella and her fairy assistant", she does welcome the opportunity to dress her sister up. :)


why hello cinderella and fairy assistant! can i go where you're going? do they make a costume in a womans size 6?



lately, ellie wants to jump at that precise moment i click the pictures. every time! i think she thinks it's funny.



ellie likes the crown as glasses instead.



"forget the crown. this is much more comfortable."



addison in her finest royal garb! and ellie in the background looking for trouble! ;)

ellie's trip to the hospital

ellie went to the hospital today to get her kidneys checked out. she recently had a urinary tract infection. it raised a red flag because 1.) UTI's are not common in children. and UTI's in children are sometimes a marker for possibly urinary abnormalities. and 2.) addison was born with a reflux in one of her kidneys. and this reflux is common among siblings. so per pediatrician's recommendation and for these obvious reasons, we scheduled an ultrasound and VCUG to be done for her. i'm not sure why we didn't check this earlier. but it is definitely something we needed to get checked out. now, from going through all this before with addison, i knew this was not going to be fun... especially the VCUG part. a VCUG is an x-ray test where they fill your bladder up with a liquid via a catheter and see if the bladder and urethra are emptying out correctly. i have very vivid memories of addison being strapped to a table with the catheter and screaming. it was horrible not only for her, but also for me! but more importantly aside from not liking the actual procedure, i was nervous that ellie would also have the reflux and we would have to give her daily doses of an antibiotic until she grows out of this.

anyway, i took ellie this morning. we did the ultrasound first. that was the easy part... no pain there. and then we had to wait in the waiting room for a while for the VCUG. finally, they called us in. it actually wasn't as bad as with addison... could be because i knew what to expect... but they also didn't strap her down so it wasn't as traumatizing i feel like. she cried... a lot... but she did great... she didn't kick which some kids do. and unofficially, per the technician, it looks as though she does NOT have a reflux. we still have to get the news of the ultrasound. but i think she may be okay.

here are some pictures i took of her today while we were waiting... she looked so darn cute in that hospital gown. (though i hope that we don't have to wear this again for any reason!)


what a sunny little face :)



rear view. :) on a random side note, unfortunately for ellie she has inherited her mommy's flat butt. sorry, girl... ;)



found a cool truck to sit in



peek-a-.....



...boo!

visit with santa

we did our annual visit with santa this year at the mall. of course, addison was excited. ellie had no clue what we were doing. but as soon as she laid eyes on santa, she didn't want to be there. haha poor thing!

here is last year's picture...




curious, but not crying


and here is this year's...

addison loving every minute of this visit



and ellie not exactly feeling the same way. hehehe



"get me outta here!.."

party time! addison's 5!!

we just had addison's 5th birthday party yesterday! i got into full party planning mode again... just like at ellie's birthday. i love doing it. but i get a bit consumed by it for the many weeks leading up to the big day. i have a ton of fun, but then at the same time, i sometimes get a little stressed out about all the details. jimmy says i'm cut off from the extravagant party planning. hehe, we'll see... :)

we had it at a different kids play place this year. and for an extra fee, we had the whole place to ourselves so that was nice! there were some minor glitches here and there... but in the end, it turned out great. addison had a blast. it was a princess/pirate theme party. we had the lovely cinderella come and read a story for the kids and sing some songs and apply some temporary tatoos. and she brought with her a trusty pirate assistant (to cater to our male guests :)). i have to say the characters were a cool touch. they were fun.. and they occupied the kids' attention and gave them a break from all that running around.


our invitations. i found this woman online who makes these. she tea stains them by hand to create an aged look and then she burns the edges for the feel of an old map. clever, huh??!






treasure chest of goodies



crown cookies and chocolate gold coins












tiaras for the girls and pirate hats for the boys...



and then wands for the girls and swords for the boys or whichever way they fancy.






they had a neat slideshow with pictures of addison going on throughout the party.



cinderella and her pirate girl assistant



storytime!



she broke out into song during certain parts of the story. hehe she was really good.















sweaty kids = good times! :)



love this one! poor jimmy was sweating bullets trying to keep up with ellie the whole time.



a certain someone was obsessed with the slide. and kept getting in the way of all the big kids. hehehe



she thinks she's 5 too...



argh matey!









haha, she looks a little awkward here. everyone was singing happy birthday to her in this picture. she wasn't used to all the attention and eyes on her. :)



my 5 year old baby! happy birthday, addison!!