trick or treat!

We love Halloween at our house! Tonight, we had several neighbors over for a potluck before trick-or-treating. For some reason, I couldn't get Bekah to smile normally! She was way too excited! They have been out for almost two hours, now! I think we are going to have a lot of candy!Here are Ellie, the snow princess, and Bekah, the ballerina fairy (in flip-flops) right before trick-or-treating starts. This is Rachel and her friend, Kayla. They were a big help, giving out candy so I could clean up! They are also beautiful witches!

Here is Andy in his costume--I know he looks just like a teenage boy, but...

there's the punch line! He is such a clever boy!

I hope you all have a fun night and eat lots of chocolate! Happy Halloween!

Continue reading →

Two things I didn't think I'd see in my lifetime...

Andy--with a new hairdo. This is what your teenagers do after you go to bed on Friday night.

Yes, a clean and organized pantry. I had to document it, because this will only last for approximately 4 hours and 32 minutes. But it is so beautiful to look at!

Continue reading →

Tagged!

Vaughn after the triathlon this spring

I was tagged by my sil, Marianne to answer some questions about my hubby. I don't know how many people care, but here goes!

Five things my husband, Vaughn, loves.

1. Me

2. Our kids

3. Flying

4. Heavenly Father

5. Serving our country

Five things on his to-do list:

1. Finish his master's (he's over halfway there!)

2. Get all the kids sleeping through the night all at once.

3. Hear his wife say, "No, I'm not tired, actually!"

4. Go back to Hawaii soon.

5. Make everyone around him happy, all of the time. I must say, he is pretty good at this one! And okay, the Hawaii trip is on my list, but since he like to make me happy, we will be going to Hawaii again sometime in the next few years!

Five snacks he loves:

1. Seven-layer dip

2. Homemade salsa and chips

3. Homemade oreos

4. Caramel brownies

5. Pretty much anything I cook :)

Five things you may not know about him:

1. He plays a mean game of Old Maid

2. He is the favorite visitor at Ellie's school during lunch time--everyone wants to play with Ellie's daddy

3. My dad made him catch a fish with a fly rod before he could marry me

4. He obsesses about his weight more than I do about mine

5. He is more naturally maternal than I am--I learn a lot about being a good mother by watching him with the kids

Five places he has lived:

1. Salt Lake City

2. Korea

3. Alaska

4. Georgia

5. Oklahoma

Five quirky things about Vaughn

1. He has to do a sudoku puzzle to fall asleep

2. He has a pathological fear of doctors (actually, pretty normal for a pilot. if you have a cold, you can't fly, so they hate to go to the doctor)

3. He can make me laugh when no one else can--not really quirky, but one of the reasons I love him!

4. He loves to tell the kids "childhood stories" --thus encouraging them to repeat a lot of the crazy, and dangerous things he and his siblings did as children

5. He is the most determined person I know--if he wants to do it, he will. End of discussion.

Five people to tag--answer these questions about your hubby (do I even have 5 people reading my blog?)

1. Amy

2. Jen

3. Amanda

4. Ruth

5. Laurie

Continue reading →

Room for Rant!

I know it's hard to believe, but Koreans don't always translate everything correctly. :) So, last year, we were going onto Camp Humphries for something, and there was a huge sign, right outside the barbed wire, facing into the post. It said, "Room for Rant". Obviously, they meant room for rent, but I realized that is exactly what I need! A room to rant in, just once or twice a day. Or even every other day, depending on how crazy my life is. Don't get me wrong; I love my life! I have an amazing husband, great kids, and no really huge problems. It's the minutiae that kills me!

Like, why is it that everyone piles their clothes around and on top of, but never in the hamper? And why is it that no one else in the house has inherited the ability to install a new roll of toilet paper? And why can I leave a sock, or a barbie, or a paper plate, or any other object on the stairs for a few days just to see if it bothers anyone else, and I find out that I am the only one bothered by my experiment?

Perhaps this is the real challenge of motherhood: we deal with the minutiae of everyone else's lives. I can deal with the big stuff: 9 months of puking, chronic depression, son getting hit by a car, husband gone for long stretches of time. It is the moment when I am trying to get the seam in my daughter's sock to lie exactly parallel to the tops of her toes that sends me over the edge! And why hasn't anyone invented some frickin' socks that don't have any annoying seams on them!

So, I need a room to rant. I am sure you do, too! Feel free to use this blog as your room to rant! I am happy to let you scream at me, in italics and bold, and let you get it all out, so you can go back to being the keeper of the cheerios, the minder of the minutiae of all mankind! And, once in a while, I will rant, too!

Now, I have to go and pick up all the stuff on my stairs. I don't know why I keep running that experiment....

Continue reading →

Pumpkin Patch

In the middle of our crazy househunting adventure, we took a trip to the pumpkin patch with our friends Isaac and Molly. We love fall!

Here are the girls hanging out at the pumpkin patch!Ellie showing us her Jack-o-lantern smile! She has lost about 7 teeth this year!
Bekah carrying around the pumpkins in a little pint-sized wheelbarrow.
The pumpkin parents
Rachel, Bekah, Isaac, Ellie and Molly

Continue reading →

We're (Almost) Homeowners!

Yep, we took the plunge this weekend and went househunting! And we bought a house! Of course, a million things could go wrong before we close but we are excited to know where we are going to be spending Christmas this year! Here are a few pix of our new home:

From the street

The master bedroom

Bedroom

Bedroom

Bedroom/office

Backyard

Kitchen

Kitchen dining area

Living area

Formal dining area

Continue reading →

September Blessings

Happy Birthday, Ellie and Bekah! I can't believe I forgot the camera at your party, but here are some cake pix from home. We are so glad to have these little ladies in our lives. They exasperate and delight us every moment of the day!

Bekah blowing out her cupcakes! She is a big 5 years old this year!

Ellie making a wish! She is 7 this year!

Continue reading →

Urgent Vs. Important

I was at the gym this morning (I actually felt human enough to go) and was reading O magazine. I love a lot of things about Oprah, although I don't agree with all of her values, I think she does a lot of good. That is neither here nor there, because I just need something to distract me from the pain when I am working out. Anyhoo--I read this article about making time for the things in our life that are important, not just the things that are urgent. It sounds like such a great concept...unless you are a stay-at-home mother of four trying to keep everyone alive, help your hubby through his master's, and prepare to move in two months. How do I decide what is urgent but not important so that I can weed it out of my life? Isn't being a mom surrendering to the idea that everything in your life is urgent and important? For example, I have to go potty, (hypothetically, although I am sure it will become a reality sometime soon) definitely an urgent situation, and an important one (I need healthy kidneys as much as the next girl!), but my little girls are trying to take each other's head off over who gets to play with the Barbie carriage--urgent and important! (This is NOT hypothetical, but a frequent occurrence in my life--just substitute different children and different objects to fight over). How do I choose? Here is another one, this one real and occurring in a couple of hours--I need to get Ellie ready for her soccer game, take her there by 4:45 and be prepared to cheer for the next hour. I also need to pick up Andy from soccer practice down at the high school and transport him to Ellie's game, since he has been helping coach her team, also at 4:45. Both things are urgent and important and impossible to accomplish while maintaining any semblance of sanity. This could explain why I feel crazier with each passing year of motherhood. Maybe that is what motherhood is--doing the urgent, the important and the impossible with little if any recognition (seriously, I don't expect anyone in society to acknowledge what I do has value, and my kids won't appreciate it until they are at least 25) and with the least amount of collateral damage, especially to my kidneys. Which reminds me, I need to go potty, and take the brownies out of the oven, and pick up Andy for a dentist appointment...

Here's to all of you amazing, beautiful women doing the most urgent, impossible and important job of all: being a mother to your children! I am in awe of all of you!

And seriously, if you have any good tips on how to clone yourself....

Continue reading →