Photoshop

TCIS has some great programs on their computers that we access to wherever we are in the world thanks to an awesome program called CITRIX. It allows us to access our work files and any programs the school as on the serer from anywhere through the Internet. This week, I discovered photoshop. The school offers a computer graphics class here that I would love to take sometime. For now, my students who are taking the class are teaching me tidbits every now and then. Photoshop is so cool! I am still learning some of the fun things I can do to pictures. I have often seen the pictures at Sears or in other stores where they take out all the color of the pictures and add accents like a flower or something. Well I played around with a couple pictures so you have to tell me what you think.

The first was a picture of Zachary's birthday. The original is in a previous blog if you want to check it out. The second is a picture of Zachary wearing Patrick's University of Hawaii hat. Let me know what you think!

Dancing the Night Away

You may have the guy on the Internet who does the dance evolution- showing how dance has evolved over the years in about 6 minutes. Well we have our own dance video now, Zachary's Dance Revolution! Zachary has a keyboard that he likes to play and most often he plays the demo button so he can dance. Last night Patrick watched him go through the songs and change his rhythm as the tempo changed. He has more rhythm than I do!

Tonight we tried it again to get it on video. I don't think he was quite as in to it but it was pretty funny. The videos are kind of long but I hope you enjoy them. Some of the videos he has stickers on his face and is pulling them off so he gets a bit distracted. You might get annoyed with the music but at least you have a cutie pie to watch. :)

Dance the night away!

This is the long so beware. If the music has bothered you already you might not want to watch this one. Take a break and come back later. :) However, he does sing along with some of the songs and even blows out a candle at the end of happy birthday.

Go TCIS Dragons!

Yesterday was the last home game for the TCIS volleyball team. Patrick helped coach for the last time this season. The tournament is this weekend but only the head coach is allowed to go due to the new sub policy. I helped with the score book this year, which has been a lot of fun as well.

Zachary and I decided to show our TCIS pride and wear our matching shirts. Of course we have a lot of pictures of Zachary so I thought I would share just because he is so cute! GO DRAGONS!

Below is the boy's volleyball team, at least what is left of them at the end of the season. Numerous boys were ineligible for the last few games due to their grades. TCIS has moved to a standard based grading system and the students didn't realize how their work habits would effect their extra curricular activities. I think the students have learned that their effort in school will now roll over into their efforts on the court. It is a tough lesson to learn but I think it is good for them.
The guy with the funny face on the far left is one of Zachary's favorite people here at TCIS, Johnny.

This is a really poor quality picture of Patrick with the volleyball but I wanted to prove that he was coaching and helping the boys warm up. :)

My BIG boy!

It is hard to believe my little boy is 2 years old already. I have to brag a bit because I think he is pretty cute. I have to show off my handsome boy. Doesn't that smile just make your heart melt?

He sure has changed but he is still mommy's sweet boy.

Happy Birthday Zachary! Thanks for making our world a much better place.

Zachary's 2nd Birthday!

Hi everyone! Guess what? I turned 2 years old today. Come on in to my Blue's Clues birthday party! We had a great day.

Magenta came to play.

So did Blue (She was our pin the paw on Blue game)

And Blue's brother Sprinkles guarded the presents.

Mommy made me a paw print birthday cake.


My friends and I got to make Blue's ears. I put the spots on all by myself.
We had lots of balloons to play with.
Everyone got to have a 'clue' on their face. Even Matt joined in on the fun!


See my clue!

Watch me blow out my candle.

All of my friends wanted to blow out the candle too. This is a picture of Seth's turn.
Yummy cake :)
Nina liked my cake too.
Nikita enjoyed the party blowers. I got a lot of presents. My friends even helped me open them. I was very kind and shared my presents with my friends.
Mr. Mike and Mrs. Jaci gave me bubbles. We had fun popping the bubbles.

I got to spend my birthday party with my friends in Korea but my granparents got to join in on the fun thanks to Skype. Grandma Laurie, Grandpa Jim, and Grammy got to watch some of my party in Hawaii. Grandma and Papa watched my party with Nonna, Pop-Pop, Mr. RB and Mrs. Jackie. It felt like my family was at my party.

This is a picture of me thanking Mrs. Jackie for my present from the Ladies class at church. It's a choo-choo movie!!!!

Kacy and I are writing in our own 'notebooks'.



We had a really fun day. I am so lucky to have so many great friends and family here in Korea. I missed my friends in America but thanks to Skype, I got to talk to a lot of them. We even got to see cousin Dawson in Africa today.

Thank you everyone for coming to my party. It was so much fun!

Family Blanket

My mom made this really neat blanket for us when we moved to Korea. We just received it in a package a couple weeks ago. The blanket has the hands of everyone in my immediate family. Zachary enjoys trying to identify the hands.


Yesterday Zachary and I had a snuggle moment under our soft, cozy blanket. It is finally getting cool here so the blanket arrived at a perfect time. It's so nice to snuggle under our family.

Thanks Mom!

Zachary's New Bed

After two weeks of waiting for a mattress the big day finally arrived. Zachary slept in a big boy bed for the first time last night. He seems to enjoy his bed. We bought him a soccer goal bed and will be transforming his room into a sports room. Time to say goodbye to Blue's Clues.

Zachary has to have his blanket and pillow on top of him and his motorcycle with him, in order to sleep. It took him a long time to go to sleep but he didn't get out of bed at all last night. We didn't hear him get up this morning, but about 6:45, Patrick got up to check and he was standing right next to his bed with his motorcycle. He never came out of the room. My favorite part was that he woke up happy!!! It is hard to believe that my little boy is ready for a big boy bed.

My Big Boy Bed

My Pillow

Night- night
Finally asleep after about 45 minutes of playing in my bed

Here are some videos of Zachary enjoying his new bed. In the first one he is showing you how is bed works but kidly reminds us that it is not night night time yet. :)

In the second video, I have to laugh at how hard the mattresses are here. When he jumps on the bed it is like jumping onto a piece of wood. Make sure to listen for the thump.

Slurp!

Look at me! I can slurp a ramen noodle!

I'm home!

One of the things we left behind in Raleigh was Zachary's ball pit. Those of you who know him, know how addicted he is to any size, shape, color ball. At Homeplus they have a play area you can pay to drop your kids off while you shop. We paid to play but Mommy stayed around.

Zachary was so excited to find the ball pit! Of course, this is the biggest ball pit he has ever been in. He kept jumping in face first and then rolled around like a pig in a mud puddle. I couldn't get a picture of him staying still. I think he was just happy to be 'at home' in all the balls.

Daddy's coffee

They day that imitation is the biggest form of flattery. Well Zachary has learned all about coffee from his daddy. While walking through Homeplus, Zachary found a coffee cup and walked around pretending to drink from his cup and say "coffee, slurp, "mmm coffee", another slurp.
Of course we had to buy the cup. This morning on the way to church, Zachary had to have his "coffee" I am so amazed he even knows how to hold it like there is coffee in it. Makes you realize how closely kids really watch what you do. I wish I had gotten a picture of his white 'coffee' mustache. :)

Hey, that's mine!

Yesterday we went to Homeplus to do some shopping. There is a McDonald's in the shopping center we always love to stop there for lunch- OK in Jennifer's world, french fries and ice cream. For around 60 cents you can get a chocolate dipped ice cream cone which has become one of Zachary's favorites, mostly because he likes to pull the chocolate off bit by bit to eat.

In three weeks, Zachary turns two. In the past couple weeks he has learned the phrases, "I do it"and "Zachary's chair" (toy, ball, whatever). While sitting at McDonald's yesterday, he said something he had never said before that just caught us so funny. He had his own pack of french fries and Patrick reached over to grab one. Zachary looked at Daddy with this horrified look on his face and said "Hey! Mine. " He didn't yell it or say it rudely. The way he said it was like "Hey Dad, did you realize those were mine?" We had a good laugh out of it. We did get in a lesson of sharing and when Daddy asked and said please, Zachary was very happy to share his french fries. :)

I guess he is just a little possessive of those fries like his mommy :)