Hawaii here we come!

Happy Birthday Seth!

We got to celebrate Seth Buddy turning four a couple weeks ago. We had so much fun at his Thomas swimming party. Happy Birthday Seth buddy!







Shelby Grace chowed down on some watermelon.







Zachary and Seth have matching swimsuits.







Shelby Grace loved riding her first bike. Check out that smile!











Water slide!











At the end of the party, we found Seth and Zachary picking the icing off the left over cake. We decided that the next party we just need to serve the bowl of icing- forget the cake!








Gotcha!

Online translators- Helpful or hindrance?

We got this note on our door today so I decided to try and translate it. Here it is in Korean-

안녕하십까?부재중이라 도시가스 검침을 못하였습니다.가스계량기를 보시고 전화주시면 (일요일,공휴일도 가능) 감사하겠습니다.연락이 없으면 추정량이 고지됩니다.

This is what the Bablefish translator on Yahoo said it meant-

Goodbye under ten peels? The absent middle ear could not a city gas meter inspection. Will see the gas meter and transformation staring if (Sunday, holiday possibility) will thank. When there is not liaison and the weight fixed quantity becomes the highland.

Try #2- Babylon translator

"Good morning,? in absentia black, saliva, Kukdong City Gas. The gas meters, and if you called me (Sundays, national holidays,) would be appreciated. If you don't hear the amount of estimated it.

Hmmmmm....I figured it was from the gas man but can't say this is really helpful :) I guess you get what you pay for, especially when it is free. Another reason to focus on learning Korean this summer. :)

I guess for today I will say- Goodbye under ten peels!

Shelby Grace Phones Home

Ring! I've got it mommy!

Let see who is calling me.

Oh it's Grandma! Hi Grandma! Watch what I can do. I can crawl.

Zachary come over and talk to Grandma with me.

Grandma hung up. I miss you Grandma!

S'mores! Gooooood!

On Saturday, Anna invited us over to enjoys s'mores on the roof. We are able to get on the roof of her 3 story apartment building and enjoy a night with some friends. After many smoky attempts to start the charcoal grill, Patrick and Mike finally set the charcoal ablaze and we could indulge in some marshmallowy goodness.
Zachary, Stephanie and Lyndsey watch the lights in the sky. Zachary asked if the lights that were flying in the sky were God. We told him no. He asked where God was and we told him he was in in heaven and we just couldn't see him. He wanted to to know if we could hear God. We told him that we couldn't hear him with our ears but we could hear him in our hearts. He has clung to that and has asked many times this week if we could hear God in our hearts. I pray soon he will make the decision to ask Jesus into his heart.

Anna helped Zachary roast his own marshmallows.


Yummy! My first s'more is delicious mommy. Korean s'mores are made out of Digest cookies, chocolate and marshmallow. No grahm crackers in Korea but the Digest cookies do the trick!

Chats with Zach~ Episode 15

This episode of Chats with Zach all came from conversations that we have had with him in one day. The kid sure keeps us laughing! I can't wait till we get to share episodes of Chats with Zachary and Shelby Grace.
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While getting dressed for church
Mommy- "Let me see you, you are so handsome!"
Zachary- "I'm not handsome yet, I haven't brushed my hair!"
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While walking to church instead of driving
"I like walking. I don't want to get all sweaty riding in the car."
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Still on the way to church
"When I jump, I drink."
Translation-"When I jump you can hear what I drank in my belly"
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With Seth after church (This one is from Seth)
We were looking for "golden 50's" around in the grass that are golden confettis left over from the 50 anniversary of TCIS back in October. We are still finding them everywhere.
I asked the boys, "Where did all these golden 50's come from?" Seth replied, "God."
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After lunch while Patrick and I were eating Strawberry Pie
"I want that cake like you had (pause) But I don't want the strawberry part. I just want the whip cream. Can I have cake?"
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Random thought during the day
"Mommy, I want to tell you something. My brain is in my head right?"

If you give a baby a pancake....

....she will want a table to go with it.

If you give her a table....

...she will want to feed herself.

If you are giving your baby pancakes already, then she is growing up way too fast!

Hide and Seek

I love seeing Zachary and Shelby Grace play with each other. Shelby Grace enjoys playing with her brother more than anyone else. The laughs and giggles get louder and the legs start flying when big brother comes around.

The other night we were playing Hide and Seek and Zachary decided they should hide in Shelby Grace's crib. It was just too cute.

Zachary is the best big brother. He loves to hold her hand and snuggle with her. I pray their relationship always stays strong and be the best of friends.

Daddy found you!

I like to move it, move it!

I am predicting that next week Shelby Grace will be graduating from college. Not really but that is what it feels like. She is growing up so fast and doing things so much earlier than Zachary did. Last weekend, she started crawling pretty well. On Monday, she stayed home from school with Daddy because her teeth have been bothering her so much (she's got 6 now by the way and I am watching closely for #7 and #8) and I get this picture during the middle of the school day. She figured out how to pull up on the basket! I think she may be another ball lover like her brother.
The next morning when I went in to her room to get her out of bed I found her standing up in her crib. Thankfully we moved her mattress down the night before just in case this would happen.




Today I was at Homeplus and found the Playskool walker toy thinking we would be using it in a couple months or so but NO! She wants to use it now. She can balance pretty well and tries moving her feet. I think we are in trouble! What happened to my baby girl? Is it time for #3 already?

Ponytail Time

Shelby Grace's hair has gotten long enough to put in a little ponytail. She is so cute! I am so excited that I have little girl so I can play with her hair and do all kinds of pretty styles with it. Pretty bows here I come!

Shelby Grace- 7 months

This year has flown by. Shelby Grace is 7 months old already. Before we know it, she will be 8 months old and it will be time for us to leave for the states. Shelby Grace has finally mastered sitting up and this month even began crawling. She is eating all kinds of foods these days and is getting good at picking up food and actually getting it into her mouth. She is very ticklish and I love to hear her giggle. No one can make her giggle like her big brother though. She loves to watch everything Zachary does and squeals with delight when he does something she thinks is funny. I have loved watching them interact with each other. Zachary is so kind to her and lets her climb on him. He shares most of his toys with her as long as it is not the wii controler to chew on. Shelby Grace is such a joy to have around. I love seeing her smile every morning and how excited she gets when I pick her up from school. I can't wait to be with her every day next year. She's getting cuter every day!

Final French Toast Fest

Last Wednesday we had what we think is our last French Toast Fest of the 2008-2009 school year. We are not sure if we will get a chance to get together with our wonderful single friends before the year is over. We had a great crowd this time. We always enjoy the time we get to spend with the singles of TCIS. They are awesome people! We will miss the few that are returning home the states or are deciding to get married this summer thus booting them out of french toast fest activities. We pray that their new experiences in the states and/or their newly married lives will be fully blessed and maybe even carry on the French Toast Fest tradition wherever they may end up. We love you guys!












This is the first time Zachary has ever retreated to his room during a French Toast Fest. I guess everyone was a little too hungry this time to pay attention to him. :) He did convince Miss. Meredith (soon to be Mrs :) ) to come and watch a movie with him. Meredith loves to love on our children and we love having her around. We will miss Meredith as she heads back to the states to get married. She will always be a part of our family. We love you Meredith!

Elementary SEW

The first week of May was Elementary Spiritual Emphasis Week at school. This year's theme was Heroes of Mega City. We learned that Heroes never give up doing good, always tell the truth, always forgive, are generous and have courage. I had the wonderful opportunity to help out with the ELC this year in preparation for next year. It is always so much fun to see little kids so excited to learn about God and to worship him at the top of their lungs. We had a great 2 1/2 days that were packed full with lots of learning and lots of fun.


Mr Dean is the elementary student minister. He along with Mr Mike, who was dressed up as Super Galactic Boy each day, taught us how to be a true hero. Zachary enjoyed dressing up like Mr. Mike and wore a towel on his head for the week so he could be a super hero too

Patrick's crazy 3rd grade group for SEW

Giggles on the Go

I know I haven't blogged in awhile and there a few posts that are coming but I just had to get these on tonight. My baby girl is crawling! Hard to believe she is big enough to do that already. Shelby Grace has been trying to move for over three weeks now and really like raising up on her toes. I was sure she was going to walk before she crawled but she proved me wrong.

Zachary and Shelby Grace were supposed to be in bed already but instead had a good time jumping on the bed. The giggles just melt your heart. Everyone needs a big brother to make you laugh.

Now here are two little monkeys jumping on the bed. Luckily no one fell off and bumped their heads!

Watch for Zachary holding Shelby Grace's hand while they jump. So precious!

Mother's Day

I am so thankful that God has blessed me with two beautiful children. Being a wife and a mother are two of my most favorite things. Hubby treated me so well and let me go back to sleep after I fed Shelby Grace and I got to stay in bed until 8:00! (well almost 8- my body just doesn't let me sleep that long anymore!) Patrick also cooked a yummy breakfast. Zachary picked out a beautiful purple orchid plant for me too.

Later on in the day Patrick wanted to go play baseball with people from school and church. I first thought- Wait this is my day, I'm not supposed to do anything today! Of course after thinking about my attitude, I told Patrick he could go and enjoy himself as I am always the one who goes out to do things. In return I got the best gift for Mother's Day. Of course Shelby Grace and Zachary didn't nap well since I was home by myself but because of this I got to snuggle with both of my kids for a good while. Shelby Grace would only sleep on me and Zachary woke up after an hour but was still a little groggy so he climbed in the chair with me and Shelby Grace. I just rocked and snuggled with my kids and cherished each moment. So often we think Mother's Day is a day for moms to have the day off and do nothing but I can't think of a better way to celebrate Mother's Day than with the two special reasons I get to celebrate in the first place.

Chats with Zach from Guam

This has been quite a vacation. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time. As usual, Zachary has been his crazy self. Here are a few quotes from Zachary.

When riding the bus to the Incheon airport, the bus actually travels faster than most cars because of the bus lane. Traffic can be so bad in the right hand lanes but busses zoom on by. We were passing lots of cars that were pretty much at a stand still. I told Zachary to watch how fast we were moving. He looked out the window and said "Those cars are moving backwards."

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Zachary was so excited about coming to Guam. He is a really good traveler and is used long travel times. When we got off the plane and went to get our bags. He's asked, "Where do we go next? On another plane?" Nope. We only had one plane this time can you believe it!? "So where are we going now?" To the hotel. "No! I want to go to Guam!"

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To prove that our son is Mario addicted, everything he sees reminds him of Mario. We went to Underwater World, an aquarium here with an underwater tunnel, and saw huge mannarays swimming around. When he saw the rays he commented, "I have that game when Mario rides on that." While walking through the resort grounds, we walked across a walkway with hexagon shaped tiles. He was carrying his little Mario doll and said, "This is like the beehive part on Mario" and got down to let Mario climb up the hive. We had mentioned to him that when we were in Guam, we could try and buy a new Wii game since they were American version versus Korean version. Of course, he picked out a new Mario game. We kept trying to tell him that we didn't have the wii here and had to wait until we got back to Korea to play. At the hotel he decided to wanted to play and this was his suggestion. "We can fly on a plane back to Korea and take a bus to our house and play." So you want to leave Guam? "No, we fly on a plane to Korea, play the wii, then get on a bus to take us to the airport and come back to Guam."

Chats with Zach- Episode 13

Zachary has been so excited that we decided to take a trip to Guam. He has no idea where it is or what you do there but loves saying that we are going to Guam. We booked tickets only a week before we were planning to travel and that day he was asking if we were going to Guam. He is so ready to go (as are the rest of us :)!)

One day I was changing Shelby Grace and she was flapping her arms. I said to her, "Shelby Grace, Are you flying?" Zachary comes running in, "Shelby Grace are you flying to Guam?"

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While we were preparing our money to go to Guam, we had some US dollars around the house so we thought we would see if Zachary knew what they were. We showed Zachary some Korean Won and asked him what it was. He responded, "Money." We showed him a US bill and he responded, "Young jung dong!" (That's the area in which we live!)

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Zachary has been practicing sounding out words so we thought he should learn how to read some Korean as well. We showed him the Korean spelling for 'oo-yoo" ( 우유) which means milk. When we showed him the Korean Won, it had some Korean writing on it. He runs over and says 'Look is says 우유!

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We were watching the NCAA tournament online when a quick advertisement for CSI on Thursday came across the screen. Zachary was watching too and said "Look, T, C, I, S!" while pointing to all the letters.

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Patrick and Zachary were reading his Bible one night before bed and they had this conversation.

Daddy- "Do you believe in God?"

Zachary- "Yep"

Daddy- "Don't you know that God mad you?"

Zachary- "Yep"

Daddy- "How do you think God made you?"

Zachary- standing up on the bed with his Superman cape in his hand- "Like that!" with a big flick of the cape. :)