More Snow & More Sledding!

The snow just won't stop coming. Big fluffy snowflakes keep falling to the ground.
The girls LOVE it.

Christmas Morning

We had a wonderful holiday with the girls. We feel so so lucky to wake up with our kids and watch them enjoy Christmas morning and get excited that Santa had come to visit.

On Christmas Eve we read them a story about Baby Jesus being born and that's why we were celebrating Christmas. And Alex then asked me why I didn't buy a present for baby Jesus' birthday. All these questions all the time!


We were thinking of all our family and friends that live far away and was wishing that we could have celebrated together. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

1st Christmas Concert

The girls sang in their first Christmas concert yesterday afternoon. It was so fun to watch all the kids. They were so giddy with joy since their parents/friends/family were there to watch them, the fact Christmas was just around the corner and there was a table full of cookies and treats in the back waiting for all of us to enjoy after the concert. The girls did so well. Rachel sang very loudly and kept showing off her belly button (hmm I wonder who she takes after, eh Joyce?) and Alex was equally interested in playing as she was in singing. I was such a proud mama.



Kaili and baby Jaia came to watch. When they walked in the girls looked so happy and shouted out...Kaili! So sweet.

Then after the concert, the girls ate about a zillion cookies. They both told me in the car ride home that they had such a fun day at school...and so did I.

Down Memory Lane

Kaili posted a picture of Jaia in her last post that brought back so many memories. It was of Jaia in a little red sleeper and reindeer antlers that I remember the girls wearing when they were about the same age. So I had to dig up the picture and I also added some more from years past.

3 1/2 years old










2 1/2 years old













1 1/2 years old

















6 months old

Snow Much Fun

Pick Up Trucks....not that there is anything wrong with them

So one big difference I noticed right away living out west is that people really love their pick up trucks. Big trucks, small trucks, fancy trucks, plain old pick up trucks. I've grown up in the city all my life and don't like pick up trucks at all...not that there is anything wrong with them. I've had lunches with my friends where they dream that if they won the lottery, they would buy this or that type of pick up truck. And I remember thinking that they were joking. Anyhow I just don't get them. That is until yesterday afternoon.

We got such a big, quick dumping of snow in a matter of a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. I had just picked up the girls from preschool and was driving home when I got stuck half way up the hill on the really steep part of the road. I couldn't drive forward anymore and I couldn't see behind me in the white mess to reverse. And if I put the car into drive, I would slide backwards. So I was pretty scared. I had no idea what I was going to do and was pretty panicky. The girls at one point, asked if I was lost. So funny, kids perceptions of things. I was stuck there for about 15 minutes and the girls fell asleep in their carseats. All these pick up trucks kept passing by me with no problem at all!!!! That's the first time ever that I wished I owned a pick up truck. Anyhow I finally managed to inch backwards until the road was a little less steep and turn the car around. Then I just sat on one of the sidestreets wondering what in the world I was going to do. Then I saw a plowtruck going up the hill so I got up the nerve and decided that I too was going to attempt the hill once again. And I kept on visualizing how nice and safe it would feel to park in our garage and walk into our house. So with that positive thought and with constant prayers, I went up the hill never giving up on the gas because if I lost my momentum I would be stuck once again. So we made it up the hill and got home safe and sound.

So now guess what mama wants for Christmas? Studded Tires!

Happy Birthday Papa

It's papa's birthday today and everyone in the family is so excited. The kids have been talking about it all week (they even told their teacher that it was Papa's bday) and so they were sooooooo excited to decorate his cake, then sing Happy Bday and then finally share it with everyone. We celebrated a day earlier since Papa will be working today.

I made Papa a special birthday dinner since the way to his heart is through his stomach. It was this new recipe and I was excited to try it. So I headed to our local meat shop and bought 2 beautiful pieces of filet mignon. Got back in the car and did my other errands. And then realized when I got back in the car, that the meat was eaten by Tobi!!!!!! Those steaks were heavy and huge. How that small dog ate that is beyond belief. He had torn through all the plastic and chowed down. So basically, I had to return to the deli and order up 2 more steaks. James was joking that Tobi just celebrated his birthday. But in the end, the dinner ended up delicious and James ate well and had a smile on his face.

And it was also great to have Kaili and family join us for birthday cake. The girls were giddy with joy from Papa's birthday and having Kaili over. Giddy, giddy, giddy.

Papa, I hope you have a wonderful day today and thank you for always being so even tempered, having such a great sense of humour and for providing for and loving your family. XOXO

Santa's Reindeer

Santa's Reindeer chased Tobi down the mountain again this morning. It happened one night a couple of weeks ago too. I let Tobi go out to do his business and was watching him from our window. Tobi froze and was staring at something and I thought he saw another neighbor's dog and was about to chase it. So I hurriedly stepped outside the snow in my bare feet to yell at him when I saw that it was one of Santa's reindeer that was about to chase my dog. Yup, the reindeer chased Tobi and my dog ran straight back into mama's arms. He's all bark that dog.

Almost all Better

We are all finally feeling much better. This cold/stomach flu thing that is going around is really brutal. We've just about recovered from it but it took 2 whole weeks with the kids getting it first and passing it along to us! We all got sick but all of our symptoms were so so different. Alex had a persistent high fever for 3 days and upset tummy, then Rachel didn't really have a fever but was very pukey and had a bloody nose, then James had a full on cold with awful cough and I just had an upset tummy with body aches all over that lasted for 3 whole days. I still feel so lethargic and I don't want to clean up the kitchen, do laundry or anything like that. So the house is a disaster zone to say the least. I'm so happy that James isn't working today and we can all veg at home together in our pjs. It's amazing how much we take our health for granted. I just want to feel 'normal' again.

Besides all this flu stuff, don't you just love this picture of the girls with their teacher and classmates. The class is putting on a little Christmas concert on Dec 21st. So I have a couple of weeks to learn how to use that camcorder. The teacher gave me a sheet with the song lyrics for me to practice with the girls at home (since they missed 2 weeks of school). So so cute, hearing them sing the songs. We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas..... Anyone interested in coming to the concert with me?

My Two Angels

Happy Birthday Kaili!!!!

We feel so privileged that you wanted to spend your birthday afternoon with us. It was GREAT to see you and Jaia and have some food, cupcakes and hear the girls sing you Happy Birthday. They've been excited all week to see you. Now I know that if I want anything to be a secret/surprise I shouldn't tell those girls! Too funny.

Hope you had a great day. See you soon!

It's Snowing!

We woke up this morning to lots and lots of SNOW! So beautiful. The girls were super excited to get dressed in their snowsuits and run outside to help shovel the driveway and make a mini snowman. Tobi loves the snow too so the whole family was excited.

Light Up!

We headed off to Kaili's neck of the woods tonight for Light Up. Which is a really nice way to start off the holiday season. We were pleasantly surprised at how much fun we all had. We ate mini donuts and organic Bison smokies and washed it all down with steaming hot chocolate. We walked around the town and admired all the lights/decorations everywhere. James and I were saying how it kind of reminded us of Whoville from the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas. How everyone in the small town knew each other and greeted each other, how people had wacky Christmas hats on, and how the mayor was walking around in a top hat, all smiles, etc... It was even snowing big wet snowflakes everywhere....perfect. But when we were driving back home, there were no snowflakes to be seen, the roads were dry. Almost like they flicked a switch to make the scenery perfect for the town. I'm just poking fun at Light Up but in all seriousness we had a blast. Thanks Kaili for inviting us.

My List of 100 Things

It feels like I haven't really posted much except pictures of my girls so here goes a list of 100 things about me that you might not know...

1) I often dream about winning the lottery and how I would spend the money.
2) It always involves schemes on how I would use the money to have my family all live in one city.
3) I've been using the same 6 numbers on 6-49 since 1992. I still haven't won big, I should think about changing those numbers.
4) I'm eating a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal as I write this blog.
5) James and I had wanted to eat cheap Ramen noodles or instant Thai noodles right now but we were both too lazy to make it.
6) I feel quite lazy most of the time.
7) I like doing laundry.
8) I love ironing. Especially while watching TV.
9) I hate cleaning the bathroom.
10) The day the girls were born was hands down the BEST day of my life.
11) I feel so blessed every day that Alex and Rachel are in my life.
12) I cried so hard when I said goodbye to my niece Romy when I moved out west back in 1999.
13) I love any type of Asian food. Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, you get the idea.
14) But I equally love any type of pasta dish.
15) I miss my grandma's Korean cooking.
16) My grandma lived with us and she used to wake up at 5am every morning to cook a hot Korean breakfast for my dad & our family.
17) I used to hate taking piano lessons but am very thankful now that my parents made me.
18) I wish that I had a piano in our house now. I think it would be very therapeutic for me.
19) I also want Santa to buy me a telescope.
20) I'm almost finished my Christmas shopping. Wrapping and all.
21) I'm so excited for Christmas this year. I can't wait for the kids to open their presents and experience all the magic of Christmas.
22) I've been listening to James Blunt's CD for the last 2 weeks.
23) I'm listening to "Private Dancer" by Tina Turner right now.
24) James just opened up a Gmail account for me. It makes me happy and ticked off at the same time.
25) Ticked off because he mass emailed my new address out to everyone without even consulting me.
26) Happy because I've wanted a gmail account but never got around to opening it up.
27) I never understood loneliness when I was younger.
28) The older I get, I understand it more and more.
29) I'm kind of anal about things.
30) I don't like tatoos or body piercings.
31) I try to be open minded with everyone regardless of age, race, etc...
32) Both my kids are asleep right now.
33) Alex fell asleep in a few minutes with no fuss.
34) It took Rachel about an hour to fall asleep. And only because I massaged her back, feet, hands, and head until she finally fell asleep.
35) I want to get cosmetic surgery done (namely a boob job) but am frightened by the consequences to my health.
36) I want to fly out to Ottawa to see my new nephew, Hudson.
37) But don't want to leave my kids, even if it's for a few days.
38) And the thought of travelling with the 2 kids alone, bringing 2 carseats and renting a car doesn't sound too appealing.
39) The craziest thing I ever did in my life was putting a sleeping pill in my boss' coffee when I was working in Korea. (It was my cousin's idea....I Swear) We did this because my cousin and I never got a day off together and we thought if my boss was out of commission we could hang out all day together. I think this one needs more clarification in a later post.
40) The 2nd craziest thing I ever did was borrow/steal? my boss' car in Korea and drive my cousin, myself and I from the city of Taejon all the way to Seoul in the middle of the night to go to the night markets to shop all night long. Crazy because none of us knew which direction to drive, and we didn't sleep all night, I was falling asleep driving back and then we arrived 15 minutes before we had to start work in the morning. But boy, did we shop! This too was my cousin's idea.
41) When I think of the crazy things I used to do, I feel old now.
42) I miss living in Montreal.
43) The bakeries there are sooooooooo fantastic. hahahah I know who will be rolling their eyes at this one.
44) I love chocolate especially chocolate cake with icing.
45) James keeps interrupting me while I write this list. Arghh.
46) I drive a gold minivan.
47) I didn't have my period for 3 years in a row when I was pregnant with the twins and then when I was nursing them. That was fantastic.
48) I nursed the twins until they were a little over 2 years old. I never thought I would even make it to the 3 month mark.
49) The first year of their lives is still a blur to me. I was soooooooooo tired all the time.
50) I LOVE hearing the girls have conversations with each other and love watching them play together. So so so sweet.
51) I sometimes wish I was pregnant again with another baby.
52) We just burned a copy of the movie Cars. I kind of feel bad about it because stealing is stealing, right?
53) The girls won't watch Cars because it frightens them. Weird.
54) I love purses. Leather ones. Any color.
55) I love getting deals on things. I got these party shoes for $20 last week. Yeah.
56) But then I spent $150 on earrings and bracelets and still feel crappy about it. Yes, I feel ripped off. Costume jewellery that I needed for an event I went to on Saturday night. I didn't realized how much they were and when the cashier rang them up I was too embarassed to tell her that I didn't want them. Small town...she would have thought I was strange.
57) I wish I didn't care about what other people thought as much as I do.
58) I wish I wasn't so introverted.
59) I'm an awesome parallel parker. I always joke with my mom while I'm parking that I should be a professional parker. OK...I know I'm a little wacky.
60) I'm a middle child.
61) I think middle children have some serious issues. Anyone out there agree?
62) My older sister is only 2 years older than I am but she has always been way more mature than me.
63) When we were growing up, I used to wake her up EVERY night in the middle of the night to go with me to the bathroom, because I was scared.
64) She came with me every time without any complaint.
65) My younger sister has always been so much more independent/stronger than me.
66) One memory that I have of her is when we were in the hospital with my grandma and I couldn't bare to be in the room when my grandma had to get an IV inserted in her arm, but my younger sister stayed with her and held her hand.
67) I'm so thankful that she did this.
68) My mother is an extremely strong person and very talented and I love talking to her everyday on the phone.
69) My dad has always helped us with our homework, our science projects, made the best Halloween decorations, and taught me how to read Korean.
70) James is my best friend. He's the only one who really knows everything about me.
71) It's really hard coming up with 100 things... I don't know if I am going to make it.
72) My girls paint me a picture almost everyday.
73) They are honestly such beautiful pictures of rainbows, flowers, rain, people, Strawberry Shortcake, etc.....
74) Do all people think their kids are geniuses? Because I do.
75) I've had my dog, Tobi for 7 years now.
76) He barks way too much when someone comes over. But he's usually quiet 95% of the time.
77) I only walk him once a day in the morning.
78) I wish I had the time to walk him more often.
79) I think the only person who will read all 100 things is my mom.
80) I LOVE LOVE ABBA. Especially Dancing Queen.
81) I used to wish that I was one of those girls in those videos on the Karoke machines. You know, in those cheesy music videos where they are running in a field, or riding a horse near the ocean, etc.....
82) I've never sang Karoke but it's always been a fantasy of mine.
83) I have a terrible voice.
84) One day, I will get so drunk that I will actually sing Karoke in public.
85) I'm such a homebody that when my parents surprised me with a trip to Paris when I was 16 years old, I didn't want to go!
86) I hate anything perfumy.
87) But I think that when I go out somewhere fancy, I should wear some fragrance.
88) I have this free little sample of perfume in my makeup bag that I have been using/wearing for 7 years whenever I go somewhere fancy and think I need perfume. I can't remember the name of it.
89) I thought that perfume loses it's smell after time but it still smells the same to me.
90) I wore it last Saturday night. Dabbed a little behind my ears and had to roll down the windows in the car while we drove to the event because the smell was so strong and giving me a headache.
91) I'm extremely clausterphobic.
92) One time when I was a little child, I woke up panicky in the backseat of the car and tried to open the door to my parent's car to escape while we were driving on the highway because I was clausterphobic.
93) I don't know how to smoke a cigarette. My cousin (a different cousin) tried to teach me one time but I didn't 'get' it. It just burned my throat.
94) I'm a very impatient person.
95) If I was super duper duper rich, I would hire someone to give me a foot rub each and every night.
96) I want to be more fit.
97) I want to be that person who is a good friend.
98) I don't know what I want to 'be' when I grow up.
99) I have never been as happy as I am now being mama to my precious girls.
100) I know this sounds corny, but the thing I pray for the most is PEACE.

Here's your song Susan :)

Happy Birthday Susan!

I hope that you enjoyed your birthday at the movies with your 3 monkies. Mom told me that Romy stayed up late last night to decorate for your birthday. That is soooo sweet. I wonder where she learned how to do that, eh?

Here is some art that Alex and Rachel made in honor of your birthday. The blue star is Alex's masterpiece and the picture of the flower being rained on is by Rachel.

We send you hugs and kisses and warm birthday wishes older, wiser, beautiful sister.