Sticks & Stones

Who needs a yard full of grass and swing sets for kids to have fun? Just start picking up dusty sticks & stones and voila....a morning full of imagination and fun! The girls were running here and there trying to find more rocks and more stones and I was busy trying to eye under each nook and cranny to make sure that there were no rattlesnakes lurking underneath.
Oh...and doesn't Tobi look real spiffy with his new haircut?

Job Post:

Wanted: Family needs warm spirited individual who is willing to:

- wake up early and tend to the kids until their sleepy mama wakes up
-give kids at least a million hugs and kisses per hour
- is as obsessive as their mama about feeding the kids morning, noon and evening
- does not mind being played on as a jungle gym, likes to help dress barbie, picks up million puzzle pieces, crayons, markers, etc....
-pick up delicious Italian deli sandwiches for afternoon trips to the beach. yummy.

-continuously walk down to the lake to retrieve buckets of water; then help make endless sand castles so kids' mama can read new novel without interruption
-walk kids to ice cream store and buy ice cream on demand
-then come home and make lucky family delicious Korean dinner so kids mama can go on computer on blog
-after dinner watch kids so kids mama can go for workout walk with friend
-next day: repeat.

Job Post filled to Halmonie!

CAMPING




Kaili: Want to meet us at the campsite today?

Me: Where exactly is it? Isn't it sooo far?

Kaili: No, it's pretty close.

Me: Oh....well is there lot's of bugs and stuff?

Kaili: NO. Just come already.

Me: I don't know. I don't like camping all that much.....

Kaili: Just come and if you don't I'll never talk to you again!

Me: Oh...OK ....well if you promise there are no bugs then Maybe.

Kaili: Just come already!

So that's how it happened that the girls and I drove out to meet up with Kaili, her hubby and lovely son and their friends from the Coast. The little boy, Matias, is about the same age as the girls and he was super friendly. We all had a great time. I could even picture myself camping again! Real camping like sleeping over and all that. Not like the few hours we spent there today. Thanks guys for the invite.

Nothing left to do but go to the beach!

So we are all settled into our home. And it's weird but I actually have time now to spend with the kids again. Not having to shoo them away so I can unpack and clean the house. It's nice to sit down with them and do puzzles and teach them the alphabet and stuff like that. Oh ya, and they ALWAYS want to play this Dora BINGO game. It's fun the first time but it's their absolute favorite right now and they want to play for hours!

I keep talking to them about our new schedule. I'm trying to change around their nap times and meal times and have them go to sleep at a reasonable hour once again. All in preparation for Sept 5th. The day that they start pre-school!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe it. My babies are heading off to preschool in less than three weeks and are actually excited about it. OK well maybe Alex isn't so excited but Rachel sure is.



So with James gone for a quick day trip to Vancouver today...there was nothing else to do this afternoon except head over to the beach. There were sooooooooooo many tourists there. Unbelievable!!! When I was circling around looking for parking, the girls exclaimed, "Where are we going to Park?". Even they could see that there were so many cars around.


Once we got to the beach we had a fantastic time. We even got mini donuts!!! My favorite. But apparently I should have gotten more than a dozen since I only got to eat 2 donuts before they were all gone in an instant.

Now back at home all settled in and cozy. We all love nesting in our home these days. :)

Big Girl Bikes!

Busy Few Days :)

The days seem to fly by! We are almost finished unpacking....we had to put our cleaning and unpacking into high gear since Joyce and Uncle Rob came for a visit this past week. The girls were at first shy with them but after an hour or so (and after they gave them their first barbies ever) warmed up to them.

Joyce looks so fantastic pregnant. I love her cute pregnancy clothes and she looks GREAT. It was so fun to hang out with my sister. I know, I know, I'm such a goof but I really missed my sisters.

So the night my sister and brother in law arrived we had a BBQ in our house with Kaili's family. And yes, Kaili's clan still thinks that Joyce is cheeky. They got to know her through Joyce's blog and all the 'mean - I mean funny' comments that she posted on Kaili's blog. I don't know why but I didn't take any pics that night. I think it was because I was so frazzled trying to get the rice made (it ended up being really hard - can you imagine ME an asian making bad rice?!!!) And it was the first time that people came over so we didn't have anything ready....like enough chairs, etc... But all in all it was really fun to have people over and have the house feel like a home.


Last night, Kaili looked after the girls and the four of us were able to go out for dinner. We got such a good table with the most fantastic view down the Lake. We had delicious drinks and yummy yummy food. And what was really nice was Shannon and Jeff came and joined us for dessert. It's weird that Joyce and Shannon had never met before but knew so much about each other and their personalities from their respective blogs. We were joking that it was a competitive blog off last night since all three of us blog. But we know who the no. 1 blogger really is right?.....no names but who is the only blogger with pics of last night & of the three bloggers side by side?

So dad sorry if I haven't posted more often with pictures of the girls but I will try and update more regularly since I have internet access once again.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.

Happy Birthday Halmonie!

It's my mama's birthday today. And for the first time in years we are not together celebrating it. Just by coincidence in the last three years, she's been here visiting during the summer months and I always joke that we've started this tradition where she celebrates my birthday with me in July and then I celebrate her birthday in August 'cause of course I'm her favorite daughter. I usually mention this to my sister Joyce a zillion times to see if she's bothered by it. Really immature sister teasing stuff that I think Joyce has outgrown but I still find amusing. But not this year. :( But she is coming soon to visit us so we can have a special dinner when you get here. :)


Mama, I'm happy that you had a great day with your 3 grandkids in Montreal. I love the fun stories you told me about the day that you had with them.




As you can all see from these pictures, my mama is happiest when she is feeding her grandkids. Even more so when she has made the food from scratch with lots of love and the kids eat up everything and tell her that she is the best cook. That makes her the happiest halmonie on the block. Oh ya, and second favorite thing would be if her kids went to church for Sunday mass. We'll work on that one. :)

I love you very much and I can't wait to see you! Happy Birthday.

Our New Home

We've moved in!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!! It's been quite dusty everywhere in our house all week since there is still a lot of work to be done in and around the house but we LOVE being in our own space. The girls love it too. They can entertain themselves for hours. With the plastic orange ribbon that they find out on our deck or with the many many toys that they have forgotten about but have re-discovered while unpacking. Which is great since that gives me time to unpack and put away all of our stuff. And it is so fun unpacking all our stuff. I'm getting excited over all my pots, pans, spatulas, pillow cases, books, etc...... All the stuff that makes up our lives and brings back so many memories. The weird adjustment in this new house is calling out to each other and asking, "where are you?". We are no longer all in ONE room. Which was the case pretty much at our rental and then again at all the places that we stayed at during the month of July. So the girls are constantly asking me, asking Papa and asking each other, "where are you". And then following our voices to find each other.
My goal is to have pretty much everything unpacked by the end of this weekend. OK maybe by early next week at the latest since my sister, Joyce is coming to visit in less than a week. I'm so excited!

So we are adjusting to life in our new home, figuring out where all the light switches are, etc..... I must say that my favorite room in the whole house is the kitchen. I'm learning how to use all the appliances and I swear it seems that everything tastes so much better when made in this kitchen. Now that I've said that I'm setting myself up when you guys come over and taste something I've made and think that's it's not that good. But because we are so happy, the water tastes better, the ice seems much colder, etc.... We are so GIDDY. No more hotels, no more meals eating out (that is unless we want to - but not because we don't have a kitchen!) and no more going to other people's houses to do our laundry. Can't wait to have ALL of you come and visit us soon.