First Vacation....Part One

Phew....its been busy around here!!!  Two little ones and one puppy make for some busy days.  But I did want to document our first vacation before it got away from me...so here goes...

Several weeks ago we had traveled on our first vacation since Jaelah has been home.  I will be honest here...I was NERVOUS about how this would all go down.  Jaelah still has some struggles she's working through and I just didn't want this time away to regress her at all.  So....I prepared her the best I could...I mean I went above and beyond to set this up for success for her.  I knew we needed to get away and Jae-min needed it too, but I also know what "vacation" means to a child who struggles with securities still.  We loaded up the car as prepared as we could be, and with fingers crossed, off we went!!!!  The kids were happy and excited and fell asleep 1/2 way there...good planning on our part.

My parents had rented a house which was awesome for Jaelah as we made it as comfy and "homelike" as we could for her.  Our first adventure was to Storyland where the kids had a BLAST!!!  I thought this sign summed it all up.

Jae-min wanted to go on the RIDES.....and by rides I mean BIG BOY RIDES!!!!  He had woken up early that morning soooooo excited to go on rides like a big boy....and thats what he did.  He had a blast!!!  I think he rode on every ride in that park.  From a roller coaster, to a raft ride, to the flume he rode it all.  And daddy was his companion on all those BIG BOY rides!!!!

Jaelah enjoyed the rides on the smaller scale with mommy.  She was comfy to hang out in her stroller and watch big bro scale those biggies.  Oh and of course to shake it and show her belly to cheer big bro on!!!

Here go those crazy boys on the flume ride.  I will admit my mommy heart was in my throat as I watched their log climb the great big hill....but I think it flew out of my chest as they plummeted DOWN the big hill.  Jae-min's face was priceless!!!  It honestly looked like he was going to sail out of the log!!!  As he ran to me with a huge smile and wet clothes I saw the pure joy that adrenaline gave him....think I'm in trouble!!!

A great time was had by all.  Oh...do you notice Jae-min's changed outfit in the below picture???  Well while waiting for lunch I brought the kids over to an area where you can shoot water at people on a ride...but I failed to realize they could shoot back.  As Jae-min stood at the cannon shooting his water a family came by and started shooting at him.  But they wouldn't stop the water arsenal!!!  It all happened so fast....I saw Jae-min standing with his hands over his face getting drowned by water trying to move but was totally immobilized!!!  My mommy bear kicked in and ran to save him...to which this crazy man turned the water on me, soaking me too!!!  Jaelah saved herself and ran out of the area to Grammy who was waiting on the sidelines.  Jae-min and I were at this grown man's mercy and honestly were stuck, drenched, and laughing so hard we thought we were going to pee our pants.  That grown man took no prisoners, no mercy on a poor helpless woman and child!!!!  Lesson learned...next time scan the ENTIRE area before subjecting your little ones to crazy adults with water cannons!!!

Storyland and day one of vacation a success!!!!

Our Newest Addition......

On Friday we added a new addition to our family.......

Meet Charlie!!!!!

Cute, isn't he???  And yes we know he bars a striking resemblance to our beloved Martin.  But we also know that Charlie is his own little being....his own little dog being that is!!!
He's silly, fiesty, lovable, snuggly, and has done super so far.  He's great with the kids and I have some pitter patter footprints behind me again.
It was time to open up our hearts and home to another little fur creature....and we're so happy with our Charlie!!!!!!!
We're excited to share our home and lives with him.  And he's feeling pretty much like he's been here forever.  I guess that's what happens in a perfect match.
Soooooo.....welcome little Charlie.  We love you already!!!!

We've Got The Spirit!!!!

We've got the Olympic spirit that is!!!!!  We anxiously awaited the start to the Olympics by doing some Olympic style crafts....we made torches (as shown in Jae-min's hand) and even decorated 2 large signs.  Who are we rooting for you ask....USA and KOREA of course!!!!  Our signs are split into 3 sections...one gold, one silver, and one bronze.  Each morning Jae-min excitedly joins me at the computer to see how many medals both the US and Korea have received for the day before.  We then tape up yellow, silver, and brown (or in our case orange) circles to each respective spot on each respective sign.  I originally wondered if this activity would be over Jae-min's head....but nope.....this boy is working his graph or his "photograph" as he calls it.  He loves counting them, seeing who has more and who has less.  And just this morning he remarked "Korea has to get movin'"  They are slightly behind the US you see.  He's having such a blast  and its fun to see them have such spirit for both of our favorite countries!!!!

And of course no celebration would be complete without the right outfit to wear...so on Friday, the day of the opening ceremonies, these 2 sported their USA gear.....

With a quick wardrobe change for Jae-min into his Seoul Korea Olympic shirt!!!!

If your gonna play the part, you gotta look the part, ya know!!!!
What do you think....future Olympians?????  Maybe synchronized diving for these two????  Yeah...or maybe not.  Haha

Eye See You!!!!

Jae-min had his annual eye check up this past week and we found out our little guy needed glasses.  It wasn't much of a surprise due to his preemie history and the other exams he's had since coming home.....so we had prepared him slightly for this very news.  We talked it UP, and Jae-min left the doctors office excited to get a cool pair of glasses!!!!  So we stopped at the local mall to pick out the new shades.....

Now if you know Jae-min, you know that he's a bit of a character and mundane things always turn into an adventure when he's involved.....and shopping for glasses was no exception!!!  We were both overwhelmed with all the choices but narrowed it down to only the ones with the flex twist in them....you know for the 4 year old.  Well, Jae-min wanted to find just the right pair and told me that he wanted a "stylish" pair....and would say "I don't think those are stylish enough" after every pair I showed him!!!  He had the ladies in there in stitches.  It was difficult to sway him away from the bright blue and yellow ones, the pink ones, and the sparkly ones....you see he has to wear these stylish shades all the time!!!  But my mommy persuasion worked and he picked out a great looking pair!!!!

He walked out of that store strutting his stuff, I tell ya!!!!  And....drum roll please....here he is.....

Pretty adorable huh????

Ok ok....I know he looks sooooo much older!!!!!  I did have to take a step back seeing him like this.  Seriously where did that pudgy little baby go????  Ah...but I digress....
He's been doing great keeping them on all the time.  And yes we did get the insurance as I can't wait for the first oops to happen to these little buggers.
Jaelah has been poking her finger into Jae-min's glasses and looking at him alittle strangely.  She then points to her own eyes and says "assess".  Maybe someday.  But for now I can only stand this much cuteness from one of you!!!!!!

Little Mista......1 and 2

For Easter Jae-min had gotten a butterfly habitat with a coupon voucher for free caterpillars.  After encountering a few glitches in the "free" portion of the voucher, our caterpillars arrived FINALLY.  Jae-min was so excited to take the container out of the box and count the caterpillars.  You see there were supposed to be at least 3 LIVE little buggers squirming around....but in true crazy mommy world nonsense.....only one little bugger had survived the mailing!!!  Oh dear, what to do???

Jae-min was beside himself and watched that lonely little caterpillar eat and eat and eat.  All the while this mamma prayed and prayed and prayed that this one little guy would make it!!!!  Come on hungry little caterpillar, its all resting on you.....

And after a few close calls...(one dropped container, oops).....and a caterpillar who for a few short hours appeared to be stuffed....he FINALLY  went into a cocoon!!!!  I continued to pray and pray that this little guy would make his transformation and not disappoint.  We had gone out for the morning and when we returned this is what we found........

 A BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY!!!!  I could finally let out my mommy breath...we had done it.  How cool to watch the entire transformation...whoo hoo!!!  Now it was time to name this little new friend.  And because we have a fish named "Little Fella" Jae-min decided to name the butterfliy "Little Mista"  So we (oh I mean I) cared for this little butterfly for several weeks.  And then it was time to let Little Mista fly free.  Jae-min had a hard time saying goodbye to his friend, but has seen him visit us in the yard to check in and show us that he's ok.  Phew....with only 1 caterpillar we had success!!!!
You're probably wondering where little Mista 2 comes into play right????  Well this spring we had been playing outside when I noticed a butterfly in the grass with a broken wing.  We decided to use the habitat and nurse him back to health.  And for a very short time he became a part of our family......

And because he had a broken wing he couldn't fly away...meaning Jae-min could hold him.  Strange as it sounds that little butterfly loved Jae-min and would stay on his arm and crawl around while Jae-min watched tv or just hung out.  Jae-min was sad to say goodbye to him as well.
Gosh, we truly are the home for wildlife around here.  This little boy truly has a heart for animals and animals respond amazingly to him.
And truth be told.....we even have a little friendly squirrel who visits often.....which Jae-min has named squiggy.  So if your ever in the mood for a wildlife sighting, come on over.  Chances are we're befriending it!!!

The 4th!!!

We enjoyed celebrating the 4th this year with some fun activities.....but first we had to show our spirit with some cool 4th of July outfits!!!

Next we headed out (in the misty rain) to our town's annual parade.  Jaelah and I had missed it last year as she was so newly home that we thought it would be too overwhelming.  But this year they both were rock stars...dancing, chasing down candy, and holding their umbrellas to ward off the rain drops.

Next we attended a small cookout where these 2 had a chance to play with their cousins...and play they did!!!  The rain finally stopped so I requested a patriotic photo shoot outside....

We lit off some sparklers early in the night....Jae-min was alittle hesitant, and Jaelah was so fearless that she almost lit her hair on fire...Just kidding (well not really)  Haha

And we ended the night with some belly shots.  Ok...do you see the pure joy on their faces when I told them they could do some belly shots.  Crazy I tell ya!!!!  These 2 are crazy!!!!

So fun to celebrate this holiday with these 2.  Happy 4th!!!

Party Time....Dino Style!!!!

This weekend we celebrated Jae-min's birthday with a fun "prehistoric" party....and we all had a blast!!!

The birthday boy waiting for his guests to arrive....

Here is his special T-rex hat that he was soooo excited to wear (and had been wearing for days and even around the store before we bought it) and scare everyone by saying ROAR!!!  Well that is until everyone arrived and then he wanted nothing to do with that plan  Haha

First we had a dino bone dig.  We put sand in these little buckets and buried "bones" (which I had made).  Give the kiddos some plastic spoons and little brushes and presto....you've got some dino diggers on your hands!!!!

In the sandbox we had hid some giant eggs with goodies stashed inside.  We told these little safari explorers that a dino had visited, pulled off the cover, and surprise....big huge eggs!!!!

Next up was the dino egg hunt.  Let the hunting begin!!!!  We also had a T-rex pinata, which was very prehistoric as the silly thing wouldn't bust open no matter how hard these tiny tikes tried.

Then this little paleontologist was excited to open up some PRESENTS!!!!!!

Whoo hoo cake time!!!!  I love this picture....all those little adorable Korean faces just waiting for some yummy cake.  Could you not just eat them up?????

And Jae-min ended the night with this ginormous piece of watermelon...Yummo!!

We had a fantastic time with family and friends.  Happy Birthday little man!!!!