happy birthday, naomi!

somersaults and god

While kneeling on our bedroom floor on the verge of a time-out after being repeatedly told to settle down and go to sleep, Nicholas recounts the events that led to him and Sophia crying.

"I kind of hit Sophia by accident and told her I was sorry, and she kept touching me and then she did a somersault and landed on my eye."

"Sophia, is that true?"

"Yes."

Trying extremely hard not to bust out laughing, to no avail, I giggle out, "Are you supposed to be doing somersaults in bed?"

"No." She giggles.

"Ok, you guys need to go back in and I don't want to hear another sound from you and I don't want to come back upstairs again. If I do, you'll both get a time-out and be in trouble. Understand?"

"Yes." Says Nicholas with a semi-straight face.

"Yes." She giggles again.

"I'm serious, Sophia. If I have to come up here again, you're going to start losing stuff. What do you love?"

"God." (huh?)

"What?"

"God." (and here I was thinking she would say purple fairy wings, princess dresses, etc.)

"Well, don't you love your new flower girl dress? Your purple fairy wings that Kathy and John gave you that light up? Your flower girl basket?"

"Yes. And God."

"Ok, well, if I come up again, you'll lose the other stuff."

Clearly, that didn't go over as well as I had hoped. I should have known. Earlier when we came home from church, she said to me, "You know, Mom, when God is angry with me, he still loves me." Go figure.

happy birthday, dad!

After singing the happy birthday song to my dad on the phone tonight, Sophia asked my dad, "How old are you?" My dad replied, "I'm 69 years old today." Sophia giggles and turns to us and says, "Wow. He's 69."

And because she isn't quite ready to stop celebrating her birthday, she says to him, "I already had my birthday." To which my dad replies, "I know...and you're 4 years old now!" She giggles again and with a look of surprise and amazement, says, "How'd he know that? He knows I'm not 3 anymore."

say kimcheeee

A couple of weeks ago, Hyeson, Curtis, and Emma came for a visit. Hyeson had her 20th high school reunion that weekend , but they ended up going down later and coming up earlier to hang out with us. The kids had missed Emma terribly and were so excited to see her! And we'd like to think that Emma liked playing with us, too. My brother and his family finally came back from Shanghai a couple of months ago, and Melanie and the kids have been in Naperville getting their house ready to sell. And my poor brother has been going back and forth from Detroit and Chicago every weekend. They'll be glad to be altogether in Detroit soon, although we'll miss having them nearby.

Anyway, we decided to get together for dinner on Sunday afternoon (before Curtis flew back to Arizona and Puyol drove back to Michigan) and since this was the first time in three years that we had all gotten together, we decided to take some pictures. Of course, the idea didn't occur to us until late Saturday night, but fabulous Danielle (and Max) at Red Pearl Photography was able to meet us on campus and snap a few of our crazy bunch. It's hard to mobilize 14 people, including 2 babies, much less get everyone to look in the same direction and smile at the same time, but I think we managed to get some great shots. Thanks, Danielle!

The cousins

My siblings & me...don't we just look totally marvelous?

The babies--Emma was cute and kept trying to give Naomi hugs and put her arm around her, but Naomi wasn't quite as receptive...probably because she's fighting off her older siblings everyday who physically smother her with affection day in and day out.

The girls--Emma, Whitney, Sophia, Screamer (I mean, Naomi), and Nicole

The boys--Ethan, Nicholas & Tyler

Hyeson, Curtis & Emma...super cute family

Melanie & Puyol with Whitney, Nicole, Tyler & Ethan...another nice family photo...notice everyone smiling and looking at the camera.

Then there is us...look at my monkeys and their mugs...and Naomi's armpits. Nice.

One of the last attempts at looking normal...

...before the cold and wind started to get to us. And our true personalities came through.

Such a super fun day.

I hope Nicholas, Sophia & Naomi have as much fun with each other and their families when they grow up.