My son Ping

Isn't E the cutest boy in a Chinese hat you have ever seen? He is also seen here wearing his favorite shirt of all time. It's reversable which is a good thing since one side has a irreversable stain. So it's both sides of the coin- this shirt... hmm. Something to think about. Speaking of E- he recently became the first child in our family to own his own 100 dollar bill. Two of them actually! He has gotten on the modeling band wagon that so many American kids here do. He worked very hard for 2 days from 8:00 to 4:00 (and may I say that is way too long for a 9 year old to have to work). I was pretty tired myself and I was just sitting there watching. So we should be seeing him in some FILA cateloge come winter 2007. One of the complaints I did have was that the 2nd day they paid him in US currency. The exchange rate is bad for that right now. So she ripped him off about 11.00. I didn't notice until it was too late, and Evan was so thrilled with the big bill I decided to let it go. We probably won't do this again- too much inconvienence. Of coarse most of this goes into savings, but he did get to purchase a dragon necklace at the amusement park the other day that he is pretty proud of. It's a bit on the gangsta side for me. Next time Mom gets to help him pick...

Bravo your life

Hey there. Thought this sign was worth posting. We should all bravo our lives a bit more, don't you think? We have a lot to be grateful for after all. LIke the fact that North Korea couldn't get those missles farther that the Sea of Japan for one thing! YIKES! I am going home to Utah for a couple weeks this month and I am excited. 'Bravo my life' that I have a husband willing to take time off and watch our kids for 2 weeks while I get pedicures, facials and shop all over Provo. I guess the last 14 years of loyal service on my part is paying off. Just kidding- we are a partnership all the way. Thanks T- Bravo our lives!

Thought I'd say hello

Hi
It's Kelly at home on a hot Korean Summer day. N is away at scout camp for a week and we all miss him. I found it especially touching that the first morning when we awoke and his absence was a bit more noticable, D (the youngest son, who usually gets picked on by N) voiced his sadness at N being gone. He went on to mention how "long the scout camp was lasting, that it was 5 days and that 5 days is almost 7 days which was a whole week and if they happened to extend the length of the camp then N would be gone a week and that would just be way too long!"

I had to smile and feel a bit of remource that poor D doesn't get the kudos he deserves from his older brothers. He really loves them and he is smart enough and good enough and dangit I really like him! So do his classmates at school and church by the way. When he is spotted by any of them around town there is always the excited "AD!!" (no one from school calls him D- that is his home name only) shouted out from a long distance away by some child his age who is just thrilled at the possibility of seeing our little ball of fire. One day maybe 'the brothers' will appreciate his greatness. I guess all this humbling by his older syblings is character building for him though.... E and D are getting along great without the older brother N around though- not a surprise.

A was a handful today. She has it in her mind that we are swimming today. This is correct, but the pool does not open until 12:00 and when D had a friend's mom call asking if she could drop off her son to play A started asking for a playdate as well. I made the mistake of reminding her that she would see her friend at the pool today. She instantly darted off to change into her swimsuit. The problem here being that I am behind on the laundry and finding a clean suit was a difficulty and then encouraging her to get her clothes back on as it was still 3 hours yet until our swim time did not go over well. Sigh-reasoning with a 3 year old often ends in "stop crying about this or you will be in time out!" or worse "I am going to have to spank you." It rarely gets to that but still the threat holds great weight in her mind and so I milk it. It's very tiring. Good thing she is so dang cute. She has been included in the boys play today like no other day in history. She has been "Rosemary", D's daughter and E's neice in a little game the kids play called 'cow kids'. She kept calling E uncle. E had some offspring as well played by the local dollies in A's room. Cow kids is basically about some kids living it up in the old west. They use a lot of stuffed dogs and pillows and today E got out is guitar as well. Glad to see he is getting some use out of that musical instrument : )

Well I am being bombarded by kid requests right now-so I guess it's time to close... TNT (til next time)
Kelly

Scenes in Seoul

Here are a few little dittys for you. The first one is a misspelling of the word Nike. Look closely to see the word Nikh. Kinda sounds the same I guess. The second picture is just a nice shot of the loaded downess that the Korean's are known for when traveling on some of the most dangerous streets in the world- always a good idea to be as loaded down as possible. The others are pretty self explanitory- we love finding these mishaps in translation. It's one of the great joys in our lives living in a foregin country. Hope you enjoy them as well!
Kelly

please enjoy some pics of our recent vacation to Saipan! It was a blast.

Fast Facts (this year's Christmas mailing)

No time for Christmas letter - only fast facts:

1) We moved to South Korea. Driving in Korea is downright scary. This is because the Koreans have only been driving automobiles for about 5 months. The other day we saw a father and his 3 small children riding a motor scooter into oncoming traffic. This would not have been so unusual had he not been programming his cell phone and hauling a refrigerator at the same time. The only passengers wearing helmets were the grandma and grandpa. Koreans are very proud of their large organ-donor pool. Apart from the traffic, Korea is wonderful.
2) We loaned our dog abby to Grandma T because they eat dogs in South Korea. Just kidding – that’s just what we told the kids. Really, they don’t eat dogs here anymore because they are too busy stuffing their faces with Kim chi. Kim chi is a delicious fermented cabbage dish, which is served at every meal. Kelly has taken a religious vow of Kim chi abstinence.
3) Troy gradiated from neurology residency . . . “congraduations T”.
4) Kelly is the glue that keeps the various parts of our family together. She was rather sticky this year.
5) N is progressing rapidly on the violin. He is preparing to honor his parents with a Christmas recital soon. One of his fellow fiddlers is blind. There is nothing wrong with blind people (except that they cannot see the notes while fiddlin’).
6) E has taken heartily to a Korean craze called “Dahchees” (pronounced dah-cheese). A dah-chee is a flat paper disc with Korean writing on it. The object of dah-chees is to chant “tai, bai, bow” (Korean rock, paper, scissors) and then throw your dah-chee at your friends dah-chee to overturn it. If you are successful, then you get to keep them both. Dah-chees is really flat marbles for lazy kids who don’t want to chase round marbles.
7) A has a very scruffy voice. It’s fun to tickle him and hear him squeal scruffily. He is brings a lot of joy to our house. Also, his favorite recipe is: 737-5546 which is the number for pizza delivery. Also also, he is a great dancer and likes to boogie.
8) A is the sovereign authority at our house. She is planning a coup to take over the local government as dictator. She pretty much gets whatever she wants because she is so darn cute. Her cheeks are like sugar plums, round and plump (often coated with sweet stuff). She has a line of clothing coming out next fall.
9) This letter is due at the post office by December 10th so this is the end of the facts (and the reason they had to be fast). We pumped this baby out just 1 hour.
10) Kelly’s making me say that we love you all and yada, yada, yada . . . Merry Christmas, Season’s Greeting, Happy Chanaka, Happy Kwanza.


Love,
Us

Santa's first gift

D, after playing one of the shepherds (mustache and all) in the Christmas play, is happy to have a gift from Santa. (The shepherd costume also doubles as a Master Yoda get-up for Halloween - resourceful in costuming are we.)

Hellow

Here are the first of many photos of our favorite Korean mishaps in translation. We get a real kick out of the things they come up with. They say Korea is the land of the 'not quite right' and these are a couple of fine examples! Coffee with your counselling anyone?

Attention! Attention!

A has been quite the main attraction in Korea. It's the blonde curls we think. Wherever we go they want to touch her, take her picture, talk to her, etc. She pretty much gives them the cold shoulder (sometimes it's literal as she turns away and buries her face). She has even on one occasion played possum, pretending to be asleep in her stroller, peeking through half closed eyes to see if the coast is clear yet. We have tried working on her manners, but well... she is 2, and for those of you with 2-year-old experience, you can guess how that is going. Here is a picture of what things were like when we took her to a fish market. The nick name that day for her was "little doll" (Can't remember the Korean word for it right now).

Dec 17th

Little Boy made a large cutout of Santa at school using construction paper and cotton balls. It's about as big as his little sister and we stuck it onto our fridge. All day yesterday A was playing interactively with this Santa. She read to it, told it stories, asked for presents, etc. It pretty much ignored her all day. A is very excited for christmas. She walked in on Kelly the other day while Kelly was wrapping presents. Audrey exclaimed "Ohhhh is this for me? Is it pink?" Pink is her favorite color - truely we have done nothing to encourage this.