December 2008 Recap (it's a long one!)

December was sooo crazy!!..fun, busy but crazy. And unfortunately, I don't have pics of everything that happened. This will be like a journal entry for the Todd and Hyo North family so if your not interested in reading it, no worries :)

Saturday, December 6th: We started the Christmas holiday with a party at our place for my family, the Kim's. It was so fun and chaotic and crazy!! As always, there were tons of food, everyone ate till they were stuffed and then we just hung out and talked and played. One memory from this party was Ashlyn volunteering to say the blessing on the food. It started out with.....Heavenly Father, thank for this day. Thank you for Todd and Hyo (this was when Todd and I opened our eyes and looked at each other trying not to laugh) and Ethan and...she proceeded to name all of the family members that came (which was about 11). Then she was just about to end the prayer when Todd prompted her to bless the food. We all laughed. How cute. We also celebrated my birthday since some of the family members were going to be out of town till Christmas.

Monday, December 8th: Had ANOTHER party at our place for the play group families which included Ernie and Emily Kim, the Ortons, Powers, Starbucks, Defudis', Bridans, Sumsions, Tanners, Browns, Wolds, Van Fleets. It was wild...we had about 20 kids running around rampant and everyone talking and laughing. It was so great. I loved it. And everyone loved it too. I find that I'm like my mom when it comes to social parties and feeding people. Two things she did when we were growing up. She seemed to always invite families or groups of people and sometimes the whole Korean Branch over to our home and feed, feed, feed. It was her way of serving those she cared about. I find great satisfaction in having people over too. I love the chaos, especially when there's good food and great friends. Thank you everyone for coming. We'll have to do it again.....in the summer!

Wednesday, December 10th: Ethan FINALLY had his tear duct surgery done. It was about time. He was the first one for the day and so we had to check in at 6:00 AM @ Primary's. Ethan was very good natured throughout the whole waiting period. There was even a boy about his age that was also named Ethan. They were so cute playing with each other. It got super sad when I had to hand him over to the Anesthesiologist who then took him into the surgery room. That was when Ethan knew something was up and started crying....it broke my heart. The whole process only took about 10 minutes. It wasn't very long. I got to finally go to him and he was just screaming. He was much happier when he realized that we were leaving the hospital and so was I.
(Sorry the pics are bad....forgot the camera and so these are taken with the camera phone)
Thursday, December 11th: Ashlyn's Preschool Christmas Program. Their class (the Polar Bears) sang "An Australian Christmas" and "Reindeer Pokey." It was so cute!

Saturday, December 13th: TraskBritt Firm Christmas Party at the Grand America Hotel. It was fabulous as ever. While many of the law firms had to cut their Christmas party from their budget, Trask was in great financial shape and we all benefited from it. And as always, we were given Vchocolates as a party favor...yummo!!

Sunday, December 14th: Stake Christmas Program. Turned out great. Our ward choir did "The First Noel/Pachabel's Canon." Bob Sullivan, one of the choir members and salesperson that he is, recruited a few more men from other wards to sing with us...as a result, the women recruited a few of their own (we are the smallest choir). So, it all worked out.

Sunday, December 21st: Ward Christmas Program with the Choir.....yeh, I was totally nervous. I've never done the whole thing by myself. The choir was awesome. I'm glad that it was all done, but at the same time, I started thinking about next year's program....call me nuts...

Thursday, December 25th: CHRISTMAS!!! It was great. We had the video camera rolling so we didn't have a lot of pics taken. Ethan's first present he opened up was some puzzles and he wouldn't let them go until he realized that he had other fun presents. He was all over them. Both he and Ashlyn were so excited to open all the presents from Santa, Grandpa and Myrna, friends, as well as from us. Afterwards, we had breakfast, cleaned up and got ready for Christmas dinner at my parents where there were more presents from cousins and from my parents. It was an amazing day.

Ya know, Christmas has gotten so much better with kids involved. But my favorite.......

...Yeah.....I cried...just like the day he gave me my first set of diamonds...for keeps....thank you my sweetheart. Love you tons...XOXOXO...LMM.

Disney on Ice

My SIL, Alice, was able to get discount tickets to Disney on Ice (thanks to OC Tanner!) and we jumped at the chance to take the kiddies to it. There is simply no words to describe the absolute bliss that Ashlyn was experiencing. During the production, Todd and I would simply watch the reaction on Ashlyn's face as each of the Disney characters came on...she was smiling the whole time. I wish that it was something that I could have captured on camera.
These are just a couple of the pics before our camera was out of battery power.

The whole experience was so much fun, even for Ethan. The only thing that marred the jubilation was Ashlyn's meltdown. As soon as the production was over, she decided that she wanted an Ariel and we said..."no" and she flipped out. Poor girl, she was simply exhausted.

We Love Halloween!!

One of our favorite holidays started out with cute cards from Grandpa North and Myrna. Ashlyn loved hers..the first thing she said when she opened her card was "Tinkerbell!!!..I love it!"

We then did a Halloween themed playgroup at our house and since some could only come in the morning and others only in the afternoon, we did 2 - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Call me crazy, but I just couldn't bear the thought of a mom and kid missing out. Here are some pics:

In this picture, Ethan has found a new love...POPCORN!! I didn't take as many pics that I would have liked but we had so many fun kids all dressed up. I think we had a knight, a dragon, the incredible hulk and more that I just can't recall.

Halloween night was actually quite warm this year so we were out longer than before. At one of the homes (the McKinney's), they made this up...very clever!

Ethan was a pumpkin this year which was Ashlyn's first Halloween costume and Ashlyn was "Sleeping Beauty." They had so much fun and we did too!!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful and safe Halloween.

Tagged by Kari

8 TV shows I like to watch:
Heroes
ER
Tyler's Ultimate
Semi-homemade by Sandra Lee
Project Runway (when it's on)
Next Food Network Star
Boston Legal (which is what I'm watching right now - very good episode, Utah's on center stage)
ANYTHING Food Network

8 Places I love to eat:
Cafe Molise
PF Changs
Martines
The Roof
Cafe Rio
TGIF/Chili's
Jamba Juice
Rumba

8 things that happened yesterday:
Woke up late for church
Practiced with the ward primary for their upcoming program
Sat through John Beckstead's talk titled "5 ways to become inactive" (this was seriously a topic given to him by the bishopric and he really was the perfect person to give it because he's is so dang funny)
Had choir practice in which we had a record number of people come - yeah!!
After lunch, took a wonderful 2 hour nap
Had dinner of sweet and sour meatballs with rice pilaf and steamed veggies
Did the FHE lesson on prophets
Put the kiddies to bed and chilled out with the hubby

8 things I look forward to:
Ethan's nap time
Bed time for the kiddies
Christmas
Thanksgiving
Birthdays
Time spent with my SILs
Shopping with my SILs
Girls outings and friends coming over to visit us and making us feel special (Can't wait to see your fam Kari!!)

8 things I love about fall:
The colors
The cool temperature
School for Ashlyn
Halloween!
Thanksgiving!
Planning for Christmas
I can start cooking comfort foods
My mom's apples and pears that turn into breads and desserts and juice!!

8 things on my wish list:
A second honeymoon that includes a personal chef
A day at the spa
Winning the lottery
That our children will be able to enjoy the blessings of the gospel (I know, cheesy..but true!)
That Todd and I will live a long and fulfilling life to see our children grow up
A third honeymoon???
A weekend getaway with my sweet hubby so that we can sleep in
Our own place

You were right Kari - this was a bit harder than expected....thanks though for tagging me :)

Ahhh...Pumpkin Carving...

Aunt Steph and Uncle Sun (who BTW are expecting their 1st child next February) invited all of us for a housewarming party (except that Ethan and I had to stay home because he was sick). They had dinner and did some intense and artistic pumpkin carving. The first thing Todd said about the "ordeal' was that it was so hard!!...of course the kiddies just played while the dad's did their magic....so here they are, aren't they fun?!? I think we'll be doing this EVERY year, right hun?

You Know It's Autumn When.....

So for FHE, we took a drive up to Little Cottonwood Canyon to see all the beautiful autumn colors. Aren't they amazing? It's so great to just be minutes away from both Big and Little Cottonwood Canyon. We were pointing out all the wonderful colors to Ashlyn like the reds, golds, yellows, browns and some green. We even went right above Alta and walked around...boy was it cooooold!!...after awhile, Ashlyn let us know that she was ready to go back to the car, however, Ethan was having a hayday and didn't want to leave (man that kid can scream like a banshee).

Well, today for lunch, I asked Ashlyn if she wanted to say the blessing on the food and she said "yes." Then she proceeded to thank Heavenly Father for the red, yellows, golds, brown and green (????). Then I realized that she was thanking Him for the fall colors (never mind the lunch!!). How right she was to thank Him for the beauty of this earth and especially, the beauty of autumn.

Another update from us because I'm too lame to be blogging on a regular basis.

I can't believe it's been over a month since my last entry!. Life in general is the same, yet, different. Ya know what I mean? I've at least been pretty good about taking pictures (on the hopes that I would use them to blog and keep my friends and family updated). I forget that this blog is kinda like a journal for our family - especially when it comes to the kiddies.

So, take a seat, relax and be prepared to be entertained with the happenings of the Todd and Hyo North family (hee, hee!!):

So Todd and I were doing some pre-fall cleaning when we happened to find "this!" O.k...so I hate spiders, especially hairy, grey and black ones that are larger than the size of a peanut...and this was so much bigger than a peanut. I would say that it was about 3 to 4 inches in diameter (curled up mode). When I saw this, the first thing that came to mind was that it was a tarantula and that was because our neighbors (The Harlins) found one exactly like this one but sooooo much bigger...I would say it was about 6 inches wide spread out...freak!!...where do we live???..oh, up near the mountains...of course, right? Well, we couldn't tell if it was "asleep" or "dead" so Todd poked at it a few times and we then concluded that it was "dead." I was relieved.

So Ethan has blocked tear duct issues and his first surgery was scheduled for August. So here he is in his cute hospital gown and people, please don't be fooled.....he may look like he's having a good time, but he wasn't. He was starving, in a foreign place, tired and was totally orny that he couldn't play with all the gadgets. To make a very long story short (our day began at 4:30 a.m.), the doctors opted to not do the surgery because they felt that he was not well enought (what the????) Not well? So he was alittle conjested for a few days ago and sometimes coughs in the morning!!...yes, we were mad. So either I'll be able to de-block his tear ducts the home remedy way or hopefully he'll be able to go through with this surger next Wednesday (pray for us please!!)
Our not-so-little-anymore Ashlyn started preschool this year at The Children's Academy which is just 5 minutes away from us. Here she is with her teacher Ms. Heidi. It took Ashlyn a couple of days to get with the curriculum. But now she's doing great and has made some fun friends that she comes home and talks about.
I thought this pic was funny. Here's Ethan just finishing his milk and Ashlyn imitating him but with her water bottle. She's really felt the need to do what he's doing, even sucking on her fingers and he, is the same with her...he's aways trying to do what she's doing. Ah siblings.
This basically encompasses the grocery shopping experience for my kids....they're so great!!

So there you have it. Nothing too extraordinary....but life with these two crazy, loveable, funny, out of control, hilarious kids make each and every day so very special and we are ever so grateful to have them.