It's Spring Break 2018 and the hubs and the boys are off at the farm. It's just me and little miss here at the house so I thought I'd revisit this little blog of mine. Was my last post really from November 2016!? Welp, time to get caught up I guess. Let's hit the highlights...
December 2016....KOREA! I got to celebrate my 33rd birthday in Korea. We had the most amazing trip. I am so, so glad we took the older boys. We did miss little brother, but it is such a long flight and the jetlag is intense and also, toddlers. ;) He had a great time with Nana and Papa and the four of us had so much fun getting out and exploring and of course, meeting baby sister!
Our first full day there we got to have a private meeting with baby sister and her foster parents. The boys both did great at all three of our meetings, but I just have to brag on C for a sec. He was a total big brother rockstar at those meetings and had all the agency staff and other parents just gushing about what a wonderful big brother he was! He played hard and had her giggling from start to finish every time we saw her.
Having a cute drink at dunkin donuts while we killed time waiting for the tour bus that hubs left our backpack on (with all our passports inside!) to finish it's 90 minute route and return to the ticket booth. Yep, that happened.
W was not a fan of the bungeo-ppang. "Your homeland tried to poison you." One C's many memorable quotes from the trip.
Love locks at N Seoul Tower.
This was one of the best days! Our trip on the KTX to Busan. W absolutely loved riding a bullet train and seeing all the ships on the water. We went to the Oryukdo Skywalk and then on a crazy hike along the coast. The hubs definitely tried to warn me as everyone we saw coming down was dressed in full on hiking gear. I thought maybe that's just how they do "hiking" in Korea. Like wearing cute active wear for a quick walk around the block. You just dress for fun not really out of necessity. It was rough. We encountered no one else with children in tow, got completely lost, emerged at some sort of rest stop where a school teacher bought the kids drinks and asked to practice his English with us, then we mercifully hailed an empty cab in the middle of the road to get us back to town. The hubs likes to bring it back up how I drug us on this hike and got us lost...of course all I have to say to that is "backpack." Haha. After our hike we went to Haeundae Beach which was beautiful even in the middle of winter.
W: I'm too scared to open my eyes!
C: Come on, look around and enjoy the view. It might be the last thing you do in life.
At our last meeting.
Meeting our daughter was amazing. But, I honestly don't know if I can say it was the best part of the trip for me. This moment right here...the entire trip was worth this moment right here. My heart is having all the feels again looking at these pictures. What a reunion.
Grabbing some coffee before our big appearance in court. Court was necessary but not at all a pleasant part of this experience. Haha. W refused to sit in the row behind us so was on my lap. He kept fussing about how the judge wasn't asking him any questions and trying to grab the microphone so he could say his piece. The one time I glanced behind me at C he was sprawled out with his hands behind his head just chill as can be. Clearly he wasn't nervous at all. :) We bowed out of the group lunch after court and headed back to the hotel so we could all gather ourselves (talking to you W!). Then we rallied and ventured out on our last night to walk along Cheonggycheon Stream. It was so pretty all lit up. Loved it.
Ending the trip with some Korean fried chicken.
January 2017....Bringing baby sister home! Sadly, I was super sick on this trip so didn't have much of a chance to enjoy it. Thankful my mama was along for the adventure to take care of me.
The whole brood is together at last! :)
February 2017....
1st big outing as a family, to the Lawrence natural history museum.
1st real snuggles with Daddy at Barnes and Noble while I was in the bathroom. Ha.
Zoo Day
1st Sunday at church, in the nursery with mom.
This guy lost his 1st tooth!
April 2017...My bestie came all the way from NY for a visit! And we had our first professional photos taken as a family of SIX!
May 2017...This handsome little man graduated from kindergarten.
June 2017...June was busy! We celebrated hubby's graduation and went on a vacation to the beach with his family, with a quick stopover in our old stomping grounds to visit my alma mater.
July 2017...we kept the extended family introductions going for baby sis with a visit from my sister. They spent two weeks here and we had lots of fun sibling/cousin time. We also celebrated little miss's 2nd birthday at the end of July!
I don't know what came over C on this day. It's not rare at all for him to carry sister around but he hasn't scooped up his little brother in ages. I had to snap a pic.
My mom planned a grandkid photoshoot. There's always gotta be one that doesn't cooperate. Seeing as how hubs and I provide half the number of grandchildren, we were already looking at a 50/50 chance of the problem child being one of ours. Hahaha
When asked what kind of party she wanted her reply was "Appy!" So she got a 'Happy' birthday party. :)
August 2017....August brought us back to school, a few tail end of summer outings, and celebrating my two August boys' birthdays.
September 2017....Celebrated Chuseok with friends.
October 2017...annual pumpkin patch trip, of course, celebrating littlest bro's 4th birthday. Oh, and a quick visit to WV to surprise my big sister for her 40th birthday! Halloween 2017 also in the books with the cutest combo we've had to date, Mario and Luigi. :)
November 2017...the highlight was our super fun, SUPER cold trip to the Omaha zoo.
December 2017...December flew by as it always seems to do. We enjoyed all of our holiday traditions, made extra special by the addition of baby sister this year.
Secret Sibling shopping
I don't know that this Home Depot build will become a tradition unless the hubs can come along next time. Ha! I still feel like super mom looking at these pictures.
Speaking of supermom, I volunteered at BOTH boys' class parties this year. Lol.
Some of our favorite traditions...gingerbread houses and Christmas cookies.
Christmas Eve pj's
We added one new tradition this year that the kids loved...a Korean Christmas cake!
January 2018...my baby sister got MARRIED! The Atwell girls are the little sisters I dreamed of as a little girl. :) I've been blessed to remain in their lives as a big sister figure, and now that they're all grown up, as a friend. Very honored to have been a bridesmaid in both of their weddings.
February 2018...Mina's dedication! A Nana and Papa/cousin night at GWL, the Pyeongchang Olympics, and Seollal.
I did it! All caught up! This blog is a bittersweet reminder of all these sweet moments in our lives so I'm going to do my best to continue preserving this crazy life of ours.
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