Marriage and Motherhood: Your Sunday Update!

It has been a very busy week for us with Christmas coming up - I have been a bit neurotic with all the activities. I think because I have been a working mom since Tay turned five months old, I felt like I missed out on doing many of the fun activities moms can do with their kids during the holidays, so now I just can't help myself! Running my kids ragged, probably, but they seem to enjoy themselves. Anyhow, on with the photos! Let's begin with the baby who has been refusing to sleep before 10pm lately...

She's so cute...I can't even be upset that she's awake. Who cares if I lose a few more hours of sleep if I get to cuddle with this little monkey?

We made some Christmas trees with popsicle sticks, felt, and buttons.

I like watching them working hard...

Working on the glitter glue...

A simple glittered tree.

Working on her felt tree.

She got really good at putting just enough glue to stick the buttons.

She was so proud of herself.

My big girl who did everything all by herself.

So pretty. :)

After that, they took a break by going "fishing"...I'm not sure what's going on here, but they were yelling and Ri was shouting, "Save me! Save me!" so I figure Ri "fell in" while she was fishing and Tay was "saving" her.

They were "fishing" with pipe cleaners.

Hehehe...

Littlest sister woke up from her nap. :)

Another day this week, we made some reindeer hats. I didn't have any brown construction paper, so I just used white and let them "decorate" their hats. Ri suddenly started writing "letters" on her paper! Who knew?

Then, she told me she drew something for her baby sister. I came over to look, and she pointed at the little green thing. I asked her what it was, and she said, "Maracas for her to play!" Excellent.

What my kitchen table looks like when we're doing "art."

I need bigger "eyes," but that's all I had on hand. Aren't they adorable, though! I got this idea from a friend of mine who did them with her kids in Korea (thanks, Summer Lee!).

Suddenly, Ri wanted her hair done just like her Unni, so I had to braid her short hair as closely as I could to look like her big sister's. She was happy with the result. :)

Love these two...especially when they're getting along so nicely.

Another day, we made some pretty Christmas wreaths with paper plates, tissue paper, and glue. This craft was a little harder to do for little fingers, but they still managed to make some beautiful decorations for the house! Here is Tay wrapping the tissue paper around a pencil eraser before gluing to the plate.

Ri needed a little more help wrapping, but she liked putting the "flowers" on the plate.

She is handing me the pencil here...

This one is Ri's finished one. She didn't want to put any more on and didn't want to color any more of it either...

They thought the wreaths could be masks, too!

This one is Tay's hanging on our wall. Isn't it lovely with the ribbon and her coloring?

Here are the cinnamon salt dough ornaments ready for packing for their classmates! We added pretty ribbon for hanging and decided not to paint them to keep the cinnamon scent as strong as possible.

The ornaments for the teachers.

All packaged up!

Decorated cookies for gifting!

Some "window pane" cookies.

She wanted to look through the window.

Cupcakes for the last day of school! (Devil Dogs recipe from thepioneerwoman.com)

The girls helped decorate each cupcake...

...although, Ri snuck one in her mouth before I noticed!

Aren't they pretty? They were delicious, too!

We also had some friends come over for a gingerbread-house-making party (and dinner)!

I constructed mini-gingerbread houses for each kid, and made some extra house parts in case any of the parents wanted to make one, too. ;)

To show the size of these houses...

Ri was busy eating the icing by the spoonful...and the candy.

Baby played underneath the table while the decorating was going on...she was hoping for some dropped sprinkles, I think.

Tay was the most meticulous decorator...

She loved her creation. She even made a little fence around her house. She's got some scratch infection on her chin going on; that's why she has the bandaid chinstrap.

Ri wanted to make her house look exactly like her big sister's house...so she did!

So proud of herself - with another piece of candy in her mouth.

One parent made a house for a grand total of five decorated houses! Aren't they lovely?

Not sure what's going on here, but it was funny, so I snapped a picture.

The children. Ri is mimicking the little boy who was claiming his decorated house. :)

Sometimes when I have to do the dishes, I set my little in the walker and distract her as best as I can as I wash. Here she is playing with water on her tray.

She loves to splash it and taste it and rub it all over the tray!

So much fun!

Morning times are still bed cuddle times with the sisters. Here, they are playing "sse sse sse"- the Korean pat-a-cake game.

I wonder why Rea has such a serious face...?

She's usually all smiles when playing with her sisters...unless they're squishing her or something.

She continues to make fun faces!

This gal loves making noise. If she has two things in her hands, she always has to clap them together to see what sound they make. I may have a drummer on my hands.

It makes her so happy!

Here she is tasting a drum stick bone...

...even if her face looks like this, she was enjoying it. :)

One night, she wouldn't let me lay her down. She slept like this for a few hours. Every time I went to put her down, she'd wake up and cry, and as soon as I lay her back on my belly, she'd be instantly back asleep. I couldn't sleep because I was afraid she'd fall off! Like I said before, it's a good thing she's cute!

Ah...sleeping babies with super-chubby cheeks are so adorable.

Oh, did I mention she's teething again? Still only two teeth, but I suspect I will be seeing some upper teeth soon.

I was just snapping some pictures of this child trying to take off her "tights" because she thought they were socks.

She played with some of her toys...

Loves the noise makers...

...and tasting things, of course.

When I look over to the play room to see this. Hmm...

Oh, one night I saw her trying to crawl into an empty book shelf.

I just had to get a picture of her reindeer booty.

Ri on the playground!

Girls walking to school! They look so adorable all wrapped up...

Here we are walking to our village Christmas Market! Well, Ri and I were racing. :)

Isn't it lovely? Adorable little train ride right in the middle...

I wanted to show off a little Jeff's hard work outside the house preparing for Christmas!

I just happened to notice how our little angel above the gingerbread house and the stars the girls made at school looked so nice together at night.

As for the random photo of the week, I bought these two types of Pringles from our local grocery because I had never heard of them before...the cinnamon was DELICIOUS, while the mint chocolate was just bizarre. And not in a good way (for me). The girls seemed to enjoy them, though.