In Texas

The.most.amazing.thing.just.happened.

I got caught up. Just for a minute.

It's the weirdest feeling. In fact, I barely remembered how to load pictures and edit in Lightroom.

It's been so long since I've used this laptop for anything personal that I seem to have no idea what I'm doing. But nonetheless, here are some pictures.

Just so you know we're still alive and kicking. In Texas.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We had the best Thanksgiving weekend! While our actual Thanksgiving Day was a little hectic with school, meal prep, and editing, our three day weekend was pretty relaxing.

We spent Friday morning on FaceTime with Eric's family while I finished putting together the stuffing and cranberries for our Thanksgiving lunch with our good friends. This year, there were only four families, and the adults were significantly outnumbered by the kids in this group.

It was a little crazy with all of those kids, but each year it's gotten a little easier, as the kids have aged. Seven boys and five girls--Kennedy is the oldest at 9, and the youngest is 5 months. They were able to be quieted and entertained for a movie for a significant amount of time, allowing us to eat and relax for awhile.

Of course, it's always nice to go to a friend's house knowing that your kids can't really do any more damage than their own kids have. It's also nice knowing that more than likely, our kids won't be the craziest ones there. That makes it a little easier to relax!

Reece, of course, was happy to hang out with us...and spent most of that time eating in the high chair. He's pretty low maintenance, as long as there's plenty of food around!

On Saturday, we had Thanksgiving with another group. That one wasn't quite as relaxing, as we were the only ones bringing kids, and it was our typical "aunt and uncle" group. The kids were pretty much on their own to entertain themselves, though they were provided with Thanksgiving coloring pages, which Kennedy loved. It wasn't quite the hang-out-relax-and-play-games Thanksgiving that we'd had the day before, but that's okay.

Did I mention that it snowed, too?? Not enough to stick, but we had enough to watch hours of flurries. Perfect for drinking hot chocolate and putting together a puzzle while listening to Christmas music!

The kids had been planning to put the tree up after dinner on Friday for weeks. They even got the tree and ornaments out of storage by themselves on Thursday afternoon. Since we didn't get home until about 5:30 on Friday, it was a good thing it doesn't take long to put the whole thing together.

Unfortunately, every year our tree seems to get a little more pathetic. The chintzy ornaments I bought our first year here have been breaking every year, and since we haven't kept up the annual ornament tradition while living here, we seem to have fewer ornaments every year. It's a good thing the kids keep making felt and paper ones at school!

Yesterday, I finally finished wrapping up everything for my photoshoots over the past couple of weeks, much to my relief. While it was a lot of fun, it's nice to be done with deadlines for now!

These are the shots that I mentioned from the scouting trip I took the kids on. The light was great both of the afternoons I took them out, and Kennedy was feeling especially cooperative. Maybe we should try to get her into some modeling here; she seems to enjoy it and her college savings account certainly could benefit!

Because, you know. We really need to add another thing to our lives right now. Ha.

This week we literally have plans every afternoon/evening. The kids' Christmas programs are this week, so that's keeping us busy, but of course, it's a fun busy. Reece doesn't really love that they don't start until past his bedtime, but so far he's managing.

Last night was Kennedy's program, and even though she doesn't have our very favorite music teacher, it was still a great show. Kennedy stepped out of her comfort zone and did one of the non-speaking acting parts, so she dressed up as an angel for the last two songs. This girl really likes to stay in the background (not that you can tell from these pictures!), so we were proud of her for stepping up.

Thursday is Cade's concert, and after learning nearly all of his songs ourselves, we're excited to finally see the performance! They've been working on this since September!

Well, this post is a bit picture-heavy, but at least it's pictures of my own family this time! Next time, you probably won't be so lucky, as the only pictures I have edited right now are of other families!

The Annual Fall Family Photo

Oh man. Can you believe that it's already the last full week of November? Thanksgiving already?! That's cray, cray. (As the kids would say...but since I'm not one, it sounds pretty stupid. Actually, I think it sounds stupid either way.)

Can you tell I'm tired? And not thinking clearly? That's just how it's going these days. While I have enjoyed nearly every moment of the photoshoot craziness that has gone on the past couple of weeks, I'm a bit relieved that today's is the last.

Granted, it's also the one I'm the most excited about...I know the family much better than last week's. I have a better idea of what they're looking for, and their style is a little easier to work with.

And, most importantly, it will be OUTSIDE! Which is SO much easier! The sky does all of the hard work for me. Unfortunately, it's a little more gray than I was hoping. When I took the kids last week, the light was perfect, and I'm hoping for the same today, but I'm not optimistic.

As you can see, we had some fun doing our own family photo shoot about a month ago.

The kids were willing participants for the most part this year, and it was fun seeing what I could get with the tripod and my own skills.

Reece certainly added a new challenge this year, since it's incredibly difficult to get a one year old to look at the camera...especially when there is no one behind it!

Of course, there were several of the five of us where he is looking at the camera, but one of the others is not. I was probably my own worst enemy, since I kept looking at down the remote.

Of course one of my favorite parts of these photos is seeing how our family has changed and grown over the years since we've been here. It's hard to believe that this is our fifth fall in Seoul!

In case you want to do the same, I've found the links for you. I still can't believe we missed 2013. Here is 2011, 2012, and 2014 (which, you might remember, I didn't take).

And, yes, poor Reece was left out of many of these, as he sat back and watched from the stroller. Next year, buddy; you'll be running around and throwing leaves! He's still not even close to walking, which I'm just fine with!

Does it bother anyone else that this park is on a hill?? It drives me crazy that I can either straighten the sidewalk or the trees, not both. Sheesh. Time for a new location.

Since I got some good portraits of the big kids this past week, I tried to pare down the number of pictures I put in this post, if you can believe it! But, for once, there is evidence that I am a part of this family, as well. And since I'll spend the rest of my week editing, rather than blogging, I'll say "Happy Thanksgiving!" now!

Lindy's Trip

Oh, hey. Before all of this birthday hoopla, Eric's mom came to visit. In my typical blogger style, I got all wrapped up in current events and meanwhile, these pictures have just been sitting here. Waiting for things to settle down, I guess. And things have finally settled down! Hallelujah! (Truth be told, though, I should definitely be working on cleaning the house rather than blogging right now, since we're having a friend over for dinner. Oh well. The house will still be dirty when I'm done.)

Lindy has come four out of the five years that we've been in Korea, so we're getting to the point where we don't really have anything new to show her. This year, it was more of a "we'll do life as we normally would, and you can tag along" type of trip. With the added benefit of ordering dinner in a couple of times.

This year, she came for Chuseok, which is definitely one of the nicest times of the year, as far as the weather goes! (Although we can't complain much at this point, either. We've had a few days down into the 30s, but for the most part it's been 50s or 60s, and I'm perfectly content with that well into November!) Since the weather was so nice, we took advantage of it and spent plenty of time outside.

We packed a lunch and the kids and I took her to one of our favorite parks for a few hours between Reece's naps on her first day while Eric was at school. On Saturday, Eric had a baseball game, and he was excited for his mom to see him play. Since this is the last season that he is playing, he asked me to take some pictures. I tried to tell him that he needs to buy me a new lens to get good pictures of him on the field, but he didn't go for it!

On Sunday, after church, lunch, and naps, we went on a short bike ride down to the nearest park. It was the introductory ride for Lindy--a little less than five miles round trip--to prepare her for the longer trip we had planned for Tuesday.

Monday was our big day. Typically, Chuseok is a popular time for foreigners to go to Everland, but the last time we went was our first year here, and Kennedy was starting to feel left out. Eric goes every spring with the middle school, and Cade has gotten to go every year, but Kennedy hasn't gone since the first year. So, we decided this was the year to do it.

That first year, we went on the actual holiday, so it was empty when we got there. It was really pretty great until the afternoon when it started to get busy. This year, the actual holiday was Saturday (I think?), and we couldn't make it work. By the time we got there, maybe 10 minutes after it opened, we already had to park so far away that they shuttled us to the entrance. Yikes.

Needless to say, the crowds were pretty horrific. We didn't realize right away that they finally have the Disney equivalent of "fast passes," so we were only able to get one and the rest were already done for the day. In spite of the heat, the long lines, and the so-so food, we all had some fun and certainly made some memories!

We were served the world's worst potato chips. Seriously terrible. We walked more than 20,000 steps. Eric and I walked around the entire amusement park trying to find something that we would all be happy to eat for lunch (and trying to put Reece to sleep) all while Lindy and the kids did one ride.

We went on a ride that I had told Lindy you don't get wet on, and she got completely drenched while I didn't get a drop. We stood in line forever to take the little train around the gardens. I think the kids' favorite part was taking off their shoes and socks and playing in the splash pad while the adults took a break and just sat.

Thankfully, this trip did not have the drama of the last one she had here. The drive in both directions, in spite of it being a holiday weekend, was pretty reasonable, and we were so grateful! We did check out the school van for the weekend, though, so that we could all fit in one vehicle. So, our rides were more comfortable, but that thing is a beast to park in little tiny Korean parking spaces!

And now, I must get something done before Reece wakes up from his nap and the kids get off the bus! We're so excited to back to the status quo this week--just Awana, swimming, a friend for dinner, Zumba, photoshoots, Bible studies, date night, and baseball. Should be a good week! 

Birthday Month!

Whoops. Blogging kind of hit the back burner last week. I guess I should've known that I was missing something when I was starting to feel caught up on things! I read an entire book, in addition to get Reece's pictures taken and edited, and all of the other regular-life-things.

This past week has been a little rough as we've been more house-bound than any of us would like. The air quality has been terrible lately, so our bike rides and trips to the park or playground have been eliminated, and it's making us all a little stir crazy. The kids need that time outside to run around, and I need that time to have some quiet! The pollution always keeps it warm, too, so it's been in the upper 70s (more like 80s in our apartment), but we can't open the windows. The worst part is that the air is usually good in the fall, so we're at a loss as to why it's so bad lately. It's sad knowing that the air quality has gotten worse every year that we've lived here.

I'm in full swing for Reece-birthday-party-prep right now, which includes things like making applesauce (from the soft, yucky apples that no one would eat) for his birthday smash cake. Roasting pumpkins (squash, really) for birthday party desserts. Crock pot cooking black beans for chili. These are things I.will.not miss whenever we move back to the States.

I know that I used to make applesauce from scratch, and so do many of you. I had never once cooked dried beans for soup, though. And, I didn't make applesauce just because my cake recipe called for it! I also roasted squash, but not because that was the only to get pumpkin for pumpkin bars. I would buy the little pie pumpkins at the Farmer's Market because they were cute and decorative--not because I was actually going to bake with them! Nonetheless, this is the stage that we're in now, and I can either endure it or embrace it, so I'm doing my best to embrace it!

This year, things were a little busy around Kennedy's birthday, so after I dropped Lindy off for her bus ride to the airport, it was time to get to work. She requested breakfast burritos for dinner and dessert at home, and since Cade had soccer until 4:30, it seemed that would be the easiest thing. So, I threw together Double Chocolate banana bread "cupcakes" topped with peanut butter frosting, and I have to admit that they were pretty good, especially since we all know I don't bake! I'm getting there...

My own birthday was pretty great yesterday! Eric took the day off to hang out with Reece and me. I napped when Reece did (wasn't I supposed to be done with that months ago? wasn't he supposed to be sleeping through the night by now?! instead of waking up every two hours like a newborn??), we had Suji's Deli for lunch (good ole American food) and went out for Korean BBQ for dinner. That is my very favorite kind of day--no cooking and no dishes! We were supposed to go on a long bike ride, but with the air the way it is, that wasn't an option, but I was more than happy to take naps while the big kids were in school!

Now, it's time to try to put something together for dinner before I head to school to watch the fall production of Antigone. I'll try to get back to this blogging thing regularly again soon. I keep thinking that after Reece's birthday, things will start to calm down, but the reality is that the day after the party, Eric leaves for Week Without Walls in Jeju. Pretty soon, it will be Thanksgiving and before we know it, Christmas will be here! It's time to get on the ball!

A Trip to the Park

On Saturday, I took the kids to Yongsan Family Park during Eric's baseball game. We actually just took the kids here a couple of weeks ago for a picnic. I had planned on this particular park because there isn't a lot of walking involved, but by the time we arrived, the parking lot was full, so we had to park down the road. We ended up with what I consider a long walk these days. I had Braxton Hicks contractions walking both directions, so I guess that's good. But, that was weeks ago, and I'm still not feeling any closer to labor.

We arrived early on Saturday, though, so there was plenty of parking. And no contractions even though by then I was 37 weeks...almost 38. Come on, baby!

I wanted to check out the light and take some pictures of the kids because on Monday morning, I was going to have my first shoot of someone else's kids. I was a little nervous!

I have a friend who is also a mom with a camera (actually her gear is a lot better than mine having benefited when our HS photography teacher made the switch from Nikon to Canon!), so we agreed to trade services this fall.

I'm hoping to have our pictures done before the end of November because soon after, all of the leaves will disappear and it will be too cold to be outside for any length of time. I'm not really sure how feasible it's going to be with everyone's schedules, though.

I didn't want her to have to wait through my postpartum recovery, so we just decided to do hers now, even without the fall colors.

She has 3 boys, ages 3 and under, so shooting my own kids isn't exactly great practice for shooting hers. Mine can do things like stand on fences and sit still and look at the camera (when bribed with lunch afterwards!).

Nonetheless, it was a good exercise for me in finding the light I wanted, and I was able to show up to the park yesterday with a pretty good idea of where I wanted to be and how I wanted to set things up, so I was happy about that.

After getting the pictures done (and then letting them play for awhile), we headed home and then walked into Itaewon for lunch at one of our favorite restaurants. It was a tediously slow walk for the kids, since I'm not moving too quickly these days. I had done the same walk the night before, so I was even slower than normal. Now that it's cooled off, I'm trying to walk as much as I can, though.

We have all had colds for the past week, which is bearable, but not much fun, of course. Secretly, I'd prayed that we would all get sick now, rather than in a few weeks with a newborn around. We've never made it through a fall in Korea without at least one of us getting pretty sick, and it seemed unlikely this year. I just wanted to get it over with.

Saturday morning, I had actually woken up thinking that I couldn't believe how quickly this cold had passed for me. I'd had a stuffy nose and a slight sore throat for a few days, but I could tell I was on the upswing already. Until that evening. Suddenly, a sore throat hit hard. I was also developing a cough.

I won't provide you with all of the hairy details, but suffice it to say that a sore throat and a cough were not mixing well with my 37 week pregnant body. The heartburn that had disappeared the week before came back with a vengeance when I started coughing, bringing up acid that had no business being brought up. I spent Saturday night trying not to cough or throw up. Obviously, I didn't have a lot of control over that.

Sunday, I skipped out on church, having slept very little the night before. Cade offered to stay home and take care of me, but not surprisingly when I threw up all over the living room floor (I was determined not to throw up!), he went running into his room and closed the door. After showering, I had to figure out a way to get down there and clean it all up without throwing up again! Eesh. Thankfully, after sleeping semi-upright Sunday night, my sore throat was gone Monday morning, and I am feeling much better at the beginning of week 38!