Morgan

Morgan is just a bundle of energy :) She keeps us on our toes and makes us smile and laugh all the time. She's a sweetheart and is very considerate of others. (she does have her moments but for the most part she is always good).
Morgan has been doing gymnastics since the beginning of the year. She had a rough start the first time on the balance beam but it was a great time to teach her the power of prayer and how God and Jesus can help us in different ways. One is that she won't be scared to go across the balance beam. It works. Whether it's because the teacher was right there to encourage her or an increase of courage on her part she has been able to go across the balance beam. She tries hard to do what the teacher asks and sometimes tries too hard that she ends up getting hurt. (like her donkey kicks that has turned into head stands and flipping over! She just doesn't know her own strength :) Her forward rolls are great and her teacher has used her to show everyone how to do them. I've been complimented on how well she listens to directions there as well...(funny she doesn't always listen at home :) She loves life and is enjoying every minute of it!

Morgan doing her stretches.

First time on the balance beam. (the other day it was even higher than that and she wasn't scared at all and did the best she's ever done...she also keeps telling me that it wasn't as high as this one. Well if that's what it takes she can think that!)


Morgan LOVES dance. What more can I say? I think she enjoys dance more than gymnastics. It's easier that's for sure.

A split at the bar.

At the end of class they sit in a circle and each child gets to do their own dance. This is Morgan's.

Morgan sure got the approval of her teacher with her cool moves! She recently had her first performance. It was outside on a cold day at a fair. Everything was chaos. The teacher had all of the same level classes dance together so most of the kids there Morgan didn't recognize. Plus everyone watching her...when they started the dance they were supposed to all start clapping. Her teacher lead them but it was a little confusing as to what was going on. Morgan came running over to us crying. While sitting with me watching them she realized what they were doing and ended up going back up. (They performed on mats in the parking lot). She kinda just stood there while the kids were dancing but hey...at least she got back up. We were proud of her that she did it. She looked so cute with her hair up and make-up on (yes make-up! She actually asks for that quite a bit.) She was very cute. Even with the tears and being a little scared. Not bad for a first time performance.

Morgan is my motivator. She is the one that reminds me that I need to work out. One day I was just feeling sick and Morgan still wanted to work out. What a determined girl!!! Here she is following Billy with his TaeBo.
For preschool in March the theme was "Going on a Safari". Here is Morgan in her Safari hat dancing to the music with her hyena puppet.

I think this speaks for itself. :)

Caden

Just a little update on the little guy.
We went in for his 9 month check up in March. He hasn't gained any weight since January's visit and not much then from his visit before. So of course the doctor was concerned. He ordered a bunch of tests (blood, urine, etc). One of the hardest things to do is to hold your child down while someone draws blood from them or sticks something up them. I actually held it together fairly well even through the doctor telling me his "theories" of what may be wrong with my child. Until I saw a friend of mine as we were walking out. The tests have come back since and things are normal. However, not good enough for the doctors, so we have to go see some specialist at a Korean hospital. Everything else indicates he's a healthy boy except he's just not growing. We try and think positive despite what doctors forecast. We've increased Caden's solid intake hoping that will help in the weight gain. and boy... the kid will eat. We did have a rocky start with solids with him throwing up rice cereal. So we took it slow. So our last doctor appointment we were only feeding him solids once a day and nursing the rest. Now I only nurse morning and night, he gets a 2nd breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We are hoping this will eliminate the worries of all the doctors. Other than that Caden is a bundle of joy and smiles and waves to us all the time. (Especially to Morgan during dance and gymnastics :)

Caden loves his big sister and loves to dance to her singing and watch her every movement. He even has his own dance moves! He'll bounce his head back and forth. It's a cross between Rush Hour and Night of the Roxbury. He is making all sorts of noises, rolls around everywhere, says dadda (refuses to say anything else) and still sucks his finger!

Caden was cheering on his Korean team during the Olympics. The only events we got at our house were the ones Korea won :)

Nate isn't home much to feed Caden but tries to help out as much as he can.

However, Caden doesn't seem to like the change...

and so it's back to mommy with the food.

He is very smart and already reading by himself :) again the finger is in his mouth.

He loves fast food! He'll throw a fit if you take it away. (actually he does that for a lot of things he must get that from his sister :)

On Easter Caden's first tooth FINALLY came through. On the bottom left. The poor kid seemed to be in pain for the past few weeks and since then it has died down a bit.

It's so Hard to say goodbye...

One of the greatest blessings of being here in Korea is meeting some amazing people! One of which was the Frankels. Shay has become a wonderful and amazing friend that truly helped make Korea bearable. And Morgan loves Avary and Sam. (we love Will too) We did preschool together for about 5 months and had a blast. The only thing we regretted was getting together even more than the 4 days a week we'd see each other (including Sundays).

We took them to a Korean restaurant where you actually do take your shoes off at the door and sit on the floor. Best Korean food though. The kids of course had a blast.
Unfortunately, with the military you move a lot. New assignments etc. And the Frankels assignment in Korea ended March 1st. We went out to dinner to say goodbye to our friends and hope it's soon that we'll see each other again.
Here are the 3 friends together. (it took forever to get them to stop running and playing to get a picture! They just got along so great and love being with each other. We really miss them.

The school clan.

Me and Shay.

The Frankel's. Shay, Sam, Avary, Mike, and Will. (who just turn 1! :)

Us.

Can You Tell Me How to Get....

How to get to...I guess we made it there! In February we were lucky to have some special visitors come sing and dance for us. It is amazing what people do to support their country and their troops. In this case the cast of Sesame Street came to show their support. We were able to see Elmo, Grover, Zoe, Cookie Monster, and Rosetta. Grover hid behind the backdrop and stuck out his arm or leg. Morgan thought that was just the funniest thing.

Morgan of course was SO excited. She got up and danced and sang along with them.

Perhaps even cuter was that Caden was so interested and excited about it as well. He smiled and waved and watched right along with his sister.

It was almost like a rock concert. Every once in a while Elmo or Grover or someone would come off the stage and shake hands, high fives etc...and all the kids started to "rush the stage". Even Nate took Morgan up there for a little action. Several times though they would just miss them.


However, Nate decided he'd stay up there and wait for the next time one of them came over to the kids. Well...Cookie Monster came over to the side of the stage RIGHT where Morgan was! He shook her hand and then held out his hands to give her a hug. Well...to all you who know Cookie Monster and his eating habits know he'll eat just about anything. This must have been Morgan's thought because she was fine with the hand shake but as soon as he held out his arms to her...YIKES!!! She didn't want to be eaten! Can't blame her either he's a big guy :)
They came back to me and Caden Morgan just in tears. However, we talked to her and told her he just wanted to give her a hug and was probably sooo sad that she cried and left and was probably talking to Elmo about the cute little girl that wouldn't give him a hug. So when we got in the car she yelled out the window "I'm sorry Cookie Monster I still love you." And of course he heard her and is now happy :)

All of us with the cast of Sesame Street (the ones that came minus Grover he got cut off)

They gave us bandannas so we wore them. She is sooo cute!!!!!

Korean War Museum

One weekend it wasn't too cold so we decided to go to the Korean War Museum. They had tons of armored tanks and planes outside to look at and explore. It was really interesting. Of course it always helps to have Nate who speaks Korean to tell you what everything was for. But that wasn't nearly as important as getting inside the boat and cars etc. :)

Lets hope this REALLY doesn't happen for a LONG time.

Mommy and Caden :)

Yes, I single handedly stopped the tank from shooting. No big deal really...all in a days work.

Life goes on...

Once you have kids...most activities revolve around them. Not that I mind. There's nothing like seeing Morgan with a big smile on her face and having a great time. One of the best things I think is seeing your children happy. So for my birthday we went to Lotte World. (indoor and outdoor amusement park although the outside is closed in the middle of winter). This time I wasn't pregnant and I was able to go on the rides with Morgan. We had a blast. There were a lot of people there so I hope you can find us in these pictures :)



We thought this would be a fun boat ride for Morgan. (one of the few that she could ride because of height restrictions.) I think it was called the Adventures of Sinbad? Well the picture speaks for itself...you go in a dark cave where you drop a few times and then the rest of the ride is through a cave with dragons and ugly pirates and witchcraft stuff. Not what we expected at all. They had even let us cut in line so we got right to the front and our plan was I take Morgan first and then Nate with her...yeah...didn't happen.




So everyone here sews. Seriously. So I decided I might as well join 'em. We bought a sewing machine and I decided to take advantage of these amazing and knowledgeable women and learn how to make some blankets. Darsha has been amazing in helping me from showing me the tricks of cutting fabric to taking me to the fabric market (which is a huge deal here and such a crazy and busy place that when anyone in the branch needs to go EVERYONE goes.) She even plays with Morgan when she comes...but then again who doesn't want to play with Morgan she's so cute and friendly with everyone :)
Well here is proof that I am sewing. (Although, to those of you who still think that I never held the snake on my mission and think I photoshopped the picture you'll probably think the same here and to you I really have nothing more to say. There are those who saw angels and still denied it so...when we get to heaven I'll have the last laugh my friend.)