Happy Anniversary! Daniel & I have been together 7 years since these pictures were taken. I cannot believe it!

Our Korean Wedding was so cool :)

The picture above was taken right before we were married. I can't believe how much younger we look! Since then, we have had 2 kids and we have changed so much!

This past week was our anniversary but Daniel was busy with school and my sister was visiting, so we had a mini-party with the family that day. We had a yummy cake from Sarafina's :)Last night, Daniel took me out to a romantic restaurant, Mario's Bistro on the French side of the island, to celebrate. (Thank you Sam & Diane, for babysitting!) It was nice to get dressed up and get away, just the two of us. We spent a lot of the time watching the HUGE fish swimming next to us in the channel that connects the ocean to the lagoon. We talked about random things, snapped pictures of each other, and stared at each other a lot, too. Haha. We had an awesome time! The food was yummy, I highly recommend it!I really lucked out in the marriage department...for the past 7 years, I have always felt loved and special. Daniel is the best husband and a phenomenal father. I really don't know how I got to be so blessed. And during the past 11 years that we have been together, we have grown together so much! When we started dating, we were just 2 clueless kids...and now...we are still clueless, but no longer kids, and have gotten to a comfortable place where we know we can depend on each other, no matter what. Here's to many, many more years of wedded bliss and to growing old and cranky together! I love my husband!

The (Mis)Adventures of Nate

It seems that two is the age when kids are trouble-magnets. No matter how hard a mom tries to keep her eyes on the little boogers, they somehow manage to get into some kind of mischief. If I wanted to write a book about my mischievous Nate, I probably could. For instance, right now, my dear little boy is missing an entire nail (it fell out after he tried to climb up my entertainment center, fell, and knocked over a chair onto his finger). Another example, the other day, some toys that I had put away on the very top shelf of his closet...miraculously appeared in the living room. When I went to investigate, I found Nate had climbed (like a monkey) up the metal shelving unit that houses toys in his closet, and was dangling from the pole that you hang clothes on, and teetering (leaning backwards!!) at the very top of his closet. I have to use a step stool to reach that shelf so I was very disturbed that he would even think to climb up there! Mommy was unhappy but couldn't stop laughing for some reason.

Anyway, most of the time when he is naughty, I am too frazzled to take pictures...but here are some recent Nate-esque things that I was able to document.

The Abstract Self-Portrait

Sometimes, Nate gets happy with a marker and pen and draws on the wall or the table...or the sofa...or if he is afraid of getting in trouble, underneath or behind the sofa. This isn't a HUGE deal, because most times I can wash it off just fine although I am still very unhappy about it. We are still working on that issue, everyday.

But, when you tell a child to "Draw yourself" you definitely don't expect to see....THIS!
He certainly took me VERY literally. It took a few days and some good scrubbing to get that masterpiece off of him. Fun, fun, fun! Still couldn't help laughing. haha.

The Haircut I didn't pay for...


This one is sort of a toss-up on whose fault it is. So, I will give you a play-by-play. I was putting away laundry in the boys room and the boys were 'drawing' in the living room. When I walked out to the living room, I noticed suspicious behavior but that is pretty normal. I didn't think much of it until...I saw this...

"Ahhhh!!! Oh no!! Please, No!!" That's what I was screaming inside my head. Then, I was thinking, "Ok, it's not curly, so it's not JT...Oh no! Nate must have chopped his own hair off!!" At this point, I'm afraid to look, but I force myself to look over at the boys. This is what I saw.


Yes, half his hair is missing in the front and half is missing in the back!!

Adding two and two together, I started interrogating JT.
Calmly, "JT, did you cut your brother's hair?"
Matter-of-fact answer: "Yes, Mommy."
Not so calmly, "WHY would you do that?!!"
Still very matter-of-fact: "Nate handed me scissors and said he wanted short hair. He was hot."
In the background, I hear Nate saying, "It's too HOT, Mama! Too Hot!"
What can I do? I was torn between hysterical laughter and manic rage. I chose to laugh and grab my camera.

Isn't JT the absolute sweetest and most considerate brother?! Little booger!
Well, if Nate wasn't Nate, I would say JT probably forced a haircut on his brother, but well...he's Nate. This whole episode sounds very Nate-like. If he hadn't wanted a hair-cut, JT would never have gotten those scissors anywhere near his head. This I know for sure. At some point, Nate consented to have his hair cut, but I'm still trying to figure out whose idea it was in the firstplace. I guess I'll never know for sure. I tried my best to even his hair out and now he has a very attractive bowl-cut look in the back and a Jim Carrey 'Dumb and Dumber' look in the front.
I'm just absolutely thrilled!

Hangin' out in Atlanta I know, I know! I've been extremely lazy about blogging...I get it. If I tried to backlog everything, it would take forever, so I'm just going to recap our visit to Atlanta over the last break and let the last couple of months go.

The semester ended in the middle of April so we had a couple of weeks to spend in Atlanta and it was really great. It was paradise having Daniel around after 4 months of never seeing him. The boys got lots of quality Dad-time and I had a husband again! We basically, hung out with the family, saw friends, and tried our best to eat as much as we could before we came back. Daniel insisted on having Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast almost every morning...the kids and I do not need to see a donut for a very long time, but Daniel misses them already.

JT had a list of things that he wanted to do in Atlanta, so we tried our best to do as many of those as possible. Most of the time, we had our favorite little girl, the boys' cousin/my niece, Kaylee with us.

We spent a lot of time outside...a few playgrounds that we like...


Went cosmic bowling...twice!


Went to the Children's Museum

Had some fun playdates...these are our best buddies, Spencer and Claire

Had a sleepover..

and did lots of other fun things we can't do in St Maarten.
And, on the last day, we asked JT what he wanted to do and he wanted to go on a date with his girlfriend. So, my mom (JT's slave) drove across town to pick her up and bring her over. JT's girlfriend showed up in a pink dress with a crown on because she wanted to look pretty for their date. Too cute. We took the kids to one of my least favorite places ever, Chuck E. Cheese, where the two lovebirds took off without a second glance in our direction. That left Daniel and I to take turns chasing Nate and my brother-in-law, Johnny, and my sis to chase Kaylee. All in all, it was pretty fun. We had pizza and played some games and caught glimpses of JT walking around holding hands with his gal.

Alas, this story is not just a love story, it has some tragedy also. The tickets that they had been saving all day for cotton candy and toys was stolen about 5 minutes before we wanted to cash them in! The kids were absolutely devastated. We all were...because it was a lot of tickets! If the thief is reading this, I want you to know that you should be very very very very ashamed! Luckily, you can purchase the prizes with money, (1 cent per ticket) so I was able to get them their cotton candy and told them each to pick out a small prize. It wasn't the same, but it was better than nothing and most times, cotton candy can make kids feel happy again. It did.

We moved onto Grandma's house, where JT played 'house' for the first time ever, I think. He vacuumed and responded to "Honey" while she cooked dinner for him and fed the baby (Nate). I was doubled over laughing, it was so funny. He is going to make a fine husband someday! haha. When it was time to say goodbye, it was a very sad and heart-breaking farewell. Ah, young love! What a great way to end our spring break!