kooashley's Xanga

Family Photos!

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:31:51 GMT

We've been meaning to take photos of isabel as well as family photos for a long time now. We were never able to find the right person here in chicago, so we always put it off. Izzy had picture day at her preschool last month where we met andrea from www.andreabroglephotography.com and she took such cute pics of izzy for school, that we thought we would try her for family shots. Here are a couple sneak peeks from her blog. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest next week. The photos were just taken at the bunny park we always go to about a hundred feet from our house. It was a hot and muggy day, but izzy enjoyed taking the pics and wearing her blue dress =) We wanted to take pics here in chicago so izzy would always remember it. Also....izzy is going to be a big sister finally so we wanted to capture her alone before the family expands to 4!

Trip To Quebec City!

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:23:08 GMT

We got to tag along with samuel on his trip to quebec city. we are so glad we went. it was such a beautiful place that we instantly fell in love with it. isabel loved saying bonjour! everywhere she went. we didn't even need a car, because we were able to walk around everywhere. i love that!

getting on the tiny plane to Quebec from Montreal....izzy thought it was just right for her size. i thought it was scary that it was so small.

she loves to take pics now with all sorts of people

the morency falls, it was beautiful

eating ice cream at the chocolate museum. this has to be the tiniest cone i have ever seen.

isabel insisted she take a photo with every color of the sign. quebec was celebrating its 400th year.

i thought this was the cutest little store display. izzy seemed to fit right in.

hangin out with dad

the biggest ice popsicle thing ever.

out in the countryside

got a pic while izzy was telling us what we do in a church....

choco museum....so good!

on the streets of petit champlain

having brunch

this had to be one of the cutest little brunch restaurants and the food was delicious!

at the famous chateau frontenac

Au revoir!

A Trip to Seattle/Tacoma

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:51:54 GMT

Izzy and I took a trip out to Seattle to see family and friends. It was great to see everyone and to be able to relax. I think this was the first time we went just because.....all the other times, it was for an event or occasion. We especially wanted to see my brother and sister in law once more before she has her baby in July. Isabel loved being at my parents house. She had so many people to play with and so many things to do!

Her new thing for the past several months have been playing games. Games like Zingo! Great States, Magna Tiles, puzzles, and her all time favorite right now.....MEMORY GAME. I am amazed at the ability that this girl has when playing this game. When we were at my parents and inlaws house, she beat everyone there. After playing this game and losing to a 4 year old, everyone started treating her like she was an adult. It was hilarious. This has probably got to be one of the best games kids can play. The rate at which their memory skills grow is tremendous. Any moms with kids, go out and buy your kid a set. She had a disney princess set, but my friend Kris bought her a different one at the Woodland Park Zoo of a variety of butterflies, and now that has become her favorite. One day i will have to upload a video of her playing with samuel. He shows no mercy =)

We also went to a outdoor play of Beauty and the Beast. In all my years of living in washington, i never knew about Forest Theatre. It is located in Bremerton and what a treasure!!! It was an outdoor theatre nestled deep in the woods. This was their 85th year performing!!! Isabel loved it and the cast and crew were so nice. Again...if you have kids in washington, this is a must see.

hanging out at the park with uncle todd

smiles with grandpa

putting a puzzle together before the show with auntie soohyung

waiting for the show to begin....

during intermission with the chest

chip and one of the maidens

not sure if you are able to take pics during the show, but oh well...here they are.

izzy meeting belle

belle's father...for some reason, she really wanted a pic with him

gaston!

the clock

85th year anniversary

hanging out with grandma at the point defiance park

izzy loved the beach

she loved it so much, we went back another time

a special moment with uncle todd. she couldn't get enough of him.

izzy posing with the gift that auntie soohyung bought her

then up to seattle to visit her seattle grandparents.

hanging out with ethan at woodland park zoo

she took pics with all the animal statues there.

with my best friend Kris

hanging out at celebration park

then off to the bonsai exhibit in federal way

got to meet old school and church friends from the good ol T-town days. Can't believe everyone is a mom now. We met at chuck e cheese and it was so funny to all be sitting there now with our kids.

all the kiddies except the babies. 5 adults and 11 children. wow!!!

Good times!

Hanging out with friends!

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:07:42 GMT

Now that the weather has been warming up, it feels sooooo nice!!! Having lots of fun taking izzy to the park and actually spending time outside. Some of her favorite things these days are creating puzzles, playing the memory game, watching Go Diego Go!, Dora ( she used to like it when she was 2 and then forgot about Dora for a while and now loves them again ) and drawing of course. Here are some recent pics.

Izzy at her friends birthday party held at the firezone. very cool place for kids to be a firefighter for the day. Happy 4th birthday Romen.

Izzy pumping the water for her friend.

Izzy's turn at the fire stimulator.

The crew is getting ready to go into the burning house.

Everyone holding the hose.

The fireman tells them that they need to stay low.

very very low...

Job well done...heading out.

Doing her famous roar! again.

Looking at this pic, i wonder what each child is thinking about.....

Loving her cupcake at the end!

Isabel helping to celebrate Chloe's 3rd birthday party at Pump it Up!

Sitting with the birthday girl!

Having fun with mommy.

The basketball room. Look at the shot!

Hanging out with Jeremy on the birthday chair. Jeremy turns 4 in a couple weeks too.

Group shot of the kids...again the kids doing their own thing.

Off to the Shedd Acquarium with Jeremy.

Hanging out with Alex at the park.

Fun times at Navy Pier. They had a a fun indoor event with lots of games and inflatables.

Strike 3!!

This is the longest and scariest slide i have seen. Last year, i had to go up on this thing with izzy, but i couldn't believe that isbel went up and down all by herself. she loved it.

You go up and have to lean over the grab onto two ropes and then release.....

we are going to miss this place.

Having lunch at McD's with daddy. I thought it was so funny that they had the same expression in both photos.

they did it again...=) ...how cute are they.

Chicagoland KIDS EXPO!!

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:55:34 GMT

Myizzy.com will be at the 6th Annual Kids Expo here in Illinois. If you happen to come, stop by booth 607 to say hello!!!

We will be debuting our new collection at this event along with special EXPO discounts!!!

Chicagoland Kids Expo

March 8 & 9, 2008
Renaissance Convention Center
Schaumburg, IL (1551 Thoreau Dr.)

Sat. 9am-6pm * Sun. 10am-5pm

Catching up

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 03:02:27 GMT

I don't know where all the time has gone. I've been meaning to update this site since Christmas. Its now the end of Feb. This is why i can never stick to writing in journals long term. This xanga basically replaced my journal writing on izzy since i can capture pics and thoughts all in one place. I also felt like i could be accountable since family and friends want to see isabel grow while we are so far away from them. Ok...back to updating.

Lets start back from Christmas, so I don't look back years later and wonder what happened during this period of time. After our cruise to the Carribbeans early December, we came back and celebrated Izzy's 4th Birthday at her preschool. Now that she is 4, I can't believe what a big girl she is. I say this every year, but again, i love this time in her life....AGAIN!! The things she says and do just amaze me.

2 major changes that occurred as soon as she turned 4, is that her nap has almost completely dissappeared. We kept it going as long as she needed it, but i have to say, she must be getting older, because she doesn't get cranky around 1pm anymore. She can go through the whole day in her happy go lucky spirit. For those that know her well....she has been the poster child for best sleeping/napping baby and toddler. I do miss the quiet 2-3 hours everyday that i had to myself, but now that she is older, it just naturally went away. The other major change is that she no longer pees in her pull ups at night. She can actually wake up, go to the bathroom at some wee hour in the morning, and then go back to bed all by herself! Even though she has been potty trained since 2, she has been wearing pull ups just at night. 2 huge milestones for her 4th birthday.

Christmas came shortly next which we spent with our chicago grandma and her daughter jenny. They moved to the burbs, so after opening presents in the morning, we headed over for christmas dinner. It was great to see them and spend such quality time with who we consider our 2nd family. I forgot to mention, that I quit my job the 1st of December. It was a difficult decision financially, but in terms of everything else, quite an easy one. I had always planned to go back to work after i had a baby, but after izzy was born, i just could not leave her and felt like i would miss out on so much if i did. So i had stayed home for 2 years. Then I went back to the same company and worked for another 2 years. Now that izzy is 4 and seeing all the changes that she is going through again, my heart told me it was time to stay home. After much prayer, the decision was made that i would be a stay at home mom again (while working on myizzy.com exclusively), and i am loving every minute of it. Taking her to preschool in the morning, picking her up, going on playdates, hanging out at the museums, going to musicals, and just being around her all day makes me so happy. Its the simple things that i love...the fact that i can have breakfast and lunch with her everyday, watching her draw, having tea parties, reading together, praying together....i really missed these things. So after i stopped working, our nanny ended up moving to the burbs and stopped watching izzy, which is why spending Christmas together was that much more special. Our nanny truly became family, and we are forever grateful and blessed to have met someone so wonderful. We couldn't have asked for anyone better to watch our little girl, she took care of her as if she were her own. We hope to keep our relationship with her forever so izzy will never forget her.

Which brings me to another update. We will be moving to San Antonio this coming summer. Its only for a year, but having lived in Chicago since i got married, and the city where isabel was born, it will be hard to leave. Once we leave, it looks like we won't be coming back as we will be moving back to Seattle after 8 years. We are excited to go back and be near family again. Lots of changes for us in the next 18 months.

We have slowly been packing and getting ready to put our home on the market so we have boxes everywhere. Watching me put things in boxes and garbage bags, I woke up one day and went into izzy's room, and she had put all of her favorite possessions into grocery store plastic bags. Her princess dresses, books, hair clips,etc...when i asked her what all this was, she said she is getting ready to go to san antonio. She seems to understand to a certain degree what moving is, at the same time, she has no idea. Does that make sense?

Not only is this the longest post i have ever written, but it will have all sorts of photos from December Through Feb.

Out to the movies to see Enchanted. Izzy loved this movie. She also decided she really wanted to wear this outfit to the theatre in the middle of winter.

You can only be this brave at this age. I love it.

She couldn't care less that everybody was looking at her, she was so happy.

Izzy playing dress up at her preschool the day after her birthday.

loves playing tea

cupcakes for her birthday!

her little buddies

izzy's turn at show and tell. showing off her princesses!

i love this picture of her having such a great time running around.

christmas morning!

she gets an ornament every year that represents what she liked the most that year, and of course this year represents the year of the princess.

christmas dinner with the bae's

izzy and chicago grandma

last day before she moved to the burbs

the christkindle market downtown 2007 with her grandparents

mommy and me!

literally the biggest tree i have ever seen.

Christmas party at church!

Dancing with Parker.

Picture with the Liu's

Hanging out with Miss Lori the host of PBS.

Getting her new CD signed.

New Years party at the Shins!

Playing with daddy!

In Seattle getting her haircut. Look at how long her hair had gotten. and then....chop!

sweet and short. this girl has one full head of hair.

can't go to tacoma without going to chuck e cheese!

Hanging out at the Chicago 2008 Auto Show.

Samuel playing an interactive racing game. He did so well!!!

I think izzy loved this show more than anybody. she wanted to get in the drivers seat on every car!

here is my favorite car...this little mini tiny thing. i'm not sure if you can even call it a car.

here is the trunk! its the size of a cooler.

fighting to get in the drivers seat again.

look at this silly child trying to get in this huge truck thing. she looked so tiny.

biker chick

hanging out at the greenhouses last week.

somethings never change....she still loves flowers...esp smelling them.

wheeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hopefully i will be better about keeping this blog up to date.

Izzy's updated drawing collection coming up next!

Back Home ~ Finally!!

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 04:48:01 GMT

We are finally back from over a month of traveling to Seattle and Korea. It feels so good to be back. There is really no place like home. I feel like i have missed a lot while i have been gone, but sure enough the cold winter weather still lingers on.....this i don't miss at all.

Will update soon...once i unpack.

Caribbean Family Cruise 2007!!

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:31:14 GMT

Just came back from a family vacation!!!. The best part of it was getting out of this bitter chicago winter cold even if it was only for a week. Nice to be in warm/hot place in the middle of December!!

We took a family cruise with my inlaws, parents, brother in law, and our family. We missed my brother and sister in law who couldn't make it because they just left for korea recently. We took the family to celebrate my mom, mother in law and father in law's Hangap. ( not all the same day, but it all falls during the year). In addition, it was also isabel's 4th birthday the same week! we had a lot to celebrate. It was extra special because we were able to go with both sides of the family. Everyone gets along so well which is definatley a blessing. Except for myself, it was everyones first time on a cruise and they all loved it. Its a great vacation when traveling with a large group as well as a wide age range. There was always something for everyone to do. Isabel loved the fact that she could wear her swimsuit again and go swimming like ariel! Get ready for a lot of photos!!

Family shot before dinner!

Formal Dining Room

The staff was extremely nice and so accomodating.

Isabel loves bread and butter...that bread she has in her hand, she ate like 6 of them every night.

mother and father in law overlooking the promenade

my parents with izzy

daddy and princess.

on the balcony of the boat.

the kim and koo family love to play games! look at my dads face!

oops! score!

my father in law is intense!

even my mother in law got into it.

she's guarding her goal

dan...beats his brother again!

Here we are getting ready to go rock climbing on the boat. Here is my moment in the spotlight. So the entire trip, i wanted to try rock climbing since i have never done it before. I would see it at REI, etc.. and wondered if i could go up that thing. anyway....the men went climbing earlier in the week but i was never able to go because of izzy's sleep schedule, program schedule,etc...so finally on the last day at sea, while izzy is in her childrens program, we finally have time to all go together. when we get there, we are told that regular climbing sessions are now over and the only thing left is the final speed competition in 10 minutes. i was so bummed, because i just wanted to try it once, or at least to get the hat and shoes on and touch the wall. The guys decided to compete in the contest and said i should just try it anyway since this is my only chance to climb. I was a bit nervous since now there was an audience, and the other girls had all done it before. Long story short....not only did i make it up all the way, but i actually won the entire ladies competition. had the fastest time. Got a medal and everything =) hahaha!! too funny! i think the funniest part of it all was how proud my dad was of me. my old athletic abilities paid off =)

samuels starts the mens competition.

Daniel goes next

he was really quick!

My father in law really enjoyed the climb.

the clock stops when you ring the bell.

My dad making the climb

he saves time by stretching to ring the bell.

now its my turn. i had no idea what i was doing initially.

once you start, it became a lot easier. i think i found a new sport i like.

nobody told me what to do once i got up there. all i remember is screaming at the top of my lungs as i came down in one swing!

here is my winning medal and shirt.

then i passed on the medal to my little izzy.

Off to the Cayman Islands on our shore excursion.

Pictures with the pirate lady.

Izzy could not get enough of her uncle dan. she called him her prince and she was the princess.

aiy!

our scary faces!

one of the tour stops at the blow hole!

we kept trying to time the pic with the blow hole wave, but it was too difficult.

oiy! says izzy.

isabel swimming at the 7 mile beach with all her clothes on. that goes for dan and my inlaws too. didn't plan on swimming that day, so everyones clothes got completely wet! such free spirits.

isabel loving the white sanded beach.

she is so cute...she picked up 3 little seashells and held on to them so tight and brought it all the way back to the boat.

Off on another excursion in Jamaica.

This boat was huge!!

They had a promenade area that was the length of 2 football fields! an ice skating rink too.

sam and dan.

me and my mom

me and my mother in law.

this is in front of dunn's river falls. if anyone ever goes to jamaica, this is definately a must do. we actually climbed a 600 feet fall. not on the side but actually right in the middle of it. it was quite the experience for everyone.

Here we are before we got started!

My dad loving the climb. he got completely wet!

here we are at the end. we are drenched!

Swimming with grandpa.

izzy loving the water.

the grandmas having a great time.

grandpas enjoying the jacuzzi!

Merry Christmas everyone!! May the Lord continue to bless you and your families in 2008!

The Little Mermaid

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 02:25:56 GMT

I'm sure you can all guess what Izzy was for Halloween!........Ariel of course!!! She loves all the princesses, but she chose to go with her all time favorite. Her preschool had a halloween party so she was able to wear her little outfit all morning and was so excited to go to school. Her chicago grandma came early and even put izzy's hair in curlers! =) Isabel sat still the whole time knowing that she would be getting princess curls.

I haven't been able to go to her preschool as much as i would like to because of work, so this was a special treat for me to take the morning off and spend it with my little girl. All the kids were soooo adorable. It was great for me to see her interact with her little friends and see her talking to so many of them. The cutest thing was when she went up to the class for "show and tell". I was a little nervous because izzy still primarily speaks korean and i wasn't sure how she would do up there, but to my surprise, she spoke so well and answered all the teachers questions. The teacher told me she shares something new with the class every time. It was very precious. Izzy was ariel by morning....and tigger by night. She wore last years costume when she went trick or treating because it was too cold to wear her mermaid outfit.

Sitting in her princess throne.

mommy with the little mermaid.

this is izzy singing ariel's song

dancing time!!

drawing herself!

being silly.

look at all the other little ones...they were so cute.

her twin friend that morning.

her little friend was telling isabel how she also has the princess crown, but didn't wear it that day because she thought it would be uncomfortable. i thought it was hilarious that they were even having this conversation.

sleeping beauty is another good friend of izzy's. they seemed to really enjoy each others company.

izzy talking about her crown during show and tell time.

bouncing...bouncing....

waiting for daddy to pick us up at starbucks after class.

trick or treating pics coming next!

MyIzzy.com UPDATE!!

on a side note www.myizzy.com will be at the chicago baby faire this saturday and sunday at the Schaumburg Convention Center sponsored by American Baby Mag and Babies R Us!. stop by our booth and say hi ! I guess over 17,000 people come every year, so i'm excited to see how we do at this show!

What: American Baby Faire
Where: Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center
When: Nov 3-4 10-5pm

Off to the Pumpkin Patches!

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 02:50:35 GMT

This is the second year in a row we have gone to the same pumpkin patch because izzy loves it so much. I think this has to be one of the best ones out there. So much to do...so much to see..so much to eat! corn on the cob, kettle corn, barbeque pulled pork, funnel cakes, cotton candy.... yum!! Last year we went it was sooo cold, and this year it was nice and warm. They had some new rides that izzy loved and a new milking cow, haunted house (which izzy did NOT like at all!) pig races, and so much more. The weather was perfect and from the pictures below you can see that isabel had a wonderful time. Going to the pumpkin patches always makes me feel like fall has officially begun. Yay for fall!

Starting at the pumpkin house...

This is the moment where i felt like i am just like my dad. There were ropes around this area so people did not touch the pumpkins. what do i do, i jump over the rope and sit izzy down next to the pumpkins because it looked like it would be such a fun photo. I remember my dad placing me in weird places all the time when i was a kid and here i am doing the same thing.... i think it was worth it though =)

Izzy loved the froggy ride.

look how happy she looks.

the sun was so bright that day....perfect weather.

back to the pumpkins....

picking weeds again...

izzy looks at all the pumpkins so carefully, trying to find the prettiest one.

then back to the rides. she was too little to ride it last year, but this year, she was just right. i didn't want to ride it, but i had to because izzy insisted.

look at all of izzy's facial expressions. she could not stop cracking up.

she made the most noise i think.

she's about to die laughing in this shot.

now...i'm getting nauseous.

wheeee!!!

this is what she looked like throughout the whole time we went into the mini haunted house. there were tiny kids going in so i thought it wouldn't be scary, but as soon as it turned dark, izzy held onto me for dear life. she did not like it at all, even though she never saw any of it.

here is her face as soon as we got out.

off to milking the fake cows

look how tall i am.

in the funny house.

with her pants down.

back to the pumpkin patch again....

she really seemed to love this one.

next thing we know, she is hugging the pumpkins. she's so silly.

Trying to hold the pumpkin with daddy.

here's a photo from last year, same time...same place.

she's grown so much.

family photo time!

she really wanted to hold a big one..

bye bye pumpkin farm....until next week. we are hoping to visit another farm with friends next week since they didn't get to go with us this time.