A fantastic Christmas!

We went to spend Christmas with a portion of my family in Reno this year. Deanna went with us and Mom came up from Davis and met us at Lynette & Keith's for the holiday festivities. Kimball was oh so happy to be playing with his greatly missed cousins and Grandma for a few days. As for us, well we ate a lot, watched movies, and just played. I came home a "wii" bit sore in the upper body from wii'ing til the late hours of the night. The Wills got their family one of these for Christmas and it is so addicting. Sports competition from the couch! Golf is my favorite of all but I could play any of the games for hours, the boxing was what gave my back and shoulders all kinds of funky knots. Oh, and my Mom got all of us girls pretty intensely involved with some knitting projects gone bad. Seriously, Linda would just whip something up and the 3 of us would all be wondering why our 30 stitches on the needle had turned into 45 after only like 3 rows. Ridiculous. Good thing my mom was there to save and repair, I just don't understand how she is literally perfect at everything she does. It's sick. Anyhow, we were so glad we went, thanks to the Wills for being such great hosts as always!!!

An ideal day

For me, few things could comprise a more ideal day than to enjoy skiing great powder with a great friend. We got close to 2 ft. in the mtns thursday night and Krista and I had a fabulous day testing it out on friday at PCMR. I love skiing with Krista at Park City b/c she knows the perfect spots to go and due to the demographics that PC attracts, few skiiers are up on the top third of the mountain, where all the good stuff lies. I would take about 8 turns and literally have to stop for a breather b/c my quads were burning, like, on fire. But it felt so good, I just can't think of a better way to enjoy myself while getting a crazy workout all the while. Skiing, wall-sits, skiing, wall-sits. I choose skiing. On our last run my muscles were truly shaking from the burn and I hit a powder-caked mogul that I so didn't see coming...I totally faceplanted. It was awesome. Face first, I think I felt my head literally bounce off the ground and my neck was just the spring to keep it attached. It was so funny cause it just happened out of nowhere and it's not like we were on a steep or anything, I think it was toward the base of the mountain. Either way, I woke up today with horrifying whiplash neck, so stiff and sore. Though nothing a little ibu couldn't help. Looking to ski as much as possible this winter so if any local momma's wanna trade with babysitting let me know. Thanks again Krista for a fabulous day! Lunch was great too.

2 hotties

Well some of you have mentioned that you love it when we spike up Kimball's thick black hair, I do think it's pretty studly myself. But it wasn't til this last weekend when Erik's friend Cormac came to town that I realized where we got the inspiration for the do. Talk about 2 studly looking dudes, and their both single! Cormac, you can pay me later.

Tea, anyone?

Just in search of a really good, satisfying tea. Sometimes before bed, I don't really feel like dessert, maybe because I have been gorging on all the crap my neighbors have been bringing by. But I just want a nice, solid tea that I can always count on and just haven't really found that one flavor or concoction that just hits the spot. In Taiwan all we ever drank was barley tea and flower tea, and oftentimes plain hot water. Even in the summer when the heat was blazing and humidity high, seemed like that was when people would serve it to you the most. As you had sweat dripping down your forehead and your limbs were all sticky, there would always be someone quick to help you "relax" with a fired up cup of something. Anyhow, I'm ready to get back in the swing of tea and I would love to get people's feedback on their personal favorites. And of course I need stay in the "herbal" genre I suppose. So please, share with me! Oh, and I thought these little pictures I found on google images were really funny. Do you ever just get so bored that you search totally random things in google images. I guess you have to be careful of distasteful stuff that can pop up but seriously, the most random teapots ever exist in this world. A toilet teapot, who knew? I may just have to look into the price on that for a chance at giving the world's best white elephant gift ever.

A tad odd

As Erik and I were driving home from the gym today, this truck pulled right along beside us. Now though I'm pushing 10 years in Utah, this 4 legged sight still just seemed so odd...is that normal? Surely people go hunting and that's fine but it's just that it seemed so awkward and......fresh. It's just creepy how the legs are vertically jetting up in the air.

Saturday Snow

The last 2 Saturdays have dumped on us and it's been so much fun. We intended to take Kimball sledding with his cousins but he fell asleep, hopefully this Saturday we'll get a third dumparoo. A kid in a snowsuit is so funny to pick up. They don't mold to your body or wrap their legs around you, it's just one stiff brick.

The snow sat halfway up Kimball's back!

Kimball pushing the snowblower, Erik had started with the driveway, then plowed the sidewalks and by the time he got back to the driveway this thin blanket of snow had fallen again!

Jolly Young St.Nic

Another great neighborhood Christmas party last night. Santa just couldn't work the magic on Kimball this year, I don't think he had enough wrinkles to be worthy of such a title as Santa, in fact, he looked almost identical to our friend Ben Hawkins ;)

Kimball last year at 8 months old, calm and curious.

For all you SoCal'ers

So this was the view from our kitchen window the other night. You may have the beach, but we have a white Christmas!!! Okay, maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better for the other 11 months out of the year I'm jealous I don't live there!

Holiday weekend pics

Here are a few shots of our family members posing with little Oh.His Grandpa was holding a bowl of water and I think Kimball was just putting his face in it and cracking up. Somehow Daddy Oh doesn't look all that amused but he must have been doing something to egg on Kimball's drunken laughing.Just checkin out Target sales in my elmo suitKimo chillin with Aunt Miriam in his p.j.s "P.J. - what is a p.j.?" That's for you Krista :)

This is Erik's cousin Yeoungmee grubbin away in the corner, we got really creative with seating. She and her son Sean came out from New Jersey and it was the first time I'd seen them since our wedding, they were so much fun to hang with.And here is cute Sean. It's too bad he had to go back home, Kimball is still looking around for him.And here are our cute cute neighbors, the Park family. Erik made them their own little table out of a box I think. So resourceful, they loved it! And by the way, anyone in the greater Salt Lake area who wants to go eat some fantastic Korean food, they own the best Korean restaurant in Utah and I'm not just saying that, I'm pretty sure they don't blog.

Mommy Oh and KimoDaddy workin away at those leavesInterrupted snuggles with Aunt Rachel

23 Koreans and 1 blonde

So the anxiously awaited day has come and gone. Thanksgiving at the E&D Oh household was quite a treat this year. We had Rachel and Miriam come in from LA, Mom and Dad Oh from Seattle and Yeoungmee and Sean from N.J. - they all stayed in the basement and hopefully had a grand ole time. What was first going to be a nice Thanksgiving meal for the 9 of us turned into 23 people lickity split. I asked for it. Not that we are partial toward Koreans or anything, but somehow my house was full of them and it was fantastic! Of course the jello salad, sweet potatoes, marshmallow fruit salad, pies, and cookies are all continuing to go stale as they were a little more afraid of the sugary items. Asians aren't so fond of sweets from what I've gathered. So basically they prefer all the opposite to the Winter family households. I wasn't offended in the least as I was well prepared for the rejection. They still joyously ate from the other 67 dishes we had to offer:) Anyhow, Erik's cousin Sean is 15 and has attempted twice in the last year to test the so-called Utopian Utah snow, our mountains have not adequately provided. Therefore, he sat around a little bored, staring at all his gear in our garage every time we got into the car. Hopefully he and Erik had fun playing football and being boys.

Daddy Oh, Rachel and Miriam helped me with some pretty extensive leaf raking on Saturday. I think we all thought we were engaging in a fun simple activity which took a hard turn for the worse. We discovered more dog poop than you could ever imagine. Yes, this is not a duty Erik is really on top of. In all fairness to him, we have never really established whose job it is. You'd think that naturally would fall in the man's shoes but I tend to be the one found in the yard. Either way, it was nasty and Rachel had a little too close for comfort incident. As much as I love stories that involve...well....you know....I will leave it to your imagination to save the disgust of any prissy people who may be reading this. As my mother in law would say, "poop not dirty, come from body you know." Anyhow, so yeah, we had a lot of leaves to rake, filled 2 garbage bins full after mashing and mashing them down about 8 times a minute. It felt like we were dragging bins full of dirt they were so heavy!

Saturday we got family pictures taken with all of the Ohs up in Little Cottonwood Canyon. This was their first time taking a family pic outside of a studio. I insisted their serious and formal look had gotten a little outdated and that maybe we should ruffle the feathers a little and take a chance in the mountains. My friend Rima did Mommy Oh's makeup which was fun to watch. We took before and after pictures and decided that she turned my mother in law into Connie Chung herself! Seriously! It was hilarious! She looked fabulous. The pics turned out really nice although I still have to laugh. We were posed in some very nature-esque settings that were absolutely beautiful. There we were on all these rugged rocks with twigs and reeds all over the place, men in slacks, women in Christmas party type outfits. I'm not dogging the choice of our apparel by the way, cause we looked good, it just made for a unique but pleasing contrast.

Okay so the sad part of this whole post is that I have lots of great pics from Thanksgiving to paint the visual but unfortunately my camera or my cord is having some temporary issues and I've been unable to download pics for some time now. Still in process of resolving. So until then I will continue to blab.

p.s. loved August Rush, all should go see it.

Serious Vocab Frustration

So who here belongs to "word of the day" with dictionary.com and am I the only one so bothered and deflated? I've been made out to feel nothing but worthless in my attempt to be an average American citizen by joining the word of the day e-mail list. It was a simple effort to perk up my vocabulary gone wrong. Not just today, but day after day after day. It's just that today I finally decided to let it start bothering me enough to waste time writing about it. One would think this website would cater to the average citizen as I'm sure Harvard Law grads are not the only ones clicking on this site and yet these were today's examples to explain the meaning of perfervid?

"Good movies evaporate, while the market is flooded with inanity. Critics can't do much to stop this, but when you read perfervid reviews of the latest commercial offerings it's plain that they do little to cool things down." (mmmmm.....inanity........it'll get'cha every time)

"Years ago Philip Roth published a perspicacious essay on the pitfalls of writing satire, the gist of which was that the daily absurdities in our morning newspapers too often outdid even a novelist's most perfervid imaginings." (ooooooooh, I hate reading perspicacious essays)

Seriously. I just don't believe that using other vocabulary words that I have never heard of is really going to help me remember the initial vocab word. It does nothing but clutter my brain and aggravate me. And this isn't to suggest that today's examples were especially awful, oftentimes there will be 3 or 4 new words in a sentence and I won't even comprehend the gist of the sentence. Okay, so I just looked up inanity and perspicacious and after reading their simple definitions, I am realizing maybe you all already knew those words. Maybe I'm just plain dumb. Freakin Utah State, dang it! Will someone please validate me so I'm not on this bus all alone? I think my next step is to google S.A.T. practice word lists. Maybe I can form an after school study group with some of the tweens in the neighborhood.
p.s. I usually win Balderdash, would that redeem me in any way???

Crossbows & Catapults

"They say" you can tell a difference between a boy and a man by the price of his toys. Well clearly, Erik is a young buck. He has been telling me about Crossbows & Catapults (which has been given a new name titled "Battleground") since we met. It was a childhood favorite of his. Apparently he has been looking for it for like 15 years or something and this game quest has been a bigger deal than I realized. We were wandering around Toys R Us on Saturday night trying to find some cool toys for Kimball and as we were leaving, Erik started running to a display across the room. There on this bottom shelf lay 2 boxes of good ole C&C. He had to buy both (as one was the accessory kit where you could add even cooler weapons) and ensured me that this would be the best investment yet in our marriage if I would only trust him. I looked at the box and felt so unexcited but agreed he should buy it. Well, let's just say we've played it every night since and are really getting into it. We don't even talk the whole time, we just make noises of excitement or disappointment depending on whether or not we are killing off our opponent's battlefield. Yeah, we are pretty much like 2 seven year old boys. The boys across the street are already begging their mom to get it for them for Christmas and looks like my brother and cousin will soon be making the purchase themselves, 3 groups of knights and 3 groups of orcs would make quite a battlground! In all consideration I view this as incredible broken ground. I LIVE for boardgames and Erik despises them and always cheats or tweeks the game to make the other guys laugh and get the girls frustrated. So finally, we have found a boardgame other than chess that we both love! If you play, you too will be addicted!

1 point for SLC

Guess what? We have a Cheesecake Factory here in SLC now! Next to Nordi's at Fashion Place for any locals who may be wondering. So when Erik asked where I wanted to go to dinner for my birthday, I thought it would be fun to go there since it was their opening day. The doors opened at 5pm and I figured there would probably be a line outside. So, we got there about 4:15 or so and were laughing that the line was already around the side of the building. Erik encouraged me to go cruise the mall while he waited, the selfish side of me agreed that would be a great idea. When I came back, I was just laughing so hard b/c he really was quite embarrassed to be "that guy" that's waiting in line for a restaurant grand opening. Apparently this lady a few people in front of him in line was going off for 20 minutes "educating" everyone on all the right cheesecakes and entrees b/c she frequents the CF all the time in Cali or Vegas or wherever. She was driving him nuts as it reminded him how silly it was to be waiting in the cold amongst all these restaurant die hards. Anyhow, he was so cute and patient I just had to take a picture to embarrass him a little. If you squint he's right there in the middle.

We had a great time and topped it off with Dulce de Leche cheesecake, a definite great pick, and it didn't come recommended from the annoying lady in the fuzzy boots.

And this, you just can't afford not to click on.

Could anything be sweeter? Seriously. I cannot believe my not so baby anymore baby is talking, time indeed flies...

Chewy and Yoda

Ladies and Gentleman, introducing....our great furry friend Chewbacca and his sidekick Yoda! It just wouldn't have been a complete Halloween if Nantou didn't join in on the fun. Over the past week, Kimball had a handful of opportunites to dress up in his little Chewy uni at the trunk or treat, Coop's party, Lola's birthday and the big night. I thought I'd switch it up a little for his girlfriend Lola (the skunk)'s birthday and dress him as Adam. I faux'd his hair and he was lookin pretty studly in those 'fig leaves', unfortunately it lasted roughly 15 secs. before he unglued each leaf one by one.

If you are ever so interested in a plethora of the fun Hallo pics that I took over the past week, go to my little Halloween video montage on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrq1f5rq-Jc

Oh wait, and one more thing. I would like to announce my personal favorite for the year. Please tell me this is not for real. You may just have to know my niece Mikelle (she lives in Reno and is 10 years old) but this is by far the most incredibly uncanny and quite hilarious impersonation I have ever seen. I could not stop dying laughing, I love her!

Our very own, MISS NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE!!!

"Mok, Set, Go!"

Erik and Kimball have been having way too much fun with this racing thing lately. Every time I turn around they are "on their marks" and ready to race to the next destination. Kimball usually laughs the entire way to the finish line as you can see in the video, it's just that sometimes there's a more fun detour than the actual finish line, like Mommy's legs!

The Pedi Phenomenon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsWrY77o77o

Can every female who has ever had a pedicure somewhere other than a day spa PLEASE click on the link above, it is so worth 4 minutes of your life, especially the end so you must hold out til the end........................okay, are you done? please tell me you are laughing with me. Because this Anjelah chic is so on, it's scary. I mean, this truly is the typical experience we all have when getting a pedi. I live in Utah, Anjelah lives who knows where but assuming somewhere in Cali, UNREAL how a culture just breeds uniformity, including how to run a nail salon.
Let me tell you a little bit about my fight a couple of months back with, let's call her, Trinh. Despite my obsession with Asians, yes, I can still get angry with them. And some of you have mentioned in the past how great it must be that my Mandarin can aid in spying on them at these nail salons...Newsbreak, they are all Vietnamese! So I sit down and before I can tell "Trinh" that my water is too hot, she has chucked a photo book in my lap filled with pages of her most acclaimed work. "You wan flou-wuh? You pick which flou-wuh you lie, los of kine; reh, ping, oring, brow, I do any kuh-luh." "No flowers, just plain color, thanks." "You shoe-uh? I have los diffin kine." "No really, that's okay." Feeling rejected, she hurriedly files and trims away, I turn the magazine page, and before I know it, she is already painting my second foot and I HATE the color. I realize I just can't get away with light blue like I could at 19. I get Sunny's attention (my sis in law who's across the room being pedi'd) and give her a scared look while mouthing "what should I do?" She motions with an insistent look of telling the lady I don't like it. So I very timidly and apologetically let her know that I've decided that won't be the best color. This is when all hell breaks loose. She looks at me, "this nah my kuh-luh, this yo kuh-luh." Well, no, I didn't bring this color, it's yours but I realize I've made a mistake in my choice of color." "Fie, you go pick nutha kuh-luh, nes time you tell me aftuh one toe, nah on secun foot!" At this point I am so scared I just grab the first decent looking red I see on the shelf and run back to my seat. I look down and her veins in her neck had bulged and surfaced toward the skin, not to mention the one splitting up her forehead. My pits began sweating out of total discomfort. She started rubbing off the blue polish and suddenly the Vietnamese came flowing, and it came fast. Then the other workers started piping in like windchimes in a storm and I just couldn't take it. I saw Sunny kind of snickering and trying to hold in the laughter. In an effort to relieve myself and make Sunny break composure, I yelled at the lady to stop talking about me. Without heed to my request, they continuted to yap away. I didn't even care, I felt invigorated for calling her on it and the fact that Sunny was dying laughing made it all worth it!

You make fun now...

but it will be seconds before you'll be buying one yourself! These things are AWESOME! So my mother in law called me the other day and said,"Denise, Daddy and I very worried Kimball running so fast, if we buy him a line, will you use?" "What kind of line?" I ask. "You know, you put something on the baby and then that kind of line, you hold." "OH, I say, "like a leash?" "Yeah, that." "Sure, I might use that, if we took him to the fair or somewhere in public with lots of people, we wouldn't want him to get lost." "Yes, we are very afraid, he is running fast and you must keep him close."

So sure enough, Kimball's new teddly leash showed up in the mail today. He was so excited when he saw the bear and then when I strapped it around his chest his face lit up. I unclicked the leash so he could just run around and he got very upset, he wanted the leash attached and he wanted me to hold it. We walked around and collected a bunch of leaves in the grass and I have to say I was at total ease, usually I get a little anxious in the yard with all the cars that go by. I can only imagine what the neighbors are saying. Maybe this afternoon I'll take Kimball and Nantou for a walk to the park with no stroller, dog leash in left hand, human leash in right, ha ha ha!

World Senior Games

Kimball and Bailey, kisses and laughs...

Dad coached Kimball all the way up this crevace encouraging him to do it without reaching out for Mommy's hand. Kimball was a great little mountain climber.

On Sunday morning we hiked around on some beautiful red rocks, there were all sorts of little holes and caves that fascinated Kimball. He walked around for an hour saying, "BIG...ROCK, BIG...ROCK!"

Kimball and Grandma Connie posing on the playground bridge. Connie took us all to this really cool park like nothing I'd ever seen. The kids absolutely loved it. If only they knew how it was to have one seasaw, a couple of swings and a hot metal slide that burned your thighs the whole way down, kids these days have it made.

We wish all of the siblings and spouses could have been there but for those who came we had a lot of fun.

Who are those spectators? Is that Papa and Kimball? I almost mistook them for twins! :)

Rounding to the finish line, lookin like it ain't no thang!

Welcome, Senior Games Participants! aka, Grandma!!!

We drove down to St. George last weekend to root Mom on in the World Senior Games. She participated in the triathlon and she did amazing! She had a cold for 2 weeks leading up to the event in addition to a heel spur, but of course nothing ever stops Mom. Nearing her 66th year, she is still coming strong across the finish line, a nice yellow ribbon was given her for placing 4th in her age group. As far as I'm concerned, she should have gotten the 3rd place medal, but some stupid lady had to come zooming past her less than a hundred yards from the finish, whatever!

It was also really fun to be down there because we got to spend some time with Dad and Connie who now live in St. George. Their dog Bailey provided quite the show all weekend, all she had to do was sit in the back of "Papa's truck" and we'd chuck all the toddlers in there for some good laughs. Kimball just couldn't get enough of "biddy" - I have a couple of short videos I will try to throw on here if I can remember how.

Old McDonald Scary Farm

Still not so sure about these witches, real, fake? real, fake?





Nora, Avery, Ellie, Sammy & Kimball

Keeping his distance in case she's real

This was my favorite witch, I just wish Toto would have been in the basket

"I didn't know cows moo'd mommy, I thought they said baaaaa"

A hug for dear life!

Sunny, Becky and I were excited to take all the kids to see the amazing witch displays that they put on at Gardener Village every fall in addition to the great petting zoo! One would think that considering Kimball's entire world revolves around his large dog Nantou, he chases our friend's cats, is obsessed with the sharks at the aquarium, and loves the guineau pigs across the street, that he would take naturally to the chance at petting a few harmless wandering goats, sheep and baby cows. All he did was hug my leg for dear life and whimper with furled eyebrows. Of course his little cousins (who have NO pets I may add) were practically throwing themselves on the animals...