Purikura, jewelry, Daegu and Little bear

 (So this week was pretty nice, busy and exciting to say the least!)

We started it off with going to a park/playground we've never been to. When we got there it was sooo busy. Tons of little Korean kids were running around and we went with another couple and their kids. Least to say, we had SUCH a blast. Tanya loved it! She loves interacting with kids...no matter their age. Of course it helped that her boyfriend was there!

Anyway, now when it's nice out we will definitely be taking Tanya there whenever we can. It would help if she walked more but it seems ever since last month (When she was walking around and taking over 20 steps without help) she wants nothing to do with it. It's a bit sad because I got super excited but what can you do besides have them learn it in their own time?  So whenever she is ready to walk we will be more then ready for her to!

The next day after that we decided to go to Little bear. Just one of my friends (Her kids) and I with Tanya. The guys (Justin and her husband) were out riding their motorcycles. Tanya hadn't been to little bear for a while now...the last time she was there she was about 8 months...now that she was here when she was 12 months old she seemed to enjoy it alot more.

 

She enjoyed this room the most but after about ten minutes or so she ventured into the next one!

She decided to play with her boyfriend and keep an eye on him to make sure none of the Korean girls tried to hit on him haha. Everyone in Little Bear seemed fascinated with both of them...maybe because they weren't Asian babies?

Tanya even made a new friend....and in thus I made a new mommy friend who lives in Daegu and pretty much told me to call her up whenever so we could do lunch or something! So that was pretty awesome. 

Tanya's favorite place in little bear was the book section. She absolutely loved all the books and started giggling like mad! She tried to grab all the little books with her hands but couldn't get more then 4 of them but finally settled on one! It was pretty awesome to see her have such a blast. We were planning on here but due to busyness decided against it. So she will be having her birthday party on the 10th of this month at home.

Then we did this the next day. What is this? This is called "Purikura" in Japan. It's short for "Print club". Anyway...they are these little photo booths you go into. They take your picture and here comes the fun part. They make your eyes bigger, they can change your eye color and then they let you decorate the photo with any design you want. It's a big thing in Japan but we found it in Daegu so I dragged everyone in. At first they thought it was going to be lame but as we were doing it both of the guys admitted it was kind of addicting and cool haha. So that was pretty big for them.

 

And while we were in Daegu I picked up some cute cheap jewelry for fun. They have the cutest stuff here in Korea and for cheap to. I bought Tanya also some cute hair stuff!

And that was my weekend. Hope you all had a great weekend as well!!

New home, Birthdays, GPS, and Boyfriends

So...since we moved here we've been trying to unpack everything and make it like home! Well it's all done! It took a while but it feels SO nice not to have boxes everywhere. Here are a few photos!

 

The apartment has alot more room for Tanya to move around in and she loves that part of it! We don't have to keep a baby gate everywhere which is really quiet nice. The only place we have a baby gate is by the kitchen...so she doesn't get into the kitchen and then into the laundry room.

On another bright note, Tanya will be 1 year old tomorrow...sadly we can't her birthday party then...so we will most likely just have it this weekend at the house...I guess. We've been so busy with moving it's almost too hard to do it anywhere else. Now we just have to get all the supplies! Justin and I will make a game plan tonight probably about Tanya's birthday and all and everything were going to do. I really wanted to avoid the whole "last minute" thing but apparently I couldn't...

She is so grown up now! She says "Dadda, Dad, Daddy, Mom, Mommy, Mama, Luba, Cindy (One of our friends), Sarah (Her daughter), Baba (Bottle), Night Night (Tired), Kitty, Kitty cat, Trigger (Our cat) and so much more. Those are just the most used one that I could think of already. We really have to try to get a video of Tanya walking for family and such but she does it so unexpectedly that it's hard to know when she's going to do it! Auuugh.

Talking about my little Diva also brings up that she has a "boyfriend" haha. He's one of our friend's son. He is only a few months old but Tanya is beyond fascinated with him...(And stealing his paci for some weird reason...maybe because she didn't really use a Paci for a very long time and is now wanting one? Haha). Also she is now getting her...7th tooth in!! 3 are currently trying to pop all the way through while the rest of the 4 are already all out!

We also got a Korean GPS a little while ago and I never thought it would be interesting to photograph GPS's until I took these two photos...only a few hours apart haha. I thought it sort of looked neat!  It was taken while Justin and I went out with a couple to Daegu to take photos and such...and see the sights.

And here are a few other photos I took while in Daegu. It was quiet beautiful! I love taking photos of the sun setting over Daegu! Last but not least Tanya made some more Korean friends! (They blew bubbles for her haha) Although in the photo below she doesn't seem all that happy haha.  :)

Japan, Apartments, COT's and more...

(Hey everyone...I feel like I havn't posted in forever but...(Here it comes, the excuse) I have been extremely busy. However...I am back!)

First off, I've had a busy 2 weeks lately. Between being with friends, shopping, getting things in order...it's been busy. It is getting warmer and warmer in Korea lately. Tanya will be a 1 year old within 2 weeks...how crazy is that? 

Also we went to Daegu for some much needed "Quiet parent time" with another couple that we were friends with. Our friends babysat Tanya for a few hours and they got someone to watch there kids. I almost forgot how nice it was to just go out and eat without having to either 1.) feed someone else while hoping to eat and 2.) no screaming! We had dinner at TGIF! Which was amazing!!! Then we walked around a bit and looked at things. I got 3 new contact pairs...only for $15!! Can't really beat that! Now I have brown, bright blue, purple and Grey contacts! I have yet to get green but i'm sure someday I will see how my eyes look like when they are green.

    

Next comes some bigger news. We are moving!! Don't worry, not out of Korea (We've still got 9-10 months left here) but definitely out of the "Country" as the Koreans call it...We're moving to the "City" apartments which is only...about 5 minutes by car. I feel like i'm already living in the "City" Of Waegwan but apparently it's "Country" due to some crops by us haha. Anyway, We are moving into a new apartment where we do not have to pay $800 for gas each month...which is almost the amount of our rent. The Realtor told us the reason we're paying so much is because we are out in the "Country". Okay, let me explain this one more time...Our Country apartment...is a 2-3 minutes walk from all the stores and such...I don't think it qualifies as "Country" But I guess I will never understand that. Also, the apartment is much nicer and has ceiling fans...I never really thought much about how important ceiling fans were until I moved to Korea. With ceiling fans you do not have to turn on AC...thus saving TONS of money!

Oh! I almost forgot...we had a pretty big fire start near alot of apartments from the hills/mountains. It took about 2-3 hours to get it put out by helicopter. I came almost when the fire was out so these shots are not that good. Oh! Justin put in his COT yesterday...and put down these locations...1.) Germany, 2.) Belgium, and 3.) Italy!! Hopefully one of those will be our next home after Korea!!! I'm really hoping!! Now  comes to the sad section of news...

 

Now onto the the news of Japan. The 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck off the Pacific Coast, then setting off a massive tsunami. All the channels here in Korea were showing us all the devastating damage in Japan. I'm not sure what they showed in the states but I honestly hope everyone realizes just how horrible and HUGE this thing gwas.

 

To make things worst...a rare snow storm recently sent temperatures to go below zero...so now without heat for alot of people things get even more sad and scary. In total, about 850,000 households in the north are still without electricity...in the freezing weather. Not only that but some families are getting a slice of bread...to feed a family of three! Or half a rice ball.

A couple of our friends live there (all in different locations and luckily all are okay right now). Talking to them about how everything is over there just made me want to cry. One of my friends in Tokyo is saying they are running very low on food for example...and that is in Tokyo! Millions of people are spending nights without water, food and heating. So as we sit here reading this in our nice warm homes they are out there suffering. More then 10,000 people are estimated to have died. Talking to another friend who was closer to the tsunami said that they too have no running water, no power and very little food...and there is also a 5 hour long wait for gasoline. I just hope everyone keeps Japan and all the people affected by this in their prayers. Also if you can, the Japanese red cross society is taking donations. It's as easy as going to this link and donating some money...I hope things start to look up for Japan and the people...

http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html