I'm going to back date a bunch of highlights for the fall.

Congratulations, Henry!!

Henry tested and was advanced to the rank of recommended black belt. This test required quite a lot of work compared to the other tests. He had to write a paper, memorize a lot of information, and the test was quite long. But, he persevered and advanced. We're very proud of him!! Receiving his new belt from Ms. Hansen.

Mr. Q reading the certificate.

In his new black belt uniform.

Halloween 2009

Has anyone ever seen such a happy Power Ranger and frog? Henry says he was smiling so I have to assume that I also have a happy...hatchet carrying scary thing.

Honestly, have you ever seen such a cute frog?

Off we go! Min and Charles made it around the cul-de-sac..about 15 houses... then went home. Henry and I continued around most of the neighborhood, stopped to talk to a few friends, went through the neighborhood haunted house and then made it home.

First Snowfall

The boys were so excited with the first snowfall. They couldn't wait to get outside. Charles immediately wanted to build a dam...a tradition in the Paul household but is usually done in the spring. Charles did manage to make a dam. It filled up with melted snow and Min played in it.

Charles is pretty proud of his work.

Min making snowballs.

Resting after a hard days work.

Charles is passionate about many things. Here are just a couple. The cat, who he picked out. She started out as Abigail...then Noki Abby...Abby...and now Abba.

He also love to build with a passion for Lincoln Logs. This is entirely his creation built with no help from any of us.

11 years!!

Happy Birthday bone marrow!!! You're 11 years old!!

Happy Birthday, Min!!

We were lucky to have my brother and his family here during Min's 3rd birthday. It always adds a little more excitement and chaos to the party. Min and his Thomas cake. Min is obsessed with Thomas and his 'favorite' engine is Diesel 10. To unknowledgeable Thomas folks, Diesel 10 is a naughty engine. I truly hope that is not a predictor of my son.

My nephew, Noah, came too. Here he is helping Min unwrap his presents. He's turning 5 in a couple of weeks and was so good to Min.

Noah, with what I was told was a wanted movie of his.

Min at the restaurant where we had his birthday dinner. This was after drinking his ice cream as you will see in the next picture.

We were a little surprised to see Henry 'skiing' behind the Gator. They left to go around the cul-de-sac. Henry was roller-blading...alone, and Charles and Min were in the Gator. This is what we saw when they made back to the house.

This is a pretty good shot of the 'real' Min. The Min we see at home. He always hides when people talk to him in public. Yes, he's nuts. Poor Charles... he had been working on building a dam in the sandbox. He didn't get too upset though.

First Days of School

School has officially started. Henry started on September 7th and is in the 2nd grade. None of his close friends are in his class, but he loves school anyway. Charles started kindergarten on September 10th. He was very nervous about school starting. But came running out at the end of the day with a smile on his face. I asked him if he liked school, and he said, 'I love school!.' I asked him he had any homework, and he said, 'I don't think so. I don't know what that is.'

Happy Birthday, Charles!!

Charles is 6. Wow!! We spent most of the day in the Cities. We went to the Como Zoo and amusement park. Very much a hit with the boys. Afterwards, we made it through the traffic mess of the State Fair and got to the Mirror of Korea for dinner. We stopped over at Kim's Market for melon bars before we left for home. Charles and Min fell asleep on our way out of St. Paul (at 6:00 p.m.) and slept all the way home. Yes...you're right.... it's not good for a 2 and 6 year old to take a nap at 6 p.m. But, they did crash at 10...not midnight like we had thought.

It has been so fun watching Charles grow to this age and seeing more and more of his personality shine through. On his first birthday, he stuck his fingers in the cake and screamed. He hated it. Now, he's very much a rule-follower (he's going to LOVE school). And, thinks everyone else should follow the same rules....even when you're 2. And, when you don't follow the rules, well... he's not especially happy. He loves to build with Lego's, Lincoln Logs, and in the sand. He could play in the water for hours and hours. He's literally spent the majority of the summer wet and sandy. He also adores ships. He's not a speed talker like Henry. Thankfully...you can really only have one or maybe two of those per family before you start buying stock in earplugs. But he is a thinker and an analyzer. He asks some incredibly thoughtful questions. Most of the time they are also incredibly thought-provoking. He is our Charles. Our Jeong Min 정 민. We love you, buddy!! Pictures with the brothers!!

Opening presents....He got a remote control airplane and a remote control helicopter.

Water Wars

All we needed was a little warm weather, and ....look out!!! It started with the sprinkler in the front yard and quickly escalated into an all out war. The boys had water guns and, if you can see them, Min has nun chuks... Very useful in a water war.


Charles and Min in the get-away car. Charles' pose is straight out of 101 Dalmatians. Min is holding on for dear life with one hand and clutching his nun chuks with the other. It looks like he might be considering a tuck and roll maneuver if he gets pushed any further out of the jeep.

Henry and Charles are retreating so they can reload.

The motto in the military: 'We never leave a soldier behind.' Henry, being a great big brother, carrying his uninjured brother out of battle while under fire.

Charles protecting the little guy.

This was actually taken before the war started. I'm not sure where the idea to meditate in a sprinkler came from. But, since I've never tried it, I can't say that it doesn't work.

Ice cream with chopsticks?

Who says you can't eat ice cream with chopsticks....

He did pretty well too.

The Birds and the Bees?

I would like to know how the phrase 'the birds and the bees' ever came to imply what you use it for. We've been... or actually the boys have been (because I would just as soon avoid the conversation altogether) brewing up to this conversation for awhile. It started with easy questions like, 'Do babies have blankets in their moms tummies?' 'Did I have clothes on when I came out of my moms tummy?' These questions were some time ago, but they have continued with questions that a very simple answer would satisfy. Not so the other night. Charles was in one of his question asking modes, and he can ask tough questions. Let's just say that he was NOT satisfied with simple or vague answers but demanded details. Sweet Martha...the details. Henry laughed hysterically. And, Charles...our dear analytical, detail-oriented, so serious, little boy kept on asking...and asking... and asking. Nothing was funny to him...it just was. Of course, now he's moved on from that to breast-feeding.

So, a sample of our Charles' questions.
1) 'What is under the earth?' I questioned a little thinking he meant what was under the ground in the center of the earth. No. He meant that since the earth is round, like a ball, what is underneath it... like under Antarctica.

2) 'If the earth spins so fast, why doesn't it fly off into the sky?' Apparently his preschool teacher had been discussing gravity.

3) 'Why does God make it so bad storms happen and people get hurt or die?'

When he is wondering if something really happened or is just pretend, he will ask, 'Did that really happen down in this world?'

Underwater World

We made our very first trip to Underwater World at the Mall of America today. We actually went up because there was an exhibition called 'Passport to Korea' going on at the Mall. Sorry that I didn't notify everyone but I found out about it so late that I didn't get any emails out. Anyway, we also managed to get to Underwater World too. We LOVED it!! Unlike our visit to Mystery Cave, this exhibit was loved by ALL family members. Charles was in his element as you will see in the pictures. Henry thought it was incredibly cool. And, Min... well Min at times was so excited at some of the fish that he would shake. Very much worth the trip to the Cities. Henry and Charles by the scuba diver advertising 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. I think Henry is pretending to be strangled. I'm not sure...but I didn't think you were at risk for being strangled by scuba divers. Hmmm... I may be wrong.

Charles posing by the poster for the movie.

Not sure what a 2 year old thinks about when they are sitting on the back of tortoise statue.

Quite a bit happier in this one.

And, Charles by the replica of his beloved Titanic. This boy is obsessed with ships and ocean storms and why ships sink. He has about 4 Titanic books. His favorite movie is The Perfect Storm. This was terribly worrisome to me for awhile because his favorite part of that movie is when the fishing boat sinks. He knew that I didn't like that movie much. Finally, I explained to him that when the boat sinks, the people die. They don't get to go home to their family. He just looked at me and said, 'Well, God just goes down and gets them and takes them to Heaven.' I didn't have anything more to say.

Charles by the waterfall. Another favorite of his. He loves waterfalls, rivers, hoses, swimming and anything else that has to do with water.

All in all, the trip was good. The boys had fun and so did mom and dad. The Korean exhibit was good. I wish we had gotten to go on Friday or Saturday when the performances were different, but we were happy with what we saw and it appeared to be well attended.

Oh no...a 2 year old on wheels!!

Oh yes... Min is learning to ride a trike. As you will see, he's not very fast so he isn't too dangerous yet. But, he will only get faster. And....steering is a definite concern. Thankfully, he likes to wear his helmet.

Mystery Cave

We took a day trip to Mystery Cave this Sunday. Charles has been very interested in caves ever since we looked through the gate of the cave at Quarry Hill. The tour was fun...about 1 hour. The big boys did great. It got a little long for Min, but he did okay. This is a lake in the cave. Very interesting. I was amazed at how clear the water was.

The fossil of a cephalopod. I'm no geologist so can't really tell you what they look for real, but the fossil was pretty cool.

A bat. Yes, there were a few bats. They were all mostly like this...sleeping, I think. At the very least, not flying around. We did see one bat flying but it was about 20 feet in front of me and, thankfully, flying the other direction. That saved me some embarrassment as I'm sure I would have screamed had it flown toward us.

The boys in one of the passage ways.

Min making his 'dork' face.

I really, Really, REALLY LOVE travelling with my kids.....

Oh, yes...that is laced with significant sarcasm. I was hoping that I could convince myself that it was true...but, I can't. We made a quick trip to Grand Forks this weekend. Our new neice, born right before Thanksgiving, was being baptized. And, our godchild and neice was having her first communion. So, we left Friday morning. We should have known that trip was going to be interesting before we even left the house. About and hour before we actually left, Charles was fully dressed in his winter coat sitting by the door with his suitcase packed. About 15 minutes later he was complaining about being too hot. Min was crying because he thought we were going to leave him. I really don't know where that came from because we have never left him anywhere before.... I stay home with him. We made it to Pine Island...about 15 minutes from home... and the first 'How far is it?' started. We stopped to eat on the other side of the Cities. Got in the car and drove for about 5 minutes and had to make a bathroom stop...for one of the kids. Min got about a 20 minute nap before one of the big brothers woke him up. This was NOT a good thing and mom and dad were not happy. A brother bonding moment in the big tub at Uncle Gerad's and Auntie Misty's. They were trying to be Santa Claus and Charles helped Min just a little. It was baby soap so it didn't sting his eyes...not sure about the taste though.

Back to the story. We learned that you do not drive for 6 hours and then stop in Fargo at the Japanes-Korean restaurant. Not only did the boys look like street children... they were dirty from eating in the car...but they acted like they had never been to a public place in their entire lives. Thankfully, the restaurant was part of a little mall where they could run. And, run they did. They ate all their mandu and then Min drank the cho jang sauce, the dipping sauce for the mandu, out of the bowl. This is mostly made up of soy sauce among some other ingredients. He drank a lot of water that day. We finally made it to GF. The boys had a great time with their cousins. And, we had a great time visiting. Min was homesick... especially at bedtime. He would ask, 'This my house?' 'No, Min. This is Uncle's house.' 'My house at home?' 'Yes.' He would wake up crying and scared.

This is baby Greta, our newest neice. Henry thought we should trade Min for her. She is such a good baby and has the cutest little smile. Charles thought we should trade Min for Uncle's two cats...one is quite elderly and the other is quite large... a full 7 pounds more than Min. He liked that they actually sat still so he could pet them which is not at all like our cat. The good thing for the boys...neither the cats nor Greta try to take their toys, mess up their room, or create as much mess as their brother. I think we need a little more brotherly bonding.

The trip home was a real winner. Thankfully, they all did nap...at least for awhile. Min managed a full 30 minutes. Not good for the Paul Family. He cried for nearly the last 2 hours of our trip. We heard this...'I want Min's bed.' 'Want go to sleep.' When we finally got home...at 8:15 p.m... he was so happy to be home. He just looked around and would say, 'There my Abby (the cat)' 'There my bed,' 'There my jammies' 'There my diaper.' It went on and on...and he was so delirious with fatigue and the excitement of being home that he could hardly go to sleep. Finally he just crashed.

And, here is the view of the Red River Valley in the wintertime. They have a lot more snow than we do. This is when we were nearly to Grand Forks.

Creative Play...

Charles and Min playing train. They went around and around and around..... Lucky for Charles, the box had wheels.

Henry lost another tooth.

It seems that this day I had triplets. I started out with twins....Henry and Charles in Vikings jerseys. And, no we are not some of those diehard Vikins fans who decorates their house in purple and gold and wear horned hats with yellow braids on game day. Henry and Charles decided that Min needed to join in. They took him upstairs and helped him change his clothes...all on their own. I didn't hear one complaint from Min (I was listening through the monitor). This from the child where getting dressed or having a diaper changed is like an Olympic sporting event. They were all very proud of themselves when they came downstairs.

And, it seems we have a son who has a talent for making balloon animals. We had no idea that he even had an idea of what to do....but he was making dogs, hats, and, yes.....swords.