Fabulous Pictures from Matt's B-day Partay!!

You might notice that the following pictures look so much better, it's because these pictures were taken by Sean's mom who owns pretty much the best camera, ever! So the pictures are in much better quality. So now you can see what happened during Matt's birthday party all over again, a little better. :)

In the Beginning -

In case you are wondering where we got the decorations (quite a few people asked us that at the party, actually), the answer is "PARTY CITY"!!

Sean made the sushi rolls. Oh you can't see my specialty Bulgogi (Korean bbq). Sad... But just in case you're wondering how it was, it was FANTABULOUS! If you ever come and visit, I will make some for you. Yes, that's a promise!

Matt in his gorgeous Korean Hanbok (the Korean traditional dress)

Awww... How cute are they?

So what do you think? Do you love the outfit?

Smile for me, baby!

Aunt BJ posing for the camera.

Who knows what they were up to?! :)

So this is what we did. You see the box on the couch? We call it Matt's birthday box. We are keeping Matt's birthday memories in the box. We are saving some of the decorations we used, some pictures, and letters from the guests that came to his party. I passed around cute stationery to everyone that came and asked them to write Matty a note for his 8th birthday. Matt will be reading those notes on his 8th birthday. Everyone thought it was a cute idea.

That's the ring I was talking about in the previous post entry. Isn't it a beautiful ring? I hope Matt passes it on to his children. It's a 24 K gold -really soft and thin- Just pretty, pretty..

Aunt BJ, Matthew, and I

Okay this is the game I was talking about in the last entry. We had a spatula, a laptop, a paint bottle, a pencil, money, a thermometer, and a hammer. But you can use pretty much anything. It's your choice!

Cameron, holding Matt before we started the intense game!

Matt trying to figure out what to pick.

There! After touching pretty much everything, he picked up a spatula!

All the gifts for Matty boy!

Matty pointing at a doggy in the book - the cutest book I've ever seen!

I think Matt's favorite gift was the bouncy ball.

More toys.

Whenever I pointed saying "How old is Matty boy?", he pointed one. It was the cutest thing ever!

One happy family

Happy birthday to you, Matt! My diet was officially ruined that day. Mmmm.... It was so yummy, though.

Basically, Matt started crying as soon as we lit the candles singing "Happy Birthday". He does not like loud noises. Poor guy...

He got his fingers dirty... Not liking it...

Hmmm.. this doesn't feel so bad...

Let's have a bite, you might just like it.

NOPE I don't like it!!

Other than Matt hating the cake, everything turned out great!

Matt's 1st Birthday Party!!

Matt isn't one yet... Well, almost though, in two weeks! We decided to throw him his first birthday party this weekend so Sean's parents could be here.

We invited close families and had Korean themed birthday party. I made some Korean food - Bulgogi - Grilled beef bbq with a special sauce, cucumber rolls, spring rolls, a vegetable tray, Korean drinks, and some Korean snacks. Everything was so yummy. Cucumber rolls and the snacks were a hit among the little kids. The adults digged the meat, of course. :)



The highlight of the party was the games. We played "Guess how old". I printed out 13 pictures of Matthew from newborn to 12 months - and the people had to guess how old Matt was in those pictures. If they guessed them right, they got a bath and body works handsoap.



We also played a traditional Korean game (It's a game for one year old babies) - We put several different objects that indicate their future jobs such as - a thermometer (doctor), spatula (chef), hammer (judge or construction worker, you decide), laptop (nerd... ha ha I know it's not really a job but it's ok), money (rich), and paint (artist). I sat in front of those objects so he will come towards the objects. As soon as Cameron put him down on the floor, Matt started to crawl towards me. At first, instead of grabbing an object, he directly came to me. Bless his dear heart. :) The second attempt went better. He touched pretty much everything until he picked up the spatula. Sean's mom had a fit because she wanted him to pick up money or a thermometer, ha ha. It was really funny! She tried to kick off the spatula when Matt was trying to pick it up. But the spatula was definitely Matt's pick. He played with it all day!! So will he be a chef when he grows up? You should play the game too if you have a baby that's turning one. It's pretty funny & interesting!


(Ready, Set, Go!)

(Hmm.. Which one should I grab?)


(I am going to be a chef!)

Well, the bad news is that Matt did NOT like the cake at all. Some of you might already know this but Matt doesn't really like sweets. I am starting to wonder if he's really a Bunton.... He also didn't really like all the noises in the room. He is very sensitive with loud noises. When it is quiet, he's happy but when it's loud, he gets pretty mad.

Overall, the party went well. Everyone else loved the cake. We got it at Costco - We got a chocolate cake with chocolate moose in the middle with cream cheese frosting on top. We wrote

"Happy 1st Birthday Matty boy!"
on top of the cake. :)

I can't believe he's turning one in two weeks. I was watching some old videotapes of Matt and I kind of miss the little Matt he was. But I am so excited to see Matt taking his first step, saying his first word, going to school for the first time, etc. Being a mom is hard sometimes but it's definitely the greatest acheivement of my life.

I love you, Matt!!


Matt wore a Korean outfit (Hanbok) for his birthday. In Korea, turning one is a BIG deal so they put their babies on the nicest outfit. This outfit was a gift from my mom while we were visiting Korea last October. I love the colors of the outfit. Matt was still too small for the outfit but it still looked good on him. We are going to take some nice pictures of him in it at a professional studio for his birthday.


He has the cutest smile, ever.

After Matt got his spatula. He got lots of gifts, too. He got some cute outfits, a dog book, two bouncy balls, a toy laptop, rings, etc. Thanks for all the gifts!!

Aunt BJ, Matt, and I.

He had the red nose all day. I have no idea what happened to it. But he looks a little drunk in the picture. Oh and also, notice he has a gold ring on? That's what my mom got Matthew for his birthday. It's a tradition in Korea that one-year-olds get a real gold ring. It's a really pretty ring.

Am I really 28 years old today?

At 6:10 a.m., I wake up to a "Happy Birthday" song in bed. Sean comes into the bedroom with my favorite cake -Betty Crocker chocolate cake with layers of chocolate and coconut frosting. I am surprised because I don't hear Sean sing very often. I am still half asleep as I pretend to blow out candles in the end of the song - Sean realized that we didn't have any candles to put on the cake late last night and wanted to run to a store to get some but I forced him to go to bed because he planned to go to a cycling class at the gym at 4:45 a.m - But it's okay, it's the thought that counts. Sean asks me if I want a piece of cake and I say no. I'm not really a breakfast person and I am still so, so sleepy.

Wow, so it's been exactly 28 years since I saw the bright light of this world for the first time. I used to only think about myself on my birthdays. It's my day and everything should be centered around me, right? But as I get older - or it may be because I'm so far away from home... or maybe because I'm a mom myself - I have been thinking a lot about my MOM.

MOM -Umma in Korean- There is something about that word, don't you think? I think you appreciate your mom more and more as you get older. Whenever I am around Sean's family during holidays, I think about my mom and the things that we used to do together. My mom has always been proud of me - although I am not so sure if I have always been a daughter that she can be proud of but I try. When I was a teenager, I was sad because I thought she was the most miserable person on earth. And I always thought that it was my fault that she was misrable, sad, and unhappy. Well, time went on and we moved on. When I went and saw her with Sean and Matthew last year, she seemed to be doing whole lot better - She was no longer the miserable, sad, unhappy person I remembered. She laughed and joked around with her son-in-law whom she had never met in person before. I got her to laugh with her mouth open, her teeth showing - This was one of my biggest accomplishments in life. Now I have many pictures of mom smiling, proudly showing her beautiful teeth, not so self-conscious about the way she looks when she smiles. I was delighted that Sean and Matthew got along with her so well. Matthew never fussed with my mom. My mom would put him on her back and wrap him up and go outside for a long walk. One day, they were out looking at beautiful flowers for an hour or so and I was never worried because I knew mom was taking good care of Matthew. I just wish that I lived closer to her so she and Matt can bond more. I try not to think too much about mom because it makes me homesick. But I know distance makes our hearts grow fonder - It is true for mom and me. I think we are closer than ever because we have been far apart for a while, now we appreciate the time we are together even more because of it - although I wish we could see each other way more often!

So I thank mom for going through all the pain to give birth to me. I wasn't born in the best situation. - It was a stormy winter day. It had snowed up to your knees. There were no cars on the road. Mom couldn't make it to the hospital. Dad was on duty in military 2 miles away. He walked through the pile of snow for two hours and arrived at home just in time to deliver me. Mom was only 18 years old when she gave birth to me. - But my parents always say I am a blessing to them. Well, but I should say they are a blessing to me.

Happy birthday to me. I am grateful for you, mom and dad, for being there for me all the time. I love you and miss you very much.

엄마 아빠 사랑해요!!