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.

What a small world!

While visiting my uncle and aunt in Seoul, my cousin called and said that he wanted to see me and my family. I hadn't seen him in about 20 years (the last time I saw him was when I was 9 years old). I had heard that he was married in April so I wanted to meet his wife too. When they arrived at my aunt and uncle, I was surprised by how different my cousin looked. His wife looked good too. When my cousin and I were trying to catch up, my cousin's wife said, "Hmm, you're Yong-Sook, aren't you. I know Yong-Sook. I know her..." I was a little confused at first but I kept on thinking, "This girl looks familiar" but I couldn't really think where I knew her from. I grew up in Nonsan which is like 5 hours away from Seoul so I guess I was having a hard time making a connection. Then a light bulb went off in my head. I knew the girl. Her name was Da-Jin Park and I had hung out with her when I was in middle school. I remembered her name and we were all shocked by what a small world we live in. I would've never thought that she was going to be my cousin's wife! Da-Jin and I went to middle school and high school together. Isn't it crazy? What a small world....

Things we loved about Korea!

1. No Tipping. In Korea, we don't tip. It is in fact rude to tip someone for their labor. We don't pay taxes either. Taxes are included in prices. There's no 99 cent crap, either, always even number, like 1,000 won or 1,200 won, not 990 won or 670 won. So we liked that. The food is so much cheaper there too. One day my mom and we had lunch together and we only paid 12 bucks. How nice is that?!

2. Bargaining. I bought a lot of makeup there and bargaining saved me a lot of money. When you go to Korea, try bargaining. You will save a few bucks.

3. Public transportation. The easiest way to move around in Korea is by using public transportation. They are so cheap too. We used buses, trains, subway, and taxis while we were in Korea. I really wish public transportation was popular in America.

4. All the food! I love Korean food. I could spend the rest of my life eating Korean food. I love American food but honestly, I could live without it. I think changing food is what got me gain a lot of weight. In Korea, I used to eat a lot of vegetables and soup. I really miss that.

5. Of course my family. My family is the reason why I want to go to Korea often. I really want to visit them as often as I can. This trip was too short! Hopefully, I will get to visit more often.

Things we missed about America

Although our trip to Korea was a blast, there were things that we missed about America. These were the things we missed the most.

1. Our bed! Okay, when Sean and I got married, we bought the most comfortable bed in the world. It was on sale so we got the best deal on it. It's soft and comfy. Many Koreans don't sleep on beds. They sleep on the floor. My mom used to have beds but got rid of all of them when she moved into her new apartment. So Sean and I slept on the floor the whole week we were there. I guess I had gotten so used to sleeping on bed my whole life... my back was killing me! Yesterday, I slept on our bed and my back feels so much better.

2. Shower curtain and giant big towels! I've lived in America for about 7 years now so I had forgotten that showers curtains and big towels aren't very common in Korea. A lot of Koreans have wet floors in bathrooms. The towels are small as hand towels and so thin. I needed two of those towels to dry myself each time I got out of shower. I also missed not having to push the shower button on thermostat to make the water hot. One day, I forgot to do that so took a cold shower on a rainy day. It wasn't so pleasant.

3. Carseat! Carseats aren't required in Korea so we carried Matt in our hands whenever we were driving. It sounds scary I know but everything was okay. But having to carry Matt all the time wasn't so easy. I think I have more muscles now.

4. Huggies diapers! My goodness, Korean diapers suck!! They didn't really fit Matt well. They weren't very soft either. I only took some diapers from America thinking that diapers in Korea would be all the same. But they weren't. Huggies in Korea were different too. Why? I don't know.

5. Bigger roads, better drivers. Okay, it might sound stereotypical but it's true. Asians are not good drivers. Well, they are good drivers. It's just that they drive more aggressively because of the narrow road situation. They don't like to yield. They are not very patient. Sean and I thought we were going to die on the road or something. I was so upset and embarrassed about drivers not stopping at crosswalks, not even for little kids. Instead, they would honk at pedestrians who tried to walk across crosswalks. How lame!

These were the things that we missed about our home in America. I guess these little things are the ones that we miss the most when we are away from home.

Matt's New Passport

Matt just got his very first passport in the mail today. The passport looks pretty fansy. There are cool pictures and everything. It's weird to think that Matt's American and I'm not. I don't know. I just felt weird when I saw the passport today. But we are all getting pretty excited about our first trip outside the United States together! Only two and a half months to go! Hooray!

Our trip to Korea!

So today I booked flight tickets for Sean, Matt, and me. We won a prize at Expedia.com so they are paying $2000 of the tickets. We still have to pay about $1000 because the gas price went up so high.... Oh well, but still!! That's a good deal, right?! We are so so excited that we are finally going to Korea this year. My parents haven't met Sean in person yet so it will be a good opportunity for them to get to know each other a little better. We will be flying out of Sacramento airport on October 11 and staying in Korea until October 25. We wanted to stay there a little longer but Sean's work will only allow two weeks of vacation by that time. I am so excited for my parents to be able to hold our Matty boy!!!!