Happy Birthday Eliza!

I can't believe she is 6 years old! The last 4 years have been such a joy. Eliza has tons of personality! She makes friends wherever she goes whether they are young or old! She is such a delight to me and all of our family.

At church on Sunday, she was called up in Primary (the children's Sunday School) to be recognized for her birthday. The children fill out a card earlier in the year to receive on their birthday. I'm the pianist, so I get to be there too. Our chorister read her card for her before we all sang a birthday song. She started to choke up when she read "I know Jesus loves me because...He gave me a family". Of course, I felt like crying to as she read Eliza's own words. Even now, as I think about what she wrote it touches me.

I don't think a day goes by that she doesn't tell me "Mom, I love you!", "Mom, you are beautiful" or "You are the best mom in the whole wide world!" I think the thing she says that really makes me feel glad about is "Mom, you are always nice to me!" When I hear that, I feel good about myself as a mother and realize that even if I don't look perfect or keep the house spotless every day, I'm doing the things that really matter and that's what counts to her!

About four years ago, I felt the prompting that she was supposed to in our family. It was an amazing string of events that led to our going to China for our Yang Yi Hong. I'm so grateful to be the mother of this special little girl. She has truly blessed our lives and many others!
(I will add pictures later. For some reason it won't let me put any on today.)

Lights on Temple Square

Ice skating , birthdays and more!

Olivia's Student of the Week poster at class

Her favorite purchase at class store


Olivia outside after her first ice skating lesson. She loved it!

Zach trying to remember how to skate from several years ago. He was zooming around in no time and learned a few things he didn't know before.


Olivia has taken several lessons now. This was from her first lesson. She is having a wonderful time and is learning so much. I'm very impressed with the teachers at the arena.

Kirk helping Eliza get the hang of skating. She started lessons the week after Olivia did because she thought it looked fun too. She's really doing great!

Olivia and Eliza were able to get a few autographed postcards from Surya Bonaly an actual Olympic skater!

I just had to add this picture of Voodoo. He was sleeping like this on the couch one day. He is so weird!!

Doctor's visits:

Besides starting ice skating, we have had some other events to add to our busy schedule. Grace had a doctor's check-up and their was some concern from her doctor about one of the tests. She had to have several urine samples done and blood drawn. She had a higher level of protein than normal and they had to make sure there are no kidney problems.

Meanwhile, Mike's mom had a kidney problem that caused her enough pain that she had to go to the ER. I also took her to a couple of appointments to see what was going on and why. This worked out though as I was able to take in Grace's tests and also get her lab work done while I was picking up Renee's results. Renee was able to get through her problem and didn't need anything major done, so that was good.

Grace seemed fine but her doctor was still concerned after the lab work and had us do more testing during her checkup at SLC that was already scheduled. No problems showed up and her kidney's are fine. Thank goodness! We were very relieved.

We also had another appointment the week before at an eye specialist for Grace. Yes, at this point I was getting tired of all the trips to hospitals and doctor's offices! We found out her vision is pretty good straight ahead, but that's about it. No wonder she has trouble tripping on stuff! She's made up for this pretty well though and doesn't have too many problems really. I'm just grateful she sees as well as she does.

The girls loved the decoraions at the eye doctor's building.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVIA!!

Yesterday Olivia had a FANTASTIC BIRTHDAY! Her class had the class store and she came home with lots of great stuff. Eliza and I were there helping out, so we were able to spend some time in class with Olivia. It was fun to be there with her on her birthday. (We also ate lunch at school for the Thanksgiving meal. It's a tradition I've made for years to come for the special meal for Thanksgiving. They like it when I come and of course Eliza loved being included too.)

The boys:

Kirk and Zach have loved going ice skating too. They haven't skated for several years and have been wanting to go again. No lessons for them but they come for the free skating sessions. Both boys made it on the honor roll for school. Great work guys! Kirk has been driving to school more and has been helping drive for me when I need him. (Like when I was sick the other day and he drove Olivia to piano. ) He also tutors Chinese and volunteers once a week at the local library.

Zach has been cooking more and enjoying learning new recipes from his class at school. I think he's a great cook and love to have him fix dinner once in a while. (Now if he would clean up after, it would be even better!) He had a choir festival this week and enjoyed being gone for most of the school day to sing. He didn't enjoy his trip to the orthodontist though, it was not nearly as fun. Soon he will have braces and have to say goodbye to his favorite snack, popcorn, for a while. Sorry Zach!

There has been so much happening lately and unfortunately I've been unable to post anything for a while. I've tried but it wasn't letting me for some reason. I'll try to add some more and update on Olivia's birthday party and the weekend later.

More pictures from Kenshin's visit...

I have so many great pictures and I'm still trying to look through them all!

Butterfly case at the BYU museum

Enjoying the view at BYU

Playing air hockey with Kirk

This is one of the songs the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is famous for: "God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again"

Kenshin's favorite food of his visit...

This is the perfect hamburger! Kenshin said he liked hamburgers more than anything else he had while he was here. We decided to go after the school awards meeting we went to tonight. (I had coupons for the girls to each get a free meal that expired today.) Of course, Kirk and I were both thinking "Last week we were here with Kenshin!" It seemed like much more than a week ago.

The buns are made fresh at the restaurant and are delicious as are the seasoned french fries!

Kenshin's room...the Mickey and Minnie room or Kirk's room if we don't have visitors. He even made his bed before he left!

Olivia won a trophy today for a story she wrote for a school art contest.

Great job Olivia! (She is in the long floral dress with the jean jacket.)

Kenshin Leaves for Las Vegas

Saying goodbye at the bus

This was the hardest part of Kenshin's visit: saying goodbye! All the children and me drove him down to BYU to catch his bus. We tried to be happy and think of all the fun he is going to have in Disneyland, but it is still a sad occasion. After having Kenshin with us these last few days, it's like one of our own family leaving! Eliza is still his little sister after all!! We hope that he remembers us fondly and will keep in touch. The boys set him up on Facebook so they can be a friend on the computer. Hopefully when he gets home, he will let us know how the rest of his trip went.

Gathering all his bags before heading off

Kenshin looking over a few gifts we had for him to take home. (He brought some gifts for us that he gave us the very first night he was here. All the kids loved the presents and Mike really liked the Tokyo Olympic coin he was given. I thought the papers and purses were beautiful. We appreciated all the nice gifts and Kenshin was very good to bring them out as soon as we were home last Monday. )

Relaxing with Voodoo last night before going to bed

Playing with Voodoo and Copper last night

Last night:

The rest of our evening last night was spent playing games on the Wii and watching AFV (America's Funniest Home Videos) show on television. The boys looked up some things on the computer together and played DS games too.

I made a banana cake and we had some ice cream to go with it. It was a nice night to be at home and relax before Kenshin had to leave today. He had to get up really early but we hated to go to bed before we all had enough time to visit. The boys and myself stayed up and visited with him for a while after the girls went to bed.

I don't have more time now, but will try to add a few more pictures later or tomorrow that we've missed.