Happy New Year! & Year-End Wrap Up

We had a fantastic Christmas time and everyone loved being home from school! In December, Zach turned 11 and we had a party with his friends at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center. (It's like you're on a Star Trek ship). Eliza has been using her princess dress-up shoes (see the picture above) on a daily basis. We had cake and presents for her on Nov. 30th but the whole family came over the second week of December for her and Zachary's birthdays since Grandma Earl was in Hawaii for both of their special days! Also, Grandma Carol came the week before Christmas and we shopped and played non-stop! My camera died, so I need to download some more pix from my old one for our Christmas shots. More to come later this week...

Happy Birthday Eliza!

Eliza's 1st Birthday with her family!

(But she's actually 3 today)

I can't believe that a year ago Eliza was in China celebrating her birthday at her wonderful orphanage and we were at home wondering if anyone would wish her a happy birthday. We were so worried about her and anxious to get our TA so we could go get her. I'm so thankful that she was so well cared for during her days at the orphanage. I know she was loved there and that has made all the difference in her life now that she has her forever family.

Getting Ready for Christmas!

One of our favorite traditions is putting up the train under the tree. The kids all love it! (Especially since it's cargo is candy!)

Can you believe this is what we were doing on the 5th of November? (Back when it was in the 60' and 70's.) It's definitely winter now!!

Give Thanks!

Turkeys at Sundance-

We were going for a drive past Sundance and Mike spotted this large herd of wild turkeys. I've never seen this many wild turkeys together.

The other day, as we were preparing for Thanksgiving, Olivia said "Mom, when are we going to give thanks?" I replied that we should give thanks everyday but we are especially thankful at Thanksgiving. I thought it was such a sweet, childlike question that I had to share!

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday and often not given enough thought, in my opinion. We love the wonderful food and being around family but it's also nice to remember how much we are blessed with and, as Olivia said "give thanks"!

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Today is Olivia's 7th Birthday!
We love you!!

(Now I need to go bake the chocolate cake for our family party tonight.)

Time to Catch Up!

Kirk, Zach and Shoji playing air hockey.

The week before Halloween, we hosted a Japanese student from Osaka. Shoji is about a year older than Kirk and was here with his fellow students for their 9th grade graduation trip to America. We wanted him to have some "western" experiences that would be different from what he might experience at home. We went to Bridal Veil Falls, rode through the canyon and even went horseback riding, thanks to Mike's friend from work. I think he had the most fun just being with our family playing games or watching a movie. We also carved pumpkins for Halloween. He said he didn't know much about Halloween so I doubt he's ever made a jack-o-lantern before. We really enjoyed having him stay with us and hope we can see him again.

Shoji and another student at Bridal Veil Falls

Shoji's favorite restaurant of his visit: Fuddruckers

Kirk and Shoji had a great time playing tennis. They were very evenly matched (neither of them are pros- lets just put it that way). It was nice that we had such beautiful

weather for his visit.

Autumn in the Mountains!

I love the beautiful views we enjoy this time of year. Unfortunately, it won't last long...and we've already had snow in the higher elevations! We try to spend as much time as we can outside now before it gets too cold.

Next week, our student from Japan will be coming to stay. He'll only be here for a week so hopefully we can pack lots of fun in and show him a few of our favorite sights.

Other news: Zach is getting glasses!! He had an eye exam last week and boy has he changed since last year. I about died when the doctor had him try to read some of the letters with his left eye and he couldn't see any of them. Well, he definitely needs glasses now. But as the doctor said, when you have parents who are near sighted and you're a big reader, it's not really a surprise.

Fall Photos...

We decided to spend Sunday afternoon taking some pictures outside.

Kirk took the picture of Eliza in the hammok. It shows off her beautiful little face.

Silly, Sweet Sisters!!

I took these pictures after church one day in our front yard.

Today, I took Eliza for her check-up at Primary Children's Hospital. She had a CT scan and everything looked great. In fact, the neurosurgeon said just to continue going to the pediatrician and as far as he was concerned, he saw no reason for her to have anymore scans or visits with him. Yeah!!

We're Back!!

Kirk, Eliza, Zach and Olivia

Red Butte Gardens, Univ. of Utah

(a week ago, while Grandma Carol was visiting)

OK, so summer was not a great time for me to blog! With all of us at home, swimming lessons (a whole month of them for three kids!), Zach's play at the Scera (The Music Man, more about that later) all of Kirk's scouting activities, and not to mention the huge backyard project we've been working on, I've rarely had a moment to sit down at the computer. Now that life is getting somewhat back to normal, I've decided to try to blog again and improve the site at the same time.

Come by again soon as I try to add more to the site and fill you in on some of our summertime activities!

I'm on my way!

Eliza looks like she's rushing to an emergency with her play pet carrier. Actually she's probably trying to get away with Olivia's puppy before she catches her.

Kirk and Olivia playing the Nintendo DS. (Something I swore I'd never buy but decided to get one for him for Christmas to take with us to China. We knew how bored he would be without enough books to read. )

Memorial Day BBQ

Cousins came over for a BBQ on Monday. Eliza is sitting by one of her favorite cousins, Isaac. The weather turned out beautiful and we had a wonderful day! (Don't look at the weeds...that was the part of the yard I didn't get to yet.)

Eliza's Visit to the Hospital

Eliza just returned home from the hospital last week after a 12 day stay due to a shunt infection. She had a shunt (a small tube which takes care of excess spinal fluid) put in last year in China and we have been taking her to Primary Children's Hospital to have her evaluated. I went with her for a follow-up appt. just to go over her x-rays with the neurosurgeon. While I was there, I asked why she had a problem with the skin healing at the site of her shunt on her head. They immediately had a test run to check for infection and said it would probably be a few days before we had any results. One hour later we were called to bring her back and admit her to the hospital!
The shunt had to be removed so she had surgery the next morning. It went fine but she had to stay in the hospital a minimum of 10 days while she had the antibiotics and was attached to an external shunt since a new one can't be put in until the infection is gone. Since she was so high functioning, the neurosurgeon decided to test whether she even needed the shunt. Amazingly, she didn't have to have the second operation. As the doctor said, " That's the luckiest shunt infection ever." She seems to be problem free and we are so grateful for how everything turned out.
We managed to be there for her waking hours but it wasn't easy! We also were able to come up as a family on weekends and Mondays. Thank goodness for friends and family who helped out during this time.

Spring Vacation!

Tuzigoot , Montezuma's Well, Waputki Natl. Monuments, Grand Canyon and the Deer Farm

I'm trying to catch up on the last month or so but we had such a great time in Arizona, I didn't want to miss putting in some pictures.

Temple Day

March 27th was a very special day for our family! It may have been cold and windy outside but we felt warm and calm inside the temple as we all gathered to have Eliza join our family forever. Eliza and Olivia are wearing dresses I had made from some beautiful Chinese silk we brought back from Beijing. My black silk dress was from Beijing also but I had it made there by a tailor who our guide set up to come and measure me right at our hotel. Definitely clothes for special occasions only! This was really a wonderful day for us and truly made our adoption process complete. We love this amazing little girl and are so happy to be blessed by her coming to our family...forever!

Fun at the Farm!

Zach found his twin! Who needs a haircut more?

Kirk loves to help Eliza.

Olivia dancing and singing as usual!

Grandma Carol visited at Easter. As you can see, we had a bunch of fun at the Thanksgiving Point Animal Farm. Eliza loved feeding the animals and riding the ponies. We all had a good time.