Our blog...my "journal"!

OK, so I hate writing in a daily journal but I love to take pictures and work on the computer. Since I've decided mostly my family reads this blog, I'll just combine the two and try to keep up with what is going on in our lives on a regular basis. In other words, time to stop beating myself up over the things I'm not doing and try to improve on the things that I am doing!

Happy Birthday Mom!

New Quilt for Olivia! This last weekend I finished a quilt my sisters and nieces helped me start. It is just a tied flannel quilt but it is so cute and Olivia absolutely loves it! Warm and functional is just what she needed...maybe she won't come crawling in my bed in the wee hours of the morning anymore!

Snow, Snow, Snow...we have so much and we got more this weekend. The older kids went sledding with their cousins yesterday and had lots of fun until Zach lost his gloves and about froze. Poor Zach, he doesn't have any fat on his wiry body! Olivia had snow and ice in her hair but she wasn't too cold.

Mike can cook!!! We had Cheryl and the boys over last night for a Wii party and dinner. Mike saved the day and made an awesome Green Curry with chicken, ham fried rice and even orange rolls for dessert. Thanks honey! Cheryl brought a fabulous Thai soup! I love Indian and Thai food and of course Chinese food if it is the real Chinese style.

Area for improvement... Preparation is important! This isn't necessarily for a major emergency, although it is a possibility, but what if you lose a job or just don't want to have to run to the store at the last minute to make dinner. If you don't have some food storage and a 72 hour kit you should! The basics are simple...a three month supply of food, short term water supply, financial reserve, and a 72 hour kit for each family member in case of emergency. I'll post more info on these areas later.

One Year Ago in Xi'an...

I can't believe it's been a year since we adopted Eliza! Actually, one year and a week. We have had many memories of China recently. Kirk thought this New Year would be boring in comparison to last year. Well, of course it can't compare... last year we were in Beijing for the New Year!


I am just so grateful that we took a leap of faith and followed our hearts to bring Eliza to our family. We've been blessed in so many ways! I have felt very strongly that we were guided to her and I'm so glad we followed those promptings. Prayers are definetly answered, just not always in the way we expect.
Eliza playing in our front yard this week


Thanks Mike for believing in me and my crazy ideas! We are all so thankful that Eliza is part of our family. Our experiences in China and adopting her have changed our lives forever.

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.