Birthday Girl!

Grace's friends from school had a pool party with her in the afternoon.
Grace loved being with her school friends and her two neighbor friends, Laura and Alyssa.

Family party with her awesome cake from Costco! (No extra charge to personalize it and choose how to decorate it.)

Grace has been excited about her birthday for several months. Recently, she would almost daily remind us "June 16th, my birthday!" So we knew that her first birthday with her family had to be special. I bought her a new swimsuit, since she'd been wearing hand-me downs. She LOVES princesses, especially Ariel and Snow White, so I had to go to the Disney store for that! I went to Target and found fun things in the dollar section for her friend's treat bags. Grandma Carol and I found her a couple of summery dresses and I finally found her a pair of decent shoes (she has small narrow feet and has been wearing cheap sandals from Children's Place for quite a while). We also went to her favorite Chinese restaurant for lunch. She was definitely princess for the day!

Don't let the language barrier scare you!

The other 4th graders in Grace's class

(they also had 3rd graders who came in at the earlier schedule

and left early the day I took this picture)

Grace and her teacher, Mrs. Donithorne

One of the worries we had of adopting an older child was the language barrier. I really was nervous about not being able to communicate with our new daughter. This proved to be short-lived. Another issue was how she would do at school. It couldn't have been better actually!

Grace had the perfect first school experience this year. I was worried about so many things: Would she be accepted? Would the other children treat her nicely? Would it be too hard? Did we choose the right class? Since she was only in 2nd grade in China, I wasn't sure about putting her into 4th grade here but it turned out to be the perfect choice! Her class has been so good to her and now she has many friends. They all took her under their wing and have been so sweet. What more could you ask for?


We can't believe how fast she has learned English. We were expecting her to learn fairly quickly, as most children can, but she has just amazed us! Now our concern is her keeping her Chinese skills. She really doesn't want to speak Chinese anymore even when Kirk talks to her in Chinese. I keep reminding her to respond back to him in Chinese, but I can tell she really doesn't want to.


Hopefully she can continue to improve her English this summer and be better prepared for 5th grade this next fall. She is also reading some and I hope to help her improve in that area as well over the summer.

I can't believe it's over!

Olivia with her class and teacher, Miss Adams (it was so fun to have her teacher come!)

Zach's "roller coaster" story (it made one of his friends laugh so hard, he fell off the chair!)

Zach starts the relay...oops, there's the start!

The Cowgirls: Olivia and her friend Lauren after their dance

The Brides: Grace (right in the middle) dancing with her class

Yes, we made it through the last week of school! It's always a rather melancholy time for me, as I realize my children are moving on and growing older. Both Kirk and Zach are making big jumps next year. Kirk heads to high school as a 10th grader, 9th was still at the jr. high here and Zach leaves elementary school to head to the jr. high! It all seems to happen at once.

We did some fun things this week to celebrate the end of school though. Both elementary schools hold "dance festivals" and "field day". Each grade gets together and learns a fun dance. Field day is fun with lots of races, relays and goodies for sale.

Memorial Day Memories...

Last year about this time, we were in Washington, D.C. and visited Arlington National Cemetery. It really makes you stop and consider all the brave men and women who have lost their lives fighting for our country. I'm so grateful to all of them who made our country a place where I can raise my family in the "land of the free". We truly are blessed to live in this country.

I'm currently reading a series about the Revolutionary War, called "Prelude to Glory" by Ron Carter. It's been good for me to remember the early history of our country and learn more details of the people and the battles they fought at that time.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday full of fond memories of your own!

Thanksgiving Point

Everyone loves to roll down this hill!

Well, our family had a wonderful time visiting the beautiful Thanksgiving Point Gardens up in Lehi. I wanted to share the beautiful pictures we took.

Look at Zachary! Naughty Boy!

These girls are as cute as can be! The tulip festival leads to great pictures!

Isn't this a beautiful picture of the tulips? This garden has a lovely French sounding name.

-By Kirk and Steph

Our Beautiful Blossom!

I know I'm her mother, and have a soft-spot for our little one, but I look at Eliza and am amazed at her beauty! I am a bit worried it might go to her head, since Kirk is always telling her she is the most beautiful and adorable little girl "in the whole world". She usually tells him "go away!" when he says that but she loves him and is his shadow whenever he is at home. Thank goodness Kirk is so patient, probably more so than I am!

She wore her new dress that Grandma Carol bought for her to church on Sunday, so I had to get a few pictures of her in it. This was one of the few sunny days we've had lately, so I was lucky that it was nice on Sunday afternoon.

I Love To See The Temple!

( Zachary took this amazing picture of the Draper Temple)

Friday April 17th 2009

Yesterday was a very special day for our family! Grace became part of our "forever family" as we gathered at the temple for her sealing.

More on Temples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLXYxmaHWQs

Lovely Easter Weekend!

We enjoyed a beautiful Easter Sunday. The weather was perfect for hunting for eggs and eating lunch outside. Olivia, Eliza and Zach were all sick, so they stayed home from church. After church, we all went outside and enjoyed the afternoon together.

Olivia managed to go to one day of school (the week before Easter Sunday) but she came down with some kind of a flu. She had a bad cough, headache, and stomach ache, with a fever. Then Eliza came down with it and had a temperature over 104'! It was not a fun week but they felt a little better on Easter.

This week was spring break but it was more like winter break! We had a huge snowstorm with about 8" of snow here in the valley. The kids went out and played in it on Thursday morning. Unfortunately, the poor flowering trees in the area were damaged pretty badly. There are broken branches and fallen trees all over the place. That's spring in Utah for you!

"Much Ado About Nothing"

(Zach is on the left in the cape)

The tragic wedding scene!

Today, Eliza and I went to see Zach in the 6th grade's production of "Much Ado About Nothing". I'm glad we went because there was a bit of a surprise. One of the lead characters was sick, so Zach ended up with a main part (Claudio) in addition to his other 2 parts (Shakespeare and the scribe)!

He did a fantastic job and saved the day. His class was very happy he could fill in and do so well at the last minute. The teacher announced to the audience what had happened and that Zach would have to use a script but you could hardly tell otherwise. I guess it was a first for his teacher, but Zach was the right person for the situation!

Grace's choir concert:

On Tuesday night, Grace had her chance to sing with the school choir. She has LOVED going to choir each Thursday after school. It was easy too, since two of her best friends from class were in the choir as well and would walk with her to the music room for practice. Her gift of learning songs really was impressive. She knew each one perfectly! Eliza and I saw the daytime performance, so I have a couple of pictures from that, but Kirk took pictures that night for the "real" concert.

Long hair!!

Grace is so proud of her "long hair". This is the first time I've tried anything other than barettes or clips and it turned out pretty cute! She is so happy to have long hair. The last few weeks she keeps touching the back and gets a big smile and says "long hair"! I'd say it is probably the longest it has ever been.

Grace's Baptism on March 14th

Grace and Tim Bahr, her translator (Ann Earl's brother)



Grace and her "church teachers"

Elder Slater and Elder VanBeck

It was a wonderful day and Grace had been looking forward to it for several weeks. The processing of learning about such new concepts as Jesus Christ and a Heavenly Father was much easier for Grace than I thought it would be. For someone who had no religious background or instruction, she quickly picked up on these new ideas. We are so grateful to have the help of the missionaries or "church teachers" as she called them. The Elders were happy to have such a willing investegator and Grace loved learning from them every Sunday afternoon. They are both from the Eastern United States and of course don't speak Chinese but they tried really hard to communicate with Grace on basic things and she just loved having them over.

Ann, Adam Earl's (our nephew) wife was the person who guided us to Tim. He was the perfect translator for Grace! Since he'd served a mission to Taiwan and has taught at the MTC (Missionary Training Center), he was quite experienced with teaching and the language. He took a lot of time to translate for the missionaries and write out the characters for Grace so she could really understand what was being taught. It was a real blessing to have such an amazingly spiritual person to help the missionaries with all the lessons. We asked Tim to perform the baptism for Grace so she could hear it in Mandarin and in English. It was truly a beautiful moment for her and she was very happy.

Grace loves going to church and learns the hymns and children's songs quickly. In fact, she sang a new song with me, Zachary, Olivia and Eliza for her baptism. She has been learning "A Family is of God" in Primary and I thought it would be a good song for us to sing at her baptism. The chorus says: "God gave us families, to help us become what he wants us to be, this is how he shares his love, for the family is of God." I feel like God gave Grace a family, even if it did take 10 years! It was a touching moment as we sang and the words and their meaning in Grace's life sunk in to those listening.

If you want to hear the song you can find it on this page (click on the link below and then find the song on the list at the bottom of the page):

http://www.lds.org/cm/display/0,17631,7206-1,00.html

Create...

This is an awesome message..."Create!" It's very short but inspiring.

To see the weekly Mormon Messages go to: http://www.youtube.com/mormontv

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIRK!

Probably one of the biggest highlights of Kirk's year was winning the state Geography Bee and going to DC for the national competition. It was a real honor for him and he LOVED it! Our nation's capitol was one of the places he'd dreamed of going to and he won a free trip there himself!! It was one of those life changing experiences and I'm so glad he had the opportunity to use his knowledge and meet other young people with similar ideas.

In front of the White House

Kirk at the National Geaographic Bee in May
At Senator Bennett's Office

Lunch after the Great Wall in December
After his braces were off in October

Celebrating with cousins on Monday

Kirk loves his little sister, Eliza, and is a super big brother to all his siblings!

I can't believe he's 15 years old today!

We love you Kirk!

Back again!

I haven't posted in a while. Here are a few pictures of our last few weeks:

Olivia and Grandma Carol just before she drove back home. Grandma came out for a visit the last week of February. We had a great time visiting with Grandma and playing with the puppies.
Kirk playing around after his piano festival performance. He got a Superior rating which fantastic! He played beautifully and even smiled for the judges. Great job Kirk!

Eliza with her favorite buddy Voodoo! (He lets her pick him up and love him. He's the best cat ever!) She had fun running around with Grandma and mommy.

Olivia holding one of Grandma's puppies. She's our official "puppy trainer" but I did have to tell her not to try to take a puppy down the slide of her playhouse.

Grace has been adjusting fairly well. We had a few weeks in a row where she was getting impatient and angry at times. Usually she is really happy, but she has a temper that flares up especially when she is hungry or tired. You would never guess by seeing her most of the time. Of course, she had the most problems when Grandma was here. She really gets mad if Zach teases her so I'm trying to stop that when it happens. Eliza tries to tell Grace what to do, which also doesn't go over well. So far, no hitting, biting, etc. this week. Maybe she already learned those behaviors are not acceptable. Or maybe she doesn't do well with a visitor in the house. Who knows!

Catching Snowflakes!

Snow:
It just keeps snowing! Yesterday, I snapped this picture when I came to pick up Olivia after school. The snowflakes were huge and all the children were happily running to catch them. Winter is such a beautiful time of year here. The snow has been steadily covering the ground since some time in November. Sometimes it starts to melt but pretty soon a new storm will come and dump some more.

Grace and school:

Grace loves going to school! She had a wonderful time on Valentine's Day. I don't think she quite understood the holiday but she found out it involves lots of treats and cards from her class which she really enjoyed. The other children in her class are so nice...almost too nice! One day, Eliza and I came to have lunch with the girls and sat by Grace and her friend. When it was time to leave, her friend picks up both of their trays! (I kindly asked her to let Grace carry her own and she could watch her to learn how). Grace is kind of klutzy, so I can see why her friend would want to help her, but she needs to learn to do things on her own. Also, she has friends in class who will hand her her coat, pick up things she forgot, etc. They are so sweet! Their has been so much love and acceptance that I try not to worry that she is a little bit coddled by the other kids. I just try to make sure she learns to do things and let people know that she can! She can even get her seatbelt on in under 2 minutes now! I feel blessed that Grace is where she can learn and be happy and I'm trying to be patient with the things that take more time to learn.

Learning the language:

We have been amazed at how fast Grace is learning English. In fact, the other night we were visiting cousins and my brother-in-law Doug heard her from the other room talking to one of the boys. He was so surprised that it was Grace! She speaks clearly and does not have an accent. She has many phrases that she uses, such as: "Let's go, Be careful, Don't worry, It's OK, school tomorrow, I'm hungry, let's say prayer, go to sleep, I'm sorry, Thank you, let's go home, Oh my goodness, Oh my gosh, (we taught her that one when we were still in China after she said it with "God" instead, which we don't allow). She can say her prayers by herself and she knows many basic words we use everyday. We are so pleased with her progress and can see that she is understanding more each day.