The journey is the reward!




The Journey is the reward!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Batman Super Hero

 This little guy is too much fun!
This is how he has been chasing through the house the last few days.
 Showing off his "BIG MUSCLES"
 Notice the Elmo at his feet.  We have had this since C was little. R babe just found it, we put in new batteries and now Elmo is his little playmate.  He does the hokey pokey and shakes it all about.

 I really need to get a picture of him trying to drink water with the batman mask on.  
Hilarious!
 What would I do without this fun little guy?

Birthday boy turned 9

 Every year, as we call it, the "decorating fairy" comes to our house the night before some one has a birthday and decorates the family room with the birthday persons 
favorite color of balloons and crepe paper.
My sister has a fun tradition that we now use in our birthday morning fun!  We drape the doorway with crepe paper, usually we put as many streamers as how old they are turning and they have to run through them in the morning for their big entrance.   The kids love it!
 This was C's big entrance,  He ran so fast that the shot was blurry;)
 I can't believe he is turning 9. 
 What a lucky little guy to be able to celebrate his birthday in
 Utah with his best friends and cousins. 
This year C wanted a I pod shuffle with headphones.  
He also got some fun laser tag gun's, lego's and a skylander. 



 We let the kids pick a fun activity to do on their birthday. 
He wanted to go bowling with his cousins and friend, but since the friend was closer to where we were staying we took him bowling.  He was so happy to spend the afternoon with his best buddy.
Instead of cake we had donuts from Dick's, one of our family favorites.

C you are FULL OF IT!
We were so blessed to have such a kind and gentle first boy!  
He is so good to his brothers and sister and is such a good example to them.
He is usually, always willing to give up what he has for someone else.  
He Loves to play soccer and is quite good at it.
He has loved learning how to play goalie this year.
We are always impressed at how he can pick up the correct intonations
 and accents at the languages he is learning. 
He is learning mandarin.
He has met so many new friends at school this year and loves to be with them.
He has started scouts in Shanghai and loves it.
He has enjoyed reading and watching some of the Harry Potter books.
His favorite foods to eat are dumplings, pizza and popcorn with coconut oil.
He is quick witted.
He is good at math and reading.
He loves to ride his rip stick.
He was saving up for a hamster, once he had all the money he needed, he decided he didn't want to sink all of his money into something that might die.
He currently still has his money and is hamsterless.
He loves to watch the Discovery channel.
He loves to try exotic foods....chicken hearts, jelly fish, fish eye, octopus, bull frog.
It is so funny to me that he doesn't like processed foods like graham cracker's, cheese cake or moon pie's, but give the kid a skewer of chicken hearts and he is a happy man.
C is so much fun.  We just love having him be apart of our family!

Wedding Bells, but mostly just pics of the fam.

Here are some fun pictures we took at the wedding.




How funny is it that this is the only picture we got of the bride.

The kids preparing things at the signature table. 
My boys looking rather handsome in there new dress shirts.





Sunday, October 21, 2012

Didn't quite make it to Strawberry but we still had fun!

 One of the big things on the to do list on our visit to Utah was to go fishing at 
Strawberry Reservoir  or Raspberry as the boys called it.
As we planned out the days, the to do list got longer and longer and days kept being crossed off the calendar.  We did go fishing, but kept it close to home.
All that matters was the fun that was to be had was had.  We bought our favorite junk food that we don't have access to here.  Things like Beef Jerky, licorice (those tasty red ones that pull apart),  capri suns, and trail mix.  We ate the treats, enjoyed the company of cousins and SIL, and caught fish.  All of which would have been done at Strawberry. We just didn't have to drive as far.


What a great Dad the kids have! 

The big 6th Birthday Celebration

 R's sister got married October 5th so we flew home to join in the festivities.
 That meant that the 2 older boys would get to celebrate their birthdays in Utah.

 M wanted a skylander cake.  I was so lucky to find this plain white cake at Walmart. I put the skylander figurines, 6 candles on it and called it good.  I loved how it turned out and it was so easy!

Eating cake with cousins. 
 The inside of the cake was a burst of rainbow colors.
He was so lucky to see so many cousins on his birthday.

 We usually leave up the decorations all day, 
but he wanted to dive onto them and pulled them all down.
 He had a great day!  He played with his little cousins all morning and  
we celebrated by going to build-a-bear in the afternoon.  Then he 
slept over and Grandma R's house, with all his others cousins.  R and I went to Tiff and Adam's wedding dinner.  I was a little sad leaving him on his birthday night, but he thought it was so cool having a sleep over on his birthday!
M is a whirlwind.
He loves to play wii with his Dad.
He loves his friends.
He loves to ride bikes and kick a soccer ball,
Oh man does he love sweets!
He has lived on three continents
He loves to sit down and read books with mom.
He has a good imagination.
He loves to laugh and have a great time.
He likes to be at home.
He likes to sing songs, we always find him walking around the house
 singing songs under his breath.
He like playing with legos.
He likes dogs, especially Ranger.
He has a one track mind, if he wants something he won't quit until he has it.
He is very shy around adults he doesn't know.
 He loves to eat, especially pizza and dumplings.
His favorite color is green, for now.
 He is such a fun little guy and we just LOVE him so much!