Goodbye Kwana

Well, early Friday morning Kwana left for home. We had our ups and our downs with the situation, but it was a good experience for our family. We learned a lot about ourselves, other people, and a different culture. We look forward to the opportunity to host another student in the future. The night before she left we went with our two families to Brick Oven for dinner. I got a few pictures before my battery died. Then when we got home and I charged my battery we took a few pictures together.

As an example of what the boys got from it, here are a few things they have said.

Aidan (From a letter written to Kwana) : Dear Kwana, I loved having you here. It was a new and fun experience that I will probably never have again. It was interesting eating some Korean food. I hope you have a good flight back to Korea. Good luck!!!

Andrew (From a letter written to Kwana): Dear Kwana, I LOVED Having you here! It was so much fun! It BREAKS my littl heart that you have to leave. =) LOTS of Love, Andrew (Can you tell who the dramatic one in the family is?)

Max - While we were driving in the car yesterday we were talking about one of his friends and I said how the friend has 2 sisters. Max said, "I have 2 sisters too!" I said that he only has one sister and 2 brothers. He said, "No Mom, I have 2 sisters!" I kind of laughed and said, "Who?" He answered, "Kwana and London!"

The Snake!

OK, so I have been swamped with getting everything ready for when Kwana was to return home, summer starting, etc. So I am blogging about things that happened last week. The people at Shane's work caught a snake that was hanging out around them. Since their work is right by the freeway Shane brought it home to show to the boys and to go release in a field. They all wanted to keep it, but since it is wild I didn't want to keep it because of possible diseases. Plus, I am not a fan of feeding snakes small rodents. I much prefer crickets or vegetarian animals. The snake was huge! We even took a video of it in the grass before they released it. Max cried when they let it go. So sad, but not sad enough to keep it! Kwana was a little unsure of the visitor and look how tall it was compared to Shane.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year this year fell on our family home evening night with my parents. My Mom decided it would be fun to celebrate the beginning of the year of the Ox. We all brought different Chinese food and it was all yummy. We then did fireworks and just hung out. Here are a few pictures from the event.

My Mom taking pictures


Aunt Sarah posing

My Dad bundled up

Uncle Joseph being oh so safe with a lighter!

Sorry for the weird lighting, but here I am in a puffy coat! I think my body perception is completely off. I have had this coat for like 8 years and the fact that I can do the zipper up right now, shows that I thought I was a lot bigger back then than I really was!

Kwana and Max in a blanket to keep warm

A firework

Shane outside doing fireworks

Uncle Nate out with the fireworks

Now please don't be offended. This was Aunt Anna's doing. Little cousin Frank was given this onesie for the occasion. It has the Chinese Leader on it, Mao Zedong. Aunt Anna thought a nice communist pose would work for the occasion for Max.

Christmas Eve 2008

For Christmas Eve this year we strayed from tradition. Kwana's Mom wanted to cook for us, so how could we say no! She made us yummy curry. It was really good.

Some of the curry on rice


Kwana's Mom and Kwana

Christmas Morning 2008

For Christmas Max requested 3 things: A bike like Uncle "J" (Wiggle Car), a Tranformer, and a Puppy. Well, this lucky kid got all his wishes! The older boys weren't with us for Christmas, so they will get our gift to them tonight. Here are some pictures from our Christmas.

Shane and Max with our new puppy on Christmas Eve. Our nice neighbors couldn't keep their dog anymore so they were kind enough to let us have him. He is very gentle and quiet and Max is in love! Things have been good so far and we can't wait for the older boys to come and play with him.


Max riding his new wiggle car.


Shane laughing after opening his new "undies"!

Max getting a fun stocking stuffer...tape! All our boys love to take my tape and make "contraptions" and other things. This year they each got their own rolls of tape with their names on it so they will leave my tape alone.

Kwana enjoying the puppy.

Christmas Guests

Last night we picked up our first of many Christmas visitors. We picked Kwana's Mom up from the airport. She is very nice. Her English is limited, but she is trying. She has a great sense of humor and thus far has done well putting up with Shane's teasing. We picked her up at the airport and took her to Chuck-a-Rama for dinner. This is the kind of safe dinner because it has a lot of choices in case American food isn't her style. She loved it! Whew! Then we were going to look at the lights at Temple Square with our friends, but they weren't able to make it, so we opted to stop at Thanksgiving Point so we could stay in the car. Not very eventful, but they do have some nice nativity pictures on your way out. They also had live reindeer at the water tower. Max was instantly in love! We're going to go back with the boys and get pictures because I forgot my camera!

Election Day for Kwana

Here is a picture of Kwana on election day. She has never seen American voting up close and personal so I took her to the polls and explained the process to her. We then had her pose next to a voting booth.

What We Have Been Doing Lately

OK. Here is a brief story for some of the topics I mentioned in my last post.

Young Women Game Night

Last week for Young Women's I went with the Beehives. It was so much fun. It was a game night and they have endless energy! They decided to play Missionary Tag (which for all you old people like me, is Fag Tag). Unfortunately they got a kick out of seeing the pregnant girl run around and kept making me run! Finally the other leader decided it was time to stop because she didn't want a baby delivered at mutual. It was super funny! Great girls, and a great time!

Kwana's Concert

So Kwana is in beginning choir. What this means is they are basically just learning about music. At the joint choir concert at Orem High they had the duty of being the staff. They did stuff back stage and passed out programs. They also were able to join in on the last song, which is sung by all choir members and choir alumni. I opted to let Kwana have this moment and not sing with everyone. She made her way onto the stage for the last song and, of course, hid behind someone. It was pretty funny that we went to a concert for one song, but I think she felt special, so that was good. I took a picture of her at home after.

My Fun Rash

So about 2 weeks ago I started getting a rash. It reminded me of Eczema, so I wasn't too worried about it. After a little over a week though, it was getting annoying and I read that I should call my doctor with ANY rash. So, I did. It is just extra irritated skin with the change in weather. It looks pretty bad and hurts in the heat, but it is much better now. I have a light steroid cream I can use twice a day for up to a week and then I have to stop that because I am pregnant. She also has me doing a couple home remedies since she can't prescribe anything else. I hope I get over it soon. Super itchy!

Fun Halloween Party

We went to Shane's brother's Halloween Party last week. It is an adult only party and it is a lot of fun. Heidy does a great job with the food and treats. I ate soooo much candy! We played games and ate. What more is there to life? Shane used an old pirate costume and when Troy game to the door he was Jack Sparrow. It was like the whole wearing the same dress as someone else. All the ladies were harassing them about how it would have just taken one phone call, "What are you going to be?" It was super funny! I opted for a Japanese Kimono since I don't fit in any of my old costumes right now. (Actually I did fit in one dress meant to be sexy, but being pregnant it just looked wrong!) If they post any pics on facebook I'll add them here.

Scripture Study

We have been doing a lot better with scripture study lately. We have been trying to do it different. Rather than having to read a chapter a night or whatever, we are just taking it really slow and talking about EVERYTHING. We may only read 2 verses, but we understand it. Even when all the kids aren't here we try to read it as if they are because it just makes sense and we read looking for questions and answers. It has really been fun to watch Max. He will repeat what we say when it is his turn to read and he does really well. He is also retaining it. The other day we asked him what color the fruit on the tree was from Lehi's dream. He said, "White". He answered some other questions about the dream like clouds of darkness and stuff. It was soooooo rewarding to hear him and know he is retaining some of what we are reading.

Family Reunion '08

So this weekend we had our 3rd annual family reunion with my immediate family. It was a lot of fun, although Thursday night left a little to be desired!

Thursday


We all met and watched the BYU/TCU Game togehter. It stunk! There really isn't much more we can say about it. The company was good though!

Friday


We call met and drove up to Kennecott Copper Mine. In the 30 years I have lived in Utah I have never gone to Kennecott! Crazy! We finally did it and it was really fun. It was quite interesting and to be honest, it was quite beautiful on the inside. It was like a man-made grand canyon. The kids loved it too! A very interesting thing was the size of the dump trucks! They are huge! The tires are $25,000 each and each truck needs 6 of them. They replace them on a yearly basis. That is $150,000 per year for each truck! My favorite thing was the sign in their little theater. Check it out.

For those who can't read it, it says, "Support a Special Olympian, After all, you cam this close to making the team yourself." It then points to a chart of chromosomes.

We then went and had a picnic lunch before heading to The Discovery Children's Museum at The Gateway. It was a lot of fun as well. Max loved every minute. We spent quite a bit of time there before heading home. We stopped and picked up Aidan and Andrew. It was their holiday with their Mom, but we were fortunate enough to do some switching that allowed them to spend some time with us. We had a taco bar for dinner, which both Aidan and Andrew to sooo excited about. We then played for a little while and watched Hocus Pocus.

Saturday

We got up and headed to Dan's house for a yummy breakfast. Then we hung out before going 4-Wheeling. The 3 pregnant ladies opted to stay in the motor home, but everyone else took a ride. (Except my Mom). The kids had a blast! It was also Kwan A's firt time on a 4-wheeler! She was nervous at first, but quickly was going over jumps and bumps!

After 4-Wheeling we headed to our houses to clean up and then attended Thrillionaires at the Covey Arts Center. Jake (our brother-in-law) is part of this awesome performing group. They had special guest, Alex Boye last night and it was hilarious! We had a great time. Can't wait until next year.

Here's a slide show of some of the events

From Movies

It's Autumn Time

Tonight we thought it would be fun to take Kwana and Max up to see the leaves changing. It is the perfect time. Not everything has changes, so you still get these deep beautiful greens next to the colors. We stopped up at Sundance as well. It was quite chilly! It was also very relaxing and a great time.

Hello Uncle Jason!

Yesterday Shane's brother, Jason, flew a helicopter into Provo. It has been almost a year and a half since we have seen him, so we had to meet and say hi. We just stopped for some food and visited. It was great!








Aunt Heidy and Cousins Hannah and Maggie. It was pretty late! Me caught off guard for a picture with Jason.

Jason and Troy. Shane and Jason. I should have gotten a picture of all three!

Shane with Max hiding. He fell asleep in the car, so he was having none of the fun!

Kwana and Jason's flight student, Greg.

Foreign Exchange Update

My friend asked how things with our foreign exchange student are going. Things are good. They are much better than they could be. We just have the normal differences in lifestyle that you learn when you live with someone new. There haven't been that many cultural difference, just lifestyle. You know, rules, how we keep things in the house vs how she does, that sort of thing. She is really good with Max, which helps. He loves to be the one to get her for dinner or to go anywhere and she is great about that. She even took him outside to help him ride his bike, which he loved. The other day we were walking and he was holding my hand. He grabbed Kwana's hand and said, "Mom, I'm holding Kwana's hand!" He was all smiles. So that is a big plus! Hopefully this is getting him a little used to the idea of having someone else here since soon we will have a little baby for him to get used to. She also already made us a Korean meal which was really yummy! I'll keep you posted!

Owlz Game

We were able to go to the Owlz game with Grandma Mortimer, Grandpa Mortimer, Uncle Joseph, Aunt Sarah, Cousin Isaac, and Cousin Millie. It was a lot of fun. It went REALLY fast. Max and Cousin Millie kept sharing ice cream. They would take a spoonful for themselves, then feed the other one. It was so cute. Here are some pictures.

Max with the GIANT shirt he was given because his birthday was just 2 days away

Max and Cousin Millie modeling the little hats after eating the ice cream out of them (and washing them of course)

Cousin Millie feeding Max ice cream

Max feeding ice cream to Cousin Millie


Kwana at an American Baseball game

Max with the ball the usher gave him. He was all ready with a baseball mitt so the usher wanted to make sure he didn't go home empty handed.

Max with Hoot