Walking Wednesday

This spring, I added a Wednesday walk to my exercise routine at one of the city's fitness trails. I walk around a 1/4 mile track pushing the babies, while Carissa and Patrick played in the center of the field, often with friends while their mother joined me for the walk. Aaron and Cory also had 'walking Wednesday' at school during PE this past year, each walking 1 mile or more, completing over 26 miles total (a marathon's length) They both came home at the end of the school year with a 'walking Wednesday marathon' certificate. Their PE coach encouraged all of the children to continue walking or running each week during the summer. Today was our first day to all walk or run together. (Aaron and Cory ran, I walked FAST, and Carissa and Patrick did a little bit of both, plus some hide and go seek.)

Chinese Treasures

Michael arrived home from China late last night.

After church today, the kids finally got their treasures

Patrick got a faux jade queiring horse/dragon set (2)
Aaron got a faux jade queiring lion/dragon set (2)
Cory got a faux jade lion set (2)
And to spice things up a bit,

Carissa got a chinese princess doll.

Michael brought home a pretty flowered tea cup and saucer set for me.

We'll be taking 7 rolls of film to the store tommorow for actual picture of china.

(Michael refuses to use the digital camera)

Andrew's new favorite spot

Every time I'm wondering where Andrew has wandered off to, I find him at our kitchen table. Is he hungry or is it just the best view in the house?

The next Houdini?

I caught Edmund with my keys.
Pretty smart, I think. Good thing the door is HEAVY.

Here's our handsome boy

A few weeks ago, Aaron told me in the car that he couldn't read anything that teacher write on the board at school. SO I quickly made an eye appointment for him. Sure enough, his eyesight is about 20/200, and we ordered him his first pair of glasses. Of course, school is out in one week, and I'm just hoping they make it through the summer unbroken.

Ten wonderful years

It doesn't seem like ten years today, I was at the Mount Timpanogos temple, dressed in white

I am more in love with now than then
I can't believe how happy my life is
I wouldn't change the last ten years for anything.

No other life could bring me more joy.

No other relationship could be more fulfilling

I am married to the one that I want to spend forever with.

The first grade classes have a special mothers day program and tea for their mothers. It is very special. The children read poems and sing songs for their programs and make several presents for their moms. This year it was a construction paper purse filled with a mother's day card, a clay hand print, a tissue-paper corsage, and a picture of my sweet little Cory! I loved it. The computer and our camcorder are having a difficult time communicating, but if I can get them to work together, I'll add a video of Cory singing my favorite mother's day program song, "Four hugs a day (that's the minimum)"

We were able to host my brother and his family on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Here is a picture of the children with their cousin, Soren. All of the babies (including Ezra) were asleep when we got them together for a picture. We really enjoyed their visit.

Chinese Dinner

Yesterday, we hosted Michael's Chinese student, Derong and his wife, Lulu for dinner. The children and Michael have been enjoying learning about China as Michael has prepared for a 10-day visit starting on the 14th of this month. (Derong will be serving as Michael's guide.) The children enjoyed sharing the things that they had learned with Derong and Lulu (which Chinese year they were born in, information about Pandas, etc) , and learning new things from them.

For dinner we ate Chinese takeout. We set the table with bowls and chopsticks (we also set forks next to the children's plates 'just in case'). Derong and Lulu helped us through our first Chinese-style meal. First, each bowl was filled with rice. Then one bite at a time was taken from the serving bowls and eaten with the rice. Derong and Lulu explained that setting food into another person's bowl was a sign of respect (to an older person) or a sign of love (to a younger person). It was very nice, the children enjoyed giving and receiving bites. I was surprised how well the children did with chopsticks, not a single child used their forks (Patrick did use his chopstick as a spear, and supplemented with his hands) Andrew loved the bites of sticky rice served to him with chopsticks. Edmund loved his fortune cookie (A desert that doesn't exist in China). We had a traditional American desert too, root bear floats.