Emma the miracle worker...

Last weekend we had some good friends come visit from Utah. We were nextdoor neighbors with Kyle and Julie. Kyle and I went to school together and Rich and Kyle worked together. When we were neighbors we only had Jeremy and Gage and they only had Nathan and Emma. We moved back to California when the kids were between 3 and 7. It was so nice to have them here, just like old times, only our families have grown both in size and quantity! I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the whole family, only pics of the kids swimming! Ooopps!The kids had so much fun at the pool. Gage and Nate made a raft out of themselves and tried to keep Jack from destroying it.

Ally, Louisa, and Jack (our new ones since we moved) had fun getting to know eachother.
Julia bonded with all of them but like always she would only sit on the top step of the pool, terrified of the water.
Gage tried to get her to go out into the water and relax but she held on so tight she about choked him.

Then along came Emma, miracle worker. Julia actually let go and had fun.

Eventually she completely let go and was happy on her own!

By the end of the day she was jumping to Emma. What a brave big girl!

Julia was so proud of herself, such a big girl...love the hair...amazing day! We were sad that they had to go home. Julia has asked for Emma everyday since they've been gone. Good friends are such blessings!

Diversity

One of the things I love about where I live is the diversity of cultures. I'm not saying that I appreciate those who make a home in this country and enjoy the benefits of being here without showing respect to our country by learning the language, thinking I should know their language instead and not assimilating what so ever...but that's another issue all together. I've had a few experiences this past week that have made me think about how cool it is to be able to experience other cultures with out traveling to do it.

Last Sunday was Fast Sunday...the first Sunday of the month where we fast for two meals. Every fast Sunday for the last several months we have had a Samoan Sacrament Meeting in the evening. This is in addition to the regular one at church in the morning and it's for the many Samoan members we have at church to be able to have Sacrament Meeting in their language. I went to the first one with Rich who has to go to all of them because he's the Bishop and therefore the presiding authority. Last Sunday was the first Tongan Sacrament Meeting, right after the Samoan Sacrament Meeting, because we also have so many members who are Tongan also. I went to this one last Sunday. I loved it. There was no piano player so they sang a capella. They didn't need accompaniment because they harmonized so beautifully, I felt like I was in the Islands. It was so neat to hear the familiar melody of songs we sing on Sundays sung in Tongan. Even in a language I didn't understand I still felt the message of what these songs are about. The talks were interesting...not that I understood those either...but I picked out some words or phrases that I heard repeated several times, I wondered what they meant. After the meeting we had wonderful food, which is not the ususal for us Palongis after regular Sacrement Meetings. They had papaya, guava, and watermelon all spinkled with coconut. There were fried pastries, kind of like big doughnut holes, called Kei Kei (I probably didn't spell it right), and a drink I don't remember the name of which was very yummy. It was watermelon juice with little chunks of melon, coconut, and I think some other fruit. Everyone is so kind and respectful, it was very cool.

Saturday we were invited to our neighbor's house for a celebration for her, Taiyo, who graduated with her Master Degree in Nursing from Loma Linda. They are from Nigeria and the nicest people. They told us that the party started at 5:00, so we got there about 5:15. No one else was there and they were still just getting ready. We thought we had gotten the time wrong so we asked and they kind of laughed and said they had forgotten to explain African culture to us. When someting is scheduled at 5:00, "African time" means that they don't think it really starts until an hour after that, then they don't want to be the first ones there so they wait another hour before they come. So, we took their little boy Fumbi, who is a year and a half, over to our house to play with the kids who love to play with him while they continued to get their house ready. A little after 6:00 we went back over and there were a few other people there. They had a lot of food and wanted to get started for the people who were there but their pastor wasn't there yet so Femi, the husband, knowing that Rich is a Bishop in our church, asked him to say a few words about why we were all there for the celebration and to say a blessing on the food. Rich did a great job and said the prayer. I think it's the first time I've heard people say, "amen', "that' right", and "uh huh" durring a prayer given by Rich. They were very respectful of Rich because of his calling as a Bishop. Femi explained that in their culture a man of God is highly respected, not because of the man but because of his position as a representative of God. I thought it was neat that even though they are not of our faith they still respected the calling. We got to try some African cuisine too. It's amazing how similar the basics of the food is to the Polynesian and even South American Cultures, it's just seasoned differently. They had a ton of rice which was spicy, kind of like Indian food. There was the beef and pork and most all the parts of the animal in a sauce, spicy again. There were fried Plantains which reminded me of Brazilian food. They also served something like pastells...seasoned meat wrapped in a pastery. Most everyone wore traditional African clothes which were very pretty. We were the only white people there. It was very cool. Sorry, I'm saying cool a lot in this entry! But it was!

May...swimming, the fair, family & old friends

May was hot! Good thing Grandma has a pool and lives close. All of the kids love to go swimming and do very well, except Julia. She's afraid of the pool and will only sit on the top step. She doesn't even like me to hold her in the shallow end. Maybe by the end of the summer we'll have her enjoying it more.

(My California girl)

She does love to wear her swimsuit and doesn't she look like such a California girl with her sunglasses and flip flops?

(What a sweet big brother Gage is!)

She is probably the safest one near the water. Everyone looks after her and makes sure she always has her water wings on. She will go in the "little pool"...the hot tub. She thinks it's just for her.

( Julia's do it yourself make up)

This month Julia has gone from angel child to wild child. I can not tell you how many times I have cleaned up messes she has made this month. She decided to draw on her face with Jack's markers, she dumped half a bottle of dish soap on the carpet and couch, she hid behind the couch in the front room and dumped a bottle of baby powder out, she dumped the cheese mix of the macaroni and cheese box in the same place, she got into my make up and lotion and rubbed it on my closet wall, and she opened a bottle of baby lotion which was part of a baby shower gift and tried to wash her hair with it. I'm tired.

(The "Toothless Wonder"... as my Dad would say)

Ally has lost 3 teeth on top and a couple on the bottom. I hope she doesn't loose anymore for a while, she's getting to look like an old lady and will have to start gumming her food!

(Brave little Ally)

Ally's class went to the county fair for a field trip. Her favorite part was the Rain Forest tent. She got to hold a scorpion, a tarantula, she pet a python, and got to see a lot of other cool animals.

(Rich and Luis...in jail!)

Rich and I also went to the fair to help out at the church's exibit. They had a whole town built that looked like the old west with history about the settling of San Bernardino, family history info, and a picture spot (as you can see above...Rich and Luis, his 2nd counselor in the Bishopric, dressed the part and went to jail).

(The honor of the Baby Grand)

We visited Grandpa and Grandma's several times. Usually it's just Rich, Julia, and I that go but the kids were out that day so we took all of them. Jeremy gets the honor of playing Grandma's Baby Grand since he can play. The rule is no one can touch it unless they play.

Grandma gave him pointers and showed him some original sheet music she still had from when she took lessons long, long ago. I think the music of Moonlight Sonata she had was from the 1920s or 30s.

(Kristin, Lani, Autumn, and me)
Last Saturday Rich and I went to Newport Beach to meet some old friends we hadn't seen in a very long time. The guys are all of Rich's friends from highschool and we've known the wives from our Institute group before we were all married, all except Autumn...Dal had to wait a while to find her but we're glad he finally did.

(Rich, Dal, Scott, and Mike)
It's always fun to get the guys together, although we hear the same stories they always tell, they are just like highschool boys all over again. It's cute to sit back and watch how much they enjoy eachother. I did notice that Rich is the only one with grey hair...maybe it's the five kids!

Blog slump

It has been a while, again, since I've updated...for me at least. Not sure why it's been hard for me to update our family news. Maybe there's just not enough or too much so I feel over whelmed about what exactly to tell about.

The things that I have particularly enjoyed lately don't so much have to do with my immediate family but with my extended family.

I am ecstatic that I made it into the St George Marathon and that my sister and bro-in-law are running it also. This is one of my "bucket list" things to do and the fact that they are doing it too just makes it sweeter. Wendy, my sis, will not see me except at the start because she's run it a few times and is trying to qualify for Boston...I am just hoping to finish with in the 6 hour limit before they pack everything up and go...leaving me to stumble into St George with just my little family watching for me. I am confident I can do it in 5 hours at the most, but we'll see.

I have also really enjoyed talking to my cousins on Face Book this past year. My sister and I are the oldest cousins on my Mom's side and we only have a few cousins our age on my Dad's. We used to see them and play with them when we were little but since life happened and I moved far away I just lost touch with them. Not that I didn't know where they were, just that we no longer had a relationship because we never talked and were just busy with our lives. Now that we've been in touch we have rekindled our friendship and I have learned to adore them all over again. They have grown into amazing women and I'm glad to know them. We have even planed a visit to Oregon this summer, partially because it's been years since we have been there...I think we only had Jeremy and Gage at the time...and I miss the green and trees and beach, etc...and partially because I want to see my cousins and their families. Family is great!

The usual things have also been going on...school field trips, jazz band concerts, girl scouts, boy scouts, ward picnic, lots of baby showers...just too much. I will eventually get around to updating on all of that, but I think this is as good as it's going to get for a little while.

Tabernacle Choir video

This is a video from the Tabernacle Choir...I didn't know they made videos, obviously they do...but it's sweet so I thought I'd share. You'll have to pause our blog music first. Enjoy!

Swine Flu and Jack's Baptism

I have not been too concerned about the Swine Flu "pandemic". There have been cases about 45 miles from us and goodness knows we have plenty of kids at school who probably went to Mexico over Spring Break but still....not so worried.

Last Thursday Jack woke up at 2:30am saying his head hurt really bad and he felt warm...temp 102, so I gave him Tylenol, sent him back to bed and figured he wouldn't go to school. He came down stairs in the morning with no appetite, still the headache and fever, and no energy, but no cough, no congestion. He sat on the couch for most of the day not moving, not really eating, and just taking the medicine every 4 hours. Around 3:00 I gave him more medicine but he felt hotter so I took his temp again...104. Since I have 5 kids and have been through the fever roller coaster many times this usually wouldn't worry me but because of the whole flu scare I figured I'd be cautious and call his doctor. The doctor was out so I talked with his nurse. She sounded alarmed and told me to take him to the ER immediately... not Urgent Care... the ER. That did make me nervous so we rushed him down to St Mary's Medical Center. We checked in and they gave us hand sanitizer and a mask for Jack.
He was pretty patient about it but he didn't like it much. We were sequestered in another room with 3 other people with similar symptoms. I was thinking at that point that if Jack didn't have the Swine Flu he may get it now...and so would we.

After an hour there we were led to another smaller room by ourselves for another wait. A Physician's Assistant finally came in and said Jack was fine....he didn't even have the symptoms they get concerned about with the Swine Flu...the coughing and congestion which turns into Pneumonia quickly. I felt dumb. I told her the nurse had sent us in and I guess they had been dealing with that all day, people being sent there without really needing to be.

Yea! My little Jackson just had the regular sick stuff, nothing scary! Now we were just hoping he'd feel better by Saturday for his Baptism...and he did.

For any of you who aren't familiar with how things work in the LDS Church, kids are baptized at the age of 8, the "age of accountability" where they are capable of making the decision and are responsible for their choices. We baptize by immersion as Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, one having authority, setting the example for us.

I was excited about Jack's baptism because my youngest little guy was taking this big step and because Jeremy turned 16 a few weeks ago and was ordained to the office of a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood so he had the authority to baptize Jack. It was sweet that Jackson wanted his big brother to baptize him and sweet that Jeremy's first baptism was his little brother. Gage will have the same opportunity when he turns 16 with Ally since she turns 8 just a few weeks before. The problem with that plan at this point is that Ally says she wants Jeremy to baptize her because she likes him better. That means Gage has two years to win her over! I'm sure he will.
Jeremy did a great job. I was so proud of them both! Gage gave a talk on Baptism and did well with that too. I feel so blessed that I have been given such good kids! After the baptism we all went to Janet's for a little get together...with food of course. It was getting dark by then but all the kids were determined to swim, so they did! Julia didn't even wait to get her suit on. She jumped in to the spa with her dress on so I had to pull her out and change her. The kids had a good time swimming until it got too cold while the adults had a good time visiting which was a nice end to a good day.

Utah

This post has been long past due, I know. You see the problem was that we took our big fun trip to Utah and got everything all ready to go the night before we left. Everything was packed in the car, the camera batteries were in the charger, the trip snacks and movies were all in their place in the car, etc. We got up and left by 5:30 am but after we were well on our way we realized that we had the camera but we forgot the battery which was still in the charger at home. A new battery was around $70.00 so we opted for $7.99 for two disposable cameras. Not the same quality, but
hey they are pictures! The delay has been remembering to take the film to be developed and waiting for Rich to put the pictures on the computer from the CD, something I have no clue how to do. I know I should learn, I'm sure it's easy, but that is Rich's area and I like him to do it. So finally I am able to post something!

We planed this trip to Utah because we had tickets the General Conference on Saturday morning, the 4th, and Jeremy had a doctor appointment at Primary Children's Medical Center on the 14th. It would be a long time to take advantage of the hospitality of my sister and her family but we love being with them and the three little ones live to see "the cousins" any chance they get.

We got up to Lehi Friday afternoon and the kids were so excited to play. We also had a special treat and got to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa (my Dad and Step-Mom) who were there watching Wendy and Matt's (my sis and her husband) kids while they were on a cruise. (Lucky!)

Saturday morning Rich, the biggest two boys and I went to the morning session of General Conference. It was amazing! The Conference Center is huge and so beautiful. We went back Tuesday with all of the kids to tour it which is what these first two pictures are from. They don't do it justice. But back to Saturday... General Conference, for those of you who don't know, is when the Prophet, President Monson, the Apostles and other General Authorities in our church speak to the church as a whole. The Conference Center itself holds something like 21,000 people and

then it is also broadcast to the rest of the world on satellite stations and to church buildings so everyone can see it. All of the talks were wonderful and it was so neat to know that we were in the same room, a very big room, but still the same room as the Prophet of God. My favorite part was just before it starts and everyone is visiting so there's a low hum of 21,000 people quietly talking while the General Authorities and others find their seats. Then as the Prophet walks in a hush falls over the room and everyone stands while he walks in to take his seat. There is such a strong feeling of the Spirit there it brings a tear to your eye. Yes, even to Rich's eye.

Sunday we watched the other sessions of Conference on TV at Wendy's then we got to see Jeff and Sarah (Step-bro and his wife) that afternoon. Matt and Wendy got home that night from an amazing trip and Dad and Renetta left Monday morning to fly home. Whew, a busy weekend!

(Our family in front of the Salt Lake Temple)

The trip was full of visits to people we haven't seen for a long time and playing tourist. We toured Welfare Square in Salt Lake which is where the church makes all of the food and emergency supplies to aid people all over the world in poverty and in the case of natural disasters. We toured the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and Temple Square.

(My cute Jeremy)

It was pretty chilly but everyone enjoyed it. There were flowers all over Temple Square so it looked very "springy".



We visited many old friends, some who we haven't seen for 15 years. We saw Ted Jiminez, Trisha McQueen and her cute family, the Hickens, and the Gutkes who were our next store neighbors and great friends for years when we lived in Orem. Their oldest son, Nathan, is a year younger than Gage and although they were buddies when they were 3 and 4 it's been a long time...but they hit it off again and exchanged email addresses which was cute to see them renew their friendship. The next Sunday was Easter so Saturday Wendy and I helped all the kids color eggs. The next morning before church they did their little hunt to find all the goodies the Easter bunny brought. We went to church with Wendy's family then we headed down to Provo to have Easter dinner with my Aunt Jody and her family. My cousin Rachel and her husband Tim were there. Tim is the cool cousin. He's in a rock band and Jackson thought his car was pretty cool too.

(Tim and Ally with Ally's egg stash)

We had another Easter Egg hunt at Jody's, ate a yummy dinner and enjoyed a night hike up Rock Canyon which was so beautiful with all of the stars out! We enjoyed our Easter. The next day was Jackson's 8th birthday so we all hiked to the Y on the mountain above BYU as a birthday adventure. Rich stayed below with Julia and Gage (he was tired) but the rest of the kids made it! Later that night we went to Rachel and Tim's for a BBQ which was sweet of them to do since they were leaving early the next morning to go to France.

(Ally and Jack at the Y)

(Jack, Brinley, Katie and Jeremy on top of the Y)

Tuesday we said goodbye to the cousins which the little ones were so sad about and took Jeremy to his doctor's appointment. It's the first time Jeremy has been up to Primary Children's Hospital, which is on the University of Utah campus, since he's decided to be a doctor. He loved seeing the U of U campus and all of their medical buildings. He realized his doctor ,who is one of the best Orthopedic Surgeons in the country, is a professor at the U so now that's where he'd like to go to Medical School. I would be happy about that if it works out. Anyway, after 9 years of follow up visits since his back surgery we were told he's finally out of the woods and we're done...no more visits to Utah because of a doctor visit!

Right after his appointment we drove straight home because the kids had to get back to school. Again we made good time and got home about 11:30pm. The kids were a little tired but they made it to school okay and we all enjoyed our trip.