Two Sweet Girls

I think my girls have the prettiest hair. They have been growing it out for several years. With four girls, I spend a lot of time doing hair. I enjoy long hair because I can do fun braids and many different styles. I also like short hair because it is easy to wash and style. I guess I am not too picky about long or short hair;-) The girls like long hair, but their hair was getting too long. As Rachel put it "every morning I wake up with brambles in my hair." I told them that they could either get a trim, or we could cut it really short. Rachel has donated her hair before to Locks of Love and she and Skye decided to donate again.

I think they look great!

Spreading a Bit of Christmas Cheer

For a Webelos Art Activity Badge requirement, Joseph needed to draw several pictures on the computer. He called me to come see his latest creation.

(Please click on the picture to enlarge. I can't figure out why it is coming out so blurry.)

Haaaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa heeee heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee heee ha ahahahahahah

To my credit I didn't laugh until I left the room- thus protecting his fragile child ego.

It has been a cheery start to the season.

Only Momma

Katie has a new phrase:

We hear this a lot. Especially when she is caught in the act. Here are a few things that Only Momma can do:

Wear makeup
Pick up Nathan
Crack eggs
Feed Nathan
Pour milk for cereal
Carry Nathan
Flip pancakes
Get Nathan out of his crib

I might get frustrated except she is too cute. She looks at me with those big eyes and says "Only Mommma!"

Halloween and a Birthday!

This week we celebrated little Miss A's birthday. She is a joyful child and according to Rachel, has "the prettiest color of eyes in our family." She wanted a wedding cake (to match the one at Paul's sister's wedding). I didn't attempt a wedding cake, but this one was easy and turned out pretty cute!

We also had a great Halloween. After a freezing week, the weather mellowed a little and we had one of the most perfect Halloween days that I can remember. Don't all Dads carve pumpkins with power tools?

Our little bunny was happy to have his hat off!

This year we had a secret service man, a Hogwarts student, a 1950's girl, a Belle, a bumble bee and a bunny.

Our ward does a trunk r treat and this is Paul's spooky trunk. The older children got to go out trick or treating with a very cool witch and a very hip disco man. Paul and I had a treat because we got to stay home and pass out candy together (thanks Suz and James!!).

Ryota

Ryota expereinces an American Birthday party

This last week we hosted a Japanese exchange student. This is our second year hosting a student and it is a great experience. I must admit it is a bit out of our comfort zone to have a complete stranger come stay with us, but we have had so much fun with these exchange student. These boys come from a prestigious private school in Nara, Japan. There are about 250 boys that come over for their "graduation from eighth grade" trip. They spend a week in Utah and then travel on to southern Utah and CA. The main point of the trip is for them to experience American culture, practice their English, and specifically see how a typical American family functions (ha ha more on that later;-). The boys are all very smart, very polite, and very normal 14-15 year old boys. The main question I hear about this program is why they would come to UT? Once you start thinking about the requirements, you find the answer: where else can you find 250 host families within a 20 miles radius of an University (that has a large supply of students that speak Japanese)? Furthermore, each family must have a boy in the home between 8-18 years old. Utah Valley is a perfect match! However, I do question whether the boys will really experience true American culture! After their week in America, most of the boys will think that all Americans: drive big cars, have lots of children, and pray a lot.

Last year our student spoke perfect English- we had a great time talking about everything from the driving age in the US to WWII. This year our student Ryota, spoke very little English, but was so much fun. We got along doing a lot of sign language and smiling. He had a wonderful time with the children (he is an only child and so 6 kids was a big change for him) and they love him. Eleven other families in our neighborhood also hosted and it was nice to be able to share carpool duties (yeah, try and explain carpool to someone that doesn't speak English and doesn't even understand that there are other students staying right next door!).

Paul teaches the boys a little Scout pioneering.

Dessert was an expereince. I made apple crisp and served ice cream. American food is way too sweet for most of the Japanese. The boys were polite and tried the food. A few of them liked it. Most of them will be grateful to go home and eat normal food again!

Kanji anyone?

Our Japanese exchange student (post to follow about our fun week!) gave us these really beautiful Kanji characters. I wanted to frame them and put them up, but I don't know what they mean. We tried to ask our student, but his English was pretty minimal! Before I hang them in the house, I would prefer knowing they say something like "Family" or "Happiness" instead of "Brown Dog." So, does anyone know Kanji (hint hint Tiffany;-)? Can you translate?!