Seth, Coleen, Ethan, and Suzy Ure

It's a BOY!!

2012-01-11T23:57:00.000+08:00

We had our ultrasound and found out we are having a healthy little boy! Seth was pretty sure it was a boy but I didn't feel anything either way. More than the gender I was just excited to see the baby was healthy, that is always such a relief. We are very excited about adding to our family. Our children are our joy. They give us so many reasons to smile every day and have challenged us to be better in every area. I love being a parent, it is the hardest/best thing I've ever done. We have had over three years since we had Suzy and it has been a nice break and a time to settle into being parents of two. Are we ready to add a third? I don't think we'd ever really be ready, but we are excited. People keep telling me that the third is the hardest, etc, and I believe them. I am going to prepare myself for the challenges as best as I can. I will stock my house up! Diapers, wipes, freezer meals, etc. I am excited for the next chapter in our lives when we have a kindergartner, a preschooler, and a new baby. I am 19 weeks along tomorrow and am feeling really good these days. My due date is still June 7th, although they may change it to the 12th but haven't yet.

Sunny St. George

2011-12-31T13:37:00.000+08:00

We have been loving the nice weather down in St. George. We spent a week in Salt Lake with my family (post to come on that) and then came down Christmas Eve. Being back in the States has been so nice! Seeing family and friends, eating good food, enjoying the clean air and beautiful landscapes of Utah, it is just what I was hoping it would be. We had a fun New Years party at James and Angela's house. We made pizza's and played games and actually stayed up til midnight, the last couple years I have gone to bed earlier than that.

2011-12-12T15:16:00.000+08:00

We had a great time at our church Christmas party last weekend. It felt like home and Christmas and family all in one. Our branch has been my life saver, we have such amazing, kind, loving, giving, caring people in the branch. This coming Sunday (the 18th) is my last Sunday at church, it will be hard to say goodbye! I can think of so many times when someone from the branch has literally brightened my gloomy day or made a big difference for our family through their thoughtful service. We have learned a great deal from their examples, I hope I never forget.Anyway, we loved the party. Seth and I sang a couple songs with a group and Seth sang/played the guitar. He did so great! I love it when he shares his talent. He sang In The Bleak Mid Winter. Santa came and Ethan and Suzy were beyond excited. Ethan just loved meeting him and telling him what he wanted for Christmas. When it was time for Santa to go he even ran up and gave him a big hug. Suzy was excited until it came time to actually sit on his lap then she wanted to get out of their. The ham dinner was delicious, and all the different desserts people brought were to die for. Food is such a big deal to me lately, I can't believe how much I think/care about it. I guess because I am pregnant, passed the nausea and in a country where I can't get the foods I crave. I also think because of all the nausea/throwing up/not eating I did for two months I am depleted of nutrients so my body is telling me (screaming at me) to eat certain, specific things, but I can't get them. Like the other day it was Arby's roast beef cheddar melts. Normally with that strong of a craving I would go get what it is I want but I can't here so I just keep thinking about it!! Today marks one more week til we go home. I can't believe we are really going home. This experience has been so hard for me. Basically ever since I got pregnant I have had a really hard time. Before that I was doing pretty good. So for the passed couple months I have been hating life. I can't believe that soon I will have a car again, be able to get my aching teeth fixed, be able to eat what I want, go to the dr, see my family and friends, give my kids room to run and play outside and be able to get them out of the apartment and doing fun things with other kids. Seems too good to be true, and all in time for Christmas. :)

There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays....

2011-11-27T20:51:00.001+08:00

I am coming home in three weeks!!!! I can hardly believe it's true, but it is. Before I get into the why's and how's and all that, here is our plan:We are all flying to Salt Lake Dec. 19th and will be getting in late at night. We will be spending a few days at my parents house and during this time we need to get me into a dentist and gynecologist and go to our house to get the things we need out of our garage. We are planning to head down to St. George on the 23rd to spend Christmas with Seth's family. We are lucky enough to be able to stay in the basement apartment of Seth's Dad's house until the end of January. During this time we need to find a van. We'll also be enjoying time with family and friends. We will be leaving at the end of January to go on a road trip to Texas to visit Seth's brother and his family and my sister and hers. We're also using the time in Texas to hopefully get some interviews in for Seth. Then we are tentatively planning to go up to Idaho to visit some more family before we come back to Salt Lake. Seth will be flying back to China to finish his second semester mid February. His second semester is shorter and they are letting him take off a bit early, he'll be in China from mid Feb. to the end of April. I will be staying with my family during this time and when Seth gets back we will move back into our house and settle in a bit before the baby comes. We still don't know where we will be for the summer, and thinking about that gives me a headache. But we have a plan for the next six months which is comforting. It was obviously a hard decision to have Seth go back alone. I hate to be apart from my husband, last summer we did it for five weeks and we both swore never again. It is difficult to explain why it is so hard to live in China, let alone be pregnant here, to people who have never been here. I don't want to be negative about the country, because there is a lot here that I love. But everything is hard in China, everything. It is the kind of adventure that you have to be ready for 100% because it will take every ounce of energy and effort and positive thoughts you have! I really did try, and looking back I know I did my best. I taught English at my kids' school for three months which gave me a great insight to the culture. I studied Chinese, not as hard as I should have, but I did try! I learned some new Chinese recipes. I made some great friends, both Chinese and Western. I have been teaching Water Aerobics and Swimming lessons for the past three months which has been a nice distraction for regular life in China and has been good exercise too. I have been more creative than ever in finding ways to entertain my kids at home. I have tried to stay positive in the face of stress, cultural shock, upheaval, uncertainty, and excitement. But it became clear to us that it was time for me to go home last week. My pregnancy has been so difficult, by far my worst. Add to that the foreign foods and smells and isolation and it was a recipe for disaster. My nausea has been such a nightmare. Every time I think it is better it is back with a vengeance. I am now over 12 weeks and still sick. I am also experiencing terrible heartburn. I feel like I am constantly battling something physically. I have tooth pain as well that I have tried twice to get fixed but they don't x ray pregnant women in China so I have been out of luck. My filling fell out and they said it looks like a root canal and I also have two cavities. It is such a helpless feeling to have to just deal with the pain when it is constant. But even with the pregnancy and tooth pain I would say the hardest part is transportation which causes isolation. Not having a car and being so far away from the friends I have here has made it so hard. My branch does Mommy play groups but they are clear across town. In order to go I need to walk 15 minutes to the subway and get on with both my kids and make a couple transfers then get off and catch a taxi or walk to find the apartment. I would probably have done it just to get out but I am sincerely afraid of losing one of my kids on the subway. Seth and I take the subway with our kids a lot and it is still stressful with both of us there. If the kids run off the train too early or jump onto the wrong one they are lost forever. It is such a huge city with subway trains going in all directions. It is not worth the risk to me, obviously. So the isolation, the long days alone in my apartment trying to entertain my kids have really gotten to me. Especially when I compare them to how happy we were at home where we would jump in the car and go, go, go. I will never think the same about having a car, it is such a blessing/luxury. So many things about my life at home are such privileges. This is my first experience living in a third world country and it has been a major eye-opener to me. Life can be so much harder! I hope I never complain about my life in the States again! I have done a lot of hard things! I served a mission in Finland....need I say more....but this is the hardest thing I have ever done. In the States the average Joe can still own a home, a car, have clean/safe food to eat, have the number of children they desire, practice religion freely, express political views freely, breath clean air (this reminds me: I used to always roll my eyes about the "enviros" squawking about this and that about the environment, no more! I have seen first hand what selfish motives can do to the land. China is depleted of natural resources and extremely filthy. No one cares about the future, they don't even care about next year. It's all about how much can I squeeze out at everyone else's expense. And it is such a dirty place because of it. The smog is terrible. I have a hacking cough because of pollution and you see people wearing face masks to protect themselves from the particles in the air). I could go on and on...we have it so good in the States, or any advanced country that is. It is easy to agree but wait until you have seen it and lived it. We are incredibly blessed. So the past 5 weeks or so I have been living in my own personal hell. SOOOOOOOO sick with nausea, throbbing tooth pain, freezing cold apartment (they claim they turned the heat on Nov. 15th but we are still wearing coats and double pairs of socks all day, the heat is controlled by the government), no appetizing food, losing weight, alone so much, kids bouncing off the walls with boredom and watching more movies than they ever have in their lives. One day I just knew I had had enough. That night after many prayers, discussions, a blessing, we made our decision and booked our tickets home. Thank goodness we have nice families who are letting us crash. And thank goodness for Seth who is putting my needs before his own and agreeing to come back alone next semester to finish his degree. He is so good to me, I know it will be the hardest thing he's ever done to be here alone. It will be hard on me too, but not as bad because I will have the kids and my family. He continues to amaze me with his kindness and love. He is every bit my best friend and love. We almost had him just come home too and finish this year at the U but that would mean he wouldn't get the LL.M. in Chinese Law he has been working on, this is an extra Masters degree in Chinese Law. We are nervous about the down economy and really need Seth to have a competitive edge so this didn't seem like the right thing to do. He will be back at the U this fall for his 4th and final year of grad school. When he graduates Spring of 2013 he will have a JD/MBA/LLM. We are hoping all those letters after his name will translate into a job, as well as his proficiency in two Asian languages. You'd think he'd be set, but I worry a lot. The economy is so bad for lawyers right now. The vast majority of people Seth is friends with from law school who are graduating this spring don't have jobs lined up yet. It is such a stressful thing to face unemployment with a mountain of debt on your shoulders. So we keep praying and working and hoping that all this hard work will pay off in the end. It's not that I don't believe in Seth, because I do, I just think that he has an uphill battle finding a job in today's market. I could write a tribute to how much I love Seth, and I will, but I will just give it to him instead of post it here. :) Now that we are going home in three weeks it seems harder than ever to wait. There are still things we need to wrap up here, and some places I'd still like to visit, but I just want to go home. I will be teaching water aerobics til the end so my clients can use up their punch passes. I have one more day of swimming lessons next week. Seth has finals and we need to pack and give away a lot of our stuff before we go. We also need to do some shopping, I can't believe it will be basically Christmas when we get back.

#3

2011-11-25T13:58:00.001+08:00

For those who haven't heard the news, we are expecting #3!! I'm due June 7th and am now 12 weeks along. We are so excited about this baby, it has been a while since we've had a newborn in our house. It has been a difficult pregnancy so far because of nausea and vomiting. My first two pregnancies were pretty mild as far as that goes. I usually have some nausea and have to be careful about what I'm eating but it's not too bad. With my first two I had heartburn and Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) during the third trimester. This time I am already experiencing heartburn and RLS which doesn't bode well for the rest of this pregnancy. I hear pregnancies are usually progressively harder so I guess it makes sense. The nausea has made it so difficult for me to find appetizing food, especially with how unfamiliar and spicy most foods are here. I have been taking it one day at a time, I often think of a quote my sister Karen shared with me: "You only have one more day!" The problem is I know that is not true, I have many more days of nausea!! I guess at this point I don't know how many more days I have. I have felt it ease up slightly, but then it comes back in full force again. Oh the things we do to bring our precious children into this world. Today is Thanksgiving in the States, we celebrated yesterday and will be celebrating again tomorrow. I am grateful to be pregnant. I am thankful that our family is growing again and that we will be welcoming in another member who will become an important part of the family and all of our lives. Seth thinks it will be a boy. I have a freaky feeling it is twins. I tend to think a boy too (if its only one) but I was wrong with Ethan and Suzy so who knows!!! I guess we'll find out in another couple months.

Happy Hallows Eve

2011-10-29T19:58:00.000+08:00

We celebrated Halloween with our branch at a little party everyone helped put together for the kids. It turned out really fun. We were going to go trick or treating out in the Western neighborhoods and to the kids' old school's party, but I wasn't feeling up to it and the kids seemed happy with the party they'd already attended. I bought their costumes here in Beijing and they are CHEAP. They are both falling apart, China-fall-apart to use the correct term. :) The second picture down is kind of random, it's just Ethan riding on the subway. I need to start putting more pictures up of our regular, day-to-day activities. Those are the things I like to be able to look back on and remember.

2011-10-18T10:14:00.000+08:00

Is it really Oct. 18th?!!!!!!!! I can't believe we have been in Beijing for over four months. I am finally feeling settled in. For the first 2-3 months I was constantly thinking about how much time we had left and how I wished we were going home after only one semester, etc. My life became incredibly hard when we moved here because I lost my car, house, yard, ability to talk to people, friends, family, etc. And so many things kept going wrong. I was really starting to wonder if we'd made a big mistake in coming. I don't know exactly when it happened, but I am comfortable here now. So are my kids. They seem calmer at home. For the first 2 months or so I had to be constantly entertaining them or they would fight or get into trouble or making messes. It was exhausting for me, this is a big reason I got them into Montessori Kindergarten, for something to do for all of us. It takes time to build a life and moving here meant we really had nothing going on except for Seth's school and work. We knew people from church but they are too far away to visit because I don't like to take my kids alone on the subway/taxi. Teaching at the school has been fun, sometimes it is stressful and tiring to come up with lessons and keep all the kids engaged. But the hardest part is keeping my kids in line at the school, they (especially Ethan) don't like it there. This is surprising to me because the teachers are amazing and loving. There are so many fun activities for the kids and they have fun playtimes as well. So we have taken the past two weeks off and are considering going back two afternoons a week, we'll see. The teachers are so sad and keep emailing me that they miss my kids and of course they miss me teaching the Chinese kids English. I got my kids a pass at a new playplace by my apartment, it is such a fun, indoor place for them to go play. I just take a book and relax while they wear themselves out. :) I have also made some Chinese friends in my area, I have been lucky enough to find some who speak English. One has given me an open invitation to her country club!!! >:) My Chinese is still very basic, but I do think it is easier to learn a language once you have already learned one or two. I have only actually studied two or three times, the rest I hear from Seth or others talking. I can shop and ask/answers basic get to know you questions.About a month ago I started teaching water aerobics to English-speaking foreigners, it has really picked up and has been a fun way for me to exercise and socialize. Last week I added a session of swimming lessons to it and all four lessons filled up, 20 students!! It was fun and exhausting, I have five more weeks of lessons. It was random how it happened but has been a great blessing in helping us meet or expenses.In other exciting news Seth was accepted on law review at Tsinghua. He is serving as Editor which will give him great experience in legal writing and research. It is a busy job but is exactly what he was hoping for, so we are really happy about it. We are seeing lots of cool sites here in Beijing, last week we saw the Lama Temple, the largest Tibetan Temple in the world outside of Tibet. I need to do a post about it. This weekend we are going on an overnight to see another section of the Great Wall, so excited!! I love the great wall. Seth's program concludes the end of May so we will be home in about 7 months. We are doing well and enjoying our time here.

The Great Wall

2011-09-23T21:06:00.000+08:00

We went with Seth's LLM group to the Mu Tian Yu section of the Great Wall. We got to go on the bus and stop for lunch at a nice restaurant on the way. This was an amazing experience for me, I can see why the Wall is one of the wonders of the world. It literally took my breath away with it's beauty and majesty. The white wall with the deep green background from the lush mountains, add to that the misty clouds, beautiful!! I am so glad we are going back in a few weeks with our church. I would be sad if I wasn't going to see it again, and this time it will be a new section and we are staying overnight in a hotel. Seth and I are on the activities committee in our branch so we are part of the planning on this activity. It should be a lot of fun.

Mom's Sweet New Ride

2011-09-03T23:11:00.004+08:00

I have had my eye on one of these over-sized tricycles for a while. Today on our way home we asked a lady how much she paid for hers and where she got it; we'd been asking around all day to get an idea of what they cost and where people are getting them. A man overheard her and said his was for sale for 200 kuai (about $30) we bought it $18 in the end. I think it will make my life easier!! I walk the kids to school and back every day and it is a 25 minute walk each way, this will make it a 7 minute bike ride. We are going to take it to a bike shop and have someone make seats with seat belts to keep the kids in place, and luckily the ride to school is a safe one. People ride bikes like this all over, some of them are electric, that would be nice, too. I'm excited about this bike!!! As Seth said tonight, I'm 'going native'.

Baby Bunny

2011-09-03T22:46:00.004+08:00

Seth surprised us today with a baby bunny! He got the bunny and the cage for $6 total. He is adorable, and of course the kids love him. We are going to be a house full of pets. We still have our gecko, although I think tomorrow we are letting him go. He won't eat and looks pretty emaciated. We bought a kitten a week and a half ago but she is too young to leave her mom for another four days, so we'll get her next week. Now we'll have a baby bunny and baby kitten, so cute!!! I just wish they could stay babies forever. I also added some cute pics of the kids. I love the ones of Suzy doing dishes. :)

Adjusting

2011-08-29T20:49:00.002+08:00

Well we have been in Beijing for two and a half months now, it has been a wild ride so far. I didn't really know what to expect going into this. I was so busy before we left that I didn't really prepare myself mentally. I was training so hard for an Olympic Triathlon, packing, seeing friends/family, doing all the logistical things that need to be done when you're moving your family across the world, etc. Then I found myself here..........and I was all the sudden bewildered. The first few days were so different, I was really excited. Then Seth had to work and was gone over ten hours a day, leaving me where I couldn't communicate at all, had no transportation, and no friends at all........July was a rough month, mixed with exciting adventures and two birthdays. The church members made it great, so did the Saturdays when Seth was home. Mid July I got the job at the Montessori school which was a huge blessing. August came and Seth cut his hours back at work to almost nothing and the kids' school took a two week break and we just hung out, saw sites, etc. It was just what I needed. Then our visa situation became a nightmare, we are still working on that, and drained us of all our savings. It was and is so very stressful and confusing, I won't burden anyone with the details, especially because I don't understand it fully. Seth's work put him on a tourist visa for some odd reason now he's trying to switch to a student visa and the fees are out of control, so are the requirements, so much so that we are over the date and being charged to extend then switch, etc etc etc.
That put a huge strain on Seth and gave him a bad body rash. He recovered and started school today.
Seth is amazing, I knew that before we came here, but I didn't really know it know it, you know? :) He can do anything, man I wish his mom could see what he has grown up to be. He is a good man, just good through and through, I love him with all my heart. He is always thinking of me and the kids. He always gives and cares. He surprised me and bought me some massages, I got one last week and it included an amazing facial. He is very thoughtful and is careful to think of how I'm doing.
I am excited to see him living his dream to come here and learn Mandarin (he learned Cantonese on his mission and studied Mandarin at the U), study Chinese Law, and get to live abroad. It hasn't been at all easy to do this with two children, but we are adjusting and I can tell the worst is over.
I just finished a book called The Last Lecture, which I highly recommend, and one of the things it said was that you can't give children self esteem by telling them all the time how great they are. You need to give them something they cannot do and work with them on it until they can. I totally agree, I have seen this with my kids. I think the Lord does the same with us. Many times He has put me in situations where I am in way over my head (My mission comes to mind, becoming a mother, moving to China) and I think to myself I'll never succeed. Then, slowly, things get better, I grow, things get easier, I keep growing, before too long I look back and can see major growth and change. It boosts my self esteem and strengthens my relationship with the Lord because I can feel His guidance and strength.
The last couple weeks have been so stressful, I have many reasons to feel frustrated and overwhelmed, but I have been filled with an underlying calm and reassurance that things will work out. I am able to be steady and strong for Seth again instead of always leaning on him when things get hard. I know the next ten months will still be a challenge, but I am different. I feel stronger, so it will be easier.
I'm starting to feel settled into a nice routine. Today we went to Montessori from 8:30 a.m. to noon (The kids are doing much, much better at school. Ever since we started sending Ethan on his own tues/thurs he is behaving at school. I also feel like I am doing a good job teaching), then went to the park outside the school for an hour. The parks here have exercise equipment in them, I'll post a pic soon, it's not much but I try to exercise and stretch. Then we came home and watched Finding Nemo. Suzy fell asleep on the couch so I worked with Ethan on writing letters for a while then we watched clips about Giraffe's and Tiger Sharks on Discovery.com. I usually let him pick an animal and we study it for an hour or so. We also polished off some Hawaiian chocolate my friend brought me back---Macadamia nuts coated in coconut then chocolate, so good. When Suzy woke up we went out and bought some street wraps and bread resembling pizza and ate it at a different park. We came home and had some watermelon then I read some stories and put Ethan to bed. Suzy is still up, just hanging out and coloring. Seth should be home soon. As for me, I am doing fine. I don't do well without a lot of social interaction, but the school does help a lot. And most days he is home much earlier. I also have some play dates planned with friends from the ward who live fairly close for this week.
It's funny to me that some people seem to be envious of my situation because I get to live abroad and experience a different culture, etc, but they don't realize how hard it is! It isn't just a constant vacation. And then there are people who just seem to feel so sorry for me because they would never do something like this and think it would be too hard with kids, etc, but they don't realize that it is an adventure and a chance of a lifetime. I have the rest of my life to live in the states, this is giving our family a priceless perspective. (well---I actually don't know for sure I'll live in the states for the rest of my life, I will live wherever Seth finds a job!!;) It just makes me laugh to see such different reactions from people.
The main reason I want to live in the states is for my family and friends. I really, really miss my family, and Seth's family, and all our friends. Sometimes it feels like a dull ache, it means a lot to me to be able to have them in my life as more than an email or skype call. I hope that if not right after Seth graduates then soon after we can live by family. I at least know we will be in Salt Lake (back in our same house!!!!) next fall, for the school year. I will soak up time with my family then.

Kidlets

2011-08-20T20:46:00.004+08:00

I am spending a lot of time alone with my kids lately, and sometimes I get really lonely, but most times I enjoy the chance to focus on them and be creative in making our own fun. Their school took a two week break and starts back up Monday, so we've been home more than usual. Ethan started taking pictures, he takes them all the time and it's always fun to see what he comes up with. He took about 50 of the bird, Ambird, that we've been watching for the past six weeks. We are giving Ambird back tomorrow, along with the two turtles we've been watching and I know the kids will really miss them. I found an awesome gecko for Ethan (he named him Ha Ha)but he escaped, then we found him, he escaped again and we found him, but this last time he escaped he hasn't been so easy to find. At least we know he is keeping the bugs down while he's hiding from us. We told the kids we'd get them a baby bunny since they love bunnies so much. We've been keeping our eyes open for bunnies. Suzy and Ethan both love jumping on their beds. They flap their wings as they jump so they can fly, and they always say they are trying to see Jesus up in Heaven, it's funny. We have an awesome DVD collection, and a big part of me feels bad for buying pirated DVDs but they aren't even available here for sale unless they are pirated. I usually have the kids watch their movies in Chinese if it's one they know well, so they already know the story line. Or if it's new to them they watch it in English first then Chinese next time. It makes me feel less guilty that they watch more TV here than they did back home, it's language study. :)
Lately Suzy tells us all the time she is going to buy us X or Y at the store. I think it's so funny. She looks at me with her eye brows raised, so seriously, and says "I will buy you some more at the store." The other day I said to her that we needed to go find Dad and she said she'd buy us another Daddy at the store. haha. She is also fond of throwing her doll down hard them getting all concerned and saying, "No, Come here. Come here, wet me kiss it better." Then she'll do it again and again. She cracks me up. She has grown up a lot in the past few months. She is potty trained (still poops her underwear every couple days unless I really watch her) and sleeps in a toddler bed in the same room as Ethan, these are big changes and she's done great.
Seth got a bad rash and spent last week home on bed rest. It was so nice to have him around, so nice to have another adult to talk to. I really, really enjoy Seth's company. We seem to be on the same page lately in almost everything. At night when the kids are asleep we either play Carcassonne (such a fun game), watch movies, go on snack runs (one will stay home in happy anticipation of what they other will find at the grocery store or on the street), listen to books on the ipod together, or just chat and hang out.
I will be happy to get back to my family and friends and normal life in ten months, but I try to look on the bright side and realize that we do have a lot more time to be together without distraction. We're having such great conversations, like we did when we were dating, all the time. It kind of feels like the four of us. We don't have anyone to help us with our kids so we take them everywhere with us, by subway. They are getting used to it and do ok, but it is a huge effort every time we do anything. Today we went to the mall and strolled around then went to Sizzler, which was inside the mall, and I loved it! I miss American food. The salad bar was awesome, so was the sesame ginger chicken I ordered. There is no tipping or tax on food here, so the price is what it is, which I like. Our total cost, which included the kids, was about $24 which is a pretty pricey meal for China's standards, but great when you consider a family of four getting out the door for that much in the states.

Children's Science Musuem

2011-08-17T19:39:00.000+08:00

Seth and I took our kids to the Children's Science Museum here in Beijing, I'd be with the kids once before with Seth's boss, Guiying, but this was Seth's first time. It is such a fun wonderland for kids!! As a mom I get tired of telling my kids to sit still, don't touch this, don't do that, hold my hand, stay with me, stop!, go!, come here, go out, etc. It is sooooooooooooooo nice to be able to say-"Go explore! I'll be right behind you!!!" I wanted to get a pass because it is fairly close to us but they don't sell them. I think it's $3 or $4/per child and half that per adult. Not bad. People were pretty surprised when Suzy got the hang of the giant bubble thing and was more successful than all the big kids who were doing it. She was also the youngest kid by far on the big blow-up airplane slide. She just thinks she can do anything, so she does. I love it. Ethan was mesmerized by those baby chicks. He's got such a soft, tender side. He is very thoughtful. He will ask questions about things that happened weeks ago, like he's been thinking the whole time and just now is ready to talk about it. A park nearby our apt has this single swing, so our kids like to go and take turns. I love spending time together as a family, it is precious time to me.

Chinese Montessori

2011-08-09T18:18:00.001+08:00

Ethan and Suzy started Montessori school mid July, and it's all in Chinese! I take them Mon/Wed/Fri from 8:30 to noon and during that time I teach two 20 minute English lessons, one to the older kids and one to the younger. The kids at this school are ages 2-5. Then we drop Ethan off by himself Tues/Thurs mornings so he can get more immersion. My kids get free tuition, valued at about $400/month per child, in exchange for my English lessons, so it's a really good deal for us. So far it's going pretty good. The main problem is my kids are pretty out of control there. They are very, very slowly improving but it's hard because I'm right there with them and they think they can do whatever they want. It is sooooooo stressful to me when they are rude to other kids and their teachers. The other kids are used to being in school all day, every day, and just fall in line. But my kids have always been with mom so they don't feel the need to inconvenience themselves in any way by being obedient and compliant. Thank goodness the teachers are patient and kindhearted and seem to really love my kids. There are about 7-8 teachers (not including me) and 25 kids, and they have such fun activities planned every day. My kids get to eat breakfast, snack, and lunch there and it is authentic Chinese food. This means Suzy eats all kinds of yummy stuff and Ethan eats a lot of plain white rice and rolls. Ethan is still a little wary of Chinese food.
None of the teachers at the school speak English, except for a few phrases. I am trying to learn Chinese as fast as I can, but it is extremely challenging. I've been listening to Chinese language podcasts on my ipod and practicing at night, but it's slow-going. One exciting thing is that I am starting to understand bits and pieces, especially when Seth talks.
It's pretty fun teaching the kids, last week I taught them the Hokey Pokey and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. I'm grateful we found this opportunity, it gives us something to do and hopefully my kids will pick up some Chinese. :)

Ethan Turns 4!!!

2011-07-30T20:43:00.001+08:00

We've been parents for four years now and looking back I can see it has changed us in so many ways. All good, I can see why Heavenly Father wanted us to be parents and experience this firsthand. There is so much growth involved in putting another's needs before your own, loving unconditionally, being unbelievably frustrated and tired and needing to figure it out, relying on the Lord and each other, and seeing improvements in yourself and your family as a result. Only real sacrifice and giving of yourself can result in the kind of joy that being a parent brings. Ethan is a wonderful child, we love him with all of our hearts. He hasn't necessarily broken us in easy, but he is a joy nonetheless. He is so FULL of life. He is also full of energy, mischief, humor, affection, love, delight, curiosity, stubbornness, and pride. Yes, we have realized he has pride, not in the bad way, but more like an understanding of his own self worth. When we are disciplining him he will take it as long as he doesn't feel demeaned in any way. He will take what is fair, even if it's inconvenient, as long as it is respectful. He's always been this way! It's funny to contrast his personality with Suzy's. (She'll eat anything, he's really picky, she loves to sleep, he sleeps less than any kid his age (consistently, he just needs less sleep), she goes with the flow, he needs routine and prior explanations then he's on board. He needs to understand what's going on, no surprises. She just wants to have fun.) He is thoughtful about all his relationships and notices the little things people say and do. He is very sensitive to other people's moods and feelings, and is empathetic when they feel bad. He's moody: annoyingly happy at one moment, in everyone's faces being silly, then crumpling to tears at the next. (Seth and I joke that Ethan and I have the same personality and he and Suzy do, true in so many ways) He is very affectionate and loving. If Ethan feels safe in his environment and relationships he blossoms and is the sweetest most loving boy in the world. It has been neat as parents to learn who he is and what he needs to feel safe and secure and be his best self. We came into parenting with our own ideas of how things would go but he showed us another way. I can already see, at only four years in, that parenting is not for the weak. It will humble us all!!! The only way is to pray and watch and pray and watch and LOVE LOVE LOVE. A lot of well-meaning advice and parenting books will tell you do it this way or that, and that may have worked on their child, but they are all so different. I know oldest children often complain of 'paving the way' for the rest with the burden of breaking mom and dad in, and I'm sure Ethan will feel the same. He has already taught us so much, we did things better with Suzy and hopefully will continue to improve with future children. One thing is for sure, we are so grateful that Ethan specifically was sent to our family. He was meant to be ours and has our hearts completely. He tells us lately that when he grows up he'll be a man, a good man, and he'll find a wife and take her to the temple and then she'll get babies in her tummy and he'll be their dad. Wow! He thinks things through so well. I am proud of my son---I love him.
We took him to the water park for his birthday,and to McDonalds. Then we had cake/ice cream and presents. Seth's dad used to always ask the birthday child which piece they wanted and then cut it right out of the cake for them. So we are continuing that fun tradition. We got him a toy gun, a stuffed dog (poor kid wants a dog so bad so we did second best haha), and a scooter.
ps the last two pics are him taking pictures, he loves this lately. I liked his crossed legs and the one of him smiling after he drank his chocolate milk.

Happy Birthday Seth! 28!!

2011-07-26T11:27:00.008+08:00

This year for Seth's birthday we went to Yuan Ming Yuan, the old Summer Palace in Beijing. It was burned by the British and French and rebuilt by the Chinese, and is definitely one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The park is famous for it's many lilypads, and has beautiful willow trees surrounding rivers/lake. At night they turn on all the lanterns, in all shapes and sizes, and it is truly a magical place. The kids were perfect that day, it turned out to be a great time. We had a delicious meal before we went and then took a crazy ride home in a cart on the back of an electric motorcycle. I had to order a cake from the bakery since we don't have an oven, most people don't here. We had such a fun day! Seth told me it was one of his favorite birthdays ever.

Water Park

2011-07-14T19:45:00.005+08:00

We found an awesome water park last weekend and had a blast with our kids and our friend Guiying (Seth's boss actually) and her son Alex. The park was about $8 usd each and Suzy was free. It had a man-made beach, wave pool, water slides, and kid area. We will definitely be back there because we all had so much fun.
The second to last picture is my kids ready to go grocery shopping with me. I am lucky and live very close to the grocery store, just down the street. They both take a bag and help carry the food home. We go every two or three days because we can't carry very much, to have something to do, and because food doesn't keep as long here (no preservatives).
The last picture is one of Ethan playing some online educational games. I recently taught him how to use the computer mouse, and he loves it! His favorite site is starfall.com. He loves games, if you have a favorite site for kids his age please leave a comment with the site, I am trying to find more that he'll like and that will teach him as well.
I have been impressed by how much people love children here in China. They treat them like the precious gifts that they are. I know my children get special attention because they are white, but all children here are loved and adored. The one child policy has made children rare. The parks are full of older people who were only allowed one child, even though they really wanted more. Now their one child has only had one, so they have one grandchild (if they're lucky). When they see a child their eyes light up and they hope to be able to have some interaction. As we walk down the street almost every single person, actually usually it is every single person, will smile with genuine delight as they see my children. I can't believe how much they value kids, it's awesome!! In Utah kids are so plentiful it can be easy to forget how precious each one is. They are each a unique gift from God. I love the reminder I get of that every day here.

Beijing Zoo and The Temple of Heaven

2011-07-08T11:19:00.006+08:00

I really look forward to weekends here because Seth is home and we get to go exploring around Beijing. The first Saturday we went to the Beijing Zoo, the kids loved it. It was a huge ordeal getting them there on the subway, and we didn't bring the double stroller because we thought it'd be too hard on the subway. Big mistake. We realized that it would be worth the hassle on the subway to have the stroller next time we went out with the kids. Oh notice the first picture of the kid? Kids here wear pants with a slit in them so they can go potty anywhere, anytime. No underwear or diapers. It's pretty funny. Even with all the animals at the zoo, our kids were the main attraction. This outing was the first time I started noticing that our kids are sick of all the attention they've been getting here. So I memorized how to say, "They're shy, sorry." I'm worried that all the attention will eventually make them antisocial. I can't believe how many people want to get our pictures.
After our zoo trip we went to McDonalds, sometimes it's nice to get a familiar meal.
The next Saturday we went to the Temple of Heaven. This time we brought our double umbrella stroller and it saved us. It was worth the ordeal of getting it through the subway stations. It was such an awesome experience for me, I love history of any kind and since we made the decision to come to China I have become very interested in Chinese history. It was neat to see the oldest standing temple in China. It was built in the 1400s, all the older temples were destroyed by Mao during the cultural revolution. It's a travesty how much of Chinese culture was destroyed. They were forced to give up who they were, even forced to start cremating their dead which is a devastation for Chinese people who believe the body is needed in the afterlife. The architecture on the Temple of Heaven was incredible, I also enjoyed being able to see inside. The surround grounds were beautiful, many flower gardens and weeping willows. Until the cultural revolution only royalty was allowed to enter these grounds so it was fun to see how the royalty lived.
After we'd seen most everything, we walked across the street to the Pearl Market and did some bargaining. They all spoke English there because the Pearl Market is big with westerners. We spent $100 overall and got: I got Diesel shoes, a dress, a skirt, two abercrombie shirts, a hollister hooded shirt, and a ambercrombie zip up sweatshirt. Seth got two hugo boss dress shirts, we got Ethan a cars shirt, a diesel shrit, and polo shorts, we got Suzy a barbie shirt and skirt. Of course these are all knock offs, but they look exactly like the real thing! Too bad the quality isn't as high. A friend I made from the branch here asked us to watch her bird and two turtles while she's in the states for a month, the kids have loved having them here.

Family Pictures

2011-07-07T07:51:00.001+08:00

I Made It....Barely!!

2011-06-17T19:45:00.004+08:00

I made it to China!!!!!
First I will start with the flight over. My Mom and James dropped me off with my kids in the stroller and 6 bags checked and 3 with me as carry-ons. Right away two guys saw me and gave me some meal vouchers Delta had given them for messing up their flights or something. They gave me $24 worth and said to get some food for me and the kids. They'd heard me say I was going all the way to China. (These came in handy later)
The Delta employees at the Salt Lake Airport gave me some grief about having tourist visas without return flghts, China doesn't accept this. I showed them a letter of acceptance to Tinghua Law School and told them we'd be converting to student visas in August. This is what the visa company we went through told us to do, and luckily it worked out okay.
I asked for assistance and they had a guy come help with all the carry-ons. I was able to cut a huge line because I was with him, which saved me so much time.
We finally got on the plane, Ethan had the window seat and he enjoyed looking out at the clouds as we flew. It was a short flight to Seattle and we did ok with all the snacks and distractions I had. They loved those Pez dispensers my mom so wisely bought them. When the plane landed in Seattle I saw it was about ten minutes behind schedule. We only had a 58 minute layover so I was worried. The pilot had announced that our plane had service men and women returning from Iraq and to let them get off the plane first. I stood up and asked for help getting off the plane first or I would miss my connection to China. The next 50 minutes proved to be some of the most stressful of my life. I probably aged 5 years during that hour. Some nice soldiers grabbed my carry-ons and helped me off the plane and found my stroller and helped me find my terminal. My tickets just said Beijing at 7, no terminal. I was so relieved to see it was just two terminals away from the one my plane landed at. I got in line, then realized I should skip the line and tell the check in employees that my ticket didn't have seats assigned yet because Delta had put me on this flight just days before (they switched my flight to a better one after my original flight was changed two a 3 layover flight with a stop in Tokyo) The lady said there was nothing she could do to let us sit together, and that we were spread all over the plane. Meanwhile Ethan kept unbuckling Suzy from the stroller and they'd run off. I'd strap her in and tell him not to unstrap her and he'd do it again. I couldn't control them and my bags and the stroller and argue with this woman, plus the plane was boarding. I told her they were two and three years old and weren't sitting alone, and that this was not my problem, it was hers. She then called a passenger over the intercom and asked her if she'd be willing to change seats so we could sit together. she said yes. Then she did it again, so things were looking better. She told me she'd gotten us on the same row, with one across the aisle. At that time Ethan and Suzy ran onto the plane without me. I grabbed the stroller and one suitcase and asked the people behind me to get the rest and chased after them. I was stopped by someone wanting to see the tickets and when I finally got on they were all the way at the back of the plane and walking back to the front. I was at the front walking to the back on the other aisle and couldn't get to them. I kept calling for them to stop, I was behind a huge line of people boarding and putting their suitcases away, but their aisle was open so they were running off the plane. I starting asking for people to catch them, meanwhile I had no idea if my other luggage had made it on the plane. Most people on the plane looked Chinese and they were ignoring me. I finally said "Stop my kids!! They are going to run off into the airport, DOES ANYONE HERE GIVE A DAMN??!!" Then an American woman stopped them and a stewardess finally brought them back to me. Wow, it was stressful but it was just the beginning. I knew I had 13 hours with them on that flight. I knew we needed to be in the same row, not across the aisle from each other. I asked two people if they'd trade seats and they said yes so we were finally all together. The plane was still taxiing around and the kids were super hyper with soggy diapers that had soaked through their clothes by now. I went back to change them which was a whole ordeal in the tiny bathrooms, then got them back in their seats. Ethan kept unbuckling himself and running off, finally a steward got after him and it scared him a bit. I got out my laptop and put on a show for Ethan with headphones and he was motionless, totally absorbed in Barbie. ha ha, he loves Barbie shows. :)
I gave Suzy a few packs of smarties to work on and tried to breath and slow down my stress-induced Asthma. By this time my shirt was drenched with sweat. The steward told me they'd gotten my luggage on the plane, and that it was near the front, so I was comforted. The plane took off and I knew we'd make it somehow at that point. They brought dinner and I gave them each a dose of benedryl, well, a bit more than a normal dose because of how desperate I felt. By this time it was 9 p.m. Salt Lake time. Ethan kept watching his show and was out by 10 p.m., Suzy colored and was out by 11 p.m. They each laid a head on my lap and their feet hung over the sides a bit. I tried to bend their legs but they'd just fall straight. I had to watch because the carts kept going by and if I didn't move their legs they'd get rammed by the carts.
Because of this and the fact that the weight of their heads totally cut off the circulation to my legs I couldn't sleep the whole time. The flight was 13 hours, they slept 9 hours about which was awesome, but uncomfortable at the same time. I watched four movies, in agonizing pain because my legs were swollen and full of blood. I was so worried about blood clots, but knew if I woke them up they'd be wired from the benedryl and I'd be sorry. Finally I risked waking them by tipping their heads in the other direction and slipped out to walk the aisles and go to the bathroom. My legs and feet were as swollen as they were at 9 months pregnant in the summer in St George with Ethan, totally plump. I kept stretching and walking but they never went back down or stopped hurting. They finally did after being here in Beijing about 24 hours.
The kids woke up about and hour and a half before landing. Then I put on a show for Ethan and gave Suzy play dough and gave them treats and it wasn't bad. They were so excited to see Seth. We got help from the stewards getting off the plane, and help from a Chinese airport worker after getting off. I thought Seth would be there at the baggage claim, but he wasn't. They said he couldn't be there, and I had to meet him out on the curb with all my luggage. So two workers helped me get my six checked bags. My sister Camille was smart and told me to tie ribbon on all my bags, this helped a lot. We got all nine suitcases plus my purse and the stroller/kids out to to curb, and there was Seth and his friend Joe and Seth's boss' driver. At this point I knew the worst was over and (just like I'd joked with my sisters) I let myself cry a little. haha. The kids were so happy to see him, and hugged and kissed him a ton. He held them both and we got them into the SUV. All our luggage fit so we sent the Taxi away and all went with the driver. We drove about twenty minutes to our apartment and got our luggage up the the fourth floor. This is funny: Chinese people think 4 is a bad number because the sign for it looks like the sign for the devil, so they avoid using the number 4. So our floor is called 3a instead of 4, ha ha.
I was surprised, I'd had my expectations way low, and the apartment wasn't bad. It seemed clean and livable. And Seth had a beautiful bouquet of red roses and lilies for me, along with some nice notes he'd written over the last month. He also bought me some Diet Coke, which was quite refreshing after the long flight. After a couple hours we all went to bed, at around 1 a.m. Beijing time. The kids were up very early, like 4 or 5. We went out exploring after breakfast. There is a courtyard with playgrounds in our complex and there were a lot of young kids with their parents playing out there. Everyone was staring at us, and kept commenting on how beautiful Suzy was. One little Chinese toddler boy was so intrigued by her, and followed her all over trying to hug her. It was so funny, she kept giving him glares and pushing him away. I was surprised she didn't hit. We taught the kids how to say hi and bye and they were saying it to all the people outside. We walked around and found a noodle house. The food was greasy, not so good. We got three bowls of noodles with meat and veggies with a couple of drinks and it was less than 5 dollars but I didn't like it. The kids did at least. We came inside and took a long nap then went out on the street.
We walked up and down the street we live on and it was full of vendors selling food and everything else. Farmers come in from the countryside with fresh produce each day, we saw a lot of watermelon, and some fruits I've never seen before. Everywhere we went people stared at us. I've seen one other white person since I've been here, he was walking along the road. Every once in a while someone will call out "Hi!" or "Hey!" but that's all the English they know. Seth's Mandarin is really good. He can speak well and understands almost all he hears. If we were in Hong Kong where they speak Cantonese he'd be fluent, but I was surprised by how well he's doing in Mandarin.
People always ask if Suzy and Ethan are twins, and they always say she is so beautiful. People pull out their cameras and phones and take our pictures, it's crazy. We saw chickens in the street, and a big van full of watermelons. I took a picture of a Taylor on the street with his sewing machine, and a bunch of old men playing games with a crowd watching them. Everyone comes out on the street at night here to eat and socialize, it's really fun.
The kids are getting better at staying with us, which is important because people just fly by in cars and motorcycles honking their horns down the narrow streets where people walk.
Seth says we live in a middle class to upper part of town, our apartment isn't cheap. It's 800 USD (US dollars) a month, and it's not super nice but ok. I guess most people live much simpler than this. The food and transportation are much much cheaper in comparison.
We live right next to a grocery store. There's a bus that comes and picks people up to take them to a big department store for free, like walmart or target, and brings you home for free if you have a receipt showing purchases. We live down the street from a subway stop. Seth will travel about 40 minutes to work, but once school starts he's only a few stops away from the University, and work will end then.
We found out the day I got here that Seth got a half tuition scholarship to Tsinghua Law School. We were so relieved. They said he'd most likely get it last month, but we couldn't bank on it til it was settled. Tuition for the year at Tsinghua is $22,500 USD, almost the exact same as the U. So by getting half off we save money which basically covers our flights.
So back to Friday night, I told Seth to take us somewhere good to eat dinner. Lunch had been a disappointment. He decided to take us to the nicest place in the area, as a celebration of my arrival and the half scholarship. The food here was absolutely delicious. Wow. The flavors were out of this world. He ordered five dishes, plus rice. The whole meal was $19 USD, for five dishes of the nicest stuff!!!!!!!!!!!! We had an eggplant dish, green beans, cabbage, dumplings with pork and cabbage inside dipped in vinegar, and sweet and sour pork, which is actually a western dish, not real Chinese food, but it was very good. Think Panda Express but way better. But the authentic Chinese food was divine. It sounds funny, eggplant, long green beans, and cabbage. But even now just thinking about it makes me want it so bad!!!!!!! The eggplant was prepared with the best spices, kind of like a curry over rice. The long green beans were my favorite dish, I've never tasted anything so good. I don't know what was in it, I saw big chunks of garlic and a bunch of other spices, I don't know. The cabbage was very spicy. The dumplings were scrumptious. Ethan just had plain rice but Suzy ventured out and tried other things and liked it. The servers asked if they could take the kids' pictures. Ha ha, everyone thinks we are all so good-looking, it's funny.
That night the kids and I couldn't sleep because of our long nap, we tried benedryl and they slept for a couple hours then woke up and stayed up with one of us for the rest of the night. We aren't allowing any naps today so we can sleep tonight.
Today we went out shopping and got some lunch from a vendor. We had these little rolls full of cabbage and pork, so good! We got six of them plus a big thing of big, flat noodles with cucumber, bean sprouts, tofu, and cilantro all for $1.25. That fed us all lunch.
It is such an adventure here. Everything is different. Kids wear pants with a flap in the back that opens up so they can pee on the road. I saw a dad holding his son to pee on the road here. I am interested to know how they potty train so early here.
Tomorrow is church. I can't wait to see what it is like.
I'm a little scared for Seth to start work again Monday. He'll be gone from 8:20 a.m. til 6:45 p.m. Monday through Friday. Once school starts this fall he'll be home much more. I don't have Facebook or any of the sites I use to watch shows here. I wish I'd've brought more books. But it is a good opportunity to read scriptures and the Book of Mormon study guides my mom sent for Seth's birthday.
It is so good to be back together as a family again. I can't wait to see what will happen next, we're finally here!!!

Splash Pad

2011-06-13T20:44:00.003+08:00

A couple days before I left I went to the splash park with my sisters and mom. It was so fun, even though it was pretty cold at the end. Looking back over these pictures makes me miss all these kids so much. I got to spend a lot of time with these nieces and nephews (we're missing Jer Bear and Joelle) before I left, and I really miss them. They are such great kids and love to be together. I'm glad my kids got so much time with my family before we left. I miss them now, thank goodness for the internet!!! I miss Seth's family too, we are both blessed with siblings who are our best friends. I thought this was normal but have learned that it is a special gift to sincerely consider your siblings your best friends and love hanging out with them.

so.......................

2011-06-10T12:22:00.002+08:00

Hello cyberspace. How are you? Wow, life is moving forward so quickly. I came to live with my parents May 10th, tomorrow is June 10th. Seth left May 13th. This month apart has been a weird blur. Life is what happens while we're making plans, really. I had planned so much time with my family, time training, tons of fun activities with the friends, etc. But my kids really had something else in mind. They have had such a hard adjustment, even though they love being at my parents house. They have really missed their dad. I have too.
My kids have resisted sleep more than they ever have, I have been as tired as I was with newborn babies. It's been so busy, getting ready for the wedding and backyard reception. It seems like everything is changing in my family. Karen and Dennis are moving to Germany in October, so I will be saying goodbye to them tomorrow. The "little kids" at home are not so little anymore, Marie just graduated high school. Andy starts high school this fall. Laura and Tom just had their first baby. My parent's ninth grandbaby. Ruthanne and Jon go back to Texas next week (I really feel like I haven't spent that much time with her, it went by so fast and I was so busy with my kids it didn't allow for tons of hang out time) and then next fall they'll be moving for Jon to attend more school. Nothing stays the same. I'm glad I get to be at Sophie's third birthday party on Monday.
My mom and dad have worked so tirelessly on this wedding. I hope it is a magical night. I'm sure it will be.
This experience has been good in so many ways. I have had the chance to connect with my family which means so much to me. I will miss them like crazy while I'm away. A year will go by fast. But I never want to be without Seth this long again. That is one thing we agree on totally. Time apart just doesn't work for us. I'm glad he had this experience to realize it for himself, because he has sometimes thought of working in China a few weeks at a time. But this time apart was harder on him than me. I had the kids and my family/friends. He was just there alone. After one week he was considering coming home, then begging me to change my flights and miss the wedding. It's been so hard for him. He has told me time and again he never wants to be apart from me. He has been so sweet....I've loved his romantic emails!!! But I am glad he's not interested in working out of town. I know it works for some couples, but we really need each other, and don't think it's worth it to be apart.
Wow, I'm really rambling. Hoping these Tylenol PMs will kick in soon to get me to sleep even with all the caffeine I drank today to get me through. Sooooooo sleep deprived.
Life is good. I get to see my man in less than a week. Tomorrow I get to wear a pretty party dress and get all gussied up. FUN!

Wedding Pictures

2011-06-07T03:03:00.006+08:00

I recently paid for the digital rights to my bridal and wedding pictures. I'm glad I did, now I can make a photo book of them and make some more prints. Here are a few of my favorites:

Miss Suzy Turns 2

2011-04-24T11:09:00.005+08:00

My sweet Suzy turned two today. I am making time to write about our day and how I feel about her while it's fresh. We had all her favorite foods today and did the things she likes to do. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast with baby oranges. Suzy is obsessed with mandarin oranges, partly because it's one snack she can get and peel for herself anytime she's hungry...which is a lot of the time....:) I had a water aerobics class to teach from 8-9 a.m., and there was an Easter egg hunt at the Rec center at 9 a.m. Seth brought the kids and I ran out there and met him. It was so fun to see them meet the Easter Bunny who we've been talking about all this time. Ethan wanted to hug him but Suzy was too scared.
Then we went to Dollar Tree and Suzy went on a birthday shopping spree: a fairy doll, a fashion-horse, bubbles, play dough, and a Disney Princess bracelet. Oh, and Ethan got her a birthday balloon.
Then Seth went to go help our neighbors move. When he got back we went to the Discovery Gateway Museum, my kids love it there. We live two minutes away which is nice. We got to go to a craft class there and make ladybugs. We came home and had Macaroni and cheese, with veggies and ranch. Ranch has made my kids love vegetables! A miracle!
Suzy had a nap after lunch and I made her carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I also got in a run while Seth and Ethan worked in the yard. When Suzy got up we went back to the Rec center (I am there 1-3 times a day!) and went swimming. Both of our kids love to go swimming more than anything else. It's fun to watch them being so happy.
For dinner we had spaghetti and steamed vegetables. Then we sang Happy Birthday and had cake and ice cream and opened her gifts. Ethan was so excited for her to open them since he helped me wrap them while she napped. I was surprised at how mature he was about it, I worried he'd be jealous of all her gifts and attention. He was so happy to celebrate her birthday and have a fun day. Ethan is the sweetest little boy in the world. His heart is so deep and tender. When he feels safe and loved he opens up and is so agreeable and eager to please, helpful, sweet, tender, and loving. I love my EE. (Suzy's nickname for Ethan)
I am always sentimental on birthdays. Birthdays mean a lot to me. A lot. I think they are days that should be totally set aside to celebrate the birthday boy/girl. I'm not big on expensive gifts, I just want it to be meaningful and special. And last all day if possible. I want the birthday person to feel loved and to know everyone is thankful they were born and to know the exact reasons why. I love it when someone says I love you because..... or you are special to me because......On someone's birthday they should know those reasons. So in thinking about why I love Suzy....there are so many reasons. She is full of life. She has a sparkle in her eyes that portrays her absolute zest for life and her love for people. She is silly. She loves to laugh and act goofy. She's beautiful. Sometimes it catches me off guard how lovely she is with her crystal blue eyes and gorgeous blonde hair. She is tender and loving. She is the first to offer a kiss if someone is hurt or sad. She is always, always ready for fun. Even if she's napping and we have to wake her up she just bounces up, kind of staggering because she's tired, and says ok let's go! She's mine. I love her because she's my baby, and my daughter and hopefully will always be a best friend of mine.
Last week I was taking her down to bed and she said, "Where my Jesus?" I said he's up in Heaven. She looked up at the ceiling and blew a kiss and said, "I kiss you Jesus. Jesus is sooo tute (cute)." I about died. So sweet!!!!! She blows him a kiss every night and always requests I sing her a Jesus song at bedtime.
It is my goal to preserve her sweet innocence as long as I can. She is the definition of love and purity. I think a big part of this is giving her the confidence that comes from knowing who she is and that she is loved and supported by Seth and me. I don't want her to ever have to look outside this home for basic love and security, or to feel pressured to be something she's not to get it. She is such a precious girl. People keep asking me if I'm scared to move to China. I'm not because I'm going with my best friend and husband and taking my precious children with me, and I'll be just as close to God there as I am here. I'll have what matters with me. (and I'll have skype for all you loved ones I can't take!!)
I love the thought of having them forever. My children are my most treasured gifts. Today will always be a great memory for me, it was a perfect day.

Big girl bed

2011-04-19T13:11:00.002+08:00

Suzy is growing up so fast. I want it to still feel like I have a baby so I haven't been very excited about her sleeping in a toddler bed and potty training, but with our travel plans she needed to move to her big girl bed. She did so well! She has loved her big girl bed. I love that girl, so sweet.

Jared Came Home!!

2011-03-26T12:55:00.002+08:00

Jared returned honorable from the Fresno, California mission. It was so fun to get together with almost all Seth's siblings down in St George. Ethan and Suzy had a blast wrestling around with all his uncles. We love Jared, he's such a neat guy. Glad to have him back.

Discovery Museum

2011-03-09T13:34:00.002+08:00

I wanted to do a post on Discovery Gateway Museum, we have had so much fun going there this past year. It is a two minute drive from my house and we've had a family pass. The classes are so fun to go to and the kids have a blast while they're there. Every morning Ethan asks me what we're going to do today and he says he'd like to go to the museum. It's so cute. These pictures were taken during their Mardi Gras week, the kids got to make masks, music shakers, and get their faces painted. Fun!

Recent Events

2011-03-03T07:32:00.002+08:00

I can't believe all that has happened in this past year. The biggest news is that Seth got a legal internship at the biggest law firm in China, Kind and Wood, and starts this summer. He flies out May 13th-the day after my birthday. He is also studying at a Chinese University Fall/Spring semester, attending law school over there. He'll be able to study international law and also get an extra degree, an LLM in Chinese law. This is like a specialization in the law. Ever since his mission in Hong Kong it has been Seth's dream to go back to China and somehow merge his career with that culture he loves so much. I can't believe it's really happening! I am studying up on Mandarin and the culture, we'll be there in a few short months. We'll be in Beijing. I will be staying behind a month so I can attend my sister Karen's wedding on June 10th (wouldn't miss it for the world) and so Seth has the chance to find us a furnished apartment, etc. We've never been apart for more than a few days so I'm not excited for that part. Thank goodness for skype!
I hope the kids adjust well and that this is a positive experience for them. We plan to get Ethan into preschool so he can become fluent in Mandarin over there. When we return we will enroll him in one of the many Mandarin dual immersion kindergarten programs here in Salt Lake. I hope to get a job teaching English a couple hours a day to the kids at the school he attends in Beijing so Suzy can tag along and we can learn some Mandarin too.
There is so much to do to prepare. I need to get us visas, the kids passports, immunizations to the crazy food, sublet the house, etc. I just met with two brothers from my work who want to rent our house while we're gone, so I think that might be checked off my list.
Also, I am doing my first Olympic Triathlon June 11th, the day after Karen's wedding. I'll probably fly out a couple days later. I am training a lot for that right now. I'm doing another sprint at my work April 9th. It's good to have something to focus on during this time of huge transition, and it's a big goal of mine to do an Olympic Tri.
Our 5 year anniversary is coming up next month and we really want to get away but don't have much money to spend. We were going to go to Mesquite but their prices seem to have gone way up since last time we went. Any ideas? What can we do for a few nights with about $400? Probably not much! I hope we can think of something fun.

Baking Cookies and Enjoying Sunshine

2011-03-03T06:14:00.005+08:00

I told the kids this morning that if they helped me clean we'd make cookies. They did pretty good, we cleaned and vacuumed the downstairs, did laundry, dishes, and swept/mopped. Then we made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, with my favorite easy recipe:
1 small can of pure pumpkin
1 spice cake mix
2 eggs
1 cup choc chips
mix and bake for12 min at 325 or until no longer wet looking.
They love wearing their aprons and helping out.

Yesterday we met some friends at the 'Cat Park' by our house and a nice guy with a huge dog taught Ethan how to throw the ball to the dog with a neato little ball picker-upper and thrower. Ethan was in heaven for twenty minutes. I wish we could get him a dog now, I never thought I'd say that.

Big Scare

2011-02-22T05:48:00.002+08:00

As if Ethan getting stuck at the Aquarium wasn't enough, we almost lost Suzy!! We were at the park behind the rec center waiting for kids' zumba to start, so we decided to let the kids look at the ducks by the canal. It was a freezing cold day, you can see how cold Suzy looks before it happened. Ethan is standing next to the canal in his picture. I was on the phone with my sister Ruthanne watching the kids, and Seth was right next to Suzy by the water's edge. In a flash she slipped down that muddy decline you see in the picture and into the canal! It was by far the scariest moment of my entire life. I said a few choice words (in Ruthanne's ear unfortunately), hung up the phone and ran over. Seth had already jumped in and saved her, but now I was worried she'd freeze. He handed her out to me and I ran as fast as I could to the car. Once I got there I stripped her down and wrapped my coat around her naked, freezing little body. We got her into a lukewarm bath and she finally stopped shivering. That night I rocked her to sleep in my arms and thanked God it didn't end bad, and that she was still with us. I held her for an hour after she fell asleep, just grateful to have her safe and warm.

Cabela's with the Lotz Fam

2011-02-20T05:41:00.000+08:00

We've met our friends TJ and Kristen Lotz for Cafe Rio and Cabela's a few times since we moved to Salt Lake and it's always been really fun. It's a nice half-way point for both of us. The kids love it and we love being able to chat while they run around getting entertained for free! :)

Aquariam Fiasco!

2011-02-16T06:00:00.004+08:00

I met my sister Camille and her kids at the Aquariam for some fun on a cold day. It was all going fine til we decided to go to story time before we left for lunch. Ethan was playing in the play structure with the other kids. There are holes for the kids to poke their heads out of, but there is also a crack in the rock, you can see Gavin through that crack in one of these pictures. Ethan got stuck trying to stick his head out of that crack. He also got an arm wedged in the hole. I tried to help him out but he wouldn't budge. He started panicking and crying and got all hot and sweaty which made him swell and get stuck even worse. The employees called the fire department, and since we were in Sandy Darren happened to hear the dispatch. (Darren is Camille's husband, a Sandy Firefighter) By the time the fire truck, ambulance, and 15+ emergency personnel arrived an employee had been able to get Ethan out. I was kind of upset because I'd asked them to leave Ethan alone while we waited for the fire dept to get there and deconstruct the play structure because it was hurting him when they tried to get him out. Since he was stuck by his neck I didn't want anyone jerking on him. But they went ahead and jerked him around a little more and were able to get him out by bending his arm down. Anyway, big fiasco, we got pictures with Darren and some of the fire dept. Crazy!!!

Week of Family Non Stop Fun

2011-02-07T03:31:00.003+08:00

Last week my sister Ruthanne and her husband and kids came to visit from Texas. I was so excited to see them, and it turned out to be one of the best weeks of my life! It was so fun to see family almost every day and have activities planned out. We had our annual bingo night, took the kids to Discovery Museum, went swimming together, had a date night at Thai Delight/Bonwood Bowling, had a girls night doing water aerobics, nails, personality tests, eating pizza/snacks, then had a pizza/game night last night. I feel blessed to have the family I have. I am close to all my siblings and their families, and they all add something special to my life. I can't imagine life without all of them in it. It's funny, growing up we fought a lot but now we are such good friends. I want my kids to have a lot of siblings too since it has been such a blessing to me, we'll see if I can do it though.
Which brings me to my parents. They are amazing. Their devotion and unselfishness truly amazes me. They have always given everything and put their family first. Their oldest is 30 and they still have kids at home. My youngest brother will be in high school this fall. They have worked hard with steady faith this whole time. It is truly inspiring. This week made me feel more solidly a part of my family because we were all together so much. I loved it! My camera was having issues so I'm hoping to get pictures from others to add to this post soon.

Ethan's ramblings

2011-02-07T02:57:00.003+08:00

I'm home from church right now with Ethan who is running a temperature. He is such a funny kid, I sure love him. I haven't been recording enough of the funny things he says. Today as we left church we saw a huge, white teddy bear sitting in a wheel chair by the door. It was very random and made us both laugh when we saw it. Ethan got this smile on his face and said, "Mom, is that bear my teacher today?" Then we laughed and took turns making up things the bear would say if it was his teacher, and after Ethan would say, "Funny. hahahahahah" I loved seeing his sense of humor come out. I think he was feeling loopy since he had a fever which made it even more hilarious.
Last week we were at my parents house visiting with Ruthanne and her family who were visiting from Texas and Ethan got hurt on the treadmill downstairs. The kids were playing with it and turned it on and he fell and got caught between the moving belt and the wall. The belt was spinning against his neck and gave him a pretty bad burn. I put hi in their bathtub to clean it out and when I laid him down in the water he screamed out, "Ouch!!! A shark bit my neck! I don't like sharks. I HATE sharks!" Ha ha, when the water touched his burn it must've really hurt.
Saturday morning we were eating breakfast and Ethan said, "If a butterfly lands on me it doesn't bite me, it tickles me. And I like those tickles. I really like them, I really like them a lot." That one had us laughing for a long time.
He has had a lot of questions lately about marriage, weddings, wedding rings, husband/wives, etc. He said to me the other day, "Why did you marry dad?! I wanted to marry you! I wanted to marry you and Suzy and give you rings and say I love you. But you already married dad. Why did you do it mom?"
This one isn't really Ethan's, it's Seth's, but I still want to remember it. I got up yesterday to my alarm to go teach aerobics and Seth was sleeping in. As I was getting my clothes I heard him say, "I see what's going on here. The ones with the bigger utensils are eating all the food....that's exactly what's going on here." I laughed all the way to work and couldn't stop chuckling to myself all day.
I wish I could remember more, there are so many things he's been saying lately. More to come!

Snow

2011-01-12T05:03:00.002+08:00

Snow Day with Dad!!

Pool

2011-01-05T04:51:00.003+08:00

I found the kids new swimsuits at Target the other day and was so excited to take them swimming. They looked adorable! We have a family pass to the rec center I work at and it has saved us from winter boredom many times. The kids always have a great time. Ethan is getting brave and putting his own head under now, and Suzy is too daring for her own good. She thinks she's invincible.

Christmas

2010-12-26T04:39:00.001+08:00

This was the first year we opened presents at our own house. It was really fun to have our own thing, then go over to my parents to see them later in the day. We had a great Christmas, and as my Grandma Ward would say, "We made out like bandits". We really did this year because we saved up gift cards from our credit card so we got really nice gifts without spending much. Plus we got spoiled by Seth's sister who had us this year, really spoiled. And by my parents. I couldn't believe all of our loot!! We mostly just got our kids stuff from Family Dollar, which they loved! hehe. Ethan especially liked the helicopter he got there, he will tell anyone who'll listen all about it. But he really likes to tell Camille. :)

Christmas Eve

2010-12-25T04:30:00.003+08:00

I'm always disappointed in my lack of pictures after such a fun night like this. I need to do better at capturing the night. We had such a wonderful Christmas Eve this year. We had it at my parents house with my family (minus Jon and Ruthanne and James) and my Aunt Joan and Uncle Steve's family. We had a nice ham dinner then shared some thoughts, had musical numbers(I got Seth to sing and I was even daring enough to do a duet with Marie), and a nativity scene. The kids were so cute in their costumes. Camille and I decided to sew costumes the Wednesday before Christmas and didn't finish everything, but we'll be ready for next year!

Temple Square Visit

2010-12-19T04:17:00.002+08:00

We met our friends Gaby and Ben Kingery and their kids at Temple square to see the lights, it was so good to see those guys; I wish we'd taken some pictures with them. It was a cold night but the kids enjoyed it. They especially loved the nativity scene and the Christus statue. This Christmas Ethan is understanding a lot more. Teaching him about Christ and why we celebrate has been so rewarding for me. I can see him developing a love for the Savior, even though he doesn't understand everything yet.

Sweet sweet CASH

2010-12-18T04:23:00.002+08:00

Every once in a while things in this life go our way and we have a victory to be remembered. This check represents one of those times in life. We were sucked into a time share sales meeting with the promise of a free cruise/flights for two. They said we'd only pay $40 in taxes each. After we sat through the sales presentation and said "No" 20 times we received our gift, and it was a far cry from what they promised. So after some (semi)threatening phone calls about possible legal action we got this check and settlement papers in the mail. :):):):) Wohoo! We're using it for our upcoming 5 year anniversary.

Gingerbread Houses

2010-12-11T05:25:00.001+08:00

We had some of my siblings over to make gingerbread houses and had such a fun night!! Ethan and Gavin were wrestling around and playing tug of war with Laura and Tom. We had about every kind of candy imaginable there and we all worked hard to make amazing gingerbread houses and castles.

Our First Triathlon

2010-11-14T05:46:00.002+08:00

This was so much fun!! We knew it'd be a good experience but weren't expecting it to be such a rush. It made us feel so alive!!! We can't wait to do it again. We both met our personal goals as far as times go. This was a sprint triathlon (5K run, 10 mile bike, and 400 yard swim) Seth did it in 1 hr and 13 minutes and I finished in 1 hr and 29 minutes. It was fun to train together and to get into shape. I started teaching water aerobics in September as well as a triathlon swimming training class that helps people who want to do a triathlon but need to learn how to swim.
Seth's brothers James and Matthew did it with us, as well as my friend from work. I loved seeing them throughout the race and hearing them cheer us on. What a great experience!!

Halloween

2010-11-01T05:09:00.000+08:00

We were lame this year and didn't dress up....we've been lame the last couple years. Maybe next year we'll be one of those cool families that all has the same theme...that'd be fun. Suzy was a pretty princess and Ethan was a purple dragon. They both loved their costumes and wanted to wear them all the time. Collin was a painfully cute little bat, he made my night. Laura also looked awesome as a My Little Pony.

Funny Stuff

2010-10-18T08:27:00.002+08:00

Ethan has been saying some funny stuff lately, I don't want to forget the things he says. I was teaching him about Jesus yesterday and that you can pray and ask Jesus for help. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: You can talk to Jesus and ask Him to help you when you need something or when you're scared.
Ethan: Hmmm..., Jesus? Can you take off my coat, I'm too hot with it on.
Me: Well, that is something you can easily do yourself....
Ethan: Where is Jesus?
Me: He is up in Heaven.
Ethan: (looking up at the sky out the window, motioning with his hands for Jesus to come down) Jump down, Jesus! Here, jump Jesus, I'll catch you!

So cute! I love hearing his little thoughts.
I haven't updated on how we're doing for a while, so for anyone who reads this (and my future posterity) Ethan has been putting us through the ringer lately, he hasn't been sleeping well for a month now. Poor kid is so tired himself but he is resisting sleep with everything he has. Plus he gets up a lot at night and comes in our bed to sleep. Which we'd be ok with but he doesn't really sleep, he tosses around and tries to wake us up for hours. Then he gets up early and is tired and grumpy all day. I hope it's just a stage and that it ends soon. It's exhausting and exasperating. I've gotten the feeling he is testing the bounds of my love, by acting out all day then clinging to me all night so I can't sleep. He needs security and I am trying as hard as I can to give it to him.
Suzy is still sleeping well, thank goodness. She started walking a couple weeks ago, it's so cute to see. She's now in nursery. She's really into cooking in her play kitchen, so is Ethan.
Seth just had fall break this week, which wasn't much of a break, but it was a change of pace anyway. He got hired at the Attorney Generals office this week!!!!!! After a year of applying to dozens of clerkship positions, he finally got one. We are so relieved to have him getting some real legal experience. He starts tomorrow. He is also actively pursuing a study abroad in China for next year, and possibly an internship there next summer. We'll see how it pans out.
He and I are training for a sprint triathlon on Nov. 13th in St. George. It's fun to do something together, we've both been really getting into working out. I got a job a few weeks ago teaching water aerobics and a triathlon pool-based training class at the new rec center right by our house. I went in and pitched them on the idea and they went for it, it has been so fun to teach there. I'm also doing a preschool co op with some friends in my ward. I decided not to do my own since I didn't have enough interest to make it worth my time. I'm glad I'm doing a co op because I get to be involved but I also get breaks when he goes to other people's houses.
Life is good, stressful at times, but still good. I try not to think about all the debt we have and to just enjoy the ride while trying to be frugal but still live. That's all for now!!!

Chuck A Rama

2010-10-07T11:31:00.003+08:00

Some days I am totally fed up with cooking and cleaning, and I just want to go have fun with the kids. Today was one of those days. It was so rainy so we couldn't take them to the park. It hit me.....let's go to Chuck A Rama!!!!!! Even though it wasn't in our budget or our diet, Seth thought it sounded fun so we got the kids in the car. I have fond memories of being young and my dad coming home and exclaiming: "Kids, get in the car. We're going to Chuck A Rama!!!" Good times. The kids loved all the yummy food, especially the mac and cheese and jello squares. It was fun to get them ice cream sundaes. The best part, kids eat free!!!

2010-09-30T11:24:00.002+08:00

The other day I canned 20 quarts of tomatoes and had my apron on all day doing it. Suzy decided she wanted to wear it. Suzy has recently gotten into books. She loves to be read to. I'm not sure what my kid are going to be for Halloween. My friend lent me this Winnie the Pooh costume but it's too big for Suzy and too small for Ethan. Plus, Ethan told me he wants to be a dinosaur. I need to start looking for costumes. Suzy has a pretty princess dress, and she'd love that. I need to get a tiara.

State Fair

2010-09-17T11:14:00.002+08:00

My friend Desiree and I took our kids to the State Fair, which is right by my house. We walked there from my house. Ethan loved the animals, but especially a miniature breed hen with her little chicks. I want to get him a mini hen next spring since he liked it so much.

Collin Ralph Schmidt

2010-09-16T11:05:00.001+08:00

My nephew Collin was born on September 15th, 2010. He is such a sweet baby!! Going to visit them in the hospital was a sweet experience. I could feel all the love Camille and Darren had for him already and his little spirit was so strong in the hospital room. Camille said it already felt like he belonged. I like to jokingly say they named him after me, hehe. :) I'm so happy to have him in our family!!!

Hanging out in the Backyard

2010-09-09T10:55:00.004+08:00

We have managed to collect some bikes/cars for the kids to ride in on the driveway and back deck. I don't think we actually paid for any of them, except the big wheel from DI. The rest were gifts, hand-me-downs, or things I found on the side of the road. :)
The kids love it. I like to sit back there with a book and read while I keep an eye on them, with my camera handy.

Family Campout-SUCCESS!!

2010-09-08T11:43:00.004+08:00

We took the kids camping over Labor Day up American Fork Canyon to a place called Cascade Falls. It was a beautiful spot with hikes to natural springs and waterfalls. We were lucky, we found the perfect spot. I wish I would've taken a picture of our spot. It was a circle of trees that had all grown together up top and made a perfect canopy to block sun and wind. We had a little stream next to our spot. Our kids are usually terrible campers but we felt like trying it again since we both like to camp so much, we want them to get used to it. This time they did great, unlike last month. We learned a think or two last month. We kept them up late and wore them out and when they crashed, we went immediately to sleep because we knew they'd get up with the sun-and they did. But we got 7-8 hours, which felt great. It was so nice to be together as a family, just us with our kids. Whenever we are with other friends or family members it can feel like our kids are in the way. Its nice to have a weekend that is about them. Ethan can't stop talking about it, he loved roasting his hot dog and marshmallow, helping dad set up the tent, fishing, hiking, and sleeping in a tent.

Summer Days

2010-09-02T11:17:00.000+08:00

This has been a great summer for us. I have especially enjoyed it because I wasn't nursing or pregnant (hallelujah)and my kids were pretty easy. Lots of trips to the park, library, a few to the Dr but at least he has a cool fish tank, swimming in the backyard pool, playdates, fun at Nana's, trips up to Idaho, Dinosaur Museum, Gardens at Thanksgiving Point, picnics, hikes, walks, farm trips, zoo trips, camping, it has been so fun. I hate to see summer wrapping up. :( At least the Holidays will help make the cooler weather fun.

Grandmother Smith

2010-08-17T11:05:00.001+08:00

My sweet Grandmother Smith made me this dress when I was a baby. I'm so glad it fits Suzy!! It's her special daisy dress that she used to make. It's a treasure to me, I'm glad I got a picture of them together.

Mesquite=Lots of fun!!

2010-08-16T10:55:00.000+08:00

Seth and I went on a trip together to Mesquite and had a great time. It was so good to be together sans children (they are so great, but can be rather distracting). We hadn't been on a couples trip (besides a couple one-nighters around town) since we had kids. It was soooooooooooooooooooooooooo nice. So refreshing. And Mesquite was perfect. It was very cheap, we're talking $23/night, which is great for me because I have a hard time relaxing when I'm going into debt a ton. The pool felt great, we saw Inception, went bowling, hot tubbing, ate at a yummy buffet, worked on our mission statement, slept in, had great talks, went on walks, remembered how much we really, really, really like eachother. It was great, we're planning to go again soon.

Waterfall Hike

2010-08-09T10:42:00.001+08:00

We took our kids on a Sunday afternoon hike to a waterfall up the canyon. The kids both loved it, especially Ethan. We discovered his hidden talent: rockclimbing. He was such a natural. He just started climbing the rocks and before we knew it he'd be really high. It was stressful to turn around every other minute and see him climbing up a steep rock wall, but he was fearless. It is fun to realize what individuals my kids really are. Seth decided to climb behind him so he wouldn't fall, we hated to make him stop since he was enjoying himself so much. Then, as bad luck would have it, Ethan slipped on the slick, moss-covered rock by the waterfall and cut the skin next to his eye. The blood gushed out so fast I thought for sure he'd need stitches, but once we compressed it with a spare diaper we could see the cut was fairly small. I'm excited to see the little guy climb again. Suzy love splashing around in the cold water. She loves water so much, she never lets cold temperatures hold her back from water play.

Ethan Turns 3!

2010-07-31T11:06:00.001+08:00

My little sweetheart of a son turned three. As he gets older he is more and more fun. Seth and I both enjoy our relationships with him, he is such a loving boy. We decided to skip the party this year and have a fun family day since we haven't been seeing much of Seth this summer and Ethan loves spending time with his dad. We took him to the Zoo and he had a great time. He got some Legos, Candyland, Hungry Hippos, clothes and a few more toys. He kept asking when we were going to go to Nana's so she could cut his cake. He is so used to seeing birthdays at my parents house and I guess my mom usually cuts the cake. So the Sunday after his birthday I made another cake and we sang at my moms house after our family dinner. He was so happy to be the center of attention and have Nana cut his cake. :)
My family sings a second verse to the happy birthday song, same tune just new words:
"Many more birthdays to you, many more birthdays to you, many more birthdays dear Ethan, many more birthdays to you!"
I really like this and for so long I thought everyone did it. It's so nice to have your family and friends belting this out on your birthday, everyone wishing you a long healthy life. I think everyone should sing this verse.
Birthdays always make me sentimental, especially my kids' birthdays. It's a nice reminder of how special they are to me. I don't know what I would do without my little guy. I love doing little things to make him happy. It's nice to have a buddy with me all day, making conversation and showing his imagination and love for life. He never hangs back, he just jumps right in and lives life. I love you Ethan!

Happy 27th Seth!!

2010-07-26T12:24:00.000+08:00

We had a ping pong tournament for Seth's birthday this year. He has gotten really into ping pong because they have a table at the law school and we have one in our garage now. So we set up the tournament by drawing numbers and..................Seth won! Ha everyone thought it was rigged but he really did win. The prize was only a $5 gift card to Target but the real prize was bragging rights. He had a really fun night. I am so grateful to be married to a guy like Seth. He is so fun-loving and easy-going. He's also driven, informed, principled, sensitive, level-headed, loving, the list could go on and on. I feel like I lucked out when I married Seth. I never get tired of spending time together and he is always the one I'm excited to see or talk to every day. He's also a great dad. Our kids are lucky to have him, he takes good care of them. I love you honey!

Welcome Home Sister Ward (#2)

2010-07-22T12:06:00.001+08:00

My sister Karen came home from her mission to Ukraine. She served an honorable mission there, we are all so proud of her and who she is. Karen has a huge heart, she loves to get out there and serve people and try to make their lives better. She had plenty of opportunities for this in Ukraine. It was like Christmas morning waiting for her at the airport. It has been so fun having her home. I love Karen, there was always something missing while she was gone. She and I have a special relationship, it's so nice to be able to talk again. Her mission reminds me so much of mine, we can definitely relate. Since she has been home I have already seen the Lord blessing her life for her service. I can't wait to see what is to come!
ps The second picture down is my siblings in birth order. It's not very often we're all together since Ruthanne lives in Texas now. (Camille, me, Ruthanne, Laura, Karen, James, Marie, Andy)

Ward Family Campout (Sleepless nights/fun-filled days)

2010-07-19T11:46:00.001+08:00

My family went camping up at Currant Creek Reservoir, it was a beautiful spot with great fishing. I love camping, but ever since we had kids it has been close to torture. I guess I should just expect not to get any sleep. But it's not just that, I hate the thought of my kids keeping up the whole campground. Both my kids sleep great at home, but camping is another story. The first night it was Ethan, the second night was Suzy's turn. Other than that, we had a great time. Lots of food, games, fishing, even crafts, oh, did I mention FOOD?? My family does food right (as Seth is fond of saying), a little too right.....:) It was fun to go make those memories. I especially enjoyed jumping into the lake randomly with Marie and starting a chain reaction. We decided we were living our lives by jumping in. :)

Time with the Robertsons

2010-07-18T12:42:00.000+08:00

Seth's sister Lisa has always lived so far away until this last year when she moved to Idaho. We got to go see them for the 4th of July and then the following two weekends when they stayed with us. It was so fun to get to spend more time with them and get to know their family. I was inspired by what I saw. Lisa is an inspiration! She cooks healthy food, homeschools her kids, doesn't stress about small stuff, jumps in to have fun with her kids, openly shares her testimony, encourages and loves all around her, the list goes on. Oh, and Spencer isn't too bad either. :) Her kids are all really cute, and we got to see Seth's sister Laura who is staying with them right now. The best part about Lisa (Seth's sister Leslie is this way too) is that she is always nurturing. I come away feeling nurtured whenever I spend time with her. I'm glad to be able to see more of them now that they are out west.

Cooking Blog

2010-06-12T02:15:00.003+08:00

My sister Ruthanne and I have been collecting some of our recipes onto this blog. They are mostly vegetarian, we were inspired by The China Study.

Sunshine Academy Preschool

2010-06-05T10:59:00.002+08:00

I am starting a preschool in my home (756 Picture Drive, SLC, Ut 84116) this fall, I am so excited about it! Check out my preschool blog here. I'd like to keep my classes small so I'm only accepting 5-6 students per class. There will be a 3 year old class (must be 3 by the time school starts) that meets Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and a 4 year old class (must be 4 by the time school starts) that meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
It is so important that children have a positive experience with preschool as it will set the stage for a lifetime of educational experiences. My number one goal is to make sure every child feels special and loved. Number two is to make sure they have fun and feel like they have succeeded at school. I have put together a great curriculum that focuses on letter recognition, phonetic reading, writing, numbers, shapes, colors, life skills, values, arts/crafts, music/dancing, and much more! Classes will be held Sept. 1st 2010 through May 19th 2011, with major holidays off. Check out sunshineacademypreschool.blogspot.com for a registration form or to schedule a meeting with me to discuss your child.
Space is limited and referrals will be considered first!!

Cowboy Hat

2010-05-30T10:26:00.000+08:00

I bought Ethan this cowboy hat while I was in Texas visiting Ruthanne. Suzy thought it was hers because she wore it on the flight home. I didn't have room in my bag to pack it so I had to carry it in my purse, and it didn't really fit, so she ended up wearing it. Everyone on the plane thought she looked so cute with it on and that made her like it even more. Sooooooooooooooooo we had problems when I tried to give it to Ethan. Most of the time he shares it but she wants it all the time. See how happy she is with it on? The picture of her crying is either her seeing Ethan with it on or her right after he's taken it off her head. I need to get her one soon!!

Little Fire Fighter

2010-05-30T10:18:00.001+08:00

We took Ethan to see his Uncle Darren at the fire station. Ethan is always talking about Darren and we thought he'd like the trucks, and he really did. He had such a good time 'driving' the trucks. He kept saying-Come on Darren, sit next to me! He looked pretty cute in the fire coat and hat.

My Time in Texas

2010-05-24T10:34:00.000+08:00

I got to go visit my sister Ruthanne and her family in Texas for a few days. Suzy came along and we had some fun girl time. I love my sister so much and have really missed her since she moved last summer. We had a lot of fun hanging out, talking, and eating good food. We also went to see the Texas Longhorn cattle drive, out to some delicious Texas BBQ, and to see a beautiful botanical garden. We got to swim in their backyard, which was extra nice especially since it was snowing when I left Utah. I was sad to leave but at least she is coming to Utah for a month and will be here soon. Her girls are so sweet. I loved being at their house but was really missing Ethan and Seth by the end. They went to visit Seth's sister Leslie in Idaho and had a good time there. After I left Ethan kept asking Seth where I'd gone and Seth would answer that I'd gone to Texas. After a while Ethan thought that all mommies had gone to Texas. When they were reading a bedtime story about a mommy Ethan said-the mommy went to Texas, dad. Except he pronounces Texas like-takis. I love that little boy.

I turn 28!

2010-05-13T10:07:00.001+08:00

Happy Birthday to me! I turned 28, I thought I'd be sad and feel old (especially since my husband is still 26 til July), but I'm doing ok! I feel happy at 28, I guess I'm ok with the age because I'm about where I thought I'd be at 28. No, I'm not rich or famous, but I have an awesome husband and two sweet kids. I can't complain. Seth made me a birthday cake and was upset that it didn't turn out very well. It still tasted great but it stuck to the pan and was crumbled and hard to frost. I was just glad to have it. We spent the day together as a family, this is what makes me the happiest. I love date nights, but I really love family days. Speaking of date nights, as a side note, we went bowling the other night and I bowled a 178. This is very VERY abnormal for me. I just kept striking. My last 4 were strikes. I felt awesome. So on my birthday we went to this is the place monument and Ethan loved it. He ran up and wrestled a goat to the ground and said-come here you stinker!! We thought it was hilarious and can't wait to get him into wrestling. We went and got free lunch at Rubios and then went for my free birthday dinner at Noodles and Co. It was a fun day.

Snugs Before Bed

2010-05-06T10:25:00.003+08:00

My kids are really snuggly before bed, I think it's to put bedtime off on Ethan's part. They get silly and laughy after we say prayer. The other night they were being cute so I took some pictures. Suzy always likes to have something in her mouth, usually a bobby pin or a hair clip she finds lying around. It's funny to see her crawling around with something hanging out of her mouth. Little things like that make me smile. Lately Ethan has been picking little flowers (mostly weeds) and bringing them into me. It is so sweet! He always tells me I'm his friend and that I mean the world to him, it melts my heart.
The other day I had someone ask me if I thought it was fair that men got to have a career and a family life while women had to choose. She didn't like how women have to give up their career and stay home "wiping bums and doing laundry" if they want to have children. I couldn't have disagreed more. My kids are not a burden to me. I didn't get knocked up and decide to do the right thing by raising them, both my kids were planned pregnancies and I chose to stay home with them. It is hard not to be annoyed when someone assumes I'm a victim in my own life. Sure, I have my bad days when I feel like a martyr, but I had many more boring, pointless days when I was working. When I was working full-time I lived for the weekend so I could be home or doing things I enjoyed or visiting family/friends. Now I can do that whenever I want, as long as I bring my kids with me or arrange for them to be babysat. I know Motherhood isn't easy, but that doesn't mean it isn't wonderful. I can look at all my daily tasks as pointless or mundane or I can look at them through the lens Christianity offers: When ye are in the service of the least of these....ye are only in the service of your God. Service is love embodied. I serve them because I love them, I love them because I serve them. Christ-like love, or Charity, is not merely a feeling, it is action.
One thing is for sure, I like myself a whole lot better now that I'm a mom. Being around these noble spirits helps me overcome my vices, it is healing to soak up their goodness. How can you not learn patience, long-suffering, unselfishness, and love as a mom?? It is healthy to be forced to focus on something other than myself. I feel a sense of purpose, I am not just wiping bums, although I do that a lot, I am serving them by doing something they can't do for themselves. I am fulfilling my mission. I hope my kids will never have to wonder whether or not I see them as a burden. They are always my greatest blessing.

Birthday Girls

2010-04-26T10:48:00.003+08:00

My sister Camille turned 30 last week and Laura turned 24 today. We had a surprise party for Camille, and she was very surprised! Her husband Darren took her out to lunch for her birthday and when they got back we were all there, I wish I would've gotten more pictures, there was a pretty big crowd that night of her friends and family. I was glad it all worked out, I made my first two-tiered cake for her party, which she gave me pointers on a couple days before her party, thinking it would be for Suzy's party that was coming up. She was surprised to see the raspberry cake was for her!!! She is an amazing person and such a good friend to me. She is an example to me of what a mother should be. I love you Camille! Laura had a great birthday the next week. She just got accepted on scholarship into the U's Masters of Dance program (Go Laura!) I can't wait to see all her performances and to have her live even closer to us! Laura is such a fun, happy person. I love her too!!!

Suzy Turns 1!!!

2010-04-24T10:00:00.002+08:00

Susan Aimee Ure turned 1!!! We have affectionately given Suzy many nicknames, probably more than most kids get. I've made up nicknames for nicknames for nicknames....you get the point. We usually call her "The Cube". I love The Cube so much!!! I can't believe she's been ours for a whole year now. She has all of us wrapped around her little finger. She is so fun and loving. She was a good sleeper from birth to about five months then put me through heck until she finally started sleeping consistently through the night a few weeks ago. I am still scared every night she'll get me up, but it seems to be lasting this time. Other than her terrible sleep habits she is a really happy, easy baby. She just barely got four teeth in at once, a very late teether. She is crawling all over but isn't standing on her own yet. She understands a lot and even says a few words: Nana (banana), Mama, Dada, Eyes, Thank you, and Hi. She has such a loving spirit about her, I've always found it nurturing to hold her and nurse her. She is pretty patient with Ethan, he takes her toys a lot and is rough at times. But sometimes she loses patience and lunges down to bite his legs when he takes things from her. It's pretty funny because after she tries to bite him she cries and acts so miserable, like she's disappointed in herself for hitting rock bottom. Suzy has the most adorable smile in the world! I love to see her little teeth when she smiles big.
I made my first fondant cake for her birthday. It was looking pretty good until Ethan got into it before the party and smashed part of it and ate a bunch of the fondant balls, so I tried to smooth it out and made more balls. Oh well. It was fun to make. We had a little dinner party for her. Seth and I got her a wading pool. Can't wait for the weather to warm up so they can swim!! It was a fun birthday, we sure love our Suzy.

Lots to Think About....

2010-04-19T11:03:00.001+08:00

Ethan finds he thinks best with a chicken on his head. Really. Ha ha I love the look on his face. He goes outside and grabs one of his chickens and plops it onto his head and then just paces around. It is so funny. Seth and I get a kick out of how serious he is when one of them are on his head. Funny boy.

Easterssssss

2010-04-09T10:59:00.004+08:00

We hid the kids' Easter baskets and they had a good time finding them. Seth's family always hid their baskets so we adopted their tradition. It's fun! Seth and I hid each others, too. We had a full day watching Conference and having a big Easter egg hunt and dinner at my parent's house then we had some of Seth's brothers over for Easter dinner at our house. Lots of food and family, the best way to celebrate holidays. My sister is serving a mission in Ukraine right now and she wrote this week telling us that on Easter people everywhere greet each other by saying, "Jesus Christ was resurrected." then they reply "He truly was resurrected." I think that's awesome. Sometimes I want to celebrate with strangers and exclaim to each other that Christ was resurrected. Instead we have Easter egg hunts. They are fun and all, but how much better would it be to share our faith in the Lord and His glorious resurrection. He truly was resurrected.

New Arrivals

2010-04-09T10:00:00.003+08:00

These three fuzzy chicks have been the highlight of Ethan's life. He loves going outside to "check" on the chicks. They have been so cute and fun. Unfortunately the pecking order is a very real thing. Our chicks have established a pecking order and are pecking each other to death. We are separating them until their wounds heal and they grow a bit more. I will be so sad if any of them die. I have grown quite attached to the little gals. I love the picture of Suzy grabbing a chick's tail feathers as it tries to get away. haha.

Coloring Eggs

2010-04-04T03:15:00.003+08:00

We colored eggs yesterday and had a good time doing it. I hadn't colored eggs in years, having children has given me permission to do so many fun things I enjoyed as a child that I wouldn't normally do on my own. Like build snowmen, go to the farm, do puzzles, color, finger paint, watch Disney movies, etc. Being a stay at home mom rocks! :) Ethan has always had a fascination with eggs and birds of all kinds. I gave him a raw egg to gently drop into the boiling water and he got a mischievous look on his face and smashed it on the stove. Then he looked up at me surprised and said "Mom, where's the bird?" I laughed even though I had to clean up raw egg off a hot stove.
He has been playing with the plastic Easter eggs we got all week, hiding them and putting things inside of them. I'm excited for Easter morning because we got some cute little chickies today! Seth is on his way home from IFA right now with 3 baby chicks, 50 pounds of chick feed, a watering bottle, and a heating lamp! Ethan is going to love them!! We'll keep them in a large box in our garage until they're older. Seth will be building them a little coup in our backyard. I was so glad when our new landlords said we could have chickens. Urban chickening folks, it's all the rage right now. :)
We are so happy with our new home. As soon as we're done organizing I will put pictures up mostly for my sister Ruthanne in Texas. (I can't wait to go see her in six weeks!!!!!)

Ethan

2010-03-24T13:22:00.003+08:00

I love this last picture of Ethan, it captures his innocent little soul. Ethan is so sweet, I love him more than I can express. Alas...lately he has been a little stinker. He has been hitting and biting me a lot. I get upset and take him to his room until he's quiet then he comes out and he's at it again. Last night before I went to bed I prayed hard for patience and the ability to meet his emotional needs so he will feel more settled and peaceful at home, hoping this would stop him from trying to hurt me all the time. Within a few minutes from the time I got up he had already tried to bite me and gone to time out. How frustrating! I hate there to be anything but love between us but I know he needs boundaries.
Also, he is resisting his naps which he really needs. Normally when he tries resisting he'll usually give up and start taking them again but he figured out a way to avoid them altogether. He bangs his door with hard toys so loudly I know it will wake up Suzy so I let him out. Then he's grumpy the rest of the day and if we go anywhere he falls asleep in the car immediately.
This afternoon we took him to the farm to get us all out of our apartment (which is covered in moving boxes). It was so nice to have some fun with him and see him smile and laugh really hard. We came home and had dinner then had prayer and we all sang a song together. He was so sweet and loving and everything seemed easy and natural. He kissed and hugged Suzy and me goodnight and went off to bed with Seth. I need to remember he is a little boy with boundless energy, he needs a healthy outlet or he'll find a naughty one. He is a big reason we are moving, it isn't easy having him so cooped up. I'm hoping that yard will help. We're going there tomorrow to spray for pest control and he'll get to see the place for the first time.
Ethan loves riding this truck outside Smiths, his face is so cute here! So happy!

14 inch Trout!

2010-03-23T12:37:00.002+08:00

Seth and I went fishing with my brother James today and caught a 14 inch trout! We thought we were going to get skunked because we hadn't had so much as a bite or even seen a ripple in the lake but then James had the idea to put a worm on the hook with a few weights and let it sit near the bottom and wait for a bite. So we waited and Seth's bait got a bite and he quickly jerked it upwards and reeled it in. We were so excited! What a great way to start spring break.

Update

2010-03-16T01:25:00.002+08:00

Thank you for your advice, those that left it. I was lucky enough to talk to my sister the day before we made our decision on where to move. She has been taking a Dave Ramsey course (I love Dave Ramsey!!) with her husband so she had great advice for me, too. Our choice came down to a house in West Jordan that we'd be renting the top floor of with someone else in the basement. It was a little out of our price range ($50 a month more than we'd said we wanted to pay) and it was a 30 minute commute for Seth to school each day which adds a lot of gas money. But it was perfect and everything we wanted. We probably would have done it but the landlord seemed so fishy the whole time. They sent us a contract to sign and it was full of dubious and worrisome language. We didn't feel good about signing it and knew we needed to stay within our price range and avoid a long commute.
So I kept calling on places. I called on a 3 bed house in Salt Lake that was going for pretty cheap and the guy said based on our conversation he didn't think I'd like the place. Ok....I was a bit confused. He said his parents needed to rent out a nicer 5 bed house in Salt Lake and that they were going to be choosy on who rented it. I told him it was probably out of our price range and that we only needed 3 bedrooms. He said to come see it and if his parents liked us they'd be flexible on the price. Anyway, long story short we really liked the place except that it didn't have a dishwasher and the yard wasn't fully fenced. Those are deal-breakers for me so I told the guy if it had a gate to fully fence the yard and a dishwasher I'd go for it, as long as it was in our price range. He told us what his parents had been renting it out for to their last tenants and it was $250 more than we wanted to pay a month. But they did our background check, etc, and we met his parents. They said they'd put the gate up, install a dishwasher, and drop the rent $250 a month..........so we're moving in!! It is only 10 minutes from the law school! It is an older home, but well-maintained in a nice neighborhood. The last tenants trashed it I guess so they just sunk 6K into it, it has new carpet, two-toned paint, tile, bathroom, windows, etc. It has a great backyard and they said we can put some chickens back there. It even has a two car garage. I am so grateful we passed the West Jordan house up. This one is better and less money and closer to school. I've noticed the Lord works with me this way. I have to prove I am willing to do what I know is right then I am blessed. We didn't find this house until we decided to stay within our price range and not commute. We move the 25th which works great too since it's spring break for Seth.
I can't wait to be able to send Ethan out to play in a fenced yard. We have been in apartments our whole marriage, I am so ready to be in a house.
Anyway, I finished a great book a few weeks ago that has really changed the way I think about food. It's called The China Study. It is the most comprehensive nutritional study ever conducted and it's basic message is to avoid the diseases of affluence (diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and many others) by eating a whole foods, plant-based diet. It has totally changed how I think about food. I think of everything I eat as either plant- or animal-based, and either whole or processed food. My dad was diagnosed with diabetes a few years back and I read this book in an effort to better understand what he should be eating. I ended up realizing we should all eat this way or we will get diabetes in our 30s and our children will get it in their 20s. The problem is I have a real addiction to sugar. I like meat, too, but have been able to cut down on it rather easily. I have only had red meat once in the last six weeks and I have fish/chicken once or twice a week. I still eat dairy just sparingly. I have been able to learn about many different grains/beans that are filling and delicious. I am in search of great recipes that incorporate beans, rice, grains, and vegetables with tasteful seasonings.
I hope I can learn to cook with whole foods and give this gift to my family. It's hard to avoid all the garbage but any effort is worth it.
Sometimes I get so discouraged by all the junk we eat but then I have to remind myself we do eat good things, too. I make my own multi-grain bread and we drink green smoothies a few times a week, we eat a lot more veggies than we ever did and more salads, too. Then we binge and get pizza and brownies, etc.....but we're trying!!!
I'm excited to grow a garden when we move, fresh produce tastes so much better. If you have a recipe your family loves that is full of whole foods please leave it! My sister and I are working on a food blog right now but it still needs tons of work. I will put the whole foods recipes on there that my family likes.
ps I know I am way behind on updating but I always catch up. When I do I change the dates so they are in the right order so just check in a couple days I will be updating from Christmas on.

Decisions.........

2010-03-11T13:07:00.003+08:00

Wow I haven't been good at updating lately at all. I need to do better, I have such cute kids that need documenting!! Lately I have been bogged down by big decisions that I can't seem to make. I used to think of myself as so decisive. Seth is usually the cautious one who is always second guessing his decisions (ask me about our courtship.....) but he must be rubbing off on me because I can't stick to a decision for the life of me!
It's been pretty much non-stop decisions, and non of them have been black and white, they're all gray. The one I am grappling with right now is whether we should live somewhere nicer in favor of high quality of life or go for somewhere cheap so we can avoid unnecessary debt. I hate debt. I really, really do. And I've never worried too much about where I live, but I'm home an awful lot now that I have two kids. I have to be able to entertain these little munchkins all the live-long day. It's kind of hard from inside an apartment. I wonder how I'll feel years down the road, looking back at this decision. Will I feel so grateful I kept the cost down and sacrificed in a low-cost dive so that I have less debt to pay off or will I be so glad I had fun and enjoyed a nicer place with a yard for my kids to romp around in?? Will I look at the extra debt as a drop in the bucket compared to tuition, which just jumped to 22K for this next year.
I have never struggled to live within my means, but when one is living on student loans, what is 'living within my means?' Decisions, decisions. Like should I make this blog public again so more people will be able to read it? Maybe that will help me update more.
I need to update about our crazy trip to Mesa. Lots of throw up, more than you'd think.
On the way down we listened to Dr. Laura on CD. It was entitled, Stop Whining, Start Living. I loved it! I really recommend it for all you whiney people out there, you know who you are! She said if you have friends who avoid your calls, etc, they are probably just so sick of your constant whining. There is constructive whining, ie venting, but after you've vented, just shut up! That's the main thing I got out of it.
If someone is actually reading this, what do you think I should do? Quality of life or less debt?? FYI my husband says it's totally up to me, he's not home much and just wants me to be happy, this makes it even harder!