Friend to Friend

On Saturday, I watched the global Friend to Friend event with Hiram and Ali for the Primary kids of our church.  During it, they were given a drawing lesson to draw a picture of themselves praying.  The artist and his helper drew a boy and girl all by themselves, but they said the kids could add more background if they wanted.  These two pictures are so cute to me and capture both of their personalities so well.  Hiram drew himself praying, then he was done and ready to move on.  Ali added her bed with a pillow with her name and stuffed bunny, as well as a window with the moon and stars shining.  I love them both, the kiddos and their drawings!

 

Gavin's Spaghetti alla Carbonara

For Gavin's Young Men activity last week, he was busy in the kitchen with his laptop following along for his first cooking lesson.  He made spaghetti alla carbonara, and it was pretty tasty!  He was a little agitated having to do more than one thing at a time, but he did well!  We'll have to have him help with dinner more often now  :).

 

Another House Fire

Gotta love being woken up in the night to flashing lights from a firetruck coming through your bedroom curtains. We looked out and were devastated to see firemen up in their cherry picker with huge hoses in full force. We couldn't see the fire, but we saw the huge cloud of steam above it. This morning we went on a walk to explore the damage. This house is on the street directly behind our street. Not only will it have to be rebuilt, but it caused damage to SIX other houses, THREE of which are lived in! This is the second fire in our neighborhood. The first happened almost exactly two years ago and burned 3 houses completely to the ground. I don't understand how these houses can be built so close together!

 

A Day of Love

We had a lovely Valentine's Day as a family.  I'm so grateful that Leonard's been my Valentine for 28 years!

And for our seven sweet passion fruits!

Handsome boys!

And lovely girls!

I love this crew with all of my heart!

Even though we are crazy!

Macy made us a gift at preschool.

This cute little painting!

She is walking more and more everyday!  She can take up to 10 steps on her own, but loves to walk forever holding someone's hands.  She's also learning how to walk with her new zebra toy.

Hiram's teacher spoiled them again!  He was most excited for his kinder surprise egg and sweetarts, but I am most excited for the cute heart magnet he made.

Ali made us this HUGE valentine heart!

This outfit used to be Noé's and I'm so glad Ali can wear it now.  I can't wait for Macy to wear it too!

Noé got out her face crayons and turned herself and Ali into...

Queens of hearts!

I set the table...

with some special treats- a Valentine card, creme brulee, white chocolate lollipop, and raspberry coffee cake.

But we feasted on crepes/palachinkas!  We had fresh strawberries, raspberries and whip cream as well as nutella, and lemon juice.  A simple meal that the whole family loves!

I love these "school" Valentines and am glad we still had some at home, since the kids couldn't celebrate at school this year.  Hopefully, they can again next year!

I bought treats for the 8 sisters I minister to, and had printed up cute Valentine's to attach to each of their goody bags.  I ordered them 3 days early via Staples same-day service.  Well apparently, same day only applies for their standard service, but I ordered premium prints.  They were supposed to be ready the next day, however they weren't ready for a week!  So I dropped of the little gifts a week late, but better late than never, right?

Also, last week I completely spaced the Valentine gifts Hiram, Ali, and Macy received from the Primary presidency.  They got cute cards, gratitude journals, and candy.  They also got blank Valentines to fill out and send to their Primary teachers.  They had so much fun writing out the cards and we're grateful for the little extension to our day of love!

Happy Year of the Ox!

After living in Taiwan for 4 years, Chinese New Year has become an important celebration to our family.  Our Teague was born there in the year of the ox, and now he has completed a full zodiac cycle!

Hiram's teacher sure likes to spoil her students!  She's given them gifts for Halloween, Christmas, for online-learning in January, and for the Lunar New Year!  Hiram was most excited for his chocolate coins and fortune cookie.  His fortune said, "Be prepared to modify your plan."  I think that is something that living with covid has taught the whole world!  I also got a chuckle out of the US penny in his red envelope (since we lost the penny here in Canada in 2013).

The festive artwork Hiram's class made at school.

We had a simple, but tasty dinner.  Our dear friends, the Wangs, brought us some of their delicious homemade dumplings and Chinese sausage.  I had never had Chinese sausage before, but I thoroughly enjoyed it!  We also got some egg rolls and fried shrimp to balance the meal, ha ha!

My sister-in-law, Suzette, is an artist.  She drew this beautiful coloring page and sent it to us.  I really enjoyed taking some time to do art.  I need to do it more often!

The mantra of the ox is, "I create art within a life of balance."

It's February!

The weather outside still makes me want to hibernate, but in February there are just too many holidays to celebrate!  We love Groundhog Day, Lunar New Year, Valentine's Day, Family Day, and every four years- Leap Year too.  And we are another month closer to spring!

 

The Priesthood Is Restored

Priesthood is the POWER and AUTHORITY of God.  God gives this power to man to act in all things  necessary for the salvation of God's children.

I am so grateful that my husband and sons honor this sacred priesthood.  Leonard is a High Priest in the Melchizedek Priesthood.  On December 20, 2020, Kaleb had the Melchizedek Priesthood conferred on him and was ordained to the office of an Elder.  On January 17, 2021, Teague had the Aaronic Priesthood conferred on him and was ordained to the office of a Deacon.  Gavin also holds the Aaronic Priesthood and is a Teacher.  In two years Hiram will have the Priesthood conferred on him.

I am so grateful to have the priesthood power in my life and am so grateful that these precious men and boys are worthy to hold it.

 

Sunshine

My sweet ministering sister brought these lovely tulips over.  They were just the ray of sunshine I needed in January!

Macy wants to walk so bad.  Ali was helping her one day, and they started dancing.

Then hugging.  I love that my kids love each other!

Where's Waldo?

We saw pictures of a giant snowman in Orleans, so we set off to find him!

Shortly after we found him, another lady did too.  She offered to take a picture of our whole crew with Waldo, then we reciprocated and got some of her with him.

We had taken this pic of him with the boys before the nice lady arrived.

So of course, we had to get one with the girls too.  Although, Macy wasn't impressed.  It was -14* out, but we heard on the radio that with the wind chill it felt like -24*.  Too cold for me too sis!

Waldo also has this cute neighbor, Humpty Dumpty!

Here we all are with both of them.

You can see just what a giant Waldo really is!

His awesome creator came out and had a nice conversation with us.  I hope we can see Waldo again next year!

Macy #3

Our littlest princess turned 3!

And the kids had a PD day from school, so we all got to celebrate all day!

We had crepes with nutella for breakfast and in the evening had another dessert...

Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory!

Make a wish!

A first in our family...

Macy didn't blow out the candle, she pinched it out with her fingers, oh no!

Luckily, putting her fingers in ice water and eating some cheesecake made it all better.

Time to open her gifts!

A friendly zebra to help her walk.

What's this?

Popsicles...

and cookies?  Let's play!

Just a couple more.

More books that is!

She also got a birthday card from her family and both sets of grandparents, as well as a card made by Ali.

We finished the night watching Trolls- World Tour.  We loved the first Trolls movie, but this one is just a little bizarre, ha ha!

Happy Birthday Macy!