Shar-Sue Sharly

Sweet little Sharly is our tiny little princess.  She is so tiny that she meets smack in the middle in size between her sister 2 months older, and her sister that is 3 years old!  I buy clothes like this: size 3, 4 & 5.  Shar is the size 4!

In this pic, she had hurt her toe on the door.  I quickly got my camera because I saw these big brothers taking care of the problem.  Why not kiss her feet?  Great idea, guys!!

Sharly is learning to read, and is becoming quite proficient.  Here is Tanner coaching her along.

This month this brave little girl learned to swallow a whole pill on her own. All of the other siblings had been swallowing their vitamin sets for months, some for years, and one day, while all the others were doing the night time routine, Sharly grabbed one of the biggest ones, and downed it!  We had tried together with methods online, and with no luck.  But all it took was Sharly getting the gumption to do it herself!  And she did.

These kids love to read the scriptures.  This year, the girls are staying for the reading of the entire page that we attempt to read nightly.  They spend hours writing in their scriptures and drawing pictures inside the paper back versions.

On this day, the girls all asked me "why do the boys get all the fun (they get lots of play dates)?" So we had a girls day out, visited a toy store and went out for dessert!!! I keep the sweets outside of the home, so we truly enjoy them when we are out and about!

We finished the day getting bday presents for the neighbors, and each girl got to pick out their own my little pony.  Love these little girls, they are the frosting on my cupcake!!

More People We Love in January!

These two gals I've known since their pre-teen days.  They came back from their adventures out in the work force and college back to Shanghai.  That night we played settlers and had lasangna at our house.  We love Bryan, Shelley, Bryanna & Emma Hunt!!

We love Mr. Hu.  Here he is peeling a chinese root herb with a toothpick.  Did I eat it?  Why not?


We love Pamela.  I have been so blessed to live so close to my close friend since our move at the end of Summer last year.  She knows my love for wreaths and helps me understand this strange random craving in my life lately for art (since the funerals of my dad and Tim's dad).  She says it's "Art Therapy" and she was going to get another degree in it, but just stuck with her Art major.


One day Alena knocked at my door with a bunch of different baking ingredients, just as a gift.  Isnt she sweet.  LOL, Alena has agreed to keep all the sugar ingredients stocked at her house instead of mine... so its not so accessible!!  :)


Alena is always baking and cooking.  here she took a stab at poptarts!  Genius!


Here is our love Tita, which is Tagolac for Aunty.  She cooks dinner for us 4 nights a week, and it's heaven.  here she is making lumpia, a filipino dish that makes my mouth water while I type!

After one date night, we met up with MacMillan, ShenYi and baby Sika!  We are so thrilled to see this little family grow in the gospel of Jesus Christ and be such a shining example to us!

One Sunday, these fun friends went with me to visit Ms Zhou in the hospital.  She could barely stand, but really wanted to take a picture with us.  We sang several church hymns, but only in English so we wouldn't be proselytizing the gospel to our chinese friends (China has a law, one that we strongly respect, that foreigners cannot share the gospel with locals... one day, they might have the opportunity, but for now we support our local government).

This particular day made me tear up.  Seeing my nephew Gabriel on Skype.  He looked just like Terin (my sister's son) at the same age.  I feel so connected to my nieces and nephews, like they are my very own kids... melts my heart to see my brother finally be a dad of such a delightful bundle of joy.  He also has another son, Bode, and just like Gabe, they are the sweetest cutest little babies...

Sweet Jerry.  A boy name, I know.  We have such a great history together.  When I first tried to get her to deliver flowers to my house, she was not very kind and made rude comments about toys and garbage she found on the side of my house that I hadn't noticed.  I was appalled at the side of the house, but even more caught off guard that someone called me on it.  I told her that in my culture we don't make rude comments to people unless they have hurt us (haha!!).  She then felt really bad and came by whenever she was in the neighborhood to visit me.  We eventually became very close friends.  She taught my kids how to arrange flowers into floral foam one summer.  I had her son over for a play date another day.  One time I was at her shop and commented on a really cool looking rustic childs chair that looked like it had a story to tell.  She later gave me this chair-- its dirty and old, and yet it's placed right next to my fire place to remind me of what a sweet friendship Jerry and I share. 

Since then, I have introduced her to over 50 consistent customers who regularly receive her delivered potted flowers.  I'm trying more and more to connect hard working local women like Jerry while helping them find ways to amplify their service/product range (for example, delivering potted flowers and switching out the flowers regularly).

Tanner!

I have about 500 of these sweet love letters from Tanner.  Its hard not to keep each one of them.  They melt my heart.

Tanner is such a sensitive little guy.  In this pic, his sister ShiYu bonked her head.  He quickly got tissue to help it feel better.

Tanner usually doesnt like to eat.  He is force fed, practically.  This is a common dinner face.  Except this month, he has started to come around!  He now loves food, and has gotten used to the meals we eat.  He often will say things like "wow mom!  This is delicious!!"

Ever since Tanner saw a talking garbage can at Disneyland, he now wants to make robot boxes and walk all over the house in them. 

Here he is on his way to show Dad.

As sweet as he is, he sure has a mischevious side.  Tim says he sees this face on me sometimes.  I couldn't figure out why he kept reaching back to to the back seat one day, with a total mischievous giggle and this face... till I looked back and saw the source of his temptation... sleeping sisters.

One day Tanner really wanted to blow up an R2D2 blow up.  I said 'only if you do it all by yourself'.  It was hard, and each of the siblings agreed-- with these new valves that keep the air from escaping from the nozzle, it was crazy-hard to get air inside it.  But he was determined and kept saying "I will never give up" between every few breaths.  At one point he cried bc it was so hard.

And boy was he proud at his success.

Here Tanner scored a role in the school presentation on Chinese New Year.  Tanner had a speaking part to welcome everyone in, while the girl to his left translated it into Chinese.

Here is Hunter teaching Tanner how to tie chinese knots on a key ring.

Here is typical Tanner.  We are taking a group shot, and he's pretending to eat a hamburger.  One of his many picture poses...

Date Night w Tim

For years and years we have been trying to keep up with Friday night dates.  I love the time in the car on the way to get him from work, it's one of my favorite times of the week, just the 30 min in the car anticipating date night is exciting!!

Here we are in front of the January Christmas tree here in China. So funny.

On this night we stumbled upon a place that looked like a hole in the wall on the outside.  But when we came in, it was AMAZING.  We arent usually white table cloth type of people.  But boy did we feel fancy on this night!!

Below: Look!  Out the window is a beautiful shot of the pearl tower!!

Home with ShiYu

ShiYu is such a delight.  We get lots of special time together, as her siblings leave for school more than an hour before her and get home an hour after.

Its fun to see her try new things and use her big girl vocab that has absolutely flourished in the last year she's been with us.

Eating "Dragon Eye" for the first time.

She digs my crazy shakes. This one made her whole face green, big cup!


Here she is wearing a pair of shoes SHE decorated that she is very proud of (thank you montessori, for feeding her love for all arts and crafts!).  She loves writing letters, and shifts from the left to the right hand all the time (now she's mostly righty).


We have lots of boy toys at our house, and she can build with the best of them!


Here she is making a wreath with me.  This is her most favorite thing in the world to do... craft with me.  I feel so lucky.


Here she is rolling her own rosettes.  She's quite a natural!  All three girls love crafts and are at the age when little fingers like to be busy.


ShiYu is the first of my kids to tell me when she's sleepy.  She does just fine sleeping in a noisy room and loves the couch for her naps-- a full two hours still!


I have many videos of her telling me stories, this is a picture I snapped between one of her stories.  She is a chatty cathy.  When ShiYu first came, and we were getting to know each other, I was quite nervous that (though I could speak to her in her native chinese or my native english), the orphanage ayis said she didnt speak at all.

So I spent a lot of time just talking with her, just like friends do, I told her many stories that I'd never really shared before... adventures of childhood, stories about her siblings, about Tim and I etc.

Little did I know, roles completely reversed, and now she shares stories with me about anything and everything, while I just listen.  She talks a lot about Jesus, which I find interesting, because she is always the one to bring Him up.  We love you ShiYu... little angel girl!

Chef Hunter

Hunter and I love weekends.  Its our time in the kitchen.  He has lots of ideas, and is such a fun little cooking/baking buddy.  So enthusiastic...

On this day we tried 5 different salmon recipes for one night.  I realized my garlic orange salmon recipe that was my go-to for over a decade... well, it was gross.  And I kept making it, over and over.  So creative Hunter and I searched the web over, asked friends, and finally, we found our top 5. 

Each salmon recipe typically only has 5 min prep time, so we had a fun time putting together: dijon honey garlic salmon, burned butter lime honey salmon, terriyaki ginger orange salmon, brown sugar pineapple salmon, rosemary garlic/onion salmon.  One salmon was pan fried, all the others we individually wrapped and threw in a 9x13.  Then at dinner, everyone got to sample all the varieties.  Of course, anything glazed got first place in this household!

Oh how I wish I had a picture of Hunter's whole 'salted caramel pineapple upside down cake' that we made for company that night.  It was out of this world.  It was scarfed so fast that I only grabbed my camera fast enough for these few images.

For me, it was the first time ever making cake batter from scratch.  For Hunter, it was no big deal, he zipped it out in no time and said the placement of the pineapples reminded him of minecraft. 

About a week later (the following sunday) we had another family over (we make yummy desserts when people come over).  Here he took a shot at Spiced Apple Upside Down Cake. 

We also made this yummy vegetarian lasangna.  There are seared pieces of pumpkin in grapeseed oil, nut/veggie meat balls... mmmmm.

Another layer... about to add the zucchini.

Something else that was really cool that Hunter did in January--

While I've been serving in Primary this year, he's noticed I've had to be ready for last minute lessons if teachers don't show up or if positions are waiting to be filled.  Hunter brought a back pack to church for a few weeks, prepared, with legos in individual compartments with a grand idea for people to create scenarios they read in the lesson scriptures. Finally we did it. It was awesome to even see the girls get involved and make the scriptures come to life through legos. 

Ok, one last photo, that has nothing to do with Hunter.  In China, on street corners, people sell these turtles for dinner.  There you have it.

Big Girl Potty!

During the Christmas break of 2015, I didnt have any more excuses.  No more pending surgeries for ShiYu, no more family trips etc.  It was time for little Yuyu to join the ranks of her sisters... big pants girl!!  No diapers!

!

And of course with each of YuYu's successes, all the girls bonus'd stickers... and they were all drinking tons of fluids to keep that toilet flushing allllllll day lonnnnnnng. lol.

This pic was hard to look at.  I needed to take a double take!  She looks like she's five.  I cant believe how much she has grown in the last year.  In this pic, she had only been with us 11 months, and her learning to self-advocate (speak up!), learning to talk, learning to walk... wow, lets just say it was a big year for her!!

We are all so proud of her.  And so proud that she has found her voice and her place in this world already...  You're goin places kid!  We love you!!