Christmas decorations.

So, for the last few weeks we have been working on completing our Christmas decorations in our house. They are not much, but it is what we could do. They really have everything you could want for Christmas here (real or fake tree, decorations for the tree and your home, and tons more!) but after talking about it, we concluded that a homemade tree and decorations would be the cheapest and if we are only her 1 year or even 2 that would be a waste of money to spend on Christmas. S0, for all of our Christmas decorations in our house I am sure we paid way less than $5. Also, we do not have room in our house to store any decoration till next year. This way when we are done with them we can just throw them away. Here is what our house looks like now. Enjoy, we do

On the front door to apartment we have the coolest swag in China! (Thanks to my awesome family for sending birthday gifts from America!)

I got some good pictures of Christ at the church distribution center in Hong Kong back in October knowing they would be hard to find in December.

Here is the fireplace I made with stocking! My sister Kira gave me this idea. She did it a few years in a row in Rexburg at college. (The stockings are another bonus from the other side of the family sending Christmas goodies and treats!)

And here is our homemade Christmas tree. Not the best looking tree, but darn good for never doing it before and having limited space to put it up. Robert actually found some pins that have lights on them from Halloween and strung them on red ribbon to make lights for the tree. Pascal and Amy helped us out with the tree! And Laura our friend helped finish it up for Family Home Evening on Monday. When we finished the tree we have yummy hot chocolate. Even though that day it was 80 degrees, the same day I made cookies. Kenya really enjoyed coloring on it and helping make it. Another success in the China record books.

Cookies Part 2 and 3

A week or more ago, I decided to make cookies, but did not have anymore granulated sugar. So, I used one of the mixes my mom sent me. I made peanut butter cookie dough mix into yummy bar cookies with chocolate melted on top! It was good! This was cookie day 2.

Below are picture of Cookie day 3. This was going to be my all day baking day, but as things always happen in China, it did not turn out that way. I wanted to start right when we got up, but we did not get to start until after lunch and nap time. We only got to make Christmas Cutout Cookies and Peanut Butter Blossoms. I am calling it a success because I was able to get any baking done!

Kenya loved stirring and helping in anyway possible!

You can see my rolling pin. The glass peanut container from Thanksgiving snacks.

Mommy put too much butter into these cookies, so it took a while to roll them out. They still tasted good! I cannot image that the 80 degree weather and the ridiculous humidity did anything for the cookies either.

We are making colored sugar for the Peanut Butter Blossoms. YUMMY!

Kenya peeled the Hershey Kiss's and believe it or not did not eat any of them until at the end we told her she could have one. Now, that is toddler disciple. I made the balls and Robert colored them in the sugar.

Kenya got to roll the last one in sugar.

These are two kittens that we picked up about a month ago. They are horrible cats! They do not learn anything. The only time we think they are cute are when they are sleeping. We took them in and are trying to get rid of them as soon as anyone will take them. Kenya really loves them. One of the first things she says in the morning after calling for mommy or daddy is, "Play with kitties!"

Things my daddy taught me!

Some of these things I learned in listening to him, but most of them I learned by watching him.

Teach by example. (I think because in our family if you tell someone to do something they will resit. But if you don't tell them, you might get somewhere.)
Everyone else is more important than yourself.
Family is the most important thing.
When other are happy it makes you the happiest!
Giving is secret is better than giving openly.
The sound of fighting and arguing is not a good sound to here.
You can always learn new things.
"Things" are not important.
Hard work is important.
If you have money the best thing to do with it is give it or spend it on others.
Nature is a lot better than the city!!!!
It is okay to be silly and have fun at any age.
Even if someone does not make the choice you want them to, you can still be proud of them.
Remember who you are and where you came from.
If you want something, work for it!
Don't gossip.
Don't judge! You never know someone's full circumstance.
Don't disrespect your mother!
Women should be respected!
Stand firm in what you believe, but don't push it on others.
Use your imagination to make other happy!
Show humility in all things.

And many many more that I cannot think of at this time or can't figure out how to put into words. And there are probably a few that he would not be proud of and so I won't mention those ones.
Really, thanks for all the memories! The ones of me as a child, the ones of you working hard to show the family a better life, the ones of you and Kenya! Oh, thank you for the ones of you and Kenya! You are an amazing Papa!

Happy early birthday daddy! I wish I was there to spend time with you!

Robert's Birthday!

So even though Robert was given the money for a 3-piece suit more than a year ago, he had to wait for the perfect opportunity to get the right one. I think his patience paid off because he was able to have a jacket, vest and 2 pairs of pants custom made in China for the price of renting one in the States!

Oh yeah....did I mention...it's a pinstripe suit? Well...it is!

I look like a mobster or something. I actually had someone tell me I looked like the Kingpin. That is the name of a character in a comic book. This character was even played by Michael Clark Duncan in the movie Daredevil. Although I didn't like the movie much I took it as a compliment considering Michael Clark Duncan is extremely muscular!
Another birthday present Robert got was a Chinese style broadsword from his boy Pascal. It's awesome! Thanks again, Pascal!
"Some people tell me I look like Denzel Washington."




Now that's one sharp dude!
Talk about cutting to the chase!
Robert later received other gifts for which he is also very thankful for! Thanks everyone!

Christmas cookies, part 1.

Today my students were all taking tests and so I had no lessons. I was able to stay home with my baby most of the day! I took advantage of that and we made our first batch of Christmas cookies. Even though it was it was 75 degrees today and very sunny! (It is suppose to be 81 degrees tomorrow! YUCK!) Really, I miss the snow!! I need all four season in my life. Here are some pictures. I had run out of regular sugar and all I had was powder sugar, so we made Russian Teacakes. Yummy!!




I hope to be able to find time to cook half as many cookies as I normally do!

Sports Day at Yaohua

So over the weekend the Asian Games in Guanzhuo had begun. It's basically the Olympics, but only for countries in the Asian continent. However, Yaohua hosts a school-wide sports day that is similar to the Asian Games/Olympics where classes compete against each other in many different events. There isn't really a prize or reward, but it is a chance for the students to show off their athletic abilities and to not have any lessons! The first day of Sports Day was for the Middle Schools and High Schools. The second day was for the Primary School-Grades 1-6. It seemed that these days were a chance for the International Section to see if they were better than the Traditional Section of the school.


The first two pictures and the video are of the opening ceremonies. Each grade, both International and Traditional do a march of some sort in order to impress the administrators of the school. I was asked by the 9th grade of the International section to think of a cool cheer and to be with them when it was their turn. I taught 9th Grade for only 2 weeks and they have been good friends to me ever since.







The cheer: Robert would shout, "9th Grade is what?"
The students would then reply, "Red Hot"
This happened two times and then Robert shouted, "2-4-6-8!"
The students then replied, "Who do we appreciate?"
Together we all said, "9th Grade, 9th Grade!"

It was fun! Their cheer was the most unique of all the grades. They shot off these giant party poppers and we all wore flashing light pins and the cheer was in English!


Here is a pic of Kenya walking with one of the Seniors. The 12th graders do not get to participate in Sports Day because they are busy filling out applications and writing admission's essays for U.S. Universities. However, some of them took breaks to come cheer on the underclassmen. Estelle is the name of this Senior. She LOVES Kenya! She hadn't seen her in a long time and risked her life to come and play with Kenya! (sorta)



These next three pics are of some of the 9th graders that I taught. Oh, yeah, most of the International students here have an English name and a Chinese name. The guy giving the peace sign is Sky. He was the star for the males in the 9th grade class.
This is Seven. Yes, Seven like the number. Anyway, she was the star for the females. She broke 2 school records and her personal bests that day!
Here is a picture of Jackie doing the high jump. He plays basketball so naturally he loves to jump high. He did ok, but could have done much better. One thing to realize about the competitors on this day is that they really don't have any training in how they run, jump, throw, or really anything they compete in. Sometimes, they do a few things in their P.E. classes to get in shape, but they don't have starting blocks for the races, they don't have anyone telling them to use certain techniques in order to do better in an event or anything like that. They just go and do it.

People were extremely nervous as if there were some huge prize on the line, but it was more of a fun day than anything. But if you asked one of the students they would tell you that they were so nervous that they might not even compete!

Here's a video on an 11-legged race! We thought things were hard with a 3-legged race! I am pretty sure that this is the only event that anyone truly trained for. We saw them practicing this event well before Sports Day came.




On the 2nd day, only the teachers who taught Primary School were supposed to have no lessons, but our boss Mr. Tian enjoyed our support for the students so much from the previous day that he canceled our lessons so that we could be there for the Primary students! We thought that was awesome considering we had so many students that we wanted to see compete. I only teach Middle School now and so I would not have been able to see the Primary kids at all. Thank you Mr. Tian. We could have used that time to go prepare our lessons for later in the week, but we felt it more important to go show our support to our students. We were down cheering and uplifting the kids all day long. It was so much fun!

This video is of the Opening Ceremonies of the Primary School. Specifically this was the 3rd grade class that I used to teach. Lois still sees them for science, but I only see some of them in passing. they all run up and hug me every time they see me though. I like it! There were actually prizes and stuff for Primary School so they had a lot more on the line this day, but still had tons of fun!




Now here is a video of the teachers racing in an obstacle course. We raced against 4 other groups of teachers. We got second place to the P.E. teachers. (Go figure) However, it wasn't recorded, but there was a one-on-one race between the P.E. teachers and the male American teachers and we totally beat'em! Ron is the person running right before me.




Overall, we had a blast! We loved cheering on our students and hanging out with them. Kenya was spoiled so much by students and Chinese teachers and parents with candy, drinks and other food! Lois and I stayed and supported our students the whole day and loved every minute of it.

Our American Thanksgiving in China!

Our Thanksgiving Day turned out amazing! We had dinner a little later than normal, but it was nice to have all day to slowly prepare and get things done. I was over all a very relaxing and enjoyable day!

I feel we did a good job at being American today. We slept in (Kenya didn’t wake us up until 7:40), then had a lite cereal breakfast and then a few hours later began snacking. Kenya, really enjoyed this!



Kenya, of coarse wanted to help mommy with the turkey. I thought, of coarse I will let her help! Mom always let me help.

Her is our turkey in the oven. It worked great!

Dinner was done on time! That is really not an American tradition, but something we feel strongly about. Great job, LOIS (and those who helped

Our guests we had over were Amy, our friend and nanny, Laura our friend and another American teacher at Yaohua, and Pascal and his mother. It was the perfect amount for our little apartment. I made the basics for dinner: turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, rolls, cranberry sauce, corn, stuffing, and olives. All of which turned out amazing! I also made to pudding pies. Sorry, no pumpkin pie, this year. We even got to play a few card games. Robert cleaned up most of everything! Thanks!!

Kenya sat down to eat and after her first few bites, said, "YUMMY!"

Getting some whipped cream from the can! Yep, she loves it, just like her daddy.


These are stickers that you can put on paper faces to be funny. Kenya was putting them on her. She was so cute!
Here is our final product of our "Things I am thankful for" poster. We really like that! Kenya enjoyed coloring on it as part of her bedtime routine each night. You can see that from all the coloring marks she made.

I am still working on getting all of my tradition in for Turkey Day. I still need to see if I can catch some of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and then watch White Christmas. It is only 10:40 pm here. I can do it! It is weird to watch the parade the night of Thanksgiving rather than in the morning.

I am going to make more gravy with the leftover drippings!

What a colorful world.

Kenya now knows most of her colors. I have been working on it with her for about a week now and I think it is say to say that she knows her colors. She gets them right at least 80% of the time. She knows red, blue, purple, orange, white, black, pink, green, and yellow. Sometimes when I ask her and she does not want to think about it she just says orange.

You can ask her what color an object is, or you can ask her to find a specific color, or you can ask her to match the color of an object that you have.

She is a quick learner! And have I ever mentioned that she is so cute that she makes you want to exploded!!! My goodness! She is adorable!!! Kenya, I love you so much! and that is not just because you are cute~