After Kami got home

Maddie went to school in Idaho for the last trimester of school and lived with Jim and Marilyn, but when we met Kami at the airport, she came on home with us to spend the rest of the week.  This was her and Kami walking over to invite two of Maddie's high school teachers to her report.  They are some of our neighbors.  They came and loved it!: 

Kami wanted this picture to send to one of her Filipino companions because she thought it was so "American" how much bread we had in our cart.  This WAS the bread store...

She had said how excited she was to "feel human" again when she got home.  Over in the Phillipines it was useless to do her hair because of the humidity.  SO, two days after she got home, here we were at the beauty salon:

Kami cooked for the family soon after she got home. Jim, Marilyn and Linda were here for Easter and got to experience it with us!

It was hard to find some of the similar ingredients to what they had in the Phillipines, like a certain kind of green bean that she said they had there.  She brought some of the spices that she used, though, and this Balut:

I can't say that it was a hit, but Kami has really developed a taste for it.  This was Pace's opinion:

It smelled the house up SO BAD and no one could get past the crunchy bones and eye balls!

Our neighbors stopped by right after it was ready and we couldn't talk them into staying to try some:

interestingly, Anni seemed to love the Balut, but stopped eating it when a bone got stuck on the top of her mouth...

Kami's home!!

On April 17th, we headed over to Boise to pick up Kami when she flew in from the Philippines.  We left with plenty of time to spare and boy were we glad that we did!  Her flight ended up coming in early and it would have been so horrible to miss it.

Isabelle got her bedroom wall all decorated up before we left so that Kami would feel right at home when she arrived:

Maddie brought some beautiful signs that she made for everyone to hold:

We had quite a bit of family that came to the airport:  both sets of grandparents, all the Farbers and Moultries and the Waites.

And before we knew it, there she was with all of the kids swarming her:

...and her dad:

And this was my first go around:

Grandma and grandpa Gee:

Grandpa and grandma Kerns:

We went from the airport to Golden Corral and all ate together. A Filipino woman served us and it was fun to hear Kami chattering away with her in Cebuano!  Then we left for home and got to listen to all sorts of neat things that we never heard in letters.  Kami GLOWS.  Oh, it is so good to have her home!

The Things They Say Volume 20

Shawn texted me when he, Isabelle and Nolan were about 1 1/2 hours from arriving home after they had been home all weekend.  Abram and Pace immediately ran outside to make sure that they were there to greet them the second they arrived.  Isabelle texted me when they were 18 miles away and I told her about the boys waiting for so long.  She texted back that Nolan had said their behavior was "quite endearing".

The rest are Paceisms:

Cold one morning in the car, "I wish my skin was all covered in hotness".

About his backpack when he couldn't find it and I asked him if it was left in the car "I brought it in, but it's not in my eyesight." He isn't used to searching for anything, as someone else usually rescues him...

I particularly like these last two:

Pace telling me about a show called Pippa Pig that his teacher puts on at Kindergarten when there is extra time: "It makes me get into it closer and closer and closer until I connect to it!"

Pace called me into his room one night after he had gone to bed because his nose "keeps getting fuzzed up".  From the way he was sniffing, I could tell that he had a stuffy nose.  He went on to say, "And it might keep going hard to breathe, easy to breathe, hard to breathe, easy to breathe, in an AB, AB pattern!"

Our week in a nutshell

Shawn enjoys drawing up house plans in his spare time and he IS SO GOOD AT IT!!! He has drawn up about 5 in the last couple of months just for fun:

Also he jokingly informed me that his muscles are getting really big because while drying his back off after a shower, he flexed and his muscles ripped this towel:

We had a CRB (community review board) for Anni this week and I didn't make it to the gym until noon.  It was so fun to see Shawn there!:

After cleaning his room one morning, Abram showed me that he had "made a drawing area for Anni in case she wants to draw in their room":

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I take Nolan and Abram to soccer practice at 4:00.  Then I turn around and pick Isabelle up from track practice at 4:30.  Rather than run home and come all the way back, I have been taking Pace and Anni to the park to play.  This particular time I climbed a "rock wall" thing and Anni, of course, had to try it too.  I only had to tell her several times to look for a place for her foot and she shimmied right up this thing:

I was pretty proud of her and pleased that she would try something challenging until we got home and she used her new-found skill to climb a bank of drawers and get on top of the counter.  Nothing will be out of reach anymore!

I spent Saturday in LaGrande watching Abram play soccer:

It was fun to run into Jonathan and Kelly Kerns!  Cousins:

Shawn, Isabelle and Nolan left for Idaho on Friday for Piano festival.  I'm so grateful that Marilyn let Isabelle and Nolan slip in and play there since they don't have anything like that here!

Practicing before hand:

I'm also incredibly grateful that Maddie gets to live with the world's best piano teacher and make up for lost time with multiple lessons per week!  I think this was her 13th festival:

We sure miss having this girl at home, (one more month...one more month!!!) but love all of the experiences she is having in Idaho.  She got into the Bel Cantos choir, and got elected as the Student Body Secretary - she ran unopposed:D We are glad that she is happy, and involved and enjoying getting a good education again.

I just had three kids all weekend.  It was weird! It was also fun; we partied it up going to a park all afternoon after school, then to get pizza when the boys requested it (I only had to buy ONE!!!) and then home to a movie.

Sunday with my family of three kids:

Conference Weekend

The daffodils are blooming!:

After the second session of conference, Shawn headed out to mow the lawn and I pulled the kids outside with me to help make a "resurrection garden".  Abram was the only one that really got into it with me.  He found little clumps of grass and flowers to add in and arranged the stones, etc.  We were really happy with how it turned out!:

The kids did great listening and even taking notes during both sessions on Saturday.  Sunday started going a little down hill and by the last session it was getting pretty chaotic:

I'm not complaining, though, because when President Nelson spoke they were as quiet as could be.

Anni got really excited during one of the musical numbers because she knows this song!:

She was also excited to hear "I Am A Child of God" sung during conference because she can sing that one almost word for word.

For some reason, Isabelle LOVES to take selfies of herself and Anni - the homelier the better.  She worked and worked to get the worst possible angles.  She spams Maddie with pictures every day or takes hilarious videos of herself talking that show herself at horrible angles.  It gets us all laughing pretty hard at times...

It took her awhile to capture this one, but she was the happiest with it:

She sent it off to Maddie speedy-quick!  I told her that no one would know, that didn't know her, that she is so gorgeous. What a fun and funny girl.

Cakes and the little kids

While on a family walk, Pace crashed on his scooter and his forehead hit Abram's bike tire.  It has made for some interesting stripes down his face:

I came home from Idaho last week with a nasty chest cold and went straight to bed and didn't get out for two days.  I also completely lost my voice, which was a new experience.  I didn't go to church last week, but I got up long enough to get this little cutie ready:

I spend the whole day alone with Anni, so I tend to get lots of pictures of her throughout the week.  

While I was looking for books for her at the library, she helped herself to the computer:D

I'm also obviously having a lot of fun dressing her:)

Isabelle was hired to make a birthday cake for the Jones's this week.  They showed her a picture of what they wanted and she did a great job! She stressed about making a cake for someone else, but I think she decided it was pretty great when they paid her $40!:

Isabelle always tries to make people feel special on their birthdays or other special occasions.  She tries to figure out just how they would like to spend the day, etc.  She made this cake for my birthday this year: