Elaina's first day of Kindergarten.  She was so excited to finally get to go with the big kids.

Everyone is ready to go.  Even Emma, who also got her backpack ready

 and thought she was staying with Elaina.

Lining up in front of class.  They sang a little goodbye

song to the parents as they went in.

Another first for us is the addition of three chickens to our backyard.

Princess, Lucy, and Midnight love hanging out under our grapevines in the shade.

The boys' job is to feed and water them each day, clean out the pen and gather eggs.  They love it!

Jared has finally joined us in scouts and he couldn't be happier!  At Pack meeting this week, he earned his Bobcat patch.  It has been fun to watch him be so excited about scouts and Justus likes to help Jared work on his achievements.  It's nice to see them working together on something.

Bro. and Sis. Enquist are Jared's den leaders and they are great!

 Jared pinning on my mother's pin.

Justus earned his Webelos award and his Religious square knot, among other awards.  I have really enjoyed being his den leader.  He is very motivated to work on the activity badges and earn as many things as he can, and he also helps me out at the den meetings.

Elaina's preschool class had a Halloween party and this is her little witch costume.

This is everyone, plus 4 siblings - Patric, Noah, Emily, Cambria, Braydon, Claire, Carter, Brynnlie, Emma, and Elaina.
This is such a fun little bunch of kids.  We have a lot of fun together and everyone gets along really well.  Every day Elaina asks if she has school that day, because she just loves going and learning and making things and playing with her friends. 

 Justus and Jared both earned awards at school for visual arts.  The award comes with a coupon for free burgers at In-and-Out.  They're pretty excited about that!

October has come, and even though it's still pretty warm outside, it feels like fall is just around the corner.  We enjoyed being together at home for Conference weekend.  John worked on this massive puzzle while he listened to the talks.

We all feasted on cinnamon rolls and our newest addition to the General Conference traditional food - apple nachos!  I sliced the apples really thin, like chips, and then drizzled on manjar (carmel from Chile that a friend brought us), chocolate syrup, and chocolate chips.  yum yum

Jared turned 8 and we had a huge Halloween birthday party with 16 boys from church and his school class.  It was pure chaos.  Luckily John came home early from work to rescue me.

Jared made a killing in birthday presents and has been happily playing with all of these Legos and other toys ever since.

The next day was his actual birthday, (the 6th) and we celebrated with a family dinner of Jared's favoriates - lasagna, salad, corn on the cob and homemade bread.

This is my latest crazy project; restoring my Great-grandmother's treadle sewing machine.  It actually still works.  It was in pretty bad shape after sitting in my grandma's shed and garage for many years. 

It took three solid days of stripping the old shellac, sanding the wood and also the rust off of all the metal parts, and oiling everything up, but it turned out very nicely.

Here's the before...

And here's the after...

Now I have a beautiful little sewing table to put my own sewing machine on.  Love it.

This is a random picture of the girls, but I thought it was so cute of them, sitting in their pj's and eating breakfast at their little table.

A Visitor from Japan & Elaina turns 5

Visalia has a sister city, Miki City, Japan, and the two cities send delegations

every few years to foster international friendship and learn appreciation

for each other's culture.

We were blessed to be a host family for one of Miki City's visitor's this year, Keiko Yoshida.  She stayed with us Aug. 22-26 and we had such a wonderful time getting to know her and the Japanese culture.  She brought presents for all of us, and each of the children received a bag with toys inside.

She presented us with a beautiful wall hanging of a Japanese princess, and also brought books, candy, crackers, chopsticks and pictures for us.

Monday night was our first evening with Keiko, and we had a fondue dinner and enjoyed getting to know her.  She has one daughter, Arisa, who also came and stayed with another family, and two sons, Yuki and Kazuki.  Her husband, Yoshitoshi, is a firefighter, and Keiko works for a bank.

Each morning we would drop her off at the City office and the delegation went on different tours of the area.  Then in the evening we would pick Keiko up and she would spend the rest of the evening with us.  She taught us several words and the kids had fun using them around the house.  Jared came in every morning and said "ohayo" which means good morning.  Konichiwa is hello.  Oyasume is good night.  Sianara is goodbye.  Arigato is thank you.  She also taught us a little prayer to say before each meal.  

On Tuesday evening, I picked Keiko up and took her shopping at an Asian grocery store because she wanted to make dinner for us.  Because of the lauguage barrier, it took a while for us to find everything, but Keiko was very patient with me trying to figure out what she wanted.  Good thing she had her little electronic translator with her!  Some good friends of ours, the Harmons, joined us for the dinner.  Bret served his mission in Osaka, and Miki City is part of that mission. 

Keiko prepared tempura shrimp, carrots, sweet potato, mushrooms, and eggplant.  She also made a rice noodle soup with scallions, and a rice dish.  Everything was really good. 

Bret was intertaining the girls while we waited for the food.

Jane Ellen, Emma, Elaina, Reed, Bret, Aubrey, Keiko, Elizabeth, Jared, Amber, Justus

Wednesday night we went out for pizza! And then went to the park.

Thursday night we invited Keiko's daughter, Arisa, and her host family (also last name Yoshida) over for burritos and rice.

This is Arisa, Carly, Beverly, Roger, Justus, Keiko, and Emma

The last night was a BBQ at the Gubler's home with all of the Japanese Delegation and their host families and also the City Council.  Some of the ladies had brought their beautiful kimonos and wore them to the dinner.

The only man that came with the delegation, Mitsuo Tanaka, demonstrated some Karate for us.  Notice his Black Belt.

Each person gave a little speach and thanked their host families and the city council for the experience of visiting Visalia.

Our last night with Keiko. The kids were sad to say goodbye. She was so kind to them. She spent time teaching them about her culture and also brought a book of origami and a stack of paper and made ninja weapons with Jared and little animals with the girls.

Hopefully some day we will be able to go to Japan and visit Keiko and her family!

This summer our front garden is bursting with flowers.

Summer Fun

We had a lot of fun this summer visiting family and staying cool in the Central Valley heat.  We started the summer off with the Bradley family reunion, which was a blast.  It was so great to have so many come out to see us. 

Justus turned 10 years old, and John took him and a couple of his friends to a baseball game for his birthday.  His actual birthday was on a Sunday, and the Elders joined us for dinner and cake.  He wanted a tent cake.  I wouldn't say that this was my best looking birthday cake, but somehow we did get it to become somewhat pup-tent shaped.

In July we drove to Utah and visited Grandma and Grandpa Stott and Lance and Crystal and their family for about 10 action-packed days!

The first thing the kids wanted to do was play in the water in the backyard.  They sure have nice grass here.

Emma loves her grandpa!

One day we went out to visit Crystal and do more swimming in her backyard.

Grandma pulling Kenney and Emma in Kenney's new wagon.

Of course we had to do more swimming out at the lake on the hill.  Lance brought his canoe and gave everyone rides and grandpa brought out pizza.  What a great day!

Madalyn and Elaina

We all enjoyed the hot pizza.

Lance even got me in that canoe

We went hiking over by Kanaraville one day.  It was quite hot, but but we all had a lot of fun being in the hills and Jared had fun catching insects.  He even caught a moth in a jar, and when he let it go, it attached itself to Jared's pants and rode along with him for a while. 

For the kids, the best part was playing in the stream after the hike.

The car show was a lot of fun and we were amazed at all of the old cars and how beautifully they had been restored.  We also enjoyed the band that played to a packed parking lot in front of Lin's.

One evening we drove out to Three Peaks Recreation area and had a great time swinging, climbing, 4-wheeler riding and roasting hot dogs.

Justus and Lance having a rock throwing contest.

Jared and Emma climbing the trees.

Justus, Grandpa and Kenney 4-wheeling

Madalyn, Elaina, Emma, and Jared climbing all over the hill by our picnic area.

Justus, Lance, and Jared

The city had a Renaissance festival at the park.  We watched the camels while we ate lunch.

They had games to play and Justus and Jared duked it out with their punching bag things

while Elaina jumped in the bounce house and Emma won prizes at the fishing pond.

One of the last days we all went swimming at the city's new aquatic center, which was very nice.  We could have stayed there all day!

When we got home Justus and Jared gave us a little show out on the new patio

The end of July the kids started swimming lessons.  Justus and Jared were in the same class and Elaina started for the first time.

She cried the entire first lesson, but by the third day she was laughing and dunking her head in the water and having a great time.

Justus and Jared made some amazing Lego creations

One day they wanted me to teach them how to crochet, so we sat outside and practiced making chains and a few single crochets.

We always have to have a project going on, so we decided to paint the fort.  Everyone helped with the sanding, priming, and painting.  I think it turned out pretty cute!