birthday boy

Saturday was Geoff's 25th birthday!!  I snapped this picture of him right after we attended the temple. I told him it's going on the blog.  He was surprised. :)  This is truly his personality summed up in a  picture.  We love him!

McKinzie attended the temple for the first time on his birthday.  She will forever remember this date.  It was a great experience.  She wanted it to be a family thing which made if even more special. 

Geoff's mom, Anne, was able to be here for the weekend.  She is such a sweet woman. 

Then we went to Buca di Beppo for dinner.  One of our new favs!!  We are going to have the family dinner here, in Las Vegas.  This place has a lot of personality.  Look at the size of Geoff's cake.  WOW!!  They even sang to him.  We had a great afternoon and evening. 

I don't think I've known him long enough to list 25 things about him.  Let's see how far I get.

1.  a big tease
2. full of fun
3. self motivated
4. loves McKinzie and Adam
5. loves his mom
6. wants to have his own business
7. only eats pancakes with peanut butter and jelly (he's kinda weird)
8. did I mention he's a big tease?
9. has a great testimony of the Gospel
10. was a great missionary
11. still shares the Gospel
12. has lots of friends
13. is a great friend
14. willing to help anyone
15. is a hard worker
16. loves gummy bears
17. loves to rock climb
18. I think he even enjoys spending time with all of us
19. loves Superman

That's about it.  Not too bad.  I hope you had a great birthday Geoff.  We are very excited that your apart of our family.  We love you!!! 

mum

weekend activities

A few weeks ago Bailee got a call from a friend, a boy.  He asked her if she wanted a mum for Homecoming.  OH... MY... GOSH....!!!!  She was soo excited! She told me she really wanted one this year, but not from her mom.  (Yep...I offered.)  So last Thursday we went to a Hobby Lobby that was near his school, so the colors would be right.  We hardly knew what a garter was suppose to look like.  We bought many things.  We didn't want it over the top.  We really didn't know what we were doing.  When we got home Bailee started.

 We finished it on Sunday.  It's kinda over the top.  Although we love it!!  This week sometime he'll be coming over to give her her mum and she'll give him his garter.  This is one thing about Texas I'll never understand.  Where did the idea of mums and garters come from anyway??

Friday was my birthday.  I wasn't looking forward to it at all. I don't like my birthdays.  For me it's just another day.  This year I didn't plan on making a cake.  I'm getting kind of ornery.  I was a little surprised when Brian had asked Bailee and Karlee to do it.  Pleasantly surprised.  They ended up making two.  Friday afternoon Bailee made the cake and Karlee made the frosting.  Bailee was frosting and somehow it slid off the counter.  They just laughed when I asked them where the cake went.  So Saturday afternoon they tried again.  It was a success.  Sunday we finally had most of us gathered around to cut the cake.  As I'm blowing out the candles Brian grabs my camera.  He doesn't know how to work it.  It's all luck that he got anything I could use.  Most of them had my head cut off.  :)    It ended up being a very nice birthday.

 Mason has been wanting to learn to ride a bike for some time.  But never when a neighbor was outside.  He was embarrassed that he didn't know how.  He can ride on Carson's little bike.  But his big bike scares him.  Sunday he decided to try on a friends bike and it was super easy.  He was so excited.  When I went back inside he decided to try on his.  Yippee!!!  He can ride his bike. 

These two pictures are on his friends bike.  He is thrilled!!ll

Both the boys had a soccer game on Saturday.  Carson's team won 1-0.  Mason's team lost 0-1. 

We also watched all of General Conference.  Saturday we were the most attentive and we really enjoyed it.  Sunday Adam was here and he wanted to play cars.  He kept saying over and over, "Poppi play cars."  He ended up yelling because Poppi was trying to be good and watch Conference.  But like everyone expected Adam won.  It was very cute to watch Poppi and Adam play cars.      

I almost forgot.  We stuffed envelopes too.  Whew!

Beijing ~ Day 1

We spent the afternoon learning about the Forbidden City.  The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty.  Built in 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 buildings with 8,707 rooms.

This is the Gate of Divine Might, the northern gate. The inscription reads "The Palace Museum"

This is the same spot that the Emperor and his wife stood on their wedding day, so we were told. ;)  It is two trees that have grown together.

Only the Forbidden City has gold roofs.  Also, the Emperor only stayed in the buildings that has 12 animals on the roofs ridge.  He also never slept in the same room two nights in a row, for his safety. 

The lower roof is on the Hall of Supreme Harmony.



The throne in the Palace of Heavenly Purity.

There were three walkways/stairs in many places we went in the Forbidden City.  We never used the middle one.  It is for "The God of Heaven", only.

This 4 star restroom is misleading...no western style toilets.  NOT 4 star!!  We waited.

The throne in the Hall of Preserving Harmony.

The Hall of Supreme Harmony.

Of course we had to get our picture taken with Chairman Mao.

After the Forbidden City we went to Tiananmen Square.  It is directly across the street, a very busy street, from the Forbidden City.  It is the largest city square in the world, occupying an area of about 109 acres, and able to accommodate 1,000,000 people at one time.

We asked out guide, Lisa, about the protests that were here.  She acted like there was no such thing.  We all knew better.

Monument to the People's Heros.

Great Hall of the People

We then went to a martial arts show at the Red Theatre.  Crazy name I know. ;)

It was a full day with more information that I can remember.  Good thing I took lots and lots of pictures to help jog my memory. 



boys

Another morning at the soccer fields.  Everyone was able to be there this time.  Brian had a COR baptism he needed to attend, then he came and watched the last half of Mason's and caught all of Carson's.

 Mason's team tied 1-1.  We were pleased with the score since this is the team that won the Championship game last season. 

Carson's team won 4-0.  This was Carson after our first goal.

apples

This morning I was able to help in Carson's class.  I helped the students cut up apples for applesauce.  YUM!  I loved how cute their cubbies looked.  His teacher admitted that she's a little OCD ;).  Such great organization.  I think she's going to be my second favorite Kindergarten teacher.  Mrs. McBride at EME, Karlee's, is my fav. She's also been teaching some um-teen years, maybe 20.  :D

Arrive in Beijing

The train ride to Beijing wasn't so bad.  Before bed I went over to Brenda and Dave's "cabin" and we played some cards until Jake beat us all and there was no point in continuing.  For a missionary he's pretty good at cards.  ;) 

 

I think people live here. 

These apartments were amazing.  We could see five wings and that's only one side.  They were huge!

We were shocked to see these cars driving where we were walking!  Insane!!

I thought these phone booths were soo cute.  We saw them everywhere.

The windows at our hotel were nasty.  A challenge to get a good picture.

After we freshened up at the hotel we headed to lunch.  In Beijing everywhere we went to eat this was the arrangement in the dinning halls.  I asked Lisa, our guide, why?  She said in ancient times Chinese people believed that heaven is round and earth is square.  All the chairs were placed perfectly in a square around round tables.  I love the look!!