Xin Nian Kuai Le!

That would be Happy New Year in Mandarin!  We aren't the best, but we do try to get some Chinese culture into our family once in a while.  We want all of our kids to grow up being proud that we are an American-Chinese family.  Today is officially Chinese New Year, the year of the rabbit, but our festivities are just getting started.  We have a few more events yet to come.

Tonight we prepared jiaozi, Chinese dumplings.  These are normally meat and chopped vegetables wrapped in a thin piece of dough.  You boil them (or fry) and then can dip them in soy sauce or other prepared sauce.  I actually grew up eating them in Japan, too.  They are delicious and the kids all enjoy making them and eating them.  We also fixed fried rice and everyone had their fill.

Sorry to scare you with all of these....we normally practice much better manners at the table!

Here are the only "normal" ones of the bunch:

Oh, My Aching Back!

When the snow is this deep, even our wonderful neighbor, Grandpa H, can't get out with his little garden tractor.  So Chris and I started digging and digging.  To say we have a long driveway is an understatement when you are talking about a foot and a half of snow.  We share part of our driveway with two other neighbors and they were digging their way out, too.  We met at the shared portion and we worked together to clear the last of it.  Many hands and shovels make quicker work, and a snow blower helps, but it still was a lot of work!

Reading the left side of the yardstick...almost 19 inches.

Such a calm, beautiful, sunny morning after the blizzard conditions yesterday with very low visibility.

Leftover snow fort from the last snow storm.

You can't even see where the first two levels of the deck are.

Um, yeah....all that up to the crest has to be dug out.

When we made it to the top of our driveway (about noon) there were only a few footsteps on our road.  No vehicles have been through at all.  We can now get out of our driveway, but not any farther!

Looking back from the top of our drive towards the house:

Neighbor Sam pulling Ami.

Mission accomplished, driveway cleared, and we're headed in for lunch and heating pads on our backs.  Seriously, that was a LOT of heavy snow to clear!

The Blizzard of 2011

Yes, this storm goes down in history for Missouri.  It was record breaking, it was huge.  At times the snow came down at the rate of 2-3 inches per hour.  Often it was blowing horizontally rather than vertically.  University was closed (yesterday and today) and I-70 was totally closed down all across our state from KC to STL.  News reporters were standing on the interstate giving their news reports.  Officials were urging all people to just stay at home and not try to get out at all.

I barely ventured out a couple of times to take pictures.  The pictures don't at all do it justice, though.  The official snowfall report for our city is a range of 18-20 inches, and drifts are 3-4 feet in places.  There is a LOT of white outside.

Even Michaela, who rarely goes out in the snow anymore, couldn't resist going out in the blizzard.  It looks like she gained 20 pounds.  :)

Yes, that would be blowing snow restricting Johanna's play outside!

The snow ended up reaching to the bottoms of the swings.

Chris tried to keep up with the snow just a bit, by creating some tracks in the driveway, but it didn't help much.

This picture was before the storm was even done!

Our bird feeder was very active yesterday.  Our little friends were much appreciative!

Even our covered front walk ended up with about 5 inches due to the blowing. 

Happy Birthday, Elijah!

What a memorable birthday this has been for Elijah!  We are encountering the Blizzard of 2011, but I will save that for another post.  We had already planned a light day of school for today, but with Chris' office closed (along with the rest of the town!), we gave up school all together today.

We started off the day with Elijah's request of cinnamon rolls.  Yum!

Then it was on to a few presents.

 

 

Actually, all five kids cashed in on birthday presents today.  We chose to do something a bit different this year and purchased season passes to Silver Dollar City.  They are all very excited about it, and we already have several dates in mind to go and enjoy some family time.  

Next up our wonderful neighbor, "Grandpa H", braved the blizzard, wearing his snow cleats, to navigate walking down our driveway to wish Elijah a happy birthday.  He gave Elijah a pretty cool mini-tool chest complete with tools. 

 Elijah played in the snow quite a bit, along with his siblings and the neighbor boys.  It was a fun day to just play and be a boy. 

It's a good thing we hadn't planned to go out for a birthday dinner today!  Elijah chose to have fish, rice, corn, and fruit salad.  He was also very specific about his birthday cake.  It was to be strawberry cake with whipped cream and "Sonic" cherries on top.  This boy loves his food!

It was fun to celebrate Elijah's birthday again.  We are indeed blessed to have him as part of our family.  This is only our third birthday together.  He has no memories of birthdays with his birth family in China, so it is definitely fun to play up these special days and give him some special attention.  We love you, Elijah!

Basketball Season

It's a new season for Upwards basketball.  Benjamin is our lone ball player.  He really enjoys it and we enjoyed getting to cheer him on at his first game last night.  With all the snow we've had, his team missed two practices, but they still played a super game.  It was exciting to watch!

Benjamin is between his two coaches.  He's number 22.

I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures.  These are from Chris' phone.  Not only did I forget my camera, I also forgot my phone last night.  It was one of those hustle and bustle moments of getting everyone out the door on time.  It's all just part of the craziness of so many people trying to get out the door at a certain time!

Our Emergent Reader

It has been my privilege to teach each of our children how to read, but this latest little reader has taken off on her own, much more so than any of our others.

Ami had learned all of her phonetic sounds just from playing with her Leap Frog fridge magnets so often.  So I decided to start "official" reading lessons with her from 100 Easy Lessons this month because she was so ready to read, but so far they have almost been a joke because it's been way too easy for her.  We've gone ahead and zipped through the beginning of the book because I feel it's building her confidence.

She discovered the Bob Books in our school closet and has been devouring them.  I catch her going to bed with them, up early in the morning with her lamp on trying to read them, and packing them around the house to have ready to read to anyone who will listen.

She gets lots of cheering from our crowd.  It's been fun!

Thank you, thank you!

Wow!  I am SO humbly overwhelmed by the many responses our family has received after sharing my dad's news.  We have had countless emails, blog comments, FB comments, and phone calls.  While the truth still hurts, I (and the rest of my family) am so encouraged to know that many, many people are praying for my dad and family.  Thank you for your love and support.  It is priceless.

It's still hard to talk with any of my siblings or parents without crying, but there is a balm in talking with them and sharing with them.  The webcam helps bridge the miles and Skype is a blessing.  My youngest brother is "coincidentally" in Japan on business right now and was able to surprise Dad and Mom for a wonderfully timed visit.  He is always making us laugh, and this morning on Skype was no different, another healing balm.

 
If you are visiting our blog from the link my dad sent out, welcome!  Feel free to leave a comment.  I'll likely post updates from time to time, and maybe a fun picture here and there of the dad and grandpa that we love. 

My Dad

How do you even begin a post like this.....I don't know.  How do I say it or type it without it becoming permanently documented and therefore true?  I wish I could just ignore it.  I wish it weren't true.  I love my dad too much for this.
  

 
My dad has cancer.  That hurts so much to even type.  I want it to go away.  I want to rewind to yesterday when it wasn't confirmed.  I want to hop on a plane and be with him.  I want to take the ugly facts away.

While I still very much feel like having a pity party, and weep at just the thought of it all, I know that God would want me to focus on Him and look at the many things we have to be thankful for.

It has been caught very early.  It is not causing any problems at this time. They have excellent healthcare and facilities in Japan.  There is treatment available.  For all of this I am thankful.

There is an amazing number of friends and family that love my parents and will lift them up to our Father.  There is an amazing number of friends and family that have already expressed their love for me and my family.  I am humbled, and so deeply grateful.

I am so grateful for the Christian upbringing that I had and for Godly parents that showed me The Way.

God is good.  All the time.  No matter what.  I will praise Him regardless.  He is our refuge.

Yes, God is good.  All the time.  He is our strength in times of need; our shelter from the storm.

I will continue to lift up my eyes to the hills -- My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

I love you Dad, with all of my heart.

Another Snow Day

We woke up to twelve beautiful inches of snow this morning!  It is so beautiful, covering the brown earth and trees that look so barren and even dirty.  This morning as I admired the pure blanket all around our property it really reminded me of how our ugly sin can be so completely covered by Him.  What a gift, both the snow and God's gentle reminder.

Another blessing, Chris is able to work from home when needed.  It was nice to have him home all day, even though he was tucked away in the guest room "at work".  We still did school, but had a shortened day so that we could all get out and enjoy the powder.

Benjamin's tracks...off to find his neighbor buddy.

 

Chris digging us out:

 

 Our special "Grandpa H" helping clear our driveway.

Benjamin Pyramid

Our Family Goals

As parents we have always had goals in mind for our family, but we have never taken the time to write them out and to share them with our children so that we can make efforts to work towards them together.  Over the last three years or so Chris and I have really felt burdened with the need to make more intentional efforts in our family, especially in regards to the importance of raising Godly children that will impact the world for Him.

So, this last weekend Chris and I  finally got around to putting some goals down on paper and writing out a plan of action.  God's hand truly guided us and blessed our efforts. 

First of all, wonderful friends came to us with the offer of keeping our five treasures so that we could go on a Vision Retreat.   They already have six children of their own, but are such servants and wanted to bless us in this way.  They were excited about their time with eleven kids and planned lots of great fun and food.  Thank you SO much H family for making this weekend possible!

Secondly, God gave Chris and I clarity and unity of mind and heart in setting goals and making realistic plans for attaining our goals.  We spent much time in prayer asking for His plans to be evident, we spent time in prayer for each of our children, we spent time digging into God's word to find appropriate foundations for our goals, and we had LOTS of wonderful discussion.

We are very excited about sharing these goals with our children and putting plans in place to work towards meeting them.  As time goes by I will likely share some of our ventures in relation to all of this.  In the meantime, here is a list of books that have been highly influential in our parenting over the last three or so years:

• God's Word
• Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham
• Revolutionary Parenting by George Barna
• Keeping our Children's Hearts:  Our Vital Priority by Steven and Terri Maxwell
• Large Family Logisitcs by Kim Brenneman