Winter fun

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We got a ton of snow just before Christmas so Ron took the kids out to enjoy the hills with their sleds. Wheee!

Meilin 1st Piano Recital!

Jolly Old Saint Nic

Meilin had her FIRST recital! Although she was very nervous she did an awsome job as you can hear! Way to go Meim!

HSM3

So April, Meilin, Jeanette and her friend Jessica all went to see HSM3 on Saturday. It was a toe-taping, bumb-bouncing good show. We all loved it. Right after the movie we had to stop off at Target to buy the soundtrack....(just like Taryn)and listen to it on the way home. Meilin's favorite stars are Gabrella and Sharpae.....surprise, surprise. Thanks Jeanette for the invite.

Lower lights keep burning.....

ok so Jourdan sent a few vedio clips along with his SD card. I will add them on our blog for you to enjoy. Keep checking back for more updates.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Akio

So we had a visitor from Japan last week. His name was Akio. He was a foriegn exchange student from Japan. He was from a Jr. High in Japan. As part of there education they come to America for about 10 days. We were able to host one of the 250+ students that came. We had a very full week of activities with him. We picked him up on Tuesday night. On Wednesday we went with 4 other families to Cornbellies. Thurdsay 6 families from the ward took the kids up to AF canyon and had a hot dog roast. Akio said that hot dogs were his favorite American food he tried here.


Friday we went up to Grandma Smiths annual Halloween party. Akio dressed up as a baseball player, Meilin was a AF cheerleader, Mitchell was a street worker and Spencer went as a ballroom dancer. We had fun playing games and teaching Akio about the fun of Halloween.



Then on Saturday Ron took Akio to a BYU football came. It was the first time he had ever been to a stadium game. He loved it. On Sunday we took him up to Temple Square for Music and the Spoken Word. The missionaries were able to take about 50 of the students on a tour of temple square. On Monday we all attended a dinner and program at BYU presented by Akios school as a thank-you to the host families. It was a very full week of fun family activites. We took him shopping at Walmart before he left and he bought a glass laser etched picture of the Salt Lake Temple. He liked the temple when he saw it. I explained to him that it was a very speical place for Ron and I. I told him we were married there. Meilin cried when he left and we felt a bit of a void after he left. Amazing how you come to love someone in such a short time.

Pictures from Elder Smith

So Jourdan finally sent us his SD card with some pictures from his mission. It was great to get a bunch of pictures but the sad thing is there are no captions on the picutres so we don't know who is who. Guess we will have lots of catching up once he gets home!

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Meilin is a STAR!

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Meilin Gets Baptised!

Our little angel Meilin was baptized. She looked so beautiful in her white dress. She was so excited and a bit nervous for the big day. It was a great day that we celebrated with family and friends. She was baptized at the historical tabernacle in American Fork. After we came home for a family dinner that was great! Thanks to all our family for supporting Meilin in this important decision. We love you Meilin!!!!

Our very own Olympian

Meilin just finished up her first year on the summer swim team. She was totally amazing! She was a fish! Her first swim meet she got 6th and 7th place in the backstroke and freestyle. At the season final she finished 1st for her age in the Butterfly!!!! (her personal favorite stroke) She came in 2nd for the freestyle. She loved it! She got medals, a trophy and ribbons to show how well her season went. US Olympic swim team watch out here she comes!

Ready....SetGo! Way to go Meim....we are sooo proud of you!

Surprise visitor----Eeewwww!

The other day Meilin went out in the back yard, and to her suprise (horror) she found a visitor slithering under the table. She promptly ran inside for safety (screaming) to tell us about the new pet we had just aquired.

Spencer being the kind (macho) brother that he is, quickly came to her rescue. He decided that yes, this was going to be our new family pet. Sorry to say we only had that pet for less than 24 hours. He left it in a garbage can in the front yard and it quickly died in the heat. (Much to Meiins reilif)

Mitchell turns 20!

On Saturday we had a family B-B-Q to celebrate Mitchells birthday! We had his favorite food.....Hambergers! We then had Strawberry short cake including all 20 candles. He was able to blow them all out on the first try! Way to go Mitchell.

He got lots of nice things. Some games to play at Boulder Mt., a new jacket, some DVDs and a DVD player for his aptartment. Happy Birthday Mitchell, we love you!!!!!

Rons work Party

For Rons work Party this year we got to take the family to Park City and play! Sadly to say everyone was gone either to a camp or trip so Meilin was our only child for the day. We had lots of fun! We rode the Alpine slide, Mountain rollercoaster, played miniture golf and had a great lunch. We were able to ride the rides as many times as we wanted. It was great fun!

Justine goes to Prom

Justine was asked by a long time friend and neighbor Nathan Hoggan to go to prom. He asked her on a weekend when she was very sick with the flue and a cold. He sent a first-aid box with some medicine and some get well items. He included a pill bottle with some tick-tacks which she had to dump out and find letters which spelled his name. Way cute idea! She answered back by buying his a large pizza with the word YES spelled out in pepperoini's. Nathans dad came over a minute before he arrived to take pictures with us. Afterall they are our good friends. They had a full day of activites. Nate picked her up for breakfast and a movie. Then he dropped her off for a couple of hours and then it was off for pictures, dinner another movie and then the dance.

Reort on Mitchell

Well Mitchell is settling in well in his new home. He calls us almost daily to let us know how things are going. Each day when we ask him how he likes it his responce is "I love it!" There have been a few slight bumps this week but all in all he has done very well. He is still taking his time unpacking. Youknow organizing is his "thing" so we can imagine it taking a while before the last of the boxes are unpacked. He did tell me this morning that all his clothes are unpacked and put away. He started a new school on Thursday and he reported on Friday to his grandma Fredrickson that he loves it better than his old school.
This morning he went to his new ward and he even bore his testimony! He fasted all day, a full 12 hours (to the minute!) He called Ron at church and made sure that his records were sent to his new ward! What a great kid! He loves being "independant" although he still calls to ask for our opinion and advice on things. It has been fun to respond with "Well Mitch thats your choice...what do you want?" What a whole new world for him. We are grateful that he has this opportunity.

Pictures from the Mission field

For my birthday Jourdan sent his SD memory card home filled with pictures. What a wonderful gift it was! He continues to do very well. His letters are very upbeat and inpirational. He is currently a trainer and is dedicated to helping his compaion be the best he can be. He continues to be a strong influence for good out there Ohio.

Becasue the pictures were on the memory chip nothing had a caption on it....so we are up to ourselver to figure everything out. I believe this first picture is his companion in Twinsburg, Elder Bell. The second picture is the gentleman that they lived with in Twinsburg. Last is a picture of a woman he called his second mom. She took good care of him while he was in Alliance

Mitchells new home!

Mitchell in the doorway of his new home!













Mitchell and his roomate Jered









Collin and Mitchell
The family in Mitch's kitchen















On Monday we were able to move Mitchell into his new home. Jered and Collin, Mitch's new roomates, happily welcomed him. Jered loves to ride bikes and is excited that Mitchell will be able to ride along with him. I asked Mitch, after his first day, if he likes living on his own. His response was..."I love it!" We are so proud and thrilled for him to make this new change. It will be an anjustment but he has such a positive attitude about the whole thing! Our prayers and love are with you Mitch!

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Ohio Trivia

The Other areas ad misionaries in the district are Sister Cope (Kennith cope's neice) and sister Skinner in Solon. and sister Packer and Sister Ruff in Hiram. Hiram ohio is where the John Johnson farm is. a few sections of the D&C were written there. the prophet Joseph spent a lot of time there. Sister Skinner's parents jsut moved to salem Ohio. which those of you rembember was in the last ward i served in-alliance. so her parents just moved into the mission. that would be so crazy. don't get any ideas mom and dad. also i learned something cool about Salem Ohio this week. The first angel Moroni that they made and put on the SLC temple was cast and made in Salem Ohio. there are still all sorts of steel yards and iron casting factories out there today. kinda neat.

Freezing Rain

This is the latest news from Jourdan. He helps us understand the wonderful weather in Ohio. Burr it sound fun!?!

i want to tell you some of the wonders of freezing rain, so you can know just how wonderful yesterday was.
so its cold. and its raining, so natrually that rain freezes, and for some reason it doesn't turn to snow. it turns into little bb like ice drops that sting when they hit you. when they hit you instead of like hail that bounces off, it splatters and freezes. your probibally thinking that after a few hundred drops hit in one spot you could get a pretty good layer of ice there. Well your right! and the rain hits everwhere. and it rained all day. so yesterday ohio was covered in a nice thick layer of ice. and so was I! haha it was nuts!! now i know it sounds great and all but, there are a few things that you need to be aware of when your world suddenly turns to ice.

1. you fall. . . . a lot
2. for those of you who have seen cool runnings when Sanka is in the ice cream truck and snaps of a peice of his hair.... that is real.
3. there such a thing as a chevy malibu-popcycle
4. its probibally safer to run with scisors than to drive.

so if you ever are caught unawares in a frozen rain storm, be prepared for those 4 things

To read all of Jourdans letter and to hear about his latest baptism please visit his website. Forgot the password, just email and we'll send it to you.

So we had it confirmed that Meilin does indeed have Dyslexia. Mom and Meilin spent over two hours with a professional dyslexia tester doing tests to find out. We are so glad that we found out as early as we did. Even though she is behind we caught it soon enough to get her caught back up quickly. Her type of dyslexia is an auditory processing disorder. She has a difficult time processing written and oral information. We have invested in a tutoring program that helps dyslexia children learn to read and we bagan teaching her at home . Surprisngly enough the schools don't know and aren't trained on how to teach kids with dyslexia. So it is up to the families to help their own kids learn. We started the program two weeks ago with Meilin and during the testing today the area where we have been tutoring her on her scores were way high! The tester said that that was a wonderful sign that what we were doing was working and that we are on the right path to finally helping her learn to read. Meilin is such a trooper! We have been so proud of how she has tried and tried and never given up even though things have been very hard for her. She is amazing! You go girl!!!!

Jourdan is transferred and made District Leader!

Here is some highlights from Jourdans letter this week. Again remember this is only a highlight if you want to read the whole letter to get the big picture you'll need to visit his web page.... http://www.missionsite.net/enterpassword.php?id=372&returnto=/main.php Remember you'll need his password so if you forgot please email me and we will forward it onto you.
Transfers have to be the epitomy of bitter-sweet. at least when your trying to get out of a walking area. I don't think that i can ever get used to saying goodbye to the people that i have met and taught. they are just as big as an impact on me, as the missionaires are on them. its ALWAYS so hard to leave.
So now i am in Twinsburg. which is kinda close to parma, my first area. and guess what?? I HAVE A CAR!!! wooo!!! haha. this place is sweet. we are living in a members home wich is like a million times better than any appartment i have ever seen. free landry, home cooking, etc... its just wonderful. my comps name is elder Bell he has been out for 6 weeks. he just got done being trained. they made me district leader too. i'm a little bit nervous about that one .... so that will be fun, and new.
Elder Smith

Jourdan and riding bikes in the winter....oh the joy!

Jourdan week 16 in Alliance

I have decided to post a few snipits from Jourdans weekly letters here on our Blogg. For the whole letter you will need to visit his web page.

"last sunday was the youngstown stake conferance. so that was fun. we had Elder Madsen from the seventy come and talk. he was AWSOME. i love general Athoritys, they are soo sweet.
Every time i set a baptisimal date with someone, their life gets hecktic. why? becasue its probiblally the most important thing they could do here on earth. and satan knows it so he does everything within his power to try and stop it. so for that reason i always get a little nervous when we set a baptisimal date with people. I am doing great. i love it here. i hope your all doing well! i love ya!

love Elder Smith

Funny Disneyland video clip

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Disneyland!

Ok, Ok so we are not the best bloggers out there....yet. Just give us some time and we will get better. Hey a quaterly post isn't all that bad is it? Well we will try to get better. So the fam had a wonderful time at Disneyland! (Thanks Santa!) We spent 3 wonderful days in the Magic Kindgom and it was great! The last day it rained and the park cleared out and we had it all to ourselves. Meilin loved it (this was her first trip)Her favorite ride was Califorina Screamin! (You-know the one the roller coaster that whips you away and takes you upside down) We rode it 5 times in a row within about a half an hour time! She wanted to keep on riding except the rest of us were getting dizzy! Ron loved Soarin over California, Spencer, Mom and Justine all enjoyed Tower of terror! Mitchell liked it all! Sad to say it was over way too fast! Now we just have our wonderful memories of the Happiest Place on Earth.

Fun at Disneyland!

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