Thanksgiving in Cali

I had the best time in Cali visiting my family for Thanksgiving.  It was such a treat.  I hadn't seen my sister or brother in a year and a half.  And I was burned out, to say the least.  I'm so glad I got this much-needed break!  The first morning there these cute girls came in, Grace and Miriam.  Then everyone brought me up breakfast in bed!  Talk about being spoiled!

 

That night they had a party for me!  My birthday was a couple days before, but they still wanted to celebrate.  They made me my favorite dessert (coconut layered dessert sooo good) and gave me presents!!

Miriam is such a great helper and loved shoveling Charlotte's face with cake :)

Look at everything they gave me!!

Don't we look awesome?!  I had no idea Chris was into guns til he brought them with him to go shooting.  I didn't go, but had fun just holding one.  They are huge and heavy!

Miriam was so adorable.  Here she said to me, "Aunt Jenn, want to see my magic trick?"  She magically made the nutella disappear!  

We played lots of this Just Dance game, so fun.

Chris and Brit gave me a Krispy Kreme gift card!  So of course  we went...twice!

Chris and I can really pack it down, a trait we learned in college :)

We finished two fun puzzles while I was there.  This one is a 750 piece!  Levi is a master puzzler.   I was amazed at how much he could put together!

 Me and my cute sis, Cindy.  She took me to In n Out for hamburgers, fries, and shakes.  I ate soo much on this trip.  Lots of time to eat and sleep, what could be better?!

Cute Claire with baby Lucy.

Thanksgiving!  We all went around the room and toasted to what we were thankful for.  I was so grateful for this wonderful amazing trip... everyone treated me like queen bee.

I loved holding little Lucy!  It was so fun to take a nap with her.  

Charlotte loved playing Zingo with me...which is watching her carefully stack all the tiles and then dump them out again.

I even got to meet up with an old friend from Hawaii, the Tayor's!  So nice to reconnect again.

Loved this  Singing around the piano.  We did it on Thanksgiving day, then again before Chris and Brit left with Christmas hymns.

Chris and Brit with their two girls.  It was soo nice visiting with them and catching up.  I'm so glad they drove down for Thanksgiving.  What an amazing trip (although I did miss my own kids at the end).  Had such a wonderful time, full of all my favorite things: eating, sleeping, and talking!  Can't wait to do it again sometime!!

Music Moves My Soul

Another recital come and gone!  This recital was pretty much student's choice.  I wanted the kids to really love their recital song.  We had everything from Disney to Pop to Classical.  It went great.  The last number I accompanied my good friend Ashley Simpson while she sang "Only Hope."  Love that song, and it was so fun to perform together!

End of Soccer Season!

 Zion had a fun soccer season with the BlueJays and "Coach Zui."  I really think Zui does a great job of keeping it fun and trying to encourage the boys to excel.  All the kids love the team cheer and tunnel. 

Zoo Trip/ Ezekiel's stitches

Family trip to the zoo!  Was fun but man, we forgot our stroller AND the diapers and wipes!!  Sounds traumatic but actually we survived okay.  Zui had the trekker and although Ezekiel is clearly too big for it somehow we made it work.

I think this is the last picture I have of Jazzy with long hair...I cut about 8 inches off shortly after.  It was down past her waist!

 Random cuteness...

See that nasty cut?  Ezekiel grabbed onto a recently opened can and it sliced him pretty deep.  We weren't sure if it would need stitches til a friend/doctor came over and said definitely he would need them.  Lots of tears, 4 nurses pinning him down for shots and stitches...but he survived.  

 See how tired we all are?  Lots of naps on top of us to help soothe him.

 For the next week Ezekiel had to keep his hand bandaged, which he kept taking off, so Zui taped on this disposable glove and cut the fingers off.  Pretty funny looking but oh well it worked.  So glad this chapter of our life is over with!  And pretty amazing none of our kids had stitches before til number 5!!

Dennis Kim Campaign

Well it's officially over.  After months and months of supporting the Dennis Kim campaign the day of election came.  My kids were such troopers.  They got used to putting on their red shirts to go sign-waving several times a week.  Can you believe Zui took 5 kids sign-waving by himself almost every time??  I was usually teaching piano during the hours they went.  That didn't stop him one bit.  Zui would pack up all the kids, snacks, and ipad and off they went.  Each kid had to sign-wave for 5 stoplights before they got a turn on the ipad.  

Even Ezekiel would sign wave!!  Haha.  But mostly Zui carried him in the trekker.

Between all the families helping we had a ton of kids!! To keep it safe we would alternate watching the little ones.

Sign waving sometimes began as early as 5am.  Zui, Lehua, and Darrell all taking the early shift before work and seminary.

It was pretty cool to see Dad's face posted everywhere like a celebrity.  Every time we passed by the kids would say, "HI GRANDPA!!" And then start chanting "VOTE DENNIS KIM!  VOTE DENNIS KIM!"

The day of Elections Zui was at the booth from 5am to 6pm.  Really I was so amazed at how the volunteers put everything into the campaign.  Countless hours sign-waving, door-to door canvassing, and weekly meetings.  

So cool to see Dennis' name on the ballot!!  Unfortunately the results weren't what we had hoped...  BUT he did do better than forecasted, winning 40% of the vote, when the news said he was outspent 10 to 1.  Dennis left an impression: Listen to us.  Hopefully that is enough to embark some change.