Utah Trip

I went on a trip to Utah at the beginning of April for the 1oth anniversary of my mission. My friend took me to Jordan River Temple at the first night. Temple is a sacred place for us to perform ordinances for ourselves and the deceased. It's a blessing from God to connect with Him and with our ancestors. It's Heaven on earth. I was so glad to be able to go to the temple and learned the things that make my spirit grow and calm.

I attended three sessions of General Conference. I was blessed to sit very close to see the prophet in person. As I watched his face, I felt the spirit and testified to me that President Monson was the prophet of God. As long as I follow his teachings, I will be able to go back to my Heavenly Father, have an eternal family and achieve the exaltation.

It was great to hear the Tabernacle Choir sing. It was once my dream to become one of them. Although I have chosen another path, I still felt tingling under the skin when I saw the choir. My friend kept encouraging me to make the dream come true. I know I can not at this point but I do start thinking about singing again.

It was my second time seeing the beauty of Salt Lake temple. It touches my heart thinking about the people who spent 40 years building this temple and transported white granite from 20 miles away. It was 4 days journey for both trips. It took numerous people's great effort and faith to finish this House of the Lord. I'm truly grateful for these people and for the Lord to bring this great light on earth, which brings us great joy and peace.

Oh, how I loved my mission president and his late wife. They were my parents on my mission and continued helping me in this life journey. President Kim's new wife happened to be a sister who watched me grow up. I'm grateful for this relationship with them.

This kid was my friend's and he's super cool. I taught them yoga when I stayed there and we had fun doing yoga every day. He loved doing yoga and meditating.

Drop Painting

We had a couple of hours' fun with this activity. We just grabbed a few things from the kitchen and started it. E loved to mix different colors together to explore. We put two pieces of paper towel together, colored it and then unfolded.

E called this one "The Joker".

Materials needed:

Food coloring

Baby food jars or any small containers(one for each color desired)

Droppers(one for each color desired)

Thick paper towels

1. Fill containers with water. Add a few drops of different color of food coloring into each container.

2. Cover the table with vinyl table cloth or some newspaper for easy cleanup.

3. Using droppers(I only had one and it still worked out great), have the children drop the "paint" onto the paper towels, one drop at a time. The drops will fan out and bleed into each other, creating a very pretty picture!!!

What Happened in Taiwan

I finally have time to share about our trip to Taiwan. It was wonderful as long as I don't tell you the details. :) It was three years ago when we went back last. The kids are not babies and toddlers anymore. They all talk very well of course in their languages. E understood Chinese but spoke mainly English so his cousins didn't quite understand him. They had their ways of communicating that we as adults could sometimes learn from. This is a picture of E and his cousin and I love the chemistry in this one. His cousin was really tough and strong-minded. E always tried to play rough with him and he thought it's for real. Oh, they fought and fought leaving bruises and scratches until the last day! I'm glad they got to know each other well. I just wish they didn't choose such an uncivilized way.

McDonald's was such a comfortable place for E. He was really overwhelmed with the different food and place. He liked to go to "Old McDonald" (that's how he called it) to eat and play and it gave him such comfort especially with the happy meal toys.

He learned how to ride a bike and yes on a girl's hello-kitty bike. He had so much fun!

The Chinese New Year celebration is about family gathering and food.

Lots of yummy dumplings, hot pot and more.

E was curious about eating the whole fish and then he gobbled down more than 10 of them, unbelievable, using chopsticks too.

E played his first sparkler and he absolutely loved it.

This place is called "Flower Sea", a very large beautiful flower field.

They don't use car seats there so E insisted that he should wear seat belt also with the helmet. He's surely a safety kid!

There are a lot of motor scooters there. E's grandpa loved to take him for a short ride.

Below is the movie showing a very old Chinese candy making technique. It's called "Blowing Candy". The master made a dinosaur for E.

Hugging each other at the airport, as you can see, they finally made up. E learned to know his family in Taiwan in three weeks and it's not easy for him at all. When family live so far away, we do have to build the relationships in a different way. The most important thing is that we try.

Thank You For The Gift

I want to share a couple things that my son said and did at this Christmas season.

A couple weeks before Christmas, our son asked almost every night, "Mom(Dad), is the day after today Christmas?" We would always showed him the calendar and pointed out which day was Christmas. It's so wonderful to see his excitement and patience as the time went. We told him if he's not good, Santa would only leave him a potato. He was not upset and said, "Then I will just eat it!"

One day he dumped lots of coins out of his fish bank and carried them in his pocket. He said he's going to buy a Christmas gift for mama because he loved her!

I think he believes in Santa. He said that Santa had been in the Museum twice and he told him he wanted Bakugan for Christmas. He also told people that one Santa was in his school and he lived there. I said that made sense because Santa could watch how the children behaved.

At Christmas Eve, Baba's aunt brought so many gifts and we placed them around the tree. He was puzzled and said, "We already have so many gifts, Santa won't bring us any now!"

On Christmas morning, we heard a voice coming through his door saying, "I DIDN"T GET A POTATO!" He brought the presents to our bed and was so happy to show us everything!

During two Christmas parties, he got many many presents from his grandparents, aunts and uncles. After he opened each gift, he would go to them and said, "Thank you for the gift!" Everyone was so loud and some didn't quite pay attention to his soft voice. My heart was full and was touched by his action.

I also received many nice gifts this year. But the greatest gift of all is from my Father in Heaven. I am grateful for the precious gift that he has given me, which is the Savior. I hope I will always remember to go to him and thank Him for the gift!

Avocado Milkshake

This is another yummy recipe for avocado. I don't really follow any recipe so adjust according to your taste. If you choose to add vanilla pudding and banana, you may decrease the amount of honey needed. Be creative and let me know if you find other variations for it! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 large Avocado
1 banana, optional
1/2 Cup Vanilla Pudding, optional
2 Tbsp Honey (more or less to taste)
1 1/2-2 Cups Milk or Soy milk
Ice cubes, optional

1. Put avocado, banana, pudding and milk in the blender and blend well.
2. Add honey through the funnel while blending or just add honey in the milkshake and pause a couple seconds.

Note: If you want to add honey in earlier and then all blend together, you might find some honey stuck on the blender. Mine does that so I choose to add honey later.

Avocado Toast

This is one of my favorite food. My mission President and his wife made some for me one time and I loved it so much. It's very healthy and easy to make. I eat it whenever I feel like to. Avocados contains good fat and lots of minerals and vitamins. (http://www.avocado.org/healthy-living/nutrition)

Ingredients:

1 Avocado
1 Tbsp Honey or more to taste
3-4 pieces of bread

1. Smash avocado with a spoon or fork in a small bowl or shallow plate.
2. Add honey and mix it well. Add more depending on your preference.
3. Toast the bread.
4. Spread the mashed avocado on the toast and enjoy!

The Gift for the Savior

Every year as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, we think about something we like to give him. At Christmas Eve this year, we sat around the nativity scene and wrote down the things we would like to do this year to show our love for the Savior. We then put the paper in the silver box. I know the Savior would be pleased as we strive to be better in words and deeds.