Fish in the Canal

I guess there are river fish in the canal by our house. Jacob caught 14 of them in jars. More animals by our house. Great.

Sleeping Beauty at the Capitol Theater

After the Halloween party at Carrie's, four of us decided to enjoy our girls' night. I didn't know that these friends were interested in ballet, so I was super excited. We watched the Moscow Ballet performing "Sleeping Beauty" for 2 1/2 hours. Some parts were funny and others ecstatically beautiful. I don't know how the Princess could keep up her leg for 2 minutes and slowly twirl with the Suitors. I enjoyed the line dance, Waltz, and wedding guests: White Cat, Puss in Boots, Blue Birds, Red Riding Hood, and Wolf. We had great time in this magnificent theater in town.

I had to run to cross the street, so didn't have time to zoom in, but it is more beautiful that it appears here... :)

Our New Puppy

Aren't these puppies so cute? They are a litter of 2 red and 7 black Border Collies. Some of you might be thinking, "Another dog???" and I was too, but I was told during prayer, "it will be good for our girls." This time, we get to raise her from the puppyhood, and she is a sheep dog, so I think she will stay around the house well. We liked the red color but those red ones were both boys, so we chose one from the black females.

This is their mama, Maya. She was a very kind-looking mother. She is only 1 year old, but the owner told us that having babies calmed her down.Every puppy looked healthy and cute so it was hard to pick one. After a while, we picked this one because she had the most white fur in her forehead :) The owner knows Jacob, so he is giving her for free and we got our first pick. She will come home in the beginning of December.

It is my dream to have a red barn, just like from a picture book. This owner owned 2 large barns and 1,000 acres. Wow....

He gave us 4 fertile eggs, which means we could hatch those eggs!!! Unfortunately, we were not ready to have chicks this winter, so they ended up in the refregerator... :<

Visit to the Pumpkin Patch on Saturday

It was so beautiful where I was turning in the Fred Meyer parking lot, so I had to stop and take photos.

While we were waiting for Chelsea and Mandee, we let kids get out and play.

Chelsea is keeping them safe and together :)

Mandee is taking photo of her 3-month-old son, Miguel, in the wagon. He is so cute!! Quietly pondering in the hay maze... What is she thinking?

Mine, mine, mine! So many pumpkins!!! The hay ride pulled by a tractor...through the cherry orchard. We went downhill and uphill, looking at old and baby cherry trees. It was funner than I expected.

We love apples because we live in Washington!

Sister Nelson is buying the little ones strawberry/peach honey sticks, pumpkins and apples :) The honey stick was oh so delicious!

Emma is tasting fresh apple cider. Mnnnn, good.

Emma is dropping an apple into the 40+-year-old apple cider machine. Things used to be made to last for a long time!

While we were waiting for the apple cider to be poured into jugs, these girls were busy playing with water. Of course.

Talk about "the multi-tasking at an early age"! Costume Contest at the Border's Bookstore. After this, Sister Nelson took us to the MacDonald's to eat and play in the jungle gym. Emma couldn't find a way out, so I had to rush through the narrow tunnels to rescue her :) And it was funny that Lydia told me that she didn't want a baby brother...lol

Bon Fire in the Yard

Jacob was not feeling well but he got tired of being cooped up in the house. So, we decided to have fire just outside our house. The burn pit Jacob buried had actually been a wheel from a farm tractor :) The potatoes we baked with fire had wonderful wood smell and tasted soooooooo good!

The night view from our house.

Halloween Party at the Sniders

We were invited to Jon and Carrie's Halloween Party last night. I know the picture doesn't look like Halloween at all, but I wanted to wear Yukata with my family before this year ended. We had many yummy treats - Thank goodness, my apple cake turned out well - and played hilarious games. My favorite game was sticking hands in pumpkins in the dark and guess what was in there. They were mixtures of jello-O, raisins, macaroni, rice, beans and octopus (it wasn't octopus, but I can't remember what that was). It was all wet and slimy. Ugh (°◇°;)!

Our friends' pics at: http://carriesnider.blogspot.com/2008/10/halloween-party.html

You have to see this video before you look at Emily, though: http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/the-lawrence-welk-show/727501/

Aren't You Cold, Cinderella?

I really think Emma will be a nurse or at least a good mother. The first qualification must be "Does she care about others?" Yes, she does. She can't leave anybody or anything suffering alone. From babyhood, if we lay down on the floor, she would go grab her blanket and pillow to cover us, without fail. This time, Emma thought Cinderella was cold in her dress. She wrapped her with scotch tape to shield her bare skin from the cold. I don't think she remembered that Cinderella couldn't breath like this, but she is dead anyway, so who cares, I guess :D

This is kind of an old picture, but this is my worn-out sandal. I broke it at the BBQ but Emma fixed it the next morning. I am not satisfied with how it got fixed but I am satisfied that Emma cared about my sandal and made me smile :)

エマの初めての絵 / Emma's First Drawing

いつまでもぐちゃぐちゃの丸やあまり目的のない線を描いていたエマを見てずっと「かわいそうに私に似て絵の才能がないんだわ・・・笑」とあきらめていたところへ急に、　「ママ、くも～」とこの絵を見せてくれたので、超びっくり！影までつけちゃって、私よりうまいじゃないですか。畏れ入りました　m（＿　＿）m

Since Emma was drawing messy circles and unpurposeful lines for a long time, I was giving up, thinking "Poor Emma took after my artistic UNtalent." Then all of a sudden, she showed me this drawing, "Mama, look at my spider!" I was just shocked! With the shades and everything, she is already better than me! Wow!

Our Weekend Updates

ユタ州のおじいちゃんと継おばあちゃんが訪ねてきてくれました。車で１０時間かかるところを３ヶ月ごとに車か飛行機で着てくれるとても熱心なおじいちゃんとおばあちゃんです。すごく思いやりがあって話しててすごく楽しいです。ワシントン州にたくさんお孫さんがいるので私たちと取れる時間は限られているのですが、今回はうちに泊まってくれて、来週ダイアンさんだけまた帰りにちょっとだけ寄ってくれるそうです。

Gandpapa and Grandmama from Utah visit us every 3 months, if not more. They are very dedicated and kind. We love talking and spending time with them. They have many grandchildren in Washington, so the time they can spend with us is limited but we were happy that they could stay with us overnight and are looking forward to seeing Grandmama again this weekend before heading home!

今日はジェイコブのお休みだったので前からもう一度行きたかった素敵な公園に足を運んでみました。子供の遊び場は楽しいし、開けてて気分がいいし、テニスやサッカーをしてる人も多くてとても理想的。ここで旦那さん同士、奥さん同士とも気が合いそうなめっちゃいい感じのご家族に会って、生まれて初めて公園で連絡先を交換しました。

Today was Daddy's day off, so we went to the park I wanted to go back for a long time. It is a very open and beautiful park with a fun playground. I also liked the atomosphere that there were many people playing tennis and kids playing soccer. We met a wonderful family there today. It seemed that Jacob could get along with the husband and I could get along with the wife. It is rare to find such a match. I had never exchanged phone numbers with strangers at park, but we were going to be sad if we didn't see them again.

パパは２５歳でも遊具が大好き！子供にとっては好都合です。

Daddy is 25 but loves the playground! It is very desirable for our girls :)

We had Polish hot dogs, Very Berry Sundae and Berry Smoothie for dinner at CostCo. I love going to CostCo with everybody. It is no fun when I go there by myself. I was planning to get a lot of stuff using coupons, but ended up getting other stuff that we needed. Those coupons motivate us to go there but I don't use them as much as I wish...

Halloween Family Home Evening

After our family home evening, we curved pumpkins. Emma wanted a smiley one.
Guess what? I'm not very artistic... Emma said she was scared. I guess it turned out rather creepy. I didn't want her to have a nightmare, so...
I re-drew a different one on the back while Linlin observed us quietly. How is this? I didn't think this could scare devils away, but at least Emma liked it.
Couldn't do the little circles with a curving knife. Told ya I wasn't that artistic... but notice a stylish opening cut on the top. It is dynamic ;p
"Is this Emma~?" She is giving hugs. "Okay, take the inside out!" Emma didn't like the gooey feeling of the stringy core...

at all. "Daddy, do I have to do this?" She went to wash her hands very quickly. An ice-cream scoop with a flat edge cleaned the inside instantly, like a miracle. On the other hand, Linlin enjoyed turning and squishing it. She is pretending to be cooking :)
This is my pumpkin. Very artistic and creepy, huh? Edward Munch's Scream ;)
In the half dark. The middle is Daddy's.

On the porch, with a camera flash.
In the complete dark. I suggested walking around the house with one of the pumpkins, saying that "Remember? Our Heavenly Father is like the candle, He is the source; Jesus is the Light; and the Holy Ghost is the air or oxygen, we can't see him, but he is there to help Jesus!" But it was chilly and pitch dark, so our girls were mostly scared. We held our girls and walked around my van instead. It was a very satisfying family activity for Halloween.
After we put our girls in bed, we cooked and roasted the pumpkin seeds. We roasted them for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Ya, they were a bit burned inside. The whole thing was crunchy, so we ate the shells and all. It didn't taste all that good, so I stopped eating them quickly, but I still suffered severe indigestion for 2 days, and eventually dehydration with nausea, dizziness and shortness of breath. I ended up calling Jacob at work crying on Wednesday. He came home early and took me to the doctor. Yeah, it was fun :(
The most useful thing I learned was that this recipe really works for indigestion: Easy to make too!

1 cup of water

1 tsp of lemon juice

1/2 tsp of baking soda.

It dissolved the gravel feeling in my stomach immediately! Peppermint tea, Chamomile tea, and pineapple work well too, if they were consumed right after the meal :)