Philippines

This last summer we had the opportunity to host 2 wonderful women from the Philippines. The local University here was hosting an international choir festival and in an effort to help the singers from around the world asked members of the local community to volunteer to take them in as family for a week. Choirs were coming from all over including, Ghana, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Georgia, Costa Rica and Poland, A clip board was sent around in my local ward with a sign up sheet and I felt a very strong impression that I needed to sign up. This is not something I would typically do. I had so many excuses as to why I should not, but I felt guided by the spirit that I NEEDED to do this. We fell in love with not only the wonderful girls we got to host but also their whole choir. We became groupies and were at all their performances. 

Meet Ana Marie and Isabel. They have been blessed with beautiful voices. They speak perfect English. Ana Marie is a minister, and Isabel owns a coffee shop. They both attended the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines. And studied music. 

I had to laugh because they called me their foster Mom.

 Their choir ranges from age 18-55. They are the sweetest people. They all loved Harvey, and he loved the attention. Carlo is the guy holding him in the picture below He was frequently stealing Harvey and every one would ooh and ahh at him.

One custom in the Philipines is that no one besides parents should hold babies. The belief behind this is that a bad spirit will stay behind with the baby. So if the baby is help by a friend and has a bad night crying it could be blamed completely on being held by the friend. Probably the reason why they loved Harvey is because they know Americans don't believe in things like that and so they could get baby cuddles.

These girls were very funny. When we got them and we were driving to our house and got into our neighborhood one of them said, "This is like the houses we see on the movies!" 

When we got to the house I was showing them around our house and told them they would be sleeping upstairs because our basement is unfinished. They told me "Good, we are afraid of the basements. In the movies bad things happen in basements."

They were shocked with how peaceful Idaho is. They live in very populated areas. One of them even lives on the 22 floor of a high rise building. 

Ana Marie and Isabel were busy, we took them in the morning to the University and then didn't pick them up until after their night performance. We did have a couple partial free days with them. 

We learned a lot about customs in the Philippines. One of the popular custom is if you go on vacation you must bring a little something back for everyone you know. It didn't matter if it was nice, but it was very rude if you didn't. The dollar store and Walmart were a hit with these girls. 

Customs in the Philippines are interesting. They told me a woman is not to bathe or shower after giving birth for 1 month. Luckily a lot of women do not uphold this tradition.

I liked cooking for these girls when I had the opportunity. We always got to eat breakfast and dinner together. In the Philippines they eat rice at every meal. We took them out to dinner one night and they could not believe the portion sizes. They commented that their meal alone could feed her whole family back home. It was fun to also cook for them our favorite meals and hear about their favorite meals back home.

It was fun to watch these ladies experience things for the first time like jumping on the trampoline.

Here is one of handsome Harvey at 8 months old

We had such a wonderful week with them. I am so happy I listened to the spirit and went out of my comfort zone to participate.

Easter 2016

We spent Easter weekend in Salt Lake. My neighbors growing up the Peterson's invited Kate and Harvey up for an Egg hunt Saturday morning. Kate thought it was fantastic to find brightly colored eggs all over their yard. Afterwards they fed us an Easter themed brunch, it as wonderful!

 The next day was Sunday and following church my parents had all of their Grandchildren up to the house. We decided it would be fun to hide eggs for the cousins. We had 2 different hunts. The first was in the backyard for the younger ones and the second was in the front yard for the older cousins. Everyone walked away with candy, and all the parents collected their candy tax from the kids.

Cousins Easter 2016

Scott's wedding

March 25 my younger brother Scott married Kristi Brown in the Bountiful, Utah temple. We are so grateful that he found someone as amazing as Kristi. It is wonderful to see my brother so happy.

Kate and her cousin buddy Phin

Papa and Millie

handsome Joe and handsome Harvey

Kate was refusing to be in the picture so we got a little shot with Harvey

Family picture March 2016

bald Harvey at 4 months old

Hollywood Studios

I am so behind on blogging! Yes, this trip happened 3.5 months ago, and I am just finishing it up! We spent one day at Hollywood Studios at Disney. The day we went it was mothers day. Disney had a flower for each mother. It was great to be able to spend the full day with my wonderful mother! Highlights from this park include my favorite ride Toy Story Mania, Beauty and the Beast musical, and The little Mermaid short musical. 

We met Olaf and gave him a warm hug!

Green army men from Toy story

We are all ready to ride Toy Story Mania!

Kate is obsessed with Doc McStuffins. If you have never seen the show you need to! It is about this little girl "Doc McStuffins" who has a magic stethoscope and uses it to bring her toys to life. She fixes her toys and family and friends. It is adorable, and Kate has learned how to give a check-up. Kate really did enjoy meeting Doc, but I think her favorite part was coming back into Doc's playhouse after Doc had gone home for the night. She was able to sit on the check-up table. pretend to use her instruments. It makes me happy that my daughters loves to play with medial instruments!

Maybe Joe's favorite part was all the Star Wars characters he saw. I have no idea who is pictured below, or in any of the other star wars pictures. One of the characters loved Harvey and Harvey was not scared by him.

 Joe was a champ and stayed with Kate all day! He even took Kate to the fantasmic firework show at night on a Daddy-daughter date while the rest of us went back to sleep. Kate loved the extra time with her Dad, but thought the show was a little scary. She did like getting to see ALL the Disney characters in the show.

Papa and Nonna were so nice and bought Kate and Harvey each a souvenir to remember their special trip to Disney world. Kate got Disney princess figurines, and Harvey got Toy Story figurines. We play with the figurines every day. Kate often asks while she is playing with them if she can go back to the hotel and Disney World. One time I told her it cost a lot of money, and so she found some spare change around the house, gave it to me, and asked again to go back. Well played Kate! Maybe we will be so lucky to go again in 2017!

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom is a great park to help you slow down and have a break because the park closes before dark. My favorite ride here is the safari because of all the animals seen and there is just something special about it. We went to this park twice and rode the safari twice each day. Another great thing is the Festival of the Lion King Show. 

Group safari shot

Right before we left for Disney Harvey discovered his thumb and became a thumb sucker when he was tired or hungry. He was asleep when we got on the safari but it is a super bumpy ride and got woken up. Isn't he just adorable with his thumb in his mouth?

King Louie, and Balloo

We had lunch at a restaurant we went to last year where the characters come through and take pictures. I was frustrated with Kate not smiling, so I tried to bribe her. This was a buffet restaurant and had some delicious looking treats. I told her she could pick one if she smiled really good when she met a new character. Her first character we did this with was Donald, and I'm happy with how the picture turned out.

Donald

Mickey

Papa, Nonna and Mickey

All the characters loved Harvey and loved playing with him, he was amazed by them

Goofy

Daisy

Dinosaur ride

Thank goodness for Papa and Nonna. Joe and I were able to ride a big kid ride together while they watched the kids for us. This ride is called Everest. It is wicked awesome. The last 2 times we've gone to Disney I've been pregnant and this ride is too wicked to ride in such a condition and I've always missed out. It is one of those rides that takes you all day to recover from, but it was great!

My Mom and Dad rode Everest with me the first time. It was also my Mom's first time. Lets just say it took her a few minutes to even stand up when the ride was over. She was pale, and looked sick. My Dad and Joe got in trouble for not warning her about the ride. I was behind her and was just glad she didn't puke. I love you Mom, but I had to share this memory!

Mickey & Minnie

Magic Kingdom part 2

We were able to do everything at Magic Kingdom in the 2 days we visited that park. Did I mention I have the best kids ever! They are incredible to be able to do 14 hours days at a park. I bet I would be able to last 14 hours easier if I got pushed around in a stroller all day.

One of our favorite new experiences to us was Enchanted Tales with Belle. The kids get to act out a brief version of the movie, and they get to dance around the room with Belle. It was magical. My description can't do it justice. If you are headed to Disney make this stop a priority! 

One of the parades goes around the circle in front of the castle and is a dance party. This was something Kate actually remembered from our last visit. We made sure to go! We are in love with the movie Zootopia and researched and found the only place to see these characters at the park is at the parade. It was fun to move it and shake it with them!

Buzz lightyear

1st time meeting Rapunzel. Kate was excited to wear her Rapunzel dress. She was happy when Rapunzel held her hand.

Cinderella

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We stayed so long and used all our fast passes that we were able to get more. We were able to go back and meet Cinderella and Rapunzel again! When Kate gets tired she usually gets super hyper which is so different from any other kid I know. She was very animated for our visit with Cinderella and Rapunzel. It was worth going a 2nd time to visit these princesses. We have discovered that Harvey loves princesses. He may be small but he sure is a ladies man.

Smiles with Rapunzel

Harvey got a kiss from Rapunzel!

 On our way out of the park at night the light parade was starting. We never intended to stay this late at the park, but we decided to stay and watch it again! These pictures aren't the best, but they sure bring back some fun memories. I loved watching Kate and she saw a new parade float come by and seeing her whole body light up with excitement and amazement.