Sometimes You Just Gotta Deep Fry!

Forget a traditional roast and potatoes dinner for Sunday evening! Yesterday I just got this urge to fry something! Not just a little turn of EVOO around the pan (nod to the Rachael Ray fans), but some serious deep frying. I told Scott my idea and we searched our fridge for what we could fry. I whipped up some cream cheese wontons and some pork, tofu, and veggie spring rolls while he decided on some homemade corn dog bites. Once the frying was over we decided we had way too much fried food and that we had to share; so we brought some neighbors in on the action to "try out" our fun. We decided to end the evening on a healthier note, so we made some mugua neoni (Taiwanese papaya milk) and it was honestly some of the most fun I've had for a while. Scott and I used to hang out in the kitchen all the time and see what we could come up with together, but lately (the last 2-3 years) he's been so busy that I've mostly been donning the chefs hat alone. It was a good blast from the past that I hope to repeat a bit more with him.
Sorry no pics of the action! I lost our charger to our digital camera! Whoops...

Moving On

This last Sunday we said a sad good-bye to a very long chapter in our life; the BYU 82nd LDS Married Student Ward. We figured when you have been in what is supposed to be a transitional ward for 5 years (off and on), you have lasted through 3 bishops, the Stake-Presidency knows you by your first names (and feel comfortable calling you for emergency fill-in talks for Stake Conference), and most of the other members of the ward were in Elementary School when you graduated from High School (and you actually knew their older siblings who also used to be in your ward and have since moved on), then it was time for us to move to a family ward. In all actuality, the only real reason we have switched is because our oldest, Meili, was old enough to be in Primary (a special Sunday School for children ages 3-11) and our student ward doesn't have one because there aren't any other children old enough. It was tough for Scott and I, but when Meili happily skipped between her classes and eagerly introduced us to her teachers and her new friends (kids her age!!!), it was all worth it. We are actually excited, but neither Scott nor I have been members of anything but Student Wards for over 10 years. It's just different, and we will miss all of our friends we have made in the student ward.

Classic Christmas Videos?

So, I was checking out my cousin Robin's blog and she put on her favorite Christmas 80s video from Wham "Last Christmas" (which I recommend checking out on Youtube for a couple of good laughs). We just had to add our favorites that make us chuckle:
Scott's favorite classic is ABBA "Chiquitita". "Chiquitita?" you might ask? Just check out the giant snowman...


The second video we found that has become our favorite the last couple of days (meaning Meili requests we play it at least 10 times a day) is "Do They Know It's Christmas?". This is from a variety of different top 80's artists. While you are watching, see if you can recognize any of the singers. We will see who can name the most singers that they see from only watching the video (no googling to cheat).

Princess School, Week 1

My friend, Sharlee Largey (see Friday Night Club below), had the greatest idea for a little preschool that she does with her sons. She calls it "Monster School". On Wednesday they go to the library and get books on a certain subject and then read about it for a couple days and then on Friday they have an outing where they explore what they have been learning about. So it was just the thing that put all of my ideas that I've had together and I stole the idea and called it "Princess School." So for our first week, we studied dance. We got some books and we went to BYU to peak in on some dance classes. Meili's favorite was clogging (a surprise since she is a die-hard ballerina). We also got invited into a modern dance class and we spent about 15 minutes in a ballet class. Meili thought that the ballerinas were real princesses! (She wondered why there were boys in there dancing, too!) We also saw the Paso Doble in an International Latin Dance Class . Then we checked out the swimmers in the pool, the BYU women's basketball team, and some beginner volleyballers (not dance-related, but super fun). It was such a great success. It was so fun, I love princess school. I think that the girls do, too!

When I told Sharlee that I was going to do Princess School, she showed up with some tutus for the girls that she had made. She is so nice! The girls are so cute in them. Especially since Meili actually has a leotard and thought she was a real ballerina!

Friday Night Club & THE ICE CREAM TRUCK!

First of all, I need to give a gargantuan "THANK YOU!" to our friends the Browns in our ward. They read in our blog that we didn't have a digital camera, and showed up at our house with one for us! Can you believe it? And look at the awesome pictures! I am so excited!

Friday Night Club

We have been having dinners with our friends, the Largeys, every Friday night. I should name it an epicurean club because we love to try out our favorite recipes on each other. We do it to subtley try and get them into our Asian way of cooking, and they are trying to woo us over to the Italian side.

These are their 2 boys, Hyrum and Weston, on our tire swing with the girls. Meili and Hyrum (the oldest) have been engaged for about a month, but I'm not sure where they stand since 2 weeks ago she kissed Hyrum's older cousin, Jordan, and they also declared that they were going to get married, too. EEEEEEEEEEE! I did NOT think that I would be dealing with this when Meili was 3!

Ice Cream Truck!

Meili LOVES the ice cream truck! She loves it so much that we used to have to check out her favorite book from the library called "Isaac the Ice Cream Truck" every couple weeks!

We have an ice cream truck that sometimes comes around our neighborhood, and she FREAKS out! Unfortunately, he often comes around when she is napping, and Scott and I cringe because it ALWAYS wakes her up and she comes running out of her bedroom screaming "Ice Cream Truck! Ice Cream Truck!". When it came by last week on one of our last hot days, I decided to splurge. They both got fudge bars, and here is what happened to the ice cream! It is so fun to be a kid!

Cousins/Primas

Las Tres Amigas. I don't speak Spanish, can you tell? The third little girl here is our neighbor and Scott's cousin's daughter, Lily (did you catch all of that?). Her mother, Priscila, is from Argentina and so their first language in their home is Spanish. Thus the Spanish in the intro.

We love Mac and Priscila, which is why we tricked them into moving in next door to us last year! We have loved having them as neighbors, cousins, friends, and most recently Priscila as a Volleyball teammate (you are really awesome-I'm sad it's over)!

Little feet

This picture doesn't have anything to do with our little update, I just love little feet!

Since it's been a while since we blogged, I will just give you little snipits of our last month!

The 36 Hour Talk

About three weeks ago, I (Sidra) got a surprising call from a member of our Stake Presidency, asking if I wouldn't mind speaking in the adult session of stake conference, which happened to be the next day! The original speaker ended up with emergency surgery, and I guess I was the runner up (if that's what you call it?) on their list. I was very blessed for saying yes, because in the next 36 hours, I was able to prepare a talk. Which any mom can say is a miracle with 2 small children. Part of my little miracle is having an amazing husband who let me hide away for half of Saturday so that I could prepare the talk! The other part of the miracle was having 2 babies who slept in that morning 2 hours past when they usually wake up!

The talk was on becoming child like, lessons from our little ones. It was a great experience for me to reflect on lessons that I've learned from my girls' examples to me. Here are a couple of examples that I used:

1. Over labor day weekend, our family hiked up squaw peak. During the hike, we were explaining to Meili that we were very proud of her for being able to hike for over an hour nearly all on her own. Then, as we needed to help her by pulling her up an especially steep part, we told her that sometimes we still need others to help us. We pointed out that just like we were helping her up the hard parts, Heavenly Father helps US up the hard parts, too, in life.

She quickly replied, "Yeah, 'cause Heavenly Father is REALLY strong!" She continued on by explaining that Heavenly Father was "Even stronger than Daddy!". And she didn't stop there, but went on to demonstrate Heavenly Father's large muscles and what He could do with those muscles, like "Lift a mountain, move the trees", etc. and how that was WAY more than Daddy could do!

How often are we this submissive to God and His power? She has learned a valuable lesson early on to rely on Heavenly father because she knows of His great strength to help us in our uphill battles.

2. Our girls are great examples of being full of love. Sophia is quite wise, though she speaks only a little, she shows us her wisdom by timely hugs and kisses and excitement after not seeing us for a while. Meili, too, often tells me, "I still love you Mommy". The still is the key part. Children see us for who we really are. And such christ-like charity of still loving us, it is "No wonder... in certain moments we feel children are our spiritual superiors, "willing to submit" to [all that has] been inflicted upon them (Mosiah 3:19)." (Elder Maxwell, Becometh As a Child, Ensign, May 1996)

Good Distractions

Scott and I have been stressed the last month trying to make big decisions for our family, so we both jumped at the opportunity to have some of our favorite distractions; sports! Of course, we have loved the BYU football season starting, which means going to the games with Scott's Dad who has season tickets, but we have also loved this season so far with some tailgate parties, and also some friends over to watch the away games at our house!

But BYU football wasn't what I meant by sports. I meant INTRAMURALS! Intramurals are a strange phenomena at BYU. The same, perhaps, as ward teams are a strange phenomena in general in the competitive world of sports. Competitive sports are the LDS version of mardi gras, where we think God perhaps will forgive us of our outbursts of anger, and our general unchristian behavior, in the name of "the game".

So far, we actually haven't witnessed this yet this season in Scott's flag football games, nor in Sidra's Volleyball games, but we love to joke about it. Especially since last year we saw WAY too much of it. For a sad example, some of Scott and my acquaintances that Sidra played against last year (and beat), haven't been too keen on saying "Hi" back to us in the halls of church this past year because they thought my team cheated last year, which secured our win over them. Sad, huh!

Luckily there haven't been any such incidents this year, so when I say, "good distractions", I actually mean it!