Song of the Year

The last few years I have chosen a "word" that represented something I wanted to focus on during the year.  See  here, here and here and although I never wrote posts about my word in 2011 and 2013 I did have things we tried to focus on like family and work.  I do love words, but something that I have come to understand is that music is the way the spirit speaks to me most often.  I have had many, many answers come through music so I am going to switch my Word of the Year to My Song of the Year.  This year I chose the above song called Speak Life by TobyMac. 

I chose this song because I am tired of hearing complaining, gossiping, sarcasm, back biting, confrontation, bullying and all of the other types of words that hurt people.  I have been a victim of these kinds of words and sad to say have also used these kinds of words but this year it is my goal to end this.  I can't end it in the world but I can end it starting with me and in my home. 

There is never a good reason to use hurtful words.  Some may say we have to take a stand for what we think is right-but you can do that by spreading love, hope, faith, peace, kindness and charity.  That is the way the Savior spoke.  That is the way he changed people.  That is the way that I am going to speak to people.  One of our Shaw family rules is that we encourage and not discourage people.  One of my favorite quotes of all time and one that I read frequently sums up why I feel so strongly about this:

"Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other." -Marvin J. Ashton

So here is to Speaking Life in 2014!

52-Week 8

Monday was Presidents Day so Jeff and the kids were home.  We decided to go see the new Lego Movie with Jeff's sister and her family.  I had wanted to take Daisy to see it too but she still got picked up to go sight seeing that day so we ran out of time.  The movie was darling.  It's my all time favorite when they give inanimate objects lives in movies.  Like in the Toy Story movies.  Our family loved it.  After the movie all the girls came back to our house to play and the boys all went to Kristy's.  Kristy's little girl Phoebe who is 5 stuck like glue to Daisy when she got home.  That night we went to Jeff's parents house for FHE and on the way there Phoebe didn't stop talking to Daisy and asking her questions the whole way.  It was super adorable.  Daisy has been so great to play with all the kids.  At FHE they talked about families and Jeff's mom read the book I'll Love You Forever. I wasn't sure how much Daisy understood until she left us a note the day she left and at the bottom she said "I will love you forever and ever.  I will like you always.  As long as I'm alive we are families all the time!"  I know she went away feeling how important family is to us.

On Tuesday Daisy and the rest of the Chinese Students went to an elementary school to do a presentation about China.  To our happy surprise the school they went to was ours so she got to go to Ethan's class.  He was so excited.

Wednesday my friend Lela took me and another friend to lunch for our birthdays.  It was so fun and the manager even came over and serenaded Lela with a song.  That night we had Parent Teacher Conferences for the elementary school.  Ethan and Whitney are doing great at school and both love their teachers.  Then we headed over to a goodbye party for all of the Chinese students.  It was a pot luck dinner.  I brought this recipe (if you try it use regular mustard and not Dijon).  All the students put on a little program where they spoke, danced and sang songs.  Daisy sang two songs.  The Greatest Love and Let It Go from Frozen.  She has an incredible voice and I was crying the whole time because I was so proud of her.  She has truly become like a daughter to us these past two weeks.  We love her so much and have loved having her in our home.

Thursday was a sad day because it's the day Daisy had to go home to China.  We started off the day shopping in Park City with my friend Alisa and the Chinese Student she was hosting, Suzy.  That was fun and kept our minds off them leaving.  When we got home I took Daisy, Suzy and one other girl Zoey who was staying at my friend Melissa's home to the airport.  It was a tearful good bye for Daisy and me.  We are going to miss her so much and we know that we will always keep in touch with her.  She is beautiful through and through.  We are so glad that we took the opportunity to be part of this awesome program.

Saturday the girls spent the morning helping at our neighbor's daughters party doing nails and makeup and that night we took the kids to the University of Utah Gymnastics Meet.  Your ticket to Utah Events gets you on the Trax for free so we rode it the whole way.  The Utes were competing against the Oregon Beavers.  We won.  It was super fun to see gymnastics in person.

And here is the selfie of the week taken by Jeff and Ashtyn at the gymnastics meet.

52-Week 7

Daisy went to Moab for three days this week.  They went to Arches National Park.  She loved the beautiful scenery.  They only did a few short walks so they didn't see Delicate Arch which to me is a national travisty- it's the whole reason I go to Arches.  She came home with a ton of fun pictures so I'm glad she had fun and at least got to see some of the wonders that are Utah.

Monday night Ethan went to see the Harlem Globetrotters with Jeff's dad and his two cousins.  They had a blast eating hot dogs and watching the incredible acrobatic basketball skills of those amazing men.

Tuesday was the Blue and Gold Banquet.  It was a western theme.  They panned for gold, got their pictures taken in jail, rode a mock bull and learned to rope a cow.  We had a delicious sloppy joe dinner with yummy ice cream and brownies for dessert.  The Bears were in charge of the flag ceremony and Ethan got to lead it.

Wednesday night I took Daisy to watch Whitney at gymnastics.  It's all she has heard Whitney talk about so I wanted her to see what it's like.  Whitney has a dream board she made several months ago with a picture of a gold medal on it.  It's her dream to be a great gymnast.  About a week ago there was a movie about Gabby Douglas- the Olympic gymnast on TV and in the movie Gabby's family also had a dream board.  Whitney thought that was awesome.  Gabby Douglas is her idol.  She has since watched that movie every single day.  In the summer Whitney hopes to join the gymnastics team at her gym so that she can really start to improve her skills.  She lives and breaths gymnastics and has for a long time so I hope we can help her reach her potential in this awesome sport.

Whitney is the one doing the handspring on the mat in the middle.

Here she is on the bars.

It's been fun trying to discover my kids talents.  One of Ethan's has turned out to be computer coding.  He is very good at it.  He's been asking me how to do it for the last two years and I haven't known where to start.  Then I found this book at the library and it has helped him learn so fast.  He reads this book non stop and any extra time he has has been spent coding.

Friday was my favorite day all year.  Valentines.  I love this holiday so much.  It was fun to celebrate it with Daisy.  We got her some candy and flowers just like we do for our girls.  She got to spend the day sking at Brighton.  It was her first time and she had a great time despite a nasty fall that gave her a nice goose egg on the back of her head.  I was in charge of both Whitney and Ethan's class parties this year so I spent the day at the school.  For Whit's we did a fun photo booth with lots of props, made Jamb Juice smoothies from the mixes they sell at the grocery store, made heart book marks out of paint sample cards, had a box decorating contest that Whitney actually won, played a 60 second candy game I found here and made heart attack posters with kind notes for the office staff, librarians, janitors and cafeteria staff.  For Ethan's we made cards for a rest home, played minute to win it games and also had a box decorating contest.  Daisy spent the whole night before helping Ethan make his box.  That night Daisy made us the most delicious chicken wings cooked in Coke.  She also taught me how to make real rice- not the minute kind I usually do.  The key is to not follow the directions what so ever ha ha.  This year I had custom M & M's made for Jeff with my picture printed on them.  They turned out so cute.  I gave them to him in a jar to put on his desk but he brought it home because he didn't want anyone eating my head.

Saturday Whitney and her cousin Jen took a babysitting class taught at the hospital.  Those two both LOVE babies so much and they will make great babysitters.  While she was at her class I took Daisy shopping at the mall.  We didn't have much luck finding what she wanted to so later that night we took her to the Gateway Mall downtown.  It was such a nice night.  We took the train from Jeff's work and spent the whole night there.  We also stopped in the Planetarium and showed her around.

Sunday night the missionaries came by to teach us a practice lesson.  Sister Swain's brother served in Jeff's parents mission and we actually got to meet him when we went to visit them.  His mission was over but he met us in Hawaii and went through the temple with us.  I'm not sure how much of the lesson Daisy understood but we have loved sharing the gospel with her.

Since I constantly find the girl's selfies on the computer I will now be including a "Selfie of the Week" series on my posts.  Here are this weeks.

I'm starting to think Ashyn's talent may be either modeling or photography....

52-Week 6

This was a crazy crazy week.  We decided a few weeks back to host a Chinese Exchange Student.  I had so much to do to get a room ready for her and get everything organized for her visit.  She arrived on Tuesday night.  We went to the airport to pick her up.  Her name is Xiulu Lyu.  Xiu means Daisy so the American name she goes by is Daisy.  This was a funny coincidence that our dog happens to be called Daisy Lu as well.  I was worried that this might get confusing or worse yet offend her when she heard me yelling at the dog but it actually turned out to be fine.  She is so so cute.  She is polite and speaks English very well so we have gotten along great.

Wednesday was the New Beginnings program for our ward.  I wish I had pictures so much of this night because it was amazing.  The theme was a fairy tale theme.  They did a skit of Snow White and the seven values.  They served cupcakes that looked like apples and the whole room was decorated like an enchanted forest.  It was adorable.  There are nine new girls coming into YW this year including our Whitney.  They had each mother come up and tell the girls "fairy tale story".  I was the only mom that brought pictures of her daughter and I told them that was because we love picture books the best.  I really can't believe I have will now have two girls in YW.  Daisy was so tired to we left right afterward.

Thursday was the middle school 7th grade registration meeting for Whitney.  I also can't believe that I will have two middle school students next year.  Afterwards was a meeting at the Stake Center about Oakcrest Camp that we ran to.  Daisy wanted to cook us dinner the next night so we then ran to the Asian Market so she could purchase the ingredients.  She chose a long skinny fish called a hair tail.  When I saw her pick up the whole fish I was scared.  We don't eat very much fish at our house so I worried that no one would like it and that we would offend her.  It turned out to be great.  I wouldn't say I love it but it actually tasted good.  She also made eggs with tomato and a potato, carrot and pepper mix with vinegar.  I made the rice for her which turned out to be the worst part of the meal ha ha.

The biggest reason this week was so busy was because my Father in law asked me to help plan a 60th surprise birthday party for Jeff's mom.  It was a busy day filled with picking up supplies, decorating, taking her to a surprise lunch and then surprising her again at a party for all of her friends and family at her house.  I let Ashtyn come to the lunch as a special oldest grandchild perk.  Here she is with Malia.

Here she is with Jeff's sister Kristy

Kellie

Daisy with her AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL American Mother..ha ha.  I joked that she should put my picture on her Instagram account and say that:)  She was so great to help with everything for the party.

Here are some of the decorations we used.  We had all of her favorite foods- sugar cookies, coke and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  Jeff's dad found all kinds of cool pictures of her that we hung on the frame Scott gave me for Christmas.

I made six of these little flap cards that had info about different things in the year 1954 when she was born.  This was a Pinterest success :) oh and in case you are wondering Sharon shares a birth year with the likes of Oprah, Christie Brinkley and Jerry Seinfeld.

I emailed all of her friends and family and asked them to send me memories of her.  Then I made her a little fabric covered binder and printed all of the memories off.  I think it turned out cute.  Since I like this blog to reflect my real feelings I have to admit that this project caused me a bit of stress.  I had hoped to get 60 memories for her 60th but I had very few people respond outside of our immediate family.  I ended up with over 40 and she loved it and will never know I was short some- but I was disappointed that people didn't make more of an effort- especially family members.  Family means everything to Sharon and it should to all of us.  When your family reaches out to you for any reason I am a firm believer in reaching back.

We ended the day at another birthday party for my niece Brooklyn who turned one.  She is so so cute.  Like Corban she was so chill about the whole party.  I love her little princess hat and the darling bows my sister tied on the back of all the chairs.  It always makes me sad that I won't get to know her the way I did Brody her big brother.  I still consider him to be part of my family too even though I am no longer actively involved in his care.

Last night Daisy taught the girls a card game while I ran some food to my sister in law's house for the last surprise we are doing for Jeff's mom- a special dinner for her and Tom on Sunday night which is her actual birthday.  When I got back we got the old violin out.  I played the violin from the time I was 10 until 14.  I haven't played it forever and it was fun to mess around on it.  Daisy also plays the violin so we had so much fun playing for each other.  Unfortunately neither of us are that great at it.