Fall 2015

Here we are again, a year later!  Life is sure going fast!
Here are some updates!
Kenya completed kindergarten last year doing "home school."  I was a struggle, for both of us!  We are doing the same thing for 1st grade as we did last year.  It was hard the first month, but the last 2 weeks it has become the easiest it ever has been.  Still we have challenges, but we get it done.  Kenya is learning so quick and when she focuses and want to learns fast and is so smart!  Last year we did 1st math and 1/2 of first grade reading.  This year we started her at half way through both first grade math and reading.  It seems to be at the right level for her.  We did complete 1st grade math last year, but I wanted her to half the second half over again just to make sure she gets a solid foundation.  She is breezing through it this year!  We have such a smart girl on our hands! Some other update for Kenya is just lost her second front top tooth.  We tease her with singing "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" and she pretends she hates it and tells us to stop.  All together she has lost 5 teeth.  Her other front tooth came out about a month ago when her and Jasmin were playing and she had some of Jasmin's skirt in her mouth and Jasmin jumped down (or something I was not in the room when it happened) and it yanked her top tooth loose and 1 of her bottom teeth that was already loose all the way out and then Kenya just went and pulled the top tooth out too.  Kenya still loves gymnastics and is doing amazing in them.  She has just got her back walk-over and back bend.  In May in her recital competition she took 2nd in the all round for her level.  She was very proud and we were we.  She loves it!  She is reading very well and enjoys anything that has to do with playing with others and being social.  We love this girl and all the excitement and energy she has!  She has such a love for people and EVERYTHING around her.  She will bless many people here on earth!
Jasmin is now 4 and is very excited to turn 5 (in July, I know I tell her it is a long time to go)!  She loves to dance and preform gymnastics!  She also took 2nd in the all round in her level in May at their recital.  (Kenya and Jasmin competed in different groups for the first time.  Starting in Sept they also started in their own classes for the first time.  Both are doing well!)  Jasmin picked up riding her bike at the beginning of summer but was scared.  One day later in the summer she decided she was ready and off she went.  She can ride standing up, with 1 hand and with both legs on one side as tricks.  This girl when she puts her mind to it and DECIDES SHE WANTS to do, she will get it done!  I have not done anything formal with her for preschool or reading, but just being around Kenya and school here in the home she has taught herself to write her name and has beginning reading skills.  Another brilliant one on our hands!  She has had a great growth spurt in the last few months and is very tall.  She is still her adorable self and is truly a grateful person.  Most nights at dinner she tells me, "Thank you mom, this is the best meal ever.  Can you fix it every night for the rest of my life?'  She sure knows how to make me feel good.   When we do something fun she always remembers to thank us and gives the best hugs and loves to show that she is grateful. 
Kenya and Jasmin had a great time in their primary program this year and Kenya was given a solo.  (She has had a solo in the program every year that she has been old enough to be in the program.  1st year was "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam" over the phone in China, last year she part of the 2nd verse of "The Family Is Of God" and this year part of the first verse of "I Know My Savior Loves Me."  Everytime she rocked it and sounded so great!  Both of the girls loved having the chance to sing and participate so much that they keep asking if they can do it again.  (This is just 1 week ago. )
Remi....  Well she is Remi!  She is full of attitude and so amazingly cute we cannot understand just how we have not exploded with cuteness in this house!  She has a temper on her, and that can be an understand at time.  She came to us this way and I have had to try many new things parenting things on her.  When she gets make she just loses it and want to hit/through the nearest thing.  When this started there was NO control in her.  But as she has grown she does control it much better!  I have a "hitter" and that is hard for me to accept. (OK it doesn't really hurt my feelings, but it does make me cringe a little.)  She just turned 2 years old 3 days ago and is always trying to do everything just the exact same as her sisters.  She thinks she is as big as them and so she should do everything like them!  She is not in a gymnastics class but she sure loves it!  She has an outfit that she wears when we go to drop the girls off at class and anytime they practice at home.  She really thinks she can do it just like them.  She makes me spot her in back bends and tries back hand springs but her little arms barely reach above her head to keep her hands off of the floor.  She practices the splits and is almost there and does an amazing forward roll.  She has been able to do these for quiet some time now too!  SO cute to watch!  Her speech is amazing just like her sister and her vocabulary is out of this world.  My girls have all been blessed with early speech, like 1 year or more ahead of the average.  (Which I am grateful for because I can understand what they want.)  Remi also like to play babies or with stuffed animals and put them to sleep.  She is so fun to watch and listen too.  She just recently started to hum and sing parts of the songs to put them to sleep.  I love hearing her little voice as she tries to tenderly put them down.  She love horses and dog and as I mentioned before ANY her sisters like and are doing.  I am blown away with how well she plays and interacts pretend with them at such a young age. 
Robert has had a rough year.  He quit he job last year and went 6 month without full time stead work.  He was working most of that time odd jobs from people we knew and last Dec her started as an early morning package handler at UPS.  EARLY when they are in peak season.  Then in April or May her started working construction for someone and that dwindled out after only a few months.   So then in Aug he started a different construction job that seems to be going well.  So now he is tried from 2 physical job all day.  His work usually starts before 5:30 in the morning and does not end until 5;30 or so at night.  He started working Saturdays driving in Aug and so he has 6 day work weeks.  With all of this physical work he has lost a lot of weight and is very happen about that.  His plan as of right now is to try to become a full time driver with UPS and have a career there.  He i still the an amazing father to these girls and I know he misses not spending time with them!  It hurts him to be gone so much!
Me, well, I have had a busy year as well.  I had a horrible time with a miscarriage last year and that was harder on me than I thought it would be and harder than I want to admit.  Then in March I started sell Jamberry Nail.  (Mostly online Facebook parties where I post information about them and people buy from the website and I earn commissions.)  That had proved really well for me and truly blessed our lives and helped us through some of those hard financial times.  It is something I do 90% of the time when the kids are asleep in bed and I like that because I am not taking about from being there mom.  If life wasn't busy enough with that in Aug I began the same type of thine with Usborne Books & More.  It has really burnt me out and so at the new year I am thinking if we are doing well enough still I will give that up.  At least for a while so I can rest.  I have kept busy with my normal motherly and wifely duties.  I truly feel like I don't have time or cannot find a balance in life to get everything done on daily basis.  I am learning and just keep trucking along.  Don't know if I ever will find that balance, but I will continue to try and just get done what needs to be done in the mean time.
Halloween this year was fun.  We went to a party, then trick or treating and hanging out with more friends.  Robert dressed as a Bruce Leroy and both Kenya and Jasmin were witches.  Remi was a panda and I was the witches black cat.  We had fun! 
We have been able to visit Montana quite a few times this year.  Once we were able to stay in a lake house that was like a mansion.  So nice and wonderful.  We stayed with my mom, Kira, Chris and his family (Christine and Mikhail).  It was a ton of fun!  In the spring we met Pascal Su and his family in Montana and went to Glacier National Park.   Robert and I were able to go on horse back through part of the park and that was amazing!  We went up a few other times to visit for various reason and it was nice to be up there so often.  When we went often times we would stay in Missoula at a hotel with a couple water-slides to break up the trip and have fun.   We also got to stay a week in a hotel in Boise when Robert as doing driver training for UPS.  AGAIN!  We loved it and had a blast! 
Today we did our tradition of watching "Polar Express" and having hot chocolate and popcorn to break in the holidays.  We all cherish these moments and traditions so much!  I am excited to get the Spirit of Christmas going in this house.  We are going to have a great time this year!