China!

 David and I spent 10 days in China this month.  We really appreciate my parents and David's sister, Jessica, who took care of the kids while we were there.

We went to visit David's parents, who are teaching English at Tianjin University.

 One of our bags didn't arrive at the Beijing airport, so we got to go shopping for church clothes in a gigantic marketplace in Tianjin.  

(Imagine 30 Walmarts crammed together, except much dirtier and smellier.)  Some of the mannequins were quite interesting.

 David's parents live in an apartment at Tianjin University.  

We walked around campus quite a bit.  This is the "student parking lot."

 One of the highlights of our visit was teaching David's parents' English classes one day. 

 These are all doctoral students.  

We spent much of the time telling them about ourselves and answering their questions.  They were especially interested in our family life; how we keep our marriage strong and manage our time and money with SOOO many kids.  Having four kids is unfathomable to them, since the Chinese are only allowed one child.

 We visited a beautiful water garden and zoo in Tianjin. 

The mandatory retirement age in China is 55 for women and 60 for men.  Everywhere we went, there were groups of retired people dancing, exercising, singing, and playing games together.  

At the water garden we stopped to listen to a choir sing several songs.  We were so touched by their beautiful music.  

Afterwards, for some reason, they wanted me to sing "Red River Valley" for them.  I only know the first verse, but they had me sing it for them about 10 times.

 The zoo was amazing.  It is not as clean and modern as American zoos, but we definitely got a closer look at the animals.  The camels did not like David, and kept trying to spit at him.

 We spent a day at the Great Wall of China.  It was kind of surreal to be there. 

 It really should be called "The Great Staircase of China."  

We took it pretty slow to accommodate my 7-month pregnant body.

 We spent a day-and-a-half in Beijing before flying home.  Lots of people!!!  

Here we are trying to get on the subway.

This is a small part of Tiananmen Square.  You can't really tell from the picture, but there were tens of thousands of people waiting in line to see the tomb of Mao Tse Dong.  You can only see a small part of the line here.  

No, we did not wait in line.  None of us wanted to wait two hours to see the embalmed body of the man responsible for the Cultural Revolution.

Our last stop before flying home was the Forbidden City.  Outside the city wall we found the tree where David O. McKay dedicated China to the preaching of the gospel in 1921.  We read his dedicatory prayer under this tree.  

The whole time we were in China, I kept having a feeling of how much God loves the Chinese people and that His hand is in that land, setting things in motion to allow them to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Many of them are anxiously waiting for it.

Boy crazy and Dad crazy!

It's been quite a while since I updated this blog.  My computer got eaten by a virus a couple months ago, so I have to snatch moments on David's laptop when (a) he is home, (b) he is not using his laptop, and (c) I have free time.  
Hence, it's been quite a while since I updated the blog.
I'll begin by explaining the title of this post:

Boy crazy: 

I was so boy crazy as a teenager and could never understand why boys didn't seem to be crazy about me.  The Lord must have felt pity for me, because He is now surrounding me with wonderful boys.  In addition to David, Nathan, and Christian, we will soon be adding another boy to the family!!  That's right...It's a boy!  Due June 15th!

Now for the Dad Crazy part: 

We had David's family over this weekend.  It was tons of fun, but I did not take any pictures. 
This picture is from last month's cousin visit.  David challenged all the kids to "Monster Olympics."  This means the kids try to outdo David in various physical feats.  For instance, he had to do the combined number of pull-ups that the kids did (28).  I think he lost that one.  Here they are counting sit-ups.  Nathan did 500 sit-ups at once a few weeks ago.  David also lost that one.

Every morning the kids try to prevent David from leaving for work. 

They especially like to do this on days when he is running late.

After he escapes from them, they run to the window to wave goodbye as he drives away.

It has barely snowed at all this winter.  When we finally got an inch of snow a couple weeks ago, David and the kids ran outside before dinner to build a quick snowman before it all melted the next day.
David is such a fun dad.  I really appreciate that he always makes time for the kids, no matter how busy he is.

December and Christmas

 Merry Christmas from the Borens!

This was our first Christmas at home with just our little family.  It was so simple and peaceful.  We truly enjoyed it.
Nathan directed our Christmas Eve production of the Nativity.  He built the set and designed the props and costumes.  He even had us rehearse in the days leading up to the performance.  Aunt Mel would be proud.

 This month has been...hmmm...words fail me...
Let me just say, I am SO glad we decided ahead of time to have a simple Christmas and to get as much as we could ready before Thanksgiving.
Clara had her 5th birthday shortly after we returned from our Thanksgiving transmission adventure in Arizona. 
 Clara requested pumpkin pie instead of birthday cake.  (With 4 birthdays sandwiched around Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, we usually lose our appetites for birthday cake sometime around November 1st.)

 My birthday was six days after Clara's.  My "cake" was a tub of ice cream.  I did not have the energy to make anything.  In the past week, we had driven back to Flagstaff to get the van, David spent the next 4 days out of town, and I was just coming down with the respiratory infection that would be my friend for the next 3 weeks.  Blahhhhh.
 Also, I am expecting baby #4 in June, so I have been rather sick and tired anyway.  (I am 16 weeks along, feeling much better now, and very excited!)

 On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, we took a short hike up to Battlecreek Falls.  The waterfall was half frozen and beautiful.  There is no snow in the valley, so we have to go to the mountains to see snow.

 By the time Christmas came, I had my voice back and could sing Christmas songs again, for which thing I am thankful.  It has also been wonderful having David home more over Christmas break.

Things to be thankful for

There is another post below about the rest of our trip to Arizona, but the drive back home deserves its own post:

We felt thankful on Thanksgiving Day, but by the time we got home from Arizona on Saturday, we had a new list of things to be thankful for. 

* We are thankful for our roomy van, with a working CD player and seating that limits the kids' physical interaction.

* We are thankful that our van has run reliably for the past 3 years.

* We are thankful that we were able to pull over safely after the transmission blew.

* We are thankful that the transmission blew on the edge of nowhere, instead of the middle of nowhere.  (There is a lot of "nowhere" between Phoenix and Salt Lake.)

* We are thankful for Clyde, who saw our smoking van, felt compassion for us, and stopped to help.  He piled us into his car, drove us 30 miles into Flagstaff, and spent about 2 hours helping us get a tow truck, find a good mechanic, and a place to get lunch.

* We are thankful for the kind mechanic who loaned us a car so we could drive the 8 hours home instead of waiting around in Flagstaff for 5 days.

* We are thankful that the kids could all squeeze into the back seat.  Nathan's booster seat wouldn't fit, so he got to be wedged in between the other two carseats. 

* Nathan was thankful to have two captive pestering victims within reach.  He SHOULD have been thankful we didn't put him in the trunk or tie him to the roof.

* We are thankful that nobody threw up in this car.

* We are thankful that the kids got to experience a road trip the "old-fashioned" way.  We played games, told stories, and sang songs together for the entire trip after discovering that the CD player was broken.

* We are thankful that the kids finally got exhausted from fighting and pestering, and fell asleep for the last 2 hours.

* We are VERY thankful to be home.

* We are thankful for Uncle Michael, who left milk and cereal on our doorstep so we would have something to eat in the morning.

* We are thankful for all the kind people who have offered to care for the kids or help drive when we go back to Flagstaff to pick up the van in a few days.

* David may not be thankful about this, but I am thankful that our van needed a special part ordered.  I now have a few extra days to recover and get the house in order before the 16-hour round trip to get the van.  (I.....am.....exhausted....)

* We are so thankful that the Lord took care of us and helped everything to work out so well.  It could have happened a lot differently.

Here are the backseat sardines, before the fun of this cozy arrangement wore off. 

I remember lots of trips like this with my family.  It's funny how these trips have become good memories, even though it wasn't quite so fun at the time.
Read on for an account of the rest of the trip...

Thanksgiving trip to Arizona

 For Thanksgiving break we drove down to Arizona to visit Aunt Marian, Uncle Ryan, and family. 
We stopped at the Grand Canyon on the way down.  The kids were not too excited about the canyon and were ready to leave after the first few hours.  (We spent an afternoon, night, and morning.)  They were really anxious to get down the road and see cousins.

Here is Nathan before the "Wow Effect" wore off.

We saw a lot of the canyon at dusk.  We walked along the rim, saw some elk, and went on a couple of short hikes.  Clara was intrigued by all the mule poop on the trail. 

The highlight of the trip for the kids was eating dinner at Wendy's and sleeping in a hotel.  We considered camping, but I was a stick in the mud.  Not interested in shivering all night, cooking and cleaning up breakfast, and packing up again in temperatures well below freezing.  Not worth it.  Sorry.

The kids enjoyed the watchtower.  Nathan suggested I put the camera up to the binoculars.  Pretty cool!

Arizona has beautiful sunsets!

 Finally with cousins!!  Nine kids, lots of noise, lots of action, lots of fun!!!!

We had Thanksgiving dinner with David's Arizona relatives.  It was so fun to catch up with everyone and get to know them better.

The next day, Uncle Ryan took us on a short hike along Merkle Trail in Usery Park.  There were lots of great rocks to climb on.  The kids had a blast at the playground in the park.

That evening we went to see the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple.  Wow! 

As much as I like the lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake, I must say I like Mesa's Christmas display better.

We had a wonderful visit with the Chases.  The kids got along really well.  I wish we lived closer so we could see them more often.

Free Homemaking Tips

Tip #1:
Don't get behind on ironing.

Tip #2:
If you do get behind on ironing, don't put a bunch of bananas on the shelf above the ironing pile to hide them from the kids.

Tip #3:
If you do put a bunch of bananas on the shelf above the ironing pile, don't forget about them until they have rotted, split open, and oozed brown banana juice on your husband's white shirts, and made a puddle on the floor that seeped under the wallboards.

Tip #4:
If your husband's white shirts get rotten banana juice all over them, you're on your own.  All I can tell you is what doesn't get it out.

Tip #5:
I am obviously not qualified to give out homemaking tips.

Stars, Choir, and Fish

 One of our favorite children's books is You are Special, by Max Lucado.  In this book, the characters give golden star stickers for things they like about each other, and gray dot stickers for things they don't like.  Each person's sense of worth was based on how many stars or dots they had.

Our family has been exchanging a lot of gray dots lately, and not enough stars.  One evening, we each got a sheet of star stickers.  We went around telling each other things we liked about them and giving out stars.  

Ultimately, it should not matter to us what other people think about us, because we are special to God no matter what.  But I still think we should try to give out stars as often as we can. 

 David and some other men from our area got to be in the choir for the Saturday evening session of the LDS General Conference.  We got to attend the dress rehearsal in the Conference Center.  There's nothing like a men's choir. 

What an amazing experience!

We go fishing at least once a week at the pond near our house.  Nathan recently caught this 16-inch albino trout.  We've been having a lot of fish for dinner lately.  (We only keep fish that are hooked too deep to survive being thrown back.)  I'm trying to learn some new ways to prepare fish.  Any ideas?