With A Couple False Starts, Spring Has Finally Arrived!

Spring is Lady Hiva's favorite time of the year. It would be up there for me too. It is fun to see that Koala Bear and Lucky Dragon are loving the Springtime too.

Koala Bear wants to be outside whenever any of us are. She does not seem to care what we are doing, she just enjoys her new shoes and will explore everything. She will chatter and chatter at a rapid pace. The only things we recognize are "uh-oh" when she falls or drops something and "Look at that!" when she points to something she deems interesting. She is active and loves to sit on the grass or throw her brother's bright kick balls around.

She loves her accessories...and brushing her own hair...and shoes...what a girl

He tells us that he is his own "greatest showman"

Lucky Dragon is enjoying riding his bike, going on walks and playing t-ball. (now watching 20 3-4 year olds playing t-ball is a bit chaotic--if you want some unexpected entertainment, I would suggest joining a family nearby at their t-ball game). He is developing a love for planting and growing flowers from his mum. They planted bulbs in the Fall and he is SO excited to see them growing. Whenever we arrive home the two of them will walk over and look at the flowers to see which are growing and how colorful they are. He is so proud.

Lady Hiva had my build a small grow box on the side of the house. She and Lucky Dragon carefully planted herbs, tomatoes, peas and carrots. Then it snowed...(twice!) in the last week. So the tomatoes died...and the peas...so they have planted them again. We will see if they survive this time. HAHA. He was stoked to see new life growing this last few days.

We have also started our summer tradition of a campfire to roast our food and eat s'mores. Lucky Dragon calls it "camping" which is OK for me. He thinks that we are doing full on camping, but we get to sleep in our own beds. It is so much fun to be out in nature. Even if it is for just a few minutes.

She loves to eat the S'mores

He loves to burn them...and anything else we can burn!

The two of them will go running with me. Of course Lucky Dragon talks the entire first part of the run--asking questions and telling stories. We have a new habit of asking Google questions we don't have the answer to. He was SO excited to find out that the largest recorded dandelion was 75cm! He is also obsessed with asking Google how to say things in different languages. That has resulted in him saying "nein" instead of "no" the last few weeks. HAHA.

Lady Hiva took them to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point one day when I was at work. The flowers were beautiful. Bring on the Spring! We are ready...stop surprising us with snow!

Our Growing Little Muggles

The last few months Koala Bear has grown and changed so much. She has longer hair--it is just long enough to place it in a pig tail. Most often Lady Hiva has it done on top of her head so she looks like a Tongan version of "Poppy" from Trolls. She also is chatty chatty chatty. She loves to talk with people on Facetime, Zoom or Android video call. Which works out really well for Papa and Pluba who are on their mission. She will tell all kinds of stories, we may not know what it means, but she doesn't stop. And here we thought that we would end up with only one chatty child.

Lucky Dragon is all ready for school and playing t-ball. It is great to see that he is loving to read and write. He is constantly asking me how to spell words or reading words on signs. Smart little guy. He is lovable and kind.

I have been telling Lady Hiva that we need to take photos with the kids again. It is easy to get busy and not take photos (other than the quick snaps with our phones) and miss part of life. This week was a bit scary a few times and all I could think about was "we don't have any recent photos." Ok, that was not ALL I could think about, there were other thoughts that went through my head--mostly of thankfulness for prayer, love, medical teams who have trained well, and for the faith of our Lady Hiva and Lucky Dragon.

So Lady Hiva took advantage of the Spring flowers on Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City and did a quick photo shoot before we had lunch together. I love them. They are not perfect, their hair is a bit fluffy, they wanted to eat mochi-crunch as a snack so we have chipmunk cheeks and drool is several photos and in each photo either one child or the other is not looking (can't imagine what it is likf for people with more than two kids)--but each picture tells a story. I found myself laughing out loud as I looked at the photos.

We love these two so much! We are thankful they seem to be the best of friends. He thinks the world of her. She adores him. You can see in these photos their relationship. It makes me smile to see them and know that they bring Lady Hiva and I so much joy. We are thankful for them.