Takeshi and Yuki's Choir and Band Christmas concert

Both Yuki and Takeshi are in the school choir. I'm glad they're in it. It's good for them, and they enjoy it and it's free.
They had a Christmas concert last week that Dru and I attended. I saved us a seat in the front because I was teaching art an hour earlier and put my jacket on there. Bonus for basically living at the school.

The kids did a great job and sounded better than what I've heard the choir sound, in a while, actually. Must be a good group of kids this year between 5th and 6th grade.
All their songs were amazing and I was impressed. Here's a few video's of parts of their songs.

I enjoyed it.
They have some good friends in the choir with them, so that always helps you know.

Then they had the orchestra and the band perform.
Yuki is in the band this year playing the clarinet, just like me when I was her age.
I'm sure it won't last, just like me, but I liked it at the time as I'm sure she does.
All about the experience right?
Plus it's also free, and she's motivated. So what's not to love?
So far she hasn't burned out of all the stuff she's in, so maybe Yuki's the kind've person who likes to keep busy.
Which is the opposite to myself. But I get it man and I'm glad Yuki can stick up for herself and do her you know. That's what life is about and she's doing her and I'm proud of her.
She does the clarinet and the school patrol as well as choir right now. No sports and so it's nice to have a rest for a little bit.
I'm really enjoying it as a family and welcome the rest on the weeknights and weekends.
The kids are relaxed and enjoying the season, which I love and I'm sure they do as well.

So my friend, Shannon, couldn't get to the performance, so I videoed the whole performance. So here's Yuki's performance for your viewing pleasure.

She's been playing for 3 months. I think she's doing pretty well to keep up with these kids who've been playing for a year you know. She does well to practice and, in Yuki fashion, is good at what she sets her mind to.

She's a great girl, just a little bossy. Hahahahaha
It was good to watch the kids do their thing and for them to have something to work towards so they can 'show off' their skills you know.

I love them, and am glad they're happy.

Life

So at Masaru's school they did mock interviews for jobs. They had to write up a CV as well. Luckily, Masaru already had one and so that part was easy.
 Masaru wanted a suit coat to look legit. So we went to the second hand store and found him two coats and a shirt. It cost $15 for all three items. Not too shabby.
So here he is, trying out all the different ways he can wear them.
Above we have the mafia look.
Below we have the 80's look, which by the way is coming in.



Then here above we have the missionary look. Worked out wonderful.

My friend, Rachelle, was at some market and saw these prints by a guy who'd traveled around the world. He'd been to NZ and had two prints of his experience there.
She purchased one for me for Christmas. Isn't that nice? I love it.

Here's Masaru at his buddy, Kyler's bday party.
They went out to a jump arena place and had a blast. Masaru is making a video of it.
They did this then stayed the night at their friends place. Fun times.

Here they all are. They're a great bunch of kids for the most part. I mean don't get me wrong, they're also idiots, but they're good ones. They have good hearts and mostly stay outt've trouble.......I think.
I'm glad Masaru has a good bunch of friends that he loves.

Tis the season of Christmas and I love to have friends around and spend time together in the Christmas light and loving atmosphere.
Last weekend we had our friends Kim and Teresa and their families over for dinner.
It was a lot of fun and everyone got along so great.

Here's the kids hanging out.

Here's us older ones hanging out. Kim and Teresa are my mtb buddies and we'll try to go out once a week or two. They're such great riders, I'm just happy they allow me to tag along.
I'm glad we got together like this.
Way chill, lots of talk and laughter. What this season looks like to me.

Masaru also went out to Jason and Teresa's house to help put up their lights.
Turned out good right?



They love it.

Then last Monday the middle kids went with their school choir and sang at the capital building. So fun. Can you spot the Nakaya's?
Just look for some brown faces, that's a good start.

Yuki is my total social butterfly. Even moreso than Masaru. Actually way more than Masaru. That girl will make sure she's hanging out with someone all the time. She has lots of different groups of friends that she'll go through to make sure her time is busy with them. She'll also make sure she has all her chores and hw done so she can go and be free. So the other Saturday she went out with her two friends Caleb and Millie. Then later on that night we had our church Christmas party, which was amazing, and she invited them to that as well as another friend. She also invites all her friends to come to her church youth activities as well, and they all come. Even Caleb goes and he's a boy hahahaha

She's so great with stuff like that. I'd like her to just chill with us, but she's not a homebody like the other three, she never has been, so I don't know what I'm thinking. Thats why I"m glad I have Sunday's. Sunday's are mandatory family days and I love it that way.

I love Christmas the best. I love decorating the house. I love the tree. I love everything. I love how our house looks and feels, I love the music and I love the Christmas cards that I get in the mail.

Christmas makes me happy.
It's also quite a stressful time of year as well, plus with the weather being cold I can find myself getting a little blue at times because my 'outside' time has lessened.
So my friend told me to try some vitamin D and I'm getting outside and going for runs which isn't too bad.
Dru helps a ton with the gifts for the kids and his family which is essential.
He's got a list that he shares with me and basically takes care of most of it.
I'm hearing from other women that this isn't the case for them, that they take care of a lot of the gifts. So I'm grateful for Dru who shares the gift load with me at this time of year.
He loves it and is good at it you know.
He's also has a tiny bit of trim and is basically finished the siting on the shop. It looks amazing.
I'll have to get some pictures up here.

It's just beautiful and I'm so proud of him and we're both ready for a rest for the time being. The inside still needs a lot of work, but that will wait for now.
We'd like to do the front of our house so it matches the shop.
It should be easy as we've got left over tiles for the triangle part and then just some paint for the shiplap.
We may tackle that this summer. Should be fun and match the two buildings up perfectly and be a cheap and easy way to do it.
I'm glad it's basically over. Dru's a machine and we have many, many, people to thank for their help as well.
Love our peeps.

Old people's home and Sunflower Orphanage visit

So we give money to a charity called 'The Sunflower Orphanage"
They are in Peru and they take children in who are from various situations. It's amazing.
Here's a link if you're interested: https://sunflowerchildrenshome.org/
Anyway there's a couple from Utah who help out and they got in contact with me as they were coming to Boise for business and wanted to stop in to give us a gift for helping their cause.
I was so overwhelmed and excited to meet them.
I told them to come to dinner and hang out.
So we did.


 They have two kids and this is their youngest boy. What a cutie right?
My kids instantly took to them and they had a wonderful night while the adults talked.
It was kind've cool for the kids to see how important it is to help others and the connections we can make through helping others.

 We fast made some new friends and hope to one day go to Peru and visit and help out at the orphanage. What a wonderful night.
I love that my children accept and instantly make guests feel welcome in our house. It's a great trait and I'm grateful for how amazing they each are in this way.
They share and love and it's wonderful. Now if they'd just do that with each other hahahahaha

We also try to go to the local old people's home here in boise once a month as a family on Sunday's to help them with church.
We bring them into a room and do a mini church with them.
They kids are slowly warming up to the old folks and are being less scared of them and the whole situation you know.
I usually do the talk but this time I forced the kids to take the lead.
Masaru passed out the sacrament, Dru always sits in the back and helps out as a quiet worker and the other three kids decided to do a talk each.
I told them that these old people are the perfect audience because they don't care and are the sweetest you know. It's great practice. Some of them can't even hear, so that makes it even easier right?
Yuki stood up and re-capped what we'd learned in stake conference that day at church.
She did an amazing job, letting the old folks not miss out on what had been said.
Takeshi bore his testimony about his prayer to the Lord to help him find his way back home in a snowstorm and did amazing.
Then Emiko did this talk that you can see above.
I'll interpret.
'My Uncle had a seizure and that was the second time. So I went into my bedroom and prayed and prayed and the Lord told me he is going to be ok. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen'
So cute right?
So my kids totally had me in awe of the job they did.
I might add that they didn't want to do it either. They moaned and complained and I forced them, then they go and totally knock it outt've the park.

Also a little background.
My brother Gareth had a seizure close to the beginning of the year. My nephews found him and called the ambulance and his wife Livi was out of town.
They told him he had to take medication. If he took the medication then he'd have a 1 year wait, then he could drive.
He was doing well and they were going to lessen the time so he could drive.
Then the other week he had a second seizure. Livi called the ambulance and they took him to the hospital.
They did bloods and he didn't have any medication in his body.
He'd stopped taking it.
I get it man, who wants to be on meds their whole life right?
My guess is he probably thought he'd be ok.
I'm so glad he was safe and that his seizure was in a situation where he could be helped with no danger.
My guess is he'll take his medication and be ok.
Now he'll have to wait a while before he can drive and I'm sure that's frustrating.
I love him and am super happy things are alright.
Thank goodness for modern medicine and him having answers and solutions right?

I told the children this information and then proceeded to go downstairs and cry in the wash room for a little bit. Emiko found me and gave me a hug.
Later on she told me that this is what she did (in her talk) hence the reason she did this talk.
She did so great.

So there we go.

Masaru's thanksgiving with the cuzzies

So there's no one Masaru's age at Pugg's cabin and he loves his twin cuzzies. So when he found out we were going to the cabin he asked if he could stay with Ryan and Les so he could be with Seth and Tate.
Ryan and Les said yes and it was sorted.
Super nice of Ryan and Leslie and were grateful as Masaru had the best time.

For thanksgivin, Les had her family around. Masaru ate and hung out and watched movies. I'm sure he was grateful for all the food.
Friday they went snowboarding.

Yummy sandwiches at the lodge. Great thinking.

When they went snowboarding on Friday they spent about 3 hours coming down the road on the way home. They were bored outta their minds and so made some fun for themselves.

 The lunch spread.

 Roads on the way home.

 I guess Masaru got shotgun?
Saturday the twins had homework and so Masaru watched some movies then took Ryan's fat tire bike and went up Muller park canyon. He took a picture up there but I can't find the picture. If I find it, I'll put it up here.
He only got halfway up to Elephant rock and then he turned around due to it getting dark and not having lights.
Wise decision.
Found them:

 Sunday he went to church and borrowed one of the twins suits and thought he looked pretty good in it, so he documented it of course.

 Random shot of Masaru doing a jump with his Boise buddies. I figured I'd get it up on here.

 Pictures of the snow on the friday that they had. Masaru said they got a few runs to themselves with fresh snow. Pretty awesome.

 Of course he's in his Ilama suit.

Looks beautiful but cold to me.
Suffice it to say, Masaru had a great time and we're grateful.
We picked him up on the way home on Sunday then headed back to Boise all happy and filled.

Thanksgiving week 2019

So the weekend before thanksgiving, Dru hired a 'snorkel' they call it here, in NZ I know it as a cherry picker.
But at any rate it's a machine, that you can see on the side there, that has a bucket on it and you can be lifted to big heights. He used it to work on the top parts of the shop.
Ben and Tracey came over different parts of the weekend and helped and it was almost 100% successful. He got it 95% done. Which is great and sucks as well. We wanted it to be 100% done. But you can see how it's coming along right? I love the flagstone coloured shiplap at the top.

The back is almost done as well. He's doing a triangle grate thing up the top there and so I'm excited to see that and he's also done the flagstone shiplap in the back left corner there as well.
So he just has the right side of the shiplap to be done and this little grate triangle at the top there. Hopefully he can get that done before Christmas. We'll see.
We keep setting goals and keep going over.
What do you do?
Keep working and keep trying, that's all you can do.

The Monday of Thanksgiving week Kim, Takeshi and I went out to Eagle Bike park and rode our bikes. It was awesome. We also saw Shane and Andrea there as well, so that was fun.
The other kids set up play dates for themselves and Masaru went to wrestling.

Side note: Masaru couldn't balance his time so something had to give, so it was wrestling. He's out for this season. His coach was sad but Masaru needs to show us he can take responsibility for his time management and he didn't show us that.
Tough life lessons. But he took it really well and even without wrestling he's still struggling with his time management, so I dunno man. It's a never ending battle with him.


We left on Tuesday, around lunch time, to head down to Utah.
I saw this on the radio and had to take a picture. Funny right? It was a song that was playing.

We got down there and Dru's mother had made us a wonderful dinner to greet us with. That was nice.
We then hung out while Dru sorted things out with his brother for the trip to the cabin on Thursday.
Ryan was nice enough to let us borrow his snowmobile as well as his truck.
His father was nice enough to let us borrow the trailer and his snowmobile as well. We have nice family.
So they had to dig it out of the snow and get it all sorted and see if it was all running properly. I'm glad they did and am grateful for all the hard work that goes into getting things prepared for things like this.
The next day Dru and I had shopping to do and we took Emiko with us while the middle kids went to the movies with Grandma. They saw the new Maleficent movie that's out.
The kids loved it and Grandma didn't.
I would've liked to have gone, but the date that Dru, Emiko and I had was also very nice.
After we'd all gotten some things done, we came together and all had dinner together, Ryans' family included. It was nice and good to be with everyone.
Anyway Dru and Ryan continued to work on things as well as Masaru a tiny bit.
That guy just hung out with the twins practically the whole time.

We then headed over to Laura and Dave's house for some lava flows and some good game time and conversation.
We love our buddies and it's always good to see them.
We had a great night together seeing their new place and playing board games with them and talking the night away. It was good to see their kids as well.
We caught a picture of each other at the end of the night.
Here it is.






The next day we all got ready to leave for the cabin. Dru, Masaru and Ryan all helped to get the trailer and snowmobiles ready. We ended up leaving a little later than what we'd thought but it's ok. The weather was alright but we had to make sure we were careful for sure.
When we got to the gate Puggs and Topher met us in Puggs new car that he made to handle to snow. Here it is.

Pretty cool right?
The two middle kids snowmobiled in on one snowmobile and Emiko went with Dru on the second one. I'm the only one who went in the car with Puggs and Topher.
Here's some more shots of Puggs machine.




Him and Dru went out to have some fun in the snow and Puggs hit a rock in the wrong way so it flipped the front track so it over rotated a little.  So they just fixed it and set it back right. Not a big deal.

How beautiful is this snow though right?
And how cool is this machine?









The kids had a blast in the snow. My kids played out there for hours which was fantastic.
They also played board games as well as painted a ton together and watched movies.
I think it's safe to say that they had a blast.
We also ate some really good food.
We had thanksgiving dinner that thursday night. It was amazing.

Everyone worked hard over the weekend to make all the food amazing.

Puggs loves to cook and he did the majority of the cooking and it was all good.

There was also stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes and salad. I had all of it. This was Yuki's plate.

Me and the kids did a bunch of toasts to things we're grateful for. It was pretty cute.

We then had a few pies. My fav. was the lemon and chocolate one.

10 of the 11 kids. Yuki was absent for this pic. Bunch of cuties.

Hey there she is in the background now. It's so hard to get a decent shot of 11 kids.

There we go, now that's a great one hahahahaha

There was a lot of this that was going on as well. I did some knitting and studied for my lesson I was teaching the next week in Relief Society at church.
I need to get a blanket knitted for Leslie and it's looking like it's going to be a last minute deal which I always hate doing.
You'd think I'd learn over the years.

Puggs loving his pie.

Dru making ninja apple pie for the next nights dinner.
We had sushi, gyoza, eggrolls, rice and edamame. What a meal. All the sushi got eaten. It's always so good.

The pie was sooooo gooooood. One of the kids said "Isn't this the BEST APPLE PIE YOU'VE EVER EATEN IN YOUR LIFE!!!" It was pretty cute.
Dru's apple pie is from his Japanese grandmother, and that lady knew how to cook.

Happy to be eating.

One night we had Puggs ramen. It's soooo goooood. I could have it once a week. It takes a long time cause he makes everything from scratch. It's probably why it's so good.

He let the kids help which was nice of him.

Puggs force feeding Topher pie.

The only shot I have of the awesome sushi.



The kids made these turkey's.

Close ups. Cute Gus.

One of the canvas paintings that Takeshi did over the weekend.

I went snowshoeing as well with Nat. It was awesome and beautiful. I loved it so much.

The weekend went too fast. I ate too much food and had a great time with great friends.
All the kids got along really well too, which helps a ton.
The last day is always tough as you're packing and cleaning and in the mess of things I lost my phone.
It was found a few days later in a child's drawer. He'd totally stashed it. The mum was really upset and apologized.
Kids man.
So it's nice to know my phone is ok and I'll get it back.
I was bummed about two things, photo's/videos as well as my music. I'd just gotten it where I loved it. So I'm glad I can get that back.


Masaru had fun with his cuzzies. We missed him.
I'll blog about that tomorrow.