What do you do on July 4th?

This July 4th, John, Mark and Callie decided to let the entrepreneur spirit within them shine through. And did they shine!!

We sold a lot of ear plugs and bracelets,but only ONE ice-cream! The weather was not cooperating. People aren't hot enough :-) So John and Mark have to finish selling the ice-cream on Monday during the parade. Dear weather God, Please let it be HOT on Monday!!

Look at all the money they made!! Just enough to go to Panda Express for dinner :-)

And John has to make a bomb out of the leftover dry ice. Too bad it didn't go off :-)

Keep tuned for the Monday sale :-)

BYU Teacher's Reunion-Asian Buffet

The Baileys are the glue of the BYU group, but they live in Washington. So every time when they are in town, the whole group will get together. It's always so much fun to hang out with these wonderful people. They are fun, kind, generous, AND they all love China and the Chinese people :-) I love EVERYONE of them.

Here's all of us. Some can't come due to family vacations and such. I wish we could see each other more often. The waiter took a couple pictures for us and none turned out. This is the best I can find, at least not blurry.

Us, Jessie and Sohil, the Baileys

We just love them!
They are the angels in my life.

Baby Shower

Kate threw me an amazing baby shower! She's been working on the whole thing for a month, and it turned out to be a great success! I'm so grateful to have her as one of my best friends!! She's amazing in so many ways: she cooks, she sews, she reads, she volunteers, she maps, and she travels. She's so funny, generous, thrifty, and creative. Why is she still single?!! I can't wait to help plan her wedding :-)

I'm also grateful for all my friends in America. I feel so loved. One of the things I don't like about being in America is that I don't get to see my family and friends in China. I miss being surrounded and loved by them. However, I'm so grateful to have made so many wonderful friends in America. Neither John or I came from a big family and I always complain about not being surrounded by family. So having so many good friends around has made our life so much better. We feel loved on a daily base.

Kate sent out about 35 invites and most people came. I'm thankful for all your support. Even those who couldn't come, thank you for the calls and emails. I felt your love and support. I love you all!!

I wish I had more pictures of everyone, but my photographer (Megan) left early so I didn't get to have everyone's picture. Here's some.

Kate got me this amazing chocolate cake with strawberry fillings. She also had these cute little chocolate fondu thing going. It was so much fun to dip things in the chocolate :-)


Addie is just getting cuter and cuter.

Gift-opening time!!




Baby Carr got so many cute clothes, blankets, and toys. John says she probably can wear one outfit per day without repeating until she's a couple years old :-)

She'll also enjoy the cradle swing she got.

Seriously, she has enough clothes for a LONG time!

We don't have a nursery yet, so I dedicated the shelf to her. She has a shelf full of stuff AND more.

Thank you again, Kate, for throwing a fun party! Thank you everyone for coming and showing me your love! We are so excited about the coming of our little angel!!

34 week checkup AND the BEST Guacamole EVER!!

I went for my 34 week check-up today and learned a few things:

• The baby is in position (head down) and on schedule;
• She's gonna be at least 8 pounds if she develops full term;
• I've gained 20 pounds so far, which apparently is good;
• For the next 6 weeks, I can gain another 10 pounds and still be considered normal. With me craving only veggies and fruit, it might be hard to reach that goal;
• My water aerobic class will for sure help with the delivery :-)

Is it weird that I can't stop eating radishes? I could eat 2 bunches at one time. John takes a little bite and tells me it tastes like spicy dirt @-@ (me rolling eyes)

Let's get down to business.

One of the few vegetable dishes John would eat is guacamole dip. This is the best guacamole recipe I've found so far. It's really simple and yummy AND healthy. I buy the multi-grain chips so we could get some good fiber.
Here are the ingredients:
3 large (or 4 small) avocados
1 lime
2 small (1 large) jalapeno peppers
3 roma tomatoes
1/4 onion
1 big clove of garlic
some cilantro
a pinch of sea salt

Mash the avocados, juice the lime, dice the jalapenos, tomatoes, and onion, mince the garlic, chop up the cilantro really fine. Mix everything together. Add a pinch of sea salt to taste. ENJOY!!

Recently

Not too much going on lately. Stress comes and goes. I just need to remember to count my blessings everyday. Here's a picture show and tell:
~~Week 33~~ She's grown so much; so have I.

I just learned how to make these baby beanies. They are so easy to learn and fast to make, which is perfect for me, who does not have the patience to finish a project over a long period of time. These cute little things just takes me a couple hours.

Another successful waffle breakfast at Selnate. I cracked and scrambled at least 4 dozen eggs, which were all devoured within half an hour. Hungry teenage boys...
Annett and I showing off our Aprons.

Mark's surprise graduation Party. Note the yellow and green: NOT for the Brazilian soccer team, but for the UVU color scheme!

I'm going to take a water aerobic class with Naisi starting Wednesday. I better go find a one-piece swimsuit. I don't think they'll let me in the pool with my huge belly sticking out in a bikini :-)

Welcome Home, Sister Zhao!!

Look who's back!! It's the beautiful Sister Zhao!! How many sister missionaries have the privilege of having 3 mission presidents? How many sister missionaries (or missionaries) get to go to NYC and DC on one mission? How many missionaries get to be featured on New York Times?!! Only our precious Sister Zhao!!

I love her as a little sister. I'm so excited she's back. Just in time for babysitting, haha @-@

Last weekend in May

Can you tell where we went on the weekend?
Yup, we went to Cabella's. John's been wanting to try their Buffalo burger for a long time. We finally went there with Mark and Callie this past Saturday. It wasn't disappointing. We love their fries as well.

Note John's favorite new shirt. It's funnier if you think about the fact that he works for an intensive English Language program.

This is me @ week 32.
I got a haircut from this Chilean lady. We couldn't understand each other too well. She just kept saying how pretty my hair was. She cut it way shorter than I expected. She kept all my hair and said something about dying it and making wigs out of it. Oh well, I'll just consider it a donation. I'll have to go somewhere and get it fixed up a little. After I realized it's not going where I wanted it to go, I stopped her before she started cutting the front. So now it looks kindda strange.

We found this "2-bedroom" tent. It was really cool. We may get it someday :-)

We were making fun of these pants while other people are actually buying them :-)

Silly boys...
This is the famous Thanksgiving Point Brownie Sundae. OMG, talking about calories!

This is a close-up of ours.

Great times, as always!!

My Passion for Fruit

A couple weeks ago, I made breakfast. We seldom make breakfast because John's perfectly content with his milk, graham cracker, and blueberries, and I'm perfectly fine with my honey water, hard boiled egg, and fruit. But every once in a while on the weekend, I make breakfast. John's latest favorite is my sweet potato pancakes. Considering how healthy they are, I'm more than happy to make them for him.

I have to have fruit for breakfast. So I cut up some of the fruit in my fridge and shared it with John. In the bowl, there are 1/4 watermelon, half a cantaloupe, an apple, a mango, a banana, 5-6 strawberries, a handful blackberries, and a peach.

When we sat down to eat, I realized that I eat twice as much fruit each day, at least twice. I surprised myself by how much fruit I take in everyday.

I'm afraid my baby will come out wanting watermelon juice instead of my milk :-)

Very opposite to John, I DON'T like drinking. I don't like drinking water, juice, soda, or any kind of liquid. So fruit is one of the main sources of my water intake. I just hope my baby won't come out with too sweet a tooth.

Memorial Day 2010

Somehow we've managed to spend 2 Memorial's Day in a row with my friend Kate. Not that I'm complaining or anything. I love spending time with Kate. Last year, we went up to Provo Canyon for a BBQ and ended up sharing our space with a bunch of very loud Mexicans with very loud music. This year, we decided not to repeat history. We had a small bbq at Kate's backyard over the fire pit. It was fun.

We had roasted hotdogs (Chicago style, lots of yummy toppings), corn on the cob, potato salad, pork n beans, water melons... We were so full that we didn't even make any smores.

Kate and John also made fun of me for taking pictures of food all the time, so I didn't take any this time just to get back at them. Now I wish I had.



This is a giant leek from Emily's (Kate's roommate) garden. It's freaking huge!!