Our Trip to Ukraine part I

Wow, it has been like a month since we have been back and I am getting to posting this only now.

We are back from Ukraine. We had such a great time, but a month away from home is a long time so we are happy to be back.

The flight with kids went OK, they were good for the most part. The only time I had a problem is when Quinn took a nap right as we were taking off and then was awake, bounding on my lap ALL night long.
I had bruises on my legs, my Mom thought I was tortured. But I was not the only Mom on the overseas plane with kids, there was a Mom with three children and I think they might have been all under 3.

Here we are safe and sound in the country of Ukraine fighting jet lag. We were waking up at 4  in the morning starving for a whole week. So at about 6 am kids wanted to play.

I love those simple playground equipment. I know you could get hurt, but it is so much fun!

This picture make me motion sick and dizzy

The sandbox that they boys spent a LOT of time in. Surprisingly no cat poo, just cigarette buds.

These swings without anything in the front were kinda weird. Well, I guess there is one thing they teach Ukrainian children- if you won't keep yourself safe the swing won't ether.

Here is AJ who took a liking and ate Quail eggs for breakfast!!!

Going to the Kharkov Zoo. 

Some of the things that I miss about Ukraine are it's parks and greenery. There are forests that you drive by that never end and beautiful rivers.

I have to enlarge this one and put it on my wall. These two a hard to photograph, they are just too busy every time.

Here are boys enjoying tulips at the zoo

Trying to sit still with G-ma Lidiya for a picture

Teremok

Little house that kids loved to play in.

I am on Give oh Giveaway!!!

Before I post about our trip to Ukraine I wanted to share this cool bolg that Endless Memories Photography is in. Check this out www.giveohgiveaway.blogspot.com

They have fun posts on different giveaways and great deals and this time it is my business!!! I am so thrilled!!!

His Hands Charity is now official!

It took a while for everything to get together, but finally

His Hands Charity is official as of today! All the Paperwork is done and we are ready to go!!! Our first little thing that we are doing is getting together with all that want to come and help make school supply kids for orphans in the hospitals in Ukraine this Thursday at 11 am at Leah West, house. If you want to come and bring coloring books, notebooks, crayons, tens, pencils, stickers or other school supplies you have, we would love to see some volunteers.

I had to do another blog for it with the undated name His Hands Charity instead of We Are His Hands Charity

 Here is a new blog. 

Please Follow it if you are a blogger, that gives other people a chance to see it. The more people know about it the better, don't you think?

http://www.blogger.com/template-editor.g?blogID=100312572783975161

Getting the charity together and family stuff

Kids are being good so I will blog:

Let's see, where to start. Well everyone is doing good. Tasia is enjoying kindergarten, I love volunteering there as well. Recently Tasia has been moved to level " I" for her reading. I don't really know a ton about all the levels except that her reading books are becoming harder and harder, now she is reading chapters. She is doing really good! What an easy kid - school wise.

AJ is enjoying Joy school,  he is a  kind  that you have to bribe to do his homework. But he is learning. A lot more effort needs to be put here. He is the sweetest kid I know. He is so tender and CUTE!

Quinn is our little trouble boy, but we still love him. He is into everything and everywhere, it is a hard age 18 months. We can't wait until he can communicate a little better.

As for Mom and Dad, we are still working on getting those tickets to Ukraine. We have decided that only some of us are going to be going, probably Olya, Quinn and might be AJ (ticket and taxes prices are outrageous for overseas flight, they have to charge half of the amount of the ticket for taxes). But we are excited!

I have also have some great News! I have got the people together who are going to be helping me with the charity and WE ARE DOING IT!!! So excited to be doing this work! Since I have been finding out more about how to help orphanages and other places I can tell you I am very grateful for American People who sacrifice a lot of time and money for orphans in Ukraine! What a blessing!!! These orphanages are doing SO MUCH better! There are so many programs organized by inspired people! What an example!

I am really excited to get this Charity going and start raising funds and supplies to make a difference in someone ease's life. There is a lot of need in the hospitals particularly. Kids stay there for months and in a lot of cases those kids who are orphans that stay there don't get visited and basically left for the hospital to take care of. Now in Ukraine hospitals ran by the government, so that means that if you don't have any connections, you don't get a lot.

I have been volunteering with this one orphanage by translating the letters from American kids into Russian for the orphans and I have realized a lot of things that we take for granted. Kids with parents go to new places, they see new things, they play sports and go swimming and much more- those are the things orphans don't get to do. But maybe, just maybe we can do something about it to get those orphans running, playing and smiling. I have a lot of ideas now!

Header for a Charity

This is a name for a Charity that i am making. And this is going to be a header on the Charity blog if I can make it work that is. If you look at the image without the words, you will be looking at the Ukrainian flag.

Veggie Eaters

Life has been so busy, I don't even know where to start! Well I will start with this picture, here Tasia is getting ready to go to Star Wars birthday party of her friend. She was so excited about it, she wanted me to dress her and make her hair like princess Lea. She was the only girl there but I think she had a blast.

This is a picture of Tasia using her amazing creativity. Sometimes she comes up with all these cool things, it amazes me. I was talking on Skype with my Mom and kids got bored, so Tasia made elephant years and trunks and tails for her and AJ. Then she went and made a paper elephant for AJ and hung in his room. She knows her brothers love elephants and she was trying to be such a sweet sister.

Well, this one is very self explanatory. QUINN is being Quinn. Climbing everywhere, eating everything and after everyone. That is what he does well.

Quinn also LOVEs baths. He takes one everyday, sometimes twice a day.\

The other day I found this boy sneaking around eating vegetables I got ready for dinner. Other kids may be sneaking around and stealing cookies, this one anything he can get. It was amazing how he was stuffing himself with all the greens.

Well, of course then my broccoliosorus AJ needed to be the center of broccoli eating as well. He can;t just let Quinn get all the praise and glory to himself.

Tasia can't stand broccoli so she needed to be in for the veggie eating party and she devoured cucumbers, I did not mind it is a veggie too:)

Oh yes, this is our new pet Buzz Light Year the hamster.

So, kids are doing well, Mom and Dad too. We have a couple new things that are going on.

First: I am thinking about doing a Charity for needy and orphan kids in Ukraine.  I am so excited to do something like that. Right now I am going through a process of making this charity legal and I am thinking of calling it "We are His hands". Since we are planing on going to Ukraine this Spring I wanted to see if I could rise money to help those kids in the needs that they have and also be there for them to feel like they are Special and that they are important and not forgotten.

Living in this country I have learned a lot of how people help each other. I have an amazing neighbor who opened a local charity and whenever there is a loss in the families in our neighborhood this charity pulls everyone together to help those in need. I always have thought how AWESOME this is , that people , no matter how rich or poor, no matter what profession they are can get together and share LOVE and support with those who really need it.

I really feel like Ukraine and people there can learn to do the same. Even when they don't have much, we can learn to sacrifice something for someone who needs it more then we do.


Second: Jim's therapy seems to pick up speed. He had some new clients that have been very impressed with the therapy. He has opened a Saturday in Saratoga Springs and a Wednesday night at Cottonwood Hights. We are very excited for more people to find out about the Myofascial Release therapy and how it can help them with their pain. It also has been very exciting to see these people get better.

Photography business died out this winter giving me a chance to blog a lot! It is so funny how my mind works. When I get a  lot  of work I feel like I am doing something to help Jim provide for the family and it makes me feel good but, I also feel like I don't spent enough time with my kids when that happens so it also makes me feel sad. When I don't have a lot of work, like now, I tend to feel like I don't have any creative outlet and what I am not doing anything so I make free work for myself, like taking a million of pictures of kids that I babysit and then  spent all my free time editing them. So at the end I feel like I have accomplished something, but also complain about the time I did not spent doing something for myself. It is a constant battle that is going on in my head trying to find balance in my life. Anybody else struggles like me or am I the the crazy one?


This is Tasia being Tasia. Right after her birthday party she was using her make up and nail polish.

Anyways, kids are playing with Jim so I wanted to post something. We have been excited about Valentine's day recently. I did a lesson during FHE about service and how we show love to others when we serve. I cut some hearts out of the scrapbook paper and told the kids that every time they did a service for any member of the family they would have a chance to leave a heart at that person's bed where they would see it. They were so excited. Tasia started picking up AJ toys in his messy room and making his bed. AJ followed and tried doing the same. I was in SHOCK! This is my kids we are talking about. I pretty much have to bribe them for every toy they clean up. But the miracle had happened and they became my serving angels. Next day Tasia started washing dishes and making my bed while I was still sleeping in it. What a difference it makes when something is not a chore but a game.

This week we also had an exciting field trip at the Fire station! Kids had so much fun exploring!

It is amazing  the difference one year makes. I remember AJ at the fire station last year. He was so shy he pretty much hid behind me the whole time.

The whole gang!

Looks like next week is going to be little crazy so we will say now- Happy Valentine's Day!

I did some of Just AJ valentines for family! He cooperated the best on the picture day:)