Lily's first meal

This is the video I filmed of Lily.

This is during the middle of her first meal.

I made a mixture of rice cereal, breast milk, and pear baby food. mMmmMMmmm

Chistmas Names!

Hello everyone! I just wanted to force everyone onto our Family Blog at least once. hahaha

Mark and I drew the names out of his SC hat for this years' Christmas. I don't think it matters if we see who we each have and who has us, so I'm just listing it all below. Hopefully this year we all get our 2 gifts...

Jared & Lisa have~~~~~~Joshua and Mark & Tiffany
Rachel has~~~~~~~~~~~~~Jared & Lisa and Joshua
Joshua has~~~~~~~~~~~~~Solomon and Simon & Jenny
Simon & Jenny have~~~~Rachel and Solomon
Solomon has~~~~~~~~~~~~Tiffany & Mark and Rachel
Tiffany & Mark have~~~~Simon & Jenny and Jared & Lisa

Just a reminder, there is a $100 limit for your gifts. I think Josh and Soly are going home for Christmas, so for those who have Mark and I, maybe Josh could bring it back for us. :)

Love you all! :)

Memories of Grandmas

When Mark and I took Grandma and Grandpa back to their house after Jared's reception, it was the Mark's first time there and the last time I was there was about 8 years. Even though it's been such a long time for me, it all was so familiar. We photographed everything while we were there, and I thought it would be nice to post these pictures on our family's blog. For you guys who are able to go there often it might not seem sentimental, but for me it was.

Door knob

Kitchen

Oven and stove

Picture wall

Bedroom

Living Room

Thermometer

Road

Drive way

The house

Poha

The farm

Water supply

Radish

Dog House (thanks Dad)

Garden on the right side of the house

Firewood

Rain water

Cookie tin

Cold water vase

Tea mugs

Grandpa making a fire

Pacman

The toy cars!

My favorite blanket

Grandma's cutting board

Hot water dispenser

There are so many memories that come to mind when I look at each of these. I hope it does the same for you guys!

The Killers

On Friday night, a couple of friends, co-workers and I went to go see The Killers at Qwest Arena in Downtown Boise. It was an awesome concert and we were on the floor. We were center stage around 8 people deep. The crowd was pretty good, so we had an great time.

Grandpa Jimmy's Funeral

Mark and I are going to be on our way in a few hours to California. Mark's Grandpa James Shinoda passed away on Wednesday morning. There will be a viewing on Sunday and a Burial on Monday. Although we knew it was coming since Friday, it's still impacting both of us. Please keep the Shinodas in your prayers. Love you all.

Provo, my new home.

Yo - been in Provo for about a month now. The exact opposite of New York. Anyhow, here are a few pictures of my place and my sweet ride - a 1994 Toyota Camry. Yup, I know how to live it up.

Sawtooth Mountains

When I told mom that I would be working in Idaho and showed her the web site of my company https://www.clearwateradvisors.com/Resources/home.asp she said that she had been to Idaho and it sure didn't look like that. Recently I took a trip into the Sawtooths, where that picture was taken, in order to show mom that Nothern Idaho is a lot nicer than the desert that is Southern Idaho.

This was taken from my Blackberry, hence the quality isn't as good, but it was like I was in some shampoo commercial and all these people in white clothes would soon come out and start washing their hair in the river.

This was taken in Stanley. You can see some of the snow near the shore of the lake. It was too tempting not to jump in, so we did and had a really, really, quick swim. Needless to say the water was freezing!

Labor Day Weekend

For this Labor Day weekend, Mark and I did quite a bit! On Saturday night Mark went to watch El Savador and the US play off for the World Cup. It was like being in a different country. Where did all these El Savadorians come from?!? While he was watching the soccer game, I watching the BYU football game. GO BYU!!! I was pacing in front of the TV, doing the traditional BYU chants, and coaching the players from the couch.

On Sunday morning we did the 3 1/2 hour drive down to Saint George to spend time with Mark's family and expecially his grandpa. Grandpa Bill is 93 and still living life large. I read all 80 pages of his personally history, and BBQed with the family. We listened to one of the Borne Identity books on tape. I fully endorse listening to books on tape! It made the drive so much more bareable!

Now it's Tuesday and we're going to leave to 7 Peaks water park in a few minutes with our singles' ward. A great past few days!

This is a picture of a ward hike that I organized for Family Home evening. We hiked up Tablerock which gives you a good view overlooking all of Boise. About half the people had already started to descend when we took this picture. I had to carry that water cooler about half a mile uphill in order to get it to everyone.

Volcano Village

On my trip back to Big Island, I have tried to document as much as I can the little things I remember visiting Grandpa and Grandma's farm. Here is one thing that might bring back some memories, the old rice crispy treats that Grandma used to make for us: a healthy batch still tucked away in case of a shortage in marshmallows!

This is a picture of about a year agoe when I visited with Dad. Grandpa and Grandma still have a little part of the farm that they tend to grow things that they eat. In this picture dad was helping grandpa clean off the some of the dirt from harvested vegetables.

As soon as I download the pictures from my Blackberry I will send you updated photos from my trip in July. The blog has been slacking recently, but I am determined to get it up and running weekly, so please send me your pictures or thoughts to post! Or better yet, you can do it yourself.

More to be added later

Well, here's my contribution, a picture of me. From Thanksgiving - where Solomon, Tiffany, Mark and I met up in Utah. Don't' ask about my 40 yard dash time.

Winter Wonderland

This is a recent snowmobiling trip that I went on New Year's Day. It was a lot of fun but very cold. I passed Jenny's hometown of Haley on our way there. We travelled a total of 65 miles that day on the snowmobiles. It is a lot harder on your body than I imagined. It was also snowing most of the trip and at some places where the wind was strong, I couldn't tell where the land and sky met. It was a eerie feeling.

Season's Greetings

Season's greetings from the Kiang Family.

Introducing McKayla Wai Ling Lee

Introducing the newest addition to the Lee Family, at 6 lbs 0.4 oz and 17 inches, McKayla Wai Ling Lee. Seems like Mckenna is already being a great older sister.

The Lee Family Report 2008

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our families and friends!!

2008 has been a great and exciting year for the Lees. In April, Solomon and Tiffany graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo and we were there for their graduation; a week later Tiffany married Mark Shinoda in Newport Beach, California and we welcomed Mark into our family. And a few days ago, on Dec 20th, we welcomed another addition, McKayla Wai Ning Lee into our family; she was 6 lbs 0.4 oz, 17 inches with a beautiful smile. Both Jenny and McKayla are doing fine.

2008 has been a challenging year financially for many people in the United States with the unstable economy and the threat of a global recession; we count our blessings that all of us are fortunate enough to hang on to our jobs and are still employed.
David and Grace are still working at BYUH, looking forward to retirement in a next few years. Jared is working with a private company which specializes in Hospice care. He has had great success working with the patients and their families who require this sort of care. Joshua is working and living in New York City and loving the “Big Apple”. He was accepted to a MBA program in BYU Provo and was supposed to move from NY to Provo to start school in Sept. However due to the recent downturn of the economy, he decided to stay in NY to continue working and do an executive MBA program instead. We thought that was a really smart move and supported him wholeheartedly. He will be home to spend the New Year’s with us. Rachel is still working at Kamehameha Schools and drives to town everyday to work; she has been a great aunt to McKenna and now has a new niece to attend to. Simon is working as an Assistant Manager and a personal trainer at 24 Hour Fitness in Mililani. He now has a big family to take care of. Jenny is taking a 3 month break from the bank to stay home to take care of the new born. We are grateful that her sister, Stephanie, is staying with us. She works part time at the Gift Shop at PCC in the evenings and watches McKenna while Jenny and Simon are at work. Solomon is working for Clearwater Advisors, a finance company in Idaho. He travels a lot and really appreciates the trust and faith that the company has in him in his a position when he has very little experience as a recent graduate. Tiffany and Mark still live in Provo but are home in Hawaii for the holidays. Tiff is working in the accounting department in the APEX Alarm Company and Mark works part time at their Call Center. Mark will graduate next June from Utah Valley University with a degree in Finance and they will most likely move to San Diego to work for his family business after graduation.

Our family is growing and our home is filled with love, joy, happiness and challenges. We are grateful to all of you and especially to the love and support you gave us over the years. Have a great and wonderful new year. And may the Lord bless you with peace, love, harmony, and good health in the coming year. We love and appreciate you. Aloha and Mahalo from the Lee’s.

No Presents For You!

Jared, Tiffany, McKenna will have to wait for their presents as I did not send them. I only realized a couple of days ago that I would have to send Tiffany's present to Utah, so I'll do that right away. Here is the present that I hand made for McKayla. It is a polar fleece blanket with a Winnie the Pooh design. Blood and sweat, quite literally-as I pricked my finger a number of times in the process. Look at the exquisite detail in the stiches. Oh la la is correct.

Welcome to the Internet

Hi mom and dad! Welcome to the internet. Hehehehehehe Mark and I are just boring everyday workers. He's working on a business plan with his friend Tim (which might be something that he'll actually want to start depending on them getting financial backers) and I'm just working my 9-5 at APX. The only thing that we've been excited about since Thanksgiving has been coming to Hawaii for Christmas to see all of you and our new niece! Hope your lives are more exciting than ours. -Mark and Tiffany"

Can you hear me?

Its been snowing about 8 inches in the last couple of days here. White Christmases are great for a couple of days, but scrapping off your car and driving on ice gets old after a while. Hope you guys are doing well and I will call later today to wish you all a Merry Christmas!