December 31, 2004 - NEW YEARS EVE
Last day of the year. Matt went to work and then we went over to Herrera's house for a party. Sonntags were there too. The kids had fun playing, watching movies, and generally making a mess. The adults had fun playing the MUSIC game and talking. And we all had a lot of good food to eat.

December 25-29 - CHRISTMAS
Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful Christmas Day with our families. We opened presents at our house, then went to Frasers so that we could talk with Andy in Portugal, then we went to Susan's house for a late lunch.

December 24, 2004 - CHINESE FOOD
For our annual Fraser Christmas Eve Party, we decided to have homemade Chinese food. Really, this was not our idea, it was the other siblings' idea. Making dinner took longer than we expected, because we had about 10 different dishes. But they were all very good and worth waiting for. Next time, we will cut back on the number of dishes.

December 21, 2004 - FREE LUNCH

After reading a column in the Deseret News called Free Lunch, we called the writer, Cathy Free, and asked her if she wanted to do a story about our adoption. She agreed and we had a free lunch at the Chinese Gourmet (buffet). We had fun reminiscing about our trip to China and to get Jenna.

December 19, 2004 - OOPS, ONE MORE PARTY
Today was the day of the Harrison Progressive Dinner. We started at Heidi and Garrett's house and had appetizers. Then we moved on to Matt and Jody's house and had dinner which was Ham and Wild Rice Soup (very delicious) and rolls. Then on to Heather and Kami's house where we had desert. Nothing better than hot fudge sundaes with peppermint ice cream and homemade hot fudge sauce. We opened our sibling gifts and had a great time. I can't imagine why the kids didn't want to go home.

December 18, 2004 - DAY OF PARTIES
It was a day of parties for our whole family. First was the Edvalson Christmas party where we got to pick a painting done by Grandpa Edvalson. We got the one of a cowboy on a horse, with his trusty dog, herding a heifer. Then we went to the Harrison Party where we missed dinner but made it for desert. Dale Harrison told things that everyone had done during the year, and also told us a little about Grandma and Grandpa Harrison, since many of us did not know them. Then we decided we still had time to go to Matt's Christmas party. There was a lot of good food, loud music and general partying. Unfortunately, we did not win any of the raffle gifts.

December 11, 2004 - FOOD DRIVE
Matt and Malcolm participated in a neighborhood food drive. People brought food up to the church parking lot and Matt and another person, Dave loaded food into the van. When it was finally full, Matt and Malcolm drove it down to the Utah Food Bank

December 10, 2004 - WARD CHRISTMAS PARTY
Our ward (church)Christmas party turned out pretty good. There were over 100 people there but not as many as in previous years. There was lots of good food, and lots of candy spread on the tables for the kids and lots of deserts to sample.

November 25-29, 2004 - THANKSGIVING IN MILFORD
We went down to Milford for Thanksgiving this year. Not a bad drive down. Grandma Yardley and the crew made most of dinner. We brought some treats for the kids. It was a fun family party. Grandpa Yardley made sure to videotape some of it too. The women did crafts and the men sat around and talked or ate more treats. Jody, Jenna, Susan and Grandma Yardley went to Allan and Christine's house in Beaver to do more crafts. Matt and Malcolm went with Grandpa Yardley on an adventure, way out west of Milford to see some hierogyphics. They were pretty neat. Then Matt and Malcolm finished putting his model rocket together and launched it in a field behind Grandma and Grandpa Yardley's house. Malcolm liked pushing the launch button. It was very snowy on the way home, and about an hour before getting home, Jenna let us know that she had had enough. We made it home safe and sound.

November 19, 2004 - SMITH AND EDWARDS
You just wouldn't understand if you haven't been there. Smith and Edwards it a fun store up in Northern Utah, about an hour north of Salt Lake City. They have army surplus, camping, outdoors stuff, cheap tools, clothes and generally good deals and fun treasures. Matt went there after going to a Crystal Reports training class at Weber State University, since he was just "in the neighborhood." He did purchase a knife for his camping and emergency preparedness equipment.

November 9, 2004 - VIOLIN LESSONS
Matt had said he had no time to teach any more violin lessons, but a neighbor boy just started and his parents asked if he taught. He reluctantly said yes, as we can always use the money for our date night. Matt likes to teach a "30 minute" lesson that never is less than 40 minutes.

November 2, 2004 - ELECTION DAY
They called Jody to be an election judge just a few days before as they were really desperate. But then last minute they called and said they had enough people. That wasn't before Matt had already took the day off, so we took advantage of the situation and slept in, the voted, then ate a late lunch at the Mayan restaurant in Sandy, then watched "A Shark's Tale". We had a really great day together as a family. We will have to have more relaxed days like this.

October 29 & 30, 2004 - TRUNK-OR-TREAT
Our church did a Trunk-or-Treat in their parking lot on Friday night after a dinner of various soups. It was kind of cold, but the kids loved it anyway. Most kids got over 3 lbs of candy within 40 minutes. Then on Saturday (the 30th) We went Trick-or-Treating to a few neighbors house, as Halloween fell on Sunday. Then we had a party with some of the Fraser cousins. We played games, ate candy and generally had a great time.

October 23, 2004 - SUPERCROP
Jody went with Susan to a SuperCrop day. Matt was going to take the kids to the zoo but they were sick and decided it was best to stay home. Jody had a fun time and added several new pages to our family scrapbooks.

October 6, 2004 - CUSA MOVING
Matt's company is moving from Taylorsville to West Valley City. They had a breakfast for all the employees and for us to take a tour of the new building. They don't have much in there yet, but it seems like a nice building. It will shave 8.5 minutes off his commute.

September 25, 2004 - BIRTHDAY AND BONSAI
Well, we are always busy so the family activities and things to write about seem to only happen on Saturdays. We had a birthday lunch with Matt's family celebrating several birthdays. Then Matt went to a Bonsai display at Sugarhouse Park. He really liked it and wishes he had a place to keep more bonsai trees.

September 18, 2004 - PARTY
We had an end of Summer party with Jody's family at her aunt and uncles house, the Glades. It was too cold to go swimming, but the kids liked the blow up castle to jump in. We also spent that day and the next day (Sunday) attending our church's Stake Conference meetings, which we enjoyed. Also this last week, Jody went to a baby shower for her cousins Joe and Nat that is adopting a little boy here domestically.

September 11, 2004 - CASI REUNION
This weekend we traveled to Boise, Idaho for a BBQ / reunion with CASI Foundation for Children. This was nice to see others from China, and we spent some time before the picnic with our friends Mark and Linda Marie Jost. They were some of our travel companions while in China and they adopted a little girl named Laura. She is getting very big and active. We talked to lots of people at the picnic including some that have adopted domestically. Jody even won a porcelain doll in a raffle. It was a long 6 hours up there on Friday night and a long almost 6 hour drive on the way home, but we were glad we went. Here is a photo of us on Friday night in Twin Falls after we had dinner.

September 4 to 6, 2004 - GREEN RIVER TRIP
After the family get together for a big lunch, we finally got on the road to head down to Green River, Utah. Neither of us got full directions how to get there, so we ended up taking almost an hour longer (scenic) drive to get there. But isn't the trip there half the fun? We met up with our friends Steve and Ann and their kids Madison and Sadie. We finally had dinner about 8pm at night.

The next day we saw a dinosaur site, then we went and saw Arches National Park. It was very neat seeing the arches. Then after a little shopping and eating dinner in Moab, we went back to our hotel in Green River. On the last day of our trip we went to Goblin Valley where we all had a heyday running around the strange formations. We even saw some lizards and a small gopher snake that bit a lady that tried to pick it up. We were going to go hiking in the Wild Horse Canyon, but the kids had had it and we needed to get home and pack, go swimming and go home. It was a long 3+ hours home at the end of a holiday weekend. You can view a few photos of our trip here.

September 4, 2004 - LEE GETS BAPTIZED
Malcolm's oldest cousin was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since he is now 8 years old. It was a wonderful service to see. We had to wait an hour for another baptism right before, but Lee is a great example to the rest of his cousins. Congratulations Lee!

August 29, 2004 - BRYSON IS HOME
Jody's cousin Bryson came home from his LDS mission to Japan. Since Matt is the only one in the extended family that understands Japanese or has been to Japan, it was really fun for Matt. We all had a good time talking to him about his experiences there in Japan.

August 28, 2004 - DINNER & A MOVIE
We got our work done so we could go play. We went to an early dinner at the Mayan, and then went and saw Princess Diaries 2. We all like the movie as it was funny and charming.

August 23, 2004 - MALCOLM IN 1ST GRADE
Well, today was Malcolm's first day in 1st grade. He was wearing a new Spider Man shirt, had his lunch packed in a new lunch box and all the other school supplies that he needed were in his backpack. He was very excited. Here is one photo of Malcolm on his first day back at school. He is actually in a 1st/2nd grade split class, so we will see how that goes. Both Matt and Jody went to school as the teacher spent about 15 minutes talking to the parents and students.

August 18, 2004 - SONNTAG HOME
I heard that Jeff and Doris are about ready to close on their new house out here in Magna. We are flattered that after all this time being friends, they still want to live by us. What day can we come over for the Hot Tub Party?

August 16, 2004 - RAEJEAN'S FATHER
The father of our friend Raejean, passed away on Monday, and we were very sad to here that. I know he had been having medical problems for quite a while, but it is always hard to deal with the death of one of your parents.

August 4, 2004 - NEW PALM PILOT
Thanks to all that gave Matt birthday money for his Palm Pilot fund. He purchased a new Zire 71, with a color screen, has an MP3 player in it and takes digital cameras. He is very excited. Of course there are all the extra things he "has" to purchase like a case, new memory cards, a new combo pen/stylus, new games to go on there, etc.

July 29, 2004 - BEAVER MOUNTAINS
We went down to Beaver County, Utah this weekend with our Grandma and Grandpa Yardley. We stayed in our aunt and uncle's trailer up at Labaron Lake in the Beaver Mountains, at about 8,500 feet. We fished, counted the deer at dusk, hiked, relaxed and generally had a good time. So the trip in numbers: 1 trout caught, 1 porcupine and 1 skunk spotted, over a hundred deer spotted, a herd of 27 elk were seen, and we killed at least 18 kangaroo mice living around our campsite.

July 17, 2004 - AIR CONDITIONING
We have arrived! We finally have central air in our home. It is so nice. We also had to get a new furnace to go with it, but it is more efficient. We did not even turn on the swamp cooler this year, and it has been up to 90° in our house in the last two weeks. We even resorted to sleeping in the basement, where it was at least 10° cooler.

July 14, 2004 - ST. GEORGE
Jody took Jenna and Malcolm down to St. George with her parents. Her great-aunt Nancy Fraser passed away, and so they went to attend the funeral. They got to see a lot of family members and Malcolm met a bunch of new cousins.

July 2 to 5, 2004 - COALVILLE CAMPING
It was time for the annual Fraser camping trip up to Coalville. It wasn't too hot, probably even cooler than our home. It was a great, relaxing time. We had plenty of food, lots of snacks (those are very important you know) and we got to go swimming twice. Granny and Gramps stayed in the hotel next to Camperworld, and since it was inside and nobody was there, we went swimming at the hotel. Matt was happy there were not a sunburn involved.
Also, we are happy to report that no one go sprayed by the skunk that was living in the surrounding trees. We stayed away from it, and kept our food all locked up.

June 29, 2004 - OLIVE GARDEN
We went to Olive Garden to celebrate Jody's birthday. Nothing fancy, but it we all had fun being together as a family.

June 26, 2004 - B-DAY BREAKFAST
We all gathered at Grandma's house today for the celebration of Harrison summer birthdays. We decided to be different and have crepes with all sorts of toppings: ham, sausage, eggs, strawberries, blueberries, ice cream, hot fudge sauce, caramel sauce, etc. It was hot outside, and we didn't get to eat brunch until 11am, but it was good and a fun time was had by all.

June 12, 2004 - JENNA'S BIRTHDAY
Today has had it's ups and downs. Matt and Malcolm went to the church Primary Parade and went through the neighborhood with kids on bikes, skates, and scooters. Then we ended with Otter Pops. Malcolm only had 3. Concurrently, Jody took Jenna to the doctors as she has been feeling yucky for a few days. She ended up having at least one ear infection and inflamed bronchial tubes. So she got some antibiotics and steroid medicine to put in a machine called a nebulizer. Even though she was sick, Jenna managed to climb up 7 stairs (she has only done 2 up till now). Then Matt and Jody furiously cleaned the house and made dinner, Jenna's grandparents came to dinner and we had Chinese food (what else?!) and a strawberry flavored cake.

June 11, 2004 - ASHLEY AND MATT
We went to the wedding reception for Matt's cousin Ashley. Ashley and Matt were married this morning and then had a reception up in Provo Canyon. It was very nice, and all the kids liked the pond.

May 29, 2004 - BLACKNER FAMILY REUNION
We drove down last night to Milford for the Blackner Family Reunion. We went to two cemeteries to put flowers on the graves and clean anything up in Milford and Greenville, and then we had lunch at the LDS Church in Greenville. We had at least 100 people there. Then some of us went over to the Beaver Cemetery. We had a good time seeing our cousins again, asking how each other was doing, seeing all the new babies, and listening to stories about our ancestors. It was a fun time. Malcolm was sad to go home as he was having so much fun playing.

May 23, 2004 - BABY BLESSINGS
Today we went to church to see the baby blessings of our niece Emma Watkins and Porter Poulsen. After too much church meetings, we went to the Fraser's house for a big luncheon.

May 5, 2004 - ANOTHER DR. APPT
Jenna had her second doctor's appointment today.

May 3, 2004 - NEW CAR
After looking this weekend, we went and purchased a new mini-van. It is a 2002 Ford Windstar. It is white and very nice. This will be wonderful for our road trips, camping, vacations, and for Jody to always have a car at home. We did not trade in our Corsica as it is actually doing well, and may be worth less than $800.

April 10, 2004 - TEMPLE SEALING
Jenna was finally sealed to our family today in the LDS Jordan River Temple. This means that she is part of our family forever, and has the same eternal blessings as any children born into our family. You can learn more about what temples are for from our church's website: official LDS Church website.

March 31, 2004 - JENNA'S 1ST DR. APPT
Jenna had her first doctor's appointment today. They whole family went and it went pretty well. The doctor said Jenna was doing well and pretty much on track developmentally. Then, they gave her some immunization shots, and we have never seen her scream and cry so much. They were very mad and sad cries. The good/bad thing is that Jenna is very strong and it took Jody, Matt and the doctor to hold her down and give her the shots. Even though she was supposed to have had full immunizations over in China, the doctor said it would be easier, and cost less if we just re-did them than do a special blood test.

February 12, 2004 - MAKI MOVING
Since we are leaving for China in two days, Maki is going to live with another family. We hope she has as fun with them as she has with us. They have 4 children, so it might be a new and a little different from our family.

February 9 through 13, 2004 - TRAVEL PREPARATION
This will be a week of preparation. Luckily we have been slowly gathering our stuff over the last 6 months. Only a few more little things to purchase.

February 7, 2004 - SHOPPING
One more trip to Wal-mart to pick up our last minute supplies. It is getting more real as we actually pick up some formula for Jenna.

February 6, 2004 - TRAVEL APPROVAL
While the referral sent us to Cloud 9, there is nothing to get your adrenaline pumping like when Mandalyn called from our adoption agency, CASI, today and told Jody that our U.S. Consulate date is February 26th, and that we have only one week to get ready and pack to leave for China. We are leaving on Valentine's Day, February 14th. Boy are we excited!

January 20, 2004 - CELEBRATION
We went to The Mandarin restaurant in Bountiful, Utah last night to celebrate. It was Matt, Jody, Malcolm, Maki, Jody's parents and Matt's mom. We even got the pictures of our new daughter from Mandalyn at CASI. It was exciting to show her off.

January 20, 2004 - REFERRALS ! ! !
Jody received the referral call today about about 11am from CASI Foundation for Children. She was very excited. Even though she was down in our office, she said when she was on the phone she was too excited and couldn't find any paper to write on. So we have a beautiful, healthy baby girl who is 7 months old and we are going to call Jenna. See the adoption pages for more information.

January 17, 2004 - SNOWSHOES
We decided to get out of the "inversion" here in the Salt Lake Valley. We went up Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch Mountains and went snow shoeing. We had a blast and made sure we were all bundled up and did not even get cold. And there was a thermos of hot chocolate waiting for us at the car.

January 2, 2004 - REFERRALS
Referrals are here! Well, not our referral, but it is the ones from the month before us. That means that we are next. Jody really hopes to hear something before Chinese New Year, which is January 22nd.

January 1, 2004 - PARTY WITH FRIENDS
We had a quiet celebration with our friends for New Years. Nothing fancy, but we had a lot of fun playing games and just talking.

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