Tulips in Hamura City

The other day my friend Elizabeth took the kids and I to a tulip farm in Hamura (a city close by). It was so beautiful! It made me really excited for Spring. Here are some pictures from our visit:

Thanks Elizabeth for taking us to such a beautiful place. I'm reminded everyday how much I love Japan!

I LOVE Velcro!

I just have to say how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE Velcro. Velcro ROCKS!!!

Let me explain. I'm a little OCD and don't like crooked pictures in my house...I would walk around straightening them EVERYDAY! Back in

California I tried putting those sticky rubber stumps on the back of my pictures, but they did not win my heart.

When I moved to Japan my MOTHER sent me with Earthquake kits to put under each of our beds. Yes friends, I have earthquake kits under each bed in my house. They have cool things in them like: a headlamp, small flashlight, flares, whistle, M & M's :), bandaids, & extra batteries. My mom is a genius & always inspired to help us be PREPARED for ANYTHING. I don't fear natural disasters because my MOM has made sure I am prepared in every way possible--THANKS MOM! We even have helmets in our earthquake kits. I know some of you are laughing but one day we'll probably have to use them and I will be very grateful for them. I've actually already used the flashlights, and headlamps in these kits a few times (our base was flooded last year and we had NO power for a few days-the headlamps came in really handy while climbing dark stairways with kids in tow).

Anyways, back to VELCRO. My mom put some industrial VELCRO in our earthquake kits and told me to velcro down everything in the house. So I did! Every single picture hanging in our house has velcro on it. VOILA!!! I was sold!!! Velcro works AWESOME on the back of frames. I haven't had to straighten a single picture the whole time we've been here....and remember...we just had a massive earthquake hit the island!!!

Here are some of our frames after the earthquake. Nothing even moved. Now, if you are thinking that some of them look crooked...it's not because of the earthquake...we are still working on our hanging skills :).

Not only does it keep everything in place, but It makes me not worry so much about pictures falling off the walls during an earthquake. So far the frames have not even budged (and we have had hundreds of earthquakes in the last month).

All I do is cut 2 little squares and place them in the 2 bottom corners. There you have it! Straight pictures forever!

I love you velcro! Thanks A TON mom!

Tia's Combi Mini Modeling Job

A couple of months ago Tia did her 2nd modeling job. It was so fun! She was super excited because she had been standing by watching Jayden for the past 9 months. She was ready for her turn again.

To look at the catalog go to combimini.jp

and click on the tab that looks like this...

Then you'll see this picture appear

down on the left hand side.

Click on it and it'll open up the catalog. She's on page

10, 11, 13, 18, 20 & 21.

Here's an ad from the website. Tia's the one in pink & black.

And here are some pictures that I took during the shoot:

Tia with her good friend Sol (they are in the same church class).

Having her hair done "like a princess" - that's what she kept saying!

They let the kids jump on the couch for this one. Super fun!

Here's a little video of it.

This was a picture I took of the photographers computer. I missed this shot but thought it was adorable. Can you tell she had a blast.

Jayden's 1st Book!

A few months ago our neighbor Adyson made Jayden a book about a guy named "Mister". Jayden loved the book so much that he spent the next few "quiet times" making his own book to give back to her. He made up new sentences, found all the words he needed for his sentences in other books and pictures around his room, drew the pictures, and taped the whole book together in order. He did this ALL on his own! I had no idea he was making it until it was finished. Actually, we didn't even know he could write in sentences. He usually just writes words that he sees or can sound out, so you can image how excited we were when we saw his book. Thanks for the motivation Adyson!

He was SO excited that he HAD to take it over to her the second he finished the book.

But first mom had to take some pictures...

"Mister go to the pool"

From: Jayden

To: Adyson

"Mister coming home"

"Mister go to the house"

"The Mister play with dog"

"Mister go to the apple tree"

"Mister go"

"Mister go home"

"The End"

You did a FABULOUS job Jayden! You have grown up so fast! We love you!

Tera & Byron's Visit

Less than 2 days before the earthquake hit, Shane's sister and her family came to visit. Even though half of our plans were cancelled (because of freeways being shut down, trains not running, and radiation threats) we still managed to have a good time and entertain all the kids.

Here are a few things we did:

SHOWA PARK

TERA'S BIRTHDAY

Tera spent her whole birthday ON THE AIRPLANE ride over here, so we made sure we celebrated.

ROLLER SLIDE PARK

OBSTACLE COURSE PARK

Uncle Byron and Aunt Tera bought these fun shirts for the kids. They were so excited!

SHANE'S BIRTHDAY

Blowing out his "cinnamon ball" breakfast cake.

We don't normally do "a cake" for breakfast, but Shane was called back into work on his birthday and we weren't sure if he would be able to celebrate with us that night. Luckily, he was able to celebrate with us both times.

Shane's birthday dinner at "Un Qinto's" (Italian Restaurant).

I love this picture...I have no idea why he's laughing but I think it's cute!

"Un Qinto's" walls inside the restaurant are covered with signatures. I've always wanted to sign it so we finally asked if we could and we made Shane a birthday cake on the wall.

There was one day that the trains were actually running close to normal (while Shane's sister was here) so we were able to go in to Tokyo with them.

Somehow Jayden threw his Monster's Inc stuffed animal (Sulley). It hit the side of the train and fell down in the track. You would have thought the world was over by the way Jayden screamed...he was devastated (to say the least)! Luckily, once the train left the train workers found a nice long "grabber" stick and saved Mr. Sulley :)

ASAKUSA (TOKYO)

Playing at a park near Asakusa.

Even though all our vacation plans were changed...we still had a great time! I don't think the kids even noticed that we didn't do all the things we had planned. They were just SO excited to be with each other! We had a great time! Thanks Tera and Byron for coming to visit us!