Our Japanese Family :)

A couple of months ago I convinced my family (it took lots of convincing) to go and have Japanese pictures taken. They were not very excited, but I think they ended up having fun!

I'm going to warn you....I LOOK VERY STRANGE! Don't feel bad if you think that...I thought the same thing when I saw all of my friend's pictures. I don't EVER smile with my mouth closed, but you HAVE to or else your teeth will look YELLOW next to the white face they paint on you. You'd be surprised to see how different you look with your facial features painted WHITE...I sure was!

Jayden & Tia's Shichigosan pictures:

Shichi-go-san literally means seven, five, three; in most regions around the country, boys and girls aged three, boys aged five, and girls aged seven visit a Shinto shrine with their parents. Most girls wear kimonos when making their Shichi-go-san visit, while boys don haori jackets and hakama trousers. Shichi-go-san, is a day of prayer for the healthy growth of young children(found this definition here).

3 years old

5 years old

Our Family Pictures:

I didn't count exactly how many, but I think they tied about 20 different things around my waist...it was crazy! I was 3 1/2 months pregnant in this picture so they really could have left off all of the extra layers. It took about 1 hour for them to do my makeup and dress me...lots of makeup and lots of kimono layers. Shane and the kids were all finished within a half hour.

Shane and I thought it was interesting how they painted the back of my neck. We thought they just forgot to finish it, but apparently it is "more attractive" when painted with this pattern. Shane said it worked...he was much more attracted to me after this..he he..just kidding!

Christmas 2011

Our Annual "Gingerbread House"

Family Home Evening

Usually 1 or 2 weeks before Christmas we like to invite the families that Shane Home Teaches at Church to come over and make gingerbread houses with us. It's been a really fun tradition so far. Shane makes the Gingerbread Houses & frosting from scratch. He's awesome!

The Leonards

Kanisha Carson

Our family

I didn't really help...I talked the whole time...go figure!

We had a blast this year with the Leonards and Kanisha. Thanks guys for making it such a fun night! We're sad that it was our last time, but we've had a great time these last 3 years.

We also had our Japanese friends, Michiko & Kuni, over to make some with us.

It was cute how much they got into it :)

Shane and the kids making our house.

Thanks Michiko & Kuni for a great afternoon!

It was so fun & interesting volunteering at the Post Office last year that I wanted to take Shane back this year. Thanks Mitchell's for joining us. Once again...I was amazed at how organized the Post Office was. They are on the ball!

Luckily Jayden's school had a visit from Santa or this would have been the first year without a picture.

We didn't get very many pictures during the 2 week break because we were too busy being lazy, having fun, and just hanging out as a family. But here are the 2 pictures we did take.

The surprise apron the kids made dad.

And the (not so surprise) apron Tia made mom at preschool. I helped the kids make them for their mom's, but I still acted surprised and she didn't seem to mind.

Another wonderful Christmas in Japan!

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Jayden's FrancFranc Job

I was walking in the mall back in November and ran across this store. I was so surprised because Jayden had just done a modeling shoot for them a few months ago. I didn't know we had that store anywhere near us. Then, I looked down and saw a poster with Jayden in it. I was so excited!

I brought Jayden back with me so that I could show him the posters.

I also found this picture of him on their website here. So fun!

And we're moving to....

Colorado Springs, CO

We are REALLY excited to be going to Colorado. We can't wait to be closer to family (and Target, Walmart, Hobby Lobby, Cafe Rio, etc)...he he!

Colorado here we come! Summer 2012!

Birthdays

Tia's Birthday - October

She was SUPER excited about her cake - can you tell?!

My friend Tricia made the cake...she's AWESOME isn't she!

Tia had been asking for a PURPLE, TINKER BELL cake for months....it COULD NOT have been more perfect!

Shane was in the states for work, so we invited a few friends over to help us eat the yummy cake! Thanks everyone!

Jayden's Birthday - December

Jayden wanted a Mario Brothers b.day this year.

Tricia made another AMAZING cake! It was PERFECT!!!

What am I going to do without her next year???

Jayden didn't want us to cut the cake because he was so excited about it!

After a little convincing he let us dig in and eat :)..SO SO YUMMY!

Shane and I made Lollipop Sugar Cookies for Jayden to take to school.

Found this idea at: http://www.theidearoom.net/2010/01/play-dough-lollipop-cookies.html

Jayden and our neighbor Brinkley share the same birthday, so they did a treat swap after school.

Instead of doing "friend birthday parties" this year...we took the kids to Tokyo Disney Sea & Disney Land.

Tokyo Disney Sea

Jayden's 1st "scary" ride. He DIDN'T like it, but we are proud of him for trying. He and Shane are hiding behind the chipmunks.

Our favorite "apple juice" popsicles.

Us and our Disney shirts :)

Oh how we LOVE popcorn at Disneyland. Strawberry Chocolate & Carmel are our 2 favorites.

Tia's favorite ride (Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster).

DisneyLand

It was SO FUN having the kids tall enough this year to ride EXCITING rides. We had the BEST time we've ever had at Disneyland.

Star Tours

Captain EO...Michael Jackson lives on :)

Grand Circuit Raceway

She's such a serious driver - love it!

Cute boy!

Space Mountain

Not their favorite ride :/

We also took the kids on Thunder Mountain and they actually liked that one.

More YUMMY apple & orange juice popsicles.

I borrowed my friend Shelby's Minnie ears so that I could "fit in" with all the Japanese...he he! All the girls wear them here.

Happy Birthday cutie pies! We sure love you guys!

Grandpa & Grandma gave the kids some money so that they could each buy something while at Disneyland. Tia chose this Tangled barbie doll and Jayden chose to save his money so that he could buy himself a Nintendo DS...which he was finally able to do after 9 months of saving.

Baby #3

I meant to post this in October...ooops!

I'm pregnant!

Due: March 22nd, 2012

It's a ....

The kids couldn't come with us to the ultrasound, so this is how we told them what we were having. It was so fun!

Side profile

Face and arm

Foot

We are really excited to have another little one in our family!

Halloween 2011

I know I'm a little late on this one, but I need to post this for journaling sake. Happy Late Halloween :)!

(Shane was in the States for work-we sure missed him)

Since Shane was gone I opted out and "carved" pumpkins the easy way :)

The kids loved it!

Thanks to the blogging world...for our Culture Club activity in October (with 6 Japanese ladies) we made these fun Halloween jars.

Tia's Preschool - the REAL plan now

So....it turns out that our base canceled their Preschool program....BIG BUMMER! Tia's Preschool back up plan (see last post) ended up being the main plan. There are 4 kids in our class and the 4 moms rotate from week to week. I didn't think I'd like it at first, but I actually REALLY like it and so does Tia!

Why I like it:

* We've kept it super simple

(ABC's, Numbers, Colors, Shapes, & any thing else

that comes up-Holidays, 5 senses, etc.), so it's really fun and easy to plan for.

* I get a 3 week break before I teach again

* It's FREE

* Tia LOVES it!

* I love working with the 3 other moms & the kids

* It's fun to teach again (it's been 6 years since I taught school)

* It makes me feel like a good mom :)

So, even though I'm super bummed that the original Preschool plan was ruined...I'm actually really loving it this way.

Halloween Crafts

Our "Mummy Families"

(Samuel, Tia, & Chloe--Briley was sick this day)

Skeletons (thanks Alisha for the super cute skeleton heads).