Big Girl Bed and Cherry Blossoms

So there are a few things I wanted to do before we head to the states in 3 weeks. One of them was to get Katie used to sleeping in a bed instead of her crib so that when we go home, I can have my own room (the crib is in my room but my parents have multiple guest rooms). She is such a sweet baby - she isn't brave enough to even attempt to climb out, which was the reason we had to transition Hayden - he kept climbing out and falling on his head, and he wasn't even two yet. Here is my sweet girl, almost 2 and 1/2, and if she had her way she would probably not complain about being in a crib until 5. Love her. By the way, the other major thing I want accomplished is to get her to go potty on the seat I paid 5000 yen for ($50). Wish me luck!





Other randomness on this post is that the cherry blossoms bloomed and we are in heaven. I thought the blossoms in DC were great, but these are amazing and they are EVERYWHERE! Here are just a few pictures of our local blossoms. I have to post a separate post about Hirosaki, where we went for hanami, or flower viewing.

On base:


Our local park:

Morioka

We had a trip to Morioka with two other families and it was so much fun! With nine kids and five adults, we had quite a big group. It's about 2 hours away and we started out our trip by going to the Morioka zoo, which was perfect for the gorgeous weather. The animals were out, though not thriving - tough on my PETA friend Kate! :) But the kids were really happy to see animals other than crows. That seems to be the only wild animal around our area, although other people talk about pheasants, bear, raccoon dog, deer, and goats. But all we see are crows. On our way home, we stopped by the mall and there was a GAP! It was awesome to just smell the smell again (you didn't realize Gap has a scent, did you?)

Here is one of our monkeys:


And our resident cutie pie:


Here is the gang of little kids (big kids were galavanting):


There was a great playground in the middle of the zoo:


And it was just a really fun way to spend a day with great friends!

Miscellaneous Easter

I realized that I still have yet to post Easter pics! Easter day was... OK. There is something just not right about not being with your spouse on holidays, especially when we are rejoicing our Savior's resurrection. The morning was great, and Jim was able to be with us via Skype (webcam) while the kids ran around our living room finding eggs. Church was good - and then we had friends over for dinner. Here are some pictures of our many Easter adventures.

Katie at our church's Easter party


Katie at the Medical Group egg hunt


Hayden at the Medical Group egg hunt


Sharing Easter morning with Daddy on the computer

Army Jim

Well, actually I am so thankful that Jim is in the Air Force! But I am also grateful for the Army's training. Look how cute he is in all his battle-rattle.



Thank you, honey, for this awesome picture! And for the curious, this is how he is living right now.



I bet it doesn't smell very good in there! Can you believe it's been over 4 weeks already? We are halfway to Virginia, baby!

Playing Catch-Up

So I just realized that in all the craziness, I never posted about all the fun stuff we packed into the two weeks before Jim left! How could I have forgotten? Let's see... it all started with ice-skating. We thought this was such a great idea. It ended up being a DISASTER!!! It was so not fun. Just thinking about the whole debacle makes me laugh out loud right now. The rental shoes are to blame, we think, as they had NO ankle support at all. As Jim's and my ankles jerked clumsily left to right (and never happily balanced over the blade) we were breaking our backs to hold our children up. Katie and I made it to the nearest exit and it was all I could do to not take off my skates and walk in wet socks back to the rental counter. Hayden and Jim made it halfway around, whereupon they cut across the middle to get back to us. We quit. We moved on to bowling which proved much more fun. Here are some hilarious pictures of our children.







Bowling was great fun. Katie had such great expressions after rolling the ball and Hayden beat us all with his skills. We will definitely go bowling again and skip the ice arena.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all, and a special shout out to Daddy and our families in the states. I am sorry I couldn't get my act together enough to send you all Easter cards. Perhaps this video will make you feel a little better. My friend Bree's daughter Sydney sang a song similar on their website and it was so darn cute! I promise to not post videos for a long time, I know I have gone overboard!!




Jesus is the reason for this season, too, and I hope He blesses your day! He is Risen!

Katie's New Groove

Here's something funny I caught Katie doing during breakfast this morning. Apparently, she may not have the dancer/gymnast Hard gene. We shall see!

Brotherly Love

There are times when I just am so filled with joy when I see how well my children play together. There are other times when I can only pray that they will play well together! But this one particular day, this is what I found when I opened the playroom door. I really don't expect anyone but our parents and maybe siblings to watch the video in its entirety - I do realize it is long and nothing really exciting happens in it, but when they are your own children it is a fun video to watch!




The still pictures are pretty cute, too. Disclaimer: before I get comments on how dangerous this is, please know that Hayden knows full well to NEVER close the toy box on his sister. Please don't worry!

Update

We are doing well - we are now 17 days into our new journey and still holding up! It is really amazing how God has given me more patience since Jim has gone. I thought it would be the opposite and I would be at my wits' end by 4 PM and the kids would be in bed by 5. But I know many people are praying for us and He has really allowed me to enjoy this sweet time with my children.

Jim is in the barracks with 39 other men and is hard at work 6 days a week with PT, cultural classes, language classes, and this week more "Army" classes. I am assuming life-saving tough-guy classes. I am hoping he will only need the language and cultural knowledge and will never have to use what he learns in the tough-guy classes. But he says it's not too bad. He gets a hot breakfast every day (Magra will be glad to hear that - she was so shocked that I don't make him a hot breakfast every day before he leaves for work - I believe she used the word "deprived") and he even got to go watch basketball on Saturday night downtown. I sent a few more changes of clothes for him, civilian-wise, since the only civi clothes he had was what he wore on the plane! He looks good on Skype and we are so thankful to be able to talk to him twice a day for now.

Thank you to all who continue to pray for us, think of us, and support us. We love you all!