Happy New Year!

We tried to get our fortune's read at the Okinawan temple down the street from our church. It's wasn't remotely religious feeling....more like a carnival with fast food and cheap games.






Dad got cornered into wearing a tiera while he was sleeping.

Ben feel asleep cuddling a squishy rat.

Kate got pneumonia and burst an eardrum. Here she is getting a breathing treatment.

Rob turned 32!

That's what we've been up to. How about you?

Too much time surfing the web

We were showing the kids youtube videos when we came upon this one. We thought it was post worthy

Whoo hoo!

We love Japanese slides!

Ben is Five

We were able to convince Ben to do a very scaled down birthday party for his fifth birthday. We told him to invite 2 or 3 friends which turned into 4. Ben loves to bowl so we bowled, played toddler versions of video games, ate cake and had presents. He was thrilled and got lots of clothes which was exactly what he wanted. I'm always exhausted by the time his birthday rolls around (Dec 28th) so he doesn't get much enthusiasm from me. He seemed happy, though.



We love you, Benjamin!

Just plain cute

The kids looked too cute before church a couple of weeks ago. The sweater Issy is wearing was made by my aunt Pam too. Isn't is totally darling?



I took Issy to get her haircut this week. I can't believe how many compliments she's gotten, not to mention she looks to much older now. I love it!

Issy and her friend Bella (also an Isabella and she has a brother named Ben and her mom is Melissa...crazy, eh?) were telling secrets at lunch the other day. I just thought it was too cute.

Another haircut shot.

Southeast Botanical Gardens

I've heard a thing on the list of "Things you need to do before you leave Okinawa" is going to the Southeast Botanical Garden at Christmastime. They have Christmas lights galore (think Temple Square) and tons of vendors. Admission was around 1600 yen, but they give you 1000 yen in money to use at the vendors (crafts, food, etc). Plus the kids were free. A good time was had by all.




This is some video of the entry way.

Cool video of the crazy carp fish having a feeding frenzy! So rad.

Christmas 2009

While I was in the States our church had a Christmas play. Here Noah is Samuel the Lamanite and Ben is a towns person.

Issy is some sort of shepard here. Don't you love their costumes? It was a very formal occasion as you can tell.

You've gotta have a picture at Christmas of the kids with Santa. I just realized I never got a Santa pics with Kate. Bad mommy! Sorry, fourth kid.




We had two video parties with the Kiser family. This is a picture of the kids with all their cousins opening their cousin presents. They were so excited because the box with their presents in it came a couple weeks ago and they've been drooling over the box waiting for the very moment to open it. It was simply wonderful to see every one's smiling faces online and how much people have grown. We all wish we were there!

The Christmas morning lineup. We gave Noah a clock and told him he couldn't wake up until it said 6 with something after it (assuring we'd get at least 6:00). At 6am on the button he comes into our bedroom proclaiming it "six oh oh". I told him to find a toy and play with it in the bathroom. What was I thinking? It's Christmas morning and I'm telling my six year old to just wait a little longer. He was like, "Are you kidding me?" So he gently went to wake up the two other children who would realize it was Christmas morning. Kate heard the excitement and woke up too. We always do a picture of the kids lined up ready to go downstairs. Here they are from Christmases past. 2009

2008

2007

2006--I couldn't find any other Christmases before 2006

This is the only picture we took of any child with any present. We're lame. The sure had fun opening stuff for several hours. We had G and G Catlin on the video chat watching them open presents. That is a fun tradition that we started last year. Hopefully we'll actually be able to visit family in the years to come verses just talking online.

I just thought I'd throw this picture of Noah and Kate in there. In case you can't tell, they are watching TV. You can't tell they are siblings at all, can you?

We were driving around and the kids were singing Christmas songs in the backseat. For those of you interested, here is what a typical drive in the back of my car looks like. And, yes, we have the car set up limo style with the back two rows facing each other. It makes my job as a chauffer come easier.