Scraps of Fabric = Budding Fashionista!

When every I am sewing this kids always grab whatever scraps of fabric they can and incorporate them into useful objects for their games.  They wrap up people, make booby-traps, tie things (sometimes a little too well), and so much more.

This time Charlotte used it as a fashion accessory and Jason recognized the photo op.  The two of them had a little photo session.

Tutorial tomorrow!

The Easter Egg Hunt!

Like everyone, I have visions of beautiful Easter Egg Hunt pictures.  Then, there is reality - we are just lucky to get it done with everything else that day.  This year it seemed harder that usual to focus on the true meaning of Easter.  We are so grateful for the sacrifice of our Savior.  I am so grateful for my boys who remember the special Easter Egg Hunt (with messages about the true meaning of Easter) and made sure we did it on Monday night.

   He missed one, so Charlotte quickly found it after Grahm moved on.

 I love this picture, she spotted an egg!

 Their adopted Aunt and Uncle brought over little basket for each of the kids.  The boys got these hilarious sets of glasses and noses.  The girls got bunny ears (I didn't get a picture).

Double Digits

Jayce did have a Birthday a few weeks ago.  He has hit the double digits - the big One Oh!  The big day was shared by two other major events, which made the day extra special and extra crazy.  Of course his biggest request this year was books.  He added over 5 books to his collection and I think finished all of them by now.  A few new clothes for the summer and a remote control helicopter.  The helicopter did not survive 20 minutes of use before it was busted.  We thought maybe we should have supervised a little more, so it was replaced and that one was busted in record time.  Jason then spent time using parts from here and there to give him a more play time before they both went in the trash.  Live and learn, I guess.

For food he requested: grilled Salmon with a dill sauce, fresh tomatoes, deviled eggs, giant pickles, raw green onions, fresh mushrooms, oven roasted potatoes and cheese biscuits.  For his cake - Shakes!

Happy Birthday to my Jayce!  You are one unique kid.  

-You love to read and are developing a fun sense of humor. 

-You love anything Greek or Egyptian.

-You are busy writing a book, or is it 5.  You are planning on being an author when you grow up.

-You have an awesome imagination and love to create whole new worlds in your head. 

-You like to draw, especially dragons and fighting scenes.  You plan to illustrate your novel.

-You occasionally refer to yourself as a "ginger", you are proud of your red hair.  You think you are more Irish than you are. 

-You excel at anything you decide to.  

-Your favorite food is seafood.

-You wish we could move to Idaho now.

-You want to do what is right, a great example to your brother and sisters.

-You are the best big brother and are such a great help to your Mom and Dad.  

You are one amazing person.  I know things are not always the way you want them to be, but life is still great and I love spending it with you.  We love you and are so proud of you.

Self-Soothing

 Getting ready to sleep.



Tennyson has a cute way of self-soothing.  She likes to put a finger in her belly button.  She usually does it when she is tired, stressed, or upset.  I think it is cute, well... who doesn't love a toddler tummy hanging out.  My only concern is that one day she will be 5 at school with her shirt pulled up.  We have started putting a onesie on her during her waking hours to see if we can limit it to sleeping.

Hanging out in the living room.

 Waiting for breakfast.

Urasoe City Park

Just before we left for The States we hunted down a really fun park.  It took us about a half hour to figure out which roads would get us over there.  Like we have said before, the parks here on Okinawa are the coolest.

Jayce and Grahm doing a little climbing.

Charlotte's style of climbing.

Huge, awesome roller slide.  These slides are lots of fun.  The friction though can burn your rear.

This is the first park we have been to that has a toddler sized roller slide.  Tennyson was really starting to enjoy it by the end.

This slide is really wide and not too long, so they can't really get hurt.  It was Tennyson's favorite.

Jason sliding on his feet to avoid a burnt bum.

He was catching up to Charlotte so he had to put the brakes on and almost went somersaulting.

This is a view of the climbing and slide area.

Everyone needs to come visit, just so they can go to a park.

Busy Body Bread

Tennyson is my busiest toddler.  If she can reach it she will have it and she will get it quick.

The blurry smile is evidence of how pleased she is with herself.

Busy in the States

We had a big bucket list of things to do and eat once we arrived back in the States.  Mostly eat.  We have Burger King on base and McDonald's off base, so we mostly wanted to avoid those.  I will have to say that most fast food was not as good as I remembered it being.  We ate at Wendy's, McDonald's, Arby's, Fiesta Ole (never disappoints), Cafe Rio (still yummy), In-N-Out (still great), Olive Garden, Johnny Carinos (Jayce's new favorite), Melina's, and many others I can't even remember.  The best was Barbacoa in Boise - the Hot Rock Fillet - soooo good.  We also had to get some Krispy Kreme doughnuts - so great (we even went out of our way to get to these).

We hung out with family and played lots.  Stayed up too late every night.

Jason and I looked at dental practices for our future.  Things are looking good.  We are excited and getting used to the ideas.  The trip was not long enough and we miss family and are excited to be back living closer.

Tennyson got to see horses for the first time and she is in love.

The horse went between Tennyson and Jason

She didn't even mind.

 Playing with cousins in Utah.

The next pictures I didn't want to use a flash - so I have crappy, blurry pictures.  Still lots of cute faces in them.

Funny things that happened: 

Tennyson's car seat broke while we were stopped at a rest stop.  Jason and I were getting frustrated trying to get it working again.  Jayce kept trying to help us out.  Finally out of frustration, Jason told him to go ahead and fix it.  Jayce immediately snapped it together.

Tennyson would not leave any potted plants alone.  My mom found her in the dirt.  Sat her on a chair while she cleaned up and as she was vacuuming the windowsill, she had to keep vacuuming up higher and higher on the blinds.  She was really throwing it.  I vacuumed at my sisters a few times, too.  Dirt is something new to her.

Tennyson refused to sleep in any form of a cage.  She now sleeps in big beds with her sister.

Sorry For the Disappearance

We had been planning a trip home to the States for awhile.  Then suddenly it was here and then due to unforseen scheduling it was time to leave early.  That is why I didn't get a chance to leave a note explaining my lack of blogging.  I know, they have internet in the States, but I was on vacation and for the most part unplugged.  It was so nice.

I will share the travel logistics to be sure we never forget and incase anyone in the military thinking about Space Available travel.  Space Available travel is super nice, it doesn't cost anything.  You get on a list and you wait for your turn to take a flight on what ever aircraft is going that has room for passengers.

We flew to the states on a C17.  They are big and very noisy.  Thy give you earplugs to wear, of course the kids don't want to wear them.  They have important things to do like play games and watch movies.  The nice thing about the flight was that Tennyson  could scream and nobody could hear her.  You only knew she was throwing a fit, if you looked at her.  This was a big stress reliever for me.  The C17 is a big aircraft that can hold 3 Blackhawk Helicopters in it.

 We should have brought blankets and pads to make the journey more comfy.

Getting to the States was a breeze.  1 try, direct flight, super easy.  Getting back to Okinawa was another story completely.  We decided for several reasons to try and get a flight back to Okinawa on another noisy aircraft.  Our first attempt - the flight was changed to a fly-over.  So we drove a few hours and visited more family for 2 days and then tried again.  This time the hotel near the airport had only one room left - with  one bed, Awesome.  The fire alarm went off in the middle of the night, even more Awesome.

We did get a flight that morning to Hawaii, about 10 hours on a KC135. I froze on the flight.  If you were warm, your feet were still ice.  Unfortunately our layover in Hawaii was only for over night.  We were supposed to leave the next morning for Guam and then onto Okinawa.  They had issues that they needed to fix so the delayed and delayed until they changed the flight to having only room for 3 passengers.  So we spent the entire day in the airport waiting to be told sorry.  Hawaii has a nice family lounge with an outdoor playground and movies and things to entertain.  The next attempt to leave to would be the next morning, so again no time to enjoy Hawaii.  We stayed that night in the airport.  They had 2 cribs, so we put Grahm and Charlotte in to sleep.  Tennyson slept in her car seat and the rest of us snoozed where we could.  We left that morning for an 11 hour flight on a KC135.  We were so glad to be home.  A KC135 is medivac plane and it also refuels other aircraft in the air.  Jason and Grahm checked out he refueling pod and Grahm was also a patient for a training exercise.

Yup - I have bangs... still trying to decide if I like them in the humidity.