The Kato-Jones Family

It's Time to Learn

2009-11-08T18:02:00.000-08:00

While driving in the car listening to music...
Katie: Daddy, I want to hear the song "It's time to Learn"
Aiki: It's time to learn? What song is that?
Katie: You know Daddy, "It's time to Learn"
Aiki, thinking real hard: Oh, you mean this song? starts singing "It's time we start to love.."
Katie: Yes! That song! It's time to learn!

October Pics

2009-11-06T22:51:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos from October of the kiddos. We've been doing good though we've had some sicknesses recently (pls continue to pray for Kimby's thrush and Kristy's canker sores to go away). Kristy is talking a whole lot more recently and Kate's been getting extra sneaky. Kimby's also growing up and gets bored often and needs lots of attention throughout the day. Christmas is coming up and Katie is looking forward to dancing with the older kids for the Christmas Performance this year (we'll see if she goes for it or not).

Kimby being a ballerinaCUTE!

Kristy doing 'nai nai, ba!'

Some face painting A.Jonah did.
And all 3 of them together...so sweet :)

the post that Alyx has been waiting for...

2009-10-12T01:53:00.000-07:00

I figured I should post this before it got too late and lost it's 'meaning'...
I just wanted to say a huge thank-you to Alyx, not only for coming the to the school and helping with the kids day and night for a real looong stretch of time, but mostly for helping me to keep my sanity during the craziness of FDTP. If you didn't come over to help, I think I would've 'lost it' and wouldn't have been able to make it through that time. I'm reeeally reeeally going to miss you and hope that we will be able to chat sometime when you get back and that we won't become strangers to each other...I LOVE YOU! And Aiki, Katie, Kristy, and Kimberly do too.

Wowie...

2009-10-06T00:49:00.000-07:00

...I haven't posted anything on this blog for over a month! September was crazily hectic with FDTP going on; not much time to breathe much less blog. I so wanted to keep on top of the laundry during Sept, however I failed in doing so and had Aiki do 6 large loads of laundry at the end of FDTP (poor guy). This was due in part to the fact that Kimberly has decided to be an 'emo' baby (as Aiki affectionately calls her) who screams whenever she gets offended, and screams for no apparent reason as well (which attracts puzzled and quizzical looks from everyone as they ask me "why is your baby screaming?" to which I reply "I have absolutely NO idea"..). Oh well! We've been happily having vacation (vacation=deep cleaning and organizing of room/closets), while our kids spent quality time with Aiki's parents (Matt/Praise=the best). My sister Alyx has been visiting from India as well, helping me with the kids during FDTP and helping me keep my sanity as well (Alyx=Godsent), Thanks Alyx! So here are some assorted pics from September;

Photos from August

2009-08-25T01:09:00.000-07:00

Some photos from the past month...
Kate is talking quite a bit now and gets into frequent discussions with Aiki and me, and is constantly correcting Kristy and Kimby (her favorites: "Kina, no eat with hand, eat with fork!" and "Kimby, no cry 'wolf wolf' okay?").
Kristy is getting to be quite a handful; she wakes up earlier than all of us and starts yelling "mama go! mama go!" while she frantically points at the door and then sounds out "bu!" while shoving her hands in her mouth, which is her way of saying 'breakfast'. She is quite loud and loves getting into trouble.
Kimby is getting older and coos and gurgles at you when you talk to her. She is quite the drooler, and is always shoving her hands in her mouth. Her hair was falling out quite a bit, so the other day I buzzed her head. Poor thing, she looks like a little sumo monk.
Anyways we had fun in August, it was a busy month (thus the lack of updates on this blog). Aiki's been totally engrossed in FDTP prep, and the 3 girls have been keeping me quite busy as well. Though, since we had friends over for vacation (theirs, not ours), we managed to squeeze in time for beach trips and late night hang-outs. Too bad we don't have any photos..dear sweet Jonah got into the habit of stealing our camera batteries (that, and the fact that our hands are pretty much always full with children, we never think to try and take a photo).
Oh well! Here are some photos from this month that we managed to take.

First off, here's some 'before and after' photos of Kimby. You can't really tell she has hair in the 'before' photos as the front part of her head is where her hair started falling off.
Before...

...and after

And for memories sake, I'm posting a photo of Katie when I buzzed her head..she was about 6 months old. See the resemblance?
Here's some photos of the festival. This is Kristy right before I'm about to feed her..
And this is how wide she opens her mouth for food..gosh I can almost see her tonsils.
The best family photo we were able to take. Kate was watching videos inside with Jerusha and her most favorite friends.
Here's Aiki..jumping in on someone else's photo, while holding our white bald babyAnd guess who was the poor person who had to sweat it out in the monstrous bear costume? hahaOn the way to the beach.. My sweet little girls..
Okayy so Kimby looks kind of funny. Its the only picture I have of all 3 of them.
And some random beach photos

From Aiki

2009-07-21T00:46:00.000-07:00

Well, not really from Aiki, but I figured he's gonna be too busy to post pics of what he's been up to, so I thought I would post them for him.
These first pics are from a beach event he went to last Sunday with Steve and a friend of ours. From what I can understand, these surfers come early in the morning, surf, then they clean the beach and get a free barbecue. Anyways, I didn't go, so I don't know too much of what happened, though it seemed to be pretty fun.
It seems there wasn't too many waves that morning, so they did a little sand boarding...
In this first pic, I think Aiki is laughing at the terribly funny way that Steve jumped on his board..

So Aiki decides to show him how its done

And Steve goes for it..
And Aiki moves the board away..haha
Poor Steve...

And here's a classic shot. Apparently, the guys had a little long jump competition going on, and I just had to post this pic of Steve going for it...epic...Surfer and ?...
Stever, teaching Aiki "how it's done"
And here's some photos of the JTB/FDTP team...
Hard at work...
The happy happy group

Recent

2009-07-21T00:12:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time...again. FDTP planning meetings are underway, and although Aiki is around (the meetings are being held here)...he's not really around, if you get what I mean. And all my kids are growing older. Katie is in the "wanting to do my own thing" stage and doesn't willingly obey anymore, and Kristy is just an all-round rascal going through the "no" stage. Whenever we are in the dining room she runs away and tries to get in the shower room, kitchen, or she will try and climb the stairs up to stage. Or, if she does stay in the dining room, she will, without fail, remove all the flowers from the vase on the low coffee table in the visitor area. Aaand, if I don't get to her soon enough, she will start eating them. So..yeah..pretty exciting. And Kimberly is getting older as well. Her fussy times are perfectly timed for nap time and night time (right after the kids go down, 9-12 at night woo-hoo!). So, no rest for the wicked...And Katie STILL isn't potty trained. If she is bored, sometimes she will ask to go on the potty and she usually pees, but she doesn't tell us on a regular basis...oh well, I guess she'll get it when she gets it. Aiki does this thing with Katie at night when he puts her on the potty; he pretends to make a cake with her and has a whole pretend eating party with her, naming all of her favorite foods and pretending to cook them and eat them. So, now, every time she goes on the potty before bed she'll do this whole "baking a purple hippo cake and putting it in the oven" thing..it's pretty funny. So, here are some fairly recent pics...Joan is so proud of them..haha

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHIG

2009-07-08T20:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to the best brother (sorry Gene…but it serves you right as you didn’t even remember my birthday). Sorry this is a day late--was gonna post it last night but our internet connection was down.

Thanks for always being someone who I could look up to and for being someone who I knew would always be there for me when I needed you. I can still remember running away from Gene (knowing that if he caught me he’d beat me up) and looking for you to protect me. Those were crazy times but it was great having my brother as my role model.

Anyway, enough with the sappy stuff…

Wishing you the best on your birthday, Shigs, and I hope you’re able to do all that you want to do this year. You need to bring Gene over here sometime during this summer and we'll have a BBQ at the beach.

Here are a few pics that I found in my photo folder. Enjoy! (You can get June to print and frame them on your wall, especially the second one!)

Thankfully something that I wasn't a part of

Definitely not how all Katos eat

This is the real Shigeru

Recent Pics

2009-06-25T23:17:00.000-07:00

Here are some recent photos of the kids taken this past month. They are all from random events..
First off, here's some photos of Kristy, who, as you can see, has gotten incredibly fat and chunky this past month. She loves eating, drinking, and getting attention. She always wants to do what her older sister is doing (though Katie doesn't exactly enjoy Kristy always following her around), and she loves to just look at her baby sister (whom she calls 'mama' and occasionally 'baba'). Both her and Katie are teething, so they are constantly drooling and they stick everything in their mouths (including toys, books, fingers, blankets, furniture, etc.) which has been stressful for me as its quite tiresome trying to keep them from doing so.

Here's 2 from a beach trip with Daddy. Katie got to ride on a boat (and wear a life jacket) though she wasn't too thrilled about it all. I think she was a bit apprehensive and scared about the whole thing.

Here's a couple of pics from Get-out time with Marie..

And lastly some photos of Kimberly at 2 weeks. She is still a very good baby; rarely cries, and sleeps real well at night. PTL! She is awfully funny looking; like a white gaijin ojiichan or something.

A late Happy Birthday to Aiki

2009-06-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

Happy Belated Birthday to my happy hunky husband!
I love you and I'm soo soo happy to be married to the most wonderful guy ever!
You are happy and handsome and an awesome husband and a super daddy to our kids!! Thanks for marrying me baby!! I looove youuu!!

New Baby

2009-06-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

Well, the baby is here after a relatively short and powerful entry into this world. Thanks for your prayers. Kimberly was born at 7:45 P.M after 4 hours (from the onset of the first regular contraction), though the real "fun" was only about 2 hours. There were no complcations and aside from slight tearing, I am recovering quite nicely (please keep me in your prayers). One happy fact is that our new one doesn`t seem to do too much aside from sleep. She didn`t even cry when she was born..and hardly ever cries now. Quite a far cry from our first 2 (who would scream their heads off every few hours and would want to nurse 24/7)..which is oh so nice, as I actually got to sleep a bit last night (in between the after contractions, of course). Anyways, here are some happy pictures.
The happy couple before... The happy mommy after (a couple seconds after delivery) with the calm purple newborn
Another, "right after" shot
The happy family with the new one (minus mommy, who was utterly exhausted and in bed)..
2 hours after delivery; oh so calm
Guess who`s hands?

For Aiki

2009-05-18T06:35:00.000-07:00

Well, while Aiki's away at driving school, I've been having a whole lot more extra quality bonding time with my 2 toddlers. A little too much time actually..so Auntie Joan comes and saves the day every once in awhile, coming up with new things to do. Here's some pics of Katie's fun dress-up afternoon. She was utterly thrilled with her "princess who found baby Moses" get-up. I think that wig is actually the same one that one of the bathing women in the Treasure Attic is wearing. Hope you like the photos, baby! We miss youuuuu!
Here's Kate, in her graduation outfit. She wasn't too happy about this one..kept saying "too big, too big"and her hat kept falling off.
And in her "heidi" costume. Her big eye expression reminds me of my sister Katrina..its soo cute. Her new "thing".

Aaand, her favorite; the princess outfit. What do you think of the afro-hair, honey? haha
Watching the Baby moses song from Treasure Attic intently, copying the princess' every move..
And here's some special photos just for Aiki of the 2 girls being all affectionate with one another..their facial expressions really show their personalities. Sometimes they are sooo cute together!
And no..I didn't do her hair...

There's that "big eyes" expression again.
Kristy's kissing face.
Hmm..don't know what face Katie is doing here

Driver's test and aikido

2009-05-09T06:09:00.000-07:00

On Friday I went to Tokyo to take my learner's (driver's) written test. I pretty much only studied the day before and when I took some practice tests (thanks for the tests, Aich) I got like 16 or 17 questions wrong! ha. So yeah, I wasn't too confident in myself. Thankfully the next day I had some time once I got to the place so I took some more practice tests and got only a few questions wrong. I figured I'd be able to pass so I was a little disappointed when the test results showed that I got 7 wrong (you can only get 5 wrong out of 50). For all of you in Japan that haven't taken your karimen written test, you can expect questions like this to come up: You should must slowing down near bend, but this is unnecessary if visibility is good (taken from the practice test).
Some of the translations were nuts and I couldn't quite get what they were trying to say...which could be why I ended up flunking. But it seems like quite a few others have had difficulty with passing the first time around. Anyway, I'll be going back to Tokyo on Tuesday to see if I have any better luck deciphering Japlish(please keep it in your prayers).
Besides my learner's test, I had an aikido performance today. Thankfully I was only suffering pain for around 20 minutes sitting Japanese style on the wooden floor (not something that I would recommend to anyone). Here are a few pics of it (and in case you're wondering, I'm not actually a black belt. My "sensei" just wanted me to wear the "hakama [skirt]" for the performance). Joan took the photos...thanks Joan. At least one of them turned out alright.
"Rei" (Japanese for "bow")

Me about to experience some pain

Pain...

More pain...

Even more pain...

And of course I just have to be thrown at the end of it all

A small chance for revenge

Busy, busy, bbbbusy

2009-05-02T06:24:00.000-07:00

Well, things have been incredibly hectic recently. There`s so much to do, think about, and plan that I`m going nuts. I`m not too into posting personal plans and schedules on the internet, but suffice it to say that the rest of this year include happy things such as; Teen camps (meaning absent husband for some time, his mind and spirit absent during the time his body isn`t), New baby (Meaning prep for new baby; thankfully, most of that is done. Baby has a place to sleep, clothes to wear, bottles to drink, and toys to play with. This also means long sleepless nights filled with nursing, less time for anything and everything else, and a whole lots more laundry), Driving School (More absent husband, more research, prep, money...), Legal work(Many trips to different places, lots of phone calls, lots of forms, and of course, more money), Obtaining new, needed gismos and gadgets (a.k.a keitai, mp4 player, laptop, etc. and so forth which equates research, collecting...money, and spending needed time to personally familiarize ourselves with said gadgets. Can somebody puulease talk to Aiki about not spending half his life on his laptop and keitai???). Wow...that was a lot of personal info.
And all that to say this is on top of our regular ministries, all our home`s regular events and going ons, plus new home happenings, of course.
PLUS, our kiddos have been going through a time of crisis in their little lives recently. Kristy`s going through the "second-child-starved-for-input-and-attention" syndrome, which means she is stuck onto me like glue, wants to be read to, played with, and talked to every moment and second of the day. Katie`s going through the common syndrome of "terrible-twos" which has gotten pretty terrible recently with her "nos" getting more and more frequent, not to mention her incessant whining.
AAAnyways, all that to say, we are a happy and busy bunch; and to prove it, here`s some family day photos from our very first visit to the beach this year. It`s still a bit cold to swim, but we had plenty of fun playing in the sand, sitting in the sun, and drinking juice. We brought dear Auntie Jonah along, who we sent chasing after our parasol twice when the wind blew it away (in the end, we decided that parasols are a bad idea at a windy beach), thanks Joan! (hmm..there`s no pics of you for some reason..).
Here are the yummola pancakes super daddy Aiki made for our breakfast...they tasted a lot better than they look..really.Kate`s official new smile
And Kristy just being Kristy..
These girls ate a lot of pancakes..
Daddy and Kate..

Here`s Kristy who spent most, if not all, of her time trying to fill this bucket with sand using her hand. She would grab a handful of sand, pick it up, the wind would blow all but a few grains out of her hand, and she would place those few grains in the bucket. She had tonz of fun with this...
Here`s Kate, helping her out with her shovel.
And Aiki, digging a hole while trying to get a tan on his midsection at the same time (haha)
And PTL I`m officially huuuge..
It may look like I am abusing Aiki, but don`t be fooled. If you only knew what he just said...

Joan's Arrival and Noda Party

2009-04-23T21:15:00.000-07:00

Here's some photos from when we went to pick A.Joan up from the airport. As you can see, Katie liked Joan right away...and now she likes her even more cause she does fun things that Mommy doesn't do with her (like skits for word time). Kristy on the other hand never really took to Joan. She doesn't like Joan's loud screaming and foolishness, plus she always takes her away from Mommy which makes things even worse. Oh well, Joan, hopefully with time she will warm up to you..haha

With Grandpa and Grandma at the airport
Hmmm....weirdo..
yeeaahhh..don't kiss me please
mommy...help!
Here's some photos of the Birthday Party we went to at Noda a few weeks back. As you can see Katie is really into her "friends" particularly Ryo and Ray. They came to visit for a week or so, and she was a bucket of tears when they left. These 2 are sooo cute together!

Here's a pic of the birthday kiddos from Kari's blog. As you can see, Katie loooves attention! And of course, cake.

Hanatsumi and Hanamis

2009-04-07T02:25:00.000-07:00

Here`s a couple of recent photos from some happy spring events.
These first 2 are of Katie when I took the 2 girls flower picking in one of our friend`s garden. Kristy sat in her stroller picking flowers apart the whole time, while Katie plucked purple flowers from their buds and tenderly placed them in the basket. Every once in awhile she would come over with a yellow flower, insisting it was a "tanpopo". It was a very nice, albeit tiring experience (I had a hard time keeping my eye on her as she would get "lost" in the rows of flowers).
Here`s some pics from our impromptu hanami party last rest day. It was cold, and the food and drink ran out awful fast, but it was fun nonetheless. Thanks to Stemmie boy for making it happen (and to Marie and Miki for the guacamole).
All of us (minus Aiki) under the treeee
Aaand another one (this time, w/out Joshie)
AHHH! Even I`m frightened by this photo...
I`m posting this one so you can see our snackies...
Ahhh..let brotherly/sisterly love continue..haha
Cute Nozo and her beer
Stem and his salami
And woah! I don`t know what`s happening with Steve`s face (or should I say eyes) here..
These ones are from Family day; we decided to have our own hanami since it was such a beeautiful day..
Mommy and Kate
Daddy and Kristy
YO!
And lastly, here`s us, taking a photo of ourselves as our children pull up weeds and eat grass..haha, such negligent parents.

Happy HAPPY Birthday Kate and Kristy

2009-04-02T01:48:00.001-07:00

Well, our dear daughters turned 1 and 2 on the 29th and the 3rd. We had a simple little birthday party for 'em both and I made 'em happy little animal cakes. Katie was thrilled with the purple hippo cake, but Kristy couldn't have cared less about her cake. She was too busy eying and eating the strawberries. Katie was sooo happy about it all and that night in her sleep she sang happy birthday to herself, it was sooo cute! The next day she pointed to the dining room and asked for "more hippo cake", haha. The actual date we did the party was Kristy's birthday, so everyone was saying happy birthday to Kristy that day and the whole home sung happy birthday to Kristy and Katie was all upset about it all, saying "NO, no! Happy birthday KATIE, no Kristina!"
So, here's some photos from that as well as some other recent photos of the girlies.

These first pictures are of Kate modeling her new shirt from her great-grandparents... Check out her belly!! hahaHere's Katie..trying to copy the pose that Daddy is doing in the back (imagine Aiki sticking his hips to one side, snicker)
Now trying desperately to smile with her eyes open and her mouth closed..don't mind the diaper...
Tada! Got the smile and the pose! (Notice that she is still looking intently to the side of me; still trying her best to copy Aiki)
Here's a random photo Aiki took one morning. I think he wanted to get Kristy's hairdo on record (serious mohawk going on)
These next ones are of the girls modeling their new shirts from one of our neighbors.

Here's Kristy with a mouthful of cake ( I dunno how apetizing that orange food coloring was..)
Here's Katie successfully blowing some bubbles. Most of the time she was sucking in..I think she ended up drinking quite a bit actually..
Here's Kristy's cake..I guess its missing a mouth huh?
And here's Katie's. This one is missing its tail..
A very enthused Katie..
And a very "who cares" Kristy
Trying desperately to get a strawberry...most toddlers would be smart enough to use their hands to get one in their mouth..but not Kristy, apparently.
In other great, surprising, world-changing news; we're having a girl, in case you didn't know already...and she shall be called Kimberly...
Anyone have any ideas for a Japanese name?

Photos from here and there...

2009-03-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

Here's some photos from recent random happenings...
The first ones are from one of Aiki's friend's wedding we went to at this gorgeous park in Shinjuku...

And here's the first course of our meal at a super tiny super ritzy Chinese restaurant. I had a real hard time eating the food...as you can see there's some jelly fish, a brown boiled egg and a snail looking thing. The beef sashimi was the only thing I ate from this plate. They also served a sweet and sour with salmon and paprikas (that combination was a bit too much for me), a shark soup which was real thick and that tasted like the ocean, a mabodofu which contained some kind of incredibly strong spice that I couldn't handle, and a large fish meatball in fishy soup. Yeeaahh..like I said, a bit weird for the stomach..
And here's Kristy looking all cute in her stroller

The whole lot of us...
My mommy and a frumpy Kristy
Aiki, doing the honors of holding the thingie that they sign in the end..
Kristy looks awful funny, doesn't she? I really wonder when that hair is coming down...
And the ultra "kakoi" Aiki...

Here's Kate, listening to some music..

These 2 are from when we went out to Coco's for Praise's birthday..yeeaahh, ok Aiki..

Katie being all cute
These are from the ED seminar...

Another Random Update

2009-03-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

Well, we were away for a week attending the ED seminar which was full of great material. The schedule was a bit hectic, especially when dragging 2 kiddos and stuff back and forth through long hallways. The schedule was a bit tight as well..we had to wake the kids up in the morning and from nap extra early to make it for breakfast and the afternoon meetings. I didn't know the kids could survive on such little sleep. Poor Kristy suffered for it though, she is so miserably sick right now. Kate had a ton of fun though, soo excited to to see "friends" and especially baby "Nona". Though she's been a bit insecure since being back, a lot fussier in general and always crying for"mamma".
Nyways, I'm determined to potty train her before the next baby is born...I have no idea what I am doing. I've never potty trained a kid before, or even helped my mom potty train any of my brothers and sisters for that matter. Any revelations or input on potty training is appreciated.
My mummy is visiting Japan from Mexico which has been fun. She hasn't been around long enough to nag me about stuff too much, so that's a big plus (haha). She'll be back here in a few days and stay till she leaves Japan.
...And then Joanie's moving here on the 7th of April, so we've got lots of work for her to do over here (heyyy Joan, wanna change a poopy diaper?) .
Oh yeah! and my other sister had her birthday on the 3rd! Well happy happy birthday Ang. Sorry so late! Oh well, you got to meet Mamma and Peter and had a crazy vacation at some ritzy hotel and everything, so I figure you're pretty happy bout that. Gosh..20...weird. Well love you, and come visit Joan and I sometime and we can have a happy happy reunion.
And here's some pics from here and there. Some are from the ED seminar, though we didn't take too many there..if anyone has pics of us from the seminar, pls send em..thanks!!

Us with Mike and Joanie. (what are you doing Mike?)
Me and my mumsy
Me and my red husband (that 1 whole can of beer.heeehee)
Us and Steve and Crystal (Gosh babe you r really pink aren't you?)
My proud husband
Us again..hmmm..and there's happy Jeremy with his broken finger in the background
My tweet naked one...
Mmmm..yum yum, nothing like bath water

Is it just me, or do my kids look nothing alike?
Awww

Family Day Photos

2009-02-22T21:28:00.001-08:00

Here are some photos from last family day. There was some kind of event at this rest stop thingie place...They had this ultra-mini locomotive which Katie just loved (which Aiki and I barely fit on).

Feast Celebration Pics

2009-02-20T06:08:00.000-08:00

We had an awesome dress up thingie for our Feast Celebration...probably one of the best dress-ups we've had here. Everyone was really creative and came up with some cool costumes. The theme was "couples" as you can obviously see. We had prizes for the 3 "best" couples (exemption from "all hands on deck" dishes that night) with Aiki, Yuka, and Miki being the judges (they organized the whole ending celebration thingie). I'm sure it was pretty exciting with each "couple" doing a little presentation for everyone...I could hear everyone laughing and clapping from the kitchen. The food was great...all my favorite things (which is why I chose to have them on the menu..haha). Big hand to Shun, Nao, and Nozo who did the lion's share of the work as opposed to me trying to be a help waddling around our massive slippery kitchen (why am I so big at 5 1/2 months???). Anyways, enjoy the photos. I hope no one here minds that I'm posting them..well, if any of you see your photo here and don't want it up, just let me know and I'll take it down.
-The 3 "winners":
Jeremy and Steve as John Smith and Kokoum (and Nozo as Pocahontas...they asked her to join to make their team a bit more "complete"...)

John and Okasan as Teru teru bozus (hmm..is that how you would write it?)
James and Josh as Brian and Cormac (James' costumes was pretty awesome..you can't really see the whole thing in this photo)
-The next 3 were my favorites (though I think Steve's team was probably the best...)
Marie and Tabitha as Kuzco and Pacha from "Emperor's New Groove"

Kazu and Aika as the Apostle Peter and the "Holy spirit"...As you can see, in one photo Peter is praying for the spirit and in the other photo the "spirit" descends upon him.

Taka and Kastuya as Horace and Jasper from "101 Dalmations"

Mary and Jan as Watcher and Haven
Matt and Stacie as God and the Holy Spirit
Shinji and praise as an antichrist soldier and Heaven's Girl
These 2 "couples" (Maria, Emi, Meg, and Sophie) teamed up to be Cinderella, and the wicked step-mother and sisters. Poor Katie really wanted that purple shoe and kept trying to get it while they were trying to do their presentation...
Nao and Hiromi as a Chef and "food"
Yuki and Yuka as Pinnochio and Fairy
Jerusha and Ken as Napoleon's Wife and Napoleon
Otosan and Phoenix (puurrrty!!) as Jesus and His bride
Elia and Miki as a frog and a princess
And lastly..Aiki and Georgi as Black and White. Poor Katie was horribly frightened of "papa" in his get-up. She was pretty scared of James as Brian too..Actually tonight she was freaking out crying during bed-time because of the "scary people" as she calls them. I've never seen her so scared...I'm praying this fear doesn't last.
And some photos of the FOOOD! Chocolate cakes I made...this one looks a bit "diseased"...haha. As you can tell I'm not too into decorating...

Shun made the sandwiches (which is why they look so nice...) and pasta, Nao was the champion "fryer" with the fries and kara age (AND..the coffee jello), Nozo made that awesome looking bread, and I did the cake, salad, and h'oderves and chips (like I said...the sissy work)

Pics from Okasan's Birthday Party

2009-02-20T05:35:00.000-08:00

Okasan had her birthday on the 17th of this month, so we had a little celebration for her. It was simple but very sweet...GB Otosan and Okasan. Here's a few photos from the event...

The matcha cake I made. It was very...green. Too bad I didn't take a photo of it cut so you could really see how green this cake was...
Sweetie Kristy falling asleep during the singing
She's sooooo cute!
Some photos of us...

Marie and Otosan (Hope you don't mind Marie.. :)
THE band...
Katie dancing in her dress that's a tad bit too tight (more like way too tight...)
Katie dancing and singing "zensekai ii wo" for Okasan

Me and Okasan..
Aiki doing some sort of something for Okasan...
Aiki serving...

Treasure the Treasurers

2009-02-15T00:51:00.000-08:00

Here`s some pics from last night..
We had our "Treasure the Treasurers" event; a little late, I know, but it kept getting post poned for different reasons, and we figured better late than never. It was great. Hiromi and Kazu cooked for us and we all ate at Lydia`s. The food was soooo good, thanks you guys!! We were served dish after dish and drink after drink, and after all that there was done and eaten a huge cake and tons of ice-cream was served. Big thanks to Hiromi, Kazu, Josh, Steve, Stacie, Phoenix, and John for cooking, setting-up, serving, cleaning up, and for the music. Also, big thanks to Kazu for watching our kids so we could eat in peace :).
The incredibly massive ice-cream that was served Our entertainment for the night
The equally massive cake we were served as well

Here`s a slightly red Aiki and a "can`t tell whether she`s pregnant or just fat" me
Check out Stem`s eyeballs in the back...haha
One of the many dishes we were served
One half of the room
And the other half... (minus Aiki)
One of our handsome waiters
Here`s Shun, entertaining the women...

Happy Birthday Mummy!!

2009-02-13T07:22:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Mommy!! I love you and am looking forward to seeing you in March..wish you could bring Elena...sniff. I am praying that your new year is extra special and that you get to do tons and tons for Jesus. Thanks for being the best mumsy ever!

Update

2009-01-29T22:24:00.000-08:00

Howdy! Well, seeing as we haven't posted anything new for awhile and different stuffs have been happening, I thought I'd give a little update and, of course, post a few photos. Here's a few things that have been happening/have happened.

*Kristy is crawling! A miracle in itself, she is actually crawling properly, with both legs bent and everything! We thought it would never happen...
*Our home has the flu. Yup, we finally caught it. We thought we had it contained in one of our outer houses, but it has made its way, slowly but surely, into our very hallway. Please please pray our kiddos don't get it!!!
*My sweet sweet sister turned 18 yesterday, which is very weird for me as in my mind, she's still a little teenager. HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOAN! May your 18th year be the ultimate year of fun, fulfillment, challenges, and MATURE boys..haha. ILY!
*My sweet sweet sister is also MOVING here! Yay!
*Aiki has been growing his hair out...this may not seem like anything important, but to me it is. I think he looks awfully funny, and if you see him, please tell him that he looks funny and that he should cut his hair. Thank you.
*Katie has been growing up real fast..She's learning lots and is getting cuter by the day. She now knows her colors, almost all her shapes, her numbers until 10, most of her body parts, most people's names in the home, her baby quotes, and can now read the word Meg (from her Meg and Tommy books)!. She loves her bible and life with grandpa books, videos, the color purple, hippos, getting her ears cleaned, coloring, songs, Grandpa and Grandma, and, of course, eating.
*Kristy is getting bigger and awfully cute as well as you can see. Her hair looks a bit funny, but I think it adds to her looks as she is quite a rascal. She is quite adept at finding tiny, itsy, bitsy pieces of garbage, crumbs, hair, etc. on the floor and putting them in her mouth. She isn't into eating too much or vidoes like Katie was (still is), though she has been showing an interest in Cherub Wings recently. She can say hi and bye and kudasai and folds her hands to pray. She can also say mamma and dada though I doubt she knows what it means."Bite, please.." Doing her most favorite thing; eating.
The many faces of Kristy

Check out my Einstien hair...haha.