The Kato-Jones Family

Bye bye blog

2011-05-02T01:37:00.000-07:00

I will most likely stop posting on this blog, since the photos were mainly for family and now most my family is on facebook, so I'll post the pics of the girlies there. I may start posting again, if we get a new camera or I get super excited about taking lots of photos of the girls. But for now, I'm gonna stop. I started a Tumblr blog, but dunno if I want to give the URL right now.

Birthday Party!!

2011-04-07T22:59:00.000-07:00

We had planned to go visit Ray and Ryo's house for their birthday, but Kate came down with a fever. We are going this weekend, but didn't wait to celebrate their birthday. Kate asked for a purple hippo again, and Kina was stuck on a care bear until the day before, when she switched to a pig...I really have no idea why.

Here's Kate, with her grown-up smileAnd Kristy with her biggest put-on smile
Kina's cake...don't mind the freaky nostrils
And Kate's
With her friend, Theo..
Awww...sooo sweet :)
And this one is sooo cute..talking up a storm...she loves attention and cuddles and is still very much my baby
She looks like a creepy obachan

Trip down south

2011-03-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

Some pics from our trip down South. We stayed at Aiki's aunt's house, which was a traditional Japanese house with tatami mats and sliding glass doors (the biggest hazard in my opinion, the 2 youngest caught their fingers in those doors at least twice a day), but other than broken reading glasses, and a bit of color pencil on the floor, we didn't do too much damage, TG. We saw all Aiki's relatives, including his mom's twin (Kimby called her Grandma), and they loved all the girls and fed them candy all day. The girls got to go to a whole bunch of parks, including one with a turf mountain that you can slide down with sleds, as well as an amusement park and an aquarium. They had a ton of fun and were relatively good on the 11 hour ride home.

Sushi!! Kate loooves sushi, and ate a whole ton of shrimp, which I suppose she liked because of the tail. Kina preferred to just eat the rice and ate a whole bowl of eda mame.
Kate the first go on the carousel
Timbs looved the amusement park, she was so intense and serious about the whole experience, and she still talks about it now.
Finally got her to smile
Second round, they went on this ride 3 times. Kate realized there was a mirror in the middle and kept smiling at herself and fixing her hair...ha! She always asked me to put a 'brad' in her hair. Such a princess.

Kimbs rode these animals 4 times. The girls also got to ride on a train, a ferris wheel, cars, and a bicycle that circled the park from up high.
Awww..the girls looked soo cute in the bathtub together

Kate's sucha poser...her and Kimbs loved this, Kristy was just freaked out
And a few of Timbs

Happy Birthday Kristina!

2011-03-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

Kina Beans turned 3 yesterday! I will do a post with the few pictures I took on my itouch from our trip down South soon, but for now here is a photo of Kina with her ice-cream sundae ("My birthday is on Sunday!!").

Recent

2011-01-12T22:17:00.000-08:00

Some photos I just got from mom of the girlies during Christmas. It was great fun opening presents this year as all 3 girls were very excited and couldn't wait for "Santa to come bring us presents". Katie asked every day if it was Christmas yet, and both the girls put out cookies and milk for Santa.

Our humble Christmas tree in our room Mom with her present.
And me opening mine..
Kimbs loved her piano
And Aiki with the awesome bag I got him (don't ask me why he is half naked)
Kina's first opened present, thus the "I'm still sleeping look". By the end they were all wide awake and were disappointed when the present opening ended
Kate, with her precious "stroller for my babies". This was the hottest item this year, with all the kids (including the boys) loving it.

Kimbins with her doll..aww look at her happy face :)
Kina, with her "sleeping while walking, blue care bear" and her dora pjs from Auntie Alyx
Kimbs with all her goodies
And her standing in front of the big tree...
Cakes that mom and I worked all day to make
And a shot of the food
Kimbins with her cake that she ate in literally 3 bites
Eating ribs!
The girls loved it!

and a shot of my strange children with their grandma
Opening otoshidama. Mom made them open it..
They were pretty disappointed, "What is this anyway Mom?"

Christmas Present

2011-01-11T04:30:00.001-08:00

Photos from my awesome Christmas Present..thanks babe! :)

First ones are ones that Kate took. Every quiet time she wants to play with my itouch and take photos of random things. I have to sort through a million photos every day AND recharge my itouch.

Kristy taking a napOne she took of Aiki
Trying to take a photo of her self
One she took of me
We went to a park while on a shopping trip to Chiba...I used to play at this park when I was a kid. The kids absolutely loved it and ask every day if they can go back there.
What a cutie
My mumsy is leaving tomorrow...nice Mom
Aiki and I, trying out matching jackets at Doki Doki. You can't really tell in this pic, I took a better one, but accidentally deleted it :(

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T04:40:00.001-08:00

A couple more pics from us at Christmas. We ushered in the New Year nursing sick kids. Kimbs is the last of our kiddos to come down with the chicken pox. She was running a 40 degree fever and had a 3 minute seizure that gave us quite a scare, so we took her to the hospital for a check-up just to make sure everything was ok, tho' since it was night time all the clinics in the area were closed so we drove to a hospital over an hour away. Our other 2 kids also came down with colds, so they were up a lot at night as well...sooo, that's how we spent our New Years :) But, thankfully, Kimby is a lot better now, no fever and is eating and drinking like she was never sick, tho' her rash is still making her uncomfortable. Anyways after all the above was over, Aiki came down with the cold as well and I have a headache from all the drama, keeping my fingers crossed that the rest of the New Year will not continue as it started. Hope everyone else had a better New Year's then we did.

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Sam for taking the pics! :)

Christmas Shows and Chicken Pox

2010-12-19T21:23:00.000-08:00

We are just getting over the chicken pox. Kristy had a really light case, wasn't much of anything, but Katie had a day or 2 where all she did was cry, poor baby had huge sores on her body :(. But now she is doing better, and the spots are all scabbed over, so that is a relief.

Here's a pic I took of Kate and Aiki...they both sleep with their mouths open
Kate--getting over the chicken pox
Here's some of the shows that the girls did before they came down with chicken pox

This is their ending pose..I love how the older kids are doing it exactly right, while Kayden poses right in front of all of them and Kristy ends facing the back
So sweet!

Old Pics

2010-12-11T00:34:00.000-08:00

No new photos to post yet, though there should be some soon. The 2 older girlies have been doing a few "shows", singing and dancing at different places, but I haven't gotten any photos from them yet. But I figured I should update this with something as I haven't posted anything in awhile. I tried uploading the cutest video of Kimbers, talking up a storm, but our internet is too slow, so I'm going to have to stick with photos. Most of these pics were taken in November.

On one of our trips to Nambo Paradise..I loove Kimby's face!
Kate was pretty thrilled to hold the guinea pig..until it started moving

Kristy trying to give an angry face

She looks like a little boy in this pic
And the 3 girls in their new sweaters from their great-grandparents..their favorite "Dora"
Yeeeah..not such a good photo of them
And Taiki and Kimbins

Girlies...and Aiki

2010-11-11T18:17:00.000-08:00

Some pictures of the girlies from the past couple of months from Jan's camera. They are just too cute, especially Kimbins with all her different facial expressions. She is talking so much now and says a new word almost every day.

Here's Aiki with a massive fish he caught with his spearAnd a funny picture of Kate
Kate's "class"..I love the expressions on their faces..haha
Kate with her racket
She's such a girlie girl
And Kristy--our brown ethnic child (she's still this brown btw)

Sucha cutie
And Kimbins

Her "class"--sucha cute sad face
adorable

And with Taiki bean...CUTE! Reminds me of Kate and Ryo when they were this age
Heh
Come this way!
And with her cute bunny ears

Saying a serious prayer

Good-Bye Joan!!

2010-10-04T22:40:00.000-07:00

Well A.Joan left us yesterday, and she STILL hasn't made it to El Paso yet (boy, will she be tired when she arrives!). We went out to eat with her for one last time and we took the kiddos to a real park while Joan took some last pictures of the girlies with her super camera. We will miss her (and her camera).Kimbins, waiting for her food
The girls loved the slide..especially this girl

Kimbers, crawling around

And a grumpy Aiki :)

Beach Trip

2010-09-15T20:16:00.000-07:00

Pictures from, possibly one of our last beach trips this year. It was great weather, but the water was pretty murky and it wasn't until we started swimming that we noticed the swarms of jelly fish. So, yeah, this trip didn't last long. But we had fun sitting by the water and eating lunch anyways.

Katester, giving her best smile to Georgi
Joan taught her to do the peace sign

Georgi got stung everywhere, poor guy.

It's empty mom!

Check out Kimbs cellulite

Cutie!

Summer Photos

2010-09-05T21:52:00.001-07:00

Mostly of beach related activities (barbecues, etc.). This is what we've been doing for the past month and a half! Well..along with work and school of course :) It's been too hot to do much else other than go to the beach or take the kids to the kiddy pool. We've been having a lot of fun and tho' we had a week or so with little coughs and colds, we've been basically happy and healthy. Kate got a bad cut on her knee a week or 2 ago and then it got infected and spread, so now her knee is covered in band aids, but she's been pretty brave about it all, and only freaks out when her band aids start to fall off (she starts whimpering and telling me that she can't walk anymore..haha). Kimbs is starting to talk and Kristy and Katie are growing up as well.

Kina beans at the beach. We were having barbeque in the evening at a little beach house.Katester--wandering around
All the grown-ups were drinking beer after beer and the only 'juice' they had was cola and this vitamin drink.
Getting dark--Aiki feeding the kids yakisoba
The girlies checking out Lils tongue pierce at another barbeque we had
Kate points at it with her stick
and Kina gets a closer look
My fat Kimbers
Haha..sorry Aiki, she isn't catching your enthusiasm
More food!
Kimbers--exploring
Kate--drawing??
With A.Joan

Kina beans and I
Sooo cuuute!
My 3 girlies :)
KIMBERS!!!! AHHH!

Joan's kissing pictures

And Kimby's faces

Lounging in HER couch..she doesn't let anyone else sit in this..

Summer Festival!!

2010-08-28T02:55:00.000-07:00

Kimbs; greedily eying the yakisobaYum!
Shun's artistic picture of Kimbers
Kate--who was pretty grumpy over the fact that everyone was trying to take her picture (can you tell that I put make-up on her?)
Eating kakipeas
Kate--waiting to perform
Kina beans
Whatta cute costume!!
Onamae wa nandesuka? Kina: Hawaii desu Nansai desu ka? Kina: Hawaii desu Dokokara kimashita? Kina: Hula desu.
Kate did the jikoshyokai all right
Singing and dancing with all their hearts
Such little performers

The end

Family Photo

2010-08-24T05:28:00.000-07:00

We are alive! We've been busy with barbecues and beach trips and fun and festivals. I've had my hands full with the kids, so all the pics were taken by lots of other people, but that means that I have none to post. The only one I have now is this most recent family photo from our yearly Summer Festival. I'll try and collect all the others from everyone and post a whole lot more later.

We have...

2010-07-20T20:17:00.001-07:00

...Hand-foot-and-mouth disease! Thankfully the kids seem pretty happy and genki aside from the blisters on their hands and feet. Keeping our fingers crossed that it doesn't spread like wildfire to the other 40 people tho' :). Here's a couple more pics from Seaworld as well as from a beach trip we took a little bit before. We are sweating it out in this humid, hot weather, but the kids seem pretty happy all things considered.

Beach trip!Barbecuing sausages
Trying to feed all 3 girls at once
Kimbs, who sucked on this chicken bone for a good 15 mins

Very happy to be in the water
She enjoyed it soo much!
Showing Kimbers the octopus
And the sea turtle, which she was a bit afraid of

Sea World and Suika wari

2010-07-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

Took a trip to Sea World a few days ago, didn't take too many pics, but here are a few that I managed to take.
Kina beans and the sea turtle
Kina beans and the Mambo (Kate and Kina were very disappointed that there wasn't a manatee at sea world)

Having a ride on Thomas

Kissing the stone Walrus

Suika wari!
Even Kimbs gave it a try
But Kina ate most of it..

Outdoor Fun

2010-07-03T06:09:00.000-07:00

Kimbers, playing in the gym

Kate on her favorite swing made by Aiki ("Mom, this is my favorite picture of me")

And Kina beans, playing in our "pool". It's a inflatable raft that we stuck a kiddy slide into.
Unfortunately, my girls are too scared to go down the slide and all Kina does in this pool is play with her watering can..
But, it's great, as it's finally too hot to do anything else outside, at least in the morning and noon time..

Here's what it looks like..pretty nifty, eh?

Nambo Paradise --wonderful pictures by wonderful joan

2010-07-01T02:31:00.000-07:00

Pics from our Nambo Paradise trip we took awhile back.

Kate--ecstatic at being able to hold a guinea pig (she later freaked when it started wiggling around)Kimbs--who enjoyed all the animals just as much as the other girl, tho' she looks pretty glum here..
Kina beans holding the feeder to feed the birds, Kate wasn't brave enough to try this..
Doing it by herself--it was all well and good till I realized that these birds pees and poop and you too..
Auntie Joan making Kina do strange things..
Making her take pics with the plants
This is moments before that ice-cream melted and got everywhere..

Me, Kimbers, and one giant turtle..

Aiki's Birthday

2010-06-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

Aiki had his birthday on the 17th of this month--we had a little dinner together that I made, which was nice, as we got to eat and relax without our 3 children to tend to :)
Some of the food I made..(or cut..haha)

Then, the day after we took the whole family out to eat..
Joan and Kate, waiting for a table..
My 2 girls and I, all looking a tad bit odd
Kimbs..checking out the menu
Kina beans doing the same
Kimbs, eating a lemon, or at least trying to
Happy 22nd baby!! Thanks for being a great husband and dad to our girls. Love ya!

Kimb's Birthday

2010-06-15T05:17:00.000-07:00

Kimbs had her birthday on the 7th of June, and we had a little 'party' for her. We had some cake and strawberries and sang to her and got her a little present. She loved every minute of it--clapping for her song, gurgling excitedly and giving little 'oh!'s and 'wow!'s at the sight of her cake and present. She is definitely the most expressive of our 3, as when the other 2 had their first birthday they didn't seem to notice anything special for them was going on. I taught Kimbs to put her hands to her chest for 'me', so when I asked her who's birthday it was she put her hands to her chest to say 'me', it was soo cute! haha. She really shoved a ton of cake and strawberries into her mouth, which was surprising as she isn't so into food, she really enjoyed the cake. We had a photo disaster, where our camera's batteries ran out, then Joan brought her camera but she had no space on her SD card, so we borrowed Joanie's camera, but their batteries were out too! Anyways, we got a couple of pics before the batteries ran out and before we ran out of space on Joan's SD card. Happy first birthday Kimbers!!

Beach, Kids and Mom's Visit

2010-06-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

Some pics from May...

Kate in her new bathing suit, wearing her sunglasses...Eating sausages--barbecue at the beach

Kina beans--taking it easy (as usual) at the beach
Kina in her bikini and sunglasses

My happy Kimbers
She spent the entire time at the beach either sleeping or playing with this pole...
She was so pleased
This is the face she makes when you tell her to smile at the camera..

Boo!
Aiki and I at the beach..
Some pics from mom's visit..

Aaand a few more...

2010-05-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

Last few pics from the ones that Mas took...

Wedding Pics 2.

2010-05-28T01:08:00.000-07:00

Throwing the bouquetAnother pic of Kina beans :)
Walking to the dining room in the rain, getting helped by a crowd of people..
Kampai

Clapping for something...
Cutting the cake (gosh, that table was kind of low, wasn't it?)

Gene giving some random speech..
My mom giving an even more random speech
My mom and I

The beeeautiful bridesmaids in the dresses I made them wear :)
Us and my family
aaand with Aiki's family
Group shot..whatta nice turnout! :)
And a couple of different pics that Sam took..

Thanks everyone once again for all your help!!

Wedding Pics 1.

2010-05-26T22:36:00.000-07:00

First batch of wedding pics that I've gathered so far from a number of people's cameras (the nice ones Ry took)..
I'm not the most photogenic person in the world, plus, during the ceremony my face was twitching, hence there's not too many photos, and I may look slightly odd in most of them :). Oh well! The wedding went by pretty smoothly all things considering, and I am so so glad it's over and done with. Thanks to everyone for helping, we wouldn't have been able to pull it off on our own.

Where we were planning on having the ceremony held..sniff, this was our rehearsal.Where we ended up having it, not too bad, but the red carpet did blind my eyes a bit
Rings..
The dining room where we had the reception
Some of the food
Walking to Bldg A in the rain..

Our officiant
The groom waiting
Mas and Lils
Mike and Joan
Kina beans, the cutest flower girl ever..(there wasn't any photos of Kate..she was a bit behind Kristy)
Shigs and Jan
Matt and I
Couldn't quite get the hang of kicking my dress so I wouldn't trip, so I carried it instead..
In front of the altar
See..here is where I'm trying to keep my face from twitching..
..thus the glum look..
The kiss
"furawa shawa"

It is finished..

2010-05-24T01:37:00.000-07:00

Our wedding is finally over!!! Halleluiah!
Will post more pics once I get em...

Cocos and teeth brushing

2010-04-17T01:33:00.000-07:00

We had some of Aiki's relatives over for a visit from Australia so we went out to eat at, where else, Cocos. We got there around the girls' nap time, so they were quite tired and were being extra foolish. It turned out to be quite entertaining as we watched the girls get really tired and really foolish. Here's some of the pics Joan took while we were there;

My sweet Kimbs..
Saying 'hi'..
Kina, eating her sausage...
Drinking her fifth cup of juice..
Bored of eating and drinking..decides to color..
Bored of coloring..."Look Moms!"
Kate, trying out a mini squid
Joan captured her ecstatic face when she realized the squid was, in fact, purple...
Kate and her massive parfait..
My loves...awwww..
"Daddy, how about you eat some of Mommy's or Kristy's now?"
And some of Kristy getting her teeth brushed. Her face is just sooo cute every time I brush her teeth so I asked Joan to take some pics...
Just look at that face!
Wayyy too cute!!
Showing off her new pink piggy slippers
Very happy to be the center of attention..

Drawing

2010-04-12T22:57:00.000-07:00

My girls love drawing/painting/coloring. They use whatever they can get their hands on; pencils, pens, crayons, markers, chalk, etc.

This little girl is getting quite good at it...Her favorite thing to draw is faces...
She just recently started adding bodies to her faces, and the other day she drew a hippo too (didn't take a pic though...)
Kina can draw for almost 30 mins at a time..

Though most of what she draws isn't recognizable as anything...
...to her it means something and always describes exactly what it is she is drawing.
Apparently, this girl loves to draw as well! Either side of the pencil works fine for her, and she switches back and forth...
It's soo cute the way she tries to draw...
...though you really have to watch her as she still does things like this...
... and this
Such a cutie.

Kina beans

2010-04-09T21:35:00.000-07:00

Her 'f's are 'p's;
"I eat all my pruit!"
"OH, special snack por me? Por Kina? Por myself? OH, Thank you!"
"Owww, my peet is owie, my peet!"
"I'm a little bit too poolish, moms, just a little bit too poolish".

Her recent stage;
Me: Kina, can you come here, it's time to go potty.
Kristy: No moms, I can't. I can't go pee. I said...I CAN'T!

(Kristy walking down the hall, walks past Shun who is eating a bowl of rice, stops and holds 1 finger up):
"Shun, can I have a bite, just one bite, only one bite."

(Every night I ask Kristy and Katie who will get ready for bed first, and they always say the other girl's name, though in the end I always have Kristy get ready for bed first as she doesn't really care too much, she just likes to bother Katie by saying Katie's name. So I thought that it wasn't too fair for Kristy so the other night I told them to decide together who would go first.)

Me: You both stand right there in that corner and you can't play until you decide together who is going to get ready for bed first. So look at each other and talk about it.
(Kristy walks up to Katie until their bodies are nearly touching and looks up into her face...I try not to laugh.)
Katie: Kristy, can you go first?
Kristy: No!...Katie, can you go first?
Katie: No!
Me: You guys need to talk about it. Katie, why don't you offer Kristy something or do something for her so that she will go first.
Katie: Kristy, do you want to sleep with my purple bear? If you go first, you can sleep with my purple bear, ok?
Kristy: No! (Katie starts whimpering)
Me: Ok guys, you are just going to have to figure it out. Just talk to each other.
Katie: Kristy, I said I can do something for you.
Kina: (shaking her finger at Katie) I said I'm trying to talk to you Katie. Mommy said talk to you. (haha, obviously she has no idea what I am trying to get them to do).
(Katie goes up to Kristy and starts whispering in her ear. Kristy smiles and walks up to me.)
Me: Kristy are you going to go first?
Kristy: NO!
Katie: (throwing her arms up in the air and sighing loudly) KRISTYYYY! I told you to answer her! You were supposed to answer mommy!!!

It was soo cute! In the end, Katie realized that she couldn't leave her corner until someone went first and Kristy did not really understand what was going on, and she went first.

Dress-up

2010-03-28T05:50:00.000-07:00

I had a long and rather uneventful day with the 2 older girls, so when Joan asked if I had a dress for Kimbs to wear for a photo shoot, I pulled our the other 2 girls' dresses as well. And, in the end, I pulled out their bathing suits as well. Aren't they sooo cute???

From Kimbs' "photoshoot" with A.Joan..
Wearing a ridiculous cap...

Cutie!
Look how excited she is

Awww..look at that face!!
Princess
The girls in their dresses
She looks like a little model :)

She look soo funny here..
Kate--trying to copy my pose...she was pretty good at it

Trip to Uno/Kids' Birthday Party

2010-03-17T20:05:00.001-07:00

We took a 1 day trip to visit Sam and Leika's kids for the girls' birthdays. It was a bit early to be celebrating their birthdays, but it seemed to be the best time to go visit, so we did! All of us had a lot of fun and it was a nice change to go into the city after being out in the middle of nowhere for so long (speaking entirely for myself on this point)! It wasn't as exhausting as I was expecting it to be--probably partly because I'm not pregnant this year (after 3 pregnancies in a row), and partly because the people we visited were very wonderful in that they gave us a nice room to stay in, cooked for us and pretty much cleaned up after us (thank you Dawn!). Kate and Kimbs were soo excited the whole time they were there, while Kristy didn't seem to realize anything was new or different and was pretty content to sit next to mommy and talk and read books and eat snacks. It was a great trip and we are hoping to go visit again sometime soon :).

Pancakes for breakfast!Kimb's first love. You should've seen Kimbs the first time she saw Taiki--she started freaking out screaming and clapping 'kudasai' and trying to grab him and touch him, it was soo cute!

Went to play and have a picnic at a REAL park!

Kate was scared of the slide

Playing games with daddy :)
Party Time! Leika dressed the girls up in this majorly frilly dresses, and they got to try out a trampoline.

So sweet!

The cakes

Check out the masterpiece by Marie!
All of the happy kids
Ooohing and aaahing over the cake

Blowing out the candles.
Awww..and look at that..soo cute!

Recents

2010-03-09T17:36:00.001-08:00

Kate--after she got her hair straightened by "Auntie Joan"Kate's work of art..
Another of our walks--Kina running, albeit slowly, up the hill
The moon was sooo big and orange! You can't really tell in this pic...but it was awesome :)

Cocos--for Praise's birthday

That's how she ate her ice-cream...
And my little naked Kimbs

She's got so much character, this one...
Just look at that face...

A walk in the woods..and a few other pics

2010-02-28T20:37:00.000-08:00

For family day, we decided to take a long walk around this area. Anyone who has lived here before will probably recognize the places these pics were taken.

Before starting out on our trek through the woodsSo sweet :)

Kristy--checking out the moon

Aiki--taking a little time on the swing

Kimbs, in her dog suit

The bridge!

A a few random shots of Kimbs

And Kina--doing a little activity

Kate-ster

2010-02-25T18:55:00.000-08:00

A few recents of Katie and what she's been up to recently.

One of her most favorite things to do recently is play with this piano. On occasion, she'll tell me to "stand over there and dance" while she plays the keyboard (by playing the 'demo', speeding up the tempo and pretending to play). She insists she is part of Kando Bando.
Another favorite--playing with purple sand, this time she played with this stuff for about an hour. And even then she cried when I told her it was time to clean up.

Face painting with Marie--what else but a purple hippo.

Awhile back we went to Dino park together. Kate and Kristy were totally scared of both dinosaurs and Kristy never got over her and sat by herself in the gazebo quite a ways away. Katie was fine on this dinosaur (not the other one though--which does look a bit scarier), as long as Aiki or I was with her.

Happy Family Birthday!!

2010-02-19T19:42:00.000-08:00

Pics from our Family birthday celebration. We had a barbeque, played some games, and had a costume party.
I had a fever the day before so I didn't make it to the outside games part--but here's some pics of the rest.

Barbeque--our over eager cook.

Kate couldn't wait and started eating from Aiki's plate when I wasn't looking.
Kimbs, eating the only thing without taste-white rice.
..which she soon got bored of..
Kristy--only interested in the juice
Kimbs--full and satisfied..CUUUTE!
Joan and a rather tired me
People

Costume Party--Snowman, 2 Heidis, 1 Peter, and 1 spotted sheep :)
Doesn't Kristy make the cutest Peter?
And some other costumes--Yoda
Jimi Hendrix
Pirates
Jack-in-the-Box
Mulan
God
Michael Jackson
And some more of us--cause Kristy is too cute in boys clothes :)

Kate and Kristy were pretty terrified of Aiki--he had to take the wig and beard off pretty much right away.

Can you guess what the theme was? There were some other crazy costumes which I'm not posting--I would probably guess Halloween if I didn't know what the theme was :)

Kimberlina-7 1/2 months

2010-01-24T16:59:00.000-08:00

Soooo cuuute!!

Hurrah!!

2010-01-17T22:21:00.000-08:00

This little munchkin...
Got her first 2 teeth in!!

Can you see them?

Hurrah for Kimby!!

Zoo Extra: The Capybara

2010-01-11T03:01:00.000-08:00

In one section of the zoo, there is this place you can walk in where they have ducks and these large rat like creatures called capybaras. These guys were everywhere in the zoo, in random cages with llamas and donkeys and other animals. In this particular pen, you could walk in and pet them...here's shots of the girls and their reactions to the large rat-like creature.

First, here's Kimby..
Eyeing the creature..

She actually touched it in the end...ewww!
Kristy was the most afraid of all 3 of them..
Check out her face!!

She refused to touch it, look at how clenched her fist is...

Now Katie...first she was ok to touch the 'thing' with her fingertip...literally..
It was all good..
Until the thing turned around to face her
THEN she freaked out...

Zou no Kuni!

2010-01-10T02:12:00.000-08:00

One day out of 5 for me with the children all day loong (like a REAL mom, haha!), the funnest and probably the most exhausting (left home at 9:45, came home at 7:15). The girls loved it though, so I did too. I think this is a great place for kids to go; not too crowded and you really get to get up close and personal with the animals, as you'll see in the photos, which is great fun for the kids (not so fun for the grown ups, who aren't too into smelly creatures). Thanks Tabitha, Aika, and Yuki for letting us go a long with you and for helping us out with the girls, tanoshikatta!
The lion..I don't think I've ever been so close to a lion in my life...
The zebra..check out its eye. Only one eye was like this..maybe it was blind in one eye(?). Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool..
Kate feeding the rabbits. It was a big trial for Aiki to take the 2 older girls in the pen to feed the rabbits while I nursed Kimby, as the rabbit weren't exactly the nicest smelling animals in the zoo.

Kate, slightly hesitant of getting too close to the camel..
Tabitha, encouraging her to get closer so daddy could get a photo of her with the camel.
"It's too scary!"
"Daijyobu da yo Katie"
There!
Then, the camel nudged Katie with an open mouth and his tongue hanging out, to which Katie promptly screamed and ran away and Aiki snapped this pic before wiping the camel saliva off her jacket..haha..
Kate's favorite thing at the zoo after the elephants and the hippo (and the ducks, of all things), was this statue of a zebra. So we dragged Kristy in with us and took a ton of photos...

A post for Kina

2010-01-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

I always post a ton of photos of Kate, as she is simply easier to take photos of as she is more cooperative. Kristy, on the other hand, is a complete and utter nightmare to try and take photos of. She moves wayy to much and rarely, if ever smiles with her head turned towards the camera. SO! I was very happy when I found these shots of Kristy on our camera. I think Jan snapped these while having a little 'Kristy' time in their room (Thanks Jan!). I love these pics cause they reeeally show Kristy's personality (at least I think they do anyway). Enjoy!

MORE Christmas pics!

2010-01-05T23:31:00.000-08:00

Aaand, here's one more batch of Christmas photos that I've gathered from different people's cameras. First off, is our try at a Family photo during our home's Christmas dinner..as you can see, we failed again...oh well! Can't say we didn't try! :)

Take 1...Kristy is looking away, Katie is looking down..

Hmm..Kimby looks squashed
Uhh.Kimby is looking down, Katie is trying to make life difficult for us, Kristy thinks it's funny and we are trying our darnest to not laugh at our ridiculous attempt at taking a decent family photo.
Not bad..though Kimby still looks squashed and Kristy is looking afar off

AAaand this is the best one of them all, though Kristy's face really ruins it all. We'll ask Joan to photo shop another pic of her face in and see if that'll work.
Here's Kate, lighting her candle for a Christmas Eve 'service' type thing we did

here's a few shots from our annual Christmas Party for our friends

Kate; waiting in the dressing room for a show at another Old Folks' Home
Aiki, Kate, and one of our friends
Doing the dance once more!
Kate, bringing a birthday cake to one of our friends whose birthday is on the 25th

The girlies and daddy in the middle of opening Christmas presents in their PJs after our Cmas dinner. Ever been in a room where 50 plus people are opening their Christmas presents all at the same time? I love it! It's utterly fun chaos..
Aiki, being a waiter
Kimby being santa

The kids in front of the tree..check out Kate's smile..looks just like my mom!! haha

And some MATCHA CAKE!! Promptly got sick in bed right after making 80 servings of these...don't mind the gigantic holes in the side of the cake, why you times a recipe by too many , THAT's what happens! Just didn't want to make so many batches as I was being laaazy! Baking was a total disaster this year :(, this was one of many fails..

And lastly, a suuuper cuuute photo of Kristy taken by Mike...awwww

Christmas Pics!

2009-12-20T07:11:00.000-08:00

Some pics from recent 'happenings', mostly from the 'shows' Kate has been involved in (our home's Christmas Parties, rogin-homu, etc.). Also a try at taking a family photo, as well as pics of our ginormous Christmas tree and our awesome manger scene, which you can't completely see, but at least the star made it in the photo!

Katie and an ojichanKate and the kids pretending to be bunnies
"Kato Ayumi Katie desu, nisai desu"
Kate performing for our Christmas Party, she's sooo happy to get to do this!

Obviously a fail for a family photo..but can it get any better than this? We'll try again sometime...

Girlies

2009-12-05T23:13:00.000-08:00

New pics of the kiddos. Aren't they adorable? The first 2 are from a family day outing; we went to an autumn matsuri and the trees were just gorgeous. Next are some random shots of Kimberly (try and not notice the massive amounts of drool), and the last ones are from Katie's first show that she did. She enjoyed dancing with the older kids immensely and was very pleased with her tree 'crown' that she got to wear. Enjoy the pics!

November Pics

2009-11-28T00:09:00.000-08:00

Here's some more recent pics of the kiddos. They are all getting so big! Kristina is definitely the chubbiest and eats the most of the three (as you can tell). Katie has recently been complaining about having 'growing pains' at night (or so we've deduced), Aiki and I both suffered from growing pains at night for most of our childhood and we know how painful it is, so please pray that Katie doesn't have to go through it for long! Kimby refuses to drink from a bottle, so it looks like she will be our longest nursing baby! She walks very well in the walker, eats bananas and apples (dislikes yogurt greatly), and is getting slightly attached to mama. Kristy is talking up a storm and is going through her 'no' stage, while Katie is learning lots and likes to please mommy and daddy as much as possible.

Me and Kristy, after a Birthday party..wouldn't Kristy make such a cute ballerina!?!?
And here's Kimby looking like a tired granmother..haha

And here's the 3 girls in their matching sweaters...awww :)

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