Happy 2014

The little kids and I just got home from a New Years party that wrapped up at 9, for those who prefer to be fast asleep at midnight. Danielle is getting to the age where she prefers to stay up until midnight, yuck! Luckily she is at a combined youth party for the youth in our ward, and even luckier for me, Dan has just been called as young men's president so he is there with her. Ha, I'm going to bed!

And Just Cause Avie Looks Good in a Mustache...

Not sure what look she was going for here.

That must be the same face daddy has when he grows a (crooked) mustache!

Kanji Apples

We bought these apples at a local farmer's market. We refer to it as the strawberry market because they have greenhouses full of strawberries and at certain times of the day you can pay to go in and eat all you can for 30 minutes (still haven't done that yet).

I guess they put some sort of film on the apple to keep the sunlight from turning the skin red and voila you get a kanji symbol on the skin...not sure what these say, but the kids thought they were pretty cool.

Santa Came

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Happy Christmas Eve

It's 8:30 Christmas Eve and these turkeys are showing no sign of slowing down.

We fed the missionaries tonight and the spirit was strong in our home. The missionaries talked about the gifts we can give to the Savior, namely serving his children. I'm grateful for opportunities to serve! There really are opportunities every day, it's a matter of listening to the promptings we feel and acting.

Now I have to get these kids in bed so Santa can come.

Med Group Masquerade

One thing I didn't expect living on an Air Force Base is how much there is always going on. There are so many things to do and events and Christmas is even more so. December has been so busy with events and parties that dare I say, I'm almost burned out, and that's saying a lot. We still have a couple more parties before the year is through but the most recent was the Med Group Masquerade ball.

Some of the dental squadron.

Dressing Dr. Rickheim up like a Christmas tree.

There was a lovely dinner, and some games...maybe too many games, and some great raffle prizes. It was a fun night, now onto the next.

Weasel's Den

Welcome to the Weasel's Den. It's an old airplane hangar converted to the delight of children and adults alike with playgrounds, video games, mini golf, batting cages, and on and on.

I'm sure we will be frequent visitors this winter, especially this month because the video games are free for the month of December.

Rayce is especially happy about this.

Christmas Program

Danielle had a really cute Christmas program last week. The third and sixth grade put on a great show with singing, dancing, and a very moving violin solo of "Silent Night", performed by a sixth grade student I know very well!

I have to admit, I was so nervous for Danielle doing her violin solo that I sat there like an idiot with my camera in my lap and my hands clenched together and didn't take a single picture of it! I know! She did wonderfully!

Mrs. Bullard's sixth grade

12!!!

Danielle turned 12 on Thursday! My oldest is growing before my eyes by leaps and bounds and the young lady she is becoming has far exceeded any expectations we had of her.

I don't know what my problem is, but throwing birthday parties is not my favorite so I tried to bribe this one out of birthday party just as I did last week with Rayce, and again it didn't work. But Danielle is pretty low maintenance, all she really wanted to do was take a bunch of friends to Shimoda Mall.

Dan came with me and we braved the mall with 6 pre-teen girls.

It wasn't bad at all, the girls went their own way and Dan and I went ours. They went in search of jewelry, and other typical girlie things, and Dan and I went for food of course!

Dan ordering lunch from a place called "Pepper Lunch".

It's hard to believe this is mall food-court food. The meat cooks on the hot skillet, it's delicious.

Lots of choices for soft serve and tapioca ball drinks.

The girls fared great, they know enough Japanese to make their purchases. Danielle got a cute panda blanket and Jewelry. We are so grateful for this girl, Happy Birthday Danielle!!!

Impromptu

Here's a few pictures from Rayce's birthday party at the base bowling alley.

I thought I had him bribed out of a birthday party with 50 dollars, but he decided last minute he would rather have a party then 50 gifts from the 100 yen store!

Avie wanted to do everything by herself, hmmm, maybe it's because she always has two siblings trying to do everything for her.

A Little Stir Crazy

Man, it's been a busy couple of weeks with birthday parties and Dental Squadron events and just the bustle of the holiday season. I start getting a little antsy to get off base and explore. I knew we wouldn't be able to go anywhere on Saturday so I took the kids Thursday for a short little outing to Shimoda park.

Every year about this time migrating swans from Siberia make a stop here in Japan and you can find many at swan park.

Well, we must have been too late, there was one swan.

He was a lovely swan and very eager for the kids' bread, and luckily the rest of the park is pretty cool. I think we were all glad to get off base for a bit.

The lookout tower was closed so we couldn't make the trek up, but it was still a great view.