Christmas 2008

Tatum enjoying the mini golf set she and Tayson received.  She's enjoying taking it apart.

Lovin' her new shades

We can't quite decide what happened with our trampoline.  The elves were setting it up and it decided to bow up like a pringle (they were pretty sure they followed the instructions exactly).  They tried to fix it and here are the results.  Two bent bars(maybe Santa tried to jump on it).   They were probably pretty tired by 2:30 AM to take it down.  Needless to say, we had to take it down and we're going to get replacement parts.  We really hope it was not operator error and we don't have to pay for the parts.

Tayson got two really cool hero posters.  This one is the army of Helaman and the other is Samuel the Lamanite on the city wall with arrows flying at him.  They are awesome.  We're really excited to hang them up.

Tayson got me this really cute heart necklace and earrings.  He says it's because he loves me.  How sweet.  I love my robe too.  I think I'm going to wear it everyday.  Jay says it looks flattering on me too, a definite plus.

Jay got a bunch of clothes and some really nice shoes that he absolutely loves.  He bought himself a couple of toys the beginning of the month so that's why he doesn't have any here.

Tayson got a couple of Batman lego sets and he loves them.

Tayson was way too excited opening this Indiana Jones legos, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Temple set.  This is what he asked Santa for and he was very specific.  He and Jay set up the 929 piece set and he has been playing with it constantly.  It has a lot of moving parts and he watched the movie and moved the parts that matched while it was playing.  

This is on Christmas Eve.  Tayson, as Joseph, and Jordyn, as Mary, did such a great job.  They look so sweet looking at their new baby Jesus.

This is Jaylee as the angel.  She was the only one with lines and she did an excellent job.

This is a video of Tatum opening her baby doll.  I'm sorry it's so dark.  She is so excited.  I don't think you can see her shaking.  She loves baby dolls.  What a girl.

We had such a great Christmas this year.  It was wonderful to have Jay home with us.  Christmas Eve we invited our friends Brian and Cassie Layton over with their girls, Jordyn, Jaylee and Jara.  The kids acted out the Christmas story while we read it from the scriptures.  On Christmas morning the kids woke up at around 8:30.  Hooray!!!  I know we appreciated that.  We a had a great time opening gifts and putting together lego sets.  At 3:00 we went over to our friend's house, The Stokes Family, and had a great dinner.  We then shot each other with nerf guns and rocked out on rockband.   

Roaring 20's Christmas Party

Jay's work had a Christmas party on the 23rd.  It was roaring 20's theme.  I think we did pretty good coming up with our costumes.  I was able to find Jay a machine gun and a grey and black polka dot tie at the dollar store and borrowed a trench-coat.  He looked good.  During the party Jay was voted to dress up in a flapper dress and do the Charleston for us.  He did the best.  I was able to put together my skirt with a scarf from the dollar store (100 yen store).  My jewelry was from there too and my friend, Allison, and I used tree beads for necklaces. We were very creative.  It was a great party with lots of laughs.

Abby & Jason Izor (she took our family pictures)

Rick and Kim Narvaez

Rick Narvaez and Chris Cismowski 

Jay (in flapper dress) and me

Allison Cismowski and me.  I did our hair and I think it turned out pretty cute.

Kristin Hansen, Will Young, and Abby Izor 

Jay and me

Allison and Chris Cismowski

Cleaning up

Today I asked Tayson to help me clean up his toys in the living room and he could watch Spiderman while he did it.  His response was, "It would really help my anger if you just did it".  What do you say to that? There is an upside, we are trying to work on using our words instead of freaking out.  So, he didn't freak out and that's good.

Tagged

I see I got tagged, thank you Shannon :) Here goes...

Where is your cell phone? Still at the store.  I don't have one, but I might be getting one next year for emergency only.  The minutes cost waaaaaaayyyyyy too much here.  Like 150 anytime for $50.  Crazy right?

Where is your significant other? San Diego I believe.  They are flying a patient back to the states for better emergency care.

Your hair color? I just changed it yesterday.  Light Brown with blonde highlights.  I did it myself, so there's a few mistakes.  But who can beat $8?

Your Mother? Full of fun.  Silly as can be.

Your Father? Wise

Your favorite thing? My Family

Your dream last night? I have physo dreams, so it wouldn't make sense any way

Your dream/goal? To be a good Mom and Wife. Draw a picture of Christ to hang in the Conference Building (I know reaching for the stars)

The room your in? The living room/dining room

Your hobby? I have too many hobbies.  It's hard to decide because I love trying new things.

Your fear? having my children choose wrong paths

Where do you want to be in 6 years? Europe would be a fun place to live.

Where were you last night? At home. Nowhere exciting.

What you're not ? finished with Christmas gifts.  My kitchen table looks like Santa's workshop.

One of your wish-list items? Some LDS movies to watch on Sundays

Where you grew up? Pleasant Grove

The last thing you did? Put a new post on my blog

What are you wearing? white capris, black short sleeve shirt and striped tank over top

Your T.V.? Thankfully off.  It's on way too much when Jay's around (sorry Jay)

Your pet? None here.  Too hard to move around with and get babysitters for when we want to leave for a month.

Your computer? Mac.  Still lovin' it after 3 years

Your mood? Tired, I should probably head to bed.  

Missing someone? My family and friends back in the states

Your car? I have 4. 2006 Malibu (back in Utah) sadly still making payments.  But it will be there for us when we head back that way.  '67 VW street buggy (also back in Utah).  So many good memories with that car.  Jay owned it when we started dating.  '95 Prairie Joy van(I know, cute name) Japanese companies name their cars some pretty crazy stuff. And last, '96 Cefiro car.  Way too many cars to worry about.  I kind of wish we could bring our van and car back with us.  Would be kind of weird though since the steering wheel is on the other side.

Something you're not wearing? PJs.  I should be

Favorite store? I miss Michaels or Hobby Lobby or any big craft store.  I seriously can't find much to work with here without going a million stores and having to settle.

Your summer? It was great!!!  We took a nice month long vacation to visit family in California and Utah and friends in Hawaii.

Love someone? In love with my husband, love my children and many others

Your favorite color? green.  Tayson said I had to have one, so I decided this one because it's universal.  I like green clothes, furniture, paint etc......

When was the last time you laughed? Today, when Tayson told me some funny stories he had made up about me and my friend Colette when we were kids.  It involved boogers and monkeys throwing poop at us.  He is so 5.

Last time you cried? I can't remember

Now I tag: Anyone who wants to do it.

Shisa Dog T-shirt

A friend of mine, Lisa McKee, asked me to draw a shisa dog for the cub scouts' t-shirts.  She bought me one and brought it over a couple of days ago.  I was so excited with how it turned out I thought I'd share.  A friend of Lisa's cleaned up the edges and did the coloring on her photoshop program (which helped a lot).

Front of shirt

Back of shirt

Thanksgiving

A friend of mine decided to put on her blog what she is thankful for and it made me think of what I'm thankful for.

I'm thankful to have a husband that works really hard and loves to be funny

I'm thankful for a son who loves to cuddle, is really witty and treats his sister like an angel

I'm thankful for a daughter who loves to smile and brightens my day

I'm thankful to have such a big family that includes so many personalities and talents.  I love them all.  They bring great joy in my life and the more the merrier.  Currently 4 sisters, 3 brothers, 10 sisters-in-law, 8 brothers-in-law, 18 nieces, 18 nephews, 3 great nephews and 2 great nieces. 

I'm thankful to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and to know that: Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live, that Jesus Christ died for our sins and we can repent and return to live with him again, that The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ,  Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and restored the gospel and that there is life after death

I'm thankful for wonderful friends who are great examples to me and love to have fun

I'm thankful for this beautiful world and having the opportunity to see new places

I'm thankful for parents and in-laws that have strived to live the gospel and have been great examples to us of the blessings that living righteously can bring

I'm thankful for the talents I've been given and to be able to share them

I'm thankful to be an American citizen and the freedoms we enjoy

I have so much to be thankful for.  I am thankful for my life. 

Tayson's Tooth

All I want for Christmas is my 1 front tooth 

(soon to be 2 the one next to it is loose as well)

Tayson lost his first tooth yesterday.  I cannot believe it!

Is he really that old?  He was a little bit scared, but when

all was said and done he thought he was pretty cool and took 

his tooth outside to show all his friends.

The Tooth Fairy came last night and Tayson is anxious to 

lose some more teeth.

Kindergarten Pictures

Tayson just got his school pictures back and he is such a handsome little man.  He's definitely going through the "I don't remember how to smile" phase, but I love it anyway.  A friend of mine added her school picture too and I thought it was great.  So I'm sharing our kindergarten pictures as well.  Hope you enjoy!

Jay is such a cutie.  He looks so innocent and sweet (what a great actor).  Just kidding.  I know he was quite the handful though.  

I'm obviously having hair issues.  My mom always liked to tease our hair huge and then shape it.  I guess I must have not rebelled yet against the big hair.  That was probably the next year.

Forest Adventure

Last Friday, Jay and I were lucky enough to be able to help out with Youth Conference.  We went with the kids to Forest Adventure and it was a blast.  It's a park were you do zip lines and obstacle courses, stuff like that.  This video is of Jay doing the Tarzan jump.  We both really had fun doing this one.  I didn't post the videos of me because I just look like a big dork.  We were able to go through it twice too and all the kids were jealous.  They had a rule about 1 adult per 2 kids.  One of the greatest things about this place is they don't have the restrictions like in the states.  There are no nets and at one point you are 60 feet above the ground, so there is a little more excitement and thrill to it all, but don't worry they take every precaution to keep us safe.  Thanks to Candace for watching our kids and letting us go have some crazy fun.  I am all bruised up but it was worth it.  

Halloween

We had a great Halloween.  I dressed up as a witch because I couldn't pass up that sweet broom that only cost 200 yen (about $2).  Jay made a perfect "Ugly Step Sister".  I thoroughly enjoy doing his makeup any chance I get.  We couldn't find a wig because Halloween isn't celebrated in Japan, so we were kind of limited since we procrastinated.  The mop head worked quite well though.   Tatum made a cute little kitten.  She was so afraid of Jay.  She cried so hard that there was no sound coming out just the breaths in between.  So in this picture she still trying to warm up to the idea.  Tayson wanted to be Indiana Jones and we got creative.  He had an old cowboy had that was red and we spray painted it brown.  Then we got some rope off-base and for some reason we couldn't find brown, so we spray painted it too.  He had some old church clothes we were going to take to the thrift store and just decided to spray paint some dirt on those too.I think I was looking for any opportunity to spray paint something.  The last touch was his bag (he said he needed one) from the 100 yen store (dollar store).  I think we did pretty good.  We had such a great time at our branch trunk-r-treat and Jay and I decorated the back of our van.  We made it spooky and played scary sounds.  I really like to make things scary.  I think I enjoy seeing kids get scared or something.  That's kind of sick, I know.  On Halloween, Jay stayed home with Tatum and our friend Chris, while Tayson, Allison (Chris's wife) and I went Trick-or-treating.  It was a lot of fun and Tayson enjoyed seeing all the scary people dressed-up.  A lot different from last year.  Tayson has been so great to share all his chocolate and other candies with us.   

2008 Family Pics-photos by Abby Izor

We had our family pictures taken at Maeda Point, a great scuba and snorkeling bay.  Abby Izor did a great job and we love our pictures.  We were so glad she captured how beautiful the island is and I love the interactive photos.  Sorry the slideshow doesn't quite do the pictures justice.

Okinawan Memory Quilt

A bunch of my friends got together to work on a memory quilt project.  We each picked a subject and we would create 20 of the same square then swap with the 19 other women.  The squares turned out wonderful and I'm excited to put my quilt together.  Here is a picture of us and all the fun squares that the ladies did.  I tried to type info on each square, but I was having issues with the pictures shifting and disappearing and it was driving me mad, so no descriptions.  I made the red geta shoes the kind that are worn with a kimono.   Hope you like them.