Thanksgiving

We had Truman and his dad (in the red shirt) over for Thanksgiving and Andy invited some of the young single guys he works with. It was a nice Thanksgiving and we had NO leftovers! The younger guys sure have appetites!


Here are Ethan and Truman breaking the wishbone. Notice Ethan wishing....







Truman won and Ethan was upset...go figure!

Japanese Kids!!

Andy signed us up to have some local Japanese kids stay at our house for 24 hours. They live on a tiny island just off of Okinawa and their English teacher arranged to have the kids in his class come and see how Americans live and to work on their English skills. One thing to note: Japanese kids are usually quite shy, but man, that is an understatement when it came to our kids, they were beyond shy...Kouji (the boy with the flannel) was very apprehensive about everything, but Yuuma was a bit more easygoing and kind of took the lead. Everything that Yuuma did, Kouji would too. Andy made his yummy bbq teriyaki chicken for dinner and we had roasted potatoes and baked beans. Yuuma ate everything and didn't seem to mind it, but poor poor Kouji. He was gagging it down. I had my Japanese friend Rumi tell them that if they didn't like the food they didn't have to eat it, but in their culture they would never do something to offend you, even if you told them that it was okay. So, both boys cleaned their plates. I can just imagine what they told their families when they got home! After gagging down dinner we had them play a little Wii. We have the Japanese one so they could at least understand that! By the way, they spoke NO English. They did say thank you (very very quietly), but that's about all the english that was spoken.




After the Wii we broke out Guitar Hero. They seemed to like it, but again, they were really shy about it. Ethan brought out the board games and they really liked Operation Hulk and Perfection. After Ethan had gone to bed, we kind of ran out of things to do. We watched t.v. for awhile and both Andy and I were tired. Japanese kids go to bed really late, but by 10:30 we told them goodnight and went to bed. In the morning we noticed that they had come prepared with books and flashlights. I guess someone must have given them the heads up!

In the morning Andy and Ethan took them to the flight line to look at jets and planes and then they came home and played a little baseball. It was cute, Yuuma brought his mitt with him!




While Yuuma and Andy played baseball Kouji and Ethan explored......


We took them out to lunch and then came back to the house. We went over to our neighbor's house and found out that they had never jumped on a trampoline before. It took quite a bit of coaxing to get them to get on it, but they had a blast! Well, Yuuma had a blast, Kouji was hanging on to the net for dear life the whole time! Ethan also introduced them to the art of having Nerf gun wars. It was the 3 boys against Andy and they loved it. When we had a little down time Ethan broke out the scrapbooks and went to town! He was like "this is me, and here I am again and oh, here I am ....etc. etc. The poor kids were bored beyond belief! It was funny to watch. I finally had to tell Ethan that it was time to put them away. Our time with the kids was fun,but also trying. We tried not to let them just sit here and get bored, but the language barrier was rough. All in all it was a great experience for everyone. We took the kids back and got to meet their parents which was really fun. After we said our goodbyes and got into our car, Ethan started bawling. He has such a tender heart. He was really really sad to see them go. When we got home I printed out a picture of the kids for him and he carried it everywhere with him and even took it to bed. Sweet boy. Oh, they gave us a thank-you gift and inside it they gave us homemade Okinawian doughnuts, oragami books and paper, pineapple marshmallows (SO GOOD), some ginger chip things, and a bag of dried squid! We have tried all but the squid...I just can't bring myself to try it. Any dibs?!

Lainey and her walker...

Lainey LOVES this walker! She practices all day long on it. Since this clip was taken she has learned how to turn it too!




Here she is smiling big because she knows she isn't supposed to play with the computer stuff :).

Feeling much better!

Hey guys! Thanks for all the comments and emails about lainey bug. I am feeling much better about it. She is doing the cutest thing now which almost makes up for her not saying my name. When we go to put her down for a nap or for bedtime she cuddles with you for like 5 minutes before she reaches for her crib. She snuggles her head into your shoulder and puts her hands tightly around your neck and pats you...it is the BEST thing ever!
Now for Ethan. He made this pinch pot in Art class and has been talking about it for 2 weeks. He finally got to bring it home. Here it is:


He told me that I could have it to put my wedding ring in when I cook. How sweet eh?! Looks like he has his mamma's artistic talent!
Another thing I wanted to post is good old SPIKE. Ethan got him from Grandma Reading and Grandpa J the christmas he was 3. Spike has seen better days....he is VERY well loved. Notice the face marks and the dreads. Spike is no longer allowed to go out and about with us anymore, now he is strictly a bedtime friend :).

Sneak Peek

On a lighter note, we got our family photos done the first of this month and here is the link for a sneak peek! Felt Pics

Hurt Feelings....

So I am really bummed...Lainey has been saying Dada now for MONTHS and she refuses to say mamma. Really, she can say it, we have heard her a few times, but every time we ask her to say it all that comes out is a NONONONONO!!!!! At first Andy thought it was her way of saying mamma, cause it kind of sounded like NaNaNaNa, but she has gotten better at saying no now and it is defititely NO. What the hell?! Tonight she really hurt my feelings too. She was all ready for bed and Andy was taking her up and she wouldn't even look at me. I tried to give her a kiss and she just stared past me and wouldn't wave bye or anything. I feel like my daughter doesn't even like me. It sure makes the days suck when I am the one doing everything for her and she won't even say my name. I thought this was supposed to come when she was a teenager, not when she isn't even a year old yet. Anyway, there is my rant. I know that I shouldn't let it get to me, but how would YOU feel?!!!!

Here is Ethan with Truman and our neighbor boy Isiah. Crazy kids...not to mention LOUD!!



It is NOVEMBER 1oth and yesterday the kids went swimming! Can you believe it?! Don't feel too bad though, later on that night it started raining and it hasn't stopped. The kids had a blast!




Here is little miss Lainey heading for her favorite place...YUCK! I am constantly on the boys to shut the door so this doesn't happen. Notice how well she listens to me!

Here we are at the infamous Japanese "poop park". For those of you who don't know the story, last time Andy and Ethan went to this park and Ethan had a little accident :). This time, all was well. THANK GOODNESS! Lainey had an absolute BLAST going down the slide.




Ethan loves this park. The slide is really fun to go down. I didn't bother to add the shot of me going down, it was hideous. I was trying to slow myself down the whole time. I am a total scaredy cat!




Lainey and Dad going down the slide....




Here is Andy FLYING down the slide...

Fun at the park

Andy took the week off so we were able to go out and hit some parks. Here is one that we went to the other day. Here they are having a picnic before hitting the roller slide and other toys.




Where is Andy?!!


Ethan and dad on the teeter totter...I will attach the clip of them. Ethan loved it!




Here are the kids going down the roller slide. We found that if you use cardboard it makes you go faster AND you don't burn your butt!




Lainey and Daddy on the slide


Sweet Girl

Lainey climbed ALL the way up the slide. She was so proud of herself!








Notice in both clips, that Truman has the loudest voice. We are constantly working on having him not shout everything that comes out of his mouth.

Halloween

The boys were busy carving pumpkins while I was trying to get lainey to play on a blanket. Yeah, right, she was everywhere!! I stuck her in her exersaucer, but as you can see, she wasn't pleased! By the way, Ethan HATES pumpkin guts!!








Pardon the boobies!! Looks like we might need a training bra eh?! Poor girl!

Here are the final products...Aunt Breck sent us the fun potato head stuff, thanks breck!! One of the pumpkins that Andy carved broke after he was almost done, dang it!


Here is what our house looked like for halloween...



I am sorry to say that we don't have any pics of Ethan because he was soo excited to go he was all over the place. But, you saw what he was in previous pics. Now to Lainey....She HATED it! It was funny to see her trying to pull off the head piece. I finally got her to smile when she looked at herself in the mirror. What a cute little elephant right?! And how appropriate too!








Here is Ethan with all his loot. He is like his mamma and had to catergorize everything! He is loving this whole halloween deal. Andy keeps reminding me that I need to let him eat his candy and to just give in. I just have such a hard time saying "okay, eat all this junk!". If you knew me as a kid I was SUCH a candy head so I don't know what my problem is now!