Happy Christmas Sunday!

 

My everythings!

 

 

Happy Sunday

 

Me and Baby Girl in our Sunday Best.  She's doing much better!  She's kinda the light of my life!

Sick six months

This poor, poor little girl turned six months this week.  Can you see how sick she was?  It was so sad.

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town!

The PTO at the kids' school sponsored a Pancake Breakfast with Santa event on Saturday.  It was free with PTO membership!  Here is the obligatory Santa picture.  Grey was not having it!  None of the kids ever even asked Santa for anything, so hopefully they will be happy with whatever he brings!

Snapshot Sunday--Tsuzu Beach (Sea Glass Beach)--aka "our beach"

Nearly every Sunday afternoon, we go for a walk along the beach by our house.  It's our way of letting the boys burn some energy.  Sundays are hard for little boys!

We climb rocks and search for treasures.

We play.

 

We enjoy our time together and revel in the fact that THIS is our life!  Every morning when I wake up and watch the sun rise over the ocean out my bedroom window, I pinch myself that I am so blessed to live here. In the picture just above, our house is located right behind the closest rocky outcrop.

Fukuoka Japan Temple

 

Yesterday, I was able to go down to the Fukuoka Japan Temple with our branch.  It's about a 3 1/2 hour trip on the Sanyo (expressway).  I've never been to this temple before.  It was a sweet experience.  I think what I loved the very most was seeing the Japanese saints.  This country does not believe in Jesus Christ.  For the most part, they are not very religious.  So to be able to see the active saints at the temple was amazing.  They look so bright and happy compared to most of the people that we see here.  They have a special light and a knowledge about them.  I love the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Christmas Tree Lighting

 

One of the things I miss the very most about living in the States is the way holidays are celebrated.  Christmas is my favorite holiday and since Japan is not a Christian nation, most people don't celebrate or decorate.  Luckily for us, the base does try to bring Christmas to Japan.  On Saturday, we went to the annual MCCS Christmas Tree Lighting.  This is the best picture we got.  :)

Kishojiyama Green Park--Kiln Hike

Yesterday was Veteran's Day (thank you veterans!) and we decided to get out and explore Japan.  After a fairly rough night, we decided to stay local.  This hike is about 20 minutes from our house.  I know, right?!  How lucky we are, beach and mountains so close!  We are seriously spoiled.  Anyway, this hike was beautiful.  Almost the entire hike was right along this cute little stream. 

 

 

There were also a handful of waterfalls along the way.

 

 

 I think we caught the tail-end of all of the beautiful autumn leaves.

 

 

The hikes here in Japan are different than most of the ones we've done in the States because they have stairs all over the place. 

 

We counted a grand total of 410 stairs on this particular hike.  And that's only going up.  We had to get back down too!

 

The Japanese also pay attention to detail the way Americans don't seem to.  It results in random, fun things all over the place.  Hence the bird totem pole in the middle of the forest.

 

My cute boys. 

And the girls!  (I have a partner in crime now!)

 

It was such a beautiful hike--I think one of the best ones we've done so far here.  The cherry on top? We didn't see another soul.  So incredibly rare in this heavily populated country.  We love it here!



 

A salad of our own making!

 

So this is super lame, but exciting to us.  Earlier this week, we were able to harvest an entire salad from our garden.  It was delicious.  The kids were even willing to eat veggies they don't normally touch.  Some day--mark my words--some day we will grow enough veggies to make our own salsa!

Persimmon

Do you know what a persimmon is?  Have you ever had one?  Our sweet neighbor (the old man who does tai chi and chanting out in the yard) gave us this.  To me it was kind of like a cross between an apple, pear, and carrot.  Ken thought the flavor was similar to a pumpkin.  It looks almost like an orange tomato.  You eat it like a normal fruit or you can hang them outside to dry. 

He gave us the persimmon to thank us for a thank you treat we took over to them.  He gave us a bag of apples when he saw us taking family pictures a couple of weeks ago.  I made black bottom cupcakes to take to him and his wife as a thank you.  They wouldn't let us leave without giving us a huge bag of mikans (mandarin oranges) and two persimmons.  So sweet.  So very Japanese.

She's 5 months!

 

This girl!  She's five months old.  She's a nut.  So happy so much of the time.  She's obsessed with her tongue these days.  I could hardly take a picture without her stinking it out.  She's rolling onto her tummy frequently but she gets stuck there and doesn't roll back onto her back yet.  She's still a drool monster but no teeth yet.  Loves her brothers and they love her!   

 

Halloween

 

One thing I love about life here in Japan is how simple it is.  Being away from the States, there are a lot of things that we "miss out" on.  For me, having a simpler life is enjoyable.  This is the only picture we snapped of the kids in their costumes.  Friends invited us over for dinner and then we took the kids trick-or-treating on base.  It's so great!  All of the houses are close together and you can only go trick-or-treating from 5-7.  The kids don't have any parties at school.  It's all easy peasy.  Stone is a black angry bird, Ollie is Ironman, Grover is the yellow angry bird, Grey is the saggy, baggy elephant, and Pepper is a pumpkin.  Notice I tied a bow on the stem of her hat?  Yeah, I'm crafty like that.  Happy Halloween!

Moses 7:18

18 And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.

I started the week out feeling like this was a very random scripture and didn't know how it could apply to me.  I then thought of my patriarchal blessing and how I am blessed to be a mother in Zion.  So it does apply to me and my family!  How we need to be of one heart and one mind and dwell in righteousness.  I figured the poor among us was my children having a hard time.  I fail miserably meeting all of my children's needs.  There's just so many of them!  Children and needs!  I thought of how we are taught to care for the poor so there are no poor among us.  I need to be more willing to put my children first.  Be in the moment with them.  Enjoy them while they are little and when they are having a hard time (no matter how small it seems to me), meet their needs with love and compassion.  And pray a lot so I can do that.

Let's Go Fly a Kite

Our sweet neighbor Julie brought the boys a kite a couple of weeks ago.  The weather was finally perfect for a little kite flying.  The boys were mesmerized.  They each took a turn.  Grey accidently let go.  After 20 minutes, a nice Japanese woman, a rake, a ladder, and a broom, Ken freed the kite, the tears stopped, and life was good again!

 

Moses 1:39

For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
Moses 1:39

In the most recent general conference, we were counseled to try to "ponderize" one scripture every week.  I'm trying to do this.  The scripture for this week was one I've known for a long time.  It is the first of the scripture mastery scriptures and I wanted to relearn them.  What I learned this week while pondering this scripture is that Christ's work is just that--work.  I'm not one to wish my life away, but sometimes I do think about how the future may not be so hard.  I won't have diapers and potty training and fussy babies and night-feedings and endless laundry that I have to do by myself.  As I thought about this scripture I thought about how my life as a mom is like Christ's work.  Not to downplay what He did or try to glamorize what I do, but isn't my job as a mom to teach my children the gospel with the hopes that they will learn it and live it and love it and one day receive all that God has?  And just as Christ said what He did was work, so is my life.  It's not going to get easier and it's not meant to. While we work, we learn.  We are transformed and we grow.  We become capable of doing more than we thought we could.  And as we work, be it as a mom or member of the church or anyone else engaged in His work, we are helping move along Christ's work of bringing immortality and eternal life to our fellow brothers and sisters.  And as we do this work, there is glory along the way.  Not glory at the end when all is said and done, but now. I am grateful for the "work" that is my life and hope it is pleasing in God's sight.

Month 16

We've now lived in Iwakuni for 16 months!  The time has flown.  I've been meaning to keep a record of our time here but I want the record to be perfect so until now I haven't started.  I'm accepting that that is a joke.  I just need to get started.  So--this is where we are right now.

 

 Pepper.  She's the sweetest thing ever.  I still can't believe I got a girl!  4 months old now.  She's rolling over and likes playing with her hands and some toys.  She loves her mama.  And her daddy.  She ADORES her big brothers.  They all kiss and hug on her non-stop.  And she loves it.  Most of the time.  She's a drool monster.  She used to sleep through the night, but has decided that's not cool anymore.  Why sleep when you can eat throughout the night, right?  She greets me every morning with the biggest smile ever.  She's a very bright spot in my life.

Grey.  Oh boy!  This boy.  In the picture he's wearing legwarmers because we are in the middle of potty training.  He's a rock star about it.  This kid keeps me busy.  He gets into things he shouldn't but when caught he's so quick to say sorry and clean it up that it's hard to get mad at him.  He's entirely cuter than he should be.  He's also smarter than he should be.  Yesterday he was commenting on my "triangle" shirt.  And apparently on Sunday in nursery he was spelling his name.  Who taught him these things?  It wasn't me!  This kid is crazy and goofy and so much fun.

Grover.  Oh how I love this boy!  He's my "spirited" child.  He was so, so hard in his early years.  He's mellowed out significantly in the last few months.  I think his favorite thing in the world is Pepper.  He takes care of her for me and loves on her constantly.  He is the sweetest boy.  During quiet time, sometimes he's bring me his blanket and stuffed animals for me to snuggle with.  He gives his Dream Lite to Pepper for her naps.  He is thoughtful and kind.  We are in the middle of our reading lessons and he is doing so good.  I can't believe the contrary baby/toddler has blossomed into this wonderful, fun-to-be-around boy!

Ollie.  What to say about Ollie?  This is a picture of his first day of Kindergarten.  He loves school.  Loves it!  The only part he doesn't like is the "putting my head down" part while other kids get drinks.  The rest of school is fun for him.  I'm so glad it's been a good experience for him.  He's all about fun and to him, that is what school is.  He just finished his second year of soccer and it was hilarious.  He sort of chased the ball around.  And twirled.  And talked.  As a parent it was hysterical to watch.  We love this random, funny boy.

Stone.  He's our little soccer star.  This year he scored his first two goals during a soccer game.  He played offensive positions the whole season and was in the fray during all of his games.  It was so fun to watch him be competitive and play hard.  He'd come home exhausted.  He started third grade and continues to enjoy school.  School this year is harder than it has been in the past.  He's actually having to work and study and I think it's been really good for him.  He's so helpful when he wants to be and is a sweet, sensitive boy. 

 

That's the crew.  We love our crazy life!