Goofing Around

We tend to be late risers and goof around on weekend mornings.

Chester trying to get out of Jason's sweater--Jason tried this after we watched Anaconda..

Juli had to give it a try too..

Jordan taking a breather..

Mom hiding from the morning camera..

Guess Who!

Who are the two ding-dongs in this picture!

Visitors from Abroad

Our friends Valerie and Isaac, who are doing a world tour, stopped by Japan to visit us, and their other friends here. We count ourselves very fortunate to have wonderful friends all over the world!

Christmas Dinner

I don't know if I'll have time soon to properly post pictures of our Christmas dinner, but in the meantime, you can check out Renee's blog which is full of pictures of the great time we had together! Thank you Renee!

Video Clips of Bebe

Someone took this silly clip of Jordan eating a toy!


And here's Jordan playing in the dog cage. He tried so many times to get into the cage, I finally gave up and let him in, he loved it!

A nice day!

Going back to October, we spent a day at the park with Renee and her boys, it's hard to resist such beautiful fall weather! The park is the local water-cleaning center, so they have this big slide and in the summer they turn water on underneath it, really fun in the hot sun!

Jojo going down with Juli!

Jason was upset at me for something, not an uncommon happening, and spent his time sleeping.

Jordan had fun crawling around...

Juli coming back from the slide..

Jordan trying to get the sled to work..

Jo and his sled..they use the sleds to slide down the slide..

Renee finally decided to join Jason for a nap..

And here's Jordan on his first trip down the slide with Mommy..

Happy Birthday Jason part 2

Besides going out for the day, we had a small party for the boy at home with some friends and Papa. Here's the birthday boy himself, giving out a smile, very rare sight!

I made him a lemon-meringue pie, his favorite, and something I can definitely make.

Opening a few presents..

Oooh, an envelope, wonder what it could be!

And the boy sure cashed in for his birthday! Just enough to buy himself some new Yugioh cards--his newest craze!

Jason'sBirthday 2007--part one

We had a few different celebrations for Jason's birthday, the first being a trip for window shopping and ending with dinner at the sushi shop, one of our favorite places to eat!

Christmas Decor!

Christmas is a week away and we finally got up our decorations! Here's a few pictures of the living room. Decor is sparse this year since everything has to be higher than little fingers and little puppy. Our tree, normally over 5ft high, is shrunk down to 1-1/2 feet and sits on top of the CD player.

The TV corner

One end of the piano

The stockings

The table with a runner, gingerbread house and Christmas cactus

The couch with a pretty runner and Christmas friends

Another view of the table with a wreath on the wall

A main wall with some decorations

Our mini-tree and a few presents

All You Can Eat Desert!

The kids had a day off from school on a Monday, so we went out together for all you can eat lunch nearby. It's pretty cheap, about 1,000 yen for adults and 780 yen for kids, you can stay and eat for 90 minutes, which is more than enough time to stuff yourself and let it rest until you feel like desert. Speaking of which, I sometimes feel like I'm paying for all-you-can-eat cotton candy and ice-cream. After about 10 minutes on the real food, the kids are off to the desert bar!

Here the family is lined up in front of the restaurant.

The cotton candy making machine..

..drink bar..

..ice-cream..

..cakes..

..sushi..

..salads..

..fresh meat and veggies for cooking..

..closer up..

..table grill for BBQing the food..

..dad busy at work cooking..

..a very full Jordan..

..girls on their way to stack up a plate..

..pre-fried foods..

I'm sure there was more food, but that was a lot to dig into!

Meet Chester

My friends told me I was insane, and I have to admit, I think I've got a bit of an insanity gene running through my blood and DNA and all that. To add to our happy (and full) household, I threw in a dog!

Here's how it happened:
I'd been thinking of getting the kids a dog for a long time, but I got pregnant instead, so the dog got put on hold. Then I got to thinking, Jordan is at home alone most of the day, with me to play with, and I really don't want to be the one and only toy he has, so a dog would be ideal, maybe when he's about 2 or something.

I met a friend of mine on the road who has 5 small dogs, and asked her where she got them. We chatted and she said she could mention to the local pet store she visits that I am on the lookout for a dog. She said if I got one around 6 months old, it would be way cheap and have all its shots already. I said I was thinking next year sometime, when Jordan would be older and potty trained.

Two days later she calls me to say her shop had 2 dogs that hadn't been sold, and so the prices on them had dropped dramatically. Would I be interested? I said I'd go see them, but I really wasn't interested in buying a dog right now, a baby, starting work again, broke, you know, lots of good reasons.

So, I IMd my friend Renee to say "I'm going to look at a dog and I need someone to talk me out of buying it!" Big help she was! Once we got to the shop and met our Chester, she fell more in love with him than I. Jordan, he really could care less, he was more interested in the plant dirt, but oh well. We brought Chester home and he has been with us for a couple months now.

In case you're wondering, we gave Daddy the honor of naming him since it was a complete surprise, we decided it should be Daddy's dog, you know, forcing him to accept it?

See, I didn't really ask for permission. I sort of asked Art in the morning, "How mad would you be if I got a dog?" and he said, "Well, make sure it's a big one cause if you get a dog we're having hot dogs for dinner for a week!" and since he was so silly about it, i figured he wouldn't be too upset. But as the time came for daddy to get back from work, I sort of chickened out and hid in the bathroom with Jordan, you know, giving the baby a bath, and let the kids deal with daddy's fall-out. Honestly though, the shock of the dog overrid any anger, and after about half an hour daddy and doggy were friends.

Chester is a long-haired miniature chihuahua. He probably won't weight more than 2 kilos when an adult. I thought chihuahas were yappers, and they are, but Chester is a very quiet dog, we hardly hear a peep from him. He is also pretty well potty-trained, with the occasional accident, and honestly, he is adorable. But not as cute as Jordan!

Chester's favorite humping partner..

Favorite sun-spot..With his big sister Juli..

and his best friend Renee..

sleeping on the floor with Jo..so sweet..both of them..great friends..

in his new sweater, trying to get away with Jordan..enemy number one..must hide from Jordan..

Finally

I am finally starting to catch up. But to be fair, I sat down to do my blog on more than one occasion, and either I had a baby start screaming at me, a dog pee somewhere it shouldn't, or the stupid blogger site was having technical problems and after 20 minutes of hard work on an entry, it wouldn't upload anything. Frustrating to say the least, but here I am trying again!

Still Here!

Just in case anyone was wondering whether I'd forgotten about my blog or not, I haven't. But being mother to a little Boogah is exhausting and time consuming, we are not in the stage where I get 5 minute breaks, just enough to log into blogger, then I'm off to entertain, rescue, feed, wash, or play with someone who is very tiny. As it is, he's pulling at my toes trying to get my attention.

So, that's the latest...

Of course, there's tons more going on, maybe this week I'll catch up!