Happy Birthday Ian from Shannon... Haha!

We love you Mika!

Thank you so much for visiting us! The kids are always so happy when they hear you're coming. You make it so fun for them by joining them in their play and of course you always win their hearts with snacks,ha! Thank you for taking us out to "Big Boys" for our birthdays!We had so much fun.

At last! Pics from our reunion!

Nick's family came to visit us from Okinawa! Was loads of fun seeing everyone again.
All of us together!Just Maria and Julia are missing.:-(

Anthony,Ryan,(Suzy's lil' ball of cuteness)and Shannon.

Havin' a great time!

Sistaz!

Cutie pie and sweet Aunty Jazmine who helped with Ian a lot. Thank you!
Uncle Douglas(10) and Anthony(6).Aquarian buddies!
Joy and Shannon. Joy, next time we see each other I bet you'll be taller then me!
Enjoying a fun time at the park together.
Sweet Grandpi and Grandma treated all of us out to a great meal at the Tabehoudai.Thank you so much!
So sweet.
Love it! (Dan, Ian, Sandro, Shannon, and Tiana)

Happy Birthday to our 2 Aquarians!

Aaaand the birthdays begin! Anthony turned 6 on February 9th, and Shannon turned 4 on February 13th!
For fun, this is how I'd describe your personalities(which you both have a lot of!): You both have very outgoing personalities. You're bold and loud.You have waaay too much energy!You're spacy(which on some occasions has proven to be a blessing!)Shannon you're very affectionate and cuddly.You have so many facial expressions!It's fun and so funny to watch you talk and listen to you sing one of your made up songs.You seem to come up with a new song every day! Anthony ever since you were tiny you've always been the first one to thank the cooks or say "Good morning" to people. You're both studious and very fun to teach.(Mom knows a few good tricks to motivate you and keep you focused!;-))You're loads of fun and though you can be quite the challenge at times,I've always loved challenges and you're both so special to me.I love you both so much and I know daddy does too.Muah!Bob came out a bit freaky looking as a pinata,ha!

Let it snow!

We had some of our friends visit us from Chiba this month.Thank you all for coming!We had a very fun and adventurous time.

Videos of the kids.

Ian singing "Jesus loves me this I know".

Listen to Shannon's comment..so cute!

Anthony rocking to the rhythm while engrossed in his puzzle.

Singing in Japanese

Christmas 2009!

September and October news and pics!!!

Hi sweet family and friends.
Hope you're all doing well, healthy,living life to the full and enjoying it!
We've had some very eventful couple months. If you haven't already heard we moved again end of September to Matsumoto! Due to this move and the fact that I forgot my password to this blog I haven't been able to post anything on this blogio. But all is up and running again so hopefully we'll be in touch more now.
Here are some pictures and a few video clips from Sept. and October. Enjoy!
Before leaving Toyota we visited a few places.

1)The Toyota car Museum.

A must if you're living here! Was great fun....especially for Nick.heh.




2)The Zoo!






3) Got to meet up with Sue(Nick's sister).

She came for a visit from Okinawa. Was so nice to see her again after 2 years! First time we got to meet cute Ryan! Why don't my kids ever get this chubby!?



4)Enjoyed one last day at our beautiful park just 5 minutes up the mountain from where we lived. I've never seen such a great park. They had everything available for kids to play with. Bicycles, balls, bats, frisbees,birdie rackets, unicycles, etc. All for free! Where else do you find this in Japan?! Will be missed. Sigh.





Random shots:

Shannon and her buddie, David. So sweet.
Mom and Ian having fun
Daddy and Ian at a park in Matsumoto.What dudes!
"Smile for the picture Ian!"...haha!
Homeschooling Anthony and Shannon at our new home in Matsumoto!

Shannon(3) is doing Kindergarten. She loves writing and has recently gotten into mathematics!Finding new ways to make math fun!

Anthony(5) is on 2nd grade. His favorite subjects are Science and Mathematics and he really enjoys writing in cursive!
Well that's it with the pics for now! Will be posting videos soon!
We love you!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Born the 9th of the 9th month(September),year 2009! Now how cool is that!

We want to start off by making a toast.
Here’s to our angel of a mother!
Mom, not only have you been the best mom ever to us three, but you’ve truly been a mother to so many other children as well.
As we grew up we watched how selflessly you give of yourself day after day for others. Often you missed out on good sleep since for years you slept with the kids you cared for. You had very little free time and didn’t even get days off! How on earth did you manage that!?
We’d sometimes lend a hand but mostly watch as you’d roll up your sleeves and wash loads and I mean LOADS of poopoo diapers…by hand!(Jenny sorry but you can’t take any credit for helping with this! By the time you were old enough cloth diapers were waaay out of style! Come to think of it, I probably washed a couple of yours! Hahaha.)
You’d often stay up past midnight working on some special activity for the kids, or to catch up on school records for your group of, what was it normally,6-8 kids? We learnt so much by watching you do inspiration,( I’ll always remember how loud you sing,ha!)give a flannelgraph or read stories with such enthusiasm! You taught so many kids how to read and write as well! It’s no wonder so many of them still remember you! How can you forget a teacher like that!!
You always put your heart and soul into everything you do.You loved and treated each child you cared for as if they were your own.
You know they say that daughters become like their mothers. And though we don't come close to being a hero of a mom like you, we can’t thank you enough for instilling in us a sample of diligence and of giving it your all. It didn't matter what you were doing, whether you were teaching kids, cleaning toilets, brushing your teeth..(Do you still break your toothbrush or the mop handles? Ha)you always did everything from your heart. We owe those qualities in us to YOU.
We can’t forget as well to mention here just how thankful we are for your faithful prayers for us. We know without a doubt that your prayers for us over the years played and continue to play a key role in shaping us and making us who we are, and in keeping us here serving Jesus along side you today.
We’re so proud of you mom and can’t thank God enough for you. We certainly got the best of the best mom ever!
We love you so much. Happy Birthday!