Our Family Pictures

Before Mike left on his TDY, we got our family photos taken for our Christmas card since he won't back until December. I think they turned out pretty cute even though Rory refused to smile for any of them!

Yep, this is our child; )

I wasn't kidding when I said that Rory gets literally swarmed by Japanese people. They just love her! It's too fun ; )



Ok, are you happy now? Lots of pictures right?

My little pumpkin

I pretty much load the majority of my pictures on my facebook profile so take a look there to see more but here's just a sampling of what we've been up to this past month!

Here's a picture of our friend Jeanette who came all the way from PNG to visit us!

Here's some of our Pease Place crew at the top of Mt Takao.

Rory looking at her daddy after a diaper change.

Rory was lulled to sleep while watching the Clemson Tigers play some football.

I love all the cuddles and snuggles from this little baby!

Hanging out in Yokosuka.

Rory is helping me make an apple pie. She was very happy as you can tell!

As soon as I see our culture club friends, they just swoop in and take over. The Japanese are in love with caucasian babies and everywhere I go, people stop and swoon over Rory. They all say "Kuwai!" which means cute.

Rory loves her tummy time mat from Mrs. Horst. Here she is blowing bubbles and smiling at mama.

Another time that we met our culture club friends, they took us to a sake factory and provided lunch that they made. It was so cool to eat such yummy food and a lot of it came from their very own gardens.

My 3 month old pumpkin! I can't believe how fast the time is going by. I want it to slow down!

Huey gives his sister WAY too many kisses. She's pretty tolerable of them as you can see ; )

Little Miss Roo in our pretend pumpkin patch.

There ya go! These pictures should make up for my lack in blogging ok?

Fall Activities

It's been a while since I've blogged, but to my defense, my computer needed to be repaired and this Sunday is the first time I've been able to sit down in front of my computer long enough to load pictures and write about what we've been up to.

Last month, our good friend Jeanette came to visit. I've know her since 5th grade so it was really fun to reminisce about all of our shenanigans when we were young. Her life is very interesting and exciting because she teaches in Papua New Guinea at an international school. Here's a link to her blog. Since Jeanette was here for a little over a week, we took advantage of our short time and took her to as many sites as we could, with a two month old in two. The bonus to her visiting here was that she was able to get her "American fix" as well and get all the necessary American goodies that we have at our BX and commissary. We've also go plenty of Starbucks and McDonalds around Japan so Jeanette was happy to enjoy in such delicacies. Hey, don't judge me, we also took her to plenty of Japanese eateries as well ok? Some of the places we went to were Mt. Takao where we were able to enjoy cherry blossom ice cream and hike around some beautiful shrines. The next day we went to a Sake Factory that is up in the mountains and has a very different perspective than typical city life. We also went to Tokyo and stayed at the New Sanno. While there, we went to Roppongi and saw the view of the entire city on the top of Mori Tower. We went to Ueno park only to discover that the "f*$king zoo was closed" (don't judge, I'm just quoting a line from Jerry McGuire.) We went to Asakausa where old Tokyo meets new and looked at some amazing shrines as well. And to end the night, we went to Shibuya crossing, the busiest intersection in the world. The next day we went to Yoyogi Park and took in more views of the Meiji Shrine and other beautiful landmarks and finally, we walked to Harajuku to see some crazy girls in ridiculous costumes (oh yeah, we did some shopping too!) We also ate some yummy Japanese food like okoyamanaki, shabu-shabu/sukiyaki, yakaniku, and of course sushi. We were really sad to see Jeanette go but hopefully we'll see here again soon!

As far as daily life is concerned, I'm really enjoying being a stay at home mama to my little one. Rory is growing so fast and I wish I could just freeze time and have her stay this little and snuggly forever. I just LOVE watching her thrive. Last weekend was a three day weekend and the 3 of us were able to spend some much needed time as a family. On Saturday, we took family photos at Showa Park for our Christmas cards (Mike's going on TDY for a month and a half so this was our only chance to do it) and then on Sunday and Monday, we traveled down to Yokosuka and did a little shopping. This weekend was spent getting Mike ready for his upcoming trip and again, spending more time together as a family. Our 3 year anniversary is on Tuesday, gosh the time sure does fly. I'm still working on gift ideas but I've got something up my sleeve, I just need to take the time to make it!

Some upcoming plans are that Rory and I will be going back to the U.S. in November to visit family. We are flying direct from Tokyo to New York and we'll be home until the 30th of November. Rory is excited to meet all of her family and finally go to America ; ) We'll be in NJ and NY for the first half of November and then in NC with the in-laws for the second half, including Thanksgiving. Mike will meet us in Fayetteville after his TDY is over. We're hoping to go to a Clemson football game up at NC State so hopefully that works out. I can't wait to introduce Rory to all of her family and especially for her to meet her cousin Lily. Ooh and I can't wait to get my hands on my little nieces as well!

Here's a video of my Roo. This was recorded a few weeks ago so it's not showing all of her party tricks...like how she loves to LAUGH ; )

Movie from Grandpa Q

I know it's been a few weeks since I last posted so I'll be better about keeping you guys informed. Our friend Jeanette came out for 10 days and I've got some pictures to post but I need to get my computer fixed first before I do that. In the meantime, here's a really sweet video that Mike's dad made with pictures of Rory and pictures of Mike as a baby. It's really cute and fun to see how similar Rory is compared to her daddy!

More to come!