Chocolate Chip Pancakes & Cherry Blossoms

Daddy has become quite the pro at making pancakes. A few weeks ago, we dug out the waffle iron and Daddy whipped us up some waffles. They were a hit with Olivia. The next week, Daddy tried his hand at pancakes. They were delicious! And an even bigger hit with Olivia. The next week, Mommy bought blueberries (made of gold apparently, because they are so expensive here), and Daddy made blueberry pancakes. Yummy delicious! And then last week Olivia and I were grocery shopping and she grabbed a bag of chocolate chips. I'm pretty sure she meant she wanted Daddy to make chocolate chip pancakes. Which he did this morning. And they were the best ever. And Olivia thought so too! Take a look:

Chocolate Monster:

So, Daddy has become the King of Breakfast! And we look forward to the weekends when he cooks yummy pancakes for us! :)

Remember the cherry blossoms from last year? Well, it is that time again. They've started blooming some on Kadena. Apparently, Okinawa is the first place to get them in all of Japan, and they are sign that Spring is on its way. (Sorry to those of you dealing with cold, cold, cold weather) I'm going to try and take pictures of the stages of the trees growing the cherry blossoms. They are very pretty all pink and blooming, but they come and go so quickly, only staying on the trees for a few weeks before turning into leaves. So I want to try and get the different stages...we'll see if I can keep up on it and do it.

So here are some pictures of the cherry blossoms first growing on Kadena.

From the road, you can barely see the blossoms popping out, but wait, soon it will be all pink:

Christmas Day!

Just wanted to share some pictures of Christmas Day with everyone!
Rise and Shine: First look at all the presents after Santa came:

And Jill got her stocking filled too:

Our Tree:

Tried to get them both to sit in front of the tree. It didn't really work out well, even after conning Jill with a Beggin' Strip:

Olivia checking out her stocking from Haruka:

It was the year of kitchen stuff- A kitchen, an Elmo microwave, and a rice cooker for mommy!

And a new lens for mommy too!

Olivia couldn't wait for daddy to put together her new car...

Daddy...had...a little...trouble with the car:

After presents we relaxed all day, then went to dinner at the Christmas Restaurant. It is these people's house in town, they decorate it from head to toe in Christmas decorations and they open for dinner for 6 weeks around Christmas time. They have a small menu you can chose from. It was pretty cool and Olivia enjoyed running around looking at all the "Ho-Ho's."

Take a look at how nicely decorated it was:

The host/home owner was nice enough to take our picture.

Christmas Day 2009

From Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve

We've had such a great holiday season. Let's catch you up!
For Thanksgiving, we went to Craig & Jennifer's. I'm sure you heard by now that Mike cooked the turkey, and it was another success! He is becoming quite the Turkey-pro. The morning of Thanksgiving started with mommy learning an important lesson.

Don't leave the bag of brown sugar too close to the edge of the counter. Somebody knows how to stand on her tippy-toes. Take a look at my sugar-baby:


She loved her HUGE meal:

All the girls:

Apparently Jillian had too much turkey:

We played some games...

And the night ended with Maddie reading Olivia a story:


We went to a few Christmas Parties. First, was the Okinawa Enlisted Spouses Club Board Member party (I'm the Secretary for the club). Olivia donned her pretty Christmas dress I bought while in America last month.

And she got a special present from Santa (even though she wouldn't go to him to get it):

The next party was Mike's work Kid's Christmas Party. We made yummy Christmas trees out of ice cream cones. And Olivia thought it was pretty cool once she figured out she could eat it!

She needed a little help getting her present from Santa:

And we took her picture again by a tree since she wore her pretty dress:

That brings us to Christmas Eve. We went to Botanical Gardens to see all the pretty lights. It was a site to see!

And Olivia enjoyed seeing it all! Here, she is standing on a train that is covered in lights:

And she got to go down a big slide with daddy:

"Weeeeeeeee" That was fun!

When she wasn't looking at the lights, she was dancing. Give this child a beat, and she will dance with just about anybody (and apparently so will the girl she is dancing with).

They even had Cinderella's carriage! When it was our turn to get in and take a picture, a little local boy decided to jump in and pose with us....oh well, Merry Christmas!

Getting some fish food:

And feeding LOTS of fish:

Pretty lights, and pretty girl:

Olivia is Nemo! She kept walking by going "Feeeeshhhh, Feeesshhh!"

Some pretty shots by the water:

This was a bridge covered in blue lights. Olivia very much enjoyed running back and forth under the lights. Can you see her?

And in case you are wondering, don't worry, we stayed warm all night walking around, even though it was a chilly 70 degrees out! ;)

Happy Holidays!

Ho-Ho-Ho

Merry Christmas Everyone! It's almost time for Santa to visit us here in Okinawa! Olivia is asleep in bed, and Mommy and Daddy are watching the Santa Tracker on NORAD. As I type this he is in New Guinea, headed towards Australia. Soon he will be here! And Olivia has been very good this year, so he should be leaving lots of presents for her. I know I've been neglecting the blog lately, but we've had computer issues (and I stay pretty busy now with working), but I promise to do better with keeping you updated! Tonight we spent Christmas Eve going to Botanical Gardens. They had tons and tons of lights throughout the park. It was BEAUTIFUL! Olivia just loved seeing all the shining lights. She ran around, danced, and even got a balloon (which later popped). All in all it was a great way to spend Christmas Eve. I wanted to share with you a couple pictures. First is the three of us with Santa. Olivia wasn't really a fan of going to him alone, so all of us had to join in. And if you are wondering about the batteries in her hand - it was the only way she wouldn't scream...

The second picture is from tonight. They had a little set-up where you could purchase fancy pictures to capture the memory of the night.

I took other pictures throughout the park of the lights, but I will post them later. I have to hurry now and go to bed so Santa will come! Merry Christmas to ALL and to ALL a goodnight!

Gobble Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! We didn't get turkey cards out this year, but this morning we woke up and created this turkey for all to see. Olivia even colored it in.


Remember this from last year? Click here!

We just had to do this picture again. Here's our little turkey! She is getting big, and barely fit in the pan!


This year we are spending Thanksgiving with our good friends Craig & Jennifer and the girls. Mike is cooking the turkey and everyone else is filling in with sides. It will be a yummy day!