Fox and Amy (Back) in Japan

Hospital Food in Japan--a glimpse

2012-02-02T16:33:00.000-08:00

    I am obsessed with food, as are most of the people in my immediate family. Take that food obsession and add in a pregnancy and a year in a foreign country and you get an even more food-obsessed person. A person who was not able to indulge in ANY of her cravings while pregnant--cranberry juice, Cafe Rio, salmon burgers with sweet potatoes, chocolate soymilk, etc. etc. Whaaa... So, I held no high hopes for hospital food here, especially after my previous hospital experiences.

    After laboring all night with Cash, I was presented with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread. Wow. With Cosette, we requested a vegetarian menu, so lunch was an entire plate of only: french fries. Just french fries. "Where is the protein? She is bleeding!!" Fox demanded of the head dietician. "Sorry about that, she'll have protein for dinner," he said. Dinner was a green salad with a side of protein: a small cup of slivered almonds.

        After that, I swore I would have all my babies at home just so that I could have hot lentil soup afterwards. You can imagine my suprise when every single one of my hospital meals here in Japan was not only beautiful but super yummy and nutritious (except of course for white bread and rice)! A nurse came in and told me, "You are nursing and recovering, so everything we are giving you has iron and calcium in it." Yes, thank you, finally!! Granted, I still couldn't recognize all of it, but I ate 90% of it, which was awesome. Here's a glimpse:

Breakfast: salad with grapefruit and boiled eggs, fish with tomatoes, vegetable soup


Lunch: Salad, rolls, tomato soup, honeydew, apricot mousse, fish w/ zucchini stir-fry. Zucchini and honeydew are very rare here!

Okay, this one I didn't eat much of, but it was presented in a beautiful layered bento. Orange, clear soup, sashimi, shrimp with okra and kabocha, tempura, and a veggie broth of some sort.


Another breakfast: salad, omelette, clam chowder, and mango pudding. The drink on the top is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine that I had with every meal to contract my uterus. It tasted like echinacea.

Also, every day at 3 p.m. was tea--the first day, they brought in a dish of vanilla ice cream with fresh peaches. The next day was another apricot mousse. So yummy! With dinner, they also provided a carton of juice and a pastry for a later snack. It was so fun to actually look forward to my hospital meals and see how beautifully they were presented. I don't think I've ever eaten as many vegetables in such a short period of time.

The hospital also provided a free facial on one of the days. A nurse watched the baby, while I went down to the "esthe" room for 30 minutes of hot steam and a face massage. Also, each day the hospital would bring a new-mother present: a new nursing pillow, large towels, a bound baby book. It was awesome.Good job, Inoshita Hospital! You are tops in my book :)

Quincy's Birth Story

2012-01-28T18:15:00.000-08:00

Ever since I found out I was pregnant, I told Fox and pretty much everyone that this baby would be born on January 21, 2012 and that my labor would be 3 hours. My last labor was 21 hours, so I spent time visualizing a much shorter birth and a cool birthdate (1-21-12 sounded good to me!). I use hypnosis for all of my births (and teach it, too, through Hypnobabies), and it has always been really effective for me. So, when my doctor told me on January 20th that I had not dilated at all, baby was still high and that it would be a while yet, I was a little surprised! He told me to get some walking in, so that afternoon, I walked around the mall for about an hour. I also finished crocheting a baby blanket and cleaned out the car, which were the two things I told myself had to be done before baby came.

That night, I started having really high pressure waves (what we call contractions in Hypnobabies) but nothing painful, so I didn't worry much about it. When they started getting longer and closer together, I knew they were the real thing but was unsure of whether or not to go to the hospital yet, since Cosette's birth took so long even after regular pressure waves. After saying a prayer, we knew right away it was time to head to the hospital. Fox drove to pick up our friend Tamara, who would watch the kids, and we headed out to the hospital (a 45 minute drive) at 12:45 a.m. The drive was good--I stayed in hypnosis the whole time.


Quincy at 1 day old. He has a hematoma from being born so quickly, so no cute beanies for a while!

As soon as we got to the hospital, we got down to business! My pressure waves were coming every 3 minutes. I got into the hospital bed and noticed that there was a big screen with the words "Birth System 2000" or something on it. The screen had relaxing music playing, with images of bottle-nosed dolphins gliding through waves. It was so relaxing that I really didn't need to use hypnosis to stay relaxed. Also, there were about 2 nurses and 2 midwives in the room, instead of my regular doctor. They directed all their questions to Fox, so no one bothered me, which was awesome. We were very blessed in that we didn't have much communication barrier at all, even though we were quite unsure of medical terms in Japanese. They were also very cooperative when we asked to not be hooked up to the IV. I really loved being surrounded by these women who, whenever I would have a pressure wave, would just quietly soothe, "Hai hai hai hai hai" (which basically means "yes yes yes" but here meant "yes, we know what you are going through!")

5 days old

After about an hour, I told Fox to take me to the bathroom, since having a full bladder can slow down labor. He took me, but as soon as I sat on the toilet, I realized that I was going through transition and the pressure waves were coming right on top of each other. After a bit, I stood up and had Fox do the belly lift on me with my next pressure wave. As soon as he did that, my water broke with a huge pop; I felt baby come down, and I was ready to push! This is why Hypnobabies teaches to not do the belly lift unless you are in place to give birth! I made it to the bed, told them we needed to push, and pushed Quincy out in 3 pushes! The Birth System 2000 was hooked up to my contraction monitor and started playing some breathing noises. I also put on my "Pushing Baby Out" CD but pushed Quincy out before it had been playing for 5 minutes. As soon as he was out, the big screen immediately had a big "Congratulations" come across the screen. I got a kick out of that!

The only snag we came across was when the on-call doctor came in to see if I needed repairs and started tugging on the cord to get my placenta out. He got a bit upset when Fox told him to stop tugging and asked him to wait to cut the cord, which they do immediately here but which we know is not good! The doctor was so mad that he left the room! The midwife came and caught the placenta and then cut the cord. They gave me a piece of it in a wooden box, which is a Japanese custom. I bled a bit, so they gave me an IV, which I have never had before and can honestly say was the most uncomfortable part of the whole birth experience! I think it was a good thing, though, since this is the first birth after which I haven't fainted! They also do not bathe the baby for the first 24 hours, since they don't want to lower baby's body temperature, which I thought was cool.

1 week old!

So--just as I had visualized--Quincy was born on 1-21-12 at 3:20 am, after only 3 hours of labor. Fox has requested that I visualize any future babies to be born during working hours, so he gets out of work :)I had an amazing and really positive birth experience in Japan, thanks to a great doctor and awesome nurses. It is truly a blessing that things worked out so wonderfully!

He Who Has Now Been Named

2012-01-24T06:06:00.000-08:00

The Baby is Here:

Born: January 21, 2012 at 3:20 a.m.

3878 grams, 51.5 centimeters (oh hey there, metric system!)

In U.S. terms, 8 1/2 lbs. and 20 1/4 inches

AND NAMED:

Quincy Parker Makoto Ellis

Quincy: French, meaning the Fifth, as he is the fifth member of our little family.

Also, Fox was reading Dracula while I was pregnant. Quincey Morris is a character in it-- the only American in a foreign country.

Parker: Fox's paternal grandmother's maiden name

Makoto: Japanese, meaning strong and peace-loving.

We have loved Quincy Parker as a name for a long time, but it just didn't seem right forthis boy at first. Finally, as we were filling out the hospital paperwork, we knew it was becausehe needed a special Japanese name in there, so Fox chose his favorite and used a very old kanji for it.

Everyone is having a ton of fun getting their kisses and cuddles on with this cutie.

Who does he look like? He blended in really well in the nursery

with all that black hair!

Yes, that is Cash forcing Quincy's fingers into a peace sign. Oy.

We are all doing great! I had a great birth experience, and the hospital was amazing!

Birth story to follow...

Catching Up!

2012-01-03T05:14:00.000-08:00

Okay--I am finally dragging myself away from the kotatsu (where there is no internet reception) to blog about this past month!
Starting with Cosette's birthday in November, we have a family birthday/holiday or anniversary every few weeks until Cash's birthday at the end of February. The new baby fits right in there with his birthday (hopefully) being in a few weeks. So, winter is a crazy season for us!

First, Cosette's birthday! Cosette's likes and dislikes change from day-to-day, so I didn't plan a cake for her, since she insisted on doughnuts. After she got her doughnuts, she wondered where her cake was, so I got her one slice of cake. Now I know that she always wants a big cake. Maybe in the shape of a doughnut?

And her presents this year were a stuffed snake from the zoo and a Little Pony from her grandparents:

Fox's birthday is in mid-December. He had a migraine for his birthday and had gotten his presents a few weeks earlier during a black Friday sale, so he had a very sad birthday...but there was cake!

The next week, there was a school Christmas party. Here is Cosette as Santa--she was the only one to keep her beard on!

A visit from Santa-san!

Showing the spoils that Santa brought her--socks, fax paper-?, snacks, and some origami paper.

Fox and I celebrated our 9th anniversary on New Year's Eve. We got a babysitter and went to see Mission Impossible 4. Good times! And then on New Year's, Cash got a haircut. The kids have learned that in Japan, it's not a true picture unless there is the peace sign being shown.

Next up: The littlest guy's birthday! Here I am at 37 weeks and obviously exhausted. No more winter birthdays, I say! On the plus side, my extra body weight is keeping me really warm :)

Thank you to everyone who has sent cards, presents, and boxes with goodies and baby things to us recently. It means more to us than you know. This time of year is the hardest time to be away from family. We miss you and love you all!

Home Life--Japan style

2011-12-08T06:48:00.000-08:00

This blog post is alternately titled, "Life without Central Heating", since that seems to determine how life at home is lived in Japan.Life in Japan is a life of opposites--the toilets have remote controls and more buttons than a microwave, but most homes do not have central heating or insulation. In other words, your bottom is going to be warm and toasty but beware when you leave the bathroom! I used to teach in the home of a doctor who had 3 brand-new BMWs but would lug his kerosene heater from room to room, depending on where his girls were doing their homework.
We have adjusted to life without central heating pretty well. I credit this all to my Dad, who doesn't believe in central heating anyways. Growing up, I can only remember a few times when the heat was turned on--was it on Christmas? So, I learned to enjoy flannel, layering, and sleeping bags. Here's how we do it in Japan:

Kotatsus:


Cash and Coco after bathtime under the kotatsu. Yes, Coco has fake tattoos and is throwing her signs.

Or as I like to call them "dry hot tubs". Basically the best invention ever--a table with a heater underneath that you cover with a blanket to keep the heat in. Most people have either a kotatsu or a hot-carpet, a rug with a heater underneath that you can sit on. The Ellises are on the kotatsu team all the way!

Family Bath Time: I think this relates to central heating, because we all want to limit the exposure of wet skin to a non-heated, paper-walled home in the winter. We've adopted the Japanese way of bathing: scrubbing up in the shower and then soaking your scrubbed-clean body in the deep, deep tub full of super-hot water, which is shared by the family. Yep, we all pile in the shower together as a family (our shower is in the school, and it's kind of creepy down there at night!) but Fox and I don't usually bathe with the kids, since we're too big. We would if we all fit, though. Sorry, no pictures!

Family Bedroom: Someone once told us that being in Japan is good for your family, since you have to learn to stay in one room at a time, winter or summer. Very true! The first time we lived here, Fox and I were crazy sleep-training-obsessed parents and let baby Cash have the bedroom with the heater in it while we slept on unpadded futons in the next room, in front of a bright halogen lamp. For 3 months. Wow. This time, we all get much better sleep and stay way warmer in the same room. The kids are on the floor on futons with extra blankets. We're in our bed. Everyone gets much more sleep and stays warm. Sounds crazy even to me, but it totally works.

Layering: Japan is the land of layering! They are all about wool socks on top of leggings on top of "warm-heat underclothes". All the kids put on their fleece-lined "inside shoes" in the colder months. Japanese layering clothes are big business, and everyone layers!

So that's a slice of home life in Japan--a lot of closeness!

P.S. If you've read this far, here is my 7 month pregnancy pic. 7 more weeks!

Some stuff

2011-11-28T22:52:00.001-08:00

I wrote a little (okay, a lot) about being LDS in Japan here for my friend Heather's awesome blog Women in the Scriptures.

Fox is taking his Japanese driver's test tomorrow (our Wednesday). The test is notoriously hard, and he failed the first time he took it a few weeks ago. Please pray for him! I take mine in a few weeks--yikes!

Our branch had a Thanksgiving potluck on Sunday. There was turkey and cranberry sauce! I made Larissa's chocolate truffle pie (amaaazing) and pumpkin cheesecake bars from a very rare find of canned pumpkin in the import store! The lunch was awesome.

And I did take Halloween pictures but not many. Here is one from our school's Halloween party (Fox and I were working the cameras). The man on the right is our boss and our friend Janelle on the left is the other teacher. The other ladies are the sweet school nurses. Hiroko, the one in the back, also teaches Cash's hiragana class and can often be found jump roping across the playground, even though she is almost 60. She is awesome.

So there is some recent stuff. My mind is all over the place lately, but I'll try to put up more recent pictures soon!

Happy Birthday, Cosette!

2011-11-18T16:45:00.001-08:00

Today is Cosette's 3rd Birthday!!! Happy Birthday, Coco!

On her "birth" birthday:

Age 1:

Age 2:

And now 3 years old!

Cosette, we love you! You are so much fun and bring so much joy to our family!
At 3 years old, you:
--asked for a live elephant for your birthday and also a toy dinosaur.
--love the songs "This is Halloween" and "Superbass"(the clean version!) and sing random pieces from them constantly
--love being around people, playing jokes on them, and messing with them in some way, especially touching hair and faces. Hmmm...
--love to run super fast and yell super loud
--love the movie "Tangled" and anything scary. You constantly reassure us by saying, "I'm not afraid of scary fings"
--can still hold your bladder for like 13 hours overnight, longer than anyone in this family!--constantly compliment people--sleep surrounded by your stuffed animal.
--have favorites that change everyday. Some days you love rice, other than days you hate it. Some days you love your toys, other days you only love Cash's toys. You always have a favorite "cuddly" of the day. This keeps us on our toes!
--love boys, specifically Riku, Sento, Dime, and Holden. I actually don't think I've ever seen you play nicely with any girls.
--love to tell stories. "Remember that one time I saw a snake and then it ate my foot and then I brushed my teeth? The end."

We love you, Coco girl! I think this is the year that you might actually grow hair on the top of your head!

A Day in Kobe

2011-11-09T23:59:00.000-08:00

We have lived here for almost a year, and I still hadn't gotten off the island (Shikoku). I was definitely having island fever, so on our last day off, we woke up early, drove 5 minutes to the port, and hopped on the 4-hour Jumbo Ferry to Kobe, city famous for its beef. Apparently, massages every day and a diet including beer makes for really tasty cows :) I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of the huge 4-story ferry that includes an arcade, ice cream shop, huge tatami room for sleeping, ladies' room (to keep creepy men away), and a TV room with massage chairs (that was playing the Panthers football game, to Fox's extreme joy!).

Here are the kids on the ferry:

Once we got to Kobe, the Kobe Oji Zoo is just 2 train stops away--and kids are free! Cosette had never been to a big zoo--and it was about time!

These pics are a bit out of order--sorry! Here is Cosette eating curry (Fox was sneaking a picture of her--if she knows her picture is being taken, she does a crazy face). Both of our kids can eat their weight in Japanese curry, so it is always a safe bet for lunch!

Cash in the petting area, loving on a huge rabbit:

The main attraction at this zoo is the giant panda. China has been loaning some pandas to Japan in an effort to build friendship between the two countries.

In the koala house:

Cosette loving on a guinea pig:

Fox and the kiddos in Amusement Land:

After the zoo, we walked around in the huge outdoor mall, where I found a water bottle that I had been searching for forever. Hmmm...it looks like it is $6.50 in the U.S., and I paid almost $18 here, which was a screaming deal. Whaaa...oh well, it is helping me get my required 80 ounces of water a day!

We hopped back on the ferry at 8 pm and got back at midnight. The funny part is that the lights stay on in the ferry's "sleeping room" the entire time, but everyone still managed to sleep (except me--pregnant women on flat tatami floors just doesn't work).
But--it was so good to get off our tiny island for a day, and the kids had so much fun!

We finally went to the movies in Japan!

2011-11-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

Last night, we finally saw a movie in Japan! We watched this:

while drinking these:

How was this magnificent feat possible?!
1.) We live 7 minutes away from a movie theater now, instead of 1 1/2 hours!
2.) We live 7 minutes away from a babysitter now, instead of 1 1/2 hours--thanks, Heather!
3.) Yesterday was November 1st, which means 1st-day-of-the-month movie prices: 1000 yen instead of 1800 yen per ticket! Wednesdays here are Ladies' Days, which means all ladies pay only 1000 yen!
4.) There were some movies playing in English with Japanese subtitles! Movies here are on a different release date, so our options were Cowboys vs. Aliens or Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I love James Franco (he is awesome--check this article out), so the choice was easy :)

We liked the movie and had such a great time, partly due to the younger guy sitting next to us. He was smiling and on the edge of his seat the whole time, whispering "Sugoi!" (cool!) excitedly. It was funny. A random thing is that every single person stayed in the theater until the end of the credits, which were all in English. I wonder if this is another sign-of-respect part of the culture here?

Tomorrow is a national holiday and we just *might* get off this tiny island and take the ferry to Kobe. If we do, this will be a super exciting week for us!

Third in Third

2011-10-20T06:26:00.000-07:00

I am now in the third trimester with our third baby, so I figured it was time for a belly shot! Such a difference from my 1st baby, when belly shots were much more frequent, but I usually don't start showing until 5 months or so.

Pregnancy always goes by much quicker as soon as I know if it's a boy or a girl, so I am really enjoying this part and thinking a lot about what our new little boy will look like! So far, pregnancy with this boy is very similar to Cash's--a non-stop wiggler who apparently really loves chocolate, mashed potatoes, and anything spicy! I should have known there was a boy in there :)

Cosette also wanted a solo pic:

She is now insisting that we call her "Cosette" and refuses to answer to "Coco". This might have to do with the fact that at our school, there are 2 other Cocos and a Cocomi. Cosette also lets us know when she wakes up if "today is my happy day" or "today is my grumpy day", and she is always true to her word.

Cash wanted a picture, too:

Cash is at a really fun age right now. He has started picking out his clothes for the next day and laying them on his bed every night. In the morning, he gets dressed, makes his bed, and opens the curtains...then plays quietly until Cosette wakes up. He has also started getting interested in sight words and trying to read on his own. Very fun!

We are adjusting to life at our new school/apartment. It's been a big change for us. Fox is now working 8 to 6 M-Thurs, with a break for naptime (this is a combo daycare/kindergarten that is conducted only in English), whereas before he was working until 10 or 11 most nights. We see him all day long, as Cash is in his morning class and Cosette and I are downstairs helping out and playing with the younger kids. Fox went from driving over 2 hours a day most days to literally walking downstairs to go to work and then coming back upstairs when the day is done. Most of his students are ages 5 and under, which is also a huge change. There are over 30 kids at this school, and about 20 of them stay until 6 pm every day, so it is always loud. It's exhausting but fun!

We have been having to spend our days off applying for our new city's paperwork--health insurance, library cards, child allowance, etc. so hopefully we will have some time soon to go exploring some fun parts of our city. There is a dolphin recovery center about 20 minutes away that looks fun!

And--the most important part--there are non-Japanese food restaurants in our city! This is very important, as we eat a lot of Japanese food at home. We have Subway (wheat bread!!), Indian, Thai, and Jamaican food restaurants here in Takamatsu...and they are all amazing!

I will try and get some pics up of our new place soon!

Cash's Undokai

2011-10-07T05:18:00.000-07:00

Cash had his first Undokai last Sunday! Undokais are sports' days that are very big deals here--they practice for weeks in advance and get the whole family to participate.Here is Cash doing the warm-up exercises:I love his enthusiasm...and stiff shoulders :)We had moved the day before and drove an hour and a half early in the morning to participate in his last activity at his Yochien. So, things had been a little crazy, but it was still fun.At Undokais in kindergarten, the whole family gets involved! Cosette did a relay for toddlers. Cash and Fox did a fun race while sharing a big hoop:

Here is Cash in another relay:

My favorite part was grandma and grandpa basketball. I didn't get a picture, but they pitted a bunch of grandparents against each other to throw 40 balls into a hoop. The grandparents were very competitive! It was bittersweet saying goodbye to Cash's classmates and teacher. Everyone shook his hand, and he was given his class birthday present early. Cash was the only American there, so everyone knew him. The entire staff of teachers and the principal was so good to us--they translated every piece of paperwork into English for us and really were sad to see Cash go.Here is Cash and his teacher, Shinohara-sensei:

After a final sayonara, we were off to our new city for good--this time a complete 180 degrees, as we are living inside a school where every student is only allowed to speak English. For my kids who were encouraged to only use Japanese in public in our tiny town, this week has been a big adjustment--more on that later :)

Typhoon Day!

2011-09-23T16:05:00.000-07:00

This week was interesting. In between a National Holiday on Monday (Respect for the Aged Day) and a National Holiday on Friday (Autumn Equinox Day), there were 2 days where school was cancelled due to a typhoon headed our way. We did get a little of it, but nothing bad at all. In fact, it was not much more than a bad rainstorm here. Hooray!
By Monday, it had already been raining for four days straight, so when we saw a break in the clouds, we headed out as fast as we could!
We went to Sanuki Mannou Park,one of our favorite parks here. There was a lot of bouncing and boinging and sliding, so I sat my pregnant self out on everything.

Here are some pics:

One of the reasons why we love this park is because there are green, rolling hills throughout the park, which is a very rare site here in Japan.

Fun times! I love National Holidays, and Japan has A LOT!!

August

2011-08-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

Oops..it's been a while :) August was spent pretty much trying to avoid the heat! We went to the beach a lot, and no one got sunburned. Hooray! August here is summer vacation (yep, only August), so there were several activities going on throughout the month.
First, the Gokai Rangers came to the mall! The Gokai are like Power Rangers, and they put on a fighting show for the kids. My kids are still talking about it. No pictures--the line for taking pictures with them wrapped around an entire department store. So, I thought I would get a snack while Fox stayed in the line with the kids. When I got back 7 minutes later, everyone was done taking pictures! What? They made everyone go in groups of five and take only one shot. Wow.

Next, we went to Ibuki Island, a settlement famous for its fish used in dashi. I thought I took pictures, but I guess I didn't. And that's fine, because nothing is happening on Ibuki Island. We just wanted the ferry experience, so we took the 25 minute ferry over, walked around, and came home. Ibuki Island is crazy in that all of the homes there are uphill with no car access, so everyone uses scooters. Then, they take the ferry to Kanonji to do their grocery shopping. It was kind of fun to see everyone on the ferry with the gifts for their ancestors, since it was Obon.

Our stake had a primary activity that was so fun. Again, not many pictures...I need to use my camera more! All of the kids did different physical exercises, which I'm sure tied in to a spiritual topic, but it was all in Japanese. Afterwards, they had a scavenger hunt for the golden plates, and then bound a huge replica of the golden plates together. Then, we all helped sew and package Otedama, or bean bags, which are really popular here and used in occupational therapy. These bean bags would be sent up north to the elderly and children affected by the earthquake.

Here are our friends Chinatsu (we taught her when she was 4! And now she's 8!), Konomi, and Spencer writing letters to send with the bean bags:

The "gaijin" table :) Holden, the Shumways, and Cash and Coco working on their letters and packaging:

Afterwards, we went to Subway, which is a huge deal, since they have wheat bread. Subway is 1 1/2 hours from us, so we have only gone one other time. It is expensive but very, very worth it!

And here is Coco, being her crazy self:

Nothing else too new. The kids are very excited about mommy's growing belly. Coco is convinced that she also has a baby growing under her belly button, and she wants to marry that baby. Hmmm. Cash really wants a boy baby. Today, he told me that if it's a boy, we should name him Antonio. If it's a girl, we should name her StinkyBottom. So, I think you can see where his preferences lie. We'll know for sure September 14th!

Enjoying the Cool of the Evening

2011-07-21T21:57:00.000-07:00

Cash's preschool had its "Enjoying the Cool of the Evening Festival" (literal translation from the Japanese title! Very awesome!) on Wednesday. It was a fitting title. Earlier this week, a typhoon passed nearby our little city, which pushed all of the humidity away and actually gave us a few cool evenings. It was so fun! We brought along our new friends, the Shumways, and had hot dogs and yummy banana ice cream. The kids played games to win prizes, and the night finished off with all of the kids relaxing in the dark auditorium to an Anpan-man video.
My camera died after recording this video, but you can see Cash at about 50 seconds. We didn't realize he should have been wearing a summer jinbei, but now we know!
Here is the Kanonji Yochien's Bon Festival Dance:

Hagi No-oka Park (And Picture Upload!)

2011-07-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

Cash and Fox go down the slide at the park instead of taking the stairs. They have this in a lot of kids' places here, like preschools. Instead of bumping into each other on the stairs to get to the playground, all the kids just take the slide. I think this is so neat!

So here are a few pics of Hagi No-oka Park, a free kids' pool and park up in the mountains near our home. The water is the perfect depth for 4 year olds, which is awesome. Cash has been swimming every day in school, so it's been fun to see him strap on his goggle and swim cap and go underwater without fear. Go Cashy!


Cutie Coco!


The elephant slide--it reminds me of the toy slide Kelsy had as a little kid in the backyard.

Japan is also great about it's playgrounds for adults--this is a huge net that leads up to a big slide.

Coco's latest obsessions are alligators and snakes (although she still loves ghosts). For about an hour, she was crawling around the pooling, yelling, "I'm a mean alligator" or "I'm a nice alligator now!" Even when she would slip and roll over into the water, she still kept up being an alligator. She is hilarious.

So let's see how this worked--I am trying just uploading photo links from photobucket this time. Crossing my fingers!

On the Way...

2011-07-15T00:50:00.000-07:00

Hip Hip Hooray--Look Who's on the Way!!!

Who: Baby #3 (Girl, I tell ya, but I'll let ya know for sure next month!)
When: late January 2012
Where: Most likely Japan--not too keen on flying back 36 weeks prego.

So this should explain the lack of blog posts. When I'm not laying on the couch or playing with the kiddos, all of my internet time has been spent browsing gorgeous food blogs. And then eating sandwiches for dinner.

Fruit in Japan

2011-06-17T22:15:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, we took the missionaries and went with our friend Takuya to pick strawberries. A local strawberry farmer was trying to get rid of all of his leftover strawberries--it is no longer strawberry season. Strawberry season is generally in winter, around the time everyone is making their Christmas strawberry shortcakes. The winter strawberry season means that all of the strawberries are grown in greenhouses. We still had a lot of fun picking the strawberries and learned quite a few lessons about fruit in Japan, such as:

1.) Strawberries must be refrigerated immediately. We picked 2 huge boxes and 2 hours later, they were rotting. They are so delicate!

2.) Pieces of fruit should not touch each other, excepting grapes. When you buy strawberries in the store here, they are in a plastic package laid out in little rows and are not touching the other strawberries in the package. Cherries are in the store now, and the cherries come from America. But first, the cherries are weeded out--only the darkest and firmest cherries make it to the shelves. And of course, the cherries do not touch each other. All of this hand selecting makes fruit expensive here. 12 cherries is about $2.

3.) If someone has an excessive of fruit, you will become the receiver of that excess of fruit, such as strawberries. We learned this lesson last time, when bags of mikans would be left on our door. Right now, it is biwa (loquats). We have been given biwa almost every day this week. If only my kids would eat them! I think they are really yummy.

4.) If you are transporting fruit to church--let's say a tray of strawberries you had hand selected and arranged for an hour late Saturday night to give to the members the next day--probably not a good idea to put the tray of fruit on top of the car while you are buckling your kids in. I learned this the hard way when we heard a big clunk as my beautiful pan flew from our roof while driving off. It rained the rest of the day, so the only evidence of my strawberry disaster was our flattened metal pan, found in the parking lot of the library.

5.) Randomness in the fruit world here. Pineapples, lemons, and honeydews--all imported from the U.S.--are cheaper than when we'd buy them in Logan. Medium size watermelons are still $20. Apples are pretty much around a dollar a piece. Interesting.

Good times though! We were able to keep enough strawberries to stock up in our freezer to make smoothies with my birthday blender. Hooray!

Goings on...

2011-06-06T01:46:00.000-07:00

Nothing too new here--We got a new couch that is American-sized! And a dehumidifier that sucks the moisture from the air. It gets so humid here that the dehumidifier will get full of water in a few hours. We got these lovely items from a thrift store that had a 50% off sale, so we are excited.
Here's what's up with:

Fox: I'm not sure many of you know this, but Fox teaches 11 preschool classes a week. He was sick last week, so I got to teach for him for a few days. Lucky! He has a fun job with the cutest students! I would have never ever ever imagined Fox as a preschool teacher, but he loves it and does a great job with it. A lot of his free time is spent making flashcards and drawing educational posters for his preschoolers. Right now, he is working on a wall mural in our school, and everyone is thrilled with his artistic abilities.

Cash: is busy being a fun 4 year old. School is wiping him out, and he often lays his head down on his desk near the end of the day around 2. This makes his teachers think he is sick, so he has learned to tell them that he is well, just sleepy in Japanese. He is very big on imaginative play, which I love. The other day, I asked him why he was going to the bathroom for the third time in an hour, and he said, "There is an alien inside my body controlling my pee-pee buttons." Heehee.

Coco: I am still figuring this girl out! She is so much fun and a sweetheart, but still insists on everything scary. She has all of her Scooby Doo books memorized. We watched Tangled and kept pointing out the princess in it to encourage some girliness. The next day, she wanted to play Tangled and would only pretend she was the war horse, Maximus. Oy. She picks up on a lot of random Japanese words and will yell them out while she goes to sleep. This girl is either talking, singing, or screaming from the time she wakes up until she falls asleep. Still taking great naps, though! She can't wait to go to school and often puts on Cash's stuff and waits by the door:

Amy: I am doing great! I have picked up a few more classes, so I am teaching 7 a week. In strange contrast to Fox, I love my adult classes the most. My students are so interesting and eager to learn. I just started working on an afghan with my birthday present: yarn! I have had a few hard and isolated days (we are really in a small area, so I haven't been able to socialize a ton) and some homesickness lately (oh, cheddar cheese and tortillas--why aren't you in Japan?) but nothing too bad. I am learning a ton everyday but unfortunately not too much helpful Japanese--more like local slang!

Still having issues with pictures--some day soon I will figure this out!

Trying again...

2011-05-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

Okay--here is one of the pictures I tried to post last time. This is Fox and the kids on the way down from Kompira-san. I am still having issues with photo uploading--I need my little brother!!

I am going to plow ahead without photos (sad). This week is health week at Cash's school. Every day, they are checked for something different--dental, internal, etc. Fox and I had the lovely job of doing a home check for pinworms. Good times. Cash is learning more Japanese, but unfortunately, it seems to be more along the lines of the bad stuff. Japanese children and parents here have a very specific way of vocalizing their annoyance--it is almost musical whining. We live in the country where the local dialect does have quite a tone to it. Cash has gotten this part down quickly, and we are trying to re-train him from doing it.

Yesterday, we went to our friend Nauko's groundbreaking ceremony for her new house. I had seen a ceremony online before, so it was really fun to take part in it. Basically, the designer/artichect of the house takes the new family around to each of the neighbors to introduce themselves and invite them to the ceremony. Then, new neighbors and old friends gather outside the house (at this point, just the frame) and the family enters the house, where a temporary shrine is set up. The family prays there, and then the builders pour sake from the top floor for luck.
Nauko and her little family then threw traditional mochi from the top floor and then, for the friends below, about 100 bags of chips, including Coco's favorite shrimp chips. The kids were ecstatic. Japan is definitely the land of snacks! Someone here told me that only smaller areas in Japan do these ceremonies, so that is another little note in our long list of why we love our little countryside.

In other news, there is so much wheat growing here right now. We see fields and fields of it, whereas a few years ago, we saw zero. Fox and I were so thrilled--could whole wheat be coming to Japan to stay? Alas, no--all of this wheat will be made in to white bread flour to keep the 700 udon shops in our prefecture in business. Darn.

Kompira-San Revisited (and Re-Posted, C'mon Blogger!)

2011-05-15T15:07:00.000-07:00

**I can see these pics on my computer, but I'm not sure if you can...so, let's see if this works!**

Remember when we traveled here? No? Okay...well, anyways, we did it again!
Last Saturday, we took the train to Kotohira and plowed up the 785 steps to Kompira-san, a very famous shrine in our area. Cash did 765 steps! Wow! Coco did about 600 or so. I couldn't believe it!

Here is us at the top! Disregard my disheveled self. I wore the wrong outfit to climb all those stairs. The local college girls were walking up in their high heels and summer dresses!

Daddy and the kiddos on the way down--and again, Cash walked the almost the whole way down!

Treating ourselves afterwards! Fox and I got mikan ice cream cones, while Cash and Coco had Wasanbon cones with sugared rice puffs on top. Very sweet!

There are a ton of udon shops before you start the stairs. Here is Cash watching a man roll out the udon dough:

Chili fries! Well, I guess as chili-fried as you can get here--mashed potatoes pushed through a ricer into hot oil and then covered with tomato sauce and meat. Fox was in heaven!

We had a great day! We live close to the train station, and the kids still had enough energy to run all the way home!

This week, the rainy season has begun, which means that the air is super humid while it rains all day. It is strange to be in rain that doesn't cool you off at all!

Cash has been at preschool this week, and each day comes home with a new set of bandages and bruises from running and falling! The preschool uniform is shorts year round. Before this, Cash was a strictly-sweatpants boy year-round, and now I understand why he wanted his little legs covered. Poor guy!

New Things

2011-05-04T17:25:00.000-07:00

Blogger is still giving me server errors whenever I upload pictures! So, sorry--I am posting what I can!

This week in Japan is Golden Week, a day off on Friday and then the following week has a string of national holidays on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. (Yes, that is not actually a week. We are all confused about this.) We have managed to get the whole week off, though, and we have been enjoying it and experiencing new things!
Including:

--a Gospel Choir concert in Takamatsu on Friday. Our friend Miwa sings in a gospel choir, so we went to support her. They sang "Yes, Jesus Loves Me" and other songs in English. I always get a kick out of the fact that all the music I hear here is in English! We went to dinner the other night, and they played Justin Bieber the whole time!

--A barbecue with a local friend who was displaced by the earthquake and moved to the countryside (yep, we live in the countryside). She is from Aomori prefecture and served us their local specialties, sea urchin rice and senbei soup--both very yummy!

--The Ehime Science Museum--This has the world's largest planetarium!. It also has the robotic dinosaurs shown in the picture with Cash above. It is a huge museum full of really cool hands-on displays. We had a blast!

--Our branch's day camp, which was fun. There were about 8 American missionaries there, and lots of booths of activities. I spent the whole time snacking, of course. They had kakigori--yummy!

--Another barbecue! Our student had a barbecue at her house yesterday. I finally tried fugu (blowfish). I had been hesitant, because I had read this beforehand:
"Poisonous parts vary among different kinds of fugu, and only licensed cooks are allowed to prepare them. One must have special skills and knowledge to be licensed. Because of the strict regulations, the number of deaths is decreasing but is still reported."
Peer pressure! Our student's husband has a license to prepare fugu and had caught a bunch fresh that morning. Not bad, just chewy!

We have a few more days off, but the recent earthquakes have made us kind of hesitant to travel north. Maybe I will take the other days off to figure out how to get Blogger to upload my pictures!

Blogger Trouble

2011-04-25T05:38:00.000-07:00

We got a new camera a few weeks ago and have taken so many great pictures with it. Unfortunately, Blogger will not upload any of my pictures--and I've been trying daily for a week! Grrr..so here are a few recent pictures. For some reason, these are the only ones that would upload properly with Picasa, which is also giving me trouble. Any web photo publishing help would be much appreciated!

Cash at Risturin Park:

The Arcade in Takamatsu. I thought it was so fitting for a mall in Japan to have a giant floating squid on the ceiling next to a mural of an oni (demon):

and traditional Japanese archer:

This picture is messed up but shows my crazy, dramatic Coco...best not to interrupt her precious Lego time:

Other recent items of business with our fam:
Fox--just got called to 2nd counselor in the Branch Presidency. A testament to the fact that in Japan, you get highly praised for speaking 2 words in Japanese. Fox can speak in full sentences, so he has people tricked into thinking that he is completely fluent. He is completely worried. Please pray for him!

Amy--is diligently following her exercise program (blah) and making veggie burgers--yay for protein! I am loving the wonderful ladies I get to teach every week and am very grateful for my American friends here! In desperate need of a good book, though. I have never been able to re-read books, but it looks like I might have to try.

Cash--is warming up to preschool. As parents, we were asked to make sure we put something in his bento everyday that he doesn't like, so that he can learn to like it. So, this week, we are working on onigiri! We are never allowed to send him to school with anything sugary. Preschool this year is not about academics--it is about independence. So, the kids feed the schools' bunnies, water the plants, brush their teeth after eating, clean their plates, pick up the school, etc. It is really neat.

Cosette-- now gets to go to Mommy and Me Mondays for a few hours at the preschool where Fox teaches. We went today, and it was awesome. All the toys are wood, and they have a half-hour Japanese storytime. The teachers will only speak to Coco in Japanese, which she likes, since she likes to repeat words she hears. She also gets points for trying new food--today's snacktime was kinako mochi (sweet glutinous rice cakes topped with toasted soybean powder) and she went for it! Then, of course, all of the children stand on stools and wash their own bowls and wipe the tables down. 2 year olds! She is also finally handling nursery without her parents! Hooray!

We were very blessed to be able to have Easter dinner with our friends the Jacksons, who had a ham and jelly beans and everything! We hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

First Day of School!

2011-04-07T23:22:00.000-07:00

How cute is he?? Today was Cash's first day of preschool (here, they call it kindergarten). Here he is all decked out in his school unifrom!

With Daddy right before the opening ceremony. Preschool here is from ages 3-6, Monday through Friday from 9 am to 2 pm. Wow. We are only putting him in a few days a week for a while to see how he does. He is the only foreigner, but everyone at the school is so sweet to him and tries to use English with him when they can. This is pretty much total immersion in Japanese for this boy, and he is excited to learn! Go Cashy!

Cooking in Japan--Snacks

2011-04-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

Above is a picture of what snacking in Japan is like. The other day, we were out and about, and I got hangry (hungry/angry--yes, this is a real thing). Fox knows what to do when this happens--feed me quick! So, I told him to run into the store and get me a healthy snack. This is what he brought out: a sandwich filled with strawberry jam, strawberry whip cream, and oh yes, a strawberry candy bar. If that's not a reason to move to Japan, I don't know what is!
Seriously, this place is the land of snacking, and most of it is junk food. The key to Japanese people staying so thin is that all of the snacks are in single serving packages (at full-package prices!). We snack a lot with toddlers, so here are some of our favorite, not-too-junky snacks here:

Snackwiches--what I call that thing in the picture. Oh man, these are good. Fox and I love them, but the kids think they're just okay. My favorites are strawberry and mochi (pounded, sticky sweet rice) and sweet potato and butter(which I can't find here anymore!). They sell ham and egg salad snackwiches, which aren't refrigerated here. That kind of weirds me out.

Senbei--most kids' favorite snack. Rice crackers that can be savory like soy flavor or sweet like caramel. My kids eat these like crazy when I buy them, but I don't buy them often because they are gone in minutes. Such a simple thing to get excited about. I love them, too!

Tamagoyaki--Sweetened omelet wrapped around rice, cucumber, and something else I can't recognize. Yum! I crave this all the time. They go half price at the co-op at 5 pm, so you know where to find me then!

Onigiri--Probably the most popular snack in Japan. This is a triangle of rice filled with something, usually ume (plum) or salmon or tuna, covered in nori. I have to say that it is my goal this year to be able to snack on these. I can still only take nori in small amounts. Coco loves these!

Snack bread--probably unhealthy! We buy chocolate chip breadsticks and the occasional melon pan in a rush. Cash loves choco-pan: white bread rolls filled with chocolate pudding. Yep.

Healthy snacks--apples and peanut butter, carrots and hummus (garbanzo beans can be found here!), yogurt, any fruit, popcorn, smoothies, edamame.

Chips--Fox's favorite snack. He buys Doritos, but sometimes forgets to read what flavor he is buying. The other night he brought home "Corn Crab Cream Gratin" flavor. You can also buy Pringles here. Coco likes shrimp chips, and I love the pizza chips covered in fake cheese and basil here. Good thing they're expensive or I would buy them a lot more!

Playgroup granola bars--When we have oatmeal here, I make these a lot. They are so good. I add chopped chocolate.

Banana muffins or pumpkin bread. I use kabocha squash for the pumpkin and reduce the sugar a lot.

Inari zushi--Sweeted pouches of fried tofu filled with sushi rice. Yummy!

I like how tea time is kind of observed here. People love to buy a doughnut and a cup of tea and sit and chat. Also, custard and cream puffs are really popular here, as are flavored milks and yogurt drinks.

Yep, I'd say we have the snacks down!

Cooking in Japan--Dinner

2011-04-03T23:12:00.000-07:00

This list is a work in progress! I love to try new recipes but only do it about once a week. Luckily, most of the recipes I've tried have been good. Ditto on the Japanese cooking--I am still learning to work with a lot of new ingredients while making do without my usual American ingredients. When we moved here, we brought a stash of lentils, black beans, and split peas, so I am leaving those out of this list, since they can't really be found here (although you can order black beans from Costco).
A lot of these recipes have chicken that you can substitute with tofu. Fox usually only eats chicken.

Chicken Pot Pie Crumble-- This is really good and a great freezer meal! It doesn't call for pie crusts or cream of chicken soup, which you can't get here. Perfect!

Spaghetti, meatballs, and green beans--A popular meal with the kids, and you can get everything here for pretty cheap. The meatballs we get are called "chicken dango", so I think they are a mixture of tempura batter and chicken. The kids love them!

Pizza--Of course! Here is the crust recipe I use, but I add only 2 Tbsp. of oil. We make variations--Barbecue Chicken Pizza (bbq sauce can't be found here, but you can order it or make it from scratch) with chicken, sauce, and green onions. I like Pesto and Roasted Red Pepper pizza--pesto for the sauce, and I roast the red peppers on our fish grill. Red Peppers are cheap here! The kids like ham and pineapple.

Cajun Chicken Pasta--I brought our cajun seasoning, so this is an easy, quick recipe. I swap out the lemon pepper and tomatoes for sun-dried tomatoes (from my precious stash!--they're hard to find here)or red pepper and green onions. I also have the recipe but keep the noodle amount the same, since I don't like it drenched in sauce like that.

Corn and Potato Chowder--Super cheap and super yummy! The boys love theirs with bacon on top.

Thai Peanut Saute--I love this recipe, and I just found the chili sauce here. Yay! I add tofu and make it less spicy. I really like this cold, too.

Orange Chicken-- If you have some uninterrupted time in the kitchen, this is a really good recipe. It will be inhaled!

Teriyaki Chicken bowls--Super easy recipe: 3/4 cup soy sauce, 3/4 cup sugar, some grated ginger and garlic or garlic powder. I pour it over frozen chicken breasts and bake and baste and serve over hot rice.

Yakiniku--This is basically thin steak sauted with onions and green peppers. About 1/4 each of worcester (what it's called here but worcestershire sauce) and soy sauce dashed on top when cooked and then serve over rice. The thin steak here is already sliced up, so I guess if you buy the thinnest steak and slice it up, it would be equivalent.

Chicken Penne Pesto--Another super quick and yummy chicken pasta dish! I found pesto here...hooray!

Tomato soup and grilled cheese--Allrecipes has good tomato soup recipes. We are big soup people!

Tuna stroganoff: Cash's favorite dish! I use plain yogurt in place of sour cream. I don't have an exact recipe--just cook noodles and make a roux w/ tuna and cheese, if you want. Add garlic powder, chopped celery, spices, etc.

Hamburg and mashed potatoes: Hamburg is a popular Japanese food--like a mini-meatloaf.

Cream stew: This is another version of Japanese curry rice, but it is a cream roux and you throw in whatever vegetables you want. Really yummy!

We also do: potato soup, curry rice, yakisoba, Italian chicken or fish (just marinated in Italian dressing).

I am realizing now that I need to be eating more tofu and fish. I'm still trying to find a good fish without too many bones here. Every grocery store here has a gigantic fish section that is quite overwhelming! Sometimes the fish are still alive, lying on their open packages, and sometimes the crabs are alive and moving. It really freaks me out.
Tofu here is 35 cents a block. Hmmm...any good tofu recipes?

Cooking in Japan--Lunch

2011-04-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

Okay--lunch is probably the hardest meal of the day for me. We are usually out playing and then come in hungry and ready for a quick meal. So, this is something I definitely need to work on. But, here's what we do so far:

Lunch

Udon--Okay, first of all, we live in the smallest prefecture in Japan, Kagawa, which is home to almost 700 udon shops. Can you believe that? Our prefecture is famous for its udon, and in our small city of Kanonji there are probably close to 50 shops. One right next door to us, in fact! Not all of the shops are good, though. Generally, the "dollar" shops are gross. A good way to find a good shop is to ask a local--they will tell you where to go. Usually the good ones are hidden away in a back alley and are always crowded.
The kids beg for Udon, the thick white noodles in a mild fish/soy broth served with green onions. We love kitsune udon, which is served with thin slices of sweetened, fried tofu. Yum! If you get it in a shop, you'll pay close to $4, but we buy the fresh noodles from the store and serve at home for around 50 cents a bowl. Udon can be found in American grocery stores sometimes, but you'll be paying almost $4 as well. Here is a good recipe for homemade udon if you are in the U.S.
When Cash was 7 months old, he could eat a whole bowl of udon, and his appetite for it has only grown. He asks for it almost every day!

Yakisoba-- Yakisoba is another good, cheap noodle dish. The noodles are stir-fried with cabbage, onions, and carrots. You can throw in whatever protein source you want, too. I love yakisoba! I have found it in several Utah grocery stores, so I wonder if it is carried in a lot of stores in the U.S.?

Sandwiches--of course! Grilled cheese, tuna, and peanut butter and honey are what we usually have. Peanut butter is expensive here, but you can order it from Costco or find it cheaper at restaurant supply stores.

Okonomiyaki--This is my favorite lunch ever, but my family is less than enthused about it! Okonomiyaki is a Japanese savory pancake that you can put whatever you want in. Most people put octopus, but I leave that out. I just do cabbage, shrimp, and green onions if I am doing it Osaka-style. I love Hiroshima-style, but it takes a while to prepare, as it has a big omelet on the top and yakisoba noodles sandwiched in between. Then, you spread mayo and okonomi sauce on top, and it is super yummy!

Chicken nuggets and fruit--Yep, I give my kids chicken nuggets. Ack! They are pretty cheap here, and the kids love them. A very quick lunch!

Quesadillas--You can easily make your own tortillas or order them from Costco. Japan doesn't really sell real cheese. Instead, it sells bags of white, mixed cheese, which I'm sure is just some form of processed cheese. It's good, though I can't read the ingredients!

Curry rice--This is a popular lunch and dinner. You buy blocks of curry-roux and simmer them with potatoes, carrots, onions, and whatever protein you want. We use chicken or tofu. The curry blocks can be super spicy or super mild. We always buy the apple and honey curry blocks and occasionally throw some diced apple into our curry. Very yummy! You can also mix leftover curry with udon to make curry udon, which is really good! You can find curry roux in any Asian section of a U.S. grocery store.

Macaroni and cheese--You can buy macaroni noodles here, so my genius hubby stowed away 24 packets of the cheese mix when we left (and left my mom with all the noodles from the boxes--sorry, Mom!). We are rationing our precious supply of cheese powder, since macaroni and cheese has to be ordered here and it's almost $3 a box!

Yep, I definitely need to work on my lunches! Yesterday, I had a plain bowl of rice and a cup of cooked edamame. Very rushed. Any good lunch ideas?

Cooking in Japan--Breakfast

2011-03-31T16:02:00.000-07:00

I am always curious about what people eat in other countries, so I thought I'd post a list of what we eat here. I also want to use this list to remind me of meal ideas and to also help the teachers that move here and have no idea what to eat. I really struggled with food the first time we moved here, but now I have a much easier time figuring out what to feed my family. I count this as a great blessing in my life!

A few points about this list:
A.) A lot of this food is totally American. I am slowly learning to cook some more Japanese food, so hopefully more Japanese home cooking gets on this list!
B.) So much white flour. For shame! Unfortunately, you can't buy whole wheat flour in Japan unless you want to pay a TON of money. You in the U.S. can always substitute whole wheat flour, of course.
C.) Most of my recipes are from allrecipes.com or random food blogs. I like Favorite Family Recipes.
D.) Most of the stores here carry different specialty items, so sometimes you have to shop at a few stores to get the best deals or to find particular items, like good pickles, pesto, etc. But it's amazing the things you can find here if you're willing to travel!
E.) Expect to see ALOT of rice on the menu. Rice is Japan's bread and is pretty much eaten at every meal.

Okay, the meals. We'll just do breakfast today:

Breakfast

Norwegian Pancakes (basic crepe recipe but in our family we fill them with lemon and brown sugar). Crepes are very popular in Japan, too!

Pancakes--no buttermilk in Japan, so you can make your own by putting a couple of Tablespoons of lemon juice into a cup of milk or so.

Oatmeal--*this is a specialty item you have to order from Foreign Buyer's Club or Costco here, and it's about $20 for a bulk box of whole oats. My sis Laris will love that I am totally sold on the whole oats now, not quick oats. Worth every penny!

French Toast

Scrambled eggs and toast

Chicken and Rice--Fox doesn't eat eggs, so in the mornings, I toss in half a cup of rice and 2 frozen chicken breast halves in the rice cooker with a little broth. The chicken cooks perfectly by the time the rice is done. Awesome!

Miso soup and rice--Occasionally, we'll do the traditional miso soup, but I'm still perfecting my recipe. Instant miso soup is another option, although salty. We buy a big tub of mixed red/white miso. So yummy! The internet is full of miso soup recipes.

Fried rice--I like fried rice for breakfast, especially if we had rice for dinner the night before and had leftovers. Just rice in oil with green peppers, onion, garlic and a little soy sauce. Sometimes I add cabbage, shrimp, or scrambled eggs.

Brazilian rice--? Not sure if this is the correct name, but this is Fox's second favorite breakfast. He just puts rices in a bowl with some milk and a couple of teaspoons of sugar. He has always loved this for breakfast, although I'm not sure how he got the idea to eat rice like this.

Frosted flakes--Ack! I can't believe I'm saying this, but sometimes I buy the only cereal you can buy here, which is frosted flakes. For when I'm feeling lazy or we're in a rush out the door. My kids eat this and an hour later have a huge sugar crash.

Yogurt parfaits-- I follow a variation of this Stovetop Granola recipe, which is amazing! It works perfectly, since I don't like baking granola in my tiny ovenwave (microwave that doubles as an oven). Plain yogurt is super cheap, too, so I flavor it with vanilla and put in the granola and bananas. Yummy!

Kanonji Koens

2011-03-28T04:52:00.000-07:00

Ask anyone living here, and they will tell you that Kanonji is a boring city (hmmm...sounds a little like Logan, right?). There isn't much to do. They will also say, though, that it is perfect for families--small, quiet, safe, and lovely koens (parks).
We have been making a slow tour of the local parks, and on Sunday, we went to Ichinomiya Park, which is a really nice one on the beach.
It has a really cool climbing area:

Fox is super happy...He just discovered this park has obstacle courses, Ninja-warrior style:

A lovely view! This reminds me of California:

Coco on a big ol' Napa cabbage in a random play area of ceramic produce:

Here is Cash at his favorite park, Furono Taki or the "waterfall" park. It has a couple of waterfalls, and really good hiking trails:

My dad would be happy to know that almost every park has a zip line! While our city might be boring, there is a beach nearby, so that makes up for it!

Goodness

2011-03-15T06:12:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, we were not affected by the earthquake or tsunami at all. Well, actually I guess we were affected. The earthquake moved Japan 8 feet closer to America. The lower part of our island had a small tsunami, but nothing too bad. Everyone in our prefecture is actually quite shocked that we didn't feel...well, aftershocks.
There has been a ton of news coverage of Japan and the tsunami, nuclear reactor problems, etc. We don't have TV, so most of our sources have been online or the TVs on we have seen in stores, etc. I just wanted to share this article, called In Tragedy, Japan impresses the World. I have seen several articles about how impressed people are with the way the Japanese people are handling it, and I wholeheartedly agree. One reporter interviewed a Japanese man who spoke of his anger over the tragedy, yet he never raised his voice. People here aren't looting or cursing the government. They are sad and upset, yes. But they do what they need to do. They call it "Japanese Stoicism", which I think is kind of a weird way of putting it. I'm not sure how I would put it--maybe unfailing politeness and considerate determination? Whatever "it's" called, there is really no way you can describe the Japanese attitude. They are the kindest people, and the main reason we came back to Japan. The country can be crazy at times, but the people are amazing.
We're praying that this country gets a break from any other disaster for a while. Meanwhile, we are building up our food storage! Thank you for your love and concern.

More Cake!

2011-03-05T17:57:00.000-08:00

I just noticed that there has been cake in all of our posts recently--so now, more cake! March 3rd was Girls' Day in Japan, so since there are girls in our household, we received some sweets from our landlord and students to wish us good luck and health.

Fun! I always love Girls' Day, because the stores decorate really well and always have big displays of pink--strawberries, candy, cakes, etc. They also blast the Hinamatsuri song everywhere, which I personally think is kind of creepy dark music, but I'm sure the lyrics are nice.
On a side note, we sometimes take walks to main downtown Kanonji, where there are several shops and the post office. The street lamps all have speakers attached to them, and they are usually blasting really cheesy English songs from the 70s. I think it is so funny--like who is in charge of the music here?

This week, we have all been sick, too. Fox and the kiddos have decided to be polite and wear the customary sick masks:

I haven't worn one--tsk tsk! Maybe if I found one in pink?

Happy Birthday, Cash!

2011-02-27T23:25:00.000-08:00

Cash turned 4 on Sunday! To celebrate, he and Daddy made a castle cake. Then, we went to a cool park that has huge rolly slides. Afterwards, Cash got to go to Toys 'R Us to pick out a special toy. He chose a Transformer. He had a fun and busy day!
Cash is such a fun kid. He loves playing with Coco and is so sweet to her most of the time. He spends a lot of his time playing "school" or "workshop" or just entertaining himself by making random objects have conversations. The other day, his red playdough and his yellow playdough got into quite an argument! He is always eager to help, loves having friends over, loves learning new words, and is excited to go to preschool starting in April.
We love our Cashy boy!

A Few Pics

2011-02-20T22:49:00.001-08:00

Okay, we are going to try blogging once a week! It's been hard, because my camera zoom is broken, so I haven't been taking many pictures. Here are a few from last month.

Our first week here, our landlord came over and brought us dishes, a heater, and then asked Coco if she liked cake (Strawberry shortcake suki?). Of course, she said yes, and he dashed out the door. Little did we know that he was going to the awesome cake shop across the street to bring us back one of these beauties:

We were so thrilled! Japanese shortcake is really moist with tons of whipped cream and strawberries. Yummy!

Coco lounging on our futon:

We have since upgraded to a bed. Yep, we are wusses, but mommy is the devil when she has to sleep on the floor next to kicking toddlers. My sanity has been preserved!

Church is now a 45 minute drive away, in our old city of Marugame. Not too bad, and we have gotten to church on time pretty much every week. Yay! Here are the kids getting ready to go:

This picture pretty much sums up their personality--Cash is happy, and Coco is Ms. Mischief.

Things have been going great! I have picked up a couple of adult classes, which I love teaching. I have also finally got myself in gear and have kept us in or under our grocery budget, which seems like a little thing but I am completely thrilled! The secret is simple: shop at 5 different stores on their sale days and cook almost everything from scratch. Easy, right?

Cursed

2011-01-23T05:52:00.001-08:00

The curse of bad car luck continues in Japan! Ack! For the past 2 years, every time Fox and I would leave our home and drive out of Logan, something would happen to our car (well, cars--3 cars died on us!). We had so much car trouble every time we tried to go someplace, and now that bad luck has followed us to Japan!
Yesterday was our first evening off, so we drove 45 minutes to Marugame, our old city, to go to a R.S. activity (me) and to hang out with old friends (Fox and kids). On our drive back, we were stopped at a light, and some guy on his cell phone rear-ended us! Can we never leave home without a car incident? Maybe our luck is turning, though, because our car was not damaged at all--it is a tiny Jeep-like thing with the spare tire on the back that acted like a rubber bumper. So, yay! And no one was hurt! But still...come on car gods!

In other news, we had 3 earthquakes this week! They were all little, but Fox has never experienced earthquakes before. He's been quite shaken up this week! Literally.

We are still doing great and can't wait to share pictures once we figure out how to get a cord for our camera!

P.S. Fox and I had to speak in sacrament this morning, and Fox gave his talk in Japanese--go Fox!!

We're Alive!

2011-01-12T01:05:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone! We haven't posted in a while, but we are alive and safely settled in our new city of Kanonji, Kagawa, Japan. I wish I could post some pictures, but sadly, I have no idea where the cable for my camera is.
Our trip to Japan with 2 toddlers was a great learning experience for us. Mainly, only bring carry-ons that you can carry. 8 carry-ons and various blankies and lovies made going from flight to flight very tricky! Luckily, there was a nice Japanese family on board with kids, too, and they helped us out a ton. They let our kids play with all their gadgets and helped carry our stuff. We are forever grateful! Also, the midnight flight was a good choice--our kids slept several hours!
We are still exploring our city, but we live within easy walking distance of my favorite stores--MaxValu for groceries, Daiso for household and craft stuff, and Shimamura for clothes. Yay! We are also a couple of kilometers away from the beach and a huge sandy park. Our apartment is bordered by the fire station, the high school, city hall, and a new nice library with books for children in English. Double yay!
Most importantly, there is a beautiful cake shop across the street called "The Establishment". It sells cream puffs and tons of French pastries and is lit up in twinkly lights at night, so that is the view from our window.
We are so happy to be back and having an experience this time in a country that is no longer very foreign to us. It makes for a much easier transition, especially with kids. I am patting myself on the back for learning Katakana before we came, which means I can read words like "shampoo" and "soap" on all the various bottles. Now to actually learn the language this time!

Coco Turns 2!

2010-12-10T15:33:00.000-08:00

Yes, this post is very late. I get really frustrated with Blogger if it doesn't upload my pictures immediately!

Cosette turned 2 on November 19th! Craziness! Here are some pics from her special day:

Opening up her present, a My Little Pony:

Coco is not a cake eater, so we had ice cream sundaes instead.

The fabulous Dave and Amber braved the snow and came to visit!

The next day, Coco's grandparents came for Thanksgiving, so we did another little party. Here is Coco with her Grandpa Rick:

And birthday girl pictures with Mommy and Daddy:

Some Facts about Cosette at 2 Years Old:
--She is pretty much the same as she has been since 6 months old. Very mischievous but also very affectionate.
--She's been potty trained for 2 months, even at night! I credit the cloth diapers!
--She is very very stubborn, which is probably why she is potty trained. She holds it for as long as she wants to hold it!
--She is obsessed with Scooby Doo, spiders, and monsters. If you ask her to tell you a story, it always involves, "Once a spider crawled up my back, and it was scary...and it went in my ear!"
--She spends a large part of her day gathering various cloths and covering any cat or stuffed animal with a "blankie" to put them to bed.
--She wakes up every morning with a hug for everyone and a loud, "Good morning, guys!"

We love our little Coco and can't wait to see how she does on our adventure to Japan!

Trip to Shoup!

2010-11-19T20:15:00.000-08:00

Fox had two days off last week, so we decided to drive to Shoup before the snow came! We haven't been to Shoup in 4 years, and our kids had never been. We are so happy we went and were able to spend some precious time with Grandmama and Grandpapa.

This was the first time we had been since the mill burned down (Grandpa had a huge mill that was used for gold milling and also all of his personal storage). It was crazy to see the wreckage and hear the story of the fire. I begged Grandpa to tell me the story of the person behind the arson--an old business associate. He didn't want to tell me, because he has decided to be very positive about all of this.

Here is the makeshift shack that still contains the tools Grandpa uses in his gold mine tours:

Only a few items survived, like some of Uncle Jeff's Buddhist temple bells he had been storing there:

A picture of the fire. I never realized why it burned down so quickly, until Grandpa explained that all of his dynamite and propane was near the entrance! The fire burned for 3 days.

All of Grandpa's guns that we have shot with over the years were reduced to bars of metal:

Grandma (holding dog food or Kleenex?) outside the cabin, which is fully stocked with logs for the winter! Their cabin stays really warm with their wood stove going.

Cash and his great-grandparents! He loved them so much!

Enjoying the swings!

Beautiful Shoup!

I wish I got more pictures, but, as usual, I forgot my camera charger!
On our way home, we drove over a rock that flew up and busted a hole in the transmission of our rental car! We had to stop to let a huge herd of big horn sheep pass us, and the car started smoking. We knew it was bad. Luckily, everything got resolved, and we got home late but okay. It's not a trip out of Logan if we don't have car trouble! Of course, it was worth it to spend some time with our treasured grandparents!

Punishment or...?

2010-11-08T22:32:00.000-08:00

Cash has been quite a handful lately. We love him dearly, but he is growing and learning and testing everything in his path! There are a few instances where we have tried so hard not to laugh as we were "gently correcting" (okay, punishing)him.
Some examples:
Cash has been picking up every word he hears, as is common with curious toddlers. The other day, we were playing legos, and he got frustrated. He yelled, "This is sucks!" Then said, "That's a bad word, right?" Hmmm...yes, but not conjugated correctly. The next day he yelled, "Sucksing!" when he spilled something. And today he yelled, "This sucks me!" So, I am not sure if I should be teaching him the proper conjugation of the bad word or just blatantly trying to ban this word from his vocabulary! I guess Mommy and Daddy should stop saying what we don't want him to repeat?

Another example:
We had 4 inappropriate crayon usages today. 4. And these were not washable crayons--they were cheap mystery-brand crayons. The couch, the carpet, the bedspread...all when we were not looking. Then, I saw the 4th incident occurring from the corner of my eye! Cash was scribbling on his sister's white bedframe. I screamed "Nooooo!!!!" (I try not to scream, but, come on, this was the 4th time in a day).
Cash explained himself: On Coco's bedframe, he had spelled the letters C-O-C-O. Cash:"It's her bed, so I wrote her name!" (and he did!)
Me: "Oh my goodness, Cash, you spelled your first word! That is so awesome! Now get in the corner! For the last time, we only color on paper!"

Parenting is hard.

Boo at the Zoo!

2010-10-09T14:46:00.000-07:00

Today was Boo at the Zoo, the annual kids' Halloween day at the local (little) zoo. We went last year and had so much fun. This year was no different!
Here are the kiddos (Coco's is in Cash's costume from a couple of years ago. Free costume!):

As soon as Cash put on his Captain America muscle suit, he immediately became strong enough to lift a trash bag! I should make him wear that suit more often!

Visiting Zoya, the awesome fortune teller, who predicted that Cash would be very nice to his mommy today.

One of the many games for the kiddos. Cash won!

Aunt Kelsy was Coco's chaperone and in typical Coco fashion--spent a lot of time in the art area!

We love our little elephant!

I'm glad we went, even though Fox and I have recently decided to purge the kids from sugar as much as possible. We just made sure to hide the candy they got today! They have just been so crazy lately, and we wanted to see if it would make a difference. We started this week, and it has made a huge difference! Specifically, the kids have not had huge energy crashes and so have not been whining to watch videos. Instead, they have been calm, focused, and playing well with each other (as much as two toddlers can play well together)! We are excited to see if this keeps up. They weren't eating candy all the time, but all the fruit snacks, chocolate milk, potty treats, and random Halloween candy does add up!

We're Going...

2010-09-27T22:51:00.000-07:00

to Japan!

Yep, we are moving there in January. Last week was a difficult one of discussing and deciding, but when we finally stopped to pray about it, the answer was incredibly clear. Immediately, we knew we were supposed to go to Japan, and every shadow of uncertainty instantly vanished. It has been so nice knowing what we are going to do, and we are so excited!

We are especially excited to have our kids experience another culture (Cash was 17 months old when we left and doesn't remember it). We will also be able to jump into everything without spending months trying to figure out where to go, what to buy, and how the heck to recycle. We will even be in the same prefecture, so we'll know where to go for emergency sort-of-Mexican food!

So time to break out the textbooks--I am determined to master basic conversational skills this time! Thank you for all of your love, advice, and support. We really appreciate it!

P.S. Here is what we are really looking forward to:

Best chips I have ever had--

--and yes, the best ice cream in the world!!

Decisions, Decisions!

2010-09-21T12:32:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since I have blogged! We have been carless for about a month now, so we haven't been doing much. My mom came to visit a couple of weeks ago, so that was really fun! It was so good to see her.

The big thing lately with our family is that we are faced with several decisions to make very soon about jobs and living. It is really anxiety-producing. Luckily, the weather has been gorgeous here, so we can ponder our problems while enjoying a beautiful day outside, which makes everything better. Anyways, the decisions we are faced with all come down to Fox choosing a career path. He has finished all of his course work in his graduate program and is just waiting on taking his final exam. After that, well, here is what we can do:

1.) Join the National Guard. Fox wants to join so that he can be placed in the linguist program to learn Chinese. He loves languages and also has to be fluent in 2 other languages if he decides to get a PhD in Folklore eventually. The cons of this are that he would be away from his family (us) for months at a time with possible deployment for a year when he finishes his training. Also, the Utah National Guard has so many people lining up to join that they have taken away all bonuses (so no student loan reimbursement or sign-on bonus).

2.) Go back to Japan. I never thought I would ever type that! Our friend Brandy is looking for new teachers in January, and she is ready to hire us on the spot. It would be just like our last job there, except better curriculum, more money, bigger house and car, close to the beach, and vacation time. In fact, we would be on the same island and in the same ward. There are so many pros and cons with this one--we don't even know where to start. The biggest con is isolation (it's a very small island and our friends in Marugame would be about an hour away)and the weather (extreme humidity in summer, homes aren't insulated for winter). The pros are--of course, Japan! It's awesome. The people are amazing. The food is delicious. Cuteness and culture abound! We have to let Brandy know by the end of this week.

3.) Sticking it out in Logan until Fox finds a job elsewhere. He's been applying to a ton of jobs, but it is the academic field, which is very competitive. Basically, he's qualified to teach high school or community college English/Composition.

4.) Moving to someplace in the U.S. that we love and hoping Fox finds a job there. Probably not the best idea in this economy!

Hmmmm...decisions! Of course whatever is best for our family will eventually be revealed, but any input is definitely welcome right now. We have been stumped and anxious all week.

Conversations with Cash

2010-08-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

Saturday night, bedtime:
Cash: Mom, where does God live?
Me: God lives in Heaven.
C: No, where does he live right here?
Me: Well, I guess God lives in your heart.
C: Oh...(ponders this a few minutes, grabs his foot)...Jesus lives in my toenail.

Cash is almost 3 1/2 now, and I feel like he is becoming a different child lately. He asks a lot of questions, tells stories, and seems a lot less tormented than earlier this year. He is a really curious kid who still loves his naps and especially likes imaginary play. He has also started having conversations with himself where he asks himself questions that only he can answer. Example: What do you want for lunch today, Cash? Oh, grapes? Okay. (I am thinking this is normal, right?)

Cash is in just his undies 70% of the time, so it's hard to get a picture of him dressed. I wanted to show this picture to illustrate how Cosette can not get enough of him. She calls for him when she wakes up. Here, she had a lot of space to choose from, but she climbed up on the couch and sat almost directly on Cash's lap. He was annoyed, but she loves him so!

Most of the time, Cash is good-natured about Coco wanting to do everything with him, like here:

These kiddos definitely keep me on my toes and do end up slap-fighting if I'm not watching, but most of the time they play so well together. I feel like they are experiencing toddlerhood at the same time, which is so fun. They are actually the only kids in the nursery right now...so I hope they stay good buddies for a long while!

Coco's Collarbone :(

2010-07-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

Cosette had her first trip to the ER last night after she broke her collarbone falling off a bench at church softball. :( No fun, but she is being a little trooper. It is just a small break, and the sling is there to just make sure that she doesn't try to swing her hand up. The funny thing is that she is definitely a lefty, and she injured her left side. So, we are trying to train her to use her right hand more!

Collarbone breaks are really common, and she should heal within a week. She thinks her dinosaur sling is "pretty"!

Homemade Udon!

2010-07-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing Fox and I miss about Japan, it is the food, especially udon. Kagawa prefecture, where we lived, is famous for its udon. You can buy it here for $3.50 a little pouch (yikes!), but we decided to try our hand at making it from scratch.

Coco rolling the dough out, before we put it in a plastic bag and smooshed the heck out of the dough with our feet. You alternate kneading and then smooshing several times. Very fun!

Fox sliced up some big noodles. The finished product:

Yummy! When the noodles are done, you can put them in hot memmi broth, which you might find in the Asian section of the grocery store, or cold broth. Fox likes cold. I like hot. Either way, udon is delicious! Oh, the things you can make with water, flour, and salt!

Fun in Victorville!

2010-06-24T21:54:00.000-07:00

My little family and I just got back from a trip to California to see my parents and siblings for our annual reunion. We had so much fun! Perhaps the most surprising part of our trip was how much fun the kids and I had in Victorville (otherwise known as "the ghetto", "Victimville", and "the armpit of California"--yes, it is not the safest place to visit). Before I left, I swore that I only wanted to spend a day in my boring hometown, but we stayed there four days and loved it! I think we were all just in awe of my dad's huge and beautiful backyard, coming from our tiny apartment. The weather was perfect there, too. And of course, seeing old friends is always the best!

The real reason the kids did so great on the 9 hour car drive: Reminders that they would soon be loving on Cookie, the family dog. I guess that bump/tumor/cyst on her back is just more of her to love?

Catching up with my very first bff Lisa, whom I hadn't seen in 7 years! She moved back to her childhood home and is marrying her very first boyfriend from fourth grade!

My dad has a little swing on the patio. As soon as Cosette would be ready for a nap, she would ask to swing, and I would push her until she fell asleep. Every day, without fail!

Dave and Mom next to some pretty pink flowers.

Backyard fun! My dad, who works so hard on his yard, was kind enough to let the kids ruin his grass for a few afternoons of slipping and sliding!

We had a lot of fun with Grandparents, sisters, brothers, and cousins on our trip. I love my family!

18 Months Old!

2010-06-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

This past month has been a month of change for Cosette, who is such a toddler these days!
Yay, I'm in nursery now!

Coco is still our cuddly and violent child. We are still trying to figure this one out. She is a cuddlebug but also loves to attack her brother and the kitties...and baby dolls! She has been sawing away at her baby doll for the past couple of weeks. Uh oh--I think we should be worried!

In the last few weeks, I weaned Coco and put her in a big girl bed. She has done great, except that she wakes up earlier in the mornings. So, she conks out often before I can put her down for her nap. Her toddler bed has been great! She loves it and never gets out of it unless it is morning and time to get up.

The best change for Coco: Auntie Kelsy is back! Kels babysat for quite a while the other day, and Coco didn't even realize we were gone (unlike Cash, who was searching for us...)

We love our crazy Coco! And yes, I will cut her mullet (eventually)!

Family Time!

2010-05-18T12:51:00.000-07:00

*This post is way late, but I have been having trouble uploading pictures on our computer!*

A few weeks ago, I got to see four of my six siblings--yay! Tommy, Megan, Kelsy, and Dave...and even my mom! We had so much fun with them. I got to meet sweet baby Dax and do some fun stuff: chocolate factory, movie, dinosaur museum, Kangaroo Zoo, and of course, Target! (Come on, Logan...2 Walmarts and no Targets...really?)

Here are some pics:

Cute and cuddly Dax. I love this baby boy! He is all baby pudgy and yummy!

The cousins!

Aunty Amber meets Dax!

Aunty Megan catching up with Cash:

Mom, Dave, and Amber at the Dinosaur Museum.

I already miss everyone, but luckily we get to meet up in California in a few weeks. Yay!

Buddies!

2010-04-18T21:58:00.000-07:00

Cash has been blessed this year with making some new friends--his sister included! Cosette has always been in love with Cash, but now he is finally coming around to thinking she is pretty special, too! They have their occasional moments where he threatens to throw things at her head and she sneaks up behind him to pinch the skin on his neck...but for the most part, they follow each other around, copy each other, and give each other the giggles. It is a mother's dream (that I probably just jinxed)!
Getting ready to play outside in April:

Having fun at an Easter egg hunt at Matthew's house:

Cash has also made great friends with another 3 year old in our ward, Matthew. They are great buddies and hang out a few times a week. When we don't see Matthew, Cash talks about when we can see him again! They also have their violent moments, but they are pretty equally matched, which means no bullying and less bruises!

We took a little trip to the Ogden Dinosaur Park the other day. My camera died after a few shots, but the kids had fun!

We are so grateful to have such good kids in our area. It makes life much more fun!

Happy Spring!

2010-04-01T08:38:00.001-07:00

April Fools! (said Mother Nature, as we looked out the window this morning). Boo.

Pull-Ups! (Not the potty training variety)

2010-03-25T11:57:00.000-07:00

Last night, Fox and I had a great "date night" at home that incorporated things we both wanted to do. For my part of the "date", we ate some yummy chocolate cake and caught up on season 2 of Chuck (thank you, library, for ordering it for me!). If you haven't seen Chuck, you should check it out! It's a quirky, action/romance show that I love love love!

For Fox's part of the date, we did push-ups. Yuck. Whose idea of fun is that? I actually got really angry about it after he did 50 and I sort of did 4. Push-ups are not on my list of things to do. Pull-ups, however, are on my list of things to do. I have a huge fear of falling off a cliff while hiking and hanging on to the ledge by my fingers. I will fall to my death, since I won't be able to pull myself up. Of course, there is that whole "emergency rush of adrenaline kicks in to give you superstrength to save your life" possibility, but I don't want to bet on that.

So, we decided that we are going to do this pull-ups challenge. Hooray! And I'm sharing it with you to do it, too, if you want---or to just bug me about it. We started it this morning. Even Cash did an assisted pull-up! I did 5 negative pull-ups. Yes, negative. That is how skilled I am. So, the goal is to do 20 in 8 weeks, but if I can do two, I will be so happy. And I get to cross something off of my life list!!

Kangaroo Zoo

2010-03-15T19:42:00.001-07:00

When we were down in Pleasant Grove, we took the kids to Kangaroo Zoo, which is a huge warehouse full of inflatable bounce houses and slides. The kids loved it, but I think my youngest child (ahem, Fox) had the best time. All that running and sliding wiped them out!

Chillin' with the aunty and uncle in P.G.:

The BIG slide:

Fox and Cash after the big slide:

Me to Fox : "Why don't you take Coco down the slide with you?" And then I see this:

She loved it!

More Birthday Pics

2010-03-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

Blogger is finally letting me upload some pictures! So here are a few more from Cash's birthday:
The Robot Cake! Yes, it is covered in all sorts of candy. I (and probably Fox, Dave, and Amber, who helped) learned my lesson about cakes that are too much trouble than they are worth! This one was so sweet that we each had one piece and then threw the rest out!

Blowing out the candles:

Cash was so happy to have his Grandpa Rick with him on his birthday!

Cash got some really cool presents--here is his "surgeon outfit" from Dave and Amber--so cute!

(this picture came out weird, though)

Cash is 3!

2010-03-04T12:55:00.000-08:00

Okay, after a week of naptimes spent trying to upload pictures on to Blogger, this is all that would load! So, I thought I would at least tell you about Cash's birthday, even if the pics weren't working.

Cash had a blast! How could he not--he was with his favorite people in the world, my little bro David and his wife Amber! We went down to their very dangerous and not-babyproofed house (Rusty knife outside! Exposed wires! Power tools! Stairs!) and went to Kangaroo Zoo, which is a fun warehouse full of bouncy slides. The next day, we went to Pirate Island, which is a pirate-themed restaurant. All of the waiters speak like pirates. There is a fake pirate ship that shoots cannons and a huge arcade. A very big hit with the kids! After that, we rushed to cousin Violet's baptism in Springville and then back to Dave and Amber's for some robot cake. Pictures (hopefully!) to follow...someday.

P.S. Dave and Amber, we love you and love teasing you about your dangerous house. Although our kids passed the ultimate challenge and made it through the weekend alive!

Thank you to everyone who sent Cash well wishes on his special day!

Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T22:30:00.001-08:00

Valentine's Day is almost over! We had a good one here! This week, the weather has actually been in the 40s occasionally, so that was so nice. We actually got out of the house quite a bit. And Fox and I had a date on Friday--hooray! Our friends Elizabeth and Gabe babysat while we went to eat at the Indian Oven and had yummy coconut kurma. It was so delicious (and not Scobby-Dooby--pee-yucky as Cash likes to say).

Cash and I picked out a mailbox at the craft store and brought it home to decorate. This little project kept him busy for an hour! He was so happy!

Opening his Robot-stickered (no girly hearts here!) mailbox to find his Valentines this morning (Don't worry, Mom--there was only one piece of candy in there!):

I found this cute idea for krispy-cones online. Cash and I whipped these up with a sour cherry ball on top and then took him to his neighborhood buddies:

Testing it out--yummy!

And of course, what's a blog post without a picture of my little ankle biter (yep, she's at the cat-tail-pulling, pinching, bite-for-fun stage!):

*I just noticed Cash is wearing the same shirt in these pictures, even though the first picture is from earlier this week. He wants to wear his santa pajama top every single day! Don't worry, we wash it often. But, should I be discouraging this? This is the first time Cash has ever been picky about clothing!

Some Recent Faves

2010-02-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

Nothing too new here in the Ellis household. We are getting over colds and having the wonderful time of transitioning Cosette down to 1 nap a day. Since we have been home so much, I thought I would share a few things that have made the days a little bit more cheery (I will not be including Cash's newfound obsession with Scooby Doo. I got him a video from the library. He loves it, but I don't. Shaggy is so annoying and now Cash asks to sleep with the door open, since he gets scared. Ugh..)

Read:

Once I Ate A Pie is the "true" confessions of thirteen different dogs. It is hilarious, especially if you do different voices for the dogs. For example, Mr. Beefy, a pug, confesses that he likes to go eat tubs of butter in the basement in private. Just a really cute book--I think Fox and I might have enjoyed it more than the kids!

Listen:

I love this album. I usually put on music while I'm cooking to keep everyone happy, and this CD does the trick. It is mellow and also dance-worthy. There is a reggae ABC that Cash loves. Just a really good CD. We love it!

Snack:

Okay, if you know me, you know I can't resist candy advertising when new flavors/editions come out! It can be called "Chicken Noodle Soup Kit Kats", and I will be all over that. I just love the novelty. The Dark Reeses have been out for a while, but we just recently tried them. They are so much better than the regular ones (especially if you have left some in your pocket all day, and they are a little melty). But they still can't beat this wonderful homemade recipe, of which I always seem to have the ingredients conveniently on hand. Yum!

Websites:
Okay, I just wanted to share this: RunPee.com is a website that lets you look up a movie and then shows you when the best time would be to go pee, so that you don't miss any good parts. Hilarious and helpful! It also tells you what you missed after you went to the bathroom, and you can download the app onto your iPhone.

Awkward Family Photos is also great for a laugh!

Enjoy!

Snowman Party!

2010-01-28T18:43:00.000-08:00

Winter in Logan has been dragging on, and a lot of time has been spent indoors. Might as well make a party of it! So, we sent out little invitations and invited a bunch of 2 year olds (what was I thinking?!) over for a little snowman party on Monday. The party was very chaotic, but the kids had a ton of fun. I didn't take many pictures, since I was crazy busy! We played pin-the-nose on the snowman, hot snowball (like hot potato but with a fake snowball), made snow people out of marshmallow popcorn balls, and then decorated terra cotta pot snowmen (which was a big hit)!
Finally, the kiddos got their energy out by beating a snowman pinata. Good times, and I love that I was able to use the enticement of a party to get Cash to behave for a week!

The snowman pinata, made from paper mache and balloons (idea here)

Snowman English muffin pizzas:

Our good friend James swinging at the snowman. Yes, that is a hobby horse he is swinging with. Awesome, huh?

Cash took the pinata down! We weren't about to go outside in 18 degree weather, so I thumb-tacked the pinata to the wall...and it worked! I only filled it with 2 pieces of candy per person, as I did not want or need more chaos at that point!

Enjoying the spoils:

At the end of the party, each kiddo got to take a little snowman buddy home. I made these out of old wool sweaters and craft felt I had on hand (pattern here

I am so glad we got to start the week with a cheap, fun party. I think I learned my lesson, though--stick with 1 snack and 1 game next time. Toddlers are a bit too crazy for so many things at once!

14 months old!

2010-01-24T14:47:00.000-08:00

Cosette turned 14 months old this week! This past month, she has changed the most! She can now make several animal sounds (she often wakes up meowing), knows some body parts, and even uses the potty at least once a day. Most of all, she is a speed walker everywhere she goes! Yikes!
She is also very mischievous. She is a hitter and makes Cash cry at least once a day. She just always seems to be up to something, although her favorite thing is still looking at books.
Here is her "I'm up to something naughty" look:

Cosette is going to be a clothes lover, I think. Here she is wearing her scarf, which she will put on and wear around the house often:

As I mentioned, Coco is Miss Mischief. Here, Cash is choking her...and she is laughing! I'm trying to pull them apart. Hmmm...I think I'm in for it with this girl!

Christmas in Texas (finally!)

2010-01-15T19:43:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas pictures were very few this year! Our camera died, and we forgot to bring our charger. Then, when we got home and did our own little family Christmas, I realized that I had left my camera at my friend's house. I got it back yesterday, so voila!

Our first day in Texas, we went to play on the playground of Fox's old elementary school. Cash loved the seesaw!

Chillin' on the slide:

Relaxing in Grandpa's chair (a favorite activity):

Another photo shot by Cash:

Christmas morning:

All of the cousins got matching blankets. We let Cash sleep in with them, but he kept getting up to play with Grandpa Rick's computer in the dark:

On Christmas Day, we headed to the Waxahachie fire station, where Fox's brother Richard was working. He showed Cash all the neat equipment. Cash was so excited to sit up in the fire truck!

Uncle Richard, our favorite fireman!

These are the few Christmas pictures not excessively blurred by little fingerprints on the lens...oops! We have had our digital camera for 5 years now, and it's still hanging in there. It is huge and bulky, but we just can't bring ourselves to buy a nicer one until this one is completely dead. Hence, the permission given to our children to play with it (in hopes that they might break it and give us an excuse to get a new one. Shhh!)

Happy Anniversary to Us!

2010-01-01T08:37:00.000-08:00

I couldn't find any decent pictures of just Fox and I, so here is a random one Cash snapped a few months ago.

Yesterday, Fox and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary! Wow, time flies! Kelsy came over to babysit for us, and we are so grateful. We hadn't gone out on our anniversary since 2006!
There really isn't too much to do in Logan. First, we went to the bookstore. Then, we went to see Avatar 3D. The entire theater was given the wrong 3D glasses (the lenses were mixed up), so it was pretty funny to see everyone slowly figure out that the glasses didn't work. (A lot of--"It's still blurry!"shouts--pretty amusing). We both really enjoyed the movie, but I thought it was a little too long. All movies should be 90 minutes! Finally, we went to dinner at Angie's, which is Logan's local down-home restaurant. We had a really good time.

P.S. Our drive home from Texas was long but smooth. The weather was perfect. The only incidence of note occurred around Moab. The kids were getting really fussy, and there just happened to be a man relieving himself on the side of the highway in the snow. Well, to get the kids to stop crying, I made up a very animated story about proper emergency toileting practices. It was such a huge hit that "Don't Ya Go A-Pee-Pee in the Snow" has now evolved into a series of bedtime stories and songs that Cash begs for every night. Yep.

We're Here!

2009-12-22T10:38:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! We have arrived safely in Texas, after a 2 day drive totalling 24 hours of drive time! The kids were amazing. No potty accidents or tantrums! We got to Fox's parents house at around midnight on Sunday. Cash and Cosette were so happy to be out of the car that they were doing cartwheels and backflips. Okay, they were running (or crawling) around in circles! Thank you to everyone who helped us get here successfully (you know who you are!). We appreciate it so much.

I have to say, I am so glad we are in Texas right now. When we left Logan, it was 13 degrees. It is over 50 degrees here! Just taking the kids outside without coats and hats and gloves is so awesome. Please pray that the weather in Utah is good when we had back this weekend.

We love you and will update some more when we get back. Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday, Fox!

2009-12-15T07:44:00.000-08:00

Dear Fox,
Your birthday came recently. (I won't name when or how old you are, since you are concerned about privacy). This was a very memorable birthday. It all started when we dragged the kids out in the snow to drive to Sam's Club to pick up their huge cheesecake you have been wanting. Turns out, they no longer stock those cheesecakes. No biggie, I decided to make you one.
You went out to lunch with your friends. Turns out, your car wouldn't start afterwards. Your afternoon of hanging out with your friends and family turned into an afternoon of trying to fix your car.
When you came home, you were presented with a giant homemade cheesecake and got so excited. Turns out, the cheesecake was beautiful on the outside but totally gooey on the inside. (Curse you, wonky oven!) No biggie, you had ice cream instead.
Later on, you helped bathe the kids and had so much fun. After the bath, when Coco was taken out, turns out she was pushing out a "biggie" at that moment, which somehow got flung about the bathroom when we tried to have her sit on the toilet to finish. No biggie, you cleaned it up.
You ended the day smiling and having an excellent day after all. Wow. You really are growing up. Here's to a memorable year!

We love you!!

Thanksgiving

2009-12-06T20:11:00.000-08:00

Blogger is finally letting me upload pictures! I've been trying for weeks! We had a great Thanksgiving at Charlie's. His house is so fun! Fox had a blast helping Charlie build the floor on his house addition. Cash and Cosette were in complete heaven with all the animals. The food was excellent. Good times!
Looking at the pictures, I just realized I got more pictures of animals than people--oops!
Matthew showing Cosette his bunny. Coco screamed with glee!

Matthew's other bunny playing dead...pretty funny!

Cash on a haystack!

The men at work:

Okay, I need to just keep a big post-it on my camera that says: Take pictures of family! Next time!

The Traditional Cream Puff

2009-11-19T21:44:00.001-08:00

(Thanks for being the photographer, Auntie David!)

1 Year Old!

2009-11-19T07:33:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Cosette! Look at how much you've grown!

1 month old:

2 months old:

3 months:

4 months:

5 months:

6 months:

7 months:

8 months:

9 months:

10 months:

11 months:

12 months old!

This past year has really flown by, as we have gotten to know, raise, and relish our baby Coco!

Halloween Pics

2009-11-07T20:06:00.000-08:00

Okay, very few and very late pictures of last week! We had a really busy Halloween but forgot to drag our behemoth camera to the festivities. We trick-or-treated at the mall, then went to lunch, and then trick-or-treated in the downtown shops and to some ward members' homes. Then, we trekked back home to pass out candy to trick-or-treaters, of which there were only 7. Oh well. Fox was sweet and bought chocolates packaged with the Twilight characters for the many tween girls in our complex. We love those girls, and they were so ecstatic to get candy with Edward!!!! and Jacob!!! They have assured me that they won't be eating them. Ever.
Okay, some pics:
Cosette in a little Halloween bib (thanks, Laris!), waiting for our traditional Halloween breakfast of mini Snickers:

(kidding on the Snickers)

The kiddos forced to stay still for two seconds:

Staying and playing with Mom in the car while the boys knock doors:

Cosette's costume was a bit big, but it was free. She loved it, and it kept her warm. We had a fun, busy day!

11 Months Old!

2009-10-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

Cosette is 11 months old now! I say this every month, but I can't believe how quickly time is flying by with her. She is such a sweetheart but also mischievous. Meaning that when she comes to crawl into your lap, you never know if it's for a snuggle or a poke in the eye!
Here are some recent pics:

Unlike her brother, when Coco is quiet in another room, she isn't usually destroying something. She's reading. I caught her in the act!

I have been trying to get a good tooth shot. Cosette's front teeth came in this past month, and they are so cute!

A rare, being-still moment:

Playing with the big toys!

I can not even believe she will be 1 next month!

Squash!

2009-10-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

Kelsy and I went to Macey's the other night and were so excited to find a huge bin of different kinds of squash! You know you are Joan's daughter if you get super excited about seasonal produce!

I have never tried any of these varieties. Here's a closeup:

From right to left:
White Swan Acorn Squash, Carnival, Uchiki Kuri, Gold Acorn, Delicata, Gold Nugget

I love root vegetables and usually roast a big pan of them a few times a month. Has anyone tried any of these? Any good recipes?

His Father's Son

2009-10-11T20:47:00.000-07:00

Cash is definitely a daddy's boy. Aside from the obvious love of Batman, Cash kept this costume on all day Friday and handed me an imaginary "remote control" so that I could play the Batman video game with Cash as the star!
Our local zoo had "Boo at the Zoo" this weekend, which is a little carnival of booths and prizes for kids. Here is Cash checking stuff out:
The bean-bag toss. Gotta get in close!

Batman can fly!

Batman and Two-face. Cash kept saying, "Let's go, Toothpaste!" Heehee.

We had a fun time, but it was so cold! I think I might retire Batman and make Cash a Santa costume instead. It's all about wearing warm sweatpants!

10 Months Old!

2009-09-21T12:21:00.000-07:00

Cosette is 10 months old now! This month has been a big one for her.
In September, she:
--learned how to sleep through the night! She is now sleeping about 11 hours straight through!
--got her bottom teeth and yesterday cut her two top teeth. She is like her mama and is already grinding her teeth, though. Not a pleasant sound.
--stood on her own a few times.
--moved into Cash's room--so far, so good!
--learned to sign "all done" when she eats.

Coco is a funny little thing. She completely skipped the baby food stage and went straight to eating little chunks. She loves spaghetti! She also loves screaming at the top of her lungs when she is excited or bored and squirreling away any random bit of food or trash she may find on the floor. She doesn't swallow it--just tucks it in her cheek!

It has been so fun watching her grow and explore!

Logan Love (?)

2009-09-01T18:31:00.000-07:00

Maybe it is the warm weather here, but Fox and I have really been enjoying Logan lately. On Saturday, Kelsy watched the kids while we took a date "downtown". We explored the little hole-in-the-wall (almost literal) shops we found--a new comic book shop, a shop devoted entirely to spinning and wool yarn, a tiny dojo. We then ate dinner at the Bluebird Cafe, which has an ice cream counter/soda fountain. We had so much fun just exploring all of the old buildings down town.
Here are some other things we love about Logan:

1.) The Gardener's Market: Logan's Farmer's Marker runs from May to October, and we try to go every Saturday. It is always so fun, and you never know what you'll find. Last week, we got free zucchini and yellow (on-the-inside) watermelon.

2.) Willow Park Zoo: We visit this little park/zoo every week. There are monkeys, bobcats, elk, bald eagles, and even an albino porcupine. We always have so much fun there.

3.) The libraries! North Logan library has a huge children's book selection and a fun story time. The downtown Logan library has a huge selection of kids' cds. We go to the libraries a couple of times a week.

Hmmmm....okay, my list is not so long. I am just trying to stay positive, since the cooler weather is almost here. Logan has snow 5 months out of the year. We live in a very small apartment on the third floor. Come winter, Cosette will be walking, which means I will have 2 toddlers. The zoo and farmer's market are closed for the winter, which leaves, um, the libraries. Here's hoping we can find something else in this city to entertain us when the snow comes!

The County Fair!

2009-08-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we drove up (or down?) to Tremonton to see cousin Michael in the local parade and visit the Box Elder County Fair. It was really fun. Tremonton has a great fair, and the cousins always have several sheep and bunnies featured there.
Kelsy and Coco check out the parade:

We just caught a glimpse of Michael and his trumpet as he marched on by:

Sheep wear leotards now--it's the fashion!

Michael and Matthew:

The Smiths' sheep--represent!

The fam waiting for the Merry Go Round!

9 Months Old!

2009-08-19T08:11:00.000-07:00

(Okay, this picture is from a few weeks ago. Isn't there a saying about how rarely you take pictures of your second child compared to how many you have of your first?)

Cosette is now 9 months old! I can't believe how quickly her first year is flying by. She is crawling all over the place (and moves like lightning to get to the cat food bowl!) and pulling up to standing as much as she can. She loves stuffed animals, sweet potatoes, and any form of paper. She's also a big fan of shiny objects and her big brother. Her latest development: She cut her first tooth this week! It has been giving her a lot of grief, so we hope the rest of her teeth pop up soon!

P.S. Bonus points to whoever can guess where this picture was taken!

Home at last!

2009-07-30T23:09:00.000-07:00

Cash, Cosette, and I spent the last two weeks in California. What a busy time! I attended a Hypnobabies Instructor Training for 4 days while Christine, Tommy, and Larissa watched the kids. After that, I took the kids to Vegas to visit friends and then back to Tommy's for birthdays and the beach.
I am so grateful to have such loving and generous family who are so supportive of me. Thank you so much!

Here are a few pics from Ru's camera when we went up to Vegas (sorry so tiny!):
Ruthy has a neat function on her camera that lets her select which colors to highlight--here's some pink:

My oldest and dearest friends! Here we are at Jamie's son Trajan's 1st birthday party. Jamie, Shannon, and I have been friends since Kindergarten...and Ru joined us in the fourth grade. I love my girls!

Curious Cash peeking from a playground tunnel:

More pictures to come!

A Visit from Uncle Beer!

2009-07-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

We have had kind of a slow, sad summer, so we were so glad to have the excitement of a visit from Uncle Beer and kids this week! Okay, Uncle Beer is actually Uncle Richard, Fox's oldest brother. For some reason, Cash decided to call him Uncle Beer most of the time.
He and his kids were headed our way to go camping and stopped by for a visit on Monday. The next day, we headed over to Hyrum State Park, a cool campground about 8 miles from us, to hang out for a while.
Fox schools Violet on checkers:

Richard is a firefighter, so he brought along some gear. Cash was so thrilled to wear an actual firefighter coat!

Sweet 7 year-old Violet. She wanted to hold Cosette almost the entire time, and Cosette loved her! She is such a cutie! Behind her is her crazy, fabulous, wonderful brother William (5 years old).

All the kids hanging out. Amanda is 11 and the oldest. Josh is 9.

The Ellis brothers: promoting mischief!

It has been 2 years since Cash and I have seen Richard and his kids, so it was so fun!

Okay, and of course, a Cosette shot:

She's crawling and pulling up now. Watch out!!

7 Months Old!

2009-06-20T07:47:00.001-07:00

Cosette is now 7 months old! Yep, this blog is a bit slow and very baby-obsessed! Here is what she is up to:

Little head, big diaper (that's a Bummis Superbrite cover for all you cloth diaper fans!). She is now 18 pounds, but her head has yet to catch up!

Playing in the tub with big brother. I have been waiting for this! They have such a blast!

Hmmm...where does this piece go?

And her latest--attempting to crawl!

6 Months Old!

2009-05-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

Cosette had her half-birthday yesterday! To celebrate, she tried some mashed banana! (A bit different from Cash's half birthday since Grandma Joanie put her foot down on Cool Whip. I only gave her a teensy taste of the evil white stuff this time around.)

These are shots of her first solid food the day before. The wonderful mashed pear! Getting ready:

Completely unimpressed with the whole "swallowing non-milk food". So, we are going to be waiting a little while longer. She still has a bit of a gag reflex and isn't too interested.

Hanging with mama on Saturday:

Cosette can now almost sit on her own. These past few months have flown by, but I'm so excited for the 6-9 month stage. It's so fun (minus the teething part)!

Ten Things...

2009-05-19T14:05:00.000-07:00

You (most likely) don't know about me. Okay, my cousin Heather tagged me, so here goes. Actually, if you know me even slightly, you probably know all of these things, as I tend to blab alot. It's very hard to come up with things someone might not know!

1.) I love the smell of skunk. Especially on country roads. Ahhhh.

2.) My minor in college was psychology. I ended up taking a bunch of psych classes for fun (psych of gender, anyone?) and had enough to minor by the time I was a senior. I love it and wish I majored in it.

3.) I regularly eat an entire carton of mushrooms for a late-night snack. Sauteed in butter and olive oil and garlic. Yummy.

4.) I don't have my ears pierced. I'm waiting for Cosette to want hers done (in many years) and then I'll (maybe) get mine done with her. But, I do really like my earlobes, so I am not sure if I'll ever puncture them!

5.) I am unnaturally obsessed with celebrity babies. I can tell you at any given moment which celebrity is pregnant, their due date, and their resulting birth story. It's bad. (Here--I'll get you hooked on celebrity babies, too.

6.) I try to teach myself how to knit about twice a year, work on it for about thirty minutes, get frustrated, swear it's not for me, and go back to crochet. One day, though.

7.) My favorite treat is Chex Muddy Buddies. I make these waay too much and have even experimented with healthier versions. I just love them. (Sorry, WIC--now you know what I do with your free cereal!)

8.) I get constantly told to speak louder, that I talk too soft. This isn't that I am quiet. Most of the time, I lose my train of thought and just start mumbling incoherently to finish whatever I started saying. Oops.

9.) I am very afraid of ostriches and peacocks. And rabbits. Maybe just a fear of being bitten. More likely a fear of seeing my own blood from being pecked by a sharp beak or buck teeth.

10.) I am always searching for jobs, even if I don't plan on working or no one I know is currently looking for a job. I just love reading job postings. I have a secret hope of finding a "get paid to review frosting flavors from home"-type job. Know of any?

Tag!: Megh, Meg, Kels, Christine, Amber

a lil' update

2009-05-12T22:18:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to let you know:

Fox: is still planning on entering the Air Force as an officer. They are doing background/medical checks on him right now. He will have a board review in August and then hopefully enter Officer Training School sometime between January and March. This means he gets to do another semester at USU, which he is excited about. He gets to take some fun classes from his favorite professor and hopefully teach sophomore English as well. Since the semester ended, he is out of a job, so he has been feverishly looking for one. Praying he finds one soon!

Amy: gets to go to Hypnobabies Instructor training in California at the end of July. I am *so* excited about this, since I've wanted to do it for such a long time. After the training, I will be able to teach Hypnobabies, which I love love love!

Cash: wanted you to know that he was nice at the playground and "no hit kids". Between his defiant booger eating, refusal to pee in diapers but willingness to pee in regular underwear, and "no Mommy, I do it" attitude--we are deep into the terrible twos!

Coco: is busy giggling herself silly at booger eating and grabbing huge handfuls of hair (while still attached to heads--mainly mommy's and the kitties') whenever it gets even slightly near her vicious grasp.

Uncle Dave and Auntie Amber Visit!

2009-05-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

Dave and Amber came to visit yesterday, and we had so much fun with them! When I told Cash they were coming to visit, he yelled "Amber hold you!" before they even got here. As soon as he saw them pull up, Cash was so excited! He loves his Uncle Dave and Auntie Amber.
We took them to Willow Park Zoo, Logan's local free animal park. Here is Dave checking out the aggressive tortoises:

Feeding the duckies:

After the zoo, we went to Angie's Restaurant, which is famous for it's "Kitchen Sink", a replica of a sink full of ice cream, bananas, candy bars, and whipped cream. We had to get it! Sadly, all 5 of us (yep, Cash dug in) hardly made a dent!

The fabulous Hulihans. Isn't Amber's hair cute?

Once again, I (Amy) was behind the camera. In true Mom fashion, the only one who usually takes pictures of me is my own mother!

Watch, Read, Listen

2009-05-06T19:25:00.000-07:00

Here are some media delights we've been enjoying lately!
Watch: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Since Fox went and saw Twilight with me, I promised him that he could choose the next 3 movies we saw at the theater (yeah, I'm nice). He, of course, chose Wolverine, and Kelsy kindly watched the kids while we went. It was pretty funny to be in a movie where the guys in the theater were so excited--standing, clapping, yelling. I really enjoyed the movie. There was a little romance and a lot of action. Fox, being a diehard X-Men fan, was disappointed by the movie. He has read almost all of the comics and swears the movie isn't doing them justice.

Read: Fablehaven (Books 1 and 2)

We are addicted to Fablehaven! This youth fantasy series is written by an LDS author, Brandon Mull, and the writing is excellent. The first book has been compared to Harry Potter, but I think it's way better. The story follows a brother and sister and their adventures in their grandparents' secret preserve for magical animals. You should definitely check it out. Such a fun read!

Listen: Camp Lisa, Lisa Loeb

I am a huge Lisa Loeb fan, and this CD doesn't disappoint. It's a compilation of fun camp songs she sings ("Father Abraham", "Peanut Butter and Jelly") with her amazing voice and folksy guitar. Cash listened to a few songs and kept asking me to play them over and over. It's such a cute kids' album that is not annoying. I remember singing a lot of those songs at camp (except "The Disappointing Pancake"--that song is off the wall!)

5 Months Old!

2009-04-27T08:20:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Cosette is 5 months (and 1 week) old already! Time has gone by so quickly these past months. We are really loving parenting her without consulting every "baby scheduling" book like we did with Cash. I was so obsessed with Cash's nursing and sleeping schedule when he was a baby--and I wasted so much time worrying! This time, we are just winging it, more for necessity, since we are so busy with Cash. And it's so much better!

Loving tummy time--this girl is a wiggle worm!

Playing with her newfound foot!

Reading with Daddy. Yep, she's still a Daddy's girl. She sleeps in with him every morning. If he has to get up early, she gets up early.

*Okay, you may have noticed that there aren't many pictures of Cash on here lately. Cash is currently going through a nudist stage, and we don't want any nudey shots of him on here. As soon as he resumes wearing clothes, we'll have some more pics of him. His constant nudity is a combo of having very sensitive skin and also being in the middle of potty training.

Happy Birthday, Mama!

2009-04-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

(Sorry, this is the best and most recent picture I have of my mom! Here she is holding a newborn Cosette.)

Today, she turns 60. This is something she's a little bit worried about, but I think it's a great milestone. Happy Birthday to someone who personifies being young at heart. We love you!!!

Happy Spring!

2009-04-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

We had a low-key Easter. Cash and I tried to dye eggs, but Fox's extreme aversion and continuous gagging noises made us finish up quickly. Cash was given copious amounts of candy in nursery, making him too hyper to sit still the rest of the day. We are through with Easter baskets full of candy, I think!

Here is a picture of the weather outside right now. And our husbands wonder why we miss California.....

Baby Animal Days

2009-04-12T13:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter, Everyone! Yesterday was Baby Animal Days at the American West Heritage Center a few miles down the road. We met up with our friends Jared and Pam and their two kids. We had a ton of fun...until the clouds rolled in! It quickly went from 60 degree weather to 40 degree weather. Brrr! Luckily, we got home before the rain really started. Cash had a blast there, so these pics are mostly of him!

Chasing the turkey:

Cash went straight into the arms of the Easter Bunny and was sorely disappointed that there was no candy to be found on that fuzzy suit:

Cash's first pony ride!

Cuddling a baby duck:

And last, the ever-pleasant Cosette. She cooed away happily, even though the icy wind kept blowing her blankie off her!

Sunday at Charlie's

2009-04-07T12:41:00.000-07:00

We went up to Charlie's on Sunday, and it was so fun. Janie and her family, who were in Utah visiting with Heather and her new baby, came up for the afternoon, too. It was so fun to see everybody. Cash loved all of the kids. All the playing wiped him out, so he decided to lay down in Matthew's bed and take a nap. We were also able to watch the Sunday afternoon session of Conference there, which was great. Here are some pics!
The fam:

Uncle Rick spent some time with Cash and took him to pet some nearby horses. Cash loved it!

Leslie wanted to hold Cosette, and she also spent alot of time playing with Cash. She's already a great auntie!

Cousins on the couch:

Four Months Old!

2009-03-19T12:41:00.000-07:00

Cosette is four months old today! I can't believe we are just weeks away from starting solids. These months have flown by so quickly! Coco's loves right now are: sucking her fingers, practicing rolling over (almost there!), and fingering her taggie blanket. She is constantly happy, sleeps well, and laughs easily. We are so blessed with our little baby girl!

Spring Break Review

2009-03-14T22:26:00.000-07:00

This week, Fox had Spring Break, which meant that he wasn't gone at class or grading papers in the evenings. Also, Cosette has started going to bed at the same time as Cash, which frees up a lot of my own time in the evenings.

Free time + a handful of free Redbox codes= a whole lot of movies.

Observe.

Saturday: City of Ember.
Review: I busted a Joanie and worked on several projects, so I can't really say. Fox loved it, though.

Sunday: Igor.
Review: I was in and out of the kitchen (man, I'm becoming my mother!), but Fox hated it. We thought it would be kid-friendly, and it was most definitely not.

Monday: Hellboy 2.
Review: I only watched a few minutes (hmm...are we seeing a pattern?), but I had never seen the first one. Fox liked it. The special effects and martial arts in it were pretty amazing.

Tuesday: Happy Go Lucky*
Review: This was my pick. I wanted to see it, because it is about a girl who is happy no matter the situation. I thought the girl was totally neurotic, and it is probably one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Wednesday: The Changeling*
Review: This movie was very intense and disturbing. The ending was hopeful. Angelina Jolie did a great job as a mother of a kidnapped boy. It is just not fun to watch a movie about kidnappings. I don't recommend it!

Thursday: Australia.
Review: This movie was 42 minutes too long, but I really liked it. It was very epic or "a Barbie story", as we say in this house. Nicole Kidman's fake lips bug me, but Hugh Jackman in the outback..'Nuf said.

*These movies were rated R, which we generally do not watch. Our only exception is if they generate a lot of awards buzz. The actress in Happy Go Lucky won a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The actress in The Changeling was up for a Best Actress Oscar.

So, we are all movie-d out for now. Don't think we're lazy bums for this. Did I mention our car is in the shop for the fourth time in 2 months? We have been housebound for days. Regardless, watching movies is one of my favorite things to do. Now, if only I could watch an absolutely amazing one!

Happy Birthday, T-mouse!

2009-03-04T11:46:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to a great big brother! In the tradition of my little brother's wife's family (which is so fun), I am going to post some embarrassing things about you. Maybe some of my other sibs will remember these gems.

1.) When you were in fifth grade, you said all the girls in your class loved you and that you had girlfriends. When we asked you what your girlfriend's name was, you said there were so many that you couldn't remember one name!

2.) When you were in third grade, you said you were so smart that you had the brain the size of a dinosaur's brain (um, yeah).

3.) When you were in high school, you loved to watch the soap opera Sunset Beach. I watched it, too, and I know it was good...but still, a tough guy like you watching soaps just always made my day.

Love you, Tommy! Hope your birthday is great!

Picture Tag

2009-03-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

My sister tagged me to post my fourth photo in my fourth album on my computer, so here we are! This is a picture of Cash when he was about 2 1/2 months old. We were having a little improptu photo session, and our cat Sable came and loved on him. He didn't know quite what to make of it. These days, Sable loves to jump into his crib (always supervised!) and rub her head on his legs. Cash loves it. Although he occasionally struggle with acts of violence towards animals, Cash really loves his kitties!

Okay--so I'm tagging whoever reads this and hasn't been tagged yet, since I don't know who keeps up with this blog these days. Post the fourth picture in the fourth album on your computer. Have fun!

Cash's 2nd Birthday!

2009-02-28T08:39:00.000-08:00

Cash turned 2 yesterday. Wow! We have been sick all week, so we didn't do much. In fact, Cash had little energy to eat even half of his ice cream cone cupcake. After opening one present, he just laid down on the floor. It was so sad. He refused to smile at the camera, too. Here are a few pictures from yesterday:

Blowing out his candles:

Frosting-lover Mommy showing Cash how to really get at the frosting.

Auntie Larissa sent Cash a music kit. He loved drumming on the box and was so excited that there was an actual drum in there!

Great-Grandma Betty got Cash a trike! We can't wait to take him outside on it---and it hasn't snowed for a while so that could be soon!

Sicky Cash and I trying on his new hats.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

Coco's Giggle Fit

2009-02-20T07:07:00.000-08:00

I know, I know---More gratuitous mommy footage! You love it, though, right?

Cosette started having giggle fits a few weeks ago. She was just relaxing in her bouncy seat one day, and out of nowhere, she started giggling. It was too cute. It has happened a few times since then, and I finally caught it on video. Of course, this one was a little prompted. Here's Cosette laughing with Auntie Kelsy on Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T08:18:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day from Coco:

And Cash!

Cosette's Blessing

2009-02-05T12:22:00.000-08:00

Cosette Reimi Ellis was blessed on Sunday, February 1. She wore her mommy's (and aunties and cousin's) blessing dress and was so beautiful! We were so happy that Larissa and Shay, Dave and Amber, and Charlie and his family could come for the blessing. We had such a great time with all of them. Thank you for all of your support!

Home at Last!

2009-01-28T13:37:00.000-08:00

On the 16th, Fox, Kels, the kids, and I started our drive to Pleasant Grove to visit Dave and Amber. Our van started making a crazy grinding noise in rush hour Friday night traffic in downtown Salt Lake City. Ouch. We made it off the freeway and tried to figure out what was going on. Long story short, our van was towed to a place near Dave's. Turns out we needed a new engine! Argh. And that the new engine wouldn't be ready until the next Friday! Double Argh! In actuality, the car wasn't ready until Tuesday evening. So, after Fox and Kels found a ride back up to Logan on the 19th, I hung out with David and Amber until the 28th. Yep. It was really fun hanging out but definitely a challenge being away from the help we rely on, like Fox and Cash's toys. Dave and Amber are so fun and cute and wonderful, though! They really got a taste of what having two kids under age 2 is like!

Finally, I drove us home in our "fixed" van today and got home around noon. After having the kids by myself for 10 days, I was looking forward to going to my weekly sewing class this afternoon.

And then the van wouldn't start.

Triple Arrrrgh.

There is something up with the ignition or battery or something. The place that worked on it wants to tow it back down to Orem to take a look. That's over 2 hours away. Hmm.

Despite all this trouble, I'm so grateful to be back up with Fox in Logan. I am also incredibly lucky that the roads were clear today as I drove home. I also drove straight through, which is a blessing, because the car wouldn't have started again had I stopped somewhere.

We'll see what happens!

Daddy's Girl

2009-01-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

Cosette is now 8 weeks old and is already proving to be a Daddy's girl. She doesn't go down for the night until 11 pm and then sleeps in, just like her Daddy!
Here she is looking freakishly like Fox:

Being cute:

Still getting loved on by big brother. He loves to lay next to her and hold her hand.

I guess technically she looks most like Rebecca, my mother-in-law, who is also very tall. I have a feeling Cosette will have the height, too. Fox is already planning her career in professional volleyball.

Watch, Read, and Listen

2009-01-10T23:32:00.000-08:00

I have cute pictures of the kids, I do! I really hate to make blog posts without pictures, but I can't find my camera cord! Here's what I've been enjoying lately, though.

Watch

Fox and I finally got a date night! We left a restless Cosette and a sleeping Cash with Kelsy so we could go see "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". Fox and I always like to see movies that get Oscar buzz, because we are really huge fans of watching the Academy Awards (although some, including myself, would argue that the awards are not indicators of movie greatness). The movie was almost 3 hours long and a little melodramatic. However, the message of the movie is really sweet, and the music was wonderful. My date had to remove his glasses to wipe his tears. I would definitely see it (once).

Read

Santa left "The Road" in my stocking, and I couldn't put it down. It is the story of a man and his son trying to survive in a world that is almost at its end. It won the Pulitzer and will be a movie later this year. It is a huge reminder to have food storage or who knows what you'll have to eat when the world is at its end.

Listen

Technically, this is a "watch" but the songs are so catchy that I count it as a "listen". This is a 42 minute musical about an evil villain (who isn't too evil) trying to get into the "Evil League of Evil", while at the same time trying to deal with unrequited love. It's hilarious, and you can watch it for free at hulu.com

Happy Anniversary to Us!

2009-01-01T21:17:00.000-08:00

"A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong."
Milton Berle

Yeah, I'm a good wife!

Fox and I were married on New Year's Eve six years ago! To celebrate our anniversary, we...what did we do? We stayed home and watched a few episodes of "Chuck" and played "Celestial Companions" (basically the LDS-version of the Newlywed Game). Exciting, eh? The downfall of having your anniversary on a holiday is that people (ie potential babysitters) are out doing stuff!

We had fun, though.

I wanted to add a picture of us to this post, but I have zero pictures of us alone together since 2005, when we got our digital camera. So, I'll get sentimental on you instead. Fox and I often talk about when we knew that we wanted to marry each other. My moment came one day when we were taking the bus to run some errands. Neither of us had a car at that time, so we spent a lot of time using the buses. We were telling each other funny stories from our childhood, and we were laughing the whole way home. When we got off the bus, Fox looked at me and said, "If I wasn't in love with you, you would be the coolest friend". So, that's how I knew. I knew like you know a good melon. (Who knows where that line is from?) We both just really enjoy each other's company and are always finding things to laugh at. It has been so neat to be part of a relationship that has progressed from being poor college students to...being poor college students with kids together! I really look forward to the years to come and all of the adventures that we will encounter. Together.

We've Moved!

2009-01-01T21:10:00.000-08:00

We've moved! Hooray! It was a long process that started last Friday. Fox took out the seats in our van and made several trips with our stuff to our new (3rd floor) apartment in north Logan. We are now in an actual apartment--with a dishwasher and big plans to get a washer and dryer soon--instead of a chopped-up house with a huge list of safety hazards. The moving went really well. We didn't have too much stuff, and our friends watched the kids while we cleaned. We're sad that we are farther away from Kelsy, but we are directly behind Wal-Mart (which is probably bad) and right next to the Cache Valley Fun Park--woohoo!!

This is our 11th move in 6 years. Wow.

Our Christmas

2008-12-26T20:11:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas! Our Christmas was so fun this year. Cash didn't fully realize what was going on, but he got excited about Santa and "Missmiss Tees". Fox and I had so much fun getting ready and filling stockings. Christmas is so magical when you have kids, and I know it's going to get even better as our babies get older.

Here, Cash is building a gingerbread house with his Daddy. Fox got the big gingerbread pieces, and Cash got whole wheat crackers to build with!

A shot of Coco on her first Christmas. I didn't even realize she had woken up. When I went to check on her, she was just smiling away!

Our paper Christmas tree, complete with Fox's origami reindeer ornaments. We just didn't have the room in our tiny apartment for anything else!

Right after Cash's nap (hence the hair), he ran out of his room thinking that Santa had come again. Hey, if Santa comes when you sleep...

Cosette in her cute Christmas dress from Auntie Sandy:

Around four p.m., we headed over to Garland (about 25 miles away) to visit Uncle Charlie. When we got there, they had been shoveling snow all day! Logan hadn't gotten much snow that day, so I thought we would be able to drive back. However, it started really snowing shortly after we got there.
We decided to spend the night and had a lot of fun hanging out with the Smith's. They cooked us a big dinner and breakfast. I only had 2 diapers for Coco, so Lisa and I fashioned a cloth diaper out of old dishtowels and some silver safety pins. I used Cash's large diaper for the diaper cover, and it worked! Needless to say, I have learned my lesson and am putting my fashionable purse away for now. With babies, you definitely need to be prepared and there is no packing light!

We hope you all had a great Christmas!

One Month Old

2008-12-18T20:01:00.000-08:00

Cosette will be one month old tomorrow! She is a good baby and growing quickly. She still sleeps all day and then is mostly awake from 5 pm or so until 11. Gotta work on that!
On Tuesday, she slept through the night (7 hours!!) and also smiled for the first time.
Cash is still doing great with her. He is always very gentle and loving. The only sign of jealousy he shows is when he gets hurt and wants me to hold him, when I am already holding Coco. He'll say "Hold you, mama! Baby--chair!" (translation: hold me, mama. put the baby in her bouncer!) We are really enjoying this sweet little girl. Here are some recent photos from this past week:

A hint of her smile. Who do you think she looks like?

Pensive at bathtime:

Coco loves tummy time, because she loves laying on her tummy. She doesn't even attempt to hold her head up. She's like "I'm good--I'll nap here".

Cash and Coco

2008-11-30T13:21:00.000-08:00

Newborns look different everyday!
Here is Cosette at one week old:

Is it just me or does this girl have HUGE hands?

Multitasking. She can really get that finger up there!

Here's a random video of Cash playing next to Coco. He is still so good with her and always wants to be around her!