Independence day and Kailey's birthday!!

Fourth of July was pretty uneventful here. We got together with some friends after church andhad a picnic and then watched the fireworks here on base. Monday, we had those same friends over and we had a barbecue, let the kids play on the slip n slide and then celebrated Kailey's birthday (which was the next day).

Kailey and her little boyfriend, Canon. Canon is about 8 months younger, but they are the same size. It is so cute, because Kailey always wants to hold his hand--they are so cute. Don't worry, we have already arranged a marriage between one of Canon's older brother's and Kailey!

Ethan and his friends playing on the slip and slide!!

Kailey getting a little bit of help blowing out her candles!

Opening presents

Grandma T. was so nice to send Kailey a fairy princess costume--she is just so cute!!

On her actual birthday, we opened up more presents from her Grandma and Grandpa Nelson--here she is loving her new Dora purse!

Showing off her new Dora purse, Barbie and pretty necklaces!

70 mile challenge, desitin covered Kailey, etc.

So, I have decided to come back to the blogging world. We have had a lot going on the past month and have been staying very busy--what am I saying, life with a 3 year old, almost 2 year old and new baby never slows down!!!

Well, the beginning of the month, I started back exercising and to motivate me, my friend Shari challenged me to run 70 miles in the month of June. It is part of a challenge on dailymile.com. It is kind of fun, because there are a couple of us that did the challenge, so everytime you logged on, you would see how many miles your friends ran and it always motivated me to run more. Well, I am proud to say that I completed the challenge and ran over 70 miles in the month of June. The most memorable run of the month I did with my two friends, Shari and Jessica. We ran off base out in town and had planned on running only about 5 miles, but got lost and ended up running 8.5 miles. Let me just say that Japan is NOT flat and all the streets look the same!! So, July we are running 80 miles. Let me know if anyone is up for the challenge!! My friends and I have a 10 mile run planned for tomorrow--hopefully I'll make it!!

The other morning I was hurrying to get the kids all ready to go to playgroup. I had everyone

ready, I just had to shower quickly. I jumped in the shower and when I came out, Kailey had been very busy!!! Apparently I had not put the desitin (diaper cream) tube up high enough and she had decided to play with it. She had desitin everywhere!! What you don't see in the picture is little white footprints going down the hallway, little white fingerprints all over, desitin on my bedspread, etc. It took me forever to clean up because it is so oily. Another morning, I was reading e-mail on the computer and she had been awfully quiet. I went to check on her and she had found a marker and had drawn ALL over herself. She is one busy and messy little girl. I don't remember Ethan ever doing anything like this.

One quick, funny Ethan story--everytime he goes potty he asks me, "Can I flush, is it going to make Cade sad?" For some reason he thinks flushing the toilet makes Cade sad--I don't know where he got that from, but it is funny! Speaking of Cade, I need to start taking more pictures of him. He is such a great little baby--so mellow, happy, and good-natured. I got lucky!!

This past weekend, I went with my two friends, Shari and Jessica up to Tokyo for a girls' weekend. We had so much fun. The husbands were all nice to stay home with our kids, except I took Cade. We left Friday afternoon and came home late Saturday night. We had so much fun shopping all over Tokyo. The picture to the left is a part of Tokyo called Shibuya. It is like the 'Times Square' of Tokyo. You can't really tell, but there is this huge intersection there they call a scramble crossing. The traffic stops on all sides to allow thousands of people to cross at one time--it is pretty cool. Anyways, we had a ton of fun and thank you to my wonderful husband for letting me get away.

Lastly, I have decided to start sewing again.

While I was up in Tokyo, we went to the fabric district and I got some really cute fabric to make Kailey some dresses. Hopefully, I'll get my act together and start sewing this month. I did make this bag this week. I have a friend that always has the cutest bags at church and she makes them all. So she was nice enough to show me how to make them and they are SOOOO easy. I am excited to make some more.

I think that about catches me up on June. Have a great 4th of July!!!

Funny Japanese Signs

For how many people can speak English here in Japan--their translating skills are HORRIBLE!! Almost everytime we go out we end up laughing at someone's shirt, a sign, etc. I need to start taking more pictures. Here are a couple of signs we saw when we were in Tokyo with my parents.

I thought this purple sign was funny--the pictures are hilarious and I have no idea what they are trying to say!

When we were in Asakusa, they had a bunch of people like this all over the buildings--I thought they were pretty cool.

Lake Yamanaka

This weekend we had a chance to get away for the holiday. We went up to a place called Lake Yamanaka which is at the base of Mt. Fuji. We stayed in some cabins right off the lake with 4 other families from church. The weather was a little crummy--rainy and foggy, so unfortunately, we didn't get to see Fuji--this picture is off of the cabin website. However, despite the crummy weather, we did have loads of fun and can't wait to go back again.

They have tons of these awesome swan boats that you can rent and go ride around the lake--we plan on doing that next time we go up!

The kids and Eric roasting hot dogs one night for dinner.

Walking along the path that goes beside the lake

There were tons of fishermen out one morning--it was kind of cool to see.

I thought this was a cool picture with the fog over the lake

Sunday morning while we were there we looked out the window and saw thousands of runners--they were having a race around the lake (it is about 13 km). It was so fun to watch all of the runners and especially those runners that dressed up in costume. We saw people dressed up like characters from Toy story, a man running with a cape, a man dressed as a bird with a bird puppet on his hand, etc. I was sorry I didn't have my camera with me.

You can't really see, but all those little dots on the other side of the lake are the runners.

This isn't the best picture, but driving up we passed a ton of rice paddies. I thought it was just the most fascinating thing--this is a quick picture I took out the window.

Grandma and Papa's Visit--Part 1

My parents have been here for the past month, well my mom has and my dad came for the last two weeks of that and it was WONDERFUL!! Let's just say that we went into shock when they left last week and are barely coming out of it!! We had a blast while they were here and went and did a ton of fun stuff. We went up to Tokyo for two days, Yokohama, Kamakura, the roller park, etc. I have tons of pictures, so I have broken it up into installments. Here is the first installment. These are pictures from when we took them to Kamakura.

Dad and Mom in front of the Giant Buddha

Mom and I harnessing our inner chi

Another temple

Looking at koi

More pics of the kids!

I have to say that Cade is the best baby ever--he just rarely cries and we are LOVING having him here. The kids can't hold him or touch him enough--the little guy is going to be tough! My sister has been begging me for pictures of the kids, so here are a couple of the kids--they are just so cute and so much fun!

Easter Pictures--Eric's mom sent the cutest outfits for the kids!

My adorable little Cade--the best baby ever!!

Kailey in her cowgirl outfit

This is a typical Kailey--half dressed, but always has to have pretty shoes on!

It's a Boy!

Cade Takahiro (貴浩) Nelson born April 9th at 3:01 am in Yokosuka, Japan.

All four of the above pictures were taken Saturday morning when he was about 30 hours old. He's asleep in the top three. Yawning in the fourth (not crying - even if it looks like it). Heather and I took the camera with us to the hospital when he was born, but didn't bother to take more than a couple of pictures and neither of them turned out too well. I'm sure we'll get plenty more pictures over the next few days.

Takahiro means "abundantly filial / widespread nobility." We knew that we wanted a Japanese middle name and didn't decide until he was about 12 hours old that this was the name we wanted. Seiji ("admonishing/pure second son") and Takeo ("warrior") were strong contenders, but Takahiro felt right.

The kids are very excited about their new little brother. Heather and Cade are coming home tomorrow.

Ethan is a COVER MODEL!!!

The catalog that Ethan modeled for is out and guess who is on the cover??? Ethan--talk about making a great modeling debut--I think I have a little moneymaker on my hands!! He is also in TONS of pictures in the catalog and I think he looks SOOOOO cute (I am a little biased however!) The website to access the catalog is: http://combimini.jp/. The site is all in Japanese, but if you go to the bottom you will see 4 catalogs and click on the one with Ethan on the front and then you can click through the catalog and see all the pictures he is in. Anyways, we are just so proud of how well he did and so glad that he enjoyed this experience. Hopefully we have many more catalogs and modeling gigs in our future. Now I need to start working on his poses!!

Painting, Sewing...keeping busy before it's baby time!

As my due date gets closer, Eric and I have been staying very busy getting things done. We are still organizing the house and putting pictures up, etc. I do have to say it is looking quite nice. Last week my friend came over and painted most of our main floor and then I finished up the hallway. She ragged the walls and it turned out so nice. It is amazing how much of a difference painting a room can make. We also painted the baby's room a nice bright sunny yellow. It looks so nice. Here are a couple of pictures of my recent projects.

I made this new dress for Kailey--I thought it turned out very cute. In the picture you can't tell but it has the cutest sleeves.

Baby's room--I still want to find something to put on the other wall. I have been looking at the huge vinyl wall stickers and think I am going to get one of those--I just have decide which one.

This sign I actually finished a while ago, but we just finally hung it up. I owe my dad big time, because he helped cut everything out. Also, the wall in the background is what color our downstairs is--it looks so nice.

I have a couple of more weeks before my mom gets here and hopefully the baby will come a little early. I still feel like I have tons to do, hopefully it will all get done!!!