Faith has something exciting to share!

The rain stopped, the clouds parted, and the sun broke through by the time naps were over, so we made it to the park after all today. It was fun, and very nice to get out of the house and into the sun. It’s amazing the difference a little sunshine and some fresh air makes.

Hannah completed her first set of piano booksand has now moved on to her 2nd set in the series. Mrs. Kayla, her piano teacher, uses Little Motzarts books, which are so much fun! Did I mention Mrs. Kayla is pregnant? Yeah!!! Congratulations to her and Mr. Dan.

Well, Alex should be heading home this weekend. Then he is home for a little while before he does some more traveling. Next time he will be gone for at least a month. I am not looking forward to that. I enjoy living in Japan until I have to do it by myself with my hubby gone. That part is no fun at all.

The good news is, my girlfriend Emily and I are planning a long weekend girls beach bum extravaganza in Guam while they are on their next trip. I am so excited!!! I have heard Guam ompared to Hawaii. I think this will be nice and relaxing, and the girls will love playing in the sand and swimming. We are going to attempt a military flight, since it is free and plane tickets are expensive. And, we found a hotel with great military discounts. We can get an ocean view room for about $70/night (including breakfast). It is right across the street from the beach. At Guam, I am also looking forward to Tony Romas, Outback steak house, and (I never thought I would say this) K-Mart. Woohoo!!! American shopping. Here is the hotel we are looking into: http://www.royalorchidguam.com/military.htm

Please pray for my mom (Anna). She has a job interview. Her current position will end on April 1st.

Well bummer… today is our day only day off during the week. It has be beautiful and sunny all week long, so we were planning on spending the day outside playing. Well, now it is rainy and gloomy out. There goes a great plan focused on the girls. Now we will just have to make due inside. Or, maybe we will go play in the rain

Thank you gran for our beautiful Easter dresses. We took baths and modeled them tonight. Let me know if you want the full quality picture of any of these, and I can send them to you.

Hannah’s new Tag Reading System. She had so much fun with it tonight.

Sweet sleeping Faith girl

I have the most beautiful and sweet little girls. What blessings! Their smiles and silly faces and sweet laughs make my day.

There was so much excitement at Hannah’s party, so I couldn’t get the girls to stand still in full costume long enough for a good picture. I couldn’t get Faith to wear her hat at all. But, I do have a few cute Halloween pictures so you can see them in their full Pirate Garb.

I think Pirate Faith is trying to eat Tinker Bell

Hannah’s Pirate Party

Hannah had a wonderful 4th birthday. My baby is growing up. She began her day with Hannah and Rachael (our babysitter) playing while I went to the party room to decorate with the incredible help of Emily (what a blessing to have such a sweet friend). Hannah was so excited and everyone was so full of energy.

Here is our birthday girl at her birthday party at school. We brought cupcakes to share with her class. Her teachers gave her this hat to wear and the card with a pencil, and she got to go to the office to pick aout a present – a blow up smiley face ball.

Now for just a few birthday party pics:

Here is the pirate ship cake. It turned out pretty good for an amature.

Her birthday cake table. I made a second cake like a treasure chest (it didn’t turn out great, but it worked). The X marks the spot is for treasure. The kids went on a treasure hunt, which they did great at and had a lot of fun. It was so cute. After about 5 clues, they were led to seek where “X Marks the spot”. Their treasure chest boxes with treats were hidden under the table for all the kiddos.

The palm tree pool held water bottles, and the treasure chest held juice boxes and a clue

Caribbean theme and Larry the Pirate (also holding a clue)

Pirates cave was a hit (just a big tent made of trash bags, held up by chairs and filled with balloons)

Captain Hannah with First Mate Larry

We even had swords and parrots made of balloons thanks to Nadine (Another sweet friend I have been blessed with here, far away from home).

The most beautiful pirates in Japan

Having fun

Faith and Regina became friends quickly. They really enjoyed the pirate ship Papa and I built using boxes and lots of tape.

I love the grin on her face. She loved her candles.

Birthday girl with her pirate ship cake

Hannah and her crew (minus Ashley and Samantha who left a bit earlier)

This was such a fun party. I Wish Alex could have been here to join in the fun. We played Tic tock, where’s the croc, Pin the eye patch on Larry, Musical islands, treasure hunt, and a coloring contest (only 2 little girls participated. The rest were having too much fun playing and running around). The only dissappointment – I bought some great kiddo pirate songs for the party, but I forgot to load them to my i-pod. Bummer. Oh well, I am listening to them now for blogging inspiration.

I wish you all could be there. Next year, we are going to have a great party with all our TX friends and family. Fun, Fun, Fun. We are so blessed with so many wonderful friends here in Japan to celebreate with. Thank you God!

Gifts and news

Alex came home Friday bearing gifts and bad news. The gifts: I am now the proud owner of Nintendo Wii and Hannah and Faith have a fun game called Can Do Roo! Plus, a bag full of comfort food: Cookies for the girls, Milanos for me, and delisious chocolate fondue with yummy stuff to dip. Then for the news: a trip came up for work and he will be gone for Hannah’s 4th birthday and Pirate Party. I would much rather take back the Wii and have him here for Hannah’s party. I am praying that something happens and the trip falls through or is postponed at least until after her party. Will you join me in prayer?

My baby is growing up

Hannah is just growing up so fast! She will be 4 years old this Saturday. She is such a little sweetheart.

She lovers her AWANA (a fun bible study for kiddos) and is doing great at memorizing her Bible verses. We talk about the verses each week to make sure she really understands what it means. She has such a strong understanding of God’s love for us and has such a heart for Christ. There is nothing more important. It is such a wonderful feeling as a parent to know that your child is headed in the right direction. (now, prayers for continuing in the right direction would be appreciated : )

Just this week God has lit a spark in her heart and she has started praying. It is so precious! One day last week, Alex said, “OK, let’s pray.” (in the past, she usually continues eating or interupts occasionally, but hasn’t really joined in to pray unless it is “her” prayer – God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food). Well, this time, Hannah said, “Daddy, can I pray?” So she did, all by herself, full of thanks and love for God. It was awesome! Now, she has asked to pray every day since! What a blessing!

She has also been enjoying her preschool and is getting really good at writing her name. A few weeks ago, I ordered her a few of those really early reader books so we could read together and she could wound out a couple words. SHe had not intereste and got frusterated very quickly. Just this week, she has been interested in sounding out words some and enjoys figuring out what letter words begin with. Yey!!! I look forward to teaching her to read. I think we will really work on that this summer, as long as she is interested.

She has also been doing awesome with the piano. Her attention span is getting a bit better and she is interested in learning and getting better. She now plays without pointing to each note and is learning to do the repeat without stopping first.

She is very excited about turning 4. She has been telling us, “Mommy, when I am 4 I won’t suck my thumb, but I’m still 3, so it’s ok.” It’s so cute. We will see how it goes when she actually truns 4. Since it was her idea, I bet she does pretty well.

She is so looking forward to moving to Texas. She talks about all of her friends and family in Texas all the time and can’t wait to get back. She even thanks God for each person by name. She tells people everyday (even strangers) about how we are moving back to Texas soona nd that we are going to live with Papa until God gives us our own house, and she wants a backyard. She has it all figured out. She also told me she wants to take gymnastics when we get there. We will probably try it out in Mesquite for the summer to see how she likes it. I bet she does great. Maybe she can go to the same place I did – ACI Gymnastics http://www.asigymnastics.com/asi.php?page=asihome

I can’t wait her to share her with everyone back in Texas.

A couple more videos of Hannah being cute.  -From Daddy

(From Daddy) Here is the most awesome thing a parent can see his/her child do at such an early age.  Hannah is so sweet praying.  She prays out loud before meals and at bed time.  Thanks to God for our sweet children!