Morning Walk to the Sea Wall

One Saturday morning, we gathered our brood and walked our two strollers over to Aeon to pick up some baked goods. The Japanese bakeries have the most delicious bread. The kids got really cute rolls that were made in the shape of animals.

Syd and Shawn enjoying their horse bread.

Getting ready to dig into the turtle bread.

A few minutes after we stopped at a bench to enjoy our bread, a Japanese woman came and gave each of us a similar baked good and also handed me and Spencer each a can of coffee (the vending machines here have hot beverages too). How nice is that? Since we already had our fill of breakfast, we gave them to some bums that were hanging outside the Starbucks we passed by on our way back home.

Sunsets with Daddy

We had yet another evening where 2 minutes before dinner, Spencer sees the sunset and has to run outside to snap a picture of it. And as usual, it turned into a little photo shoot for one of our kids.

It would have been perfect if the Beach Tower wasn't blocking it!

My sweet little 2 year old.

We love his crooked smile.

Is it just me, or does he look a smudge like Gollum in this one?

Kate's First Week

After feeding and burping sleepyhead Kate one night, I handed her to Spencer while I went and did something. When I came back in the room, he had her resting on his belly. She looked so sweet that I had to run and grab the camera.

Right in the middle of my impromptu photo shoot, she hit me with this beauty:

Sweet dreams!

I didn't have many non-gown newborn sized pj's, so I had fun picking out some cute ones at the BX. When Spencer saw her dressed in this little mouse ensemble, he called her his "little Mousekewitz."

Our little cross-eyed baby :)

Even her little feet had cute mice faces on them.

Right from the start, Kate was a championed sleeper. She would frequently do 4-5 hour stretches between meals. Since Spencer had to head back to work right away for Red Cross stuff, it certainly made it easier on me!

Sacrament

Over the past several months, Shawn has a developed a slight obsession with the Sacrament. He loves using the Uno Moo game to pretend like he is one of the boys passing the Sacrament. He'll set it on the stairs, pretend to break bread, then lay down on the floor and say a prayer (which always sounds like, "Ahsa, ahsa. Amen.") Then he'll stand up and wait for us to line up behind him before walking into the living room to pretend to pass it to the congregation. It's pretty adorable.

Pretending to pass the Sacrament.

Needless to say, he is incredibly reverent when the boys pass the Sacrament at church. He watches them so intently and knows all their names. He knows that the Sacrament helps us remember Jesus. I'm glad my boy is picking up good things from church!

Baby Kate's Arrival

My third labor and delivery proved to be the craziest one yet. I anticipated being late since my other kids were, and during a doctor's appointment the day after Christmas, I was so excited to hear that I would get to be induced the following day (Dec. 27). Well, I called in that morning and they said they were swamped and would call me back. When they still hadn't called me back around dinner time, I told Spencer I didn't want to cook because I was supposed to be having a baby that day instead of making dinner! So off we went to Arashi's. To make a disappointing day even worse, on our way home Spencer made a short left turn and skidded the rear bumper of a car that was stopped at a red light. He stuck around to deal with the Military Police and Japanese police, and our friend Seth came and picked up me and the kids to take us home. 

By then it was around 6pm, so with very low expectations, I called the hospital again to see if there was any chance I was getting to be induced that day. Unfortunately the answer was "no," and I was told just come in around 8am the following morning. I emailed my family to give them the heads up, and then my mom called me that night around 11pm. We chatted for about an hour, then Spencer and I headed up to bed. I got in bed at about 12:30am, and hadn't had a single contraction. Then I woke up around 2am to a pretty strong contraction. Then I had a few more strong ones about 10 minutes apart, and I just laid in bed trying to breath through them. Around 2:30am it felt like Kate stretched out all her limbs as far as she could, and my water broke. I woke Spencer up and told him to run and get towels, and he came in with like six, which kind of made me laugh. I had him call the hospital to tell them we'd be coming soon, and while I showered he called our neighbor Whitney to see if she could come over to watch our kids. 

Spencer said it was about 3:15am when we were finally settled in the delivery room. I had asked about an epidural about 50 times because my contractions were so strong! It seemed like everyone was moving at a snails pace… the corpsman took forever to draw my blood while the nurse slowly entered my info into the computer. Then they informed me that because I had thrombocytopenia, I couldn't get an epidural until the result of my blood work came back to show that my platelets were high enough. I asked how long that would take, and the nurse said an hour. When she finally checked me at about 3:45am, I was dilated to 7 cm. I looked at Spencer and said, "I don't want to have a baby naturally!" My contractions got to the point that it almost felt like pushing a bit helped me get through them. It felt like I couldn't really stop it if I wanted to. The nurse asked if I wanted drugs to take the edge off once they got an IV in my arm, and I said "yes." But the corpsman botched that, so the nurse was going to have to do it.

Then all I remember was that my contractions were super intense (poor Spencer tried to comfort me, but all I said was, "Don't touch me.") and all the medical personnel just left the room. I distinctly remember looking at him and saying in an irritated voice, "Where is everyone?"And then it felt like I was going to the bathroom, which was totally embarrassing. The corpsman came in and I told her, then she left again. Then Spencer lifted up the sheet and ran out to tell the nurses that something was going on. My nurse came in along with a slew of other people. She lifted the sheet and said, "Don't push! Don't push!" Spencer later told me she was holding the baby in until the midwife could get on her gloves! Then the midwife told me I could go ahead and push the next time I felt a contraction. I pushed once, and Kate was born! It was 4:06am. 

In all the excitement, Spencer realized he left the camera in the car. Our first few shots of Kate had to be taken with his iPad (thank goodness he had that with him!).

Sweet relief- it's over!

Check out that chunk! I love her roly-poly back.

My perfect little girl.

At 8 lbs. 8 oz. and 21.5 inches long, Kate was my biggest baby.

I was freezing after the delivery, so it was nice to get cleaned up, put on some leggings and thick socks, and get tucked into bed. And the icing on the cake was getting to sleep on my back!

While we rested, Kate got her first bath. She loved every minute of it.

False. She screamed through most of it.

Later that morning, Spencer went home to relieve Whitney and feed the kids breakfast before bringing them to see the baby. Shawn came right up to me and said, "Let me hold her."

Such a sweet big brother!

Sydney could not have been more excited to hold her new sister. She ate it up, giving her lots of kisses and saying things like, "Hi Kate. I'm gonna take care of you."

The proud big sister.

The Heaton's came to visit us a few hours later, and were so kind to take our kids to their place while we bonded with baby Kate. Later that day we also got a visit from the Perrins' family.

Colton was also excited to hold Kate, especially since he's going to get a new baby brother soon.

Seth & Cameron

Our room had an ocean view. Can't beat that!

I still can't believe that from start to finish, my labor was just over 2 hours. I guess if it had to happen sans drugs, I'm sure grateful it happened fast! My nurse friend Melissa was working that night, and before her shift ended she came and told me that my platelets were under 100, so I wouldn't have been able to get an epidural anyway.

On Sunday afternoon, Spencer and the kids came to pick us up after church. I am so grateful for my loving husband and three beautiful kiddos!

Our family of 5!

Yay Christmas!!!

We spent Christmas Eve doing my family's traditional talent show intermixed with singing Christmas carols and acting out the Nativity. 

For Shawn's talent, he played the drums (i.e. tapped wildly on the bathroom princess stool with chopsticks). The chopsticks we own have been used WAY more as drumsticks than they have as utensils. He insisted on wearing his Jake and the Neverland Pirates costume, and we were happy to oblige.

Sydney chose to sing a few songs for us. She is very confident in her talents, and I love hearing her sweet voice.

Shortly before the festivities began, Spencer penned a poem, which he later read to us for his talent.

Three days overdue and no signs of labor!

My (slacker) talent was reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas to our family.

One of my favorite parts of the evening was when we sang Christmas songs. I had to buy Sydney a Santa hat at the 100 Yen store for her school program, so I just picked up one for Shawn too. They also came with beards, and the kids actually complied when I asked them to put them on while we sang one of their favorites, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." It was pretty much the cutest. thing. ever.

Taking a bow.

Sydney was so excited that the advent activity for that day was open up a present. Of course, it was some new Christmas pj's. I couldn't find anything cute at the BX, so I searched off base. I was so excited to find these cute flannel ones at the Bunny store!

Shawn loved his new pi's.

Just before going to bed, Sydney wrote Santa a note to leave by his plate of treats.

Growing up, our extended families would all get together on Christmas Eve, so Spencer and I both miss having a crowd of people with us to enjoy our traditional family activities. But even though it was just the four of us, we had a lot of fun seeing our kids bask in the excitement of Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning went too fast! Our kids actually slept in for a change, so I ran down to get some festive music going and position myself for taking pictures.

Coming down to check out their loot.

They were both mesmerized by the fake fire playing on our TV.

Sydney loved going through her stocking, whereas Shawn was oblivious to his. He went straight for his big presents from Santa.

He was so excited to get the drum he'd asked Santa for.

Sydney's Cinderella dress was by far her favorite gift. She wore it all morning, along with some new princess shoes that Shawn picked out for her.

Santa also brought them stick horses and cowboy hats, which they were totally adorable on.

Just like his birthday packages, several of his gifts didn't make it on time for Christmas morning. I was, however, able to surprise him with a Vitamix! We'd toyed around with buying one for the last six months or so, so I decided to just take the plunge!

The aftermath.

 After unwrapping gifts, we dug into some yummy waffles. Sydney was even willing to try to the strawberries and whipped cream on them this year and liked them! I'm surprised it's taken her this long…

We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the Perrins' house, chatting with friends and digging' into some delicious food. It was a great Christmas, and I was so excited that Kate stayed put so we didn't have to spend the holiday in the hospital!