Kon-nichi-wa from Japan

Hi, everyone!

We are here in Japan, enjoying a lot of new things. One of our most favorite things that we do often here is EATING! Can you tell?

Especially Taiki eats like a totally different person. He eats pretty much any kinds of food we give him. He loves to go to the bakery and choose from all kinds of yammy breads.
I bet he gaing some weight already.

The biggest thing we pulled out from this trip is that Taiki goes to the kindergarten that I went as a little girl who-knows-how-long ago. He loves it! He wears his new uniform and when it rain, he also wears his new rain boots and carries his new umbrella. Everything is so new and exciting to him.

He is getting used to the routines and started to make some friends even though he can't remember their names. He got a great teacher, too. As soon as he got confortable in yochien, he started talking in Japanese more often. He learns a lot of new Japanese words everyday by just listening and participating activities, and he even started to speak in Japanse in sentenses.

One day he found a green catapillar in the yochien yard, so his teacher let him keep it in a cage and name it. Taiki named the catapillar 'Orange chan' and he has a sence of responsibility over this little creature. I am so glad that his teacher really listens to him and trys to encourage his curiosity grow.

One of the nes favorite things Taiki gets to do in Yochien is eating an Obento which means lunch box. He looks forward to this obento time, and he eats every thing I put in his obento and surprises me.

Kenta misses Taiki a lot every day, so I make an extra effort to fill his free time. We do a lot of crafting, reading books and visiting places. I make an obento for kenta, too, so sometimes we take obento with us and go somewhere and have a picnic. He enjoys our one-on-one time, and so do I. Our favorite thing to do together is going to the library and standing by the train track to see city trains going by and yell "Super Fast!!!!" He speaks in English really loud wherever we go, so it feels like at least a half of the neighborhood know that he exists here.

Kazuto has gotten a stomach flue that's been going around and I have taken him to the doctors office 5times already. He is fine, but his pediatrician wants us to come back until his chest sounds good. Well, medical treatment is free for all the children under the age four in my city, so I don't mind. Kazuto seems to have grown the most last three weeks. He is becoming a scary little monster. He's started acting like a two-year-old and it is making me really really nervous everyday.

Since our living situation is very limited here, everyday we walk and play all over in the neighborhood where I used to play. We do a lot of catching bugs lately. We even got male and female beetles from some kids we happened to meet on the street. We already have four insects cages filled with two beetles, two snails and bunch of butterfly cocoons.

We have been to a lot of places already, but we are looking forward to having Spencer with us soon and do a lot of things together. We are also excited to hear that Aaron, Jenniffer and Tyler are coming, too!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the beautiful mothers in our ever growing family. I hope everyone has a great day and gets properly spoiled.

Pick of The Month

So, how is it, you ask, that I was able to publish a 12x12 album with 60 pages for the low, low price of $50.93? I'll tell you.When I became a Heritage Makers Consultant, I was given credits and coupons in my starter kit (totally worth it). Some of the items I wasn't interested in printing right now so I called the home office and had them apply the value of those credits and coupons to my purchase price. I also purchased 2 12x12 albums with the Pick of the Month special, then turned around and used one of those toward this book. The original value of this book was $157.56, so I save over $100 in one book.Pretty Cool Huh?
I am really excited to get this family photo storage site up so I can see everything all the Arizona Vanderpool's have been up to. Like they say, "While the dogs away, the cat will play".

The Tradition Contiues

I wish I had a photo of me when I was a child. My Dad used to take us out on the tractor to till the field. Using us kids and sometimes the neighbor kids a weight for the grator, My Dad built a sead and a handle bar for us. We would come in the house after just covered from head to toe in dirt and laughing about what happened in the field.
So it was with our little back yard (field) We finished installing the new sprinkler system that will cover the whole yard minus a little section for a playground. After covering up the trenches, Jon tilled up the whole yard to soften the soil. After picking up most of the big rocks, I started to drag a metal screen around with bricks on it. It wasn't doing anything. So I added Alex's weight. That helped a little. Then Asher saw what Alex was doing and wanted to join. What the heck. I needed a little more weight. Off we went. Until my neighbor came over. She called her son Seth over to joing the crown. At points we would hit a really soft spot and I would have to have the two big boys jump off, get over that spot, then have them jump back on. All of them were having so much fun.

Afterward, we took them inside for a bath. It was so bad we bathed them, drained the water to get rid of the dirty water, and bathed them again. Ah memories!

Baby Blessing

We wanted to let everyone know that we'll be blessing Jackson on May 9th at 12:30. Our building is at 220 E Cullumber Ave, 85234. It's one street north or our house. I know it's Mother's Day but our ward has Stake Conference on the 2nd so our fast Sunday is the 9th. We'd love to have anyone there who can make it!

Jackson Thomas Vanderpool

Born on Tuesday April 13th at 9:37am. He was 8 lbs 1 oz and 22 inches long! We're absolutely in love!!

Family Friendly Sunday Activities

For those of you who missed the last Sunday dinner; we sure missed you! We had a wonderful evening filled with quality family bonding! Peter and I just happened to snap some pictures. I hope you all enjoy!!

Lean On Me

Ammon and Archur. Can you believe they are 6 weeks apart. Such handsome little men.

BOO!

Not too sure what Andrew was doing but I'm pretty sure Ammon was enjoying the ride.

Archur is Growing Up....Darnit

He is getting pretty good at holding up his own head.

Talking to me

I guess I'm funny. Archur sure things so. I love it when he smiles at me.

Such a big boy. Love you my little short pants. XOXOXO

More of Asher's party

The big kids pillow sack race

Lots of little feet on one trampoline

Have you ever watched little kids try to "Pin the Tail on the Donkey"...way too much fun.

Asher Turns 5

These are all of Asher's friends from his school, some of their siblings and the neighbor. Pretty good turn out for his first party!

I kindof surprised him with this one.

During the pillow sack race, Alex couldn't figure out how to get his feet in the sack...he gave up, grabbed the pillow case and rand across the finish line yelling..I win, I win.

Happy Birthday Buddy! I hope this year is better than the last!

Legos

Now I do understand that these legos were for Asher for his 5th birthday. I understood that they would be all over the place. I knew that I would be completely irritated by their presence but they would be good for his creative nature. I just didn't think they would keep me up past the boys bedtime and mine so that I could have enough blocks of just the right colors to make this....
Yep, thats right me. These darn things are addictive. An old school post office complete with customers. You can critisize the lack of a roof but there wan't enough legos in the right color.......I'm going to bed now.

Blessing Tyler on Sunday March 28th

We are going to bless Tyler on March 28th. Our church starts at 10am. We would love it if everyone could come, but we also know that we all have busy Sundays. If you need directions to our building please let me know. It is on Sossaman and Rittenhouse.
Jennifer

A Few Cool Pictures

Lindsay asked me to snap a few photos from the day that Ryan and Daniel were sealed to Peter and Lindsay.

You can guess that this kind of afternoon nap runs in the family

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While we were down there visiting, I saw Asher ride a two wheeled bike without training wheels for the first time ever. So glad I had my camera!

All four boys were so engrossed in whatever game they were playing, it took me a few tries to get everyone's attention. What cute little cousins.

Alex: The Artist

Isn't Archur cute? He is healing well and just sleeps a lot. Thank goodness. But, apparently, he is the perfect still canvas for Alex to practise his artwork.

This is one example of Alex's artwork. The other examples are all over my walls. I'm not too sure if I should ask him to tell me about his picture or not. I told Jon what Alex did and all he could do was laugh.