Le Meridian Resort-Phuket

We have been in Thailand the last 2 weeks and we had the time of our lives. We were in Phuket for the first half of the trip and then in Chiang Mai the second half of the trip. It is going to take me several posts to get all of our pictures blogged. But the above pictures are from our first hotel in Phuket(pooket). The beach was amazing. Warm crystal clear water, white sand, great weather, and it was nice that our hotel was on a secluded beach. We had nice room with a patio that had an umbrella and lounge chairs to hang out when Chase was sleeping. It took Chase only about a day to get used to the ocean and then it was hard to keep him out of the ocean and of course the pool, he is my little shrimp. The hotel staff was so nice and they just loved Chase, they constantly would pick him up and play with him. Chase never did get use to the baby elephant that would come to the resort daily. Especially when the elephant played the harmonica, Chase would start crying. But it was so cool. Most of the hotel guests were Russian, Australian, and European. But it was so nice that most of the Thai staff and people spoke pretty good English as their second language. We definately would love to go back and stay at this resort again.

The Muffin Man

These pictures were taken by a professional photographer on base when Chase was 13 months that was doing sepia photos with a 1940's look. I had to just take a photo of the photos cause we couldn't get them on a disk so that is why they are not the best image.

Swan Park

Observation Tower overlooking Swan Park

Chase caught on really fast how fun it is to throw rocks into the water. He was having a blast. We went to Swan Park on Halloween morning, but the swans were not there. So we will have to catch them in the spring. Later that night we took Chase out for his first trick or treating in the Lemur costume to several homes on base. He had so much fun and Cole and I had so much fun watching him. And his Lemur costume was a big hit and people sang "I like to move it, move it" as he walked by.

My Little Lemur at the Med Group Halloween Party

Chase is the cutest little lemur that I have ever seen. The med group on base does a trick or treating party every year for the med families(doctors and dentists). Chase had fun showing off his costume, and was quickly learning how the trick or treating process works. His favorite candy are the lollipops. Don't even try to take it back from him.

5 Little Pumpkins

Chase wants to thank his grandmas for his fun halloween packages he received this week. This Halloween shirt from Grandma Dawn was a so cute. And Chase has always loved all his bookies.

Chop, Chop, Chop

Cole(#6) playing quarterback for the med group team. He actually threw a touchdown on this play. I will have to get some more photos next time, Chase wanted to be on the field with his dad so I only got one shot. Cole hasn't been able to be there for all the games, but they usually win when he plays. The team is currently 6-2.
My future footballer. He loves his little mini football.
Chase and Kaitlin, his friend from shrimp class. They were doing some aerobics. Chase loves to go into my workout room and turn the tv on and off to my step tape.
It was hard to catch on camera but they were both running on the treadmill at the same time(the treadmill was stationary of course), it was too funny. Chase does this running in place move all the time which his dad says chop, chop, chop (like in football) or I call it stomping the buggies.

Chase Dancing & Goldfish Clip

Misawa Air Show -Go Thunderbirds

Chase and me in front of a cool chopper.

Chase liked the planes except when the thunderbirds went right over top of us and put on their burners then he cuddled in. It was loud. Almost needed the ear plugs, but I was tough.

Thunderbirds taking off for the show. It was really cool and amazing to watch them do all their tricks. It reminded me of Top Gun. "I feel the need, the need for speed."
The thunderbird planes lined up before take off.
Check out those guns. Wouldn't want to be caught in that crossfire.
Here I am in front of an A-10 Warthog. And there is a C-17 in the background doing a flyby. Cole gave Chase and I a lesson on the different air force planes.
Chase and Cole in front of an F-16. You can't tell from all the pictures but there were a ton of people at the airshow. They were expecting 100,00 people on base. Apparently, the Japanese love to come to the airshow, and not only see the planes, but get a taste of American food. Next year we will take a picture of the pizza line, it is nuts. But it turned out to be a beautiful day for an airshow, and Cole only had to work the morning shift in case of mass casualties, and then got the afternoon off.

Cole's Deep Sea Fishing Trip in Japan

Here is Brad getting ready for the expedition by bringing his Little Mermaid backpack.















This was the smallest fish of the day. Doug threw this back into the ocean and one of the sea gulls ate it whole in one gulp.















Here is the group after a day of fishing. Captain on the far right and first mate on the far left.















Safety first















Brad and I had to google how to scale, gut, clean, and prepare whole fish. For our first try, I would say things turned out very well!
















Here is the finished product. At the top is the "Greeley", at least that's what the captain called it. At the bottom is a rock fish, which looked like a sea bass of sorts. Delicious! The cheek meat, as advertised, was definitely the best part.

Chase this Week

Chase was not feeling good all week. He had a low grade temperature, bad cough, runny nose, and was super crabby. You feel so bad when they are sick, and you get so worn out too. So I gave him a popsicle to make him happy that I never got back from him, but he really enjoyed it.
Chase ready for a walk in Bob. It is such a sweet stroller, it was a great b-day present from my hubby.

Just waking up from a nap. So sweet, he is holding his blankey.

Couple pictures of Chase at the Weasels Den here on Base. It is catered toward a little older kids since there are a ton of jungle gyms and slides, but Chase thinks he is big stuff and just runs around.

Photos around Misawa

Picture of our Branch building. We attend an American branch and the Japanese branch meets after us. They don't combine the branches since we can't speak Japanese and they can't speak English.

A couple photos of Japanese style homes. They love to garden around here which is really cool and really pretty to see all their flowers and sculpted trees and bushes.

Another Shrine

Rice Fields

Entrance to a Pig Farm (Smells wonderful), but these are my favorite flowers that I see around Japan in all different colors.

Our Nissan Cube and Honda CR-V

Driving is completely opposite here than in the states. We drive on the left and our steering wheel is on the right and our blinkers and wipers are opposite. It took about a week to get use to driving on the wrong side of the road, but now it seems weird if we were to drive on the right. Funny how that happens. And we both love driving the Cube, cause you have plenty of room inside and we fit in with all the other cars here. The roads are really narrow and a lot of times you have to nudge your car out pretty far at a stop sign because the shrubbery is blocking your view. So they have these huge mirrors all over the place to help you see. Although I still don't really trust them. And in the last picture, the upside down red triangle is our stop sign which can be hard to miss at times. The top 40 sign is the speed limit which is in km per hour. 40 tends to be the average speed limit around here which seems really slow since km per hour is even slower than miles per hour.

Finally Pics of Our Home

Chase's Room and yes it is pink.

Master Bedroom and Bath(View of the Woods from our window)

Guest Bedroom and Hallway

My favorite part of the house. There are two types of Japanese toilets. They refer to this one as the western style. I will show you a picture later of the other style. But this toilet has a heated seat and different buttons to push to spray your bottom and you can adjust the water temperature of the spray. It is very cool. Although I am dreading that Chase will figure out the buttons and I will find him soaked. Especially since he loves to lift the toilet seat lid and throw things into it(wooden spoon and shower cap so far).

So the shower and bathtub are in the same room. And you can take the shower head on and off. It is actually a great shower, and our master is just like it. They have it this way so you can rinse off and get clean before entering the bathtub. But you have to be careful which way you turn the dial cause up turns on the shower head and down turns on the faucet. I had the my landlord in looking at the shower one day with me whose English isn't very good. But even she turned the knob the wrong way and soaked herself. She was flailing her arms and screaming and then started laughing. It was pretty funny, and Chase didn't know what to think.

Guest Bathroom

Kitchen and dining room and view from out our back windows. And apparently the Japanese think Americans are really tall cause our cabinets are so high I have to use a step stool in order to reach them.

Workout room and view from my treadmill.

Laundry Room and door going out to two car garage.

Family Room

So far all the Japanese homes have this type of entry. Because it is a must for everyone to take off their shoes before entering anyone's home. And we do have big shoe closets that you see to your left. Even the movers that brought all of our boxes and things into the house, took their shoes on and off every time they entered the house.

Everything is smaller in Japan. Everyone has these two dinky trash cans that fit one trash bag. But the trash guys do come twice a week and pick them up right from your house. I am waiting for the BX to stock some big size trash cans, which is what our American neighbors do since I guess we are just more of a trashy bunch. And our garage opens at a snail pace, you could read a book by the time it opens.

Front of our house

The Horse Park (Komakkoland)

After trying to go to the Horse Park on multiple attempts (and getting lost each time), we finally planned everything right. The Horse Park is in Towada City, in a large plot of land up in the hills. It has a large stable, huge fields, flowers, enormous playgrounds with lots of slides, and a couple of roller slides (see below). Here is Chase on his first horseback ride ever. The workers there were so nice and helpful.

Chase was a regular cowboy!

I couldn't make this up if I tried. For 200 yen ($2), they gave us the reigns to a mini-horse named Kirari and let us take her for a walk. When we asked them where we could take her, they said "wherever you want". It kind of felt like walking Brighton again, given the size of the horse. She was a sweet horse and so cute.

Bre and the mini-horse! Not sure what Chase is doing here.

Chase loved the Kirari. A little more on his level.

Roller Slide at the Horse Park

Here I am reading the instructions at the top of the roller slide (maybe not reading, but at least I could understand the pictures!)

View from the top. The roller slides went really fast and were so much fun.

Bre took Chase on his first roller slide ride. He looked a little petrified going down, but as soon as they stopped, he had a huge smile.

Carrot Time at the Horse Park

For 100 yen ($1), they give you a cup of carrots to feed the horses. Chase loved this (ok, so did Bre and I).

I am not sure this picture is going to do this horse justice, but trust me, this was the biggest horse I have ever seen (bigger than any Clydesdale I have seen). I could only imagine the Japanese emperor riding atop a horse like this He absolutely dwarfed all the other horses.

Playground Time at the Horse Park

Chase went down his first slide on his own...just the right size. He loved the playgrounds at the horse park.

If all goes well and we make it to Thailand in November, this won't be the last elephant ride for Chase.

The Trojan Horse Slide? Cole and Chase ready for a ride.

Bre's turn.

Chase is 13 Months

Chase finally made it in to the doctor this week for his one year checkup. So here our his stats for 13 months. He weighs 21.5 lbs (25th%) and is 30.5 inches long (50th%) and is head is 18.2 in (50th%). Chase saw Dr. Hollander who was really nice and he was amazed that Chase already had a swimmers build and couldn't get over his muscles. Cole was excited to hear that his boy already looked like an athlete. And the funny thing was we had just started the mom and me swim class that morning. And he was a stud. He had a perma grin on his face the whole time and was laughing, splashing, and kicking. His teacher Heroka wondered if we had already done a swim class cause she said he just looked so comfortable in the water and was just so happy.

Chase and I were playing tag, his new favorite game. He just gets so tickled when you sneak up behind him. I don't think anything is better in life than hearing him laugh.

He is excited that package is for him. Fall Clothes, Yea. And thanks Grammy for the super cute outfit he is wearing.

Chase loves to give hugs right now. It is the best. And he loves to hug his stuffed animals, especially this bear that I bought for him at Nitori (kind of like a bed, bath and beyond store in hachinohe). I also bought all of our curtains from there to block the sun that comes up at 4:30 in the morning. The store is only about 25 minutes from here, but Liz and I ended up taking the scenic route to get there and back a couple of weeks ago. And then we ended up taking 2 hours to get home. Needless to say we learned that you don't want to get lost in Japan, cause they don't have too many signs in English and good luck asking someone how to get home.
Glimpse of our front door and Chase still laughs to clap.
Got to love the shrimp color house we live in. And check out the forest that is to the side of our house. It is September and our grass is bright green.
He is so proud of his walking skills.

There was a photographer on base today taking professional Sepia shots. We got a couple cute pictures of Chase wearing a cabaret hat and holding a old school football to give the look of a 1930's shot. Will see how the pictures turn out.

Towadaka Lake Festival

I wish the zoom had worked a little better with this picture, but hopefully you get the gist. During the Labor Day Weekend we went to Towadaka Lake (about 1 1/2 hours from home) for another festival. Different regions/prefectures brought their floats, dancers, entertainers to one place for a grand parade. In this picture, these dancers had these poles with lanterns at the top. it kind of looked like a bunch of marshmallows being held over the fire. They would balance the poles on their chins, hands, and butts (as shown).
As is the case with every festival, the sounds of chanting "Yade, yade, yade" fills the air, mixed with the beating of drums and the playing of flutes. Behind this float are a bunch of guys with long sticks beating on these drums.
Towadaka Lake is known for their apples, and this was by far the best dessert I have had in Japan. It was a soft-serve apple ice cream. Needless to say, Chase loved it too. I couldn't keep his eyes off the ice cream. Even with his mom trying to get his attention, this was the best we could do.
Another large float. You can see all the men underneath carrying these floats down the street. Children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly all participate in these parades, from floats and dancing to flutes and drums. Our favorite dance was a reenactment of a fisherman catching a large fish. A bunch of dancers with fishing poles staged a huge fight with a fish before finally landing their catch. It was a lot of fun.
Whole fish on a stick. Don't knock it until you try it. So I assume this is some type of a lake trout. They basically catch these things, shove them on a stick, and roast them over a fire. My first bite was a little too adventurous and I caught a little bit too much of the fish's "insides". I had to pretend I was in a happy place while swallowing that one. After that, I stuck to the skin and fish meat and it was actually very good. I even gave Bre a taste and she agreed! She didn't get a bite with guts on it though!

End of Summer Sizzle

Here is Chase at the beach, about 10 minutes from our house. This was his first trip to the beach. I would say he liked it, but at this point, it appears he likes just about everything except getting his diaper changed. Chase is eating some teddy grahms and sand. Bre quickly learned that lunch on the beach with babies means that there will be sand in the food no matter how hard you try to prevent it from happening.
Here is Chase sporting "The Donald", also known as Donald Trump's haircut. He just got his first haircut this past week, which was quite nerve racking for Bre. He tends to get cement feet when the ground is uneven, but he is getting more adventurous every day.
This is a picture of the "Base Beach", which borders a large lake. They have water sports available and a nice little beach for barbecues and get togethers. They held an "End of Summer Sizzle" event, with music, food, and fires for s'mores and banana boats.
You can't tell here, but Chase loved the music at the Sizzle and would flail his arms around and dance. As you can see, "The Donald" haircut is a thing of the past.

Time for a haircut

Judging by these pics, you can see that it was finally time for Chase to get his first haircut. As you can see in the picture, it didn't go as well as planned. Bre actually had to leave early because she couldn't handle Chase crying and being so upset. We did our best to finish the job at home. Sutoka was the hairdresser who cut his hair. Bre tells me they were very nice. I guess Chase wasn't too thrilled with the experience.

Towada Lake & Oirase Gorge

Towada Lake is about an hour and a half drive from our place and in order to get to the Lake you drive up through the Oirase Gorge ( a lot like driving up Big Cottonwood Canyon). There is a trail that runs alongside the river from the bottom of the Gorge up to the Lake. It would probably be about a 4 hour hike if you went from the start of the trail to the Lake. We decided to park at the Lake and walk about a third of the hike. There were several different waterfalls that were really cool to see and the water was so beautiful. The wind was really blowing up on the lake that day, so no boats were out except the ferry. Tomorrow we will be heading up to the lake again to see another festival that is suppose to have so really cool floats. So we will let you know how it goes. And a little info about Towada Lake, it is a lake formed by a volcano which is pretty cool, and they had to add fish to the lake cause it initially did not have any.

Morioka Village

Morioka is about an hour and a half north of Misawa. These pics are us spending the day at Morioka Village which was a little arts and crafts village with some fun little shops. It was a fun day and fun day with friends. We made little peanut flat cake cookies. They are common around here and are really good. They taste in between a rice cake and a cookie. I made a little wooden horse that was decorated with a ceremonial gear. Northern Japan was the place that the emperor kept all his horses so you see these horses a lot around here. We also got to make a noodle soup. Oh yea, the picture in the middle that looks like chocolate and whip cream on a stick, it so is not. We sampled a couple of items in their sweet shop. Their sweets tasted really gelatinous. That one had a bean paste on top with some sort of cream. One bite was enough for me.

Making Japanese Noodle Soup

At the Morioka village, we ate at a restaurant that had us make our meal from start to finish. We started out kneading the dough, then we put the dough through a press to create the noodles. Then we soaked the noodles in cold water and then they showed us how to display it in the bowl. Cole was struggling with the display part so our helper was laughing and had to show him how to wrap the noodles in a tight ball in the bowl. Then we poured a broth over the noodles and added a watermelon wedge, piece of pork, and some spices to the dish. Can't really say that I love cold noodle soup, would have been better warmed. But it was a lot of fun making the dish.

Chase's First Birthday -8/8/09

I can't believe my baby is already one. It is crazy to think that Chase has been on this earth a full year now. He is so much fun right now and I am so glad I get to spend every minute of the day with him. He is such a cheese ball all the time and he just loves to give us hugs and loves to play hide and seek. Nothing is better than hearing his laugh. We had a fun night celebrating his first birthday with Brad and Liz and their cute 3 girls, Ashly, Sara, and Becca. And since we had only been in Japan a couple of weeks, his presents were from the Bunny Store (what we call the Japanese kid store here). The girls gave him some cute squeaky balls, and a coin bank that we call the pachinko machine. (So there a bunch of pachinko parlors around here and they look like they are big gambling buildings, but gambling is illegal here. There is one that is always packed with people by our house called the Jam Friend Club that looks really fun from the outside, but Cole and Brad will have to report what is inside when they go check it out sometime.) Chase got from us an etch a sketch, bubbles, japanese cookies, a big bouncy ball, and some sort of japanese tree that a ball rolls down inside of it. Don't know what it is called but it is in the video and Chase loves it.

Aomori Festival

The Aomori Festival was the by far the biggest festival with the most people. It was the last night of the festival(festivals usually last around a few days)so the floats were put out into the harbor for everyone to see and then they have a firework show over the water. There was of course more food vendors, but we decided to eat healthy that night and had a corn on the cob (cold but good) and a rice ball with some salty salmon inside. I also experienced one of my most embarrasing moments at this festival which I will share later with a picture so you can better understand what happened.

Hachinohe Festival

This was a fun night and great way to celebrate my birthday on July 31st. The festival was very colorful, loud, crowded at times, and the floats were amazing. The floats all told a different mythical story and there were about 50 different floats and each float had members shouting over and over again (yada yada yada yada). Apparently it doesn't mean anything. There was also a bunch of street vendors selling all sorts of different foods on sticks again. We decided to try the different deserts, so we tried the icecream which was similar to a sorbet type taste. And we had a whipcream fruit filled crepe which was really good. We had our first photo taken by a japanese man who I thought wanted us out of the way so he could take a better picture of a float, but apparently he wanted us in the picture. And Chase is just a hit here, we constantly here cow-wa-ee(means cute) and then they touch his cheek. The japanese are some of the nicest people and they love kids and they love their festivals.

Hachinohe Train Station Float

Just a fun picture taken on our tour day of Hachinohe. They took us to the train station to give us an idea of how to use it(still clueless), they took us to a nearby mall for lunch, and we went to the fish market. It was an interesting way to spend my birthday.

Fish Market

Have you lost your appetite yet? This fish market was unbelievable! There were just rows of people selling fish, squid, crab, fish eggs, and who knows what. Some stands had samples you could try. We were not very brave, but we did try some tasty crab and shrimp. The picture of Chase is right after he ate some crab, and I think he approved. We will have to go back and buy some fish or crab sometime, and we will let you know how it turns out. This fish market is in Hachinohe which is a city about 15 minutes from Misawa.

Shinto Shrine

What is your Chinese sign? Cole and I are the year of the monkeys and Chase is the year of the rat. We went to a Shinto shrine where we learned that there is a special ritual done in order to cleanse yourself before entering the shrine. It does involve putting the water in your mouth, so I hope everyone's hands were clean that day. And there is a special way to say a prayer which involves ringing the bell, clapping your hands, and bowing. Here you see me clasping my hands as I bow. But you don't want to clasp your hands and bow in front of people like we see in the movies cause it is only done for honoring the dead or in spiritual situations (at least that's what they told us). The Japanese love to bow whenever they greet, leave, say thank you, and just because. Needless to say, you end up doing a lot of head bobbing in return.

Buddhist Shrine & Samurai House

Here are some pictures of a Buddhist shrine, a Japanese cemetery, and inside a samurai house. The air force requires that all newcomers to the base go on two days worth of tours. The first day they showed us around Misawa and took us to one of the Buddhist shrines. A couple things we learned from the shrine: Buddhists don't go to church once a week. They do a lot more individual meditation and then go to the shrines on holidays or during special occasions. Anyone can enter their shrines, but you have to take off your shoes (which is required when you enter most homes, restaurants, and some bathrooms.) When they enter a shrine they will say a pray and either burn some incense, wash their hands, or ring a bell. Their cemeteries are also very interesting and they have a lot of them right next to the roads. They believe in cremation and usually one statue contains many family's ashes and if I remember right, the sticks have the deceased member's holy name engraved on them.

Misawa Local Festival

Here are some pictures of the Misawa local festival we went to our first weekend in Japan.  It was right outside the Misawa Air base gate, so we were able to walk over to it from the tlf.  They had a lot of food items on sticks.  My favorite was the chocolate covered banana, and some chicken skewers.  Cole tried the calamari skewer cause he said he wants to be adventurous.  However, later his stomach told him to be a little more choosy.  I think Chase wasn't sure what was going on with his surroundings cause we had a hard time getting his attention for a picture.  And it was drizzling outside while we were walking around which we are finding to be the norm around here.  It is so green and beautiful around here, but it is because it rains a lot here.  More just drizzle rain and once a week a down pour it seems.  

Misawa Air Base

Right after we arrived to Misawa, our sponsor picked us up and we headed to Misawa Air Base.  We actually share this air force base with the japanese air force, so that is why they have a sign right next to ours.  Their are mostly americans on the base, but their is a strong japanese presence.  The town of Misawa has 40,000 people with 10,000 of them being Americans.  We stayed in the tlf(temporary living facilities) for two weeks which felt like we were on a never ending vacation.  It had a little kitchen, family room, and one bedroom with a washer and dryer down the hall.  It wasn't too bad and Chase finally decided one night that he would start walking here.  So that was a lot of fun.  The picture with him and Cole's hat was taken right after he started walking (two weeks before he turned one).  The last picture is our first experience at a restaurant in Japan with the Broughs and Farnsworths.  It was a chinese restaurant over at a mall about 10 min. from our place, known as Shimoda or Aeon mall.  When you order at restaurants around here, you don't know exactly what you are ordering since most menus are in japanese.  But they do have pictures in the menus and they have the actual dishes of what you can order in their display windows which is a little different.  Our meal was really good and Chase was enjoying it as well.

Our last Goodbye to Brighton

With our move to Japan and Cole's upcoming deployment, we decided it would be best for Brighton to stay in the states and go to another family. It was a really hard decision for us and we still can't really talk about it. But we love Brighton dearly and we know she will never be replaced. She was a very special girl who loves to snuggle and loves life. Brighton right now is staying with her mom and half sister, but she will be going to a lady soon who lost her Berner a year ago and is excited to have Brighton join her.

Chase's 1st Visit to Hogle Zoo

Fun Pics in Salt Lake

My fam did an early birthday celebration for Chase and I before we left. Chase loved the whip cream and it ended up all over his face. Chase also had fun in his little pool, and meeting his 2nd cousin Sammy, and baby Bronx. Shalee looked great for just having a baby.

Pics from Luce and Derek's Wedding

Here our a couple of pics Kara took. I can't wait to see more pics from Luce's big day. It was a beautiful wedding and Luce and Derek looked so happy. And Chase was too cute in his little bowtie.

4th of July in St. George

We had a great time in St. George for the 4th of July with Grandma Dawn and Grampa Gary. And it was fun to hang out with Tawnie, Tom, and baby Josh. Thanks for the great food and for letting us take over the pool. Chase just loved the lady bug float. He walked all over the shallow end and floated in the deep end without the sun in his eyes.

Last Days in Omaha and Cole's Graduating Residency Roast

Live from Japan

So I know many of you think we have fallen off the planet since it has been awhile since our last post. But we are still alive, and we haven't fallen off the planet, we are just on the other side in beautiful Misawa, Japan. It is going to take me a little while to catch up since our lives have been so hectic the last couple of months and we have taken a lot of pics already. So here is just a recap of what we been up until I get caught up with all our pics.

So after we left Omaha at the end of June, we spent a few weeks in Utah seeing family and friends. We had a great time hanging out with everyone and we miss you guys and wish you could be here on this adventure with us. After missing our flight to Japan, long story, we did make it out the next day and after two days of travel we made it to Misawa. It took us a week to adjust to the time zone, and Chase had a really rough first night. Cole had to walk the halls at our hotel since our neighbors were banging on the wall at 3:00 in the morning. And upon arriving to Misawa, we stayed in temporary living facility for a few weeks. And we were so glad to move into our 4 bedroom, 2 bath house last week and sleep in our own beds. I am still in the process of getting everything put away, and Chase is loving the mess cause he has so many mores things to play with.

We don't officially get internet till the 23rd which is why it seems like we have disappeared, we are excited it is fiber optic(super fast), and right now our connection is either really slow or hit and miss. We love our house and we have great views of a forest and a cabbage field. And I love the heated toilet seats. We will post pictures soon.

Other than that we have been to a couple of different festivals, we celebrated Chase's first birthday, and found out Cole is being deployed in December for 6 months. We also finally closed on our house today back in Omaha, and just got back from a fun day with friends at an arts and crafts village where we made japanese noodle soups, decorated little wooden japanese horses, and made some sort of japanese peanut cookies.

Will try to get pics posted soon of everything.

Chase's Professional Shots

These photos were taken in Salt Lake at my moms when Chase was 7 1/2 months by Lindsey Hale Photograpy.  She did such a great job and Chase was so great that day.  It was fun to get some shots of him other than him smiling cause he is always a cheese.  And this was his first experience outdoors and sitting in the grass for the first time, and he was so intrigued.  But I kept forgetting to post these photos, but I thought I would upload them now even though Chase is now 10 months and looks so much older already.  

Chase and Brighton

Cole was home babysitting Chase and Brighton and caught the following video of the pair. Usually, Brighton runs from Chase every time he gets near her, but she was being sweet that day and let Chase play with her. They are a funny pair to watch, and Chase just loves Brighton to death.

Sneaky Chase

If you listen close you can hear Chase babble, clap, and do his Heman grunt at the beginning of the clip.

9 Month Stats

Chase had his 9 month visit(two weeks late)today and he is healthy and doing well.  He weighed 19 lbs. 10 oz. (15th percentile) and was 28.5 in tall.  (50th percentile).  He is a crawling machine and just started clapping his hands on his own.  He is a mischievous little guy so I have to watch him at all times, cause he loves to open cupboards and pull plugs.  And he loves to chase Brighton around the house.  I am so blessed to have a healthy, beautiful boy.  He makes me smile all day long, and he has been making his dad laugh lately with his fun personality.  

Mother's Day

Cole and Chase spoiled me and took me out to Bonefish Grill for Mother's Day along with flowers and a card.  It is one of our favorite restaurants here in Omaha.  Chase was really good and was enjoying his cereal puffs and the rolls.  No fish for him yet.  

Crawling Chase Video

Chase started crawling this past week.  And his bottom two front teeth popped up.  Cole finally finished his rotation out in McCook, Ne.  It has been a long two months.  Now we just need to get the house sold and start getting things ready for Japan, since we are only two months away. 

Happy Easter Bunny!!

Happy Easter.  Chase got really spoiled from his two Easter Grandmas with cute outfits, easter toys, and books.  He loved them all and I loved the outfits.  Hope everyone had a great Easter Sabbath.

Chase is 8 Months Old

    My little baby is growing so fast.  This week he started all of a sudden taking an hour an half to two hour afternoon naps all by himself.  I don't know quite what to do with myself.  He randomly taught himself how to fall asleep on his own, so I don't have to always rock him to sleep.  It is nice, but so sad at the same time.  He can scoot backwards as seen in the above photo.  Although he prefers to stand.  And he is starting to like food a little more.  He is liking banana oatmeal which is what he is eating in the above photo or wearing.  

    Other than my baby growing up, Cole is still in McCook, NE(5 hours from Omaha) for another month.  We are excited that he gets to come home this weekend.  Our house is now on the market and we had our first showing today, so my newly extra minutes are going into cleaning the house on a daily basis.  And we are starting to get the paperwork in place and discuss everything that needs to be done before the big move to JAPAN.   

Lunch with Grammy & Aunt Kara

Chase and I are so glad we got to go to Utah to visit family and friends for a couple of weeks.  We had a blast.  It was so fun being able to meet up with family and friends.  And Chase is going to miss his grammy and I think grammy already misses Chase!

Uncle Derek(Soon to be), Aunt Luce, and Chase

Congrats Luce on your engagement.  We are so excited that Derek will be part of the fam. Chase approves.