Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Chase snuggling with his Elmo blanket from Aunt Kara and watching Elmo most likely.

Chase seeing the sock monkey "jack in the box" for the first time. He actually loves being scared each time so thanks Aunt Luce for the cute present.
Toy ride on train from Santa.
Cole in his Utah Snuggie and Utah tailgate chair. I am such a good wife, I have class.
Cole's gag gift to me. Don't think to deep??? Actually, the Japanese like to wear shirts with English phrases on them that make no sense. So Cole got me one to fit in. Ha ha.
We had a wonderful Christmas, despite the fact that it was our first Christmas away from home, Cole and I both got the flu, and Cole worked the Christmas Eve shift from 6 pm to 6 am. Chase loved all his presents and it was so much fun watching him open all his gifts. We didn't get too many photos, but we did take a lot of video.

Chase has had a great week playing with all of his new toys. Chase has now learned to open the doors around the house and likes to close himself into a room. One afternoon this week I opened the door after about 5 min. cause it had gotten quite, and I found him in the midst of an opened Pez candies and he quickly started shoveling them into his mouth. So sneaky, but it made me laugh.

Cole and I got new boots and bindings and a bunch of warm weather wear for Christmas. We got to try it out yesterday at Oakiyama Ski Resort. We went with our friends the Broughs, and Cole and I traded turns on the mountain while the other one watched Chase in the Lodge. We had a great time and it felt good to be on a board again since it has been a few years.

Christmas Clips

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa T for my Trike and Aunt Sam for my Xlephone.

Thanks Aunt Kara for my blanket.

Thanks Grammy and Grampy for all my fun toys.

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

Eating snow for the first time-too cute.
Playing in the snow for the first time-Chase had the biggest grin:)
Taking over Christmas gifts to the neighbors.

Nothing gets cuter than Mr. Muffin Mans morning ritual. Blanket, milk, bink, and cartoons(Sesame Street).

Chase dancing on the ottoman to his favorite show "Elmo's World".

So we finally got our lights and ornaments put on our Christmas tree this last week. We have had our tree for a few weeks but it was leaning in a broken stand. And I tried to find a stand at some Japanese home stores, but when I asked the workers if they had any stands they just looked at me and said Japanese people don't buy Christmas trees.

Chase enjoyed helping me put the ornaments and whatever he could find(paper, toys) onto the tree. And everytime I would open an ornament box he would say "wooow". It was too funny. Although, all the ornaments are now at the top of the tree so he doesn't keep pulling them down. Chase also says wow everytime he opens one of his 12 days of Christmas gifts from his Grandma Dawn. He is starting to figure out presents and has loved all his fun toys he has unwrapped and has loved the boxes as well.

We hosted a white elephant party last weekend with some of our friends which was a lot of fun, and today we took over some cookies and hot chocolate to our neighbors. Chase pushed the gifts in his mini grocery cart in the snow, we still have a couple more to give out so I will try to take a pic tomorrow.

Shrimp Class II

The worst part of swim class for Chase, he does not like being on his back.


Chase loves the water like his mama. The last couple of months Chase and I have been doing a baby swim class twice a week at a pool on base. He has a great teacher named Heroko. She is really nice and really tries to teach the babies to swim. Chase is getting good at kicking, blowing bubbles, and listening to the fish(tilting his ears back and forth to the water.) And he is getting good at going under water for a brief second. Heroko asked me last class what Chase's blood type was and I said I didn't know, why. She said that she thought he was O positive and that Japanese think personality is tied to blood type so all the Japanese know what their blood type is. When I asked her what type of personality is O type, she laughed and said that O people are really happy and smiley, which is Chase. And that they put others before themselves. I will cross my fingers that Chase will always stay that way.

Thanksgiving & Catching Up Note

Thanksgiving was very different this year. Instead of cooking a big meal, we decided to go over to the highschool on base for a Thanksgiving Potluck with a lot of our friends from the branch. I made a pumpkin cheesecake pie which turned out really good and was a big hit. I did learn that making cheesecake is a whole day event and I shouldn't start it at 8:00 at night. I forgot my camera that night, but here is a picture of Chase that our friends took that night. Cole also got really sick the day of Thanksgiving and still has a lingering cough. He thinks he got the N1H1 virus, but he didn't test himself. Luckily Chase and I haven't gotten sick yet, so I am keeping my fingers crossed. Cole started working the UCC(urgent care clinic) on Dec. 1. So he works 12 hour shifts at a time. He is taking over for our friend Dr. Green who is getting deployed now instead of Cole. We are thankful Cole isn't deploying for now, but he could be on the chopping block again in another 6 months. So we will count our blessings for now and are grateful for the experiences we are getting to have here in Japan.

Chiang Mai Zoo

Sunday Night Bazaar - Chiang Mai

So the Sunday Night Bazaar is a closed off street with little vendor stands side by side selling everything from food, cloths, paintings, jewelry, trinkits, clothes, etc. Not only is the one street filled with vendors, but every side street is filled with vendors as well. We probably walked for about an hour and didn't even make it to the end of the main street. We didn't get to buy anything since Chase was pretty done that day so we couldn't really stop and bargain. But it was just amazing to see all the Thai people that come in every week from neighboring towns to sell their goods.

Chase Magnet

Chase hanging out with our hostess at an Italian restaurant our last night in Chiang Mai.
Chase with the doorman at the Ratilanna Resort.
Chase playing with one of the Ratilanna Staff.
Chase with a restaurant server when we ate a fun restaurant next to the Sunday Night Bazaar.
Chase dancing with a random Thai guy at Wat Doi Suthep.
One of Cole's favorite meals where we ate at a restaurant along the Mae Ping River. They had a really good banana flower salad. It was filled with so many spices, our taste buds were on a high.
Chase doing dishes with one of the restaurant workers while we ate lunch along the Mae Ping River.

So we decided the last couple of days to take pictures every time one of the Thai people picked Chase up and played with him during our trip. If we would have started taking pictures earlier, we probably would have had around 50 pictures. The Thai people were extremely nice and we didn't know if they just loved kids or if it was just Chase. Chase loved all the attention to say the least.

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep

Chase dancing while the kids played music at the top of the Wat grounds.


View from Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, it is located on the mountain north of Chiang Mai, and the Wat is on the very top of the mountain. Supposedly, an elephant decided where this Wat now sits.

There were 306 steps to climb to get to this Wat. Can you find me???