Chase's first word is Banana. He has been saying dada and nono for awhile, but his first official word is banana. But he will only say it one time for me in the mornings when I go to get him a banana from the shelf.
Chase and his friend Becca attempting to wash their hands while on a stool together.
Our landlord comes and snowplows our driveway and yard. Not as frequent as we would like, but this last week the plows could not keep up with all the snow. I feel like I am living on top of a mountain. The plows here create ice roads instead of completely removing the snow off to the side. So you drive on layers of packed snow. So driving around has been much slower, but extremely beautiful. 
Cole taking a jump at the snowpark at Appi ski resort last Friday.
Brad, Doug, and Cole enjoyed a fun powder day at Appi. I am pretty sure they had a blast on the mountain with no kids, no wives, and no work to worry about.
Brad and Doug looking good in the powder. 
Night Boarding at Schichnohe this last Wed. We were some of the first boarders there that night so we enjoyed making the first tracks down the mountain. We had a great time and you can't beat skiing for $10.
On the chair lift.
View from our kitchen window.
This was after our first snow storm, we had two more big storms this last week. We have a couple feet of snow outside right now. 
Chase and I with his puke bowl. Poor little guy got a little stomach bug. I now understand the meaning behind projectile vomiting. I have been doing laundry nonstop this past week, but thankfully Chase is all better now. 
Nice Edge-Here was a double black diamond we hit at the end of the day. I pretty much back edged it the first half down to keep from going too fast.
Valerie(UCC Doc), Randy(Husband to UCC doc), and Tig's Butt. As you can see we pretty much had the whole mountain too ourselves. It was great. Especially since we were creating our own tracks in the couple feet of new powder that was on the mountain. It was sick, fresh, narley, wicked, awesome..I think I did a good job of describing how much fun we had.
Tig pushed me into the powder right when Monica took the picture. I should have known. I somehow maintained a graceful fall into the powder while smiling the whole time and looking at the camera.
Love the new board outfit Cole. Cole and I were also loving our new boa board boots and flo bindings. As Cole always says, When you look good, you board good. Or you at least look good when you fall. No Chase today, he stayed home with our mamasan Hayo.
Crystal (UCC nurse) and I getting off the lift, hoping not to crash into each other. We made it that time.
Sporting the Utah beanie, of course.
Our friends Crystal and Josh looking good on the slopes.
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.
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. 
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 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.
