Wow it's been a while.....

Been sick for about 2 weeks and not quite over it yet, but I'm getting better. Juanpablo was able to take off for a day and Sam was at school most of the time so it wasn't so bad. I've been told that coughs last forever here because of the coral in the air...I'm not happy about that. They put coral in everything here, it's even in the asphalt! We have to be extra careful during rain because it is slicker from the coral in the road. Since we aren't used to it when we get sick it makes it worse. But, it's almost gone and so that is good.

We had a great Christmas! We were able to talk to our families on Christmas day and that was great! We made everyone open their presents early so we could see them. hahaha...I'm sure they didn't mind. Since we are 14 hours ahead of most of our family it was Christmas Day for us but Christmas Eve for all of them. It's still so weird to be a day ahead of everyone.

A few days before Christmas I was talking to Bella and I asked her what we celebrate at Christmas. She said Santa. I asked her what else? And she said...Jesus. I thought that we so cool! We had been trying to teach her about Jesus but since she is only 19months old we didn't know how much she was actually learning. It was so cool that she is understanding. We were reading in the Book of Mormon, the one for LDS families with pictures and quotes, and Bella saw a picture of Christ healing the sick and she got all excited and started pointing and saying Jesus! It was pretty cool...of course then she started pointing to everyone else in the picture and saying Jesus! So, I guess we still have some teaching to do...hahaha...

Bella is getting so big. She loves babies now. She got her stroller the other day and was pushing her babies around in it. Then she went into her room and got a diaper and tried to change the babies diaper! It was so very funny! She was trying to make it fit the baby and of course it wouldn't, but she was determined.

She couldn't do it herself and so she enlisted her brothers help to make it work! She is just so funny!

Bella also seems to have gotten her Dad's luck. At Juanpablo's work Christmas party they had raffles and Bella won a Build-A-Bear and a huge Barbie Castle. She is such a lucky girl!

The other day Bella was tired...she was eating some pizza and then all of a sudden she was asleep....she is so funny! She can fall asleep anywhere!

Here is a cute picture of Sam since this blog seems to have just pictures of Bella. She has just been doing some crazy stuff this month!

This is Sam with just a small amount of his superhero collection. He has like 5 times more than are shown in this picture! He is a big superhero fan. Lately he likes Spiderman the best of the traditional superheros. His favorite of all right now is still Ben 10. He was very excited that he got a Ben 10 Omnitrix (it's like a watch) and Santa brought him a Ben 10 game for the Wii. It was a Ben 10 Christmas for Sam. I think all but like 3 gifts were Ben 10 related! So, he was very happy!

There's nothing like camping to make you grateful...

We had a great weekend. We started out the holiday weekend with a district wide Thanksgiving dinner. That was really cool! It is a tradition here in Okinawa since we are all pretty far from our families. The church district provides the meat and whoever wants to come can come and bring either a side or a dessert. We had it at one of the schools on the Air Force base and there were a lot of people that showed up. Then after getting full on turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pies of every flavor and so much more, the kids got to run around and play in the gym for a little while. Then we left and drove about 2 hours to the very top of the island for some camping at the beach resort that is up there. It was already getting dark when we left and we were following friends that had been there before. If we hadn't been following them I just know we would have gotten lost! It was kinda hard to find in the dark. We got there and it was fully dark and had begun to rain. We had to get the tents set up and Juanpablo and I had never set up our tent, we had just bought it the day before! But, it was really pretty quick to get it set up. The Cook's tent was bigger than ours and took a little while longer to get up, but in not too much time we had both tents up and the kiddos were ready for bed. We didn't do anything that night but attempt to sleep. The rain never got that bad, just sprinkling mostly. But oh my goodness, the wind was insane! It was seriously blowing the tent down on top of us most of the night! It was like a hurricane was going on outside! It was so loud! And then we were practically on the beach, just a little bit of grass was between our campsite and the sand, so we could hear the waves really well also.

This is our view and our new tent.

I wasn't able to sleep most of the night due to the wind, I was sure that it was gonna pull all the stakes out of our tent, luckily it didn't. The kids slept great though! It was like nothing was going on outside! Samuel woke up before Bella and Juanpablo took him down to the beach. A little while later they came back and Sam was soaked from about the knees down. The water had come up quickly on him and he hadn't run fast enough to not get wet. Well, we had him change clothes and then he walked around in Juanpablo's shower shoes because his were soaked. We made breakfast and ate and then Leeanne and I drove out to get into the near by town to get Samuel some new shoes. While we were gone Juanpablo, Blake and the kids went to explore and play miniature golf.

Bella tried to kiss Dopey...how cute!

Here is Sam playing miniature golf in Juanpablo's shower shoes!

Samuel loves miniature golf and you just don't see to many places for it anymore. The resort is called Okuma and it has campsites, cabins and like hotel rooms. The campsites are the best because they are actually on the beach and you can see the water while laying in your tent! They also have go-karts, these jumping things for the kids, miniature golf, boats you can rent, water bikes, buggies to tour the resort, jet skis, scuba gear all this stuff for rent at really low prices and we are really excited about going back when it's warmer and the water isn't freezing! It is a Air Force resort and it is really nice. When Leeanne and I got back from shopping we ate lunch and then Juanpablo, the kiddos and I went for a walk on the beach.

It is just so beautiful there.

We found a blowfish on the beach and we weren't sure if it was alive, Juanpablo tried to turn it over and it tried to take a breath! We knew that we had to save the blowfish! So, Juanpablo got some bark that was on the beach and picked it up and got it back into the water. We don't know if it survived, but I like to think that it did!

The water is better than anywhere I've seen. It is this beautiful turquoise color. The pictures just don't do it justice.
We made hobo dinners and ate s'mores while waiting for them to cook. And just hung out. The guys played basketball and the little girls just ran around playing. Then we got the kids to bed and the adults had fun hanging out by the fire til it was really late and we were all ready to go to bed. It didn't rain and it wasn't very windy, so Friday night was much better than Thursday night! On Saturday we packed up camp and then went to play at the beach and then Juanpablo, the kids and I went and did a tour of the resort on a buggy.

Then we went to the go karts and Sam was to short so he had to ride as a passenger with Juanpablo and they raced Blake.

Then Sam rode with me and we raced Leeanne.

Bella slept through all that. She actually didn't nap on Friday which was shocking! But she made up for it on Saturday! Then it was getting late so we went to eat at the restaurant there on the resort, it was really good and very, very reasonably priced. Then we headed home. The camping trip really made me grateful for this beautiful island that we are living on now, for the beautiful world that the Lord made for us, for family and good friends. It really was a great weekend!

What a great weekend!

Friday we went to explore a bit of the island. We found this fun arcade place that Sam and Bella had fun playing games. Most of the games didn't have any english written on them so it was fun trying to figure out what we were supposed to do! It was fun though! We aslo got to meet Sam's kindergarten teacher and her assistant. She seems very nice and Sam had fun getting to know them both.

Today we went Ms. Phai's Auction again! We got some beautiful pieces! Juanpablo was able to get almost all of the things that he had wanted. I got some pretty stuff. I got cups and saucers to match the plates and bowls that I got at the last auction. And a really pretty tea set. The funny thing is that I don't drink tea of any kind, but now I've got 2 beautiful tea sets!

The set in the front is the newest tea set, the one behind it is the one that I got the last auction.

This is a wooden sword called a 7 Ring Sword. On steel swords the rings on the top are used to catch the enemies weapons while fighting!

This is a wooden weapons set with 8 different weapons. Behind the weapons you can see the wooden Katana sword that Juanpablo also got.

This is a dresser that we got. It's all wood and beautiful! The drawers are really deep and it's really nice!

This weekend was pretty fun so far! Tomorrow we have church. And on Tuesday I have a meeting with the Branch President....I have a feeling a calling is coming my way! Oh, Juanpablo also has off Monday and Tuesday! So, we have an extended weekend to spend as a family! I'm very greatful that Juanpablo is with the Marines right now instead of blue side(with the Navy). The Marines have off Monday and Tuesday, the Navy only has off Monday!

Our cars....

We finally were able to pick up our second car today. That will make it a lot easier. We have a Honda Stepwagon and now a Dihatsu (?) Stepia or something like that. I like both cars. The little one is so cute! And the van has the seats that you can turn the middle seat around so that the middle and back seats face. Sam and Bella like that because they can sit across from eachother!

Tomorrow is gonna be a big day for us. Sam's kindergarten teacher is coming to the house and he is super excited to meet her. Her name is Mrs. Russell. She seems very nice on the phone. Sam will not start school until next week. We were finally able to get everything done and get him completely enrolled in school. I can't believe that the time has gone by so fast and he is already starting school! My baby! He's not so little anymore!

Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

On Saturday we went to the MCAS Futenma Flightline Festival. It was so much fun! We all got a little tanner after being in the sun all afternoon too! They had the different helicopters and planes and you could walk through them and the kids got to pretend to fly them. It was tons of fun! They also had lots of different types of entertainment. They had the Japanese police department there with the K9 unit showing what the dogs could do. That was pretty cool! And they had something that really made me laugh, a Mariachi band! Can you believe it! Here in Japan! It was just funny to me. They also had Salsa dancers and Belly dancers. We ate some weird Japanese food. It wasn't bad actually. Juanpablo got some rice with veggies and some noodles, kinda looked like Chinese food. Sam got these pancake type stuff with some kind of weird filling, looked like refried black beans, but so did not taste like that. It was kinda sweet, I'm still not sure what it was! I got this thing that was like a pancake on the bottom and then cabbage and some other stuff and then a piece of bacon on top of that. It wasn't bad, and I don't usually like anything with cabbage. Bella ate a little bit of everything. I should have taken pictures of the food but I didn't. We were surprised by the amount of fried food they had there. We didn't eat any of that. It was really hot! They had all sorts of games set up where you could win prizes. Sam played lots of games and Bella even went fishing for a prize! There was also a kids play area with moon bounces and mazes and slides. Sam had a really great time. We all did! Bella got into some of the planes and trucks and tried driving. She didn't want to get out of the cockpits of the helicopters. I think we just might have a future pilot on our hands! Sam got to do some wall climbing too! He did pretty good. He didn't make it to the top of the wall because his arms just weren't long enough. But he did make it about halfway! Here are some pictures from our fun day!

Finally!

We are in our house and we have some furniture that we have on loan from the government. So, our house is not so empty any more. We just got a couch and a dinning room table with 6 chairs. We get to use them until we leave from here. I think that's a pretty cool thing that they do. We left our couch and dinning room set in storage in the states. Next week we should get our first shipment. And then by Sept. 15th (our 7 year anniversary) we should get our last shipment with our beds (Yeah! No more air mattresses!). Right before we left the hotel to move in here Sam got a new toy....the funny thing is, Bella loves it.





We have a pretty nice house, the rooms are pretty big and it's really pretty nice. We have 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. We also have 2 balconies! One off the living room and one off the master bedroom. The MB balcony is a little smaller than the LR one, but they both have pretty nice views! The first is from the master bedroom and the second is from the living room.






We went to the beach for the first time today. It is less than 10 minutes from our house and is really beautiful! We went to Araha Beach and there they have this big pirate ship for the kids to play on. It has a zip line and slides and all sorts of fun stuff for the kids to play on. The water is beautiful! And something that I loved, it has a net around the swimming area so you don't have to worry about getting stuck in a current and getting carried out to sea and you also don't have to worry about jellyfish or sharks getting to where you are swimming! It was Arabella's first time at the beach. She didn't really like it very much. She didn't really care for the water and she hated having the sand on her! She got really upset and started complaining whenever sand got on her foot or leg. It was kinda funny. She loves to color on herself with pens and get dirty that way, but don't put any sand on her! Here are some pictures from the beach.






Oh, so we also got a second car today. Juanpablo will be stationed here on Camp Foster where we live, but the rest of his unit is on MCAS Futenma. So, if he needed to go over there unexpectedly and the kids and I had gone out somewhere then he wouldn't have the car and would have no way to get there because it's kinda far. So, we went to the same place we got our van (B.C. Motors, in case any of you ever need a car in Okinawa, they are really good!). I still haven't taken any pictures of the van, I keep forgetting and when I remember I don't have the camera. I'll take pictures of both cars once we pick up the other one. It's a really cute little car. It's big enough that we could fit the kids in if we needed to, but it's pretty small! It reminds me of a mini cooper. All in all it was a pretty great day! Lots of fun! I also got my license so now I'm legal for driving in Japan! So, yeah, it was a good day.

Japan....

Well, 1 week ago we arrived in Japan. I guess technically 1 week ago right now we were still in a plane flying over the pacific ocean, but it's close enough. We haven't gotten to see much of the island yet. But, we did get a car yesterday. They have some crazy stuff here when it comes to cars. We can't actually pick up the car until Tuesday because they have to take it to get the JCI inspection. It is a Japanese inspection that has to be done every 2 years. So, we bought the car yesterday and they will take it to get the JCI on Monday and then we can get it on Tuesday. We also got offered an on base apartment which we accepted. It is pretty close to where Juanpablo will be working so that's good. We got to tour it yesterday and it's pretty nice. We forgot to take pictures of both the car and the apartment, but we will get pictures once we actually have the car and apartment and then we'll post them here. Sam and Bella are really liking Japan so far. It's very hot and very humid, but it's nice. Beautiful!