Jason's Visit

Josh's brother Jason came to visit us at the beginning of August. I can't say enough how much we LOVE having visitors. It is fun for us because every visitor has different things they want to see so every visit is a bit unique. Jason wanted to see as much cool wildlife, sea life and plant life as possible so we spent most of the time outdoors. He and Josh went snorkeling at our favorite spot at the very tip of the island and night snorkeling. Night snorkeling was really cool. They saw a squid, box jellyfish, sea snakes, lion fish, lobster, and a crown of thorn starfish. We took Jason to Okuma, our favorite place to stay. A typhoon just missed us while we were there. The outer rim of the storm did hit us with some really strong winds and rain.

Stormy Okuma

View at the end of a short hike at Okuma.

Little hermit crabs are all over the beach.

A bunch of huge hermit crabs were all around at night.

We took Jay to the Aquarium

The Okinawans like to wear t-shirts with English writing. It is fun reading them because they rarely make sense.
Josh, Brand and Jay hiked to Higi Falls.

The falls.

They saw a ton of salamanders, lizards, spiders, and insects on the hike.

This is one of the snakes they saw. They also saw a Habu snake. The Habu fell off the side of the trail and almost landed on Josh and Brand. Once Josh's heart started beating again they were able to get away. Of course Jay had to see what the extremely poisonous Habu felt like before making his escape.
We also took Jay to the Botanical Gardens.
There were a lot of cool Banana spiders all over the gardens. This one is about 5 inches long.

The boys did a little fishing with bamboo poles at the gardens.

Thad and I watching the boys fish.Brand and Max's favorite part of the gardens, the playground.

My favorite thing to do at the gardens is feed the fish.
It is the funniest thing. 100's of huge carp make really loud gulping sounds as they wildly splash and fight for food.

Thanks for coming Jay, we had a really fun time!

2 Year Anniversary

Today is the 2 year anniversary of the day our family boarded a plane bound for Japan. I find it very interesting how time can seem to fly by and standstill at the same time. The first year we missed Target, malls, and Mexican restaurants. Now all we really miss are family and friends. So the count down begins.... 364 days until we are coming HOME!

Here are some new pictures of Thad (2 1/2 months old).

I love the chubby checks!

Brand had a palatal expander put on this week. Every night he turns the key a bit to slowly expand the roof of his mouth. He will wear it for 4-6 months and then have braces put on. Turning the key is a bit painful and lets just say he is such a tough kid!

Okuma Fun

We had a fun 3 days at Okuma (a military resort on the Northern tip of the island) with our good friends the Pate family. Okuma is my favorite place to go on the island because it really feels like a vacation.

Thad doing what he does best.... crying.

Josh, Ray and Blake went free diving. The fish they speared.

The go-carts were so much fun.

Cat, Blake, Lauren and Brand went on a wild ride.
My favorite shot of Brand crashing into the water.

We saw the Solar Eclipe that could only be seen in Asia. This shot is through a telescope with a sun shield. It was so cool!

Max's 5th Birthday

Our little Maximus turned 5 last week. We rented an inflatable water slide and invited a few friends over for an afternoon of fun in the sun.

Max had a great time!

Max's new preferred nickname is "Maximusprime".

"Happy Birthday Max, we love you!"

Our last 8 weeks...

Our last 8 weeks...

Thad 2 weeks
Thad 4 weeks

Thad 6 weeks
Thad is 8 weeks today. He weighs 12 pounds 10 ounces and is 23 1/2 inches long.
He just started smiling at us.

Max's preschool graduation (a bit silly but Max had fun).

Brand is soooooo much help, he loves holding Thad!

Max is as crazy as ever!
My sister Candace came to see us for 2 weeks. It was her first visit to Okinawa. We had a great time showing her the island, playing Guitar Hero, and eating yummy Japanese food.
More of Candace's visit...

My mom came to visit after Candace and stayed for 10 days. She took such good care of us it was really hard to see her leave. Thanks for coming mom!

Thaddeus Joshua

I got the most amazing gift for Mother's Day this year. Instead of the usual breakfast in bed and homemade cards from the boys, I got to meet our new little Thaddeus (2 weeks early). He was born on Sunday, May 10th at 2:21 pm. He weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long.

As most of you remember from the first two boys, my labor was very fast. I was in labor with Brand for 5 1/2 hours and Max for 2 1/2 hours. This time around I was very concerned about getting to the hospital in time for an epidural and a doctor to catch the baby. Well, turns out I had nothing to worry about. Thad decided to be totally different than his brothers and put me through 21 hours of labor (I did have an epidural for most of it) ending in a C-section. My water broke on its own during the first hour, but my body never advanced to active labor (even with the help of Pitocin). The C-section was a lot rougher that I thought it would be. Lets just say that I felt way more than I wanted to feel. Thad had a little difficulty breathing right after he was born, so he spent his first 7 hours of life in the NICU. Since then he has done great. He is such a good baby. He is a good mix and Brand and Max. Brand's eyes, hair and coloring, Max's head shape and features.

Proud big brothers!

I love how tiny babies look in their carseat on the way home from the hospital.

I love how much help I am getting - I hope it lasts :)

Our little "old man" Thaddeus (4 days old)