Snow babies and potato people.

As requested by Aunty Fiona.....



we hereby interrupt our potato and carrot people making time



(inspired by none other than Pamela Allen)....and created by the hands of Zahn.....



to bring you snow babies......and a picture of them in their suits. Hope you like Fi!!

Love it!

Watch this beautiful clip on Fatherhood! I guarantee you will love it and be inspired by it!!



Thank you Chad for being this kind of Dad to our babies!!

Saturday

TODAY Rylan's friend from school came over to play. He brought with him 2 LARGE tubs of gelato. Chocolate. Mango and green apple. They tasted good. So good. His dad owns a store in the city. Do you think it would be wrong to invite him over every Saturday??????



I would've taken a picture of the apple and mango. But. It didn't last long enough.

Shirakawago.

Shirakawago was definitely one of the HIGHLIGHTS of our trip. It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

The people live and work in this beautiful small 'world heritage' listed town Just as the photos depict. Surrounded by the remote Japanese mountains it was breathtaking. It really was like stepping back in "Japanese time" about 500 years and soaking up all that is the culture there. As dusk approached we saw most the tourists board their buses leaving the streets fairly 'abandoned' for us to walk around and take in the awe that surrounds this place. WE LOVED IT!





Yes......that giant is my husband....luckily Chad was about a foot taller than almost everybody. This probably saved us from loosing each other a number of times considering I stopped to take so many photos and there were so many people!




















We stayed in one of the traditional thatched-roof gassho-zukuri farm houses. The roofs are said to resemble hands praying and are built without a single nail. Ours was approximately 500 years old - like I said A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.



We LOVED the whole experience of traditonal eating and surprisingly we LOVED the food. I know I know that's a lot of love. The people we stayed with were from Kyoto and Hiroshima - and YES we loved them too!



After dinner our new friends invited us to the bath house (as you do with strangers) which was SO relaxingly uncomfortable if ya get what I mean! You can see how red my face is from the hot water!



our continued quest for self taken photos......



and some more exploring in the morning!






Right before we left we found these BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS! They honestly didn't look real they were so perfect and vibrant! aaaahhhhh Shirakawa-go we miss you!!!!

Have I mentioned......

That I love this picture of Rylan?? I know i've posted it before.....but, I love it. So here it is again! He looks so grown up and so much like his dad!! (what a spunk. This refers to either Chad of course :)



Rylan is often my little 'gofer' and does SO MUCH to help me out. ALL THE TIME ACTUALLY! and even though he quote "feels like a slave sometimes" I always appreciate how much work he does and what a great big brother he is!! I LOVE BIG KIDS!

ps) as an update on me being an "embarrassing" mum to Rylan at school - I am now allowed to hold his hand again and the other day he said "it was OK" if I kissed him hello after school before we got to the car". The permission feels good. Really good!

Perfection.

On the way home from taking Rylan to school on Friday, Zahn and I were having a 'follow on' conversation from our devotional that morning. We were talking about how everyone makes 'mistakes' etc, and I said something along the lines of "no one is perfect, I'm not perfect". But before I could go on further with what I was going to say, Zahn said very 'passionately' (as he does) "OH MUM (completely emphasised) be KIND to yourself. You ARE PERFECT". This made me laugh and then smile. A lot. (if only he knew.......bwahahahahahaha - OK that sounded a little bit like an evil laugh written in this context - but it's more like a "aaahhhhh if only" crazy kinda laugh :).



MAN I am going to miss him next year when he's at school. So OFTEN he makes me laugh with his 'Zahn-ness' and it's sad to think that all that time together will be so much less in a little more than 6 months! This thing called time is going WAY too fast!!



couldn't decide which pic I liked better........

Drawing.

So Jasmin has a thing for the boys 'doodle-pro' (magnetic drawer). She loves it. She plays with it. drags it around. and tries to draw with it. but she can never quite hold the pen properly for it to actually leave a mark. This can be frustrating sometimes. (probably more for me than her. But frustrating none the less). So thanks to our friends at crayola (my favourite pencils/crayons/textas in the whole world) they have created little markers for little hands.



Arn't they cute!



So the other day We bought some. I'm not sure who was more excited - me or Jazz. It definitely wasn't chad who said "it cost $10 to buy 3 textas"??) which BTW I thought was a total bargain. but I digress.

SHE loved them. She held them.



She touched them (quite fascinating to an almost 15 month old)



Attempted to eat them. Until she tasted them.



Successfully drew with them (with a little help of course) and eventually 'pegged' them off her high chair onto the floor when she'd finished!



What can I say - I LOVE crayola and this girl - look at that materpiece!!!!

it's not everyday......

It's not everyday that Jasmin sleeps in. and so we get to aswell.

It's not everyday that we get woken up by the boys who are almost completely ready for the day and have ticked off most of their 'chore chart' boxes. Without any reminders.



It's not everyday the boys tell us to wait in bed because they have a surprise for us.

It's not everyday we get to see the EXTREME EXCITEMENT on the boys faces when they bring us breakfast in bed. (cutest thing ever! and don't you love the way Rylan set it all out)



It's not everyday we have milo mixed with pink quick, jam toast and chocolate on the side.



It's not everyday I have a GIANT bowel of cornflakes with no sugar and a lot of milk. did i say NO sugar. but. I loved it. And ate it happily while two beaming little faces watched on.



It's not everyday that the boys have so much play time before school because they got ready so quickly.

It's not everyday we hear them happily playing together locked away in their room. (although. this does happen.)

It's not every day my baby sleeps for at least 3 hours which feels like the whole day.



It's not everyday that these things happen. But today they did. It was a good day.

I thought I should add a few disclaimers in here. Just to "keep it real" as they say......point #1 Chad often gets up early with Jasmin in the morning......so I guess I do get to sleep in. more often than he does. A whole lot more often. I should probably remedy that and at least make it even. point #2 I DEFINITELY do not buy pink quick we just happened to have some that Chad may or may not have purchased without me. and point #3 Chad didn't actually eat the 4 crushed up soggy vita brits without sugar the boys made for him. BUT, he still LOVED that they made him 'what he eats' for breakfast.

Japan Chronicles.......Tokyo

It's late and I am procrastinating putting these photos up WAY too much. So here are a few with little explanation.

tokyo tower.......







No end to the buildings that make up tokyo. seriously. there was no break in the buildings to determine where the city ended and 'somewhere' else began! it was huge!!



Asakusa markets. There were so so many people here it was hard to walk let alone really look in all the little shops. and we only had about 5 minutes to get to our bus at the other end of that crowded strip. We may have pushed our way through the crowd a little :)



Electronic district



Us still on our quest to get photos of ourselves without asking anyone to take it for us......







Random Japanese mans hat (he was possibly a little crazy. friendly. But a little crazy) insisting that we all try his hat on and take photos. We obliged cause we're nice like that ;)



Anne and John (my friend from my boarding school days in New Zealand)



Ahhh sigh! The temple. Sadly we didn't have time to go inside but we did have a quick stop to see it.....



Sushi for breakfast anyone??



Salmon eggs. Not recommended. Unless you like little multiple bursts of salty water first thing in the morning.