Moses

Phoenix carries around this stick that we like to call his Moses stick. He walks around banging it on the floor like he is using it as a walking stick.

Expressive Girl

Kira shows her love in many ways, but this is one of her favorite ways.

The work party

These are the pictures from Patrick's work Christmas party held at the train depot at the airport. We started out with a family picture in front of the huge Christmas tree. We picked a table near the window that we could corner Phoenix in and let him down to play a little. Then the clown with the balloons showed up and Phoenix played over there. Santa and Mrs. Claus showed up to bring the kids presents. Kira is giving Santa the ornament that she made for him. Finally Patrick was entertaining Phoenix on the escalator while we waited for the dinner to start.

Aces Excitement

Ok, I know that the pictures posted here are rather dark. You are not supposed to use flash photography in the arena during a game. Since the game had not actually started, I decided to try the flash on my camera. Unfortunately Kira was too far away for the flash to light up anything but her retina.

1- Chatting with Uncle Paul and Devon.

2- Cheer for the Aces going into the locker room.

3- Two of the Aces waved at me... I am so excited.

The Christmas Tree

Picture 1- Young padewan receives her first instructions from the master.

2- Instructions "Rmove from box, fluff branch, repeat."

3- Perfect placement.

4- Kira, "I am so happy that we are finally putting up the Christmas tree." (December 4)

5- Phoenix's idea of helping... get into everything that had to be moved out of the closet to get to the crawl space.

6- Check the letter on the branch carefully.

7- Expert advice.

8- Finished product.

As keeping with family "almost-a-tradition" we put the Christmas tree up on December 4, my mom's birthday.

The next generation of Star Wars fans

Kira enjoys playing the Lego Star Wars video game. Phoenix likes anything with buttons.

Picture 1- Phoenix, "What do you mean I am holding the paddle upside down?"

Picture 2- "So that is what it is supposed to be like."

Phoenix at the big kid party

Phoenix spent most of the party being held. He was sure that he was one of the big kids and tried to join most of their activities. To avoid injury and allow the big kids to play more freely, I would pick him up and pull him out of the rougher parts.

I can fly!

Kira is enjoying the jumping part of Allison's birthday party at the Little Gym.

Visiting Santa

Kira is telling Santa all her Christmas wishes (which we asked her about, but she said she couldn't think of anything to ask for from Santa). The Commissary is the only place that let us take pictures for free. She had already sat on Santa's lap at the Dimond Center and Nordstrom's, but they wanted $20 to allow us to take pictures or get pictures taken. Kira was happy to sit on Santa's lap at each place, even if we couldn't get pictures.

High Jumper

Picture 1- the approach.

Picture 2- the landing.

My camera didn't recover fast enough to catch the height of the jump, but you can imagine Kira launching from the ottoman to the couch in a flip.

Surprise!

And you thought this was an ordinary box of baby wipes.

Thanksgiving Program

This was Kira's Thanksgiving program at school. She had fun singing songs in both Japanese and English. Sorry about the quality of the pictures, but our cameras zoom, and then to get anything close to a picture of Kira, we had to go with digital zoom, leaving Kira somewhat blurry. The first picture shows her whole class with no zoom.

Fresh Haircut

Here is Phoenix fresh after a hair cut in November... as you can see from his crooked bang , he wouldn't sit still for anything. We do what we can.

Homecoming

Patrick has been home for about a month now and the pictures are just now getting posted. Being distracted with the joy of just having Patrick home in combination with requests for other posts being made first (haircut and such), has delayed this post. I am trying to catch up with all the pictures that we have been taking over that past month. So here are the pictures from Patrick's homecoming.

1 & 2-- Waiting on the bus while the plane has a customs agent board and collect forms. 30 minutes later, we get to run out on the flight line and see Patrick.

3 & 4-- Phoenix is sporting his support and love for Daddy.

5-- Happy, happy kids. Happy, happy Daddy.

6-- The whole family together, happy as can be.

Tower of Refuge

The pictures have gotten out of order. Phoenix likes to play with the computer when it is unguarded. While I was cooking lunch, he was clicking and typing. I had the page minimized the page so I wasn't too worried, just checking every minute or so. After about 7 minutes and 5 times checking, I come over here and the page is open with the pictures rearranged. The combination of click and button pushing cannot be replicated to put the pictures back and my undo only goes back so far. Instead of reloading the pictures, which takes more time than relaying an entertaining story, I figured that I would just label them as is and let you imagine them in the right order.

1-- "Look how high up I am mom!"

2-- "Hmmmm, I think I should climb up on that chair."

3-- "Yep, I am on the chair and far from the ground."

4-- "I am being cute for the picture."

The chairs were on the table for the purpose of keeping Phoenix off the table and off the counter. He continually pulled out the chairs when they were pushed in and climbed on them. On top of the table they went. He pushed the front chair off of the table and Kira stood it up and pushed it in. Phoenix pulled it out and climbed on the table. I was slightly amused by the whole process and took pictures to remember it.

Peek-a-Boo

These are pictures from when Phoenix was learning to play peek-a-boo back in November.