Little bit of that and a little bit of this!!

So this is packed with a little of this and a little of that.

You will notice pictures of Jon that there seems to be a growth on his lip - its not a dead animal!  He is growing a mustache with some others in his unit. 

This month we have watched Jon baptize some kids in our unit, gone to a few retreats, played at the beach, and got Granny and BertBurt for a few weeks of fun.

 

Taking Jon to the beach with his beach bums.

Sunset Beach - great name for a great beach

Love that they play together

And they are learning to speak many languages.
The tourists love to talk to the girls and the big and little accommodate - the middle runs behind my leg.

Baptism Bash

So fun to see kids give their live to Jesus

Walking out to get baptized

Watching our neighbors perform at the high school jazz band and choir concert

Can we wear our Japanese outfits to daddy's retreat??
Sure

We are so funny!

The UMT treats the kids to candy

Oh the stache is getting bigger

50th day of school!

Molly performing with her classmates

They got to do an encore

Grandparents made it!!!!
Pineapple Park

Breakfast at the beach retreat

On a bike ride

Playing games

The jetovator

BertBurt is having a hard time with chopsticks.
The 2 fisted method works with big pieces of lettuce

Golf cart at the beach retreat

Olaf takes a long walk on the beach

Go carts!

Family race!

AWANA thankful Turkey

Shoes the girls asked Granny and BertBurt to get them

Granny and the girls getting our nails done.

A little nervous that the youngest wouldn't sit still but she was in awe

They will do the kids for 1/4 of the price - so its a special treat saved for when Granny& Nene's come

The toe shot

Riley got each foot with a different design.
Strawberries and Hamburgers!

Got him wrapped around my finger.

They are loving having grandparents around

Ok so all of us are enjoying it

Chopsticks strike again.

Getting ready for thanksgiving!!!
Invited a lot of friends should be fun.

Fun packed few weeks

The past few weeks have been jam packed with fun and activities.  Our unit hosted a trunk or treat and we all dressed as characters from Frozen by request of 3 small people.  When I told the girls I was thinking of dressing like the mean snowman or Sven the reindeer I was continually told I was a girl so that meant I had to dress as a princess/queen but the night of I got away with dressing in one of my favorite brown vests and became Sven.  At the event they had a face painter and the girls enjoyed getting butterflies painted on their faces.  They also had a contest with all the people dressed in frozen characters and Kelly won as Olaf.

I also got to be part of a team that hosted a murder mystery party for the ladies in our unit.  We had a blast planning the event and pulling it off.  It was a Pageant Murder Mystery and it was so fun to go around just goofing off and having a great time hanging out with ladies laughing and being silly.  I was the person who got killed off so I had to dress in a disguise so I could come back for the rest of the night so embraced my inner Texan.  To do that I borrowed some boots, threw on some big hear and my best southern accent and came up with my catch phrase - KonicY'all (a play on konichiwa which is a greeting in Japan).  We all enjoyed the night - or at least I did!

My girls personalities have been coming out more and more these past few weeks.

Molly - Loves running club but only if she can wear a dress.  She loves to help with projects and is a great sander and is an enthusiast spray painter (pretty sure she is going to go crazy when she sees Papa's workshop next time we are in the states).  She is able to read simple books now which is CRAZY to me.  Her teacher is an ex-marine and regularly has then to exercises in class and she likes to teach me them.  In PE this week they did Zumba and she is a big fan.  Her favorite classes are PE and Art.  She tells me how she is a big girl and doesn't draw stick characters anymore (I let her know that BertBurt is a world class stick person drawer)

Riley - Loves to make people laugh but not being the center of attention.  She will catch you off guard and same something funny or throw you a crazy big smile just to get a reaction out of you. When I start to count in Japanese she corrects me and then goes on and on in Japanese.  One of best things is she always finds ways to include others make them feel part of the group.  Oh and she loves the stroller like nobodies business.  She was not a fan of school performances any more this year than last year.  Her gymnastics performance was one of a kind as she would look at the obstacle then the teacher and then walk around it to inspect the next obstacle only to decide it was too easy for her and skip to the end or really just get out of the center of attention.

Kelly - She loves to talk and it is hard to get her to stop.  She decided to join her sisters in nighttime panties for a few days then looked at me and said - I baby I diaper at night, please.  I guess it was too much pressure.  She loved being in a school performance and having people clap for her.  The kid is an extrovert beyond belief - she doesn't like to do anything without an audience/ crowd.  She got marshmallows from our neighbor's dad just by looking at him and asking.

Kristoff and his girls.
Riley - Anna, Molly - Elsa, Kelly- Olaf

 

Nightly walk

Molly and her school buddy

This kid loves her Japanese pants

Some sisterly bonding over fanta

All the Frozen characters at Trunk or Treat

Murder Mystery Pagent

Some treats

The best UMT wives ever!

She killed me!

I don't want to die!

UMT fight
Good thing Thomas is Jon's body guard!

Snow cones!

Peek a boo

The closest we will get to snow around here

Sanding our new kid room furniture

She takes after her papa

Sushi go round

Japanese preschool hallelujah parade

Molly helped pass out candy to her sisters school

The school (plus some alumni)

Rode the Ferris wheel

Performing for school

 A few thing we have noticed is that the girls all have a few Japanese type mannerisms that randomly come out.  When they say Hello it comes out more like HerrrrrO.  Also Kelly loves curry jerky.

the sled race

Our finished project

The girls got some money in the mail and had some in savings.
The big 2 got dolls and Kelly bought a shirt and stripped down in the store to put it on.

Molly and her running buddies.

Firepit and marshmallows.

 To build our first fire I left Amber in charge and came home with our neighbors dad over in our yard starting the fire.  Turns out making a fire takes a little finesse and effort but luckily the dad was totally willing to help.  Once we had the fire started the girls talked about fires and marshmallows In North Carolina and how fun that was.  After I burst their bubble telling them I didn't have any Grandpa walked away and came back with a bag for the girls.  He made friends for life with that one simple move.  Kelly has been walking to their door since then looking for grandpa - Riley reminds her that BertBurt will be here in a few weeks and just to wait.

Fun ways I passed the time while Jon was gone to school

They wanted a slumber party and so I delivered.
They slept in the study.

The littlest couldn't handle the day after a long slumber party.