Ohh! Look what I found!

I found patterns for Regency England Dresses at Sense and Sensibility Patterns! I am SOOOO excited. So excited in fact that I already bought two patterns. What a dork I am, but after being on yet another Jane Austen kick(I usually go through this every 4-6 months) I really want to make myself a dress. I feel like a big dork, but I do so like 19th century England. Hmm, 19th Century America too for that matter, I LOVED the Little House book series and also reading all of Anne of Green Gables(Canada is really close to the US). I like the English fashion better though, for adults. So after I make some sun dresses for Tenna and Andi, and finish my skirts, a Regency dress is my next project.

Oh and I found a weird peanut butter substitute. Ok, it is only OK, but Clark loves it. Take softened cream cheese and mix in some kinako powder(powdered soybeans). It tastes fairly similar, and since I want to keep him away from peanuts a bit longer to make sure he doesn't become allergic, it is a great way to fool him...kinda.

Anyway, just wanted to share...oh and hope you like the new look, I might try to change it again come summer, but just this general lay out with different pictures...hmm. Oh and those are pictures we actually took with our dinky camera! Thank goodness cherry blossoms stay still unlike little kids.

What do you do when your dishwasher is broken?

You give him some cookies and milk and he'll get back to work.



We have a wonderful time washing dishes, spinach or anything else.

Here, take a look at the spinach from our garden!




Not much else going on other than a super talker who can put at least two words together on a regular basis. Just this morning he said 'uddershoe doko(where)?' When he was looking for his other slipper. Ok, so really every child can make two word sentences eventually, but I am just excited that he's been doing that for about two weeks. If I could I'd make him into a study of bilingual acquisition, but I am not associated with any University, and not likely to be. Oh how I long to have a Masters degree or be in a Masters program, but oh well, I'll be content with getting excited about his milestones and thinking he is genius(though he is likely average). He has started to count up to four, though he does not understand what he is saying.

Turns out his favorite colors are pink, orange and yellow. In that order. It makes me nervous when I see him feeding his baby doll so gently too. Then he throws her to the ground and starts banging cars into each other and I am no longer nervous.

How Engaging!

Recently I've had a few friends get engaged and it got me thinking about when Masaki popped the question. Thinking back on it I realized it was almost exactly three years ago that we became official, so let me share the story.


He was the first one to mention marriage while we were video chatting one night. I was smart enough not to say anything first, wait 'til the guy is ready! We were talking about going to Hong Kong to see Star Wars when it opened, since it didn't open in Japan until 2 months later. I guess it got him thinking about marriage. Go figure! Well we went to the Temple, prayed and fasted about it, and came up with 'not yet'. After we picked a different date and felt better about it, we went ring shopping. Blah, blah, blah. Turns out the ring was ready a week early so when I went up to his house for Stake Conference he already had it, remember a week early. After church we went on a walk in a park near the beach and as we were near a little waterfall he turned around and got down on a knee and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes, and it wasn't too crazy, which is good. I did giggle the rest of the walk looking at my pretty pretty, as Andi would say. I know people have some cool stories for engagement, so please oh please share. Oh yeah and when we got back to his parents house, we told them =).





This also got me thinking about the wording...I was watching Wives and Daughters(excellent by the way, so glad I bought that DVD) and I love that he asks 'Will you be my wife?' Marriage is the easy part, being a wife is the more interesting, long term part. Le sigh. Watch the movie!

Oh, and blast from the past pictures of us while 'engaging'.

Tahp!

Stop! is what we say whenever a car comes by and we are walking in the street. Clark has started saying it too, but his sounds like tahp. It is fun, and now I try to pay attention while we are walking and stop whenever he tells me to.

Oh, and I feel funny posting this since Pam just posted about colors, but I've wanted to post this all week. Clark loves this ball set he has, and has recently wanted specific colors, so we taught him yellow 'yeyow' last week. I try to teach him green, blue, and red as well, but since we are doing it in two languages it doesn't always stick, though he can pick out green when we say it. Today while we were trying to fall asleep for nap time(I eventually had to go downstairs and let him cry himself to sleep) he saw the angels on his pillow and was pointing out 'bue' and 'yeyow' angels all of his own accord. Now is the time for Andi and Clark to high-five each other.

Thank you!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Noyes. Thank you Veldon and Leanna too!

We love the Valentine's Day package....take a look!

We like to have the balloons go flying all over the place and make funny noises

A bed!

Yep, we finally did it. Our futon was getting really flat after 2.5 years of marriage, and since we found out that Masaki has a hernia in his neck between his 5th and 6th vertebrae, we decided to take the plunge. Since we are cheap we picked up a bed at IKEA, but hey, it works.

Not much else to report, we went to Chiba to visit Obaachan and Ojiichan over the holiday weekend. I don't know what holiday it was, but I'll look it up if you ask. It is cold, and oh it snowed AGAIN. That was the third time this year!

I gotta go and listen to Masaki playing with Clark's new bathtub flutes. Bye

I loose...or, My name is Laman!

I've given hints of this in posts and comments, but here is the whole she-bang. Masaki and I have been having a 'discussion' as to when to start trying for kid number 2. Masaki is super duper stoked, and I, well, am feeling a bit gun shy. Well, Masaki was looking a little sad the other night after having a discussion for the billionth time, so I promised him I would pray about it again. Turns out Heavenly Father is thinking the same way Masaki is, or is it the other way around? So I loose, I didn't pay attention, and I feel like Laman(don't know who I'm talking about? read the first 65(up to 2 Nephi chapter 6) or so pages of the Book of Mormon - read online here). I obviously need to pay more attention during my prayers and scripture reading. So wish us luck, and I'll let the blogging world know when/if any news comes up. I just wanted to share me loosing.

Don't worry, I am repenting right now =).

Let it snow, let it snow, let it yuki!

Yep ANOTHER snow day! Can you believe it? Twice in one year, though 20-30 years ago it was much heavier! It was a Sunday so all of our meetings were canceled except for Sacrament meeting. Plus the word was spread that if you can't make it, don't push it. We went to Sacrament, because we aren't afraid of 2 inches of snow and some sleet, though other people aren't as experienced snow drivers, so it was totally understandable. Anyway, not much else to report, other than some nice chances to video chat with a vast majority of my family, and a kid that talks up a storm, so I'll share what we've been up to in picture form.

Climbing! We climbed up to turn the lights on, and surprised mommy!



We got to visit Michikobachan and Clark loved playing with everyone, especially Hiobaachan.


Oh, pizza on the face!


We wore our Superman cape to Church last week, because a jacket was too much of a pain in the butt for mommy to deal with.


What a great smile! All covered in Oatmeal



Clark the puppy! wan, wan, wan!


Grandpa's gift certificate from Amazon has been put to good use. We like our baby a lot, we feed it it's milk, crackers, and sling it up. It has no name or gender yet, but once we decide it is sibling time I'm sure one will come easily.


Yep, we look like a snow monster all bundled up.


Today was Setsubun, a holiday to welcome Spring's return....soon. So you throw beans out of the house to have the demons go out and get the blessings in. Here we are doing our tradition. You get to eat some too, 1 for each year old you are. Clark ate most of them though, especially since it was Fast Sunday.

Pudding Paint

On Tuesday we went to visit Julie and Soun since they moved to a new place much closer to Yokohama yesterday. They now live a lot further away, and we wanted to have a chance to see each other again before it got a lot harder. After seeing Pam's fun with finger paint, I thought, 'Hey! I can do that too.' I found an eggless pudding recipe on the internet(it was pretty good) and added some food coloring. They boys enjoyed it for 5 minutes or so, but at least I got some decent pictures out of it.

I HATE LOST

I have been living in dread all week. I know I am going to have to watch it tonight, in all it's surround sound glory, but I HATE it! I never want to watch it, but I come away excited for the next episode. Though after a week, I'm ready to be done with it. I am so sad that the writers strike didn't effect this show the same way 24 was effected. I know Masaki loves both LOST and 24, but oy! I just needed to vent about something. I love the writers strike. L-O-V-E it! But PLEASE kill LOST.

I am sorry to all you LOST fans out there, really I am, the writing is excellent, it is a great show...I just hate it, and all the 1 hour of my life it sucks up every week it is on. Thank you for listening.