Well the new year is here, it will be our first full year in Japan and it’s started off well. The Japanese here celebrate the New Year throughout festivals from Jan. 1-3. We saw several of these but didn’t attend any since we’ve had our fill of carnival games and food that we aren’t quite adventurous enough to try. We enjoyed New Year’s eve at home with some friends and I think I’ve missed my calling in life. I should have been a drummer. I bought Rock Band for Tom for Christmas, with the assumption that we would never actually play it unless we had groups over. Well, turns out I am a little obsessed with playing the drums, and we have spent plenty of time “rocking out” together once the kids are in bed. It’s awesome and keeps me from feeling old and boring!!

Like Tom mentioned in his entry, we went our on anniversary trip to a place called the Forest Adventure Park. It was awesome! They fit you with a harness and two ropes, one with a clip and one with a zip line and after a short safety briefing and test they set you loose to do the course alone. The staff didn’t speak much english but it was enough that we felt confident and set off on our own. There were seven towers crossing back and forth across a deep canyon. So you would hook on your safety line and your zip line and just fly across the canyon filled with lush green trees and plants while watching the view of the ocean. It was awesome. After that you go through the challenge course, with a free fall jump and all sorts of high wires, bridges and obstacles suspended in air. Did I mention it was awesome? Hopefully some of you will come visit and we can take you there!

Random observation: The garbage trucks out in town play music, like the ice cream trucks in the states. This is to alert people that they coming so they can hurry and run their trash out to the curb. I really thought it was an ice cream truck the first time I heard it, imagine my shock when the truck turned the corner and I saw what it was!

So I want to sit down and write a little thing about each of the kids to help remember the things they have been doing this past year. I’m sure I’ll get to it eventually, hopefully before next year! But in the meantime, here are some funny Danica quotes (that’s right, she’s finally making the quote board!!!)

She’s very loving and affectionate, for example she frequently says “I love it when daddy is home!” “I love you so much mommy!” and when I say I love her so much she responds with “No, I love YOU so much!”

She isn’t nearly as shy has she was in the past. I started to tell her that she isn’t shy any more and making sure she heard me telling people that she isn’t shy anymore and it’s actually working! She has been talking to people, laughing and being silly with others. It’s so much fun to watch!

She has started to bite her fingernails, a vise that both Tom and I dealt with. She has tried to bite MY fingernails several times and constantly asks me if she can!

Today she was climbing onto the trampoline and it was really windy outside so she turned to me and said “Mommy, don’t let me blow away so you never find me!” Tonight I was trying to help her get into bed and accidentally bumped her head against the headboard. It didn’t hurt but she said “Don’t break my head mom, then I would have to get a new one!”

Okay, a few last notes:

Alyssa is really picking up with her walking. We took her to the early intervention specialists and they said she’s fine cognitively but that obviously has some physical delays. They made some inserts for her shoes to help her walk better and they are really helping. They are going to come out to the house help her be more physical. The physical therapist said that she doesn’t rotate her body and move the the upper and lower halves in coordination. She is unwilling to try new movements or positions so they will show me some things I can do to encourage her. It’s so fun to see her walking around the house finally!

Danica started gymnastics last week. She was really nervous at first and I was packing up to walk out with her glued to my leg when Alyssa finally settled down enough that I could go out to the class with Danica and after a few minutes she felt comfortable and was having a blast doing the obstacle courses and getting involved. She’s a natural gymnast so this will be fun to watch!

Hayden started karate. He takes it here on base but has a Japanese instructor. Hopefully he’ll like it and can take advantage of the chance to take it here. It’s three times a week for 90 minutes so we’ll have to see how long he can handle it!

Okay, that’s all for now!