All over the place

So you may or may not have noticed that we are about a month behind on our updates. Here are some pictures to tide you over. Three happy girls. It really isn't Halloween in this picture. Jane just loves that outfit and who am I to deny anyone orange?

We have been getting a ton of snow here. It is currently significantly deeper than this picture shows. We got 17.2 inches in 6 hours while Ryan was at work Thursday night. With so much shoveling we have kissed off Ryan's 30 second exercises for the time being - I am going to have arms of steel. I love taking the girls outside with us because the two feet of snow along the sidewalks makes a perfect barrier - keeps them in and the wind off their faces. Nothing like exposing your kids to the elements so they sleep better at night.
At the beginning of the January Ryan gave Alice her baby blessing. Our church building doesn't have central heating so we have to bundle her up. Thank heavens for fuzzy cloths - I never had to worry about that with my spring babies.
Sometimes Helen sneaks down from quite time early and we have a little snuggle together and talk about important things like sledding and Peter Pan.The girls like to line up their books on our couch and sit across the room and watch their "videos." To be honest, this is as close as they get to watching videos except for when I cut their fingernails and turn on a 3 minute video on youtube.
Jane was so excited to hold Alice! She doesn't get to do that very often. Recently she has started asking me if she can nurse the baby. I have to tell her to go get a stuffed animal instead.
Ryan and his girls. Everyone loves reading in our house.

To answer your questions in advance, yes that is our baby girl in a blue blanket. It is the warmest blanket that we have for her right now and has the Blue Fairy on it so it's not totally "boy" flavored. In response to the other question you may have, she looks like our other kids at this age.

Stockings and Haircuts

I finished my stockings before Christmas with Amber's help. These beauties are made out of felt which I picked up in various and sundry sized at our local 100 yen store.

You will likely notice that 1) Helen is three years old and now has a stocking, and 2) there are more stockings than people in our family. To explain the first, she did have another stocking but I realized after the first Christmas of unwrapping socks to try and fill it up that I would rather have small stockings. The second point can be explained by indecision. I couldn't decide which patterns I wanted to make the best. I think the extra stocking is okay since it lends balance to our bookshelf-come-fireplace. As a side note, they are being held up by chopsticks. Every month we find a new use for those wooden wonders.

Last month Jane had her first haircut. Although I'm the first to admire a good mullet, I decided that it was time for Jane's golden locks to come off. It was a big day for Helen too because she got bangs.

Happy Birthday Ryan

We celebrated Ryan's birthday all day. It began with fruit hanging from the ceiling, and although Ryan wasn't as excited about the floating fruit, the girls and I loved them. In fact, we kept them up long past New Years.

This delicious brownie, marshmallow, chocolate-peanut butter-rice krispie desert was topped by a wonderful sparkler candle. We weren't sure what the sparkler would do when we lit it, but it proved even better than we expected.

When Ryan had a day off we went to our favorite Japanese restaurant to celebrate his birthday for a second time. It's not every year that you turn a double-digit, double-number. I think this will be an auspicious year for Ryan. You don't need a fortune cookie to tell you that; it's all in the numbers.

At this restaurant, you can only blame yourself if your meat is overcooked. The cabbage is complimentary.

This beautiful salad is topped by some sort of fried cheese creation that is easier than you would think to eat with chopsticks once you break it up. The slippery lettuce, once you have the salad dressing on it, is an entirely different story.

Fun with Family

A week after Alice was born the party came to our house. Amber, Grandma and Grandpa came out to play!

Just look at the girls faces and you will know that it was a party.

Here is a picture of the church we go to. It is probably a 10 minute drive from our house off base. Not bad at all except when it's snowy, and they don't really plow the roads off base.

Ryan took the fearless travelers to visit a Shinto Shrine in the snow. I think it snowed everyday that my family was here. It's like living in a snow globe here in the winter time.

Ryan discovered that it is much faster to have help when making reese's dipped balls. Delicious!

It's a Girl!

Alice Hackett was born Saturday, Dec 3, at 13:40

Weight: 3974g (8lb 12oz)

Length: 19.5 in

Above is Ryan's favorite picture. He calls it the action shot. I think it looks like the nurses are ready to parachute Alice into the air. Note to Alice: the world is much less predictable than the womb.

My water broke in the middle of the night and this is what you look like by the afternoon.

Don't think that I am holding Jane's hand just because she loves me, although she does. That is to prevent her from diving off the bed or poking the baby's eye out. Both of which she had attempted to do in the 3 seconds from Ryan putting her on the bed and getting ready to take the picture. The girls are really happy to have a new little sister. Jane is especially good at walking around the house saying "Baby Alice" and "Hold it." The second being a demand to hold Alice.

Persimmons and Curtains

In our backyard is the largest persimmon tree that I have seen in our walks all over base. We have been really excited to watch them ripen this fall. It also draws flocks of hungry crows that the girls enjoy scaring off.

This is our first experience with persimmons and we've learned that when they are not ripe they dry out your mouth and make your face implode. Luckily Ryan talked to an elderly Japanese man who said that persimmons ripen after the first frost. We counted the snowfall from last week as a frost and Ryan and the girls went out and harvested as much as we thought we could handle. They had a great time.

We made three batches of jam already and have only used 1/3 of our harvest from only 1/2 of the tree.

Here are our triple pleat or French pleat curtains. I am really proud of them. Our room is like a cave now when we close them. Ryan is all ready to go on night shift again because sleeping during the day will be much easier.

Let it snow!

Last week it snowed for the first time. It was warm enough that Helen was able to roll snowman balls all by herself. Which is just as well as my bending ability is not great right now.

Here are the girls enjoying the great snowy outdoors. The thick, wet snow did not treat Jane so well. She ended up picking up an inch of snow on her boots with each step. Once she had walked 4 feet she was stuck on 6 inch platforms and would just whimper.

All that snow put Ryan in the mood for Christmas. Here are the girls helping to trim the tree.

This picture reminds me of a snapshot that may have been taken of Emily and I when we were little.

Food Fun in Japan

For Family Home Evening two weeks ago we tried making caramel apples. We didn't have any popsicle sticks, but instead of giving up I remembered that we had 50 wooden chopsticks that we have been using at home to practice. A couple of taps with Ryan's rubber mallet and we were good to go. Keep a special eye on Jane.

Now Ryan has never been the biggest fan of caramel apples, so I decided that we could doctor them up with some melted chocolate and nuts.

Helen loves caramel apples and was more than happy to help make and eat them.

Last week I went to the market and decided to be really adventurous. This is some of what I came back with that I made into a vegetable soup. The girls and I had to look up what they were in the vegetable book I bought when I was in India 3 years ago.

Happy National Bundt Cake Day!

Once again it is time for one of Ryan's favorite national holidays. This year I decided to think out of the normal double chocolate box and made a Pumpkin Cake with a brown sugar streusel ribbon running through the middle. It was the streusel that sold it for me, and perhaps I am working on getting Ryan to accept other desserts in replacement of pumpkin pie, which I do not appreciate at all. It turned out delicious. Helen said I made it a "funny cake" by putting lines on it. I hope you appreciate the flowers in the background. I got those at the market for 150 yen. Not bad at all.

Fall is in the air

I feel like we have been spoiled by a lovely fall. The leaves are all brilliant yellows and reds and it hasn't been very cold or rainy at all. I don't know if that is normal for Misawa, but we will take it. The girls and Ryan have had a lot of leaves to rake up. Luckily they all love it. I think Ryan's favorite part is throwing leaves on the girls. My favorite part is the three year old working hard.

Baby Seat Cover

A couple of weeks ago I panicked because I realized that I was going to have a winter baby and I had nothing really to protect him or her from the blowing snow. After I took a few deep breaths and doing a serious google search I found this great pattern. It only took me two days, leftover flannel and extra sheet fabric that I used to make a valence for the girls bedroom last year. I am particularly proud of that stripe. It just kind of landed in the right spot over the end of the car seat on both sides. Brilliant.

Clearly we are not ready for the baby to come yet, if this picture of the car seat in disarray is any indicator.

Happy Japan Day!

Last week we celebrated Japan Day on base. It turned out to be the perfect activity for Helen. A bunch of volunteers came on base and taught kids how to write in Japanese, decorate with flowers, make hair pretties, play games and instruments. Helen learned how to write mountain and her name in Japanese.

We also learned how to arrange flowers together.