Tackling and Hiccups

Jeff took Josiah to see Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs tonight. Gaber didn't want to go, he's not a movie theater person. He doesn't like how loud it gets, I don't blame him, I think its too loud too. But he hates it! He will sit with his hands over his ears through the whole movie! He told us that he would wait for the movie to come to the shopette (movie rental place/convenience store on base). So tonight it was just Gaber, Tara and I. We had a lot of fun too. Gaber wanted to play the game where I tackle him...well, just pull him onto my lap, he says it's tackling, and then Tara crawls over and pulls up on him while I tickle him. For some reason he loves this game. This time though, Tara not only pulled up on him, she pulled his hair and used his face as a drum. Gaber thought this was quite comical though. He couldn't stop laughing and so then he got the hiccups! He asked how to get rid of them so I said that I would have to scare him...lol...he looked at me, not sure of what to think and then I grabbed him and screamed (not that loud...more like a squeal) and he jumped! Well, that didn't work. So he asked what else would work, so I said, you have to hold your breath. He was so cute trying to hold his breath...well that didn't work. So I said, You have to do 10 jumping jacks. Well, that was pretty comical for me! A 4 year old and jumping jacks don't go together! So, that didn't work and so I said to sing a song, that didn't work so I said he had to kiss me on both cheeks, that didn't work ( but I got some sweet kisses!) so I said, touch your toes to your nose. By now he is cracking up, Tara is bouncing and squealing (she has no clue what is going on but loving the entertainment), and I am getting quite a kick out of Gaber doing all these things to get rid of his hiccups. Well, I can't even remember what all he did, but something worked...somehow, and now its almost 2 hours later, Tara is in bed and Gaber is hanging out with momma waiting for dad and siah to get home. We had a fun, simple night together. I'm sure dad and siah are having fun too. Our kids are so much fun and they are also good entertainment! ha ha
One last thing, Tara is already trying to pull up to her feet! She's been pulling up, just to her knees, but these past few days she will get up to her feet when using something low to the floor. I know before long she will be standing up at the table and walking! Man its going TOO fast, but so awesome to watch her learn and grow!

About Me

1. What time did you get up this morning?
8 am

2. How do you like your steak?
well done

3. What was the last film you saw at a cinema?
Monsters vs Aliens

4. What is your favorite TV show?
I like home makeover shows and 18 Kids and Counting

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
the States....preferably close to Missouri.

6. What did you have for breakfast?
Golden Puffs with skim milk

7. What is your favorite cuisine?
i loved fried chicken, fried potatos, and green beans...that kind of meal is awesome, oh and biscuits!

8. What foods do you dislike?
eggs, noodles, and some cheese

9. Favorite place to eat?
Right now, Four Seasons

10. Favorite dressing?
a japanese dressing, its so good!

11. What kind of vehicle do you drive?
a red Bluebird and a gray Townhouse van

12. What are your favorite clothes?
anything comfy and cute

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?
Egypt

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full?
1/2 full...most of the time

15. Where would you want to retire?
not sure, maybe Missouri

16. Favorite time of day?
bedtime!

17. What is your favorite sport to watch?
football...Packers of course!

18. Bird watcher?
nope

19. Are you a morning person or a night person?
neither

20. Pets?
1 Oki-mix dog named Chloe

21. What did you want to be when you were little?
a vet, like most kids, and a mommy

22. What is you best childhood memory?
camping with my family

23. Are you a cat or dog person?
dog, i like cats but Jeff doesn't so we don't have any

24. Are you married?
yes

25. Always wear your seatbelt?
yep

26. Been in a car accident?
yes, on our way to Missouri from Washington

27. Any pet peeves?
cabinet doors being left open, no trash bag in the can, empty bottles/boxes left in fridge/pantry

28. Favorite pizza toppings?
pepperoni, green peppers, italian sausage, pineapple

29. Favorite flower?
i love them all

30. Favorite ice cream?
um...that's hard....i love so many

31. Favorite fast food or restaurant?
Sonic...I miss it!

32. How many times did you fail your drivers test?
none

33. From who did you get your last email?
mom

34. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?
Maurices

35. Do anything spontaneous lately?
nope

36. like your job?
love it!

37. Broccoli?
with butter, Parmesan and pepper

38. What is your favorite vacation?
Hawaii...it hasn't happened yet but I think it will be the best!

39. Last person you went out to dinner with?
Jeff

40. What are you listening to right now?
the Wii

41. What is your favorite color?
blue...i guess, i haven't really thought about my favorite color in a while...maybe purple

42. How many tatoos do you have?
none

43. Coffee drinker?
frappucino and cappuccino mainly

Random Facts

1. Tara has pulled up to the table, just to her knees
2. I got a pedicure :c)
3. The boys painted some pretty pictures
4. Handed out tracks to the Japanese on Thursday
5. Went for a run, first time in a lo-o-o-ong time!
6. Gaber wiped himself for the first time, its about time! No help from me!!!
   
7. Gaber was not happy about doing it by himself
8. Did way to much laundry and still have more to do.
9. Went grocery shopping with the kids
10. Tara's cousin won the "1st tooth" race LOL
11. Needed miamama to skype-sit LOL
12. While at church I noticed I had some weird white stuff caked all over my wedding ring
13. Daydreamed about our vacation coming up :c)
14. Been eating kiddie cereal all week YUM
15. Craving a Coke right now
    

6 month well baby check up for a 7 month old

Yeah, I'm a little behind on her well baby appointments! Tara is 7 1/2 mo old and I just got her in for her 6 month check up! Well, at least we went, right? :c) Looks like she is a healthy little girl. She is now 17 lb 15 oz and 27 1/2 inches long. She's in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th for height. The height one shocked me, my boys were never in the 75th. I think Gaber was actually below the 50th for his height! Poor kid! ha ha I talked to the doctor about her spitting up, he said as long as she's gaining weight and sleeping good at night then she is fine. Well, she's gaining weight and sleeping great at night so I guess she's A-OK!
I'm very thankful for such a healthy baby girl, I realize how blessed I am more now than I did with my first baby. I've read around 3 blogs of women with unhealthy babies or even those that have lost their babies. I realized how precious life is, how blessed Jeff and I really are. So every doctor visit just makes me realize even more how blessed we are to see that she is growing healthy and doing so well. I pray that all 3 of our children and all my nieces and nephews continue to be so healthy and keep thriving!
Tara also got her shots today....BLaH! I really dread those appointments. But she did fantastic! She stopped crying before I even sat her up, she's a tough little girl!
So, almost done with our appointments before we PCS. Our last ones will be dental appointments, which we really need to get in since they are free here.
A little less than 3 months now until we move!!! YaY!

Cocok's - CocoIchibanya - Starbucks :

A Girl's Night Out

Tonight I got to go out with a new friend of mine, Sarah, and her cousin who is visiting, Megan. We had so much fun! First we went to Cocok's for pedicures...the best pedicures ever! (I've only been to 3 places to have pedicures though) After we were done there we drove back to my house so I could nurse Tara and get her into bed. By the way, Jeff is babysitting 4 kids, our 3 and Sarah's 11 month old...thanks a bunch honey! After I got her into bed we 3 girls take of to CocoIchibanya for some super yummy curry, the best ever! On our way out of there we decide to go get some Starbucks on the way home, I call Jeff first to make sure Sarah's daughter is doing ok for him since it was getting late. She is fine, except that my phone call just woke her up...oops, so we have some delicous frappucino's before coming back home. I had so much fun. I can't tell you the last time I went out for a girl's night out AND got to stay out so late! I'm a mommy to 3 (wonderful kids) so I usually am home by 7 every night! So tonight was so much fun and so needed!
Again, I'm so thankful to him, he is such a great husband! He babysat to help out our friend, but mainly for me so I could go out and enjoy myself with some other women. He is such a thoughtful husband who mainly wants to put me first, what a guy! Not many ladies can say their hubby's would babysit 4 kids, 2 of which are babies, so that his wife can go spend money on her toes and eat at his favorite place and he not get to go!
I don't have any pictures of my night out, but I do have some of Jeff's night in with the kids. Here are a few:

Cassidy and Tara playing...see the yellow phone...Jeff said Tara did not like sharing that with Cassidy...maybe she was waiting for a call? :c) Oh, and this is Tara's first time to have a friend over! :c)

Tara playing in Chloe's kennel. Jeff said that Cassidy had shut the door on her once...lol. This is the first time she's ever gotten in there!
So the night went pretty well for Jeff. He said that Tara squealed once loudly, which she does often, and scared Cassidy so Cassidy started crying which scared Tara and got Tara crying. I guess this went on for about 15 minutes. As soon as one would start to calm down the other one would get her going again! He finally had to put Tara in her crib so that they could calm down and then he was able to bring Tara down to play some more. I think that was the only problem he had.
Well, it was a fun night, I'm still up from the frappucino I got...to much caffeine for me! So its 12:20 am and I'm wide awake! That's ok though b/c I've gotten all 153 photos uploaded to my computer, put some on my picasa site, done some facebook and now blogged! Notice I didn't use my time wisely by like cleaning...that would just be crazy! ha ha
Well, thats it, had a great time out this evening!

A Hot Fun Friday

Today I took the kids to a park that is off base with a friend of mine from church. I was a little hesitant about going b/c of the heat but I decided the boys would have fun and they needed to get out. In my opinion, Japanese parks are so much more fun than American parks! They have so much more design and uniqueness, instead of the old "plastic parks" that we all know of. The one we went to today is in the design of a dolphin. It had bridges, roller slides, spiral slides and much more! The boys had so much fun, even in the heat! Yes, the faces were red and sweet was rolling down those cute cheeks of theirs, but I don't think they cared. I sat in the nice shaded area with Sara and our babies just chatting and sipping on some yummy Japanese sports drink. :c) Oh, and another opinion of mine, the Japanese vending machines, which can be found every 50 feet or less, are a collection of strange but sometimes delicious drinks, cold or hot, and sometimes a kit-kat bar thrown in there with the drinks. :c) It really is fun just trying to decide what drink to buy...which one will earn your 110 Yen, which one will you dare take a chance on!? Oh believe me, it is a chance...you never know what you will get. Sara said once her drink had little grapes in it! Mine once had weird little yogurt balls in it...strange it was. But they are strangely so much fun and usually pretty good! Ok, so that was our fun hot Friday, now we are sitting inside our nicely cooled base house, which is ugly...but I am thankful for it (the house, not the ugliness!), and we are waiting for daddy to get home.
I hope all of you have a fun, hopefully not hot, Friday too!

Right Now

Right now I am ignoring Tara crying in her crib

Right now I sent Josiah upstairs to give her a passy

Right now I am so tired

Right now its only 11:23 a.m. so why am I so tired!?

Right now I'm hungry

Right now it is 12:49, I've been away for awhile.

Right now I"m eating a roast beef sandwich, chips and drinking some apple juice

Right now I've accomplished feeding Tara lunch and I've cleaned the boys' bathroom

Right now I miss my family

Right now I wonder if I'll take Tara to church tonight, she's really cranky.

Right now I am so thankful for my salvation

Right now I am so thankful for my friends!

Right now...mmm, took another bite of my sandwich :c)

Right now I wish Jeff could be home, he just left for work again

Right now I am wondering how many "right nows" I can come up with.

Right now I am listening to the secadas outside, those noisy bugs that come every so often.

Right now I'm wondering if Tara is teething...a possibility since she is so cranky!

Right now I'm wondering how many calories my lunch is...yikes!

Right now I wish I were 10 lbs lighter

Right now I'm overwhelmed by all the stuff to do around here.

Right now I miss Cindee and Katie! I wish we could hang out like the old days.

Right now I wish I could call Alicia, but I think she's in bed by now.

Right now I took my last bite of my sandwich

And...

Right now I'm done!

Shots

Jeff and I took the boys to get their shots today. I hate giving my kids shots, I really REALLY do! But we needed it done so we could get our orders to PCS. Poor Gabriel, he cried the whole way to the clinic. He was SO NOT a willing participant, unlike Josiah who thought this would be no big deal. While in the waiting room Jeff did a great job of distracting Gaber with a game of paper-rock-scissors...but then we were called in and Gaber's spirits dropped! Jeff almost had to drag the boy in! The tears started to flow as we lifted him to the table, and there right beside him laid 5 shots, YES I said FIVE shots!!! My eyes got huge, I couldn't believe he needed that many! Poor child! Jeff held his arms down and it started...I never knew Gaber could scream like that! I think he screamed more getting shots than when he broke both bones in his arm!!! Seriously! Next up, Josiah. He was calm, cool and collected. He hopped up there, pulled up his shirt and held up his arm. I was really starting to think that he would be a breeze. As soon as the needle touched Josiah's arm he leaped over and the look on his face was like, OH....NO, THIS IS NOT COOL!!! Luckily Josiah only needed two! He barely cried, thankfully, and off we were. All done for another 6 months. *sigh* Oh wait, Tara gets some in 2 weeks...OH MAN!!!
Shots...I hate 'em!

Our Spitter Upper

Tar-Bear is our spitter-upper! At 7 months old she still does it, A LOT. So, if any of you moms out there have had this problem with their baby let me know, I'm kinda concerned. Any advice, please share! I'm probably just worried over nothing but I know the boys were done with this by now. So it worries me when she is still spitting up a lot right after eating and even 2 hours after eating. She also spits up her baby food, green bean, peas, squash, apple sauce...anything that goes in will come out eventually. In two weeks at her well baby appointment I will be able to ask the doctor, which I'm sure he'll say she's fine. Its nice to hear from other mom's too!

Other than that, we've been doing good. Had a great day out with the kids. We had our WIC appointment today. Tara is up to 17 lbs, Gaber went down 1 lb and I lost another 6 lbs! Woohooo!
After the appointment we went to BK for a late lunch and then off to the always over crowded commissary for some much needed groceries.
Had to make some more appointments today so we can get our orders to PCS. We have to take the boys in for some shots and I gotta get Chloe into the vet to see what she needs...I'm behind on all of them! I think Jeff and I are the only ones good to go for this PCS! Only a little over 3 months until we move! :c)

The 4th

Well, we had a great 4th of July this year! The weather was nice, not to hot or humid and that evening there was a nice breeze. We took the kids to America Fest which was on Kadena A.B. We got there a little after 5pm, and it was already very crowded! I heard from someone that around 50,000 attended, maybe not all at once but you get the picture! So after finding a spot to park, on the runway, we took the kids to look at the firetrucks, planes, helicopters and all that military stuff. Next we went to the bouncy castle play land area, the part the boys really wanted to go for. They really like the one that is like a maze and it has a hill to climb and then a slide at the end, this one...



See Josiah climbing up? I think they did this one about a hundred times! Josiah and Gaber were usually together, but once Gaber didn't come out of the maze part, I stood looking and looking...getting a little nervous. Finally here he came, smiling ear to ear, and yelled, "I got squish-ED". :c) After all the bouncy stuff and sno-cones we headed over to a less crowded area to find a place to sit for the fireworks. The fireworks were awesome this year and the best part was Tara didn't freak out during them like I thought she may, especially since we forgot her passy. Well, the cost of so much fun was the trip home. We had to walk about 1-2 miles back to our car, sit in a line of cars for 40 minutes w/out moving an inch and taking 1 1/2 hours to get home! We finally had all 3 kids in bed by 11 pm, but it was worth it!
Here are a few more pictures from the day...

Things That Go Bump in the Night

Last night Jeff and I went to bed at about 10 pm, Jeff drifted off to sleep quickly and I lay there for a little bit when I hear some weird noise coming from our window. I really can't even explain what it sounded like, it wasn't just a bump noise...more like a clanking noise, that is the best way I can think to explain it. Maybe I can ask Jeff later how he would describe it then I'll let y'all know. So anyways, the noise was pretty loud and it did frighten me a little bit! I didn't know if a mouse was in our window or our vent so I woke up Jeff. Of course the noise stopped right after I woke him up, Jeff being a kind soul, got up and looked around our blinds and moved the curtains around a little bit and then came back to bed. He fell back to sleep and I finally drifted back to sleep when it happened again. This time Jeff heard it too! So he got up and stood on top of our desk and looked in the blinds and all around the window area. He opened the blinds, closed the blinds, wiggled them around to see if anything would fall out...but nothing happened. The noise had stopped again so he came back to bed. So we get all covered up again and we both drift off to sleep when the clanky noise wakes us again. I hear Jeff sigh and sit up. At this point I was happy that he is hearing it too so that I don't have to wake him up! So again he goes to the window, inspects everything he can think of but there is nothing there! So now we are thinking some kind of bug or gecko is in our blinds or window...somewhere. Again the noise stopped so we go back to bed and again, and drift off to sleep. So now it is around midnight when we are awoke again by this annoying strange sound. We sit up in bed and Jeff says that he might go sleep downstairs...uh...NO! NO WAY was I going to let him leave me alone with this creepy noise and be woke up all night. So Jeff had no other choice b/c I'm not letting him leave me alone, so he gets the ant/roach/spider spray. We turn on the lights, I scoot to the other side of the bed just in case whatever this thing is decides to make a dash for it when Jeff starts spraying. Jeff inspects the window and blinds again, not seeing anything but decides that whatever it is, is hiding out in the top part of the blinds. So he starts spraying in there as best as he could when out comes a HUGE SPIDER! Just kidding! No, out came a gecko, a fat one at that! I guess he had made a nice home for himself in our blinds. A huge sigh of relief, at last we had figured out what was behind all the creepy noises! Oh, and I can deal with geckos, I would much rather have a house full of geckos than spiders, ants, mice or roaches. So off ran the gecko and off to la-la land went Jeff and I. Thank God!