Balloon Festival

We went to the Balloon Festival this last Nov with some friends. It was neat to see and the kids had a lot of fun!

Aj and Jet

Aj, Peyton, and Jet ran around like little wild children and love it!

Mia Chilled in her Stroller

There was this big green grassy hill that we sat on to watch the balloons go up and the kids just love to climb up and down it

Halloween and November

Well we have had a fun filled month. Halloween was just crazyness! we had a halloween party with our play group then a church halloween party and then trick or treating on base! it was a lot and afterwards aj kept asking if he could go trick or treating again cuz he had done it so much it was just like a regular thing you did every day! other then that we have still been exploring around our house. Aaron was finally able to come home for a port visit on thanksgiving day! I was kind of bummed about thanksgiving because i am all about the turkey, it is probably my favorite holiday but with no oven that limits things alot. but Aaron coming home was Way better! he was only able to stay for a few days but was able to take leave so we got to spend the whole time with him! Now he is back on the ship for the last few weeks of this long Long LONG deployment. we took him around a bit and even when to Huis Ten Bosch to see some of the christmas lights they have up. i always forget the camera so i have all the pics on my phone that i need to transfer over, thank heaven for iPhones!

Aj eating at CoCo's Curry. Its pretty good and we go there alot!

This is Mia's spinning bounce chiar thing but she has decided its way more fun to crawl under and then get stuck and cry for mommy! I think its soooo much fun too...not really!

We broke out the train set that we got from Grandma and Papa Harpel and aj loved it!

As much as mia loves hair bows she hates wearing her hats. its a constant fight to keep them on cuz its pretty cold here now!

Aj will happily wear her hat for her though

Ward Halloween party. both aj and mia were monkeys i never got a pic of the two of them which makes me sad but oh well

This was at our play group halloween party. all the kids got to decorate cookies

Mia sporting her halloween hair clips!

At the ward halloween party Younsun had pie eating contest for the adults and the kids had a whip cream eating contest. she hid gummie candies in the whip cream and they had to find them only using their face. aj wasnt a big fan of sticking his face in, of course...anytime i want him to get messy he wont do it but all the other times he will...so i had to dig out the candy for him!

Photo shoot!

So We got to have a Mini session photo shoot with Dyan the other day. We went to this Japanese Shrine and the pictures just turned out beautiful! She did a wonderful job! It was hard to get a pic of the two of them together cuz if one was smiling the other was running away or eating shoes or whatever! but she got some beautiful portraits

Ok, when we first started Dyan first started taking pics of just aj and this japanese lady walked up and stood next to him to have her friend take pics of her with him. we seriously could not get her to go away! this is mia sad cuz the yellow tooth lady is ruining her photo session!

Mia spent at least 50% of the photo shoot like this! She was drawn to them they were jsut so shiny!

Aj: Im an Angel

Mia: Yeah right!

So sweet!

So there are tons more but thats all i could fit on, dont worry they will be going out in the christmas cards this year!

Huis Ten Bosch

Our friend Naoko was so nice and took me and the kids around HTB today. it was a lot of fun. there we so many pretty flower gardens to see (i cant imagen how pretty it will be in the spring!) lots of shops and tons of food to try! I got a passport so now that Naoko has shown me the ropes i cant wait to go back again and again! (we live right across the street from it)

This is the big clock tower behind us. we can here its pretty music from our house all day long. i love it!

Huis Ten Bosch is a Dutch theme park so they had these shoes everywhere and you could even buy some! i even had a meal mixed with dutch and japanese food it was kind of funny but good!

They have a merry-go-round in one of the villages and aj Love it! its free with our passport so i think we will be going on that a lot. he was a little scared at first but then i had a hard time getting him off of it!

More shoes you can try on for pictures, sadly the kids didnt corporate at all and this was the best pic we go

I guess they are always having different themes going on throughout the year. right now it is of course halloween. they had a parade going through the street in the afternoon. they would even give you capes and pumpkin hats so you could follow and be a part of the parade too!

The parade ended in the big square and they danced and then you could take pics with some of the characters. im not sure what he is suppose to be but i told aj he was a pirate (looks kind of like a pirate to me) so of course aj wanted to get his pic with him. he even waved to him and talked to him a little (a huge thing if you know how shy aj gets around people in costumes...i think it has something to do with a mishap with giant teddybear we tried to take a pic w in yellowstone!)

Pretty fountain

Mia was asleep in the back!

We just had a blast today. it was so nice to get out and do some sight seeing too. Im soo glad Naoko invited us and showed us around! She is such a sweet friend!

Carving Pumpkins!

Sorry you know me I always do my pics backwards! here is the finished product. Mia's didnt get carved cuz she was hungry so I tried to draw a crying face on it to match her owner...I'm not an Artist Ok!

Aj playing with the seeds. He wouldnt stick his hand in the pumpkin, i made him once but he freaked and made me wipe his hands (he has this thing with getting his hands dirty). but he happily played with the seeds with the shovel. He is saying EWwww

Mia helped me hollow out my pumpkin with her teeth, must have tasted good cuz it kept her busy for a while!

Before we started!

Earlier that day at the park. They love the swings and would stay on them all day if I let them.

Just some pics from my iphone

AJ loves dinosaurs but he calls them dragons. his favorite past time is to pretend he is a dragon. this is a halloween costume Grandma Harpel got him but its a 3T-4T so he wont really be able to wear it till next year but he loves it!

Where's the Turtle?

Isn't she cute?

(dont mind the half naked child next to her, we are potty training, he does have underwear on you just cant tell)

Look mommy i can put pants on all by myself! Too bad they are Mia's pants!

Its sad that other then length they could fit into the same pants

Dr Aj helping Sister out! Don't you just love the pigtails?!

update!

well we are all move into our apartment. (pics will be coming shortly-as soon and i finish somewhat unpacking) we love it here. it is sooo nice and everyone is really friendly and patient with the fact that i still cant speak a word of Japanese. mostly i play charades and they work hard to figure it out (maybe I'm not good at it) we have found our way around town a little (mostly by getting lost and going OH that's where that is! as we try to find where we are really going)

Church has been great. I was just called as Second Councilor in the Primary Presidency. i am way excited about it. Since its a really small branch (like maybe 50-60 people including the children) its only two hours long, sacrament and relief society/priesthood. We have opening exercises and sing/sharing time every other week and then the lessons every other week so i can still go to relief society twice a month. its nice cuz its kinda the best of both!

let see what other exciting news do i have....well i can put mia's hair in pigtails (granted its like two strands of hair but it counts! see pic) aj is just getting ridiculously smart. one day while he was taking a bath he sat very thoughtful then asked if "daddy take's a bath on the boat in the water?" i said yes i think he does. later that night aaron was able to skyped and i had aj ask him. when aaron told him no he takes showers aj was like "ohhh" like it was so weird to take a shower when your on the water. he just talks like crazy! its getting to the point i dont know half the things he's saying he is just rambling off. he loves to sing now two. his favorite song is the clean up song. he will dump all of his toys out of their boxes so he can sing his song while he puts them back. sadly we haven't mastered picking up ALL the toys. Mia can sit all on her own now. she is really starting to grow into a little personality, which let me tell you is all Sass! Hence her nickname Sassy! she can army crawl but thats about it. she has really started mastering rolling and scooting into the direction she wants so i dont know if she will ever crawl at all, aj never really crawled he just army scooted too! she really doesnt have much interest in standing or walking yet. i'll stand her up and she will do it for a lil while and then will be like im done and will sit down and not want to stand again. too much pressure for the chunky legs i guess!

thats about it

i'll post some pics soon!

Japan, mostly!

Aj and Mia arn't they soo cute!

One of our many walks to the Ginza (like a outside mall) Can you tell everyone is very hot...mia's happy though!

This is the front of main base. This is where aaron's ship is and currently where we are living (navy lodge) until we move into our apartment.

Just so cute!

This is the playplace in front of the navy lodge. Aj loves going back and forth between the fire truck and the plane.

Hawaii Pics

Had to throw this one in cuz we love and miss our daddy!!

Mia's little teeth sprouting!

This is one of Aj's bday presents from Grandma. Arrr!

Mia in her little mermaid swim suit (its a size 12mos and she was 4mos when it was taken!)

Playing in the toddler pool at the local community center. i guess not very many people use it with the beach so close but i thought it was way nice...plus no sand to dig out of mia's chub rolls!

This was taking a tour of the maui plantation. can you see how happy papa is over in the corner? i think he has done this before!

Chasing the ducks at the platation

Aj would have just been happy to spend every day playing in the sand with Grandma

Eating cereal for the first time, i think this was actual in Georgia

Taking a nap at Grandma's. Arn't they just little Angels when they are sleeping! i thought i had a pic where they are both laying like mia with arms up but i guess not.