Happy Holidays!!!!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Oh my goodness....

Kai

Lily

I know that siblings can look alike... but when I saw this picture of Lily, it totally reminded me of her big brother! Warning!!! I know those pictures aren't the cutest pictures of my babies....

I love my sister....

Here are some pictures of Kai being a cute brother ;0)

He has been a big brother for only 2 weeks...I can't blame him for making some mistakes, right??? hahaha It is amazing how much love he has for her! At the hospital he was totally ignoring her, so we were wondering how he would be when she got home.... Well, nothing to worry about! He totally knows that he is a big brother!

Yesterday, when Lily was crying on the couch, he ran to her and put his hands on her cheeks, and trying to say something to calm her down! He is such a sweetheart!

Welcome to our family -Lily Ayumi Halverson-

This is Lily with her eyes open ;0) She is a big sleeper, so you don't see her awake very often!

When I got home, our house was decorated with pink!!!!
My cute friends from our ward came and did this fun decoration for us!








It has been a while since we had a new addition to our family.... But here she is!
Our beautiful daughter, Lily Ayumi Halverson, was born on November 20th at 7:05 pm. She was still 36 weeks old, and we were a little worried, but she just really wanted to come and join us before all the holiday fun started! She is perfectly healthy and just really tiny ;0) She is really a cute little girl! She was 6 lb 1 oz, and 19 1/2 inches long. If she were to go full term, she could have been a big baby!
The labor was sooooooooo much easier than Kai, and I am doing really really well!
Having her makes this time of the year even more special this year!

Kai just loves his little sister sooooooooo much that he won't leave her alone at all! He is touching her face, giving her kisses and hugs, squishing her.... I just can't leave two alone even for a minute.... poor guy.... I have to pull him away from her a lot of the times. He just have too much love sometimes ;0) I know that they will be great friends when she gets a little bit bigger!

Count Down!!!!

Since last Sunday (16th)... I have been getting this lower back pain like crazy! I remember this feeling from last time! Braxton hicks is getting tighter and it is so uncomfortable when I walk... I know that the baby is telling me something!
So I was a little worried yesterday at the Dr's check up... With Kai, I couldn't see my Dr due to her medical conference or something for three weeks when I was supposed to see her every week! and finally saw her and I was dilated to 5 at the check up! I didn't know the pain I was feeling on and off was contraction! I totally freaked out! As you can imagine!

So this time, I was pretty confident that I am not that close, but I know I am getting close! Yep, I was right! I wasn't feeling this pain for nothing!
He said that the baby's head is right there.... I am getting pretty close, but not yet! He is guessing that we will still have one more check up, but I shouldn't be surprised if I go into labor any time!!!!

I still had a lot to get ready for the baby... so while Josiah was sick at home with Kai, I went to the store and got almost everything ready!!!! Lily can come any day and I won't freak out!

I am so excited to have her!

Kai and I went to a visiting teaching today and the friend we visited has a 5 month old baby! Kai was giving kisses and hugs and won't leave her alone!!!!! It was sooo cute to see how excited he was with the baby.... at the same time... oh boy....
he won't leave Lily alone....

My friend suggested that I would take a little baby doll home and show how to hold the baby and give bottle and stuff.... Kai just LOVES the doll and won't leave her alone! Thomas trains are his LIFE!!!!! but he put one of his favorite engines away and held the baby the whole time!!! I can't believe this! He is so protective of her also. When Pete come any close to the doll, he freaks out!

I am excited to see how he will react when this new baby comes!

Family Picture

We weren't going to do a family picture this year without the baby Lily.... but the day we went to Park City was just perfect for taking some family pictures! Josey's dad just sent me some pictures that he took, and here they are ;0) I am hoping to do a "family picture" when Lily comes ;0) Although Josey is from a family that dad is a great photographer, he is not a big fan of doing pictures ;0( but hopefully Lily will be a great excuse to do it and Josey will enjoy it also ;0)

Halloween 2008

This Halloween was a lot more fun than last year! Now Kai was getting the idea of Trick or Treating and enjoying it, it made it so much fun to take him and watch him.
Kai was going to be a Bob the builder at first, but he didn't like to wear the hat and the tool belt for very long time.... so the last minute mom decided that she should get a different costume for him! Kai loves Winnie the Pooh, and we were lucky to find one 2 days before Halloween ;0) Mom had to do some sewing to fit Kai's size, but it turned out perfect on him!

Since Halloween this year was on Friday, we decided to go up to Ogden and do trick or treat with Rachel's family. (we've done that every year so far) We thought that Kai would love to see his cousins! and He LOVED being around them!

This year, Kai was Winnie the Pooh, Dad was something from Hannibal...(I have to ask him the right name for it) and Mom was a witch. Josiah was totally ready for the Halloween more than a month ago! But for me, with all the parties and being pregnant and everything.... my costume wasn't the first priority this year....
So at the last minute, we stopped by at Wal-Mart and saw what I could be this year. Josiah was excited to paint my face, so I chose one that required a little bit of creativity ;0) Although after painting my face... he says "I think I messed it up..."
We were about to go out and kids were waiting for us.... no time to do it again!!!
I decided that it looked good enough for last minute costume! hahaha

Kai was so cute! The costume was perfect for him! He was a little Pooh with a Thomas candy bag! We just loved watch him walk with his cute bear costume ;0) He was begging us to open the candy every time we stop by a house....

We really had a great time!

Event Update

I haven't updating the events that are happening in our family lately....
I have two blog type of things in Japanese and this, so I always end up updating this one when I have more time to think and type in Eng...(it still takes much more time in Eng...)

Kai turned 2 years old on Oct 25th! and we had a pretty big weekend for that! We had a family dinner on Fri. I made chirashi-sushi that looked like this character that Kai loves, and Thomas the train cake ;0) Kai sure loved it, so if it didn't look that great, it sure worked for him ;0) My parents have sent him whole box full of presents, so we let him open some of them on Fri!







On Sat, we invited Josiah's whole family to this condo that we could stay for free in Park City! We reserved the biggest one we can find to fit everyone there to stay over night! We had Josiah's parents, Rachel's family, Alex family and her fiance, and Nik and his girlfriend! It was too bad that Natalie got pretty sick that her family couldn't make it... We wished that they could be there, but Kai still had a lot of fun with cousins. He doesn't get to play with his cousins very often that he was soooooo excited to be around them! It really made us happy to see how much fun he was having with the kids!
The condo had a hot tub outside, and all the kids were so excited to get in! When all the kids went in, Kai also HAD TO get in with them! The tub was full with 8 kids! It looked pretty full ;0)
Kai got a lot of presents and he was so happy to get every single of them!

The next day, Josiah's mom suggested that we should take family picture outside! It was such a pretty day and the landscape was just perfect with pretty fall color in the back! We had a really good time with family that weekend!

He knows!

Today was my first Dr's appointment here in Sandy! I wish I didn't have to change my Dr in the middle of the pregnancy, but there was no way for me to drive up there when the appointments get every other week or every week....

Anyways, so for the first time, I decided to get a baby sitter so that I could meet the Dr and have a good conversation instead of chasing Kai ;0)

My neighbor grandma just loves Kai and she offered to watch Kai when I go to Dr's appointments! Her grandson lives right next to her house, and he is also Kai's favorite friend! So she called him to play with Kai and offered to watch two kids for a few hours! What a nice neighbor!!
She is just really sweet grandma! I am so lucky to have good neighbors here! Everyone around us are just so nice! They are bit older, so they take care of us like their kids or grand kids!

When I came home to pick Kai up, the grandma told me that she was very touched that he knew who Jesus was. She said he pointed at the picture on the fridge and said "Jesus". Our FHE theme for this month was Jesus and Prayer! Some FHE I see Kai understanding what I am teaching, some... he just wonders around too much that I feel like and am just talking to myself. But to know that he knows who Jesus is when I am not around made me feel very happy and I too was touched.

Kai does spontaneous sweet things.... He doesn't hesitate to pray before lunch in front of all the Japanese kids. He prayed once when he got hurt. It is so great to have this little boy! He teaches me simple but important things!

Mmm... yummy....

Josiah thought that we are ready to eat when I rolled it! No no... we have to let it sit in the freezer for 30 min!!!


I couldn't wait that long... so we took it out after 15 min ;0)

One of my hobbies is cooking ;0) Especially desserts are really fun to make! I have been craving this "Roll Cake" (that is how we call it in Japan...) with strawberries that I had at my friend's house! I finally found out who made it, and got the recipe from her!!! I was sooooo excited! I made it last Sunday, and IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!! I tried so many recipes over years.... and I've never been able to make it this soft and moist!!! The lady that gave me the recipe told me that this can be used for normal cakes, so I am thinking to make birthday cake for Kai this year!

Crafty Friend

It is less than 3 months till our little baby Lily comes to our family!
I have been shopping here and there to prepare for our daughter's arrival.
It is so fun to shop for dresses and accessories for the baby girls, but oh my goodness... they can be really expensive!!! Some of them look easy enough for me to make at home! (not the dresses...! the head band and hair stuff ;0) so I've been asking my friends if they know how to make them!
Then, one of my friends told me that she always makes them herself and told me not to buy them because they are soooooooo easy to make! You can make them even cuter and the way you want!!!!
So we got together today and made some head bands with cute flowers! It was so easy to make! It is my kind of craft! EASY, FAST, and CUTE! (oh, and lots of fun to make!)
She is so good that she made a few of those head bands while I was making one and talking.... They are so cute that I want to put them on Lily soon ;0)
Thanks to her, I don't have to spend $ and $ to accessorize my baby girl ;0)
I will try to put pictures here when I make some again!

Governer's Day

Last Saturday was Governor's Day in Utah. Not very many people know what that is.... unless your family is in the military. It is the day that Governor reviews all the units (ARMY and Air Force) in Utah, and they all get together and march in front of the Governor. It is pretty amazing to see all the soldiers get together in their uniforms and march! I can't say how many soldiers, but there were a lot of them!!! It is usually held at Camp Williams, but the road construction is pretty bad, so they have decided to have it at U of U stadium this year.
We took a train to SLC to avoid the traffic. The trax was filled with soldiers! It was really cool to see so many of them, but some people who didn't know about that day seemed to wonder what was going on!

I think doing this at U of U was a great idea! There were lots of things to see other than the parade! The military band was playing out side of the stadium, blow up toys for the kids, BBQ for lunch, whole bunch of vendors selling things to support the units in Iraq.

I am so proud of Josiah for being in ARMY. I can't say that I fully support, because I am scared that he will be called to serve in a war somewhere again....
But watching him wearing his uniform and him being proud of being a soldier to serve this country, I am very grateful.

Looking at the huge crowd of soldiers, each soldier can seem to be one of many.... but as I look at families there that were supporting and cheering for their loved ones, I do know that each of them has a family, a wife, a husband, kids and friends that love them and care about them very very much! Each soldier there is so important and their lives are so precious!!! Every year I come to this parade and I wish world peace!