Elise is 5

It's really kind of hard to believe that our precious little firstborn is 5 years old. Really. 5?!

It seems like a year ago that my mom and I were boarding a plane with a beautiful little 6 week old Elise and moving to Japan. (Adam had left 3 weeks earlier to report to the US Kitty Hawk stationed in Yokosuka, Japan).
Yes, I look a little ...uh...rough. Whatever, that 16 hour flight was LONG.


She was a precious infant (until the Colic set in and she cried for 6 weeks straight...) and a good sleeper from Day 1. At least she was a good sleeper overnight. Naps, not so much.
This was "touchdown Elise" napping at the NAVY Lodge in Yokosuka- we lived there for just a couple weeks until we got into housing.


We continued to live in Japan for almost 2 full years and had some amazing experiences. Unfortunately, she doesn't remember most of it because she was so young, but we talk about it often and show her pictures like this:

Ok, this one wasn't Japan. It was at my friend Abby's parents' house in Ohio. We came home to the U.S. once during the 2 years and I got to catch up with some friends.... Adam loves this motorcycle of Mr Wheelers, so I took this picture. Elise was 6 mos old...
Just a couple weeks later, we headed back westward across the Pacific and then kept going an extra seven hours... THAT was a long trip- just the two of us that time...
We met up with Adam in Singapore for almost a full week. (She ship docked for just a couple days, but Adam got to fly off ahead of time to do prep-work for the onslaught of thousands of Americans coming on shore... we took advantage of the 'free time' with him and had a great visit!)
I mean, could her cheeks have been ANY fatter? I love it!

We took MANY trips to one of the Great Buddhas in Japan- there are a handful of the giant Buddha statues, but one of the most famous (dates to 1252) is located just 15 minutes from where we lived! AND there was a great ice cream shop right on the way! woohoo!

Nana (Adam's mom) was in town for a week right around Elise's 1st Birthday. =)

We spent many weekends visiting Yokohama, at just a 45 minute train ride away. It was a fun big city (but not as overwhelming as Tokyo...) and had lots of cool stuff to see and do.


Elise at about 14 months old. Adam's birthday weekend, actually.
This was outside a candy/gift shop near Kyoto. AMAZING long-weekend trip.

Adam deployed again soon after that, we visited him in Guam for 3 or 4 days...GORGEOUS, but kind of a dirty place, overall... we had one great afternoon at the beach and a few days of gross weather. It didn't matter, I was newly pregnant with Ainsley and we just hung out together.

A few months later, we were on Elise's 4th around-the-world flight and moved to South Carolina. She met her first 'best friend' Kristina there:

Then we started a blog. and most of her last 3 years have been well-chronicled here. She had a SWEET, cute, fun, birthday party last month... She has truly turned into a sweet, thoughtful, gentle girl. Her first tooth is just DAYS away from falling out, she starts Kindergarten in just 6 months, and we love her to pieces!

7 of the 10 girls 'hiding' behind a couch in the playroom

We did a 'chef' theme and they made pizzas, shrinky-dinks, and cupcakes... here they started spontaneously dancing and acting crazy....it was adorable.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELISE!!!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The new year started with a bang...ok, not really...a small 'woo-hoo' with the wonderful Janney family here for a few hours on New Year's Eve... the kids had a blast playing

We seem to be missing a few...there were five total kids and they get along so well! It's sweet. =) and, of course, not a single picture of the adults...we were all there together and we all looked fantastic to celebrate 2011.

We ATTEMPTED a quasi-sleepover with Elise and Jackson... which consisted of two hours of Elise chatting away and poor Jackson trying SO HARD to go to sleep on the top bunk. Eventually, we moved him over to the room and I think Jackson was asleep before his dad closed the door...
Regardless, the adults had yummy Japanese food, enjoyed some homebrew and great conversation. We're sooo thankful for our friendship with the Janney family!!


Elise and Ainsley have started trying to dress like 'twins' and it's precious. We don't have many matching outfits for them, but they've been creative about it. Ainsley actually jumps up and down yelling "We TWINS NOW, WE TWINS NOW..." . =)

Ainsley, who has a deep love for accessories, found a bag of Summer Stuff in the closet. She wore the hat/sunglasses combo for the next three days and was SO proud of herself. It was freezing outside and you can see snow in you look closely. Oh yeah, they were locked out again and dancing to get back inside...hahaha.

Elise turned FIVE (how did that happen?! I swear she was 2 last month...augh!) during the first week of January and she loved being the center of attention for a couple days. I'll put pics up from her party in the next blog, but this was the actual BIRTH-DAY celebration at home with just family.


I think that's a "5" candle in yogurt...whatev, she was happy. =)
The next morning, we woke up to THIS:
Our awesome middle-school neighbor (and babysitter-extraordinaire!) had decorated the street in front of our house... Elise was BESIDE HERSELF excited and they danced all over for about 15 minutes...and then had to come in for hot chocolate- it was COLD out there.

I love this shot of her. Gorgeous.

Christmas Day 2010

We woke up to a GORGEOUS snowy Christmas morning and were excited for a nice day. Uncle Kelly had been up all night VERY sick, so we knew he wasn't going to be around for the gift-opening, we let Mitchell sleep in (normal wake up time is after 9am for our little guy), and we had a (relatively) quiet morning. The girls are a fun age right now for Christmas and it was nice having a calm-ish morning as we were all feeling the absence of my dad. Although he was never the center of attention at a family holiday, my dad (like so many dads, right?) sat back on the edge and watched everyone else 'have the fun'. He would've loved the joy on Elise and Ainsley's face, he would've cracked up at Ainsley's obsession with the candy canes for the first 20 minutes of gift-opening. He would've been proud of his family as we just treasured each others' presence around the holidays... It was hard to think back to Christmas 2009 when we had no idea what would happen in a few months of late 2010. The good thing is that with three kids under 5 years old, I didn't have the time or energy to get too sad too often... I so wish he could've been here with us, but I'm constantly thankful that he didn't suffer for too long with the crappy chemo side effects and the cancer in general. I think that thought came to mind several times over the course of the Holidays this year...

Back to Christmas morning:

Ainsley was seriously obsessed with the candy canes. She wanted to equally distribute them among the people in the room- worrying about the colors, flavors, etc... she was VERY serious about it. that's how she is...


Elise looking like one of the Olson twins...in her new slippers, new jammies, new scarf, new purse, and light-up Christmas necklace...

Once Mitchell woke up, he was precious!! So excited to play with the wrapping paper, empty boxes, bows, and...oh yeah, his gifts.

Elise was, of course, a GREAT helper!



A little bit of a mess, but a good day overall


Late in the afternoon, Uncle Kelly was able to get out of bed and we could finish unwrapping gifts. Mitchell was especially excited about getting a few more presents.




Mitchell took FULL ADVANTAGE of everyone being busy and not paying total attention to him. He crawled up on Elise's chair and was just as happy as could be to hang out like a big kid! Man, he's adorable. mullet and all...

Overall, it was a good Christmas. We wish Paul,Jen, and Evan could've been here with us, we wish Kelly and my mom both didn't get sick (but at least it was over quickly for both of them), I missed my dad a whole bunch, but my family is wonderful, friends are great, and we love and serve a loving God who comforts us and wants us to find joy in all situations. We did that this year for Christmas and felt blessed all week. =)

HO-HO-HO

We're getting closer to being caught-up:

Christmas Eve:

Super Uncle Kelly ("SUK") and Mimi watched The Grinch movie with the girls (the original 1960's cartoon one, not the creepy Jim Carrey one). Mimi got hit with the nasty, nasty stomach bug that day and was a trooper for sitting here with kids and trying to enjoy the festivities.

I kind of forgot to take pictures of decorations, the tree, etc... so here's a glimpse...
SUK got the stomach bug later that night and spent the whole night (literally midnight until 10am Christmas morning) with gross, gross intestinal issues. poor guy. It took him most of Christmas day to recover enough to leave bed, but he mustered up some strength to come down for a little bit on Christmas night. More on that in a couple days...


The girls opened a gift from Mimi of new pj's, so they put them on immediately and we worked on the plate of snacks for Santa and the Reindeer...


While kids were playing/watching movies/etc... Adam worked on his annual BIG DESSERT project of the YULE LOG...3rd year in a row. It may not look fantastic, but everyone who eats it LOVES IT!


Preview for the next blog... here's the first picture of Christmas morning: