We are ALIVE!!!

We have made it home!!!

We have spent the past week packing up our apartment, traveling for 15 hours on 2 airplanes, returning home, and unpacking. We still have more unpacking to do but we are so so so happy to be home.

Our trip home went really well and the kids did AWESOME. If there was only one thing to change it would have been that they slept a little more, but I guess traveling is never perfect. Our first flight (Fukuoka to Tokyo), we had 2 first class tickets and 2 coach tickets, so we decided to use only the first class tickets. Tessa sat in DJ's lap and did great. They played, looked out the window, and ate snacks. She did everything she was asked (yay!!!). Brady was on my lap and was a champ. He people watched for awhile and then slept the rest of the time!

Our 2 hour layover in Tokyo flew by. We had just enough time to get through customs, get some food and kinda eat it, and change diapers before we were back on the plane. We were lucky that the seat next to us was not taken so we had 5 business class seats which gave us plenty of room. Both kids fell asleep once we got going. The only bummer was that the flight attendant decided to wake DJ and Tessa up to ask them if they wanted dinner... UGH!!! That was the end of Tessa's sleep. She got 45 mins and never closed her eyes again the rest of the flight. And to make things worse... the flight attendant did it to us again but woke Brady and I up this time! I was so frustrated. Brady fell asleep in his seat at his normal bedtime (in Japan). Brady is a good sleeper so we were hoping he would sleep for a couple hours, but no only 40 mins until the same lady came and woke me up to see if I needed anything. YES... SLEEP!!! But the problem was that she had to lean over Brady to ask me :( You would think that flight attendants, of all people, should know not to wake a sleeping baby on an airplane! Thankfully a couple hours later Brady fell back asleep for about 2 hours. and are almost back on schedule... well Tessa, DJ & I are :) Brady is taking a little longer to adjust (poor guy).






Tessa trying to eat her poor kid's meal. Not very yummy! Cold spaghetti with hot dog, sushi, and some treats :) Brady was served mango pudding, cod fish casserole, porridge, and rice crackers. So let's just say thank goodness we planned ahead and brought a ton of snacks!!!




Tessa's yummy meal :)

We Are Coming Home!

Yep it is true... we are boarding a plane (actually a few planes) today and coming home!!! Finally :) I will update everything once we get back home and adjusted. We can't wait to see everyone!

Bye-Bye Japan... Hello Home Sweet Home!




This was Tessa's way of helping us pack... jumping around in a box that is taller than her :)

Birthday Celebration in Japan!

We thought we were in the clear of having a kid during the baseball season... we were close but not in the clear when your team goes to playoffs! So poor Tessa's birthday celebration gets a little hard when it is still baseball season and even harder when we are in a different country :) So we just decided that this year we would celebrate Tessa's birthday as much as we could... and we did!

We started the birthday celebration this year on October 9th (Japan time). DJ was out of town so Tessa, Brady and I celebrated all day long doing all of Tessa's favorite things. We went and played at the park, collected leaves, and went for a walk. We had a really fun time.






We ended the night singing Happy Birthday with Daddy on Skype and a birthday doughnut!





And opening a few presents that were sent over :)





Yay I'm 2!!!




Then the next day it was Tessa's "real" birthday back at home so we went to the bounce house and out to dinner with the Falkenborgs.







We actually tried to get them to sing Happy Birthday to Tessa but it turns out we needed to have Tessa's ID to prove it was her birthday. I am SERIOUS!!! I don't know what's worse, someone who would lie about their child's 2nd birthday, or that a 2 year old has an ID??? So we went and got a birthday cookie and milk at Starbucks and sang Happy Birthday to Tessa there :)



The next celebration was when Daddy finally got home to party with us. We decorated the house and opened up presents.


(Don't mind the mess... we are packing hoping to get out of here soon!)

And the last celebration we went out to dinner with The Falkenborgs, Taka, Kento, and us! We had a yummy dinner (minus the cow tongue Daddy fed Tessa... gross).
The kids were able to run around and play in the room we had :)




Birthday Cake time!






Happy Birthday Tessa... we love you!



Maybe we will get to celebrate with our friends and family... if we ever get to come home :)

A Whopping 2 Years Old!

2 years ago our lives were turned upside-down... in the BEST way possible. Our little Tessa girl was born!!!

This year has been such a fun year. It is amazing how much a child learns and changes in one year. Tessa went from barely standing by herself last year at this time to being able to walk, run, sprint, jump, and gallop around around. She went from babbling mama and dada to now saying 2-3 word sentences that we can actually understand. It used to be that we were the ones telling stories and singing songs to her and now she tells us stories and sings us songs. The list goes on and on... and all we can say is that it is AMAZING!

This year she has learned so many things that I can't even write them all down... but I will try to write as many as I can :)

1. You love to jump in place and off of things. You love to run around and spin around in circles and then stop and look at us and laugh.

2. You LOVE LOVE LOVE baseball. You always ask for us to put it on TV or to take you to a game. You love to cheer for Daddy and say Strike! If you don't want to watch baseball you want to play it. You have a great arm and Daddy is impressed at how accurate your throw is. You have a great wind up and have some serious power behind it. You can catch all different size balls from different distances away. You even just mastered hitting a "pitch" with a bat! Daddy thinks you are going to be his ball player :)

3. You love to color and play with stickers at your art table.

4. You love music. You love to sing songs with Mommy and have learned The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Squiggly Fish, If Your Happy and You Know It, Twinkle Twinkle, Row Row Row Your Boat, and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes. And you have even made up several of your own :)

5. You love to dance! Anytime, Anywhere! If you hear music you can't help but stop and move to the groove :) But your most favorite of all times is Lady Gaga. (We still have no idea how that happened. You discovered her all on your own!)

6. You love all of the Disney Princesses, Winnie the Pooh, Elmo, and Dora and Boots.

7. You love bandaids. We have the character bandaids and you tell us you have an owie at least once a day. You don't really want anything to do with the bandaid... you just love the surprise of opening it to see who is going to be on the bandaid. And every time you find out the look on your face is priceless!

8. You love accessories and to talk on the phone.

9. You love to go down slides... all by yourself :)

10. You love to read books.

11. You have become an expert on using an i-touch and the i-phone. You love to play games, look at pictures, and watch videos that we have recorded of all of the fun things we have done. Your favorite is watching you go down the slide. You can watch this home videos OVER and OVER!

12. You love to "cook" in your play kitchen and have tea parties.

13. You love airplanes. You can always spot them out of nowhere and love to watch them fly by. You are even smart enough to know that when Daddy is gone on the road that he is flying on an airplane. And every time time you see one in the sky you say "Hi Daddy! Hi!"

14. You LOVE the moon. You love to look for the moon in books and you have to say goodnight to the moon every night. Even if you see a little light or yellow circle somewhere you always call it the moon :)

15. You have learned tons of animals names and know what sounds they make.

16. You love it when Daddy puts on your pjs at night and counts each finger when he puts on your shirt to make sure they all got through the arm hole. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5... High Five!"

17. You love to go for walks and play outside. You have so much fun just looking for leaves and sticks. You always collect some when we are out and have a "collection" by our front door.

18. You have learned how to be the sweetest big sister. You are always looking out for Brady and making sure he is OK. You give him tons of hugs and kisses. And you can't wait to go get him out of bed when he wakes up from his naps :) You always yell "Hi Brady!" in a high pitched voice!

19. You love to help us do all kinds of things. From putting the silverware away, putting dishes in the sink, wiping up messes, putting our shoes by the door, grabbing us things... but your favorite job of all is helping Mommy cook. You love to stir things and put things in bowls. You are the best at breaking the ends off of the asparagus! You are the BEST Helper ever!!!

20. You love to jump on your bed!!! You laugh so hard you get the hiccups :)

21. You give the best double wave when you see us. You wave both of your hands up high in the air and your face gets so excited your mouth opens wide :) We love it!

22. You LOVE balloons! You love looking at them, holding them, and especially love watching them at the baseball games.

23. Your favorite toys right now are any balls, bubbles, bunny, your baby doll and stroller, kitchen/fake food, Hawks, baseball cheering sticks, and any sticker.

There are so many words we could say that describe Tessa.
Here is the list that best fit who she is and who she has become: funny, happy, silly, storyteller, singer, dancer, awesome big sister, good hearted, caring, loving, smart, athletic, artistic, curious, nosy, impatient, bossy, crazy

We have had so much fun watching you grow this year Tessa and can't wit to see what you can teach us this next year! We love you!

Tessa at age 1!



13 months






14 Months






15 Months






16 Months






17 Months






18 Months






19 Months






20 Months







21 Months






22 Months







23 Months






And Now The BIG 2 Year Old!!!