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!!!

9 Months

Brady is quickly approaching the 1 year mark... how can my little guy be getting so big SO QUICK?

This month has been a little bit of a fussy month. Getting 4 teeth and having his first, NEVER ENDING, cold has made this month a little more painful than the past ones! But even with all of this, our little guy never stopped smiling :) This month Brady has continued to get around quickly, put anything and everything in his mouth (especially cords... nice), chew on shoes, and LOVES to go up and down the step by the door like a seal sliding on his belly. His favorite place to disappear to is Tessa's room :) We can always find him sneaking away to go dump the basket of fake food. Either he really loves food, is always hungry, or just loves to chew on it to make his teeth feel better? We are still undecided! He has learned how to get into a sitting position from laying down by pulling himself up/climbing on things that are close to him and turning his body around to sit. He has become fascinated with flashing lights, is becoming more interested in books, and has become a pro at feeding himself. He learned how to clap and loves it when Tessa claps with him. The two of them have started to become best buddies. They love to go and play together in their rooms, and when we go to check on them they are full of laughter and it usually ends with Tessa telling us bye-bye (like leave, we are busy here...they are already trying to get rid of us). Brady loves to play with balls. One of his favorite things to play in is the ball pit. He loves to crawl through the balls and sit in them (Thank goodness we are in Japan where everything is much cleaner than home :) His enjoys playing with magnets on the fridge and always seems to get into Tessa's art supplies. Hopefully someday soon he will be more interested in using them rather than eating them :)

Coming Home?

For those of you who have been curious about when we are coming home... will have to keep wondering :)

The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks are the CHAMPIONS of the Pacific League!!! They clinched 1st place last Sunday! YAY!?!? ... Just Kidding :) It is great news and who wouldn't want to be part of a winning team? Hmm... maybe the same people who miss HOME... SO MUCH!

But even though it is bittersweet, it is still very exciting! Fukuoka and all of the Hawks fans are so so so excited. This is the first time in about 8 years since they have gotten 1st place. Everywhere you look around the city there is some sort of Harry the Hawk hanging up.
However, since they got 1st place, it means that we are here for a "little" longer. The playoffs go a little like this... they get a bye in the first round of playoffs (since they are the 1st place team), which starts October 14th. If they win that round, then they are headed to the Japan Series (World Series), which starts on October 30th. So we are just hanging out for a little more than 3 weeks... waiting for playoffs to begin! The team just practices and we just kinda wait to see what happens. The only nice thing is that DJ is home and they play the 1st round of playoffs at home! So that should be fun.

It would be so much better if we could just get right to it. This waiting around is a bummer but it is great to be part of the celebrations! So I guess we will see you when we see you :)

Go Hawks!!!