Anna's Birthday

Well, we have a teenager now!  Anna turned 13 a few weeks ago.  Why do they grow up so fast?  We just had a little family party for her.  She is a beautiful young woman and we are so happy to have her in our family.

A week later she and two friends went to see Divergent on opening day and we went to lunch.  Divergent was a great movie and I'm so glad she loves to read so much.

 

Gregg and the kids went to the farm a few weekends ago and he took some great pictures!  I was working so couldn't be there, but glad they had such a good time!

 

 

 

Katie and her friend Katie played in a Band competition and received very high scores and a gold medal.  Such great experience for them and I am glad she is not afraid to try new and difficult things.

 

 

Clayton, NM - After Chrismtas

We drove to Clayton, New Mexico the day after Christmas to visit my Dad and stepmom and my Grandparents.  We stayed 3 nights and had a wonderful time.  We ate great food and got to go see Frozen at the local theatre.  The movie theatre is really old and so cool!  We had a great time and I think all of the adults loved the movie too!  Linda, Anna and Katie probably played 100 games of dominoes.  We flew Emi's new kite at the park and these are the only pictures we took on the trip.  I have got to do a better job taking pictures!  Katie, Gregg and my Dad got to go golfing one afternoon.  Katie is a good little golfer!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was so fun this year!  Gregg had to use quite a bit of vacation or he would lose it.  So he was off for more than 2 weeks. 

Emi was really into Santa this year.  She was so excited to see him, and not at all afraid.  She couldn't quite decide what to ask for, so she had a whole list and Santa could choose.

Before Christmas we went up to Platteville to have a Kawakami gift exchange and see some local museums and exhibits that were there for the weekend.

 

Here is Emi with a Skunk hat on at Fort Vasquez.  Behind her was a quilt show they were having.

We got to see Santa at the Platteville Community Center.

 

The girls got to play with Makenna, their cousin, and of course some gifts!  We had a wonderful meal at Dave and Lois' house.  What a fun day!

 

Right before Christmas we made Mochi at our house.  For my non-Japanese friends, mocha is a rice that is steamed and pounded and formed into balls.  You can eat it fried or in a soup that is traditionally good luck for New Year's.  Kenji and Janice came over to help Shirley and us make it for New Years.  Our family loves it so much, we made a lot!

 

 

Our nephew, Daniel, has been studying in Japan since last August.  He returned right before Christmas and it has been so fun to see him!  We are excited he is home and looking forward to spending some time with him.

 

Christmas Eve was at Gregg's cousin Coco's house.  Emi loves playing with the cousins her age!

 

 

Christmas Day was spent at our house with my Mom, Pam, Mike and Shirley coming to have dinner.

 

 

What a fun Christmas!