The Harada Bunch

Birthday boy

2011-08-29T10:03:00.000-04:00

Better late then never on posting this! =)
Eli had a birthday! He turned 5 on July 20th. On the day of his birthday we had luau themed birthday party with his friends in our backyard. It was ridiculously hot but I don't think the kids even noticed since they were playing in water the whole time but us grown ups were dying in the 100 degree weather and crazy humidity. It was still a lot of fun though. =)

There was lots of yummy food to eat, LOTS of water play, games, piniata, cake, and gifts.

Eli is such an awesome little kid. He is so stubborn and such a perfectionist. He is my little gymanst\dancer. He is always doing tricks and cartwheels and he is seriously sooooo talented at it. The month since his birthday he has started full day kindergarten and loves it. I am so proud of the little boy he is. He is so sweet, funny and talented. He is also the best big brother to Kai. Always trying to teach him games, puzzles or acrobatic tricks. But best of all he is teaching kai how to use the toilet without me even asking him too! I am so thankful for this boy even when he is being not so awesome... I Love you Eli. =)

The new LOVE of our lives

2011-07-13T22:24:00.002-04:00

PENELOPE JANE WALSER

On May 26th my kids got their very first cousin and mine and Kentas very first niece! We couldn't be more excited. **unless it was us having a baby girl =) **

This is my brother Chance's and Sister in laws Jessica first baby. She is the cutest thing ever!! They gave her the cutest name, Penelope Jane .. Nickname Penny. We just love her to death already. Luckily enough they live just 3 hours away in Indianapolis. So we have already spent 4 different weekends with them in her short 6 weeks of life.....Really getting to like Indiana now. =)

This is the first day we met baby Penny. Uncle Chance surprised with the boys pink bubble gum cigars. lol =)

Already got the "peace" sign down! =)

I have to take credit for this outfit.. Isnt it so freaking cute!?.. You cant get cuter then leggins, tutu and a hair bow. =) I am having fun spoiling this little lady especially since I dont often get to shop for little girls. But this outfit was just my favorite! I hope one day soon I have myself a baby girl and get this little tutu back =)

Isnt she the cutest! Just want to pinch those adorable cheekies. =)

***Proud Mamma and Pappa on Pennys 1st 4th of July***

Graduations!

2011-07-11T20:55:00.002-04:00

In June my little stud Noah graduated from Kindergarten!!. At the graduation his class sang and danced to Justin Bieber's "never say never". It was so dang cute! Noah has just blossomed academically this year. I am so proud of him. He has also become quite the ladies man. Most of his friends are girls and one of his very best friends Ella lives down the street from us and they were lucky enough to be in the same class together. Ella is leaving to go to private school this next year so this has been sad for them both, but at least they can still just walk down the street to see each other whenever they want. =) Can't believe he's going to be in 1st grade next month. And his teacher Mrs. Hall is actually moving to 1st grade this school year so he gets to keep his same awesome teacher. =)

In May Eli graduated from Ms. Nicole's Preschool. He had such a fun time with her and all his preschool buddies this year. His teacher Nicole is a friend of mine and runs an awesome, adorable bilingual (spanish) preschool from her home. She is absolutely amazing with the kids and I am so thankful for all she did for these cute kids this year. Eli learned so much and had a lot of fun doing it. He also taught me quite a bit of Spanish that he learned at school. =) Eli is so excited to start Kindergarten next month, and I still am having a hard time believing that he is old enough to go to full day school. =( On the other hand I am excited for Kai's turn to go to Nicole's preschool this next school year. I can't believe my baby is old enough for preschool! =)

I heart Tennessee

2011-05-16T19:04:00.002-04:00

Last week we took a little trip to Tennessee to visit Kenta's parents and sister. His sister was there visiting from Japan. We go visist them a couple times a year, but I really look forword to the once a year when kenta's sister Tomoko is there visiting. She actually speaks English so I can carry on a conversation with her. =) She plays with the kids a ton and they absolutely LOVE her! They equally love Kentas parents which they call Baba (grandma in Japanese) and Tak-san.

They live in such a BEAUTIFUL area and I would seriously move there in a second if Kenta found a job there. This lake where we were at with this amazing few is about 2 miles from their house.

Right down the road from there house by the lake is a park which we visit every single time we are there.
Tomoko is such a trooper! I would not let the boys push me on this, knowing it would totally make me sick! The boys are all wearing these adorable pants and shirts that Tomoko brought them from Japan. They are officially Noah's favorite pants! I mean who wouldn't love a pair of polka dot pants. =)

Baba has an awesome jacuzzi tub that the boys have to play in every single night. I want one!

We always eat nothing but amazingly delicious Japanese food while we are there. This time we had something that the kids and I had never had before. Its called Takoyaki. Basically its Octopus dumpling balls. The kids saw the the little octopus in full form before it was chopped into little peices, so I was sure they would not eat these. But to my surprise Kai ate more than anyone and he is my anorexic child who never eats! Eli was hesitant at first, but once I convinced him to try it he really liked it, and also ate quite a bit. With Noah it took bribery. Yes I bribe my kids A LOT!! I told him if he ate 5 than he could have a carmel apple. It worked and he ate 5 and didnt complain about it. YAY I think my kids have those Japanese taste buds!! =) They actually were pretty yummy..

And here is Grandpa a.k.a Tak-san. He sure loves these boys a lot!! And the boys equally love him. =)

Seriously can't wait till we go again. I LOVE Tennessee so much!!! And I really can't wait till one day when we get to go visit kentas brother and sister,Tomoko and Daisuke in Japan.....One day. =)

3/11/2011

2011-03-17T22:52:00.002-04:00

This past week kenta and I have been in really somber mood after hearing everything that is going on in Japan. It is the topic of most conversations. I know most of you who know us well know that kenta is Japanese so that would obviously make my kids half Japanese. Kenta was born in Japan and lived there off and on till he was 20. So obviously all that is going on right now hits very close to home.
I have never been to Japan but no doubt will take my kids one day.
Kentas parents moved from Japan to Tennessee about 4 years ago but other than that, his brother, sister and all his extended family live in Japan. Thank goodness they are all safe and sound. They are all from central and southern Japan from what I understand. Which is not where the hardest of the earthquake and tsunami hit.
It seems so surreal just watching all the news, videos and reading everything about it. My heart just breaks. I get more sad everyday. I have been trying to explain to my kids about the natural disaster that is going on there and my son Noah seems to be affected by it. He keeps asking about daddy's brother and sister, and friends. I tell him they are all going to be fine but he keeps asking. Noah & Eli pray for all the people in Japan during their nightly prayers. Noah has such a soft heart and really cares about what people are feeling and what they are going threw. Eli knows whats going on but he is just to young to understand the severity of it. And I don't even try to explain it to Kai. He is 2 and chooses not to talk anyway. So whats the point?
I really hate just feeling so helpless during these devastating events.
Please everyone pray for all those people in Japan. Especially those who have lost loved ones and are without food, water, and shelter. Pray for all the workers that are are putting their lives in danger working with the nuclear crisis and trying to stop this meltdown.
The only thing we can really do is donate money if you can and pray.

Just cute pics of Kai.

2011-03-10T20:19:00.000-05:00

My baby Kai is not a baby anymore.(tear) He turned 2 a few months ago and he is very much acting like a terrible 2 year old. He sure is a cute terrible 2 year old though. He has the cutest smile and gorgeous eyes. Thanks to those asian genes he has. =)I feel so blessed to have this beautiful boy in our family.

This week

2011-02-05T11:25:00.000-05:00

With all this crappy icey weather this week and school being cancelled for a couple of days we have been stuck inside the house. And I must say it has been fun just staying home finding ways to entertain ourselves. Oh and wearing Pj's for almost 2 days straight. =)

My 2 year old

2011-01-14T10:02:00.002-05:00

Time sure does fly and I don't like that so much... I wish my boys would not grow up so fast, but I guess there is not a dang thing I can do about it, except for seriously enjoy them as much as I can. Dont get me wrong we surely have our bad moments but I am slowly learning just to ignore the melt downs and tantrums as much as I can..My sweet baby boy Kai, who is not so much a baby anymore turned 2 years old on December 15th. Kai is a picky eater which I am not used to. He would eat crap all day if I let him. His favorite foods are bananas,string cheese, anything with beans, and spaghetti. He LOVES his brothers and copies everything they do. He doesnt talk much.I think thats because Eli does all his talking for him. The only words he says, is Eli (his first word) Mommy, daddy, yes, kitty, buzz (for buzzlight year), juice, choo choo, and as of 3 days ago he says No. Noah is at school all day so Eli and Kai have become Bff's. They play and fight so well together. =)
He is very much into trains and anything with wheels. He doesnt like tv or movies that much. The only thing he will sit and watch for a little while is Toy story.
Kai's 2 year old stats: 26 lbs.(15th percentile) & 33 inches tall(25th percentile)
Kai has the cutest smile and laugh! I love him so much and cant imagine my life without my 3 little men...

2010 in a very small nutshell

2011-01-13T18:12:00.001-05:00

Me being the blogging slacker that I am (and really wish I wasn't).. have decided to make a goal of at least posting something every month this year.. Good Luck to me!!

I am so disappointed about some stuff I never got around to documenting. DANG ME and my lack of motivation... I thought I would post a couple photos from 2010, just to wrap it up in a very small nutshell. (mostly for my own remembrance)

January- Noah finally became brave enough to hold his pet frog that he had had for over a year... This was a HUGE accomplishment kids!

February- In the midst of winter so not much going on.. just hanging out with stud muffins.

March- Happy Easter!

April-starting to enjoy being outside after hibernating all winter..

May- Noah finishes up preschool!
We also went on a trip with some friends to Nauvoo Illinios.. Me with my kids next to the Big Mississippi.

June&July- made a super long road trip to Utah for 2 weeks.. The kids were awesome in the car. (thanks to our dvd player in the van!) It was such a fun trip.. ...Heres the boys with my sweet grandma.

I got to spend the 4th of July with Some of my BFFs from Utah.. ..Ricci is on the left and we found each other my senior year in highschool. I Love her so much!.... Melissa in the red and Eppy standing next to me, I have known since I moved to ogden valley when I was 12 years old. They have been some of my besties for that long... I love and miss these girls, and their kids so much!

On July 20th Eli turned 4!

August- Noah started full day Kindergarten at Columbus Preperatory Acadamy and his new teachers name is Mrs. Hall.. He was so excited to start and still loves it so much..(except for the waking up at the butt crack of dawn.) We all very much dislike that!
Well I officially feel old now that I have a kid in Elementary school!!

September- Eli started preschool. First day of school with Mrs. Nicole and her daughter Seattle.
He also LOVES his teacher and his school so much! Eli only goes 2 days a week for a few hours. And can I say I love those few hours a week that I have alone time with my littlest man.

October- Happy Halloween! I must say my kids were the cutest toys story kids out there. =)

Kenta and our friend Alex before a Halloween shindig.. Dont they just look fabulous! Kenta just used my costume from last year.. Only a true man can wear red ruby slippers. =) Alex was so clever in his costume. If you cant tell, he is a cereal killer.. Creative, No?

November- No snow yet, so the kids are soaking up the last few days of sunshine..

On November 3rd this kid turned 6! And a few days berfore that he lost his first 2 bottom teeth. He looks so dang cute. =)

December- Christmas came of course and it was a blast! And My baby Kai turned 2 !! Doesnt seem possible, but it happened...

I swear to you all, thats still assuming people still check this thing, I going to be better at this documenting my life stuff. I have so many peoples blogs to catch up on now! Forgive me for my lack of commenting, I am going to be better. =)

And to those of you who went private, which I know some of you did. Hook me up with invite!!

Toledo....

2010-09-19T22:17:00.003-04:00

We spent some time this summer about 2 1/2 hours north of us with my brother Chance and his wife Jessica. They live in Toledo and by this fun beach/camping place called Maumee Bay.I think its actually lake michigan. It was a Fun relaxing day on day on the beach. =)

Not even a week after we were there is when the deadly Tornados hit Toledo. SO many homes and buildings and school were destroyed. I believe 7 people were killed and while all that was going on Chance was out risking his life in the crazy weather because thats what news reporters do, its crazy! A couple days after the Tornadoes hit Chance went to Haiti for a week so I went and stayed with Jess all by myself for a few days. They actually cancelled church that weekend I was there and ask that we go volunteer and help clean up after all the devastation. So thats what Jessica and I did. It was so sad to see some peoples house just GONE. IT was crazy sad.... I didn't do much help in the grand scheme of things but it felt good to be there with so many other people and be able to help out a little bit.

summer trip #1

2010-09-19T15:44:00.000-04:00

In May we went on a little road trip to Nauvoo Illinois. Some of our best friends from Utah met us there. They are actually more like family since I have litterally known them since birth. I grew up with Heather and Kiessa and our moms were friends before I was even born. Now my kids are getting to grow up with Kiessas kids and I am pretty sure Noah is going to marry Kendra! They are inseperable when they are together. She actually got to come spend a week all by herself with us this summer but I will post on that later.

We rented a vacation house that sat right on the Mississippi river and it was so beautiful! I really love Nauvoo it is such a pretty town and we had a really good time with really good friends. :)

BFF's

2010-09-19T14:51:00.001-04:00

So here I go trying to play catch up! We had such a fun busy summer and I really wasn't in the mood to blog to be honest. Then every time I thought about blogging I didnt even know where to begin! So here I go starting at the beggining of summer.
Our friend's the Mcquiveys moved to Ohio 4 years ago for Optometry school and Rebecca and I became fast friends because she had alittle boy Noahs age whos name is Dash. When we met them Noah and Dash were only 1 1/2 years old. They litterally grew up together for 4 years and were the best of friends! Well Rebeccas husband Chris graduated and got a job in AZ so they up and left Ohio. Noah and Eli were so bummed Dash was leaving so we decided to have one last really fun time with him so we had our very first friends sleepover party with him. They had so much fun sleeping in a tent in the basement, getting all sugar high and staying up till midnight! They were party animals! :)
The boys have been talking about Dash a lot lately so that is what motivated me finally to post this. We miss you Mcquivey family!!

Funny story......

2010-05-19T23:04:00.000-04:00

Here is the story..... If you know me than you know I always have a cat or 2. I prefer 2 so they have a friend... 6 months ago our cat Pumpkin just vanished..We had had her for 2 years and I hate to think about what happened to her. In our backyard there is woods that I know deer, opossum and racoons live there and I dont know what else lives back there, but I think something that can hurt my kitties...I love being able to live in the city and occasionally see a deer or racoon in our backyard..The woods are only 1/2 mile wide or so but apparantly go somewhat far west and east..

ANYWAY.........Our FAVORITE cat ever Charlie dissapeared and had been missing 5 or 6 days. Noah cried anytime he thought about him gone. Eli was sad but never cried.. I was also feeling lonely becasue Charlie was very much my lap buddy and extra sleeping partner (at the foot of the bed).. After thinking for a minute I was sure charlie was gone for good so I decided to get 2 kittens that were syblings and NEVER EVER let them outside! I found 2 little baby GIRL sisters and snatched them right up! I am not the only female anymore!! =) ....This i

s where it gets funny... I swore up and down a long time ago that I would never have more than 2 cats.......... Not even 24 hours after we adopted our new kitties we found our missing cat Charlie!! Noah and Eli were out riding there bikes and Noah ran inside yelling " I see charlie!" ....Sure enough there he was 2 houses down, scared and starving to death.. He let me pick him right up and he came inside and chowed down on food for a good 15 minutes.... He was not happy that within the 6 days he was gone I brought home 2 new kittys and some new couches that he was not use to sleeping on!!! He stayed downstairs for a few days mad at me... =( ..... Well as if my house was not full enough with a husabnd, 3kids, a cat (charlie), a dog (rusty) and a frog (abby), I have an additonal 2 cats whose names are the girliest names I could think of...Daisy and Lilly... =)

This is Kai totally loving on the kittens..I didnt even tell him to do this but he just kept giving them kisses, which are opened mouth of course! Lol

I love this picture of Kai and his Mischevious look he has..The kittens are terrified of him, because he mawls then to death!!! LOL

Look what Eli can do!

2010-05-13T11:06:00.001-04:00

Eli walked up to me and said " I don't need my training wheels anymore mom. I can be like Noah!" So Kenta took them off and sure enough within about 10 minutes of practicing he had it down. I am one proud momma. =)
Way to go buddy!

My New Life

2010-05-13T00:13:00.001-04:00

This video clip has been everywhere the past week, but I really do think everyone should check this out....REGARDLESS of your religion! It is a very TOUCHING and INSPIRING story.... Although it is not just a story to Stephanie Neilson, this is HER LIFE..... I read her blog on a daily basis and hope everyone will at least check out this clip of her even if you dont read her blog.... Her blog and writing makes me think of the really IMPORTANT things in life. If you want to check out her blog then click on the "I READ NIE NIE" button on the side of my page.

Happy Mothers day!

2010-05-09T12:17:00.003-04:00

My friend just showed me how to make these collages, and I was having fun doing them so I am posting two in honors of Mothers day of me and my little men! =)

I love being a mom to these 3 boys. They make my life so crazy and chaotic and I love it! (most of the time).... I can't and imagine my life not being a mom. Thanks Noah, Eli, & Kai for choosing me to be your momma.

Happy Mothers day to all you mommys out there!

Lego madness

2010-04-23T18:01:00.004-04:00

With a house full of boys we have a house full of legos. Most of the time they look like a big mess like the photo above. Last week we went to Easton mall and found this awesome lego store. Of course we couldn't leave with out scoring some new legos. Can I just say I have a love hate relationship with these little tiny things. They cause a huge mess, I am always cleaning them up and stepping all over them.....

BUT they are also HOURS of entertainment. These boys LOVE to play with them!Thank you to the man or women for inventing these annoying, yet very entertaining toys. YOU ROCK! Thanks to these legos I can actually cook dinner with out 3 little people all up in my space.. =)

Smores'

2010-04-21T08:59:00.003-04:00

I have been such a blogging slacker. I have good reasons though. I have always been a wannabe photographer. I finally got a nice, fancy camera and have been practicing a lot. My friend Kristen who is a photographer and a photoshop genius has been helping me out. She used to teach photoshop classes and is giving me one on one classes. So that is what I have been up to. One day in the near future maybe I will start posting some pictures that I have been working on. Anyway......I am so happy winter is over and we can start enjoying the outside world more! =)
After Kai went to bed the other day we ventured outside ,made ourself a little fire and made smores with strawberry marshmellows. YUM!

Easter Season

2010-04-15T09:21:00.006-04:00

Better late then never posting these. =)
Easter time was fun as usual. Full of awesome weather, family, Easter day barbecue, egg hunts, coloring eggs, and of course Easter baskets.

Eli's Awesomeness

2010-03-18T09:15:00.003-04:00

Just about everyday Eli models some very nice outfits ,makeup and accessories for me..He is seriously so funny! I just flipped through some picture folders from the past year and here is some of his awesomeness!

This is Eli and his buddy Ethan...I am sure this was Eli's idea.

This last one is my favorite. =)

Goodbye Curls

2010-03-04T13:51:00.005-05:00

A few months ago Kai's hair started to show signs of curls and I was so excited! I have always dreamed of having a curly haired kid. I thought with my husband being Japanese and having the straightest hair ever I would have absolutely no chance of that happening. I dont have curly hair but my brother and some other extended family members do.
Well the problem is Kai's hair is really only curly after bath time. Then he takes a nap or goes to bed and wakes up with mostly straight hair again. I kept holding out that it would turn more curly because he looked so freaking cute for the short periods of time when it was actually curly. Well, people strated commenting at church or even the grocery store that its starting to look like he needs a haircut. Finally I gave in and I am a little disapointed that I did. I cut all my boys hair and it was haircut day for Kenta, Noah and Eli so I decided to do Kai's also.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

He doesn't look like my baby anymore, he looks like a little boy!
What do you think...Curly (even though its not always curly), Mohawk, or flat?
Whatever though..... he is still such a stud! =)

Cute boys

2010-03-04T13:33:00.003-05:00

This is my personal opinion but I think my kids have the best grandma in the world! They are so spoiled. She is always doing nice things for them and for valentines day she got them some ballons and treats. Also My aunt Diane and my Grandma T. from Utah sent the boys some treaures and treats for v-day also. My kids are so lucky to have so many people that love and care about them.

This was Kai's first sucker and boy did he LOVE it! =)

yuminess

2010-02-11T10:06:00.002-05:00

After freezing their little bums off outside, there is nothing like stripping down and warming up with some hot chocolate. YUM YUM...
I love that these 2 boys of mine are best friends. (well most of the time) =)

Snow time

2010-02-11T06:10:00.004-05:00

I just have to say that Ohio is COLD. To COLD! I have never expereinced this kind of cold before. Yesterday morning my car door was completely frozen shut. I was pulling and kicking it trying to get it open. After about 5 minutes I almost froze to death but I finally got it open.
The kids could care less about the cold. They are loving getting all bundled up to play in the snow multiple times a day. (It's quite the process!)
.......I wish I was in Hawaii

Boys with auntie Mollie

Birthday Boy

2010-01-06T09:05:00.003-05:00

My youngest little guy Kai turned ONE years old on December 15th. December was such a crazy month so I am just now getting around to blogging about it.
We had a little birthday party at my moms house for him. Kai is still the sweetest most laid back kid I have had. He has the cutest smile with his 8 big teeth. He started walking the week of his birthday and now all he does is walk! No more crawling for this little guy! He loves every kind of food. I have never had a problem feeding him any food, he loves it all! It is so fun to watch him interact with Noah and Eli. They all play together so well and Noah and Eli are always watching out for Kai. They are both great big brothers to him. Kai absolutely loves bath time. All he does is splash so there is a flood in my bathroom when he is all done. =)
His 1 year old check up is not until next week so I am not sure about his height but I do know he weighs 19 lbs. So he is still just a small little boy.
I am so in love with this little boy and am so thankful he is all mine! =)
Happy birthday sweet boy.

Here are the pictures from his birthday fiesta.

Merry Christmas to all.....

2009-12-19T22:45:00.004-05:00

Christmas time this year has been so much fun with these three monkeys!

Hope everyone is having a Holly Jolly Christmas!

Early Christmas from Japan

2009-12-19T21:56:00.004-05:00

We recieved a package from Kenta's sister Tomoko the other day. It was full of Christmas presents for the boys. Of course they couldn't wait to open them all so we decided to let them go at it!

She sent all 3 of the boys these CUTE matching converse shoes. They look so cute wearing them!

They got a fun pirate game and book.....

Look how cute this spoons and forks are!

She also sent a bunch of yummy treats. =)

Thank you so much Tomoko! The boys are having so much fun with all their new goodies! =)

Girl's night. =)

2009-12-04T10:10:00.006-05:00

Me and a couple of my friends did a little Momlorette (instead of bachelorette) gathering for my friend Raquel. She is due any minute to have her first baby, which is a BOY. We decided to celebrate her last free moments as a free women and go to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It was my first time going there and won't be my last. Their food was delicious and their super expensive cheesecake was even better!
It's not very often at all that I get just a girl's night, but I vote I should get more! =)

Congrats Raquel, I can't wait to meet your little guy!

Thanksgiving weekend.

2009-12-02T14:49:00.007-05:00

Thanksgiving weekend was very relaxing and enjoyable this year. My parents just bought a beautiful new home in Delaware Ohio which is about 40 minutes away from me now. So this was our first family gathering at their new home. We ended up just staying and sleeping up their the entire weekend.

My mom invited the missionaries to join us for the day. We had a delicious dinner that everyone pitched in and help make.
Kai's first Thanksgiving dinner.Mashed potatoes. =)

When we weren't eating off and on all day we were playing some kind of game. This was our MEAN game of spoons. I lost.

More games.....

....and more....

My mom's new house has a hot tub so that was a nice relaxing luxury we enjoyed that weekend.

After LOTS of shopping on Black Friday we all went to the Festival of lights. Lots of cool lights to see, Noah asked to me to take a picture of almost every single thing. They thought it was the coolest thing ever!

It was Santa's first night at the Festival of lights and we waited about half an hour to see him. This was the first year that Eli didn't freak out at the sight of him. He actually walked right up to him jumped on his lap and asked him for some new choo choo trains. =) Noah jumped on his lap and Santa asked what he wanted and he said I sent you a list in the mail. (which he did about a week prior.) He is soooo excited for Christmas!

Kai was the first one of my kids to not freak out and cry at the sight of Santa clause. It didn't surprise me though just because Kai has always been a really chilled and laid back baby.

This Thanksgiving I am so thankful to have such an wonderful family. I have the GREATEST kids and husband a girl could ask for. I have the best parents, brothers, and sisters. We all just have so much fun together and I love them all so much. I couldn't have asked for a better family.

How could I forget?

2009-11-18T19:31:00.007-05:00

I was going through my pictures and came across these. How could I forget to post something as exciting and fun as Noah and Eli's very first swimming lessons this last summer. My mom has been teaching them both to swim since they were about 1. Just a little 15 minute lesson every time we go to the pool. Well it has definitely paid off because they both did so good with their teachers and they loved it! They were such little fish and it made me one proud momma .=)

Looking at these make me miss summer and the pool days already!

Happy 5th Birthday!

2009-11-12T20:09:00.004-05:00

5 years ago on November 3rd my sweet little guy Noah came into this world. Here he is on the day he was born. I loved that he had so much hair. He was such a chubby, beautiful baby. I did not want to cut his hair for the first year of his life. Don't ask me why but I did the same with Eli and am doing the same for Kai. So this is him on his 1st birthday right before his first haircut. =)Birthday #2Around birthday #3Birthday #4..... Like the bow in his hair? The closest thing I will ever have to a girl I'm sure. =)Birthday #5!!! This year for Noah's birthday I decided to just do a family birthday party. Since we had been sick the 2 weeks before his birthday, I didn't have time to plan and execute a big birthday party. We had a fun day, ALL DAY! After preschool in the morning we went our good friend Cathie and her kids to Mcdonalds for lunch and played for nearly 2 hours on the playground. Then when Kenta got home from work we met my parents and sister at Graeters and had icecream and played some more. After Graeters everyone went back to my house to open gifts, play with his new toys and games, eat pizza and watched a movie together.

Happy birthday Noah. You are the sweetest most handsome little 5 year old I know. Please stay this way forever! =) I love you!

Halloween weekend

2009-11-08T21:48:00.006-05:00

A week and half before Halloween we all got sick one right after another with the swine flu. At first I didnt think it was that but when Noah and Eli starting coughing up a lung and they were sounding terrible I took them to the doctor. Their doctor tested for H1N1 and sure enough it came back positive. Oh lucky us! Columbus is a big college football town and on Halloween there was an OSU game so they switched treak or treating to the thursday before halloween. We were all feeling a lot better by then but not 100%. The kids were all ready to go trick or treating but I didnt want them to spread there germs around to much. But we decided to let them go trick or treating at grandma and grandpas house. By Halloween on Saturday we were feeling 100%. Well except for Kai had a runny nose but he was acting like his happy self again. So Chance and Jess invited us up to Toledo to stay with them and go trick or treating in their neighborhood. I warned them about the sickness we just recently had but they stilll wanted us to come. We drove the 2.5 hours to see them and we had a fun relaxing weekend with them. Lots of playing in the leaves, carving pumpkins, going out to eat, playing cards, staying up till 1:00 a:m watching scary movies and of course trick or treating!! Thanks guys for letting us com play with you. =)

Kai's little friend for the weekend was little pablo who just could not leave Kai alone! Carving some pumpkins...again....

Playing in the leaves for hours!!!

This is right before we went trick or treating. It was a pretty cold evening so good thing their costumes were warm!

I really hate this picture of me because I look so freakin' ridiculous. But I have had some family and friends request to see us all together in our halloween costumes. Kenta and I thought we would be cool this year and dress up with the kids when we went out trick or treating. We obviously did the Wizard of Oz theme. Kai is suppose to be a flying monkey but I forgot his wings. We had so many people compliment us and complete strangers asking to take our picture for some weird reason. I think it was because Kenta looked so awesome! The only thing I loved about my dorothy costume was my red glittery shoes! I was just trying to be a team player =)
TRICK OR TREAT!!!

Our pumpkins all lit up
Cutest little flying monkey ever..don't you think?

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

Halloween traditions

2009-11-08T20:49:00.003-05:00

I know it's November but I didn't want to forget to post some pics of our regular halloween traditions that we did. Carving pumpkins and creating our Haunted gingerbread house. This year Eli did not want anything to do with cleaning out the pumpkin. He thought it was too gross. He would not stick his arm in there but he thought it was hillarious to stick his foot in the pumpkin! I totally forgot to take a pictureof our finished product. Oh well...

The kids really look forword to doing these gingerbread houses around every holiday. They make for a very messy but fun family night.

November 5th 2005.......

2009-11-06T10:45:00.006-05:00

4 years ago yesterday Kenta and I got hitched! We were married at Ravenwood castle in Hocking Hills Ohio. We had just moved to Ohio 2 months before this so we didn't know anyone from here. We had such a small wedding outside and the weather could not have been better that day! We had kentas family minus his sister. My family minus a brother and sister. Lindsey who was one of my best friends from Utah flew out with her son ,and of course our son Noah was there. (yes, for those of you who didn't know we did things a little out of order). We also had two of our friends that we had just met at church Katie and Shawn, and our bishop who married us. That was everyone. I really do wish we that we could have had some more family and friends there but it all happened pretty fast. I think it was about 1 month from the time we got engaged to the time we were married. So it was really short notice and I obviously didn't expect everyone to fly across the country last minute to watch us get married. Later on we did have an open house in Utah. (like 9 months later!) So are wedding was very small but very beautiful and one of the best days in my life! It feels so much longer ago than 4 years. I guess because we have been together for nearly 7 years and so much has happened since we were married. I am so thankful I met Kenta. He truly is the love of my life. Happy anniversary to us, I love you Kenta!

Tennessee

2009-11-01T22:05:00.008-05:00

This post is so late but it is something I didn't want to forget.

In August we took a short trip to Tennessee to visit kentas family. His sister Tomoko flew in from Japan to visit their parents so we decided to take go to Tennessee while she was there.
We had a really nice trip and the kids were really good in the car for the 7 1/2 hour drive.
While we were there we went to a nearby lake for the afternoon and had a picnic in Japanese style! =) It was the yummiest picnic ever. His mom prepared a lot of great food and made some delicious sushi rolls. It is such a beautiful area that they live in! It is so green and trees everywhere an there are lots of hills everywhere which is the closest thing we get to mountains out here. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the lake. Although Noah was scared to go in the water once he discovered that there were little tiny fish swimming around in there. He would not go in unless he was on kentas back. It was pretty funny watching Noah freak out a little bit. He acts like such a girl (like myself) when it comes to bugs,reptiles,fish, all those kind of things..I hope he grows out of this because I dont think this is normal for boys to act this way!
Anyway...
We all had fun trip , especially Noah and Eli who had so much fun with kentas parents and sister.
If you have not been to Tennesse, I highly recommend going sometime in your lifetime. There are a lot of fun things to do there ,a lot of great vacation areas and it is just so beautiful there!
Thank You to Kenta's family for the great trip!

Cruising the 7.5 hours to Morristown Tennesse

This is Noah attempting once again to use chopsticks.

This was at our picnic by the lake

10 months old

2009-11-01T20:08:00.007-05:00

I was a bit of a slacker getting Kai to his 9 month pediatrician checkup. He didn't actually make it until he was almost 10 months. The only shot he had to get this time was the flu shot. He weighed almost 18 lbs and was 28 inches long. He has been my smallest baby so far. He is in the 10th percentile for weight and 20th percentile for height. He is very vocal and is making sounds that sometimes sound like words. His hair is growing like crazy and it's almost time for his first haircut. He is such a good little sleeper! Still sleeping 12 hours a night and taking 2 naps during the day. That makes me a very happy and rested momma! =)

Kai is crawling all over the place. He stands on his own but has not taken any steps yet. He still is such a calm, happy, very chill baby. Poor little guy has the swine flu right now. Yuck! =( We have all been sick for the past week and a half. He is the last one in our family to get it. So he is not his happy old self right now.

Here he is showing off his new standing skills!
Bath time is Kai's favorite part of the day. Such a little FISH!Kai has really been starting to play and interact so much with Noah and Eli. It's been so cute watching him try and keep up with those two crazy boys.Kai puts up with a lot from his brothers. So we were playing with our Halloween face paints and Eli painted his own face and then insisted on painting Kai's face. Kai sat there very patiently while Eli used Kai's face as his canvas.(remember this is my child who colors on everything!)
I can't believe this little guy is almost 1! We all love you so much Kai =)

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-10T10:38:00.002-04:00

Yay Visitors!

2009-10-09T14:01:00.007-04:00

Last week we had my grandparents and aunt Diane flew all the way to Ohio to visit us. I am so happy they came. We never have any visitors come out to see us! We had a nice relaxing time with them.

While my grandparents were here Chance and Jessica came down from Toleda for a few days. And they introduced us to the newest member of their family. This cute little lab puppy they named Pablo. They made up this hillarious song that chance sang while Jessica walked in hold Pablo like on the Lion king. It was So funny!

We went to Devine Farms while everyone was here. This is the fun pumpkin place we go to every year.

There was a pretty competitive monolopy game that went on for about 3 hours. Grandma and jessica ended up calling a tie between them.While we played monolopy my mom made some delicious homemade doughnuts..yummy!
Thanks for coming to visit guys!

Soccer season comes to an end.

2009-09-21T09:22:00.005-04:00

The kids had their last soccer game a week ago. It was such a fun summer of playing soccer most saturday mornings.
On the last day of soccer we did an afternoon game and then had pizza and handed out trophies. The boys felt pretty special =)
Kristi was so funny and made all the boys come up and shake her hand when she handed them their trophies. Thanks so much Kristi for organizing this, it was so fun! I hope you guys don't move so we can do it again next summer!!
Here is pictures from the last soccer game..We had my parents, my sister mollie, My brother chance and sister in-law jessica all come to watch the boys.
Speaking of Chance and Jessica, they just moved to Toledo Ohio which is only about 2 1/2 hours north of here. Chance just got a job as a news anchor/reporter at the television station there. So they just moved here from Utah and we are so stoked they are so close!! So if anyone goes up north to toledo make sure you check out chance on the 6:00 news =)

I caught a picture of Noah scoring a goal!
Sometimes it turned into more of tackle football than soccer =)
The proud parents

Bye Bye soccer for now!

Preschool

2009-09-21T07:15:00.007-04:00

Preschool has started once again. This year Eli gets to go also! They are both in the same preschool at my friends house, which is the same preschool Noah did last year. Raquel runs a little preschool out of her basement. She is so great and Noah and Eli just love her and love going to preschool. Noah misses the deadline by a few months to start kindergarten, which I was bummed about because I feel like he is so ready to start going to school more. Raquel's preschool is 2 mornings a week, so 2 mornings a week me and Kai get the morning all to ourselves!

I have another friend kristen who lives not far from us and she and I were talking one day and I had mentioned how much Noah loved preschool and I wish he was old enough to go to kindergarten so he could be at school more. Well Kristen has a 4 year old daughter that she was going to do her own little preschool with 2 mornings a week and she invited Noah and another little girl to join them. So Noah now gets to do 2 different preschools and he gets to go 4 days a week, which he loves! I have some great friends here, Thank you so much to Raquel and Kristen for stimulating my children's brains! =)
Yes, I am that nerdy that I dressed them all alike on their first day of preschool. =)
Aren't they some handsome little boys I have!!

Miss Raquel and her preschool kids on their first day of school
Here is Miss Kristen, Noah, Willow, and Hannah

playing catch up!!

2009-09-19T05:21:00.005-04:00

My excuses for being a blogging slacker.
*We have a had a few CRAZY BUSY months!!

*sick kids and a not sleeping, teething baby =(

*I have had a broken laptop that has been a joke to try and fix .It keeps breaking, getting fixed and then breaking again, and as of yesterdayit is working FOR NOW! So now maybe i can upload some pictures now and catch up on all the things i want to blog about. As long as my computer stays healthy, I can play catch up.

Happy Birthday Eli!!

2009-08-13T09:52:00.007-04:00

I am a little late posting this ,but better late than never. =)
My little boy Eli turned 3 on July 20th! It is so hard to believe that he is already 3!

We had a birthday party planned at our house and an unfortunate series of events at my house (one including half of my deck collapsing) lead us to change plans last minute and have the party at the tuttle pool that we always go to. Usually you have to give a 3 day notice to the pool for a party, but since my sister mollie is a lifeguard there they let us do the party with less than 24 hour notice. Thanks mollie for pulling some strings for us!
It was a lot of fun and we had a great turn out! We had a Curious George themed party with pizza, cupcakes, a pinata and of course pool fun! We did it around dinner time so a lot of the dad's were able to come and hang out at the pool and have pizza and cupcakes with us. It was a family fun night celebrating my big boy's 3rd birthday! =)

After the party we came home and the boys played with Eli's new presents .His favorite gift was his new spider man man bike from his grandma & grandpa walser. (my parents)

No more tricycle for this big boy!

Thanks everyone that came, we had so much fun!!

Eli's Stats:

Weight: 36 lbs.

Height: 37 inches...just over 3 ft. tall

He is a pretty good eater, not to picky. Some of his favorites are strawberries, rice, anything chicken and Nato which is this Japanese sticky bean type food. He seriously would eat Nato for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He recently had Sushi at Kentas parents house and he loved that to! I guess has some Japanese genes is him or something =)

He is very much into trains and cars still. He loves playing super hero's and flying off the furniture. He is so funny and is always copying his big brother and has to do anything he is doing or says anything he says. I guess you could say he is Noah's little shadow. Noah and him play really well together. They are definitely best friends. The two of them can also fight a lot but it is always over the same toy or something like that.

Eli is such a good big brother to Kai also. Eli is always the first person up in the morning and as soon as he hears Kai wake up he goes and crawls in his crib with him and plays with him for a while. He always calls Kai "baby Kai" not just Kai but "baby Kai". It's pretty cute.=)

Eli is the comedian of the family. He is always doing something that makes us laugh and smile, or else he is doing something that makes us so angry such as coloring on walls or doors (yes, he still does that! GRRRRRRR!!!!!)

Eli gets to start preschool in a few weeks now that he is 3. I have Noah and him in the same preschool class and they are both so excited!

Happy birthday Eli, we love you so much and we cant wait to see how you grow over this next year and hopefully STOP coloring on everything! =)

Kalahari Resort

2009-07-19T07:12:00.007-04:00

Before we went to Cedar Point a few weeks ago we went and stayed at the Kalahari resort. ( read previous post about cedar point if you haven't already) My brother Chance and his wife Jessica were in town and mollies boyfriend Tyler came along. So we had a nice group of us!
Kalahari is a HUGE african themed resort. It has an idoor/outdoor water park with an arcade, indoor mini golf course, a bigplay area, a pottery making shop and some other stuff. It's a fun little vacation spot. We did not stay long enough to do everything but we want to go again and just stay there a couple of days.

Here is a birds eye view of some of the indoor water park.

Here is Noah coming off of a water slide. He is fearless when it comes to water slides and pools! He is such a little fish.

Auntie Jessica with Kai

I was having camera difficulties, and they were turning out dark so I didn't take very many pictures in the waterpark.

Here is everyone waiting for the huge bucket of water to tip over on them =)

Outside of the hotel there is a petting zoo you can walk to. That night after playing in the water park for hours we decided to play at the petting zoo for a while. They had pony and camel rides you could do. I tried to get Noah and Eli ride the camels but they were to scared, they just wanted to ride on the little horses. They also got to feed all the animals. It was so cute to watch them feed the girrafes and kangaroos .

If you live in Ohio and have not been there I highly recomend going! I think it will be the perfect getaway in the winter. =)

Cedar Point

2009-07-12T15:34:00.011-04:00

We have lived in Ohio for almost 4 years and have never been to Cedar point until 2 weeks ago. For you non-ohioans Cedar Point is one of the big amusement parks in Ohio. This one is in northern Ohio in Sandsuky. Cedar Point is on a narrow pennisula jutting into lake erie. It currently holds the world record for the most roller coasters, one of which, The top thrill Dragster, is the world's second tallest and second fastest roller coaster. Reaching speeds of 120 mph and a height of 420 ft. INSANE I know!!
We wen to cedar point with my parents ,my brother Jackson, my brother chance and my Sister in law Jessica, and then my sister mollie and her boyfriend Tyler.
This was also my boys first time at an amusment park, so they were sooooooo excited!!
I spent most of my time taking the kids around and they were having the time of their life!

Later in the day Eli surprisingly took a nice little catnap.

Moster truck ride...we did this ride 3 times (myself included)!

Uncle Chance and Eli on the boat ride.....

Auntie Jess and Noah =)

Kai spent most of the day in grandpa's arms=)...Have I ever mentioned that my kids have the best grandpa in the entire world! Seriously dad your the best =)

Did I mention how crappy the weather was that day. The high was 65 degrees and it was raining off and on all day! I had to buy all the boys jackets and my mom carried this blanket in from her car and wore it around when it was raining.... Brrrrrrrrrr....

Daddy and Eli in the swings

Kenta,Eli,Chance and Noah up in the bus.. They thought that was pretty fun!

Here is the SCARY Dragster roller coaster I mentioned earlier. My people are actually on that one I took the picture of,Jackson said he was excited but I could see him fighting back the tears...lol.. just kidding jackson =)

Chance and Jessica trying not to freak out!

Mollie and Tyler also trying not to freak out! Although Mollie did kind of freak out. She was pretty much hyperventalating and I even saw a tear or two =(..I dont blame her though, you could not pay me enough to go on that ride!! SO good job little sister and everybody else!!! =)

Here are all my brave people after they survived the dragster! =)

Here is kenta and I sitting on the sidelines while everyone else was waiting in line for the dragster. Kenta would have gone but he didn't want to leave me alone for an hour
waiting for everyone to get done with the roller coaster. My parents were off with the kids at that time.

We had a good time and will probably make it a yearly event to go. But going there made me realize what a scaredy cat I have become. I would not go on half the roller coasters there. What happened to me in my old age!?

Spring Soccer 2009

2009-07-11T08:18:00.006-04:00

Soccer has been a lot of fun this season. Noah has done an awesome job. He really does take after his dad. Eli is really good to but he has a hard time playing the entire game. He will play soccer for a minute and then go wander off and play on the swings or something else. Which is ok. That is why this little soocer team of ours is so great because all the kids are so young and kristi (the coach) is so patient. It really is such a fun thing for these little boys to do and they all have so much fun doing it!
We are taking a break from soccer right now, but we will start back up in the fall.
The last soccer game we played was in our backyard . Their were more guys than usual since my brother chance and his wife Jessica were in town. My dad was their and my sister mollie's boyfriend Tyler was their. And then some of the soccer dad's were their. So after the kids game all the guys and kristi played their own soccer game. It was fun to watch all these old people run around and play! =)

Here are pictures of the kids last soccer game of this season.

Go Team!

This is Eli chillin' on the swings like he does half of the time :)

Stampin' Up! for Down Syndrome

2009-07-03T08:18:00.006-04:00

One of my fellow Stampin' Up friends Mary is hosting another Stamp-A-Stack fundraiser for Down Sundrome. Her beautiful daughter Leah has Down Syndrome and she is trying to raise money for their "Love of Leah" buddy walk team. She did this fundraiser last year also,and it was so fun!!
Click HERE to read last years post about Mary and her sweet daughter Leah.
This years details.....

Stampin’ Up! for Down syndrome
Stamp-A-Stack
Saturday, August 1st 8a-4p
6019 Canyon Creek Drive, Dublin

Come stamp a stack of 12 cards (4 designs, 3 of each design). All material is pre-cut and we’ll be using stamps and product from the new Idea Book & Catalog (envelopes included; bring your own adhesive)!

Saturday, August 1, 2009 8am-4pm
Come at your convenience. Allow 2 hours to complete all 12 cards.
RSVP by Monday, July 13

 Light refreshments will be provided.
 Door prizes!
CLASS FEE: $20

50% OF THE CLASS FEE WILL BE DONATED TO THE DOWN SYNDROME ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL OHIO IN LEAH ELLIOTT’S NAME.

Contact Mary: (614) 801-1621 or maryloves2stamp@yahoo.com
or you can let me know and I will let Mary know.

I went last year and have already r.s.v.p'd to go again this year.I was hoping to get some of my fellow stamper friends and card club buddies to come with me and help support her in raising money for Down syndrome. Mary is so creative and talented so I know her cards she comes up with will be awesome!
Stampin' Up! has donated about $500 worth of product for this event. So there will be some great prizes to be won!
I actually won a huge gift basket of Stampin' Up stuff last year! =)
Click HERE to check out last years cards we did.

6 months already!

2009-06-26T06:46:00.003-04:00

Our baby Kai just turned 6 months old on June 15th. It is so hard to believe that it has already been half a year since he came into this world. He has hit a few little milestones since I last updated about him.
He had his 6 month check up a few days ago and the doctor says he growing great and looks healthy. He weighs 16 lbs and he is 26 inches long which puts him in the 25% for both. He is still the sweetest most laid back baby I have had so far! He is always so happy and he is a great sleeper! He loves to just play with his toys on the floor and he really likes being in his johnny jump up chair.
He just started baby food a few weeks ago which to no surprise he really enjoys =) His first food was sweet potatos. He has liked everything we have gave him so far except for oatmeal. He takes after me with that because I also hate oatmeal! He does not really seem interested in wanting to sit up but he is really close to crawling already! He gets up on his hands and knees and moves his knees forword but does not quite now what to do with his hands yet =)..I am sure he will crawl before he sits up and I am soooo not ready for him to start crawling. I don't want to start chasing him around everwhere and babyproof everything again! I like to lay him down somewhere and him still be there when I come back =)..
Here he is after bath time which he also likes very much!

Here is Kai's first time eating baby food. It was a family event =)
Here he is trying to sit up

Here he is in his ready to crawl pose

His brother's are so in love with him. I was out doing yard work and had kai laying in his bouncer and Noah and Eli wanted to lay down with him so they went and got their pillows and joined him for a while =)

They are usually always wanting to be by him and play with him. Well mostly Noah =)

I am so in love with these 3 boys!

Happy half birthday Kai!

Funny boys

2009-06-22T07:08:00.006-04:00

My kids make me laugh everyday! It's so funny to see what these boys come up with to entertain themselves.
The other day I guess they were going threw winter withdrawls because they pulled the sleds out from under the deck and took turns pulling each other around in it. Then they came in the house to put their snow gear on. Good thing I packed their winter coats away or else they would have been playing outside in the 85 degree, (also very humid) weather wearing their coats! Crazy kids =)

Zoo day

2009-06-17T07:28:00.004-04:00

One of the great things about living in columbus is the Columbus Zoo! We have an awesome zoo here. It was been ranked the #2 zoo in the country for a few years until last week when I read it has jumped up to the #1 Zoo in the country!
Connected to the the zoo is an awesome water park called Zoombezi Bay and a huge Safari golf course.
We have a Zoo membership so we get to go to the zoo whenever we want, and it's only about 20 minutes away. Here are a few pictures of our latest Zoo outing with a buch of our friends.
Here are the kids visiting the monkey's
This is the brand new baby boy elephant..so cute!

All the kiddos! (minus Eli)

Cute baby bunny just chillin on the side of the walk way.

There is a huge reptile building.Weird enough my boys claim to be terrified of all bugs and reptiles but whenever we go to the zoo they insist we visit the reptile building. EVERY TIME!!

Playing with baby ducks

Me and my boys =)

He did it!

2009-06-04T18:19:00.005-04:00

Noah is all finished with his first year of preschool! He loved going and he wished he could go everyday! He has learned so much and had so much fun with his school friends and teacher.
We can't wait for preschool to start back up in a few months, and this time both Noah and Eli get to go!!
Here are a couple of preschool pictures.

Soccer Time!!

2009-06-01T10:11:00.004-04:00

My friend Kristi had an idea to start our own little soccer team. We have so many 3 and 4 year old little boys around. So every Saturday morning we will get together and do a few little practice drills and then play a 15-20 minute game since that is about all these little boys can handle right now! This last Saturday we went to Kristi's house and she had nets and cones all set up and she taught them how to do a few little drills and talked to them about the basic rules to the game. She even found these cute little soccer jerseys for $1! she got blue and green ones so we can have 2 different teams. It was so fun to watch my boys play their very first soccer game together. Noah was really into it and he was all over the ball. He even made the first goal =)....Eli is not quite 3 years old yet so he doesn't quite have the attention span for this type of thing yet. He was wandering off half of the time and when he did decide to play every time he had the ball and someone kicked it away from him he would cry. It was kind of funny to watch,but hopefully as the weeks go on he will start to understand more of how the game works.
Thanks Kristi, you are an awesome coach! =) Here the kids are during the actual game.

This is them practicing kicking the ball to each other.

Here is Kristi teaching them the rules of the game

Here is Eli crying because someone took the ball away from him..lol

Here are the boys who played this week. We do have a few more boys coming to play so we will hopefully have about 5 kids on each team next week.

GO TEAM!

Kenta and I are so excited for our kids to play soccer. Kenta has always been a soccer player and we have been waiting a long time for them to be old enough to really start playing. After the game saturday I went and bought some soccer nets for the boys so they can practice in the backyard. Noah has been out there practicing quite a bit. He is definitely taking after his daddy. And his Daddy couldn't be more proud! =)

Kai's first 2 teeth

2009-05-28T09:32:00.002-04:00

This boy of mine is just so cute! Look closely and you will see his 2 bottom teeth he just got.
Don't you just want to smother him with kisses? I know I do! =)

Meet Abby

2009-05-26T09:14:00.009-04:00

This is our new pet frog Abby. This new little friend of ours is named after one of Noah and Eli's BFF's. We had the frog for a little over a day and still had not decided on a name for it. The boy's friend Abby came over to play and I asked her what she thought the frog's name should be and she said without any hesitation "I think it should be Abby". Then she asked Noah and Eli if they liked that name for the frog and they very happily agreed. So that is how our frog got it's name. =)
Abby's dad just got offered a job as a professor at BYU . They are some of our best friend's here and we are so sad that they are moving to Utah soon. Hey but at least we have a frog named in their memory now! Maybe every pet we get from now on will be named after each member of their family! =)
My boys are seriously terrified of all bugs and reptiles. I know its weird, since boys are suppose to be all about that kind of stuff. Noah has always been scared of them and I think his fear just rubbed off onto Eli. I am trying to break them both of this fear. I myself am terrified of spiders and just grossed out by bugs and reptiles. I have been totally sucking it up and holding worms, ladybugs and potato bugs just to try and show my kids that they are not scary. So far neither of them have ever held a bug yet but Eli is now beginning to quickly touch them and poke them. So we are having some progress!
I thought getting a nice friendly frog would be good for them. Maybe it would help them not to be so afraid of everything. Well neither of them have wanted to hold the frog yet but they say they love it and want to keep it. So we will see if they ever get the courage to hold it. =)

Here is the adorable real Abby and her beautiful mommy.

We will miss you Gibb's family!!

Boys will be boys

2009-05-26T07:55:00.005-04:00

I love the summer time when the boys can just go out back and play all day in our big fenced backyard. I leave the back door open so I can hear them while I am getting stuff done in the house. The other day I heard them laughing really hard and I went outside to see what was so funny. Well they had decided it would be so fun to run through the big mud puddle and get covered head to toe in mud! It was one of those moments where you don't know if you should be mad because now you have to bathe them and scrub the mud out of their clothes or just laugh because they look so cute. Well I just had to laugh and grab the camera. =)
Not only were they covered in mud but Eli was only wearing his t-shirt while doing this. No pants or underwear. I asked him where they were and he said he went pee outside. I don't know where he gets this from! More than once I have caught him in the nude peeing outside. What is that about!? Really the toilet is not that far away Eli... =)

Congratulations Kenta

2009-05-12T08:30:00.004-04:00

Kenta is a college graduate wiith a computer science degree.YAY!!! It feels like he has been in school for forever. I know some of my friends are rolling their eyes right now because your husbands are in medical school/residency , dental school or getting their MBA's but still 6 years of school is a VERY long time!
He did not want to walk which I was bummed about but I thought we needed to do some kind of celebration. So we had a barbecue get together last saturday with a few friends to celebrate.
We all are so proud of you Kenta! Congratulations!

What's next....Information Technology job or graduate school?

Stay tuned.......

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T11:51:00.003-04:00

Being a mom takes so much more than I ever imagined. Ihave learned a lot about myself since being a mom. I am really a totally different person than I was 5 years ago, before having kids. My priorities have changed 100%. I have given so much of myself, and I have never been happier. I LOVE being a mom, there really is nothing better. It takes so much work and A LOT of patience, but it so rewarding and makes it all worth it when your kids tell you they love you and give you hugs and kisses. =)
I have the BEST mom in the world. She really is the most giving person I have ever known! She gives so much of herself everday to her 6 kids, 3 grandkids and husband. She is such a good example to me. I love her so much.
I hope all you mom's feel appreciated today..It is our day =) Happy Mother's Day!

So tired.....

2009-05-09T22:34:00.004-04:00

Kai had a hard day of playing. It must be so exausting being a baby. =)

Engine House #16

2009-05-09T21:48:00.004-04:00

A few days ago we went to the downtown columbus Fire station museum with my good friend Kristi and her kids. It was pretty cool place I must say. It is an authenticaly restored 1908 engine house. It also is a fire prevention learning center.

When we got there a lady gave us a tour of the place and talked about the history of it. We got to see some really old fire engines that were awesome looking and then she gave us a little lesson in fire safety. After that the kids got to dress up in some fire fighting gear and play. All the kids had fun and overall it was an enjoyable afternoon. =)

Welcome home Heidi

2009-04-29T10:38:00.002-04:00

My much taller, blonder and younger sister Heidi returned home from her mission in Georgia last week. She will home for a few weeks before she is off to school at BYU Idaho. Noah was excited to see her, Eli didn't remember her and it was her first time meeting Kai. The boys sure have loved having an aunt Heidi around!
Welcome home Heidi!

Slate Run Farm

2009-04-29T09:36:00.004-04:00

We visited the Slate Run metro park a few days ago. Slate Run is an old time running farm about 30 minutes away from us. They raise animals and food.Then city kids like us can go visit the farm. We went at a great time of year because there were a lot of cute baby animals. We got to decorn the cobs and then grind the corn into meal. We got to play with some of the wooden games in the house. We even got to see a Rat snake just hanging out in the doorway. Noah takes after me and wanted nothing to do with snake, but Eli wanted to pet it. YUCK! So aunt Heidi picked him and let him touch the snake, he seemed pretty proud of himself for doing that. =)
We pumped water from the well for a drink and took a ride on the swing. It got up to 84 degrees that day, which is the warmest it had been so far this year. It was very beautiful and warm. It was fun to spend the day with some great friends at a great park.

Thomas and Friends

2009-04-28T20:59:00.003-04:00

For those of you who don't already know this, my boys like many their age are obsessed with trains. They love all trains but really are into Thomas and friends. So when we saw that there was a Thomas and friends live show coming to town we just had to go. We got Noah and Eli decked out in some of their train gear and they looked so cute. =) Grandma came over and hung out with Kai while we took the boys to the palace theater in downtown columbus. It was so fun! It was so fun to see how happy and excited they were the entire time! Yay for Thomas and friends =)
Good memories........

April's card club

2009-04-18T20:56:00.003-04:00

This months card club was at Danielle's house and we had a Spring theme. Danielle came up with this cute matching card and box that has a bottle of lotion in it. Such a fun night as always and really cute projects, Thanks so much Danielle!! April's cards:

Kristen's

Cathy's

Mine

Amy's

Kim R.

Sherri's

Raquel's

Danielle's

Baby Kai

2009-04-18T19:10:00.002-04:00

This adorable baby boy is 4 months old now. We had his 4 month checkup this week. He got more shots and cried louder than ever. It really is so sad because Kai really never cries. He only fusses when he is hungry or tired. Anyway it was really hard to watch.

He now weighs 13 lbs 12 oz. and 24 inches long, which puts him in the 25% all the way around.

He is seriously the best and easiest baby. He makes having 3 kids way easier than I expected. He is just so chill and happy all the time. He Started sleeping 12 hours at night about 6-7 weeks ago. There was no training involved like I had to do with my other kids. He just started doing it and has stopped yet! Which makes me one very happy and rested momma =). He is really close to rolling over and is still perfectly happy in his swing and bouncer. This week he started sucking on his hand and thumb a lot. I dont know if its because he is teething or if he is going to be my 3rd kid to suck his thumb. I am trying to enforce the binki but he thinks his hand tastes a lot better.

I just love this kid so much, he makes we want to have 100 more =).........ya, maybe if I could skip the entire pregnancy thing!

Here is a cute picture of my other monkeys, they are pretty great to =)

Happy Easter

2009-04-14T19:46:00.010-04:00

The past few weeks we have got to do some fun easter activities.
Since I know this is just boring stuff for some of you. I just want to say that I use this blog as a type of journal. It is mostly for myself and my family so I can remember things. I have never been a good journal keeper but always wanted to be especially since I have kids now. I want to remember the little things we did as a family and the funny things the kids have said 20 and 30 years down the road. I wish that I had done this starting 5 years ago, so I could remember when Noah and Eli hit all their milestones and documented some of the fun things they did and said when they were smaller. I plan to print this off yearly and put it in a binder of some sort. Does anyone have any good ideas about doing something like that? I am still trying to figure out exactly how I want to do it.
But ANYWAY.... back to writting about our Easter festivities. =)

I love how you can buy these holiday house kits now. There is not just only gingerbread house kits anymore, there is haunted houses you can make for halloween and now this year I found this Easter bunny house kit that is so cute! The kids love making these houses and they are always a cute decoration in the kitchen for a few weeks =)

We colored eggs, which is always fun and messy! The boys were lucky enough to get to do 3 Easter egg hunts. One at the church, one at the park and one at our friends house.

At the park's Easter egg hunt they had a bunny for the kids the pet. Eli LOVED this bunny. He had so much fun petting and teasing this bunny, it was so funny. Our friends the Sondrups invited us over for a little Easter egg hunt and barbecue, which was so fun. Even though Kenta was working and only got to show up for the last 30 minutes. Thanks guys it was so fun!

Here are all the cute kids at the barbecue. I think this picture is so funny. They were trying to get the kids to make funny faces and I guess Eli thought his buddy Riley needed some assistance.

Now for Easter day....

Easter was a great relaxing day. The Easter bunny found us, and of course they were SO excited! The toy trucks were their favorite item they got. They have still not let them go. The trucks went to church, to grandmas for dinner, they have taken a bath for the past 3 days. They have eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner with us and Noah even insisted that he take it to preschool. I tried to convince him it wasn't a good idea, but he just kept saying " Mom, everyone will love my truck, they really will." It was pretty funny and since Noah has the best preschool teacher who I didn't think would mind, I had to let him.

Anyway after a a fun morning and a yummy brunch off to church we went. The past week I had been trying to explain to Noah the real reason for celebrating Easter and he just wasn't really getting it, which is fine. He is only 4. But after church on sunday he had a much better understanding. I asked him what he had learned at church today and he told me he watched a movie and he explained to me all about how jesus had died and came back to life and that he had owies on his hands. It was pretty cute to listen to him tell us all about it. My little boy is growing up. =)

After church we went to my moms for the rest of the day and spent time with family and had a delicious Easter dinner.

Look closely and you will see Noah is wearing a tie in the picture below. I had no idea he was wearing this until we got to church. I asked him about it and he said he just wanted to wear a tie today. Kenta and I were laughing so hard! Noah and Eli are so funny sometimes.They make me laugh so much. I just can not imagine my life without these boys. They make me so happy......most of the time =)

Hope everyone had a great Easter!

This week

2009-03-27T12:08:00.004-04:00

THIS WEEK................

We took these cute boys to COSI

I think Kai did not find it as fun as the rest of us. =)
Kai got to take a bath with his big brothers for the first time!

Noah asked to take the training wheels off his bike so kenta did. He fell just a few timesBut within 10 minutes he had it down!

I am so proud of my big 4 year old boy!

My friend Danielle offered to let us borrow their super fun bouncy house. Of course it rained the first few days we had it. Obviosuly it can't be out in the rain, and the kids were so anxious to play with it! So we set it up in the house. Yep, my kids were the happiest kids in town =)

Just another week in the Harada's life. =)

PIE DAY

2009-03-26T13:24:00.006-04:00

We celebrated pie day 3.14 with a bunch of YUMMY pies and the pie-n-wood derby. Kenta and I are on the activities commitee at church, so we got to help plan this fun activity. Look at just a few of the delicious pies we had that night! There was a pie eating contest and my dad won. GO DAD! Here are some of my cool friends who participated in the contest. Becca, Danielle and Amy. Don't they look gorgeous =)

The winners of the pie eating contest got to throw pies in these boys faces! Kenta was a good sport for doing this =) My dad didn't want to throw a pie, so he passed the prize along to me. So I got to throw the pie in kentas face! =)

Before

After...It was really enjoyable =)

All the kids had so much fun doing the pinewood derby. There were a lot of great creative cars. Kenta was one of the guys racing the cars. He thought he was pretty cool =)

Here is Noah and his 2 buddies Dash and Grant watching all the cars race. Noah was the happiest little boy that night, he can not wait to do it again he says.

Kai was quite confortable with grandma all night =)

Just some more craftiness

2009-03-12T21:16:00.004-04:00

March's card club was held at Kristen's house and the theme this month was Thank You cards. It was a fun night as always. It's always nice to hold conversations with people over the age of 4. Don't get me wrong, conversations with my kids are quite entertaining at times, but every girl needs to have some "girl talk" sometimes =)
Here is the cute fun card Kristen came up with for our "make & take"Here is everybody else's cards

Cathy's...our new clubie =)

Raquel's

Kim R.

Amy's

Mine

Sherry's

Danielle's

Now since this is a crafty post, I wanted show off this rag quilt I just made. My friend Raquel posted one that she had made on her blog a while back and I thought it was so stinkin' cute. I had been wanting to make Kai a baby blanket for a while. Noah and Eli both had baby blankets made for them by some friends and family and Kai didn't have his own baby blanket yet. So thanks to Raquel, who showed me how to do it, I made my first rag quilt....GO ME!.... =) Thanks so much for teaching me how to do this Raquel ! It took about a week of cutting and sewing during nap times and a few late nights but now baby Kai has his own baby blanket =)

This is the back of the quilt

It was alot of work, but I love how it turned out and I think I will be making many more of these in my days. =)

Let's go fly a kite

2009-03-07T19:19:00.003-05:00

Today was awesome! I believe it got up to 73 degrees. It was a bit windy so we decided to go to the park and fly some kites and introduce Kai to the outside world. I laid kai on the blanket and the second I laid him down, the wind started blowing in his face and he started giggling. It was the first time we have heard him giggle! It was so cute =) He loved being outside and so did the rest of us! It was so much fun to get out of the house and let the kids run wild. We all had a really good day =)

Kai's Blessing day

2009-03-06T10:31:00.002-05:00

Baby Kai was blessed this last Sunday by my dad. Kai was so good and did not make a sound, and he looked so cute in his little blessing outfit. Thank you dad for giving Kai a beautiful blessing.

Kai and daddy
Grandpa with Kai

All my boys

Our sweet baby Kai

Why, why, why!?!?

2009-02-26T13:16:00.006-05:00

WHY does this child of mine INSIST on coloring everything except for what he is suppose to?
Noah never did this, he always colored on paper or whatever I gave him. He never once colored on a wall or his clothes or the table. Eli on the other hand, colors on whatever he think needs some sprucing up I guess. No matter how mad I get and no matter how many time outs he gets, he just could care less what I have to say. This has been an ongoing battle for a while now, I just am SOOOOO over it. He is ruining everything! When ever I get stuff out for them to color with at the table, I guess he secretly stashes some crayons and markers away everytime because I dont know where he finds all this stuff. Here are a few examples of some of the destruction that has happened in the last little while.

Chalk on the coffee table ( not a big deal, washed right off)

Pen on the back of the barstool ( i have tried everything to get this pen off the chair, it's ruined)

Peramant Marker on the wall ( this I have to paint over)

Marker on the heat vent. ( Doesnt come off, I have to replace it)

crayon on the door ( have not tried to clean it yet)

Crayon ALL over the slide attached to Noahs bed. (This luckily came off)

Crayon on his bedroom wall (have not cleaned this one up yet, (hopefully a magic eraser will work!)

Pen on Kenta's soccer ball
That is not all, he has also colored and ruined bed sheets, clothes, blankets, toys, oh yes and we cant forget himself, he is alwyays coloring on himself.

Eli is ALWAYS keeping me on my toes. I guess we will just say he has a "Free Spirit" =)

But likeI said I am SO VERY done with this destructive phase he is going threw.

Happy V-day to me

2009-02-15T20:16:00.004-05:00

Okay its's official my craftiness has started to rub off on my husband. He made this for me for Valentines Day! It is a little coupon heart thingy. On one side of the key it says " A key" and on the other side it says "to my heart". How cute and CORNY is he! =) This is seriously one of the best V-day gifts he has ever given me! These are very valuable coupons. This is the list of coupons I get to use =)
GOOD FOR:
1. 2:00 a:m feeding with baby
2. 5:00 a:m feeding with baby......
3. sleep in as long as I want......I should use 1,2&3 all in the same day!
4. back massage (2o min.)
5. full body massage ( up to 30 min.).....notice he had to make a time limit on #4 & 5 or it would go on for hours =)
6. poopy diaper change.....he does this anyway so I'll have to save it for a real good one. Gross, I know.
7. Whatever you want hunny!...he definately should have been more specific, this could get expensive =)

Obviously Kenta knows me pretty well. Some of my very FAVORITE things in life are sleep and massage's!! And I don't get much of either of those these days. So THANK YOU Kenta for putting so much thought and effort in to this gift. This really is the best, I love you!

......A little side note for Ben G. I told kenta I was going to post this and he told me not to, in fear that you would make fun of him, so BE NICE!! .....You know you wish you were cool like him =)

February Card Club

2009-02-15T19:03:00.005-05:00

So we just switched things up in card club this month. I will no longer be doing club at my house every month and I won't be coming up with the projects every month. It was just gonna be to much for me, and I want to simplify my life as much as possible. I love being in a card club and so do all the other girls. So to make things more interesting and fun we are going to take turns being the hostess. Once a month we will meet at the hostess house and they will be in charge of coming up with the "make and take" we do. Then we will of course swap the cards we brought. Some months we are even go to do a theme. Next month everyone will be doing Thank You cards. I think it will be a lot of fun and a little less stress on me =)..
We had quite a few new people join us for February's club, and if anyone else feels like being crafty and wants to jump in on this just let me know! I was the host for february's club, just to get things jump started again.
This is the "make and take" I came up with for everyone to do. A little Valentines card & envelope.

Here is everyone's super CUTE cards. All these girls are so talented!

Kim R.

Kristen

Amy

Daneille

Sherry (her very first card!)

Raquel (also her very first card!)

Rebecca

Mine

Since this is a crafty post, I wanted to show these valentine's Noah and I made for his little preschool class. Love suckers (there are real suckers inside) =) They were so fun to make with him.

My cutie patootie

2009-02-09T15:20:00.005-05:00

Kai is 2 months old already! I seriously can't believe how fast these last 8 weeks have flown by.(Why doesn't pregnancy go by that fast!) He had his 2 month doctor appointment today. He got his first shots which of course was NO fun. He screamed louder than I have ever heard him scream before and when he was done screaming he looked up at me with this traumatized look on his face like what the heck did you just do to me. =( It was so sad. The good news is he weighs 10 lbs. 13 oz. and 22 inches long. So he is growing good =)..He still is waking up twice a night. So I am a very tired momma. He is starting to smile and coo, which is the cutest thing ever. He really LOVES the mobile in his crib, he gets so happy every time we turn it on. He also loves his bath time, and he usually cries when we take him out. Other than that he is such a good baby. His brothers are always wanting to help with him(sometimes to much!)
3 boys is so fun .... I guess we are pretty lucky =)

Snow + Hill = Sledding Fun!

2009-02-08T09:51:00.004-05:00

We took the boys sledding for their very first time a few weeks ago, and we all had so much fun! We took Kai to grandma's and got mollie to come along. It sure was cold, but it was worth it to suck it up for an hour. Noah couldn't get enough and Eli went down a few times but he had more fun just playing in the snow.

So everday after that Noah was begging to go sledding again, so Kenta came up with a great plan to make a fun sledding slope in our backyard. We have just enough of a slope to go sledding down. Kenta added a few ramps to make it more exciting =)..It was pretty cool! Noah and Eli have been out there playing everyday since then. That was until the snow started to melt it all down 2 days ago. Needless to say the boys are a bit dissapointed, but it was fun while it lasted. =)

Birthday Guy

2009-02-01T20:03:00.003-05:00

Happy 26th Birthday Kenta!
Today Superbowl sunday is kentas birthday. Pretty fun day to have a birthday =) We are just hanging out at home eating lots of junk food (kentas favorites),watching a little football, and in between that kenta is finishing up his homework for his online class that is due tonight! (yes he is a big procrastinater). Aren't birthdays just so exciting as you get older! =)
Thanks for being born honey, we love you sooooooo much!

Stir crazy kids!

2009-01-24T11:54:00.006-05:00

Is everybody's kids going as stir crazy as mine!? It has been ridiculoulsy cold so we have had to find new entertainment inside the house, so that the boys and myself won't go crazy!
The boys have been having fun dreesing up like super heros and indians. My wonderful friend Amy made these adorable capes for the boys for christmas. One side is superman and the other side is batman. They love running around in them and flying off of the furniture. =)
Thanks again Amy!

Here they are as little indians/railroad conductors =)

Noah has been asking to go camping for weeks. Since it is obviously way to cold for that they had a little campout in the basement with daddy.

I have been trying to think of just little things to entertain. The kids are sick of playing with the same old playdough and coloring. So I went and bought some fingerpaints and a few other kids crafts at micheals. The fingerpainting is by far their new favorite thing.

Notice Eli's side of the counter ( a mess!)and Noah's side of the counter(nice and clean). This happens every time. Eli can not contain the paint to paper, he must also paint his face,the counter and the walls. This paint is washable, so its not a big deal. He just makes me laugh , he is so funny. I wonder all the time what is going on in his little mind. =)

Kai is such a good little guy. This is what Kai is usually doing while Noah and Eli are causing chaos and making messes.

If anyone has any fun ideas to entertain 2 rowdy boys, please share!

Snow!!

2009-01-18T21:58:00.002-05:00

I am so happy it finally snowed! A lot of people may disagree with me but if its going to be cold there might as well be snow to play in. =)

Family fun

2009-01-09T18:40:00.006-05:00

One day I had no brothers in ohio and within just a few days I had all 3 in ohio! We had some fun while my brother Spencer was home for a few days before he took off to school. My brother Chance flew in from utah for 2 days, so he could drive spencers car back to Idaho with him and get him settled into school. And my other brother Jackson is home for a little while on a medical leave from his mission. So for a few days me and all my brothers and my sister got to hang out, which was so much fun!! And they all got to meet little Kai. My boys had the best time with all of their uncles. They were spoiled with all the attention they got.

Uncle Chance with baby Kai

Somehow I convinced chance to change his diaper..What a good uncle =)We played games for hours and hours every single night they were all here. My family is a bit competitive, so it got pretty rowdy sometimes =)We went swimming. Well I sat on the sidelines with Kai and just watched.
Have I mentioned these boys LOVE the water!Eli.....the future Michael Phelps =)A little hoola hoop contest happened....Let me say that everyone pretty much sucked..lol...But it sure was funny watching everyone try =)Here is grandma with her grandbabies =)

November and December card club

2009-01-04T21:25:00.004-05:00

All my kids are asleep at the moment and I should be catching up on some much needed sleep, but I thought I would post this stuff from the past 2 months clubs instead. I really was going to try and keep up on this stuff for all my friends who care and are as nerdy about this stuff as I am ! Anyway for those of you who care .....here ya go =)

This first card I just wanted to post because I thought it turned out so cute. I made it a few months ago for a baby shower. Novembers Club.....

My card

Amy's

Kristen's

Mollie's

Kristi's

Kristi personalized everyone's card, see how there are 3 little boys on mine =)

Danielle's

For November's club project we made a cute little advent calender on a clipboard.

It is magentic so you switch the numbers easily every day. Pretty cute huh =)

Ok now for December's Club.

I was feeling way to exahausted and overwhelmed to even hold club this month. But I thought I would just have everyone over for a card swap and skip the whole project thing. So that is just what I did.

I did end up making these christmas treats for everyone, because I felt bad for not doing a project. But these were super fast a cute.

Danielle's card

Mine

Mollie's

Kristen's

Amy's

Kristi made these really cute milk jug treat containers instead of a card and as I was uploading these pictures I realized I didnt take a picture of it. Sorry you cant see it , but it was pretty cute. =)

Our December

2009-01-01T09:51:00.006-05:00

Wow, what a month we have had. For the most part this entire month I have been exhausted, but we did manage to do a few fun christmas things with the kids. One of the kids favorite things we did I did not get pictures of. We went to the festival of lights about a half hour away. It was perfect because I was feeling 37 months pregnant and at this festival of lights you just stay and drive around this park area and look at lights. It was decorated so cool, we all loved it and will definately be doing that again next year.

Here is a few fun things we did this month.

We watched lots of christmas movies and read lots of christmas stories. Grandma even came over to read christmas stories to them before they went to bed.

Ok, so I did not do any baking but I totally meant to. We did get these cute little baking outfits from my brother Jackson for christmas. Fun dress up outfits for now =)

The boys got their anual christmas p.j's. that Noah requests wearing every night now!We all made a mess and had fun making our gingerbread house. Eli did more eating than making =)Santa even made a personal visit to our house!Of course we all have been loving having a new little boy around. Both Noah and Eli have been so sweet and gentle with Kai. I do have to remind Eli occasionally not to poke his eye out when he is touching him. I dont know why he wants to touch Kai's eyes all the time.My 3 cute boys =)This little baby boy is just so sweet. Christmas morning was so fun. My parents and sister slept over and we all had christmas morning together. As the kids get older the more fun christmas is! Dont they look so handsome in there new church clothes that santa brought them. Kai got a matching one to but it will be a few months before he can fit in it =)My brother Spencer just got home from his mission 2 days ago! It is so good to see him again. He looks so good. Its been fun hanging out with him. He wont be here for long though, he leaves to go to BYU Idaho in 2 days. Welcome home Spencer!!

He's here!

2008-12-21T11:19:00.006-05:00

Our sweet beautiful baby boy is finally here!
Kai Jacob Harada

Born December 15th at 11:27 a:m

7 lbs. 1 oz.

19 inches

Cutest chubby cheeks ever! =)

I had a c section on monday and everything went great. Needless to say I am still very sore and having a hard time getting around. We have been lucky enough to have kentas mom this entire week. I dont know what we would have done without here. She flew in from Tennessee sunday night and just left this morning. She took care of my boys all week long. I have been home since friday afternoon and she has kept my house clean, laundry done, Cooked and cleaned up every meal, and has given my kids a lot of attention that they needed. The kids absolutely loved having her here.I wish she could have stayed longer. THANK YOU Yumiko for all your help this week, you are the best! Kentas dad wanted to meet Kai and see Noah and Eli so he drove 7 hours yesterday, to get here at 4:00 p:m. Then they left at 7:00 this morning. Really quick visit but we are glad he took the time to come.

Noah and Eli have been so great with the baby. Especially Noah he is constantly wanting to help and take care of him. It is so sweet. Kai is so lucky to get 2 big brothers that love him so much. We are so blessed to have such beautiful healthy kids.

I just sit back and look at my family and feel overwhelmed with emotion. I just feel like the luckiest women in the world. 3 healthy boys and the best husband and father for my kids that I could have asked for. I love you Kenta so much =)

Here are a bunch of pictures from the hospital

This is right before we were leaving to come home and the rest of the photos are just since we have been home.

This is going to be the best christmas ever with all my boys =)

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Hope you all enjoy your christmas just as much as we enjoy ours =)

Trip to Utah

2008-12-02T18:42:00.011-05:00

We just got back from our trip to Utah a few days ago. If any of my friends from Utah are reading this don't be mad I didn't call you. We were jam packed with family stuff that my mom had planned and we did not have enough time to even see any friends.
We had such an eventful, fun trip! I felt like we never stopped, and I am totally feeling it now! I am so amazed with myself that I did everything that we did as pregnant as I am =)
I just want to spend the next 2 weeks in bed. Anybody want to come be my housekeeper for a little while? =)
Beware this is a VERY LARGE post with LOTS of pictures. In no particular order.....
Thanksgiving was great. We went to my aunt and uncles house and had all of our family there. I didn't get very many pics on this day, but there was a ton of yummy food, some football, some guitar hero, and my 12 year old cousin put on an amazing piano recital for us. It was a lot of fun!

This is my cute cousin Emme playing with the boys and my grandpa loving the dog.

This is my brother Chance playing some guitar hero. Eli insisted on joining in on the fun =)

Football!

My little Sister Mollie brought her friend along to Utah. They had never been snowboarding before so Kenta, My brother Chance and his wife Jessica took them up along with with my cousin Mitch who had also never been and taught them how to snowboard. Of course me being super pregnant got to stay home and take care of the kiddos.

Mollie and her friend Leighana. Chance teaching mollie.

My sister in law Jessica, my cousin mitch, kenta, leighana, mollie and Chance just leaving to go up.

My brother Chance lives in St. George, so we decided we would take a couple days and take the few hour drive to go stay with him. While we were there we went to Zions National Park. It was so beautiful and just perfect weather right now. We also went to a little dinosaur museum in St. George.

Las Vegas is about 2 hours away from Chance and Jessicas house in St. George and my dad has a sister, my aunt Caty who lives there. So we decided to go to Las Vegas for a day. I am bummed I did not get any pictures of her and her cute kids.

There was a fun little festival going on at a park near her house, so we decided to stop and play there for a while with Caty and her family.

After the park and a nap, we drove to the Las Vegas Strip to show Mollie and Leighana. They had never been to Las Vegas before. We did not have a lot of time, but I wanted to take the kids the m&m factory since we were right there. That is such a fun place to go. I love the m&m rainbow wall. So pretty and YUMMY =)

Here is grandpa helping the boys fill bags of m&m's.......

This guy was so weird and fun to watch. Chance took Noah up to give him a dollar.

The last thing we did while we were at Chance's was we went and saw his work studio.

He is a news anchor/reporter. It was so fun to see it how it all works. All his work people were so nice and they turned everything on so the kids could check it all out and see themselves on t.v.

Future weather men or news anchors?

My favorite part of the trip was just hanging out with my grandparents and letting my kids get some bonding time in with their great granparents. We stayed at my grandparents ( my moms parents) house most of our stay. We also got to see my dads parents for a little while.

Eli and grandma Tarbox(My moms mom) and then the boys with grandpa and grandma Walser (my dads parents)

Grandpa Tarbox even took Noah and Eli for a little wagon ride.

While we were in Utah there was the big rivalry football game between University of Utah and BYU. This picture did not turn out good but I thought it was funny and I had to share. This is 2 houses (next door neighbors) that live by my grandparents house. They put lights on their roofs. Obviously rooting for different teams. I wonder what happened happened with those neighbors after BYU lost. I know my family were not the happiest of campers.

Now the main reason for our trip was to see my brother Jackson off to the MTC for his Mission to California. He is the my 3rd sibling in less than 2 years to go on a mission. My parents are supporting 3 missionaries right now, although my brother spencer comes home at the end of December.

These pictures were all taken at my granparents house right before they left to the MTC.

Good Luck Jackson! We will miss you but I know you will be great =)

Okay, was that a long enough post! I guess it makes up for my lack of posting this month.

Only 2 more weeks till baby boy #3. I have a scheduled c-section on december 15th! SOON =)

Happy Birthday Noah!

2008-11-05T11:23:00.006-05:00

Noah turned 4 on November 3rd!! He had a really fun birthday party at Chuck E Cheese's a few days before his birthday.

I have been so busy doing a million other things and I just have not had the time or energy to plan and put on a birthday party. So I thought going somewhere where I dont really have to entertain or clean up was the perfect plan =). So Noah got to choose some friends that he wanted to invite and we had a fun afternoon.

On Noah's real birthday we had a fun family day. Kenta took the day off and we went to the zoo. It was 70 degrees outside so it was the PERFECT day for the zoo. I only snapped a few pictures though.Later in the afternoon we went to Graeters icecream and played. Then on his birthday evening we went to grandmas house for dinner.

Overall It was a really fun birthday weekend =)

Noah's 4 year old stats.

Height -43 inches.

weight -40 lbs.

Favorite color- Blue

Favorite food- chicken nuggets, ravioli and peaches

Likes- Trains, cars, playing in the sandbox,swimming and Preschool

Dislikes- snakes, spiders, bugs, and clothes that dont fit just right. (very annoying!) =)

Noah I am so proud of the little boy you are. You are so smart and thoughtful of others peoples feelings. You have a sensitive little heart and such an excitement for life.I love that you are such a good big brother to Eli and I know from your excitement for a new little brother that you are going to be a big helper with the new baby. We love you so much Noah and are SO happy you are a part of our family. Happy Birthday big boy! =)

October's Card Club

2008-11-05T10:47:00.005-05:00

As promised I am posting projects and cards from Octobers club a few weeks ago.

Club project #1 A fall colored card

Club project #2 A paper cup turned into a turkey treat.
Kristen's card
mollie's mine Amy's

Kristi's Danielle's

The Harada Bunch

Birthday boy

**The new LOVE of our lives**

Graduations!

I heart Tennessee

3/11/2011

Just cute pics of Kai.

This week

My 2 year old

2010 in a very small nutshell

Toledo....

summer trip #1

BFF's

Funny story......

Look what Eli can do!

My New Life

Happy Mothers day!

Lego madness

Smores'

Easter Season

Eli's Awesomeness

Goodbye Curls

Cute boys

yuminess

Snow time

Birthday Boy

Merry Christmas to all.....

Early Christmas from Japan

Girl's night. =)

Thanksgiving weekend.

How could I forget?

Happy 5th Birthday!

Halloween weekend

Halloween traditions

November 5th 2005.......

Tennessee

10 months old

Happy Halloween!

Yay Visitors!

Soccer season comes to an end.

Preschool

playing catch up!!

Happy Birthday Eli!!

Kalahari Resort

Cedar Point

Spring Soccer 2009

Stampin' Up! for Down Syndrome

6 months already!

Funny boys

Zoo day

He did it!

Soccer Time!!

Kai's first 2 teeth

Meet Abby

Boys will be boys

Congratulations Kenta

Happy Mother's Day

So tired.....

Engine House #16

Welcome home Heidi

Slate Run Farm

Thomas and Friends

April's card club

Baby Kai

Happy Easter

This week

PIE DAY

Just some more craftiness

Let's go fly a kite

Kai's Blessing day

Why, why, why!?!?

Happy V-day to me

February Card Club

My cutie patootie

Snow + Hill = Sledding Fun!

Birthday Guy

Stir crazy kids!

Snow!!

Family fun

November and December card club

The new LOVE of our lives