Stacy’s Birthday Part 3…

You know that saying, “There is a sucker born every second?”  Yup, I am that sucker.   Here I thought no birthday party for Stacy, a nice simple cheap birthday for Stacy, easy-peasy-japanesy.  Nope, Stacy’s birthday requests continued with meat and creamed corn, Fancy Nancy style at Lawry’s:

Uncle Su drove down to celebrate:

Along with Grandpa:

And Grandma:

Aunty Dawn and Uncle Bryan:

Uncle Bryan got the BIG piece of prime rib:

For someone who was afraid of the fire last year she was great this year:

Brother and sister:

Uncle and Stacy eating up a storm:

A good 3rd birthday celebration!

Stacy’s Birthday Part 2…

Jack made Stacy a card for her birthday:

Jack and I went to Toys R Us and Jack also got Stacy a stuffed rabbit:

Grandpa and Grandma had to outshine everyone and got Stacy a new pink tricycle:

I guess Stacy doesn’t have to ride Jack’s hand me downs now:

Although Jack wants in on the action:

For some reason, Aya and I didn’t think about getting Stacy a present until the last minute and then settled on getting a Thomas balloon from the market:

Yes…we got Stacy a Thomas balloon last year as well…this year she got the big balloon version!!

Stacy’s Birthday Part 1…

Aya and I decided that we would not have a birthday party for Jack until he turned 4, so basically the same rule applies to Stacy.  A tad hint of guilt started to creep in because Stacy seems to get short changed a lot…but then I remembered, no birthdays until the kids turn 4. 

We celebrated Stacy’s 3rd birthday by going to Sakura so Stacy could eat miso soup, fish and rice  (we only invited the cool people):

Afterwards we went back to Grandpa and Grandma’s house for cake:

Stacy was not afraid of the fire on the candle this year:

Make a wish and blow out your candle:

Happy 3rd birthday!!

Reading…

I find it so interesting how different Jack and Stacy are.    Stacy is so much more independent.  She likes to be alone and she can play by herself.   She has the patience to do puzzles all by herself:

Other times it might be a tea party with her stuffed animals or her just reading stories to her animals and lying down:

Big Chill Part 3…

It was much warmer outside the 9-degree event and the kids were in a much better mood to pose for pictures:

It looks like Jack has no arms!!

Happy now they aren’t so cold:

Afterwards we walked around the Queen Mary for a bit and Jack was happy to sit on the big gun!

Big Chill Part 2…

Jack’s face says it all…he didn’t like the ice sculptures at all:

Luckily he did like going down the ice sculpture slide:

So did Stacy:

Jack also got to ride an inner tube:

Big Chill Part 1…

We ended the year by going to the Big Chill at the Queen Mary.  There was an ice sculpture exhibit at the Queen Mary in an enclosed area that they keep at 9-degree’s.  I was thinking it could be that cold.  The event recommended you dress warmly AND they provided jackets.

Luckily we layered all our clothing and dressed warmly because that 9-degrees felt even COLDER.   It was cold.   Luckily the exhibit wasn’t very big because after 15 minutes the kids wanted to get out.   I don’t blame them, I was cold:

Here are some sculptures:

Brrr…

Not worth the price of admission, but it was different:

Holy Crap…

For as smart and independent Stacy is, it amazes me at how stubborn she is about potty training.  Stacy just refuses to sit on the toilet and try to learn how to go potty in the bathroom.

The older she gets the bigger and smellier her poop gets so we have to throw the poop in the toilet and flush it.  Pretty standard stuff.  The other day, I was helping Aya change Stacy and I went to dump Stacy’s poop in the toilet.  When I went in the bathroom I discovered this:

Yup, there already WAS poop in the toilet.

Miles:  Jack, did you go poop?

Jack: Yes

Miles: You forgot to flush toilet.

Jack: Sorry

Miles: Hey!!   Did you wipe your butt?  I see poop but no toilet paper.

Jack:  No, I did not wipe my butt.

Miles:  Ewww!!  What, how come you don’t use toilet paper?

Jack:  I dunno, I forgot.

Miles:  Come in here and wipe your butt.

 

Sure, enough Jack wipes his butt  and it is clean.  Aya chimes in, check his underwear it probably has a skid mark.  (Sure she leaves me the glamour job)  Nope, his underwear was clean too.  Still, how do you NOT wipe you butt.  GROSS.

Christmas…

Christmas came and went so quick!   Man, Christmas day is exhausting for Aya and I.   The kids were up early to see what Santa brought them.  Stacy got a new ‘puppy’…and by puppy, I mean a stuffed animal she calls puppy.  Stacy did ask me for a real puppy but Daddy said, “No, because daddy hates animals”

Stacy also got Cailou action figures and a book on getting potty trained (I hope it works…but sadly Stacy doesn’t even want to read that book):

Jack got specific EX Pokemon cards from Santa…thank goodness for Amazon and EBay:

I think Pokemon cards are such a scam but Jack loves them.  He gets a pack of Pokemon cards and gives 99% of them to Stacy and only keeps 1 card (the best card) of the pack.

These kids are so spoiled.  The had so many presents, it took them close to 90 minutes to open all the presents:

Jack with all of his loot:

Stacy with all of her new goodies:

Christmas Tree…

I know this is late news, but this was our first year where everyone participated in decorating the tree.  The kids each got into it and helped to hang ornaments:

Then we tried to pose for some family pictures:

But it just ended up with us goofing around:

This was also the first year that Stacy did not cry when she visited Santa…although Jack looks like he is getting to big to sit with Santa!

The Yoshioka Cup…

This year I started a friends and family 10 team “beginners” fantasy football league consisting of:

Miles, Aya, my dad, Thomas, Scott, Carrie, Bryan, Dawn, Hans, Jeff

The league was pretty competitive except for Hans and Dawn who had pretty crummy teams.  The rest of us were fighting for playoff spots and playoff positions up until the last week of the season.  

In the end, my dad came away with victory and claimed the Yoshioka Cup in 2012:

It was a sad day to give up the trophy and $200 bucks to the winner.  I totally wanted to win it and I was going to carry the trophy with me to all family functions. 

I also should mention Jeff took second place.  Looking forward to winning the Yoshioka Cup next year and expanding the league out to 12 teams.   Any family members out there interested in playing let me know.

Happy New Year…

Missed me?  I am back in all refreshed in 2013.   I took a little hiatus from the blog because I was home for the holidays.  Work closed for almost two weeks and during that time I usually spend time working on scrapbook for both Jack and Stacy.  With a whole year of pictures to go thru and make two different photo albums for each kid, I get tired of looking at pictures and the idea of updating the blog was the last thing I wanted to.   To makes matters worse, I didn’t even finish the scrap book until last week!  It was like having 2 jobs…work during the day and then come home to work on the scrap book a few hours every night.

Now that I am done, I am back with regular updates so with no further ado, here we go!

For our Christmas present Bryan and Dawn hired a photographer to take family pictures.  For those of you NOT on our xmas card this was our 2012 xmas card:

Family picture:

A great picture of Jack and Stacy:

Family picture:

Nothing like a photo bomb!