Our Journey to our Angel, Sakura

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T13:52:00.001-08:00

Don't give up on us ..... Mommy's PC died and Mommy doesn't enjoy blogging on the laptop, but here's a Christmas picture for you --- We visited Disneyland last weekend and Mommy just LOVES this picture of Me and Santa.

Disneyland with The DeMetris family

2011-10-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

What a fun time we had this week. Nancy and I have been 'planning' this trip for quite some time, it was originally supposed to happen around April if I remember correctly, but those dates got all mixed up, so when Nancy chose October I was excited that we would get to attend Mickey's Halloween Party for the first time! We drove up to Anaheim on Saturday and since we were headed to City of Industry first we took a different route - which happened to be a route I had taken several years before with some great friends, as I was driving I couldn't help but reminisce about that car trip with Patty, JoAnn and Carol and our time together - I think that was probably the quickest drive to Disneyland ever. Anyway, Dean, Sakura and I headed to Frank & Sons to wander around, we use to go there back when we collected everything under the sun, and it's still fun to go and look around - all we ended up buying was a little Pooh toy. LOL. We headed to the hotel to check-in and grab a bite, then it was time for bed.

We got up Sunday morning and headed over to Disneyland for a few rides before Nancy, Tim and the kids arrived - first it was time for our little someone to nap. Sakura is one that NEEDS her nap still, so wherever we are and whatever we are doing, we tend to make it back for a nap for Sakura ... otherwise we will ALL pay, with a grumpy girl. The DeMetris' had a long drive so they tried to rest a bit as well and we met for dinner .... only they didn't get any rest, the kids were far to excited to sleep!

Sakura and Daddy at Disneyland

The BFFs reunite! As you can see within seconds these two were having fun on our walk to Outback.

Monday we had a reservation at Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast, then a full day at Disneyland.

Sakura watching Mickey Mouse Playhouse before heading out.

Our families with Goofy

Sakura is still not a character fan, but Belle was okay.

Heading over via the Monorail

Everyone was excited to go to the Happiest Place on Earth!

Waiting patiently for our Monorail ride, having fun with their balloons that Daddy insisted we get after Kiki spotted them!

Taking our 1st ride on the Monorail - Tripp loves the Monorail.

Then it was Autopia.

Sakura driving like a big girl :o(

Someone is getting sleeeeepy!

Messing with Daddy while standing in line is always lots of fun!

Tripp waiting in line for StoryBook Land

Hanging around - a few faces of Sakura

Casey's Train ride - it had started to rain a tiny bit so we opted for the Wild Animal cage which was covered...Kiki was NOT happy with that decision, she wanted the pink car :o(

Our hotel had this super neat kid friendly area, it had Cars playing and had small table and chairs right amongst the adult tables, the kids quickly made a couple of friends and danced, ran, squealed, played ring-around-the-rosey, etc.

Sakura and Kiki watching Mickey Mouse Playhouse while enjoying their dinner.

Tuesday we headed over to La Brea Bakery for breakfast, then off to California Adventure for the day, back to the room for a much needed nap because tonight it was going to be a late night enjoying Mickey's Halloween Party!

The kiddos at breakfast

Watching Mickey Mouse PlayHouse LIVE! They loved this show SO much!

Sakura not cooperating for picture (surprise surprise!)

It's not as bad with friends though!

Lunchtime at the Winery - Sakura and Kiki holding hands .... SO sweet!

As we were heading down to ride Toy Story, we ran right into the Phineas and Ferb street show - OH how I wish I had the video camera with me :o( Sakura actually got out there and danced and danced --- it was so cute. Kiki and Tripp were dancing away too :o( Opportunity missed by Mommy, sniff sniff!!!

Auntie Nancy and Kiki on Toy Story

Lilo and Stitch (thanks Kumi and Auntie Misty for the costume!) are ready to go! Time for some Trick-or-Treating at Disneyland!

Mickey's Halloween Party was fun, probably wouldn't do it again, but it was a fun experience once.

Our little Lilo isn't use to being out late - she was SO tired. We had to wake her up from her late nap to go.

Tripp the Samurai Power Ranger!

Trick-or-Treat

Sakura getting some candy

Look who fell asleep RIGHT before meeting Mickey (the very LONG wait for Mickey did Kiki in!)

Our family with Mickey and Minnie

DeMetris family with Mickey and Minnie (Kiki is SOUND asleep, despite the many attempts to wake her)

Watching the parade

Kiki woke up for the parade, but then Tripp was OUT!

Stitch blew Sakura a kiss - I was screaming so he would see her :o)

Wednesday we opted for breakfast at La Brea again - then we headed to California Adventure so Tim and Nancy could grab some fastpasses to World of Color, then we went back to Disneyland to adventure into ToonTown.

Notice Daddy's leg .... yep Sakura dropped her apple juice and it went directly for Daddy -- OOPS!

Two little girls getting hats from Auntie Nancy. Sakura had a HUGE melt-down about the hats, Daddy had a chat with her and she was fine. Thank Goodness!

Kiki and Sakura

(Daddy wanted Peyton since she has another hat with Sakura on it and he calls her Peyton - incase you were wondering)

YAY for Sakura - she went to Minnie! As I said before she is just not comfortable with characters still :o(

What is growing in the garden .... carrots!

ToonTown car with three kids = not easy to get a photo!

Goofy's Playhouse - Tripp, Kiki and Sakura all love slides!

Sakura was making a phone call to a very special person ...

Off to Sakura's 1st favorite ride - King Authur's Carousel

SLEEPY girl, we didn't head back for a nap since it was our last day!

Kiki took a tiny tumble and needed a band-aid and Sakura was very concerned. Sakura tumbled as well a few minutes later (sympathy?) and also got a band-aid which Kiki applied for her. Sweet girls!

Sakura waving Hi (to Ariel in the parade) and Goodbye to Disneyland :o(

This was the very first trip we have ever taken when as we loaded the car to come home, she said "NO car, NO home", typically she is ready to come home, but apparently all of the fun with friends she didn't want to end either :'o(

A mini vacation in La Jolla, Ca

2011-09-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

We had a nice little mini vacation over the weekend. Daddy, Mommy and Sakura headed over to the coast for a few days of "relaxation"...it was a wonderful weekend away, the weather was cool, but not uncomfortable (except the evenings!). We stayed at the Hilton Torrey Pines in La Jolla - so our room oversaw the grounds and golf course, and you could see the ocean. It was beautiful and very relaxing. Sakura really enjoyed the view, and talking to all of the people who walked by and/or stood on their balcony. She instantly became friends with "Man" and would say Hi to him - she was very brave because he wasn't too close - had he been right beside her she wouldn't have said a word. LOL!

The purpose of our trip was to have family photos taken on the beach ... more about that later in the post.

On Friday we checked into our room and visited Legoland.

View from our balcony

First stop at Legoland was lunch - Sakura should have been starving, but barely ate, I think she sensed the fun was waiting ahead.

Enjoying her lunch

First "ride" was the stationary cars, which she did enjoy - hehe! First the blue one ... then

the CHP.

Time for a helicopter ride

Waiting in line with Daddy for the boats! Sakura was excited!

Railings are always fun

On to the boat!

Hmmmm....well Sakura wanted to drive, but the boats go all over the place, so Daddy needed to assist which didn't thrill Sakura who wants to do EVERYthing herself these days!

Where is Sakura?

" Right here" she says....and she found another leaf.

Having fun with leaves

Daddy and Sakura enjoyed some sort of fried apples .... since I don't like baked apples I didn't try them but they both loved them!

Not sure how I missed getting finished picture of Hello Kitty facepainting but ..... here was the start of it. Sakura was a bit annoyed that it wasn't the Hello Kitty she picked out, which was a full kitty face over her eyes, which I didn't think she'd like so I opted for this smaller version - she kept pointing at her eyes and telling me about the missing Kitty! oops!

Taking a trip down the slide

This little piggy went to the market...

and ran into Bob the Builder!

Taking a safari ride with Daddy

The next day we had family photos on the beach with Maranda. Thankfully she is really good and I'm sure she got some great family photos, unfortunately we discovered that Sakura wasn't quite fond of the beach .... she had a bit of a breakdown - she would NOT for anything put her feet down, she started screaming and crying, and was pretty much inconsolable after about 30 minutes so we didn't end up getting any of Sakura alone (we will have retakes here in a couple of weeks), and there was definitely no changing her clothes as I had planned - pretty disappointing. We still made the best of the day, Daddy wanted to go to Frank & Sons in Anaheim, so he dropped Mommy and Sakura off at where else.....

YAY! Sakura and Mommy enjoyed a few hours at the Happiest Place on Earth!

Sakura has been obsessed with Winnie-the-Pooh (the day has finally come!) lately so I couldn't wait to take her on the Pooh ride to see what she thought - I wasn't surprised that she LOVED it ... that's my girl! We went on 3 times :)

Chubby little cubby

Look who we found when we got off the ride - Eeyore! Sakura was a bit nervous (as she always is!) so I was very surprised when we were leaving that she held his hand :) Awwww!

Time for some hunny

and shopping (I figured we'd get a toy on the way out of the park, but when we shopped she didn't pick anything so we ended up with nothing).

I was extremely surprised that Sakura stood by Pooh (ALONE) ... I had stood on the other side of him and moved away but I figured she'd cry and she didn't - I can't even say how happy I was!

Pooh and Sakura

And EVEN a HUG!!!!!!!! YAY for Sakura!

Time for a bite to eat ... Sakura loved the lunch box, as it had one of her other favorites on it!

We headed over to California Adventure because I figured Bugs Land wouldn't be too busy, but Sakura didn't want to ride the rides, she wanted to play in the water .... so that's what we did.

We were about done at the parks and I decided to give Daddy a call to see where he was, he was waiting for us giving us extra time and enjoying a nice cold Daddy type beverage at Downtown Disney so we headed out and over to World of Disney to meet him and drive back to La Jolla.

We did make a couple of stops before heading back to our room - one being SPRINKLES! YUM!

The following morning I decided I would take Sakura down to the beach one last time, I figured we could look for some seashells and Daddy could get a bit more shut eye....what I thought would be a fun time, turned into a scene like this!

Sakura clenching my leg trying to climb up it and screaming at the top of her lungs looking like this .....

I was extremely frustrated and upset with her, not understanding why in the world she would scream at the beautiful beach .... once we got home I continued to ask her why she was crying and did she like the beach which she would reply "NO" ---- upon further questioning she told us that she didn't like the .....

Birds - UGH. Had I known it was the birds, I could have chased them to show her they were afraid of us, but she wouldn't say a word, just screamed hysterically, shaking like a leaf. I felt SO bad once she finally told me why. Needless to say - Sakura isn't a fan of the beach, she'll take the mountains and creeks over the beach I'd bet!

RIP Great Papa

2011-08-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sadly Great Papa passed away with morning. We will all miss him very much, we find peace knowing he is with the love of his life, may we all have the love for our spouses as they shared, he wanted nothing more than to be with Grandma, he waited to see all of his family (who were able to come) before taking his last breathe.

Saying Goodbye to Family

2011-08-07T21:11:00.000-07:00

Have I said yet how much fun we had on our trip? We had a great time in Georgia - despite the circumstances surrounding our trip. I have to say how grateful and thankful I am that we went to Georgia. Sakura is SO lucky to have the family we have, everyone was SO excited to finally meet her, I can't name any one person who was the most excited, as I believe they were all estatic to finally meet the youngest family member. I am truly blessed to have my family who I cherish very much.

Today Auntie Linda and Uncle Jeffy came up for one last visit - we had kind of a lazy day hanging out, but it was SO nice to get to just sit and visit. They brought Molly their dog with them, so Sakura took good care of her :)

Auntie Linda and Uncle Jeffy with Sakura

Playing ball with Papa

Time for a little reading

Always time for our 4 legged family - Molly in this case.

Sakura loved Molly!

Treats for Molly

Then some brushing

Visiting with Uncle Joey

These two were deep in conversation of some sort - LOL.

Sakura was SO SO SO tired, I can't even say how tired she was - pure exhaustion, but we wanted to take one last trip down to the creek - so Sakura, Daddy and I headed down.

A little zombie here .... she was SO tired!

Every visit to the creek Sakura would "wash" the rocks - she always did it, and today was no exception...here she is washing her rock - we brought this rock home with us as a souvineer of our time in Georgia.

Sakura with her rock above and below ...

Time for our final goodbye's with Auntie Linda and Uncle Jeffy - Sakura was out in about 1 minute of Auntie Linda getting her, so they stayed a bit longer so Auntie could cuddle with Sakura. SOOOOO sweet!

GoodBye Uncle Jeffy and Auntie Linda

And Bye for today Uncle Joey.

We headed back up to say our final goodbye's the next morning - before heading back to Atlanta for our plane ride home. These last posts have been really hard for me, it's been a month since we came home, and just today I can finally look back at these pictures.

8/7/11

Daddy, Sakura and Uncle Joey

Goodbye Uncle Joey

Sakura and Papa

The next picture is the whole reason for our trip ... with tears in my eyes as I type this, this is the final picture of our trip - Sakura and Great Papa (or Big Papa as she calls him) saying their final GoodBye's .... we were SO blessed that he was there to see us, and meet his last Great Grandchild before he passed away. We ♥ You Big Papa - GoodNight ....

Until we meet again ..... We ♥ You Great Papa (aka: Big Papa)

Many faces of Sakura

2011-08-05T20:48:00.000-07:00

Well last night wasn't the easiest, I was awoken in the middle of the night to a loud thump followed by crying....someone fell out of bed (again!), thankfully she was okay and only bit her tongue (you'll see the spot in some pictures below), so needless to say, I didn't sleep well the rest of the night - nor did Dean. We had kind of a lazy day, we went to Blue Ridge to do a little shopping, then out for our daily visit with everyone.

Sakura's signature sunglass look (upside down).

Or maybe in your mouth?

Hanging out is always fun when you're watching TV! Ugh!!! She is her father's daughter!

More fun when Daddy teaches you to "POP" your finger out the side of your mouth though - hehe!

She actually got pretty good at it, she could definitely make some sound.

Taking a ride

is always good for some smiles and laughs!

LOVE this little face :)

"MORE Daddy"

Creek time! Today we were "setting up" for some duck races, we thought that we would get to see Cousin Crystal and family one more time (unfortunately they weren't able to come up), so we were setting it up so the ducks didn't get stuck on the rocks.

And they all fall down - hehe! Sakura didn't mind getting wet though!

A couple of woodland animals came for a visit tonight - we were SO excited!

Below are some of Sakura's "faces".

Serious face

Just a grin

Silly face

Playing with Uncle Joey

Blue Ridge Scenic Railway

2011-08-04T22:36:00.000-07:00

What fun, today we went on the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway. Sakura loves trains and is always saying "All Aboard" so Papa and Gramma Janie decided that we needed to take a train ride. It was a BEAUTIFUL and definitely scenic train ride. We all really enjoyed it, we stopped in a neighboring town for lunch and an hour or so of shopping. The lunch left a WHOLE lot to be desired (Patrick's Pub - ICK!!!), but the scenery going and coming was worth the train ride. The pictures are pretty self explanatory, just scenery.

Sakura was ready to go!

I'm not quite sure what got her going, but she was cracking herself and all of us up! Little clown!

Too much laughing got someone sleepy.... it was probably the sleepiness that got her laughing! She gets delirious just before she crashes usually.

Watching all of the trees...Sakura kept commenting on the trees.

Playing with Papa and Daddy

A fishing "trap" - something about the fish getting stuck in this V? Strange.

I spotted a teeny little merry-go-round, just what Sakura loves, merry-go-rounds in any size or shape!

She felt pretty confident on this one!

As you can see by the sweat beads .... it was VERY hot and humid!

Papa and Gramma Janie bought Sakura this tiny little train she played with at the store ... she loves it!

Surprise train Daddy got her in Blue Ridge, and the tiny train from Papa and Gramma Janie. Sakura lined them up.

Back in Blue Ridge - "wait Daddy" ... Daddy is always about 200 feet in front of me and Sakura, he walks FAST!

SO tired .... back to our room for a much needed nap. Then we will head to see Great Papa for a visit, and have dinner with Papa, Gramma Janie and Uncle Joey.

A trip to see everyone wouldn't be complete without a trip to the creek too! Papa made a squirt gun out of a mustard container - Sakura got a big kick out of it.

Meeting up with the Harris Family for dinner

2011-08-03T21:38:00.000-07:00

Today we had a nice day shopping at the mall so that we'd be close drive to meet up with our friends for dinner at a local Japanese restaurant for dinner. Feels like we've known The Harris' forever, we have been in touch via e-mail, FaceBook, and Blogs for a few years now, so it was especially nice to finally meet them in person.

My camera decided to act up, well I'm sure it was no fault of the camera more like the operator, but for whatever reason it wasn't working until just before we left ... UGH!

Here is Auntie Sam, with Sakura and beautiful Kaori who is just a year older than Sakura.

Mommies and their girls

I was VERY surprised that Sakura let Auntie Sam carry her - she's usually pretty reserved and would typically cry for one of us, but she went right to Auntie Sam (notice the tenative look on her face).

The girls playing around the tree at Starbucks

Gathering a little pine straw.

Kaori and Sakura playing together.

Daddy's turn .... Sakura ♥s sticks this trip she discovered lots of sticks, rocks, leaves, etc. and loved every bit of it.

Always the most fun with Daddy twirling you around.

The girls were having a BLAST!

As you can tell by their expressions.

Thanks for making the drive to meet up with us Harris Family - We ♥ You guys and hope to meet again somewhere!!!

A day at the Tennessee aquarium and carousel

2011-08-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

Indoor activities are always nice when the humidity is about to kill you :) Today we headed to Chatanooga, Tennessee to the Tennessee Aquarium and then to a really cool OLD (1894 I believe it said) carousel at Coolidge Park (LOTS of pictures).

Beautiful view from the aquarium

The plants and flowers were breath taking.

Sakura and Daddy checking out the tidepool which had stingrays

Can I touch him Daddy?

Sakura couldn't quite reach, but Daddy did pet the stingray...so did Mommy and Papa

It says he doesn't bite, so I let Sakura stick her hands in this shark (to dry them off). I counted - all fingers were still present and accounted for!

Beautiful butterfly exhibit

Sakura watching the butterflies, she "flaps her wings" just like they do!

Hungry butterfly - this was a BEAUTIFUL butterfly, the inside of it's wings were the brightest blue, I waited for two different ones to open their wings, but they weren't cooperating with me!

Sakura's new spot to carry/wear her sunglasses, look closely

Daddy and Sakura made a friend at the aquarium, the gentleman standing beside Daddy and Sakura was blind (see cane), and he was asking Dean to describe all of the sharks to him - then he would ask if one was coming this way, this lasted quite a while. The man in the lighter blue shirt ended up "talking" to the gentleman, but thankfully he didn't make him leave - because we saw him later in another area having someone describe what they saw. It was sweet!

Time to feed the sharks!

I wish I could remember the name of this amazing thing, I took several pictures of them, they were SO cool!

Who doesn't love a clown (fish that is!)?

Another favorite of mine, Seahorses!

Dwarf seahorse - SO cute!

Sakura wanted NO part of being "inside" the aquarium, she wanted DOWN MOMMY!

What did Sakura ♥ at the aquarium - the same thing that is Mommy's VERY favorite!

Hmmm...what is it, captivating Sakura's attention, she about climbed over the exhibit wall!

Otters!

Cool frogs!

How cute is he?!

Someone couldn't take it anymore .... Sakura crashed just before the last few exhibits.

Here is what she missed - never smile at a

Scary little thing!

We walked around the shops, etc. then headed over to Coolidge Park for the carousel!

Daddy and Sakura heading to the carousel

Still VERY tired - Sakura rode a horse first ...

Trying to figure out the mechanics???

A kitty cat (meow, meow, meow)

A piggy (oink oink as Sakura kept saying)

Everyone was BEAT and SOOOOO hot, I think this was our hottest day, the humidity about killed all of us.

As you can tell by the sweat covering Sakura's hair and the sweat beads across her nose!

Browsing around Blue Ridge, Ga

2011-08-01T19:41:00.000-07:00

We took a "bad" situation and made the best of our trip, we made it a vacation, did some sight seeing and had a very nice time visiting with family we don't get much time to visit normally. We couldn't have asked for a better week - well the weather was plain HORRIBLE, us Arizonan's aren't used to humidity and humid it was! I don't know how ANYone lives in that - UGH!

Today we went to Blue Ridge, Ga. did some sightseeing, shopping, lunch and then back "home" for a nap for Sakura then up to the cabin to have dinner with Dad, Jane and Uncle Joey and visit with Big Papa.

Blue Ridge lake

Sakura posing for Mommy by the sign - down an alley, I just thought it was cute :)

They even have BEARS in Blue Ridge! These bears were gentle.

We went into a toy store ... Daddy found something he thought Sakura would like so we went outside to wait for Daddy to pay, and I told Sakura to sit on the bench that Daddy was bringing her a SURPRISE! She was SO excited! Everytime she sees these pictures, she says "Prize Mommy" - funny!

Anxious for Daddy to come out and see her "PRIZE" - Gramma Janie was peek-a-booing her.

MORE bears in Blue Ridge!

Stopping to smell the flowers - notice her hair stuck to her head! It was HOT and miserable!

Finished dinner, and making the walk to Great Grandpa's house - that's my Dad's house being built, don't know how Gramma Janie does it living in a TEENY tiny travel trailer so long and managing, but she does and even managed to fix dinner for us a few times! She's the BEST!

Papa, Sakura and Gramma Janie (yes backpack is ON for the walk)

Visiting with Great Papa

Our trip to Georgia

2011-07-31T22:44:00.000-07:00

It's never fun hearing that someone you love won't be around long .... unfortunately our family knows this far too well. A couple of weeks ago my Dad called and told me that it wouldn't be long for my Grandpa (my last living grandparent), Dean made the decision that I probably would not have made, that we needed to go. I am the type that would rather remember someone as I knew them forever, not sick laying in a hospital bed (which my Grandpa is - as Hospice has been called in). None the less, I am VERY happy that my husband felt it was the right thing to do, we started checking online for tickets, Atlanta is never cheap to fly into - but we found some tickets and we booked our tickets. We were very thankful that Grandpa was still here to see us, and meet Sakura - his only Great Grandchild he hadn't met.

Sakura belted in and ready to take off - we left later in the day, so I was QUITE surprised that she lasted without a nap, and QUITE pleased that she was a PERFECT angel on the flight. We left Phoenix about 5:00 pm - and arrived in Atlanta about midnight after a nightmare on the jetway which delayed us over an hour. We could not have begged Sakura to be as good as she was for the entire flight. She slept about 2 hours, woke up and watched Lilo and Stitch. Since we got in so late and my Grandpa (and Dad) live about 2 hours from Atlanta, we opted for a hotel near the airport and just have Dad pick us up Sunday morning - which worked out perfect.

Sakura meeting her only Great Grandparent - we call him Great Papa, Sakura calls him "Big Papa" - not sure why, but that's what it is. He just lit up when we came into the room. Thankfully Sakura wasn't afraid of him, she even held his hand right away as you can see below.

Whenever I would ask Sakura about Big Papa, she would say "Big Papa night night" - he is tired.

We are lucky enough that both of my uncles live in Georgia, Uncle Joey actually lives with Big Papa, my Dad lives just down the walkway, and my Uncle Jeffy lives in Atlanta - I only have 2 cousins on my Dad's side, and luckily Crystal lives in Atlanta too - so we got to spend the day with everyone....it would have only been better if Sky (my other cousin) was there at the same time, unfortunately she is coming next week, so we barely missed them :o(

When we got to the cabin, Crystal, Breanna and Austin (her kids) were outside and had found a turtle - my FAVORITE thing when I was growing up and went to visit my own Great Grandma was hunting for turtles in the woods with my Uncle's - so when we got there and they showed me the turtle, I almost started to cry, Sakura was experiencing all of the things I experienced growing up. It was almost surreal. Sakura thought the turtle was pretty neat, and every trip back to Big Papa's she looked (or talked) about the big turtle and where did he go? She didn't quite get that he was a wild turtle and didn't live there.

Checking out the woods with Uncles, Aunts and Cousins - along with Papa and Gramma Janie, Mommy and Daddy too.

Uncle Joey and Austin

Uncle Joey, Austin, Auntie Linda and Sakura - not sure if Sakura thought she'd put that turtle in her pocket or what she was doing - probably like her Mommy, she wanted to keep it and take him home on the airplane with her!?

Not sure what everyone was looking at, maybe Austin putting the turtle out of harms way.

Hands in your pockets

I have to say that I'm pretty lucky - I cannot even describe how good everyone was with Sakura, they were all VERY excited to finally meet her - I have the BEST Uncles and Aunt alive, they all played with Sakura and she took right to them, which was really a BIG surprise to me, as I had warned Gramma Janie to let everyone know how Sakura's personality is and that she takes FOREVER to warm up to new people, but she was SOOOOO incredibly good, I was probably more proud of her this week than ever before.

Having lunch with cousin Austin

Taking a ride in Papa's Kabota with Papa and Daddy

After lunch, Sakura was SO tired, she wouldn't lay down though - but finally fell asleep on me and I got her down on the bed for a pretty short, but much needed nap. While Sakura napped, Breanna, Austin and Gramma Janie went down to the creek for awhile - Breanna and Austin made Sakura her own "crossing" with rocks. Thankfully even though Crystal and Greg were ready to head home, they let the kids take us down and show us "Peyton Crossing". Breanna and Austin are SO sweet with Sakura - she loves them!!!

Peyton Crossing by Breanna and Austin

Breanna and Sakura at the crossing

Adding more rocks

This one

"Wook Mommy ... rock"

Bubbles with Gramma Janie

It was late and time to go and check into our room - which I have to say I LOVED! Serenity in the Mountains was the perfect home away from home, it was big and gorgeous!

Daddy and Sakura settled right in ... couch, recliner and TV - these two don't need much more to be comfortable.

Nice kitchen ... bedroom and HUGE bathroom - complete with washer and dryer, it was SO nice coming home with all clean clothes :)

Painted Piggies

2011-07-23T14:09:00.001-07:00

Today I decided to paint piggies - Sakura's that is...today Sakura also got her first band-aid for something other than shots at Dr.Amon's. She cut the top of her tie somehow.

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Celebration of life for Wyatt and meeting cousin Laura

2011-07-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we got a phone call early in the morning and it was Linda (Dean's sister) telling us that there had been an accident and their second cousin Wyatt was gone. We were shocked to say the least. Wyatt was a special young man and at only 24 years old he was gone far too soon .... I am confident that Wyatt was needed by God to take care of things that only he could manage. Wyatt was a thoughtful, caring, sweet guy - he was always there for his family, often caring for his Grandma - not a typical 24 year old guy, so I KNOW that God needed Wyatt.

Wyatt was a quiet, reserved young man and his parents knew that he wouldn't want the fuss of a funeral, so there were no services, but today in Yuba City they had a Celebration of Life for Wyatt. Since we couldn't go and be with our family, I asked my Mother Inlaw to make Wyatt's favorite wonton rolls and we celebrated here in his honor. This morning Dean, Sakura and I headed over to Bachan's to help make wonton rolls for Wyatt, today marked the day that Sakura took her 1st bike ride down to Bachan's house - (I have to figure out how to get the video off my phone and onto my computer to share). He so loved "Auntie Sachie's" wonton rolls and could tell whether she made them or someone else did, hers were always better according to Wyatt.

Busy making rolls.

After we finished, Sakura took an early nap, because we were very excited that my cousin Laura was coming to town to attend a bridal shower for her other cousin, and e-mailed asking if we would like to get together --- What a sweet nice surprise. To me, Family means a whole lot. We hadn't seen Laura since my Grandma passed away 5 years ago, so I was especially excited that she was coming and getting to meet Sakura. Laura was always around as I grew up, I remember the summer after she was born (in April) making the trip to Salinas to spend awhile taking care of her. I will never forget my trip there with my Grandparents who had a 5th wheel trailer, stopping at the RV parks along the way - some great memories. Then as Laura grew up, we were lucky enough to get to spend many summers in San Diego on the beach...far too many memories to name - so I was very excited that she asked if we had time to get together. That was the highlight of my otherwise dreary somber kind of day.

Here is Laura and Sakura --- Sakura being shy (of course!).

After lunch we headed back over to Bachan and Jiichans for our dinner with them Celebrating Wyatt.

Oishi!! Wonton rolls ready to eat!

Sakura's 1st wonton roll - Wyatt would be proud, she loved them!!!

Dancing "shake shake, waddle waddle"

Finishing off our day with ice cream!

We had another bit of sad news today, my Dad called to tell us that my Grandpa isn't doing so well - so we have purchased plane tickets and will fly out to Georgia (he lives in Ellijay) soon to visit - hoping that we make it to see him.

Sakura ♥s Fresh Beat Band

2011-07-10T18:11:00.000-07:00

Sakura really loves the Fresh Beat Band ... here she is showing us some of her moves. LOL!

Fun at the Splash pad and park

2011-07-08T21:19:00.000-07:00

It has been SO hot already - I just hate going out but I made a vow to try and take Sakura to do something fun every Friday, so this morning bright and early we headed to Friendship Park to check out the water splash pad - which was donated by the Japanese baseball team the Yakult Swallows - so it has an even more special meaning to us.

Here it is --- each of the figures does something different - the elephant sprays water out his trunk pretty hard so it makes a nice mist - the whale's back is a water slide, the sea lions spray water, and the dinosaur has a spout on his back that drizzles water.
Not bad, and it does keep one cool!

Sakura liked it and had fun as you can tell, I was pleasantly surprised that her swim suit from last year still fit - it's my favorite by far!!!

She did spot the park across the parking lot though - so we headed over for a bit, then went back to the water before heading home. We were there about an hour, and Sakura even with SPF 70 had nice tan lines when I changed her clothes!

I said "Sakura I can't see you", so she popped in and said "Here I am, I right here".

HI Mommy!

Big girl swing - they had the baby ones, but Sakura went straight to this one

It was a fun morning with my girl, after this we headed to lunch together.

Mema's Birthday and visiting with cousins

2011-07-03T20:43:00.000-07:00

We headed to Mema's (Grandma) and Papa's house for the weekend to celebrate Mema's birthday. We were really lucky that David had been there for a couple of weeks and Matt let him stay so that we could see him, even though he was due to go home while we were there. Zakk also had a couple of days off work, so he came to visit - we were doubly blessed to get to see the boys for the weekend, along with Mema and Papa.

Sakura loves her cousins - She loves playing with David and this trip surprisingly enough Sakura took right to Zakk - he's usually the one she is "stand-offish" with. The boys are SO good with her. Zakk adores her, he waited a very long time for a cousin, and she's finally at an age where she plays - although he loved her even when she didn't. Zakk kept tickling Sakura and every time he would stop, Sakura would say "More Tickle". She loved it, and especially loved all of the attention she got from everyone. We are lucky that we have awesome nephews and nieces. We didn't do a whole lot, but spent some time shopping (alone .... ahhhhhh! While Mema got her "alone" time with Sakura which she likes), some Wii, and some swimming too, best of all was just spending time together watching the kids play - I think we all enjoyed that most.

Sakura's favorite Wii game - Wii Fit - the running, she would run all day and night to this game! Here she is with David running.

Swimming with Mema

There goes David ......

Sakura thought the boys and their cannon balls, jumps and swimming underwater were hysterical!

They're "Funny" she kept saying.

Swimming with the boys

Pretty girl

Swimming with Zakk

Taking a turn with Mommy ....

As you can see - she did better with the boys and Mema! Geez - what happened to "Head Lifeguard" and "Swim Instructor"? Guess that was a few years ago....no really I had bought a new "helper" (you can't even see it since it's underwater) - which didn't work out so well obviously - it is like a life vest except it has removable inserts that you can take out gradually as they learn to swim - apparently it doesn't work quite as I had anticipated. We took it off immediately. Sakura didn't cry and was only under for a split second, just long enough for Daddy to snap this apparently.

More running before we left with Zakk.

Fun at the Water Park!

2011-06-21T21:01:00.000-07:00

Today was the first time the class got to head over to the water park for some fun, so I headed over at their designated time to snap a few pictures of Sakura with her classmates splashing around and enjoying the water. I have to admit I have a new found appreciation for the paparazzi! This was no easy task trying to get close enough to snap some pictures (with the telephoto lens) and remain unseen. I had to move the car a few times as I was almost spotted, OR Sakura would stand right behind a big bush! UGH! It was very fun watching what unfolded while I was there watching though.

When they first got there, they were all sitting on a bench, before long the water was turned on and out ran a couple of the kids who couldn't wait. There mine sat on the bench, I thought "Oh this should be fun" - before long I saw Miss Myra head over and try to coax Sakura off the bench, and I watched as I knew exactly what was happening, Sakura refused and remained sitting on the bench - UGH! My kiddo has to do things on her own and in her own time/comfort. It wasn't long and off popped Sakura - she stood far back from the water chaos though again until she was ready then off she went and as you can tell by the numerous photos below - she LOVED the water park.

Yes Sakura that's a BIG bush to hide behind so Mommy can't get a picture .... off I go.

There she goes .... checking out the water with her friends

Then she was running all over and squealing, I could hear her squeals :)

Not too sure about this ....

The funniest thing ever - yes my kid discovers how to get "through" without getting her head wet! She was quite proud and loved this attraction - she went "through" over and over again. I found myself in my car laughing out loud.

And she's through!

Going for another round...

And again, unscathed!

Over and over again she went - it was comical to watch!

Playing with friends

And squealing with excitement

Headed to a different area

Almost detected!

Having a blast

Don't you think I was almost discovered?! She was starring right at me .... time to go :(

SO happy Sakura had a good time her first day at the water park - the really nice thing is they get to go every week for water fun! Hopefully by the end of the summer, she'll be dunking her head in the fountains?! Mommy can hope!

Dosokai at Goofy's Kitchen

2011-06-12T15:17:00.000-07:00

This year we didn't to attend the formal Dosokai, but luckily we managed to get to Goofy's Kitchen for brunch with the group. It's hectic with so many families, but always nice to get together and something I always wanted for Sakura. Here are some pictures from the day.

Brunch wasn't until 10:45, so Sakura and I went down and had a snack to hold her over - I knew that she wouldn't make it as she wakes up around 06:00 every day, and 11:00 is her naptime, so I was pleasantly surprised that she was halfway decent for brunch - then on our way home, it wasn't but a few seconds in the car and she was out hard!

Not my idea of a nutricious breakfast, but we were on vacation so I let Sakura have Fruit Loops.

I think all of the kids attending had the BEST time on the escalator - I say save your money on park tickets and just head over to the Disneyland Hotel and take a few rides on it. Just Kidding!

Sakura and Daddy riding

Ward and Quinn riding too

We got a tiny bit of time in with Baby Kaila too - which we LOVE!

Group photo at Goofy's Kitchen - HUGE group compared to the last two years. Many of us wondered if we wouldn't have to split into two groups, but the staff said they fit more than 100 in one photo! Amazing!

Cutie pie Quinn with Pluto - he's not a fan so his Mommy asked Pluto to pose behind - GREAT idea Dale!

Dale with handsome Nikko

Our table

How cute is Taisen? Can't believe how much he has grown!

The raffle loot this year was awesome again.

Some of the familes at brunch (I think Bee said there were 17 or 19 families this year?) - it was hard to get good pics, so I didn't take many pictures.

Miya and Emi at brunch - Uncle Jared reported this was Emi's 2nd ice cream cone - LOL! GO Emi - a girl after my own heart!

Yes someone was VERY tired - Sakura's normal naptime is from about 11:15 - 2:15 so she started to melt.

Looks like Quinn was getting tired too :)

We were very lucky to get to spend more time with our friends - next year the Dosokai is supposed to be in Hawaii, don't know if we'll make it, but we hope that things fade and we can attend.

Dinner dosokai with roomies from Japan

2011-06-11T22:19:00.000-07:00

It has always been a priority of mine to keep in touch with the kids that shared Sakura's first few weeks together as I have said before. This weekend Quinn (Sena) and his family were visiting from Hawaii so it was the perfect opportunity for all of us to get together, we are very lucky that they visit a few times each year and we manage to see them almost every visit - and Kazuya lives in the area. We love these families and consider them our family. Here are some pictures from dinner at Naples Ristorante e Pizzeria. Unfortunately Quinn wasn't in the dinner mood, poor little guy was SO tired and fell asleep so I didn't get but a couple pictures of him at dinner (but we did get together the next morning too, so there is more pics of him in the next post!).

Quinn and his beautiful Mommy Dale

Daddy's and kids playing while we waited for dinner

Sakura LOVES Samie (Kazuya's big sister) - they had a little jump off

The next series of pictures cracks me up. I'm not really sure what they were doing except if you looked at this in a flip album I think you'd die laughing (at least I would). I was just snapping pictures trying to catch a good one of them both looking, but when I rotated and resized I found myself laughing. So I captioned them as if in a flip album.

What ya got there Sakura? says Kazuya

(really it's just the rosettes on her shirt, but Kazuya looks interested).

"Can I see?" ays Kazuya

Sakura says "MINE".

LOL - "Everyone doesn't want to see Sakura".... says Mommy.

See my ladybug balloon - Quinn fast asleep.

Samie and her shark balloon

Sakura and Kazuya (with his turtle balloon)

Goodbye hugs

Nite Nite sweet Quinn

A couple of hours at Disneyland and Ca Adventure

2011-06-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

Today we got up early and headed to Anaheim for a visit with friends. It's only a 4 hour drive so we left home about 0800 but somehow made really good time and got there a little after 1100? Not sure - I was driving and not going THAT fast. Unfortunately Sakura barely napped in the car and was quite grumpy when we got there. It was my plan to have lunch with Dean, he was going to go to a movie and then Sakura and I would meet up with Auntie Eryn (and family) afterwards --- plans don't always work out. We got there, Dean checked the movie times and headed straight for his movie. So Sakura and I started toward the park, and when we turned around there was Auntie Eryn and Auntie Bee (and family) - we chatted for a few minutes, and Sakura and I headed into the park and Auntie Eryn would text us later after she gathered her family who had just headed back to the room. Unfortunately we didn't have anyone's number's otherwise we could have text to see if anyone wanted to meet up for a ride or two - but that's okay - off Sakura and I went to Disneyland to ride a couple of rides.

Someone was SO sleepy!

But perked up a bit on the monorail :)

Of course our first stop was King Arthur's Carousel at Disneyland - Sakura's favorite.

Then we headed over to get a bite to eat before heading back to the carousel again for 2 more rides.

Sakura waiting in line for another turn.

Yep, she LOVES the carousel. We headed over to It's a Small World Sakura's other favorite, but the line was LONG and I knew she wouldn't make it :( No Small World this trip.

We had a little visitor during lunch.

We got a text from Auntie Eryn and headed over to California Adventure to meet up with them. On our walk, there was some LOUD music, and Sakura immediately stuck her fingers in her ears, she's NOT a fan of loud sounds of any kind.

We were supposed to meet in Bugs Land - so while we waited we took a ride on Heimlich's Chew Chew Train

Then we managed to meet up with Auntie Eryn and family.

FINALLY I got to meet adorable Baby Kaila - instant love, she is the sweetest cuddliest baby and Sakura and I fell fast in love with her!

We managed to sneak in one ride before Daddy called and was finished with his movie and ready to go check in to our hotel :(

The Little Mermaid ride, Nikko rode with me and Sakura and told us all about it, what a sweet guy he is!

Nikko and Sakura (dark ride, wrong camera setting - BooHoo!)

Emi, Miya and Auntie Eryn in the other clam

Sakura is not a fan of Ursela even though she hasn't ever seen the movie

SUCH a cute ride - we will definitely be headed back and ride again.

Too much to do, too little time - off to check in at the hotel with Daddy. We will be back hopefully soon and ride more rides.

Sakura's 1st Progress Report

2011-06-10T19:33:00.000-07:00

Just before we left on vacation Sakura got her 1st progress report. We are quite pleased that she is doing so well at school. We were surprised that one of her favorite things is Play Doh as we never have given it to her...we did get some so she can enjoy it at home as well as at school.

M = Manual

2011-06-03T23:50:00.000-07:00

With a lot of help and encouragement from friends, I have branched out of Full Auto mode on my camera ... I figured I'd give it a shot and tried setting the camera to M (as in Manual - LOL!). I actually got a few pictures I really like of Sakura and one of some leaves on Auntie's tree. I need lots of practice as practice makes perfect - but it wasn't as bad as I always imagined :)

I started earlier in the day with the bubble fun with Auntie - then took Sakura back outside for some baseball and exploring Auntie Fumiyo's beautiful backyard.

Play Ball

I must have been the batter - looks like Sakura learned to "wind up" from somewhere?!

We were just playing catch - no batting.

Still throwing that ball at Mommy!

I'm sure she was telling me to get the ball here ... and stop taking pictures!

But that didn't happen :)

We tried several different balls that Freddie had out in the backyard

Always take time to stop and smell the flowers - beautiful hydrangea flowers in this case

Mommy's Pretty Girl

Leaves

Actually posing when I asked her to

"stand right here Sakura - so Mommy can take your picture"

Posing for Mommy - Thank You Sakura!

Then funny faces began....

Followed by a million hugs - which I will take ANY day!

Sakura says "HUG" and runs at me like this :o)

But my FAVORITE picture of all is the last one - and after my million hugs I asked Sakura to hug herself, she didn't know what I meant, and I showed her, luckily I grabbed the camera off the ground to capture this! I LOVE this one!

The BEST hug ever!

If I never get another good picture of Sakura I'll be happy that I got this one!

Thanks for being such a good sport Sakura chan, I know that Mommy with the camera gets old, but I have to try and capture every moment and every memory, it goes by FAR too quick - and I never want to forget each and every stage. Mommy's love for you is immeasurable sweet girl! I waited a lifetime for you, and there is no greater joy than your sweet smile, your awesome hugs and kisses, and even your spunky attitude!

Bubble Fun at Auntie's

2011-06-03T21:11:00.000-07:00

Well since the Dr. appt was on Friday instead of Thursday as we thought it was supposed to be...we missed out altogether on heading to San Francisco - so while Daddy took Bachan and Jiichan to the retinal specialist for Jiichan, Mommy and Sakura headed outside to explore the backyard (Auntie has the prettiest backyard, I loved it!) and figured we'd play with bubbles. Auntie Nancy gave Sakura a cute Hello Kitty bubble maker and we thought we'd try it out...and Auntie Fumiyo made some bubbles and brought to us as well - before she headed off to Costco.

Auntie Fumiyo and Sakura doing bubbles together

She knows :) This girl LOVES bubbles (and stickers!)

And the Hello Kitty bubbles from Auntie Nancy too!

Pure concentration - check out her tongue LOL!

Auto Repairs - ICK!

2011-06-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

Well unfortunately we had some bad luck too - actually good luck really! About a year ago I had taken Bradley (the Sequoia) in for an oil change and they told me that the radiator needed to be replaced .... but I took it to another repair shop and they told me it didn't - so we never replaced it. Well right before this trip I took it back for an oil change, and again Toyota told me it needed to be replaced and said "I would do this right now except we don't have one in stock" ... and "You aren't going on any long trips are you?" - uh well yes we were ... but I still didn't believe them that it needed to be replaced and figured they were just saying it and I looked like a sucker?! We did actually buy a bottle of radiator sealant and put it in just incase - well Dean had Greg take a look at it since he is licensed - and Greg said there was definitely a hole in it and he wouldn't suggest driving it all the way home - OOPS!!!!! So Greg ordered a new radiator and they put it in so we were safe. The good luck part is that by having Greg in the industry, he got the radiator at cost and not the 200% mark up that Toyota charges, and by them putting it in it saved us hundreds of dollars! YAY!

Hood up assessing the damaged radiator

Hmmmm....see that hole and drainage?! oops!

This is what it should look like!

Daddy and Greg putting in the new one

The guys started it one night and finished checking things out just in time to head home!

Whew - worry free trip home in the morning.

Thanks GREG!

Pics by Auntie Eryn

2011-06-02T22:02:00.000-07:00

Auntie Eryn also snapped some beautiful pictures of Sakura during our visit.
I have amazingly talented friends, I don't know how they do it?!

Funderland with Friends

2011-06-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

The best part about our trip was that we had time to catch up with friends who we don't get to see much anymore. Today we met up with The Cech's at Funderland. What a super cute little amusement park, perfect weather for a change (it's been RAINING non-stop this trip which stinks and messed up lots of our plans), but luckily this day we had sunshine! Daddy took Bachan and Jiichan to Jiichan's Dr. appt only to find out that it is actually tomorrow - UGH! So our plans for tomorrow are all messed up and we won't get to San Francisco - Mommy is more bummed than words can say! Oh well, just have to try and get up here again.

Here are the pics from our day at Funderland.

Sakura on the carousel waiting for everyone to arrive.

Are these fishies not the CUTEST?!

Mimi and Sakura enjoying lunch together

Riding the train
Mimi and Sakura twirling

The girls on the cars - Mimi wanted to ride with me, but I saw that they could ride together alone, so off they went...

Someone is getting VERY sleepy despite the short nap she took when me and Sakura walked to the park (remember Dean was taking his parents to the Dr. but when that was a mistake, he ended up driving over and joining us at Funderland).

Miya's turn on the fishies

Daddy and Uncle Greg had some major auto repairing to do tonight, so Eryn offered to pick me and Sakura up for dinner at Mikuni - who could resist?! I also was very excited to see the other kids - unfortunately I didn't get to meet Baby Kaila this trip, but I will see her soon - I was disappointed, but don't know that I'd venture out with 4 kids on my own either!

Miya and Sakura chatting, while Emi and Nikko play while we wait.

Auntie Eryn snapping some pics of Sakura - I don't know how, but she managed to get some cute pics - Sakura is one uncooperative 2 year old when it comes to taking pictures, contrary to popular belief.

Emi and Sakura chatting

TRYING to get a good picture of the four kiddos - not easy! Sakura has other ideas of what she wants to be doing.

Like giving Nikko "love" (aka: hug)

Yuba City work and Visiting with Auntie's

2011-06-01T19:12:00.000-07:00

Today we headed back to Yuba City - Dean had planned to rake some of the dirt around to sort of spread it out, but the weather was HORRIBLE including tornado warnings before we left as well as tons of rain. We still needed to meet up with the realtor for some things, and my Mother Inlaw wanted to have the A/C charged before we left the area. Before we headed to Yuba City, I suggested to my mother inlaw that she try to get together with her friends one day while we were there, I am sure she really misses everyone and since we were there, it was a nice chance to catch up. So they planned their June luncheon while we were there - so we dropped Bachan off at the Japanese restaraunt with her friends after visiting for a few minutes - of course everyone wanted to see Sakura chan - most hadn't seen her since they attended our baby shower! Sakura chan has changed a bit. I thought she'd be reluctant to go to anyone, but her Daddy gave her to Mrs. Wada and she was content.

Mrs. Wada and Mrs. Nishikawa with Sakura

The Lunch Bunch -

Mrs. Osumi, Auntie Iku, Mrs. Wada, Mrs. Nishikawa and Bachan with Sakura

After we dropped Bachan off, we took Jiichan to have mexican food....Sakura enjoyed straight sour cream?! Really - apparently so?!

We asked if someone would take Bachan back to Auntie Iku's and we met up with her there, while we waited we got to visit with Dean's cousins Shirley and Sharon - unfortunately we were "out of time" as Sakura hadn't napped and we still had a couple more stops in Yuba City, so we didn't get to see Sharman :( Next time!

Visiting with everyone

It was very funny, when we were getting ready to leave, I told Sakura to give Auntie's a hug goodbye, she did - she ran over to Auntie Shirley first, then excitedly hopped over to Auntie Sharon .... when she was done she said "One more time" - I said sure ... so off for round two of hugs - when she was finished again she said "One more time" and off she went - again running to Auntie Shirley and hopping from Auntie Shirley over to Auntie Sharon. It was incredibly cute! I think Sakura charmed her Auntie's.

Hugs for Auntie Shiley

And Auntie Sharon

Pics by Auntie Nancy

2011-05-30T22:58:00.000-07:00

One of the many nice things about hanging out with friends is that they take amazing pictures! These are a few pictures Auntie Nancy took of Sakura at Fairytale Town.

Isn't this adorable of Sakura and Kiki?

Fairytale Town with Friends

2011-05-30T18:23:00.000-07:00

We always enjoy meeting up with friends. Luckily we have a whole week this trip, so we didn't have to rush and just have lunch together, we got to spend a few hours at Fairytale Town and it was SO much fun - the kids were able to run around, climbing, seeing some animals, and having a great time. Here are some pictures from our day.

Sakura eager to go inside Fairytale Town and "play" :)

Sakura and Kiki in the TeePee

Tripp, Kiki, and Sakura checking out the lambs and telling us what they say.

Taking time for a sip out of the water fountain - everything was SO cute here, even the trash cans which were painted to look like toy soldiers (I don't know that I snapped a pic, but it was CUTE!)

Hanging out in their clubhouse.

Sweet Kira helping Sakura get a drink

Taking a walk on the wiggly sidewalk

Nancy and Kira on the wiggly walk

Climbing up the treehouse - didn't turn out so well, Sakura got to the slide and FROZE - she's not too brave I guess....Mommy had to go up and we attempted to slide down together, again NOT a good idea as we slid down, the first curve took Mommy out and we didn't have such a smooth landing and Sakura had a nice bright red cheek for the rest of the afternoon.

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water .... and Sakura LOVED the water pump!

COOLNESS all around with Trippster!

Cool little garden - not sure who smiley is, but he was cute and looking into the pond too!

Just trying to get a decent shot of a 2 year old, almost 3 year old, and 4 year old -

thanks for the sweet face Sakura! Ugh!

Our little Tinwoman, Dorothy and the Scarecrow

What a FUN place for kids this age! We will definitely be headed back to Fairytale Town!

The really nice part is it is only about 3 blocks away from Auntie Fumiyo's house where we are staying this week!

Happy Birthday to Greg

2011-05-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

Daddy didn't join us at Fairytale Town because it was also "Uncle Greg's" birthday and he felt it would be rude to leave so he and Greg and Freddie headed north to check out some fishing spots for Greg and Freddie, but when they got home we got MIKUNI to celebrate - OISHI!!! And of course cake - ice cream cake.

Happy 40th Uncle Greg.

Jessamine's Graduation Party

2011-05-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

When we planned our trip, we had just gotten Jessamine's Graduation announcement and party invitation - I really wanted to go - we were there right after Jess was born, for her 1st birthday party, and many other special times so it was important to me that we try and get here for Jess' party, unfortunately we missed the Graduation itself as we didn't get to Sacramento until Friday afternoon and it was that evening, but we were able to make it to the celebration of our beautiful niece. Didn't get many pictures of either Jess or Steph, the house was full of teenagers/young adults so understandably the girls were outside visiting with their friends, but I did get a couple.

I probably should have gone outside to take some photos, but Jiichan had fallen down one of the steps, so we all stuck very near him - unfortunately it was inside the house :o( He was okay, but it was a pretty loud crash and we were terrified afterwards.

Congratulations Jessamine Megumi Greenspan we couldn't be more proud of you!

Cute decorations in school colors. Dean commented that they were "sucky" colors, I was surprised at that since they're SF Giants colors, but apparently they are school rival colors too. LOL - guess some things never fade - high school memories last a lifetime!

Our poor baby was STARVING (maybe an understatement) when we got there - I think it's rude to eat before guests arrive, but Daddy did find a cracker and brie for her to munch on - of course she kept asking for more...poor kiddo - it was after 2:00 and she hadn't had lunch.

I LOVE hydrangea's - Linda has some beautiful ones in her yard.

Sakura "posing" for a picture, with a mouthful of cracker I think! LOL

Jessamine blew up a special balloon for Sakura who was asking for a balloon since the decorations outside were pretty balloons.

Walking down the steeeeeeep stairs

The cake was DELICIOUS - there was one white and one chocolate

There's the Graduate! Jess cutting her cakes.

Sakura eyeballing the "cupcake".

There is Steph sitting down - this is the ONLY pic you can almost see her in.

Right after we had cake, my Inlaws were ready to head back to Auntie Fumiyo's - I wanted to stay, but the fall really scared my MIL so we headed out. Sakura giving hugs to her cousin Steph.

And a hug for Jessamine too.

SO Hard to believe that Jess is now a young adult, so bittersweet. She was a beautiful baby and now a beautiful young lady that we love very much!

Fun with cousin Freddie

2011-05-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

Bobba Fett on the drums - see how fast those drum sticks are moving?!

Sakura has really enjoyed spending time at Auntie Fumiyo's - and especially spending time with her cousin Freddie (Dean's cousin Greg's son) who is 11. Freddie has awesome toys and is SO good with Sakura, he plays with her and she loves it...well all except that she is definitely 100% an only child and it became apparent when she announced that Freddie's toys are "mine" :o( I guess at home she doesn't share, but at school she does, so I'm not sure?! Oh well. Sakura had a little time out to re-evaluate her behavior and came back ready to "share". Poor Sakura tough lessons! As you can see though, she doesn't hold any resentment and loves Freddie!

Light Sabors are fun too!

Especially when you're 'fighting' your cousin!

A little Band Hero

Multi-tasking with Tony Hawk skateboard and drums?!

I think Sakura will really miss her cousin when we go home and yes all of the toys are hers, but it's always fun to play with "little people" not just Mommy and Daddy!

Wii fun with Freddie

2011-05-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

Sakura and Freddie having fun

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A trip to California for "business"

2011-05-27T18:54:00.000-07:00

Sakura saying "STUCK" and attempting to get out of her carseat on our ride....

BUT we MADE it - whew!

Could not have asked for a better 2 year old on the drive. The first night was SO long - after we got off work we drove all the way to Valencia/Santa Clarita where I had booked a room for us. We wanted to get as far as we could get without going through the Grapevine.

I took Sakura for a walk around the hotel so that Daddy could get a few more zzzz's.

This was Sakura's "smile" on command - LOL!!!

As you all know, Bachan and Jiichan moved to Arizona last November, putting their house up for sale in California. Well the house sold within a week, however the septic didn't pass, so it was held up in "escrow" for the last 6 months....the work was completed, and the buyer THEN decided that they weren't happy with the way it "looked", so they backed out. UGH!!! So we made a trip to California to relist the house, and assess everything. Dean will be busy in the next few days getting things situated with the house - we don't think it looks too bad considering they completely dug up the front yard as well as the backyard to put the brand new septic system in. Yes, it's dirt and gravel, but hopefully with some grass seed in place it will grow and there will be an even more perfect buyer out there.

Front yard damage
The backyard looks HUGE now without all of the little sectioned off gardens that they had. Just needs some grass.
Sakura was SO tired.... Almost asleep - and then it started raining!

Dancing with Jack Black

2011-05-22T10:01:00.001-07:00

Sakura dancing with Yo Gabba Gabba.

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Mother's Day

2011-05-08T18:47:00.000-07:00

The holiday I always dreaded before becoming Sakura's Mommy is now my favorite holiday. Every day of being Sakura's Mommy is great - but I especially love getting a special day to celebrate just that. I have said it always, Sakura is the best gift ever. I am SO Blessed to be her Mom. I am SO grateful to so many people for making my dream come true, but two especially important people are God and Airi - they are first and foremost - for making this day possible.

On Mother's Day in Japan, I was talking to Sakura about how lucky I am to be her Mommy, and how grateful we are to Airi and to God, Sakura responded "Thank You Mommy" - I cried. I know that Sakura doesn't understand, she is only 2 years old, but for her to respond in that manner melted my heart. She is a special little girl and I am the luckiest person in the world that she is my daughter.

We spent Mother's Day at my favorite spot - The Garden Cafe - for brunch.

Here are a few pictures from our brunch.

Every Mommy gets a flower - Sakura loved the flower so I let her have it.

My beautiful little cherry blossom

Waiting for berries

Tippie-toes

For dinner we enjoyed Teppanyaki at Ah-So and we took Bachan and Jiichan. I think this is the first Mother's Day I can even remember spending with my inlaws. We are SO lucky they are here now and we love spending time with them - and really enjoy seeing Sakura with Bachan and Jiichan.

Sakura wasn't fond of the big fire - so I pulled out the DVD player and she watched

The Backyardigans for distraction.

The Group at dinner

Sakura had a bit of a fit at one point .... because they don't give knives and Daddy bit her filet and Sakura thought that her Daddy was eating her food, she's not big on sharing food!

Mommy and her girl

Watching a little TV at Bachan and Jiichan's after dinner

Happy Mother's Day to all Mommies, Mommies-to-Be, and Pregnant-on-Paper Mommies!

A day at the Wild Animal Park

2011-04-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

We headed out early Saturday morning to go to the San Diego Wild Animal Park (aka: Safari Park). We had a great time and fun day!

First stop was the carousel - of course!

Sakura loves carousels - I headed straight for the giraffe, cause I love giraffes -

unfortunately I didn't realize the dumb giraffe was stationary.

Baby anything is always cute, these babies were especially cute!

Our very own little butterfly

In flight

We had two favorite things at the zoo this time, the lorakeets were SO cool, as you'll see below we bought some nectar to feed them and Daddy was lucky enough to get a taker on his food. Sakura was unsure of this flying thing on her Daddy, but she never cried and just starred at him.

Feeding the lorakeet

Not too sure

Sakura was checking out the birds here

We looked around the gift shop a bit and saw these cute butterfly wings.

Sakura is modeling them here for us.

And the back...

Sakura insisted that she wear her backpack once she noticed we had it (I just stuck a couple of diapers and some snacks in it before we headed into the park), so she walked all over the place (and it was HOT outside) with her backpack on. Silly kid!

Pretty bird of paradise at the park

the Zoo and the Wild Animal Park have the prettiest flowers

Our second trip on the carousel

The tie for our favorite was the Butterfly Exhibit. It's a limited time for this exhibit and boy am I glad we got to see it. The butterflies were beautiful and they were EVERYWHERE! Omgosh sooo many butterflies flying around, landing, drinking, just gorgeous!

Sakura wanted to catch one ...

So she tried and tried....

Then she saw this little girl with one, and since she apparently caught it like this,

Sakura tried this way too.

Beautiful butterflies

Daddy has a new friend....a butterfly liked Daddy and of course Sakura wanted to touch him

(she didn't by the way)

As you can tell, I loved the butterfly exhibit!
Um....I didn't take many pictures of anything else ;)

Sakura was pretty funny, she was SO good - she slept maybe 30 minutes on our drive there, so when we got to the park, it was pretty much nap time, but Sakura stayed awake - we did a few things, ate lunch, then the butterflies, then some shops, etc... well at lunch she was feeling a bit grumpy I think - so every question I asked her, she responded NO. Daddy threw in a question - Do you want ice cream? Sakura is no dummy, she said "Yes"... so we finished lunch and figured we'd head to the butterfly exhibit (the tickets were timed), and then find some ice cream somewhere cool .... so as we were walking, Sakura was pretending she was eating an ice cream cone - holding it in her hand just as you would, and licking away. Daddy and I got a good laugh.

Soon it was time to head home - we stopped at the mall first - Sakura did great there too - well a few meltdowns but all in all, she was great. But as soon as we got in the car leaving the mall, someone was OUT cold! Poor Sakura was exhausted. We still had stops to make - Marukai, Mitsuwa Marketplace (grocery shopping for Bachan and Jiichan), and then home....Sakura slept through all of the stops and woke up about 20 minutes before we got home - PERFECT day!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-25T19:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

I can honestly say this was the MOST fun I have ever had on any Easter.

We woke up in the morning, but the Easter bunny hadn't arrived, he must have been running late in our neighborhood .... BUT apparently his little helpers hid eggs for Sakura. I went outside to put something in the car and when I walked out the door I noticed a box of Peeps and a plastic egg. I said to myself, Oh Heather must have dropped these off for us how sweet .... then I noticed more eggs, the front yard was covered with plastic eggs - HOW SWEET is right, Jason (Heather's husband) had come in the middle of the night and 'egged' us - I rushed inside, got Sakura in her Easter dress, woke up Daddy and out we went to hunt eggs - admittedly I didn't think Sakura was going to "get it" this year, but she sure did! It really is the little things in life that are the most special - I just cannot say how sweet and how much we appreciate that Jason (and Heather) went out of their way to make our Easter special - it was just an amazing feeling walking outside and seeing what they had done for Sakura.

We hid eggs over and over and over again throughout the day - Sakura kept saying "more more eggs" every time she would finish, so I would distract her, and Daddy would hide eggs. I cannot even tell you how much fun we had watching Sakura find her eggs. Most of the photos that day are of Sakura hunting eggs, so if you tire of them, feel free to click away.

Finding her first eggs.

EGG!

I mentioned there was a box of Peeps - Heather and I love Peeps...Heather said "If these are her first Peeps, I was photo proof that she ate one" - I took a video of Sakura saying Thank You to Heather and Jason and also a couple of pics too.

Sakura's 1st Peep! She loved it!!! That's my girl!

Sakura took a nap and guess who visited while she napped? The Easter Bunny!

Some goodies from the Easter Bunny - Sakura went straight for the Hello Kitty Pocky, then the bubbles, and then she discovered a Yo Gabba Gabba music CD!

Giving her bunny a love

Eating her chicadee crackers and trying on her Hello Kitty sunglasses

I made a traditional Easter dinner - Ham, etc. and we headed down to Bachan and Jiichan's to eat dinner with them. Sakura got an Easter Basket from Bachan and Jiichan too --- another Hello Kitty basket! TOO cute!

She got a new Hello Kitty beach towel and .....

Stickers! Her favorite!

After we finished eating, we hunted more eggs. Bachan and Jiichan loved watching Sakura hunt eggs, we used to enjoy watching Jessamine and Stephanie hunt eggs, now Sakura enjoys it just like they did!

Sakura was "sad" that there were no "more more eggs" .... it was starting to get dark, work on Monday, so we needed to head home.

Looking for "more more eggs"

Awwwwwww...no more eggs. Time to go home.

Happy Easter everyone!

Treadmill trouble

2011-04-20T19:00:00.000-07:00

Well another mishap - ugh!

Thought it would be 'fun' for me and Sakura to take a little stroll on the treadmill but that wasn't such a grand idea. The treadmill wasn't working correctly and didn't come on, then all of a sudden came on FAST and down went Sakura - she got 'trapped' between the wall and the belt of the treadmill - needless to say not good! She is a tough little girl though, she cried a bit then she was fine - just a few burn battle wounds :(

Didn't look too bad right afterwards.

But after her bath - it wasn't looking too pretty :( Poor Sakura - I could only imagine how bad it burned, since she screamed in the bathtub and kept saying Ooowwie...Poor baby girl!

The next morning Mommy bought some Neosporin for kids and slathered it on.

Sakura slept peaceful.

Milk mustache - silly girl - cupcake frosting and milk make everything seem bearable -

even when it's in your nose!

As you can see, Sakura was back to normal in no time - thankfully.

I am just hoping that I don't rub off on her, if there was an accident to happen when I was growing up, it happened to me. I don't want Sakura following in my footsteps!

A trip to the Doctor

2011-04-15T16:46:00.000-07:00

Sakura has been coughing pretty much since her birthday so I decided I wanted to have her checked out. Suspected allergies, but wanted "confirmation" so I made an appt. and got her all checked out. Dr. Amon pretty much confirmed my suspicions and suggested Allegra OTC in the evenings before bedtime. Should know more in a few weeks if it works or not. All of her symptoms lead to allergies though.

What else do you do while you wait for the Doctor....I snap phone pics :)

Dinner with friends and Jumping at JumpStreet

2011-04-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

Sakura waiting at the bar like a big girl.

We had a great visit with the Galakatos'. It's hard to believe that we met them when Sinclair was just about 6 months old! Wow has time flown. Sinclair is SO smart and has the best personality - she's SO outgoing - quite the opposite of shy Sakura. Sakura wasn't feeling great either, so that made it even worse. Despite her not being in the optimal mood, we still were able to have a great visit with our dear friends.

We met for dinner at our favorite place Oregano's Pizza in Scottsdale, then we went for a special treat SPRINKLES cupcakes - OMGosh talk about delicious!

Sakura was SO shy with everyone - she does take forever to warm up normally but she didn't feel good so she was especially clingy.

Monkey See....

I remember reading on their blog way back when Sinclair was a tiny tot still in Roppongi Hills that she was born to be a Galakatos since she can eat --- she is a GREAT eater, here she was having fun with her spaghetti, we were all laughing so of course she was performing for us :)

Monkey Do....

Sakura attempting to copy Sinclair, but she only had corkscrew pasta - LOL!

YAY for cupcakes -

we were telling Sakura that we were going to have cupcakes and she got VERY excited!

Both girls jumping up and down for cupcakes - pretty cute!

Not sure .....

Sinclair pointing out what she wanted - we discovered after eating our cupcakes and walking out the door, when they locked it behind us that we BARELY made it in time!

Sakura with her cupcake - vanilla - which I REALLY wanted to try, since white cake is my favorite .... I should have taken a picture of this cupcake mere seconds later laid out all over the floor - yep she dropped it! Ugh!

While we were in Phoenix we also tried out a new place near Grandma's house - JumpStreet Indoor Trampolines - VERY cool place ... Sakura enjoyed it a bit, she liked jumping with us, she wouldn't do it by herself, and she HATED the inflatable slides - not sure why, but I took her down a few times just to see if she'd get used to it, she cried though.

Maybe with her cousin David? We'll try again.

Jumping with Mommy first .... but she wanted Daddy to jump :)

Another quick trip, but we had a great time!

Quick trip to So. Cal

2011-04-02T12:10:00.000-07:00

We took a super quick trip to Anaheim, we left home Saturday morning about 7:00 - got to South Coast Plaza mall about 11:30, and headed home Sunday morning about 8:00! Mind you it's a 4-hour drive. We were originally supposed to meet up with the Yamamoto's on Sunday, however since Sakura had a fever for a couple of days beforehand I was a bit nervous getting together since poor Quinn had just gotten over a virus and I didn't want to be responsible for him getting sick again :-( We had already booked our hotel room though, so we opted to head over and spend a few hours at the mall - then Sakura and Mommy headed to Disneyland for a few hours. Imagine our suprise when we ran right into Jill and Camden Patterson at the mall.

What fun! We were lucky enough to get to spend some time with them despite our extremely limited time in So. Cal! Funny huh?!

We were lucky - South Coast Plaza was having a Cherry Blossom Celebration - and had a beautiful display in the middle of the mall - it was SO pretty!

Mommy and Sakura posing in front of the beautiful kimonos they had on display...Sakura wanted something other than photos though, she wouldn't even look at Daddy! Geez Sakura!

After spending a couple of hours shopping - we headed to Anaheim to our hotel, checked in and Sakura and I headed over to Disneyland. It was pretty overcast, but never rained, thankfully!

Well since Sakura loves to ride King Aurthur's Carousel that's what we did - over and over and over - I think we probably got off and on that thing about a dozen times - I lost count! Sakura was in Heaven.

Then headed out on the monorail.

While we waited for Daddy to come over from the hotel so we could grab some dinner and do a bit more shopping, Sakura had a BLAST on this railing - I snapped tons of pictures because she was just having the best time!

I'll take this one Daddy :)

Sakura ended up going home with her very own suitcase this trip - we say it was a late Gotcha Day present for Sakura.

Time for bed - tuck in your friends! Sakura tucked Brobee and Muno in for the night.

It was an early start, so on our way home we made the stop at Krispy Kreme - YUMMY!!!

Soon after her sugar high, Sakura was catching a few more zzzzzs on the way home.

GoodBye Disneyland, GoodBye Anaheim - we'll be back :)

Gotcha Day 2nd Anniversary

2011-03-22T21:28:00.000-07:00

We can hardly believe it has been two whole years since we were handed the best gift of our lives. Two years ago we were sitting in Roppongi Hills waiting for Sakura to come. I remember the day quite vividly - we went to McDonalds and got a sausage McMuffin and hash browns, then to Don Quixote's market for a few snacks to give to Manami for their ride home, we had already purchased special Sakura tea and sakura cookies to have for Okada San, Taz, and Manami while they visited .... flash ahead two years and we began our day at work :( ICK! But we left early so we could spend the whole afternoon with our Angel!

We planned our afternoon around nap time at school, so we left work at 1:45 to pick up Sakura who gets woken from her nap at 2:00 .... when we got there she was still sleeping on her cot (SO sweet I might add - this was the first time we've seen her actually napping there!), I bent down and whispered Sakura ... she lifted her head up and saw Daddy - yelled "DADDY" - I shushed her since the other two sleeping kiddos had a couple more minutes left ... gathered up her belongings and we were off. Well Mommy did grab clean clothes to change her into (since she is typically a mess after school!), but forgot diapers (typically we just come home from school, so I didn't even think about it) so our first stop was Target for diapers - then off to the park.

I am quite the "tradition" person, and since we did that last year, I really wanted to go again this year, and it was a BEAUTIFUL day to go to the park!

First "ride" the swings --- do you remember her last year in her little ducky outfit with her legs spread far apart with that huge grin (on Gotcha Day!).... well some things don't change a whole lot - Sakura still LOVES to swing.

Let's GO!

HIGHER Daddy!
Sakura Loved swinging as high as I felt comfortable with, Daddy was doing the pushing and kept her going pretty high! She loved it!

That expression says it all!

HIGHER!!!

Break time for shoes...

We were quite surprised as Sakura wasn't afraid at all of the slide, every other time we've gone to the park, Sakura's always been a little apprehensive about the slides...this time as you'll see below, she walked up the "maze" to get to the top and down she went, over and over and over. I would say that Sakura now LOVES the slide as much as the swings!

Down she goes! Such a big girl :(

Climbing up to go again.

Almost to the top!

And she's there!

Time for some tubes....

Driving the train

Walking over the wobbling plastic bridge, I have no idea what this is called?!

The cutest turtle!

And bunny!

There are two parts to the park, so next we headed over to the other play area and lake.... we love this beautiful park - and like I said, we could not have asked for nicer weather!

It was a gorgeous day!

Sakura running toward Daddy who is always ahead of us :)

Someone is getting tired! We did LOTS of playing!

A different twisty slide.

Running to look for duckies - there was only 1, you can barely spot him.

We headed back to the other side, but this time we went up this HUGE hill .... I lagged behind to try and get some pictures and had a few tears as I watched Sakura walk up the big hill ... she would stop and say "Come On Mommy" - she has grown up SO fast. It makes me sad that she is so grown up but at the same time I love how she makes us laugh and smile with everything that she does and says ... bittersweet I guess.

"Come On Mommy" ...

Look how tiny she looks - I just love watching her.

Down with Daddy ....

I wanted a picture similar to last year -

although this year Sakura is walking, running and not being carried into the Creative Playland!

Aspiring to be a pilot, just like Uncle Tim!

My beautiful girl - a little wind blown - but still cute :)

Bye - headed back to the car.

We left the park and headed to an early dinner at Asian Star. Our first family dinner was at a Chinese restaurant in Roppongi Hills, Japan, so every Gotcha Day celebration we will have Chinese food, last year we had Palagor Inn, but they closed - Asian Star is pretty good.

Our family

Check out Sakura's expression - she's not big on "new" people we had just got here, so she wasn't having any part of giving up smiles!

Eating her dinner - Lo Mein - Sakura loves noodles in all shapes and sizes!

The next few pictures are HORRIBLE of me, but Sakura was so cute so I am sharing them --- we were playing our Words with Friends game here, I'm sure I was concentrating on figuring out a word that might get me lots of points with Auntie N since she KILLS ME every game!

Words with Friends game for Mommy - which Sakura found funny!

Playing with Sakura while we waited for our food.... she was cracking up the whole time, I even stopped at one point because she was laughing SO loud ---

like I said it was an early dinner though, not many there, so I didn't care :) I'm sure people would rather hear squeals of laughter than screaming kids, right?!

Mommy and Daughter

Last year we chose the theme of ducks, because of Sakura being in the ducky gown for her Visa photo which was our favorite....this year a few months ago my "cousin" Rachel showed me a picture of a cake she was going to make to enter the fair and after seeing it I decided I just wanted a Japan theme cake with some of the same pieces she had made for her fair cake (which she never entered) - I loved the pieces she had done.

So this year our theme was celebrating Japan ... given the events of the March 11, 2011 I don't think we could have chosen a better more appropriate theme (and I chose it two months before all of this happened).

I have said it since Day 1, Japan holds a piece of my heart it always will. Our daughter's BioFamily, our family, our friends, our time there - all of it ... I loved Japan and always will.

So today on our Gotcha Day anniversary we celebrated Sakura and Japan.

We will continue to pray for Japan and all of the people of Japan.

I don't know what I did to my camera but I could NOT get it to take a picture, fiddled with the settings trying every single mode and finally got it to take a very blurry picture :( UGH! My phone picture was better!

Rachel made a few pieces of sushi, a geta, a lantern, two cherry blossom branches, and the adorable geisha on top - the pieces were really big, you can't tell in this picture, but I think below you can ... It was a Cold Stone Creamery cake - Chocolate chipper and it was DELICOUS -

I think we may have a new tradition!!!

Bachan's attempt at a family picture .... too funny!

You can sort of tell the size compared to Sakura.

Sakura reading her Gotcha Day card all ready for bed.

It was a long day, but an AWESOME day!

We are SO blessed to be Sakura's parents!

GEICO-Do Dogs Chase Cats Commercial

2011-03-13T16:57:00.000-07:00

So Sakura is eating dinner and this commercial comes on .... when it's over she says "We We We All The Way Home"..... Dean turns and says something to the effect of she's too smart!

Does she remember that Geiko made the other commercial? Who knows!

If you remember back on our blog months ago - Sakura said

"We We We All the Way Home" only after watching a different Geiko commercial!

C is for ....

2011-03-09T18:05:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago we were laying in bed and there was a comb on the headboard that I had set there after combing Sakura's hair...well Sakura spotted it and asked what that was (which she does all the time now, even if she knows something she'll ask) so I replied comb...

she asked again and I responded again "comb" then I made the sound

"c" "c" "c" to which my daughter replied ... (ready?)

"CUPCAKE!".

Her Daddy and I had a good laugh - I responded that's right Sakura c is for cupcake

(isn't this an cute cupcake? I took this picture when we were at Disneyland a few weeks ago)!

HinaMatsuri - Girl's Day

2011-03-03T20:19:00.000-08:00

Happy HinaMatsuri 2011

to our beautiful little girl!

For Sakura's 2nd year birthday pictures (which will be in a different post) I took along my kimono with us and Maranda got a few great shots of Sakura for me to share on HinaMatsuri Day. The one above and the one below are my favorites .... I've got a few what I call "outtakes" at the bottom of this post :)

Always serious Sakura chan

We had a busy day celebrating HinaMatsuri with Sakura. I always love getting her dolls out and displaying them in the living room - you are supposed to put them in the best room in your house, and I figure that's where we spend the most time so that's where they go. Sakura enjoyed looking (AND touching) her dolls this year - she didn't really touch the dolls, but the accessories. I just told Sakura that we only look at these pretty dolls, and she never touched them again. She is SO good!!! We enjoyed dinner at the same place as last year - it will be our tradition unless they going out of business or something - at Ah-So and we had teppanyaki (OISHI!). Sakura enjoyed her miso soup,which still is just about her favorite thing, as well as enjoying our rice and veggies too. Sakura also enjoyed some traditional HinaMatsuri arari - which she wasn't very fond of ... quite surprising since Sakura really loves arari!

Here are a few pictures from dinner at Ah-So.

Sakura and Daddy "enjoying" the show --- Sakura did NOT like the big fire, and wouldn't go back into her high chair for the longest time after that happened...when the show was over and it was time to eat we were able to get her back in.

YUMMY!

Sakura opening her HinaMatsuri Hello Kitty - somehow I missed getting a picture of her with her kitty though -
Sakura was SO tired when we got home it was a rush to get her in the bathtub and to bed....

Here is what I am calling the "out takes" from our photo session --- the reason I call them out takes is because we were on our way out of the first location that we had her birthday pictures taken and I remembered the kimono pictures...the location closed in like 5 minutes so I hurried to change Sakura into the kimono, change her hair clip to the special one Auntie Misty made, and guess what .... I forgot to remove the leggings she was wearing because I never dreamed they would show in the pictures....guess what - lesson learned - remove whatever you DON'T want to show! UGH! Still adorable pictures so here are the "out takes"!

My beautiful little cherry blossom is growing up way too fast!

Peeking in to see what's going on - the great escape I call this one since the door leading back to the car is just inside this building....

"I'm Done Now" says Sakura :)

I don't know if I will ever get over the fact that I still have my very own kimono from when I was a little girl and now I have a little girl who can wear it on a special day. Absolutely incredible is all I can say - it chokes me up and takes my breath away just thinking about everything.

I am and hope that I will always be in awe!