Saturday, May 15, 2010

Dosokai 2010

Dosokai 2010
Goofy's Kitchen group photo!

Sakura and I just returned from Dosokai, the 2nd annual. We had an amazing time with everyone.



  • Driving 592 miles alone with my non-car loving daughter

  • Standing in LONG lines for rides with two little ones that don't understand why we are waiting

  • Not much sleep due to late night chats and early morning rising to get where we need to be

  • Long walks to and from the park resulting in shin splints

  • Hearing Sakura say Da-Da over and over because she misses her Daddy

  • Spending time with great friends = PRICELESS!!!

Here is just a small sampling of the 609 pictures (taken between me and Misty) while we were at Dosokai. We truly had an amazing trip, missed Daddy a bunch, but it was so nice to get to spend extra time with our friends. Sakura got her first set of Mickey ears from Auntie Misty and she LOVED them, she kept them on the whole time and never fussed about it. We think they looked super cute too! It is always special for us to get to spend time with everyone, Disneyland is just a bonus. I feel that these friends are an important part of Sakura's life, these children share the same history as Sakura does, these families share a similar past as we do as well, there is an amazing bond between those of us that have gone through SO much to get our children, it's really indescribable.



Sakura and I started out leaving Wednesday morning bright and early. We headed to San Diego and met up with Nancy and Tripp, Misty and Kumi for a day at Sea World. Sakura was a great traveller and slept about 80% of the way there - then entertained herself with a snack and drink - couldn't ask for a better baby!!! I didn't get very many pictures there - but Sakura really enjoyed the Sea Lions LIVE show very much - she stood, danced, waved and pointed at the seals. Then we hit the Shamu BELIEVE show - again Sakura enjoyed watching the whales, Mommy was a bit disappointed that the trainers still aren't in the water with the killer whales so some of the excitement isn't there, but Sakura didn't care, she loved watching the show. I think Sakura's favorite part of the park was the Sesame Street Bay of Play area where she walked around, crawled through the tubes, and splashed in the water fountains. When we left the park we drove the rest of the way to Anaheim, Sakura was SO exhausted from all of the fun that she slept the whole way! Whew - part 1 of the driving down!





Fresh from the car and ready to hit Sea World!


Yay, Auntie's and kids are here....Check Tripp out doing some maintenance on his stroller!


Hi Auntie Misty and Kumiko!


Bay of Play


Playing and watching the water fountains at Bay of Play,

Tripp was off enjoying the rope climbing with his Mommy :)






Pure exhaustion, Sakura was out like a light!


Handsome Tripp after breakfast - he and his Mommy headed home Thursday morning :(




Thursday Misty, Kumi, Sakura and I headed to Little Tokyo - I Little Tokyo and can't wait to take Daddy back there sometime! They have quaint little shops and looked like lots of great food! We headed to dinner with Misty's Aunt Kaz at a Thai restaurant - which I'd never had. It was pretty good, Misty's Aunt Kaz was the best part though - she was great company! The girls were exhausted but behaved very well for our dinner!



There was a beautiful (very unique double) sakura tree still in bloom!


The girls playing

(we tried hard to get a good picture of them both looking, but that wasn't happening!).





And exhausted again....

Poor Sakura didn't get her normal naps in while we were gone,

but she did remarkably well I think!


Imagine our surprise when Misty and I were in different rooms getting our girls ready for bed, and out they come with matching jammies! Too Funny!

This wasn't planned, Misty didn't know Sakura had these jammies and I didn't know that Kumi had them either - they were sure cute in their little whale jammies!

They weren't having any posing for a picture, this was the best I could get.

Friday and Saturday we spent at the park - Friday night we met up with several of the families and enjoyed dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, I have to admit I was a little nervous about Sakura being afraid, she dislikes loud noise/voices VERY much even crying at Texas Roadhouse when they sing to someone...but she wasn't afraid at all, luckily they sat us in a little room and it wasn't too noisy - Sakura did fine! Yay! Saturday morning we enjoyed the Dosokai breakfast at Goofy's kitchen a little downtime in the room for the girls, then back to the park for a few rides on It's A Small World - I think Sakura and Kumi's favorite ride of all! We went once, got off and rode again, no line to speak of so the girls were in Heaven.



Me and Sakura and Misty and Kumi by the castle

Misty had bought Sakura and Kumi matching shirts to wear to the park with their names!

SO cute!

Waiting in line for Dumbo


Hanging out in the stroller


With their first Mickey ears!





California Adventure Bugs Life play area...more water!



Enjoying dinner at Rainforest Cafe



We were SO lucky that Bee took a picture of us with our special friend Kazuya and his family!


Sakura riding It's A Small World


And King Authur's Carousel


WALKING around Downtown Disney!


Such a big proud girl!


Ring Around the Rosie with Kumi and Savannah



Crawling around Goofy's Play area


Kumi, Seth and Sakura playing the piano in Goofy's house


Sunday we headed home bright and early and back to Daddy - Sakura was sound asleep when we got home but when I said Da-Da she woke right up and looked around she was SO happy to see her Daddy (and YaYa and Wrigley too!).


Again, we had a wonderful trip - missed Daddy so much - but totally enjoyed our time at Dosokai! Thanks to everyone - for the wonderful gifts for Sakura!



Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

This picture was taken a week ago by an amazing photographer and friend, Kim Garcia. We had gotten together to celebrate Kim's birthday with a few friends and Kim took a picture of each of us with our kiddos, I love this picture so I saved it to share on Mother's Day - I hope that everyone can see the love in me for my special girl. Sakura is the best present and biggest gift anyone could ever give me. I always wanted to be a Mom, more than a wife, more than anything else ever...Dean was an added bonus - being his wife and Sakura's Mom makes my life more full than I could have ever imagined.

Mother's Day will always be my favorite day of the year - a day to celebrate everything I ever dreamed of and finally have - my precious baby girl!


The two most special people in my life, my hubby and my daughter!

We say "Thanks" for Sakura! Many many many thanks to God, Airi and Yuki, Taz and Lesley, along with everyone else that prayed for our miracle, and believed in my dream!


Mommy and Sakura chan

Daddy, Mommy, Sakura and Grandma and Papa shared the weekend together,
and our traditional brunch at The Garden

After lunch we stopped for a few memorable photos

My Sweet Family ~
all I ever wished for and more!!!!

Grandma, Mommy and Sakura

At the end of the day, what makes this day the best is just having my special girl by my side and being able to call her my daughter, seeing this face when I wake up and when I go to sleep is the biggest and best gift - there is NOTHING better than that!

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Happy Mother's Day in Japan

There will never be a Mother's Day that I don't think about Airi (Sakura's BioMom) and Yuki (Sakura's BioGrandma), two extremely special people that will always be part of our lives - without them, I would not be celebrating Mother's Day myself - their selflessness and care for Sakura enabled me to fulfill each and every dream I ever had, there was never anything in my life I wanted more than being a Mom - so today Mother's Day in Japan, we honor them.

Thank You so much for loving Sakura! Your selfless act has made us the happiest people on Earth and we hope that you know how much we love both of you, and appreciate what you did.

You would be SO proud of the little girl Sakura is.

Tonight we went to the park to take some pictures of Sakura and sent them to Taz in hopes that they will reach Airi and Yuki on Mother's Day.


Sakura saying HI to Airi and Yuki

Our Beautiful Little Girl


Now time for fun....Sakura's favorite - the swing!



Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Really flying Hi - Sakura loves it!

Trying out the other swing...Sakura couldn't even see out, Daddy took her right out.

Sliding

One TIRED baby....
we had planned to go earlier in the day but it was hot,
so by the time we got to the park Sakura was extremely tired.
Happy Mother's Day Airi & Yuki - Sakura s You and so do we!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Happy 15 Months to Sakura!

First stop of the day - breakfast at Kneader's with Mommy - pumpkin muffin tops are the BEST! Unfortunately our second stop wasn't as fun ... 15 months = trip to the Doctor.


It's hard to believe that Sakura is already 15 months old! Wow, where does the time go? Today she had her 15 month check-up, complete with two additional shots (ICK!). Sakura was a trooper and only cried a second for the actual shots, but boy did she HATE the height and weight check this time - OMG! I think the definite 'fear' of other people is setting in. Poor little girl!
Here are Sakura's stats:

Sakura is 29 1/4 inches long

"SO BIG"

and 22 lbs

She is still a shortie, in the 10 percentile, and her weight has dropped down to the 50th percentile, she had actually lost weight since her last appt in February and grown a bit taller. Guess that's where those cheeks went :(

Mommy got in trouble for scheduling Sakura's appt. on a day that she normally goes to the sitter...little Samantha was NOT happy that Sakura wasn't coming this morning until she was already at school - she got mad at Katie and Katie told her that she needed to tell Jennifer about it. Oops...sorry Sammie I will do better next time and schedule her appt on a Friday :)

Happy 15 months sweet girl!

Monday, May 3, 2010

Just a few pics...

Fresh out of her bath and ready for bed.

Kisses for baby


I'm not afraid of spiders...

Spiders are funny!

Playing with the spider - Daddy had these spiders to scare one of the girls in the office...
Imagine that?!

Upset tummy and fresh out of bath #2 of the day....
Sakura saw her shoes and tried to put them on her feet.

I thought that Sakura's feet looked too cute not to take a picture of them!