Dirty Business-

I feel like it's been awhile since I last blogged. I haven't pulled out the camera as much as usual I guess. We have been doing really good. The little boys LOVE the backyard and play outside all the time. We bought a trampoline so they have had a lot of fun on that, but their very favorite thing to do is to ride down the hill on their butts. Mommy doesn't love it, but has given up fighting with them over it. :)

I did give them frisbees to ride down on to try and save their shorts, but they still prefer right on the dirt. Naughty little sinkers! They love to climb the two trees in the yard and Taylor has turned into quite the little monkey.

We had a BBQ a couple weeks ago with some friends. It was really fun. Rhett set up a huge slip n slide for the kids to ride down and they had a great time jumping on the tramp. The food was great.

We also have been grilling a lot. The weather has been perfect lately. It is so nice to marinate some meat and have Rhett grill it up while I make a few sides to go with it. He has been a great sport about doing it every night! :)

Rhett has been letting the twins have late nights with us lately. His favorite thing to do is pull them in bed with him and snuggle while eating popcorn and watching a movie. They really love it too and ask every night if they get to sleep in our bed. :) They are all growing up so fast! It is really bittersweet.

A few pictures of their favorite past time-

Taylor

Hunter- I love how his butt is still in the dirt, but his legs are on the frisbee.

Ryker- He rolled his frisbee down first then slid down on his butt to get it.

Grace

For those of you who haven't heard me venting about Grace yet.... here you go-

All we hear from Carter is Gracie this and Gracie that. He has like a MAJOR crush on this sweet little girl.

It all started about 2 months ago. They are in the same class at school. He came home one day and stated, "I have a new best friend. Her name is Gracie. We always play basketball at recess together." Pretty harmless- cool, he has a new best friend.

Then, it was EVERYDAY!!!

Gracie is so good at basketball. Gracie has the prettiest hair. Gracie is so good at math. Gracie is the best listener. I gave my band prize to Gracie today. Gracie said I'm her very best friend.

Okay, getting a little OLD!

Then, like any GREAT Mom I sent a note into school with Carter that read- "We would love to have Gracie come over for a play date. My phone number is XXX-XXXX-XXXX."

I was surprised when they called me that night to schedule one. They told me that they have heard a lot about Carter and would be excited to meet him.

So on Saturday we had Gracie come over and play. Her parents came in and met me and visited for a few minutes before they deemed me a good enough parent/supervisor for them to leave her with us. We played down at the seawall. We even let her pull the wagon with the twins in it. BAD IDEA- She is what I like to call, a little clumsy. After running with the wagon and flipping it over on both the babies we finally reached our destination. :)

We then came back and played the wii for a little while. It was funny because when Carter was was making her the mii character she was helping him pick out the right hair, eyes, face shape, coloring. All that fun stuff. When she got to the eyes she said, "Yeah I think that's what my eyes look like" and picked these HUGE round eyes that looked like this 00. I just sort of laughed to myself thinking there may have been a better pick that looked a little like this - - :). Not being prejudice, because she is so cute. We have really enjoyed having her over. She always brings over fun Japanese snacks, not fish and almonds, but yummy tasty chocolate snacks!

It was a really fun day and after a couple hours we too loved Gracie. They continued to be best friends and we even met them at the zoo a couple weeks later. It was a fun day. Gracie's dad even bought all the kid's fish food and snow cones. A treat I never let my kids enjoy because of the massive amounts of children I have. :) Gracie is an only child and she loves that Carter has little brothers.

Well, we moved on base. It was such a SAD day for Carter to be leaving his old school and best friend.

He came down almost in tears and said, "Somethings wrong! I can't stop thinking about Gracie. I think about her all day and all night. I think I'm in love, but I don't know how to tell her." I panicked and quickly reassured Carter that he should NOT tell Grace that he loved her! :) In fact, I was so weirded out by the whole conversation I sent him to talk to his daddy. I thought Rhett may know a little more having grown up a love sick little boy as well. He told Carter that it was normal to have a crush on girls and that even though you think about Gracie all the time that he was a little too young for a girlfriend.

When I told Carter's teacher he would be leaving she said, "I will miss all the sentences the two of them write about each other. They truly are best friends." She calls them little basketball buddies.

Carter and Taylor also fight about who is going to marry Gracie. This was the same conversation that included Carter yelling that he would only marry Taylor if he was the girl?!?

Anyway, everyday I hear about Gracie. She has invited him to an Easter egg hunt next Saturday where I'm sure they will be planning their wedding! :)

A love note that Carter had put up on his wall!

Carter and Gracie at the zoo. It is the year of the rabbit here in Japan.

Love sick Carter pulling his little lady in the wagon.

Carter and Gracie playing down by the seawall.

On Carter's last day of school at Killin he brought in a little chocolate bunny for Gracie. He snuck it on her backpack. She in turn had written him a lovely note that said, "Dear Carter, I will miss seeing you everyday. I will sometimes have a date with you soon. My phone number is XXX-XXXX-XXXX. Love, Grace"

Oh, the joys of a first crush. I'm sure Carter will be pleased that I'm posting all this. :) Maybe he will be able to look back and laugh in a few decades when he has found the girl of his dreams. Or maybe... if Carter gets his wish he will be able to take Gracie home with us when we leave Japan. lol.

A little help-

We have a really steep hill in the backyard. I'm always worried that the little kids will get hurt riding their toys down it. Ryker was getting ready to go and Hunter thought he should go ahead and give him a little push to help him out. :) Thankfully, Ryker thought it was a blast!

Make sure to pause the music in the top right hand corner if you want to hear the video-

Please don't mind me laughing so hard in the background. You really had to be there to see how funny it actually was!

Treehouse Park

We were able to go to the play group last week and we went to treehouse park. The kids really enjoyed it. It had a fun little playground shaped like a treehouse and a teeter-totter. I think it even had a merry go round. The kids played in the sand and on the slides while the adults enjoyed being able to visit together. It was a really good time.

We packed a picnic and had lunch at the park. This was a treat for the kids. We usually just head back home to eat lunch. They have a really hard time eating at the park with so much going on. They did a pretty good job though. I think they ate a little sand with all the grapes and carrots, but they still loved it.

Mommy loved that they had a ton of shade here. We all just sat around and watched the little kids playing together while in the nice cool shade.

Hunter and Ryker did have one little cat fight. Hunter decided it would be fun to push Ryker down the slide when he wasn't ready. In fact he wasn't even sitting down yet. Poor Ryker fell over and got a fat lip. Hunter did say, "Sowwy brodda." But Ryker was not in a very forgiving mood. He just kept chanting, "No Hunter, you not nice. you not nice Hunter."

Anyway, we have loved all the parks off base that we have been too and this one didn't disappoint. It was pretty cool! :) I will say it again and again.... the Japanese really know how to make a fun place for kids!

They had three slides, swings, and tunnels that you could climb through all connected to the trees.

Can you say "Drop Slide?"

We took the kids to Civic Center Park the other day. It was a BLAST!!! They have three separate little park areas. They have a large roller slide, a park, and a drop slide. The kids favorite was definitely the drop slide.

We wrapped little Taylor in wax paper and he flew down the slide. They had so much fun that they decided to try other ways of going down. Taylor went on his belly, back, and backwards. Hunter just went down on his bottom. Ryker, my other little daredevil went down every way you could. They had fun and we had a blast watching them.

Ryker heading down the drop slide. He has different clothes on because he wet himself it was so scary. j/k. We went two different times! :)

Taylor heading down backwards. He was seriously so brave and had such a fun time. We will have to head back to this park. It was fun and super close by. :)

Here is Rhett heading down with both babies. Make sure you turn off the music on the right side if you want to hear what they are saying. It was a great day with the family!

Botanical Garden-

I have wanted to take Rhett over to the botanical garden for awhile because it is so beautiful there. I am so glad that we took the plunge a couple weeks ago. I heard it it now closed down. :( I don't think they were making enough money with it or something. We went one other time and saw all the Christmas lights there. It was really a fun place to go. So beautiful and relaxing!

Poor Hunter was running to Daddy and tripped and fell down. I felt so bad, but couldn't resist taking this picture of his cute little pouty face. Hunter and Ryker are both very much in love with Rhett and prefer to go to Daddy whenever they get hurt right now. I think it's because he bought them a new trampoline. :) Bribery usually works!

Getting out of the house-

Right before we moved we decided that we would head out of the house. We asked the kids where they wanted to go and they quickly answered, "The zoo."

I have loved our zoo pass. The zoo is pretty little, but just the perfect size for the little boys to walk through the whole thing. We had a great time and Carter even saw Grace there. We have heard SO MUCH about Grace lately. I will post more on this later... :)

It's always such a great time when Daddy gets to go out with us. The little boys have such a fun bond with him.

Here is Rhett tossing Ryker up in the air. He absolutely loves it. Hunter on the other had does NOT!

Hunter loves the little chicks.

Taylor climbing in with the hippos.

Ryker petting the iguana?!?

The hippo eating Mommy.

Carter with the hippos.

Daddy and Hunter with the giraffes.

Mommy showing the babies that snakes aren't scary!

Bowling

We took a much needed break and went bowling the other day. Bowling with four little kids is.... interesting! We all had a good time though.

Sorry the blogging isn't going to well lately. It takes SO LONG to upload even a single picture. I'll have to figure out a better time to update the blog. Oh yeah, I forgot to fix the red eye on everyone, so I guess they all look like little hungry vampires. :)