Cursed

The curse of bad car luck continues in Japan! Ack! For the past 2 years, every time Fox and I would leave our home and drive out of Logan, something would happen to our car (well, cars--3 cars died on us!). We had so much car trouble every time we tried to go someplace, and now that bad luck has followed us to Japan!
Yesterday was our first evening off, so we drove 45 minutes to Marugame, our old city, to go to a R.S. activity (me) and to hang out with old friends (Fox and kids). On our drive back, we were stopped at a light, and some guy on his cell phone rear-ended us! Can we never leave home without a car incident? Maybe our luck is turning, though, because our car was not damaged at all--it is a tiny Jeep-like thing with the spare tire on the back that acted like a rubber bumper. So, yay! And no one was hurt! But still...come on car gods!

In other news, we had 3 earthquakes this week! They were all little, but Fox has never experienced earthquakes before. He's been quite shaken up this week! Literally.

We are still doing great and can't wait to share pictures once we figure out how to get a cord for our camera!

P.S. Fox and I had to speak in sacrament this morning, and Fox gave his talk in Japanese--go Fox!!

We're Alive!

Hi everyone! We haven't posted in a while, but we are alive and safely settled in our new city of Kanonji, Kagawa, Japan. I wish I could post some pictures, but sadly, I have no idea where the cable for my camera is.
Our trip to Japan with 2 toddlers was a great learning experience for us. Mainly, only bring carry-ons that you can carry. 8 carry-ons and various blankies and lovies made going from flight to flight very tricky! Luckily, there was a nice Japanese family on board with kids, too, and they helped us out a ton. They let our kids play with all their gadgets and helped carry our stuff. We are forever grateful! Also, the midnight flight was a good choice--our kids slept several hours!
We are still exploring our city, but we live within easy walking distance of my favorite stores--MaxValu for groceries, Daiso for household and craft stuff, and Shimamura for clothes. Yay! We are also a couple of kilometers away from the beach and a huge sandy park. Our apartment is bordered by the fire station, the high school, city hall, and a new nice library with books for children in English. Double yay!
Most importantly, there is a beautiful cake shop across the street called "The Establishment". It sells cream puffs and tons of French pastries and is lit up in twinkly lights at night, so that is the view from our window.
We are so happy to be back and having an experience this time in a country that is no longer very foreign to us. It makes for a much easier transition, especially with kids. I am patting myself on the back for learning Katakana before we came, which means I can read words like "shampoo" and "soap" on all the various bottles. Now to actually learn the language this time!

Coco Turns 2!

Yes, this post is very late. I get really frustrated with Blogger if it doesn't upload my pictures immediately!

Cosette turned 2 on November 19th! Craziness! Here are some pics from her special day:

Opening up her present, a My Little Pony:

Coco is not a cake eater, so we had ice cream sundaes instead.

The fabulous Dave and Amber braved the snow and came to visit!

The next day, Coco's grandparents came for Thanksgiving, so we did another little party. Here is Coco with her Grandpa Rick:

And birthday girl pictures with Mommy and Daddy:



Some Facts about Cosette at 2 Years Old:
--She is pretty much the same as she has been since 6 months old. Very mischievous but also very affectionate.
--She's been potty trained for 2 months, even at night! I credit the cloth diapers!
--She is very very stubborn, which is probably why she is potty trained. She holds it for as long as she wants to hold it!
--She is obsessed with Scooby Doo, spiders, and monsters. If you ask her to tell you a story, it always involves, "Once a spider crawled up my back, and it was scary...and it went in my ear!"
--She spends a large part of her day gathering various cloths and covering any cat or stuffed animal with a "blankie" to put them to bed.
--She wakes up every morning with a hug for everyone and a loud, "Good morning, guys!"

We love our little Coco and can't wait to see how she does on our adventure to Japan!

Trip to Shoup!

Fox had two days off last week, so we decided to drive to Shoup before the snow came! We haven't been to Shoup in 4 years, and our kids had never been. We are so happy we went and were able to spend some precious time with Grandmama and Grandpapa.

This was the first time we had been since the mill burned down (Grandpa had a huge mill that was used for gold milling and also all of his personal storage). It was crazy to see the wreckage and hear the story of the fire. I begged Grandpa to tell me the story of the person behind the arson--an old business associate. He didn't want to tell me, because he has decided to be very positive about all of this.

Here is the makeshift shack that still contains the tools Grandpa uses in his gold mine tours:

Only a few items survived, like some of Uncle Jeff's Buddhist temple bells he had been storing there:

A picture of the fire. I never realized why it burned down so quickly, until Grandpa explained that all of his dynamite and propane was near the entrance! The fire burned for 3 days.

All of Grandpa's guns that we have shot with over the years were reduced to bars of metal:


Grandma (holding dog food or Kleenex?) outside the cabin, which is fully stocked with logs for the winter! Their cabin stays really warm with their wood stove going.


Cash and his great-grandparents! He loved them so much!


Enjoying the swings!


Beautiful Shoup!


I wish I got more pictures, but, as usual, I forgot my camera charger!
On our way home, we drove over a rock that flew up and busted a hole in the transmission of our rental car! We had to stop to let a huge herd of big horn sheep pass us, and the car started smoking. We knew it was bad. Luckily, everything got resolved, and we got home late but okay. It's not a trip out of Logan if we don't have car trouble! Of course, it was worth it to spend some time with our treasured grandparents!

Punishment or...?

Cash has been quite a handful lately. We love him dearly, but he is growing and learning and testing everything in his path! There are a few instances where we have tried so hard not to laugh as we were "gently correcting" (okay, punishing)him.
Some examples:
Cash has been picking up every word he hears, as is common with curious toddlers. The other day, we were playing legos, and he got frustrated. He yelled, "This is sucks!" Then said, "That's a bad word, right?" Hmmm...yes, but not conjugated correctly. The next day he yelled, "Sucksing!" when he spilled something. And today he yelled, "This sucks me!" So, I am not sure if I should be teaching him the proper conjugation of the bad word or just blatantly trying to ban this word from his vocabulary! I guess Mommy and Daddy should stop saying what we don't want him to repeat?

Another example:
We had 4 inappropriate crayon usages today. 4. And these were not washable crayons--they were cheap mystery-brand crayons. The couch, the carpet, the bedspread...all when we were not looking. Then, I saw the 4th incident occurring from the corner of my eye! Cash was scribbling on his sister's white bedframe. I screamed "Nooooo!!!!" (I try not to scream, but, come on, this was the 4th time in a day).
Cash explained himself: On Coco's bedframe, he had spelled the letters C-O-C-O. Cash:"It's her bed, so I wrote her name!" (and he did!)
Me: "Oh my goodness, Cash, you spelled your first word! That is so awesome! Now get in the corner! For the last time, we only color on paper!"

Parenting is hard.

Boo at the Zoo!

Today was Boo at the Zoo, the annual kids' Halloween day at the local (little) zoo. We went last year and had so much fun. This year was no different!
Here are the kiddos (Coco's is in Cash's costume from a couple of years ago. Free costume!):

As soon as Cash put on his Captain America muscle suit, he immediately became strong enough to lift a trash bag! I should make him wear that suit more often!

Visiting Zoya, the awesome fortune teller, who predicted that Cash would be very nice to his mommy today.

One of the many games for the kiddos. Cash won!

Aunt Kelsy was Coco's chaperone and in typical Coco fashion--spent a lot of time in the art area!

We love our little elephant!


I'm glad we went, even though Fox and I have recently decided to purge the kids from sugar as much as possible. We just made sure to hide the candy they got today! They have just been so crazy lately, and we wanted to see if it would make a difference. We started this week, and it has made a huge difference! Specifically, the kids have not had huge energy crashes and so have not been whining to watch videos. Instead, they have been calm, focused, and playing well with each other (as much as two toddlers can play well together)! We are excited to see if this keeps up. They weren't eating candy all the time, but all the fruit snacks, chocolate milk, potty treats, and random Halloween candy does add up!

We're Going...

to Japan!


Yep, we are moving there in January. Last week was a difficult one of discussing and deciding, but when we finally stopped to pray about it, the answer was incredibly clear. Immediately, we knew we were supposed to go to Japan, and every shadow of uncertainty instantly vanished. It has been so nice knowing what we are going to do, and we are so excited!

We are especially excited to have our kids experience another culture (Cash was 17 months old when we left and doesn't remember it). We will also be able to jump into everything without spending months trying to figure out where to go, what to buy, and how the heck to recycle. We will even be in the same prefecture, so we'll know where to go for emergency sort-of-Mexican food!

So time to break out the textbooks--I am determined to master basic conversational skills this time! Thank you for all of your love, advice, and support. We really appreciate it!

P.S. Here is what we are really looking forward to:

Best chips I have ever had--


--and yes, the best ice cream in the world!!