Birthday x 2

My brothers and I all have December birthdays. Most of you think that would be awful, especially since they are all around Christmas... but actually it's been great! Growing up my parents always made sure that each of us had out own special day and our own separate birthday party. But now that we're all grown up and live so far away from one another, we decided that it would be fun to celebrate them all together. So we did one combined celebration at my mom's house, and another at my dad's house.

Happy Birthday to Brian who turned 23, Michael who turned 26, and me who turned 28! :)

Birthday Party #1

Birthday Party #2

Elodie's Baptism

We had Elodie baptized at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church as soon as we arrived back in Kalamazoo on Sunday, December 18th. Unfortunately since Christmas and New Years both fell on a Sunday, we were limited on a date that we could choose for her baptism. Because of this many people were not able to be there for the special event. The grandparents stood in for her Godparents, Lori and Lloyd, who had not arrived yet.

She cried when we passed her over to Pastor Dave. She was tired, and didn't enjoy being held cradled "like a baby." She enjoys sitting upright now and being held so that she can see everything. The time change and major jet lag didn't help her mood either. But after they placed the water on her head and dried her off, she did much better. Pastor Dave sang a song and walked up and down the aisles with her, and she was perfect.

Afterwards, we had a little party to celebrate her baptism and give everyone the opportunity to meet her. Thank you Mom & Dad Schreurs for hosting the party. And thank you to my mom for ordering all of the food and cake. The party was a success and she was a very tired baby girl afterwards...

Elodie Meets Grandpa & Great Grandma

So glad Elodie was finally able to meet my Dad and Grandma. The most difficult part about living in Japan is being so far away from family. It makes me so sad that Elodie was already 3 months old by the time she was able to meet our families. Leaving to go back to Japan is going to be difficult...

Play Date

Yumi hosted a play group last week for new moms & babies. Since all of the babies were 9 months and younger, I suppose it was more of a play date for the mommies. ;) We met most of the women in our mom & baby exercise class. It was fun to get the moms together outside of class to mingle and talk about our babies. Hopefully we'll continue to meet a couple of times a month.

Yumi was a wonderful host! She pre-made gingerbread cookie dough, so we were all able to cut out shapes, bake the cookies, and then decorate them. We took turns in the kitchen, while others watches the babies.

Cutely decorated gingerbread cookies! Looking forward to our next play date next year.

Monkey

We bought Elodie a changing pad + toy bar from Babies R Us. Best idea ever!! She LOVES it so much, which makes diaper changes more enjoyable for both of us. She especially loves the monkey. :) She stares at him, talks to him, and gives lots of smiles. Very cute!

3 Months!

I can't believe our baby girl is 3 months old! Time flies! It feels like we just brought her home from the hospital. She continues to grow and change all the time. She has become very observant, and loves to just look around at everything. She has been on the quiet side, but is finally starting to make some soft vocalizations and we're hoping she'll even start to laugh sometime this next month. She's very smiley and happy, and we love to watch her grow.

We weighed her yesterday, and she has now over doubled her birth weight: 13 pounds! We are taking her to a pediatrician in Michigan while we're back over the holidays, so we're curious to see how she compares to other U.S. babies and what percentile she is in.

Also, we're happy to announce that she has slept between 10-12 hours every night this week! We're hoping that this trend continues for a long time!!! It lets Joe and I have some alone time before bed, and still allows us to get a full nights sleep too. It's been wonderful!

Here are a few photos from her 3 month photo shoot! :)

Sayonara Mio & Joe!

Our good friends, Mio & Joe, are ending their 3 year stay in Nagoya and heading back to Seattle. Joe and Joe work together, so have become quite good friends. And Mio was actually my first friend here and the one who introduced me to all of her girlfriends. She is the glue to our group of friends, who is constantly making plans and setting up dates and fun events for us all to participate in. They will both greatly be missed!

We had one final girls night before everyone left for the holidays to say goodbye to Mio. Joe watched Elodie for the night, and hung out with the other Dads and babies. It felt great to have some girl time and get out on my own for a bit. :)

We went to a restaurant downtown known for their amazing atmosphere. It was lit entirely by candles, and had beautiful table clothes, pillows, and drapes. It would be a fun place for a date night, as it had a pretty romantic feel.

I thought the cuisine was supposed to be a variety of Asian foods, but found the entree menu to be all pizza and pasta. There were a variety of appetizers though, and were all fantastic: cheese fondue, salads, crab croquettes, & spring rolls. I ordered a 4-cheese pizza for my main course, and was really disappointed in it. I don't now how it's possible to go wrong with a cheese pizza, but it was terrible. They attempted to put an alfredo sauce on it instead of tomato sauce (which normally I wouldn't care about, but it did not taste good), and the cheese was a little dry and crumbly. I ended up just eating the crust. Everyone else ordered pasta, and all enjoyed their meals - so next time, I'll definitely get the pasta.

Yumi ordered a "Cinderella" drink, and it was served in a glass slipper! Very cute! It even had an ankle bracelet.

A very fun night with great friends! Sayonara Mio & Joe, you will be missed!

Thanksgiving x 3

Living in a foreign country over the holidays definitely has its disadvantages. We miss our family, the food isn't quite the same, the culture is so different, and it makes being away from home seem even further away. But, on the other hand, being far away also has some perks. We feel very fortunate that we've made such awesome friends here in Nagoya. And because of that, we had 3 Thanksgiving dinners!

Thanksgiving Dinner #1: at the Hilton, for all Boeing employees and their families. This event made me realize how many foreigners are living here in Nagoya for Boeing - WOW! Over 100 people were at this event!

All dressed up and ready for the party!

Family pic, she wasn't very cooperative.

Thanksgiving Dinner #2: Mike & Sally's home. This wonderful couple just moved to Japan from South Carolina with their three kiddos. They are some of the nicest people we have ever met, and we're glad they are here!

Attempt at another family picture.
She was slightly more cooperative this time.

Thanksgiving Dinner #3: Marian & Brian's home. This incredibly family hosted a huge Thanksgiving feast for 40+ people. Luckily they have quite a spacious apartment to accommodate everyone, and even better that it was right here in our building. We got to meet people from all over the world at this party, and for many of them it was their very first Thanksgiving. We (Americans) were able to show them what Thanksgiving is all about: family, food, and fun! Each family brought a dish to pass, so there was a huge variety of food, and plenty of turkey for everyone. We all drank wine, played games, and had a great time.

One of the food tables.

(There were several!)

Elodie slept the entire night, so we were
able to have some nice adult time. :)

Joe said it best in one of his Facebook posts: "With so much to be thankful for this year it is way too hard to put it all in a Facebook post. However, thanks be to my wonderful wife and daughter! When Family is not near you bring those friends around you together in gatherings like those over the past few nights and make a new Family. Thanks be to this tremendous experience/journey we are on in Japan and the wonderful friends from all over the world who continue to enrich our lives forever."

Joe and I have so much to be thankful for this year, especially for this happy & healthy little girl!

Miss You Grandma S!

A few days after my mom left, Joe's mom arrived to see the baby and visit with us for a few weeks. We feel so fortunate that both grandmas were able to meet Elodie at such a young age and spend some quality time with us.

We are very appreciative of everything Grandma S did to help us while she was here. She not only helped take care of Elodie, but also cleaned, went grocery shopping, cooked fantastic dinners & baked lots of cookies. Thank you for all of your help Grandma! :)

The theme of her trip here was: cuisine. We took her to a variety of restaurants, including: Japanese, Taiwanese, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Turkish & Moroccan. It was fun to get out for a variety of meals and show her our favorite restaurants in Nagoya.

Here are a few photo highlights from her trip.

Tea ceremony & lunch with friends.

Hanging out with grandma!

Napping with Grandma.

Formal tea ceremony at a nearby garden and tea house.

Family time :)

Birthday celebration, and delicious chocolate cake!

We miss you, Grandma! And can't wait to see you in a few weeks over the holidays.

Happy Halloween!

Our friends Robert & Yumi hosted a Halloween Happy Hour in our apartment building, as a way for all of us new parents to dress up and have fun with our friends before everyone headed out to the bars for a crazy night.

Joe and I wanted to do a theme for our costumes, but were really restricted on what we could do. Mainly because of lack of time to prepare, and the overall difficulty of finding a costume in a foreign country that doesn't really celebrate Halloween. But we managed to find Santa costumes and decided to dress up as a Santa family.

Mr. & Mrs. Clause and our Santa baby :)

Even Grandma participated!

We had a great time at the happy hour party. Good drinks & food, and a fun time with friends. Here are a few other costumes from the party....

Alice in Wonderland & The Mad Hatter

Mario and his lovely bee

Bo Peep and her sheep

Jellyfish & squid

PEACE!

On actual Halloween Day, we attended a birthday party for our friend Morgan who turned 1 year old! Elodie dressed up as a ballerina for the occasion.

Happy 1st birthday Morgan!

Beautiful ballerina :)

Love this picture of her!