News from Japan ! !

It was so exciting to hear from Miyuki & Shinichi on Christmas via e-mail. Its been so very long. Marin has gotten so big, and adorable as ever. I feel like our link through the blog will be able to close in the miles we have between us, and hopefully some day we will be closer together again. For now however I am just grateful to communicate via the internet.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent at Chelsea's parents home for a wonderful dinner, and visiting. Of course the main focus was the cute little man. It was Rodney's first meeting which was a hit. Ethan recognized his uncle by the similar looks of his daddy, but quickly realized it wasn't him when Rodney didn't react the same crazy way.

Trip to Albuquerque

The long awaited day finally came to leave for Albuquerque, however the weather and airlines ended up being a bit of a setback causing my flight to be delayed a couple hours. I was however able to catch my next flight in Salt Lake on time. Tony's flight went out of Portland in the afternoon also later, and then from Las Angeles to Albuquerque arriving by midnight. It was a long day for us both.
Friday morning we went to Anthony's school for a tour, video presentation that let us know just what Anthony has been involved with these past three years. I can now understand why the PJ's are considered the elite of the elite. As a mom I just need to keep my focus on extra prayers for his safety, and feel proud of his desire to serve others.
About mid-day the snow and wind picked up to the point of a blizzard effect, which made it quite interesting come time to dress up for the actual dinner. Nothing however could stop the excitement of this day for Anthony, but also Chelsea, and some excited parents. I know the rest of the family would have loved to be together for this event had it not been during the most expensive time of the year, or the craziest time to travel.
Ethan was so fun during the evening not only because he is so cute, but also because he was so talkative, and entertaining. Everyone enjoyed his happy go lucky personality.
Tony stood toward the front recording the ceremony, as Chelsea and I stood at the other side with tears of joy streaming down our cheeks. A great milestone has been met for many this day.

Dental office outting

At the close of each year, and in celebration of the Christmas season the staff and crew at work get together for a Christmas luncheon. Rather than exchange individual gifts this year we all made 6 dozen cookies, or candy for an exchange. Dr King however still gave each of us a generous gift, along with the lunch and walk downtown to enjoy the Christmas spirit. The unique part of the outing was he brought each of us a red hat to wear, so we were all matching, and brought many smiles on others faces. Thus spreading Christmas cheer.

Happy Birthday JoAnna

There is no way to top the exciting news we received for Thanksgiving. We are all so truly Thankful for this great miracle, and pray that all continues to go well, also looking forward with great anticipation for Savannah's arrival in March.
I of course reflect back on the excitement of our arrival 19 years ago, and the tremendous blessing she is to the family. It has been nice to have JoAnna here for Thanksgiving, and her plans to remain home through Christmas and New Years is very exciting to me, but also fun to see how much she and Rodney love one another. How grateful we are to have each of the kids have such love for one another.
Because I didn't know at first JoAnna would be here for her Birthday, we celebrated her birthday on the 29th with a dinner and Play at David Douglas. Sam DeRoest was the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, so all the DeRoest gang supported him for the opening night performance. It was allot of fun. Friday the 30th I had plans with the Young women to spend the night at the Bishops, and decorate there home for the holidays, a tradition we started last year, and they really enjoyed and appreciated the help. JoAnna came as well, so we could be together still. Everyone seemed to have a fun time.

Announcements, announcements, announcements!!!

This is what we are most thankful for at Thanksgiving!

It's a girl to love and she's coming this spring.

For more info go to our blog at http://naomichael.blogspot.com/

Time out to Reflect

We had a really nice time with Brent & Randi in Tacoma, and Seattle this past weekend. First meeting each other for the "Time out for Couples" where we got the opportunity to gain a new perspective on our relationships as husband and wife, and also a reminder of who we really are. It was great. Naomi and Michael had the same opportunity a few weeks back to attend the Time out in Texas, where they had the same motivational speakers. That made it more exciting for us to look forward to after hearing how much they enjoyed it. It was everything we expected. After the seminar we went to The Old Spaghetti Factory and had a nice dinner. We stayed overnight at a hotel, and the following morning we visited Seattle. I had never seen the Space Needle up close before but Lorna, Brent, and Randi had; each separate occasions. After that we rode the monorail to nearby Pike's Street Market where we walked the marketplace, ate lunch, and walked more market place. They were throwing fish, and entertaining all the onlookers. It was fun. My back was giving me problems, and it was quite painful to walk that much, but the experience was all worth it. After the market we went back to the Space Needle and watched an I-max film in 3D. Back at the hotel we celebrated Brent and Randi" almost 2 year anniversary with opening a bottle of "Martinelli's". We played pool in the Hotel recreation room. The next day was back in Tacoma and we went to the Zoo. Randi seemed to enjoy that the most. After the Zoo we said our goodbye's and hit the road for home. Again, I think we all had a really fun time being together and just taking the time to relax.