Christmas Day

Well we had a great Christmas Day. We woke up in the morning and opened the presents at mum's house. Then we had a brunch at Gareth's. We then went to the lake and went kyaking and swimming and had a lunch at the lake. The boys played cricket. Then we came back and went to Llewellyn's house and played games all night long. It was a good day with good food and good company.
Mum had a big dinner at her house on Christmas Eve and we played games as well.
My brother's are competitive the say the least and I've never played a game of pictionary like it. It was horrible.
We got the game for Mum and Pete for Christmas. So the next day I forced everyone to play again and this time PLAY NICE or else LOL. We had fun and it ended up being good and now everyone likes it. Mum and Pete also got dominoes and we played that as well. It's an instant hit and the family ask to play it almost every time. They love the mexican line. They asked if there could be two but we stopped it at just the one.
We hope everyone else had a great day as well. Thanks for all your cards and emails. It's great to hear from everyone.
Love
Dru Nakaya clan

Merry Christmas

Well it's Christmas Eve today and we have the house all tidy for everyone to mess up again. Mum and I worked on it this morning. Now the rest is up to the grandkids!!
We're getting the food ready for tonight and tomorrow and things are looking good.
This is Masaru right before his kindy party all dressed up and ready to go with his cousin, Elise. She's wearing her birthday outfit from Grandma as her birthday was on the 17th of December.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE TWINS, Seth and Tate, who are officially 5 today. Wow 5 years old. I can't believe it.
Here's Masaru and Rylie hanging out as well. He's my brother, Gareth's, child. Good boy. They're due for their next one in May next year. So that's exciting for them.
I thought I'd get some close ups of Yuki Mei. She's so cute man, I love her to bits. Her eyes are really blue, just like Masaru's were. So I'm not sure if she'll keep them, as after 2 years old, Masaru's eyes turned green.
She's doing great and eating more but 4 hours apart now, roughly. She's sleeping from around 10 to about 7 roughly every night. So I'm getting great sleep.
I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year. We're having a big Christmas Eve party tonight and opening the pressies at Mum's tomorrow morning then doing brunch and lunch at Gareths' then hanging out at Llewellyn's for the rest of the night. The boys want to play paintball on Christmas night but we didn't know if we could cause Dru's canisters were in Utah. But they just turned up today so all my brothers are cheering.
Love you guys.
Dru Nakaya clan

Christmas Parties

Here's our first Christmas party that we went to. Sarah, my sister, her husband invited us to his work do. It was amazing. They had a huge BBQ and a waterslide, bouncy castle, 4 wheelers, horses to ride, free Mr. Whippy ice creams, free candy floss, rides on old vintage cars, a clown with tricks and balloons, Santa.
It was funny because Santa came in at the end in a vintage car and the kids took one look and started chasing him around the field. It was the funniest thing ever. Masaru just ran after his cousins yelling 'Santa, Santa, Santa!'. He stopped and threw out lollies for them.
Masaru got a gift and had the best time ever. It was a lot of fun. I dressed Yuki up in her Christmas dress she got from a friend.
Here's pic's of my brother, Bevin, taking Masaru and Elise down the slide. They loved it and had so much fun. It had a hose at the top squirting water and dishsoap out constantly. I'll have to remember it for the next ward party in Utah!!! We've got a great hill that we could do it on!!
Again Bevin and Masaru on the 4 wheeler having fun.
And last but not least Masaru having fun on the bouncy castle. When I got this shot I was laughing out loud for ages. Actually I still laugh out loud now when I look at it. I forgot his swimming togs and so he had to wear his shorts on the slide, then he wanted to go on the bouncy castle and his pants were wet and so didn't stay on him properly! Classic!
He also went on the back of a vintage car, while it raced around the paddock and down the hills and around the trees. Probably one of the first times he's been allowed to hop in the back part of a truck and ride around.
We also had the ward Christmas party on Friday night. It was suppose to start at 6pm and started at 7:30pm. Welcome home to NZ!! Where we think an hour and a half later is fair in our country lol. My mum ended up going home. I didn't turn up till 7:15 though so it was perfect timing lol. The feed there was MASSIVE and there were items done.
Masaru got to hear the polynesian drums for the first time. They're so loud and mesmorising he just sat there and stared in amazment.
Yuki slept through it!! Who knows how she did that, but it was good for us.
Yesterday Dru and Llewellyn and I did some painting and odd jobs around his house. Llewellyn has big plans this summer for his house since Dru's home for 6 months. So by the time we leave it'll be looking great.
Things are going well. Masaru has his kindy Christmas party on Tuesday so I'll take some pic's there and it's Elise's and Tomomi's birthday as well.
It's a tough time of year for me to be trying to loose weight. So far I'm loosing nothing except the battle LOL.

What we've been up to...

Well, finals are over for me and you all know I'm relieved. I spent the rest of the morning today, after my last exam, running all over the valley to find the elusive toy that was on sale at Target this week, yet nobody had one in stock. I finally ended up in Sandy, where the employees were good enough to pull one out of eight from the back before they were on the shelves. Graham will be thrilled.

Ryan is kicking into high gear with a variety of projects. He has a number of people wanting him to do little side jobs for them, and he has some work to do at our house the next few nights to prepare for insulators that are coming to do the basement on Thurs. In addition, work has been busy for him and he has been logging a fair bit of overtime lately. The tree is up, the parties beginning (this weekend we have 3, one per night), and I have a mountain of projects to do around the house, both to get ready for the holiday, and just to get caught up in general.

Here is a peek at what's going on at our house, the tree, the boys dressed up, and the snow, snow, snow we received last weekend (from our deck). We probably got about a a foot at our house, though it has settled some since then.

Piklets

Here's a picture of Masaru making piklets with his cousins in Grandma's kitchen. Man the pile of dishes left were up to the roof lol. And when you have to do them by hand it really matters lol. I've never done so many dishes by hand since I was living in NZ last time 6 years ago.
Masaru's were red ones. They're basically small pancakes. We don't really do pancakes here in NZ it's mostly piklets. Anyway his cousins ones were green and blue.
Here's the latest pic's of Yuki all dolled up and ready to go out on the town. She's doing well and is a really good baby. She's very content and I have lots of help which is nice you know.
It's been raining the last few days so no park time. But Masaru's been to kindy though and they have loads of activities to play inside so that's good. He painted his first picture the other day and it's up on Grandma's wall. It's actually pretty good I think.
Dru and I are doing well. Plugging along. We've got 2 Christmas activities to go to this week, which will be fun. Maybe I'll get some good pic's there.
Love you guys
Dru Nakaya clan

Tah-dah...

Well, it's finally done. I have all the Christmas decorations up and everything is done except for the lights on the house. Bjorn has to do that part as he will not allow me to climb on the roof(even though he really hates getting up there.) I had hoped to have it all done by the weekend, but our weekends always go way too fast. We had a birthday party for Rachelle's Nicolas, and then a friend, Kate, from BYU days came for a visit and we had the Ward Christmas party on Saturday. I was doing good to get all the lights on the tree and get the decorations on it by 10:30 Sunday night. Now if I can figure out how to keep Yoda away from the tree and the rest of the decorations while we are gone I will be doing good.

I thought you might enjoy a few picture of Myles. These are the first smiles caught on film. I think he is getting really cute, maybe I'm a little biased. We are two days into the no night feedings. I am loving it except that my milk is still producing like I am feeding during the night. I hope it will cut down soon. Today I woke up in a puddle. Myles is doing great. I wake at 5 to see if he would like to eat. Today he didn't want to eat until 7am. That's good sleep for me, well not yet, but it will be. Right now I wake up all night long thinking he should be getting up anytime now...Why is it that mom's always get the short end of the stick when it comes to sleep. If we aren't actually up, we are thinking that we should be up.

Hope all of your holiday preparations are well underway!

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

Shopping for a Christmas tree when you are two months old is hard work. So hard that Myles slept through the entire ordeal. It was a great night to tree shop however, it was the night of the Monrovia Christmas parade and everyone was at the parade! This year we got a tree right off the lot. It took all of two stops, and about 20 min. Much better than last year. We usually have to unwrap the trees to see what they look like and push our way through hoards of people. This year we took the easy way out( for an extra 10$.)

Momma called the Doctor and the Doctor said...

The Doctor said it's a herniated belly button. Don't worry about it for 6-8 months when it should have healed itself. If not they will surgically fix it.

Myles and I saw the Pediatrician today. It's official I have a giant of a baby. He weighs 14lbs. 3 oz. I now have to cut out the night feeding and I am sure that isn't going to be fun for about a week. The Doctor said it would take about a week for him to get the message that he really didn't need to eat at night. We will see how it goes. Wish us luck.

Week 4

Well we're in week four already and I can't believe it. Yuki is growing like a weed but doing well. Here's a few of the latest, as promised. I think she's changing so much and starting to get her own look you know. She has plenty of people to keep her company and hold her. So that's a huge help for me. Dru's really good with her and Haydn is getting pretty good. Good practice for him I guess aye. He's got another date this weekend with the same girl.
Here are some other pic's of Masaru putting up Grandma's Christmas Tree for the season. He started off well and then died out. So we put a movie on and these next pic's are what he decided to do with his time. This is a nutella type spread. So he decided it was time to have a little snack while watching his Japanese films. What a mess. I hope that gets out of his T-Shirt!!!
We had a Christmas work 'do' for Dru's job. We turned up and everyone was drinking and smoking lol I need to get back into the grove of normal life outside of Utah. Everyone was really nice and loved the kids. Masaru had a great time drawing on the concrete with chalk all night and eating when he felt like it.
Man NZ really knows how to put on a BBQ that's for sure. No shortage of good meat. It was nice to meet all of Dru's work mates. They all seem to love Dru.
Masaru stayed the night at Llewellyn's last night. So I'll see how that went some time this morning when he drops him off. He has kindy today so he'll love that.
He's doing really well in Nursury. Yesterday at church he packed a sad because he wanted to go to nursury and not sacrament. He really loves this lady in there called Auntie Mata. I think that's why he loves Nursury, because of her. He's getting better and better at leaving us. I think it's a relief.
Season of Christmas. Last night we were coming home and we saw a house done up for Christmas. It was like the houses back in Utah. I'll get a pic for next week. I'll miss the smells and how much people get into it in Utah but I'll be alright. We're thinking of going to the lake and kiaking and playing cricket and having a picnic Christmas afternoon. Now that's something you couldn't do with the snow! LOL
Have a great week.
Love
Dru Nakaya Clan

Last Pic

Masaru with his two cuzzies. Elise in the front and Cora in behind. They're watching cars with their cares pillows. Cute.

Pic's on Air New Zealand

Here's some more pic's of our flight on Air NewZealand and a couple of the kids. I've got one more to send and then that's it until next week. Enjoy!

Pic's on the Plane

Here's some pic's of us coming over on the Utah to San Fran plane. Yuki's first plane ride.

Quiet Day

You probably heard but Thanksgiving for us was quiet and uneventful. Just us, Mas and Shauna, and Tosh and Grandma, ten in all. Grandma's hearing aid battery was dead and so it was apparent within 5 min. that she needed a new one or the day would be fraught with frustration. Mas ran out to a couple of stores to find one. Grandma thought that was crazy, but I think if he didn't we all would have been crazy. As it was, Grandma had her usual interesting things to say, much to everyone's interest or dismay. Johnson's went to Johnson's and so our kids were semi-bored until they returned. We benefited from a wonderful meal (thanks Shauna) and a pleasant time. Shauna attempted to elicit sentiments of gratitude from the boys, and Graham popped out a very genuine and unexpected, "I'm thankful for the world that Jesus made for us." Graham is just such a sweet kid.
The weekend for Ryan was filled with catch-up projects and honey do's...like getting some things ready for winter snowmobiling, odd and end mechanic projects, and putting up the Christmas lights. My time was spent preparing for tests, presentations (curse those group projects!!!!), more tests, and more presentations to fill up this last week or so of classes. Hopefully I will be finished with finals around the 11th, then on to more delightful things, like sleeping and relaxing occasionally and mostly just being with my family. Anyway, it's on to Christmas now, it's coming in a hurry!

Going, going, gone

Before

After

With a title like that you thought that we got rid of the dog didn't you?! Well we didn't . It appears that we like spending money on him. Another trip to the Vet., another 100.00$ in the bucket. The joys of dog ownership. Yoda had surgery today to remove a wart like growth due to the papaloma virus. The growth had doubled in size in about two weeks time. He was a good patient the Vet. said. Now that he is home he is a little sleepy and a little out of it.

Cousins, cousins, and more cousins

We visited with Angie and Rachelle last night. I thought it would be fun to get a picture of ALL the kids and there are many! It was great to see everyone. I have missed having Angie around since she moved almost two years ago. Hope you all had a great turkey day!

Second Week in NZ

Well we should have the camera chord by the weekend so we'll post some pic's.
The Thanksgiving dinner went really well. A turkey was going to cost $50 and Dru and I couldn't afford that so we did two chickens instead. I was in charge of the dinner and it turned out pretty well. I was actually pleasantly surprized. I think Dru was too. We had chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin, corn, candied yams, rolls, two different kinds of salads, gravy, trifle, chocolate cake, ice cream. I think that was it. The chicken was good. My first time roasting. Dru seemed to really like it and my family had a blast cause it was a good excuse for a get together and feed. The girls sat and talked about girl stuff and the boys sat at the table and played risk. Dru ended up winning so that's something to be thankful for right?!
We went to Auckland this weekend to go to my mate, Stella's, wedding. It was a t a beautiful restaurant with great food and the reception was wonderful. We stayed with my other mate Kat and got to know her fiance a little better. He's a great guy and Kat still hasn't given us a date yet.
We still haven't got a calling in the ward yet. I'm pleasantly surprized. It's nice not having anything you know.
Masaru went to kindy again today and loved it. They have everything you can think of there. I've never see anything like it. It's an amazing place. No wonder he loves it. There's a sprinkler for the kids to get wet under and a huge sand pit with all the toys you can think of and sails so they don't get sunburnt. Swings, slides, ride on cars and carts, obstacle course, painting and playdough, dress ups, books, all the art supplies you can think of, mat time wee little toilets for little kids to go potty, it's just amazing. It's $1.50 and hour until Masaru turns 3 and then it's free. So that's good.
We're loving being with our family. Masaru loves hanging out with his cousins. It's like a big party for him. He has been slightly more disobedient lately and I think it's because he has uncles and aunties and grandmas and cousins to get himwhat he wants, so I"m trying to keep ontop of that.
Yuki is just perfect, and doing well. She wore an american outfit to church on Sunday. Dru thought I was mad to put it on her but we got home safley with no injuries.
Dru's job is getting better and better with every day that goes past. I personally think this is good for him to learn how to do things differently. I'm sure it'll help out his skills and knowledge or at least give him more of an appreciation for what he had and how he could do it. If nothing else it gives him good stories.
The weather has been perfect and things are great. So far so good.
I'll write again next week and hopefully post some pic's.
Love you guys
The Dru Nakaya clan

Success!!!!!

Dru got a job yesterday and his first day's work is today.
It's with a place called Concept Homes and he's hanging doors all today. It's just in Tok, so close, and they're building houses. So he needs a tool belt and a few basic tools and he's away.
He's on an hourly wage and will re negotiate after the new year. So we're pretty excited. He works about 44 hours a week, which is easy for Dru, and if you'd like you can work more. His boss, Vince seems really nice so Dru's really happy. I'll be interested to see how it went at dinner time.
He had another job offer too but they wanted him to work 6 days a week 12 hours a day. They weren't willing to offer him overtime either. Plus the boss guy was a bit of a jerk.
It was funny cause Concept Homes said they didn't have anything till the new year and then asked Dru to send his Resume. So he sent it to them and they offered him a job straight away. So they must've been impressed!!
Yuki's started sleeping through the night. So that's a plus. Masaru started kindy yesterday and loved it. He came home in completely different clothes as he got all wet cause he was playing in the water outside with the trucks.
We're going to have a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. So we'll see how that goes. I'll try and take some pic's. My family are excited cause it's an excuse to have a big feed.
We had to introduce ourselves at church on Sunday by giving a small talk. My brother was in charge of the talks so now I know why!!
THat's about it for now. We still need the cord for the camera but I think Shauna and Ryan are working on it.
New Zealand is 4 hours behind the next day. So right now it's 8am here in New Zealand on a Tuesday morning. So in Utah it's 12 noon on a Monday. Just for those who are thinking of calling us ever.

Football anyone?!

Just a little fun on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Bjorn and Myles watching his favorite team, the Washington Redskins, play their biggest rivals the Dallas Cowboys. Myles was watching in all his "Redskins duds" courtesy of our friends Monica and Keshi.

(just a side note, not a big surprise, the Redskins lost again)