Tag...I'll bite

Five places I would love to see (there are soooo many!)
1-Jerusalem, yes I too want to walk where Jesus walked
2-Italy...most of Europe for that matter, but for some reason Italy has always held my interest. Ryan and I are hoping to take a biking tour there in the next year or two
3-Japan. I would love to see what I've read about and seen in pictures, particularly to visit the homelands of some of Ryan's ancestors
4-I would like to visit the little corner of the world where Ryan served his mission. Asuncion Paraguay and the new temple there, and the little tri-corner area of Paraguay, Argentina. and Brazil where he spent so much time. It would be fun to see Iguazu Falls...one of the great wonders of the world.
5-South Africa, with a little side trip to Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Five things I never thought about when I was 25:
1-Never thought I might be done having children by 28
2-Never thought I would live across the street from my in-laws (and enjoy it by the way)
3-Never thought it might take me seven years total to finish ONE bachelor's degree
4-Never knew I could feel so happy in my life, love my husband so much more than the day I married him, and adore so much the cute little faces of my four boys. Never thought I might not have a daughter.
5-Never thought my stomach would look like a deflated balloon

Tag

I would love to visit many places in the word, but here are a few I haven't been to and would love to see.
#1-Egypt, always sad about missing out on that trip while we were in Russia.
#2-Jerusalem/Petra, I would love to see all the sights of the scriptures.
#3-More of Europe, I feel like we just only touched the surface there(England, France, Italy,Estonia,Russia,Turkey,Germany, Belgium, Netherlands).
#4-Peru, before they close Machu Picchu for good.
#5-Africa, I've always wanted to see the big 5 animals.

Five things that I would never have thought I would be doing when I was 25.
#1- never thought I would fly for United, and loose many friends in 9-11
#2- never thought that I would have to wait so long to find a husband.
#3-never thought I would reside in LA, or anywhere in California for that matter.
#4-never thought that the Church would play such a big part of my life, and the life of my little family(primary presidency, 2nd counselor of the bishopric).
#5-never thought that getting pregnant and pregnancy would be so difficult.

The only people that I can tag are Leslie, and Kristin...

Angie's Tag game

Ok Angie here I go. My 5 top places I'd want to visit or visit again.
#1 Jerusalem
#2 New York/Washington D.C
#3 Britain
#4 Europe
#5 Japan
And here's the 5 things I never thought would be in my future when I was 25 years old.
#1 C-sections
#2 Gaining 50 pounds
#3 Living back in NZ for 6 months
#4 Beautiful house and ward
#5 A husband who was so determined to be a lawyer

Fun, fun, fun!!

Ok this time I really mean it.

Family pic's

Here's some more pic's of the week of just the family. Hope you enjoy!

Aussies come to town!!

Lenard and Liesel and they're 4 kids came into town on the 31st of December. The car rental place messed up their mini van so they were stuck with a car and no way to fit all of their family in the one car. So Dru and I went to Auckland to pick them up and take one of their kids home with us in our car.
Dru ended up going with Lenoard and Leisel came with me and we had Dru's walkie talkies and talked all the way back. It was fun.
The visit has been a load of fun and laughs all week. We played games all night that first night to welcome in the new year. Llewellyn had fire works that he lit off for us. Then we had a day in Taupo at the park, riding on the train and swimming in the pools there.
Then we had a day of rest where we went swimming in the local Tokoroa pools while the boys played paintball.
Then yesterday we went to Rotorua and saw all the animals and fish while Lenoard and Leisel went horse back riding then we went on the luge and gondala ride. Today the Kayberry's went to the Waitomo caves and saw the glow worms while we looked after their cute little boy. He's fully breast fed and is huge. He's the cutes little thing out and is only 10 days younger than Yuki, which is pretty cool.
They're off home tomorrow and we're all sad as it's been a week of fun times.
They're living in Montreal so I'm sure we'll continue to see them about once a year or every 2 years.
I've got a ton of other pic's of the week. These are just the ones of us with the family. I'll post a couple of us and the kids.

The Blessing

Myles was blessed by Bjorn the 29th of December. He was a good sport during the blessing which was long and he didn't even cry. I thin the men must have had tired arms because I could hear them bouncing him up and down. Bjorn did a wonderful job and gave him a beautiful blessing. He looked so wonderful in his gown that we purchased in Bruges. Even though he was woken from his nap to get dressed he still was a great baby. We had a few friends there and we followed the blessing with a dinner of soups and salad. Everyone stayed and talked till way into the night. What a wonderful day.

It's too cold...

In here. When we woke the morning before we were to leave to Utah it was a Chilly 52 degrees. The heater wasn't working and it hadn't kicked on all night long. Myles was really cold and his little hands were like ice so I wrapped him all up in his warm clothes and called to get the heater fixed.

Myles 1st Christmas

Well it's all over and done with now. Christmas was a hit and it was especially fun with Myles this year. He was the star role of Baby Jesus in the family Christmas Nativity. Although as you can see from this photo Kate was bucking for her Oscar too. She must have practived because she stood that way for the entire reading of the Nativity Story. Tess was a great Mary, she held onto Myles quite well. The other boys were not all the thrilled to be in the Nativity, but they stood there all the same. Graham( Joseph) didn't want to stand by Mary and Jesus but did with some persistence. The following morning was mayhem. We did manage to sleep in longer than usual. The opening of gifts and seeing what Santa brought was fun for all. I don't think he knew what was going on with all the noise, but he just sat in daddy's lap and was calm. Auntie Kristin got a few good smiles out of him toward the end of the morning.

The morning ended by Christmas Brunch with Ryan and Leslie and the boys all coming for good food. Everyone ate till they were stuffed and then it was time to get it all cleaned up and ready to start making Christmas Day dinner.

We had a great time in Utah. Got to see the snow and walk around in it. It was cold outside, but toasty inside with all the fires dad and Luke like to build. What a great Christmas. Thanks Mom and Dad!

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