some pictures of our time in VA....

the babies had their first lollipops from the YMCA...they started it in their carseats on the way home and finished them in their highchairs so that they wouldn't fall and hurt themselves. i got the camera out and asked them both to smile. i got a nice one from leighton....and a "cheesy" one from matthias. :)

We were quite a scene in the airport with carseats and luggage and carry-ons....but all that chaos was so much better than 17 hours in the minivan driving.
Marie was in noVA this past week and delayed her leaving a day so that she could see us! It was so good to hug a dear friend and sit with her even though it was way too short. Marie is doing the support raising circuit...getting ready to head overseas to do missions early next year.
And....the reason we're here! Aunt Joanie got to meet the twins for the first time today! It was good to see her and Zach this evening and visit with them...only 2 days until their wedding! We're excited for them and are looking forward to the celebration!

Disney's Animal Kingdom!

We had one ticket left of our 4 day ticket that my parents had gotten for us when we went with them in April....it had to be used before the 4th of October, so we packed the kids up and went yesterday.
AJ was all excited about seeing Minnie Mouse, and then got shy when we got there.
We took turns sitting with the twins and riding with the big kids....
AJ was just tall enough to ride on the white water rapids ride....she and I got soaked.
All in all it was a fun day....definitely exhausting, but a lot of fun. There were barely any lines which was an added bonus. I think that we would say that the white water rapids ride and the lion king show were our favorites...although Josiah did enjoy the Mt. Kilimanjaro roller coaster. We fly to Virginia in 2 days....the kids are looking forward to seeing grandparents, I'm grateful for a 2 1/2 hour flight to look forward to instead of a 17 hour drive. :)

MMO and Beartooth club rocket launch!

Several friends, and I had our first Mom's Morning Out (MMO) preschool co-op this morning! It was a little crazy and chaotic....which is to be expected for the first day of anything... basically there are about 12 or so mothers who are bringing their kids (there were about 18 today)...we have 3 rooms, a nursery, a 2/3 year old class, and a 4/5 year old class....we are taking turns (about 6 at a time) teaching the children and taking care of them so that while 6 are watching the kids the other 6 get to have a morning out. Here's a picture of AJ doing her apple print today...I didn't get group shot, but i'm sure I'll post one in the weeks to come! One of the reasons for starting this is because all of the preschools in town are daycare based....there were several of us who wanted to have our kids have a preschool experience without being gone every day all day.

Pastor Brook has started up the Beartooth boys club this semester. They've met 3 times so far and have built and painted rockets and played a lot of hockey....it's been a neat time, I know, for Josiah...he really looks forward to going every tuesday afternoon.
Today was rocket launch day and we were invited to come and watch. It was pretty amazing how high the rockets shot up from the launch pad! 4 of the 6 boys got their rockets off before the downpour...we had to go under the pavilion until the rain stopped before the last 2 boys could launch their rockets.
We leave a week from today for Virginia...Tom's sister, Joanie, is getting married in NoVA and 4 of the 7 of us are in the wedding. It's going to be lots of fun seeing family (Joanie hasn't met the twins yet). We decided yesterday to fly instead of drive this time....we usually drive through the night, but the last time we did it we had a really hard time...and since we're taking the kids out of school for this trip we wanted to maximize our time there. Thanks for checking in! Wedding pictures might be the next thing you see. :)

A couple more Japan pics...

I have been wanting to get on my blog, but life since we've gotten back (exactly a week ago) has been chaotic and busy. Anyways, here are a few pictures from the tail-end of our trip. It's crazy to have to hit the ground running since we've been back...it's been hard to process through our time in japan with crazy schedules and life moving on. Anyways..... soft serve green tea ice cream. :) They had green tea flavored kit kats, too.

We stayed all but one night at the Pfeil's...and enjoyed spending time with their 2 girls...
We were able to visit CCSI (the christian school in chiba) and be with them during morning devotionals.
Kindergarten is a big deal in japan....they only have private kindergarten's and it's 3 years.... when they're 3, 4, and 5. CCSI started a 1 day a week kindergarten and we got to visit their classroom as well.
We got back home last tuesday night....drove the stewart's to the airport wednesday morning.... and basically tried to fight the jet-lag all week long. This weekend we spend saturday at MOSI (the science museum in tampa)....AJ spent saturday at the beach with her friend, ella, who picked her to go with her family to the beach in celebration of her birthday. It was a little odd to spend the day without AJ around, but she had a blast with ella's family and we had a fun day, too!
As for japan....we are waiting to hear whether or not we have an invitation from the team out there to come. If we do, we are planning on going to assessment in january (with MTW in atlanta)...assuming we are approved by them to do missions we would then start fundraising towards going to japan. It's all a bit overwhelming, but we feel strongly about the need in japan for missionary's and also feel like our family could be a good fit with what's going on over there. Please continue to pray with us as we seek to follow Him.

yet another set of pictures from our japan trip!

We spent Saturday having lunch with my uncle Jimmy, cousins' Johnny Bell and Kotoe. We did a lot of sightseeing, visiting asakusa and odaiba island.

Me and uncle Jimmy (my mother's brother)

Tom preached at Oyumino Church on Sunday...he had a translator and did a great job!

Emily (a good friend from VA) met us on Saturday in Tokyo and spent the weekend with us. It was sooo good to see her and spend some time with her...thanks, emi, for coming to see me!

Lunch in china town after walking through Yokohama today, Monday. (these pictures are not in order)

Standing in front of a statue that you cannot see b/c the water fountain is way high. Doing the japanese peace sign.

Isaac (another VA friend, who is here in japan doing college ministry) spent the day in yokohama with us and my cousin!

On the JR going into Tokyo.

The college ministry having some fun on sunday night.

It's been such a whirlwind and so great to be here, and I am so glad to be going home tomorrow! I need to hug my kids and cuddle my babies....so, Kylie, Josiah, AJ, Matthias, and Leighton...I cannot wait to see you and will be coming home soon!!!
More de-brief posts will be forthcoming when I get over return jet-lag. :)

Silly video from some silly kiddos

Saturday Fun

We had a great day today! We slept in, yeah!! We also went to the park and came home all muddy so that all 5 kids had to take a bath! We built forts and then cleaned them up and then built them and cleaned them up all over again! It was just a fun, fun day! It was good to laugh a lot and not have anything scheduled to do. Here are some highlight pictures.

A very intense game of battleship!
All 5 kids being silly on the couch - the babies were just up from their nap.
AJ on the computer
Kylie showing Jonah one of her many birthday balloons
I love this one!
Kylie being the greatest mother's helper with Jonah!