Trystian's Chef Birthday

So Trystian really wants to be a chef when he grows up!  He wanted a Chef Party this year for his Birthday.  I made some chef hats and others I bought from the Daiso.  We prepped and rented out Davy Jones Locker for the party!  Well we got a HUGE snow storm the day prior to the Party and we were informed that we could not use our original location and opted to use my house!  I tried so hard to get things all prepped in the house that night before the party!

The plan was to have each child make a pizza of their own.  Everyone would start with rolling their dough, then add all of their toppings.  This proved to be a bit of a challenge in a small kitchen!  I also only have 1 standard oven... so trying to bake everyone's pizzas was well crazy!  After pizza, the kids could munch on all the snacks, then when cake time came, I had a decorated single person cake that Trystian could blow out candles on, and everyone got to decorate their own cup cakes!  The party proved to be stressful but also fun!

Here are some pictures of the Party below!

 

Trying to get back on track

Well, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write a blog!  It's been hectic and crazy!  I'll try to recap as much as I can think of, then I'll post another blog about my kool aid tie dye and acrylic tie dye experiments!

 Alright so in the past few months it's been a roller coaster!  Right before Christmas time at work I was given news that the Military would be cutting down the forces and a lot of names were added to lists to be reviewed on boards to decide whether they would stay in the military or not.  I was not given good details on this and so we were a little worried.  Soon after I found out that my name was on one of the boards, and unfortunately because all the other folks in our office had just put on rank, I was the only one in the office on a board.  But this didn't stop me.  I was one of tens of thousands on the boards!  I made sure my records were in order and correct and then we found out that some names were dropped from the board because a lot of people volunteered to get out versus going up against the board.  My leadership did not inform me right away, but my name was still on the list.  Once I was told, I started to panic in March!  I wrote a letter to the Board explaining my goals and want to stay in the military to serve. 
When the results for the board were released on 5 June, I panicked!  According to the news, all those chosen to be discharged were to be told that day, 5 June...  I was not notified, I asked!  My supervisor did not know, and asked leadership, and they did not give an answer.  As the next 2 days went on, I was not notified either way, and started getting a false sense of hope.  The entire weekend went without being told either way.  On Monday I was told that "no news was good news" and I felt I was past the worst and would be able to stay in and retire as an Airmen in the United States Air Force.  On Monday afternoon I was told that we had a meeting at 10am on Tuesday with the Commander.  I went to work on Tuesday morning and checked my email only to have my heart pound with sadness!  I had an email stating that my "separation was approved" and I immediately started reading the email and attachments along with printing out the documents I needed.  I got a folder together and when I went to the meeting with the Commander, I was asked if I knew why I was there.  I told them yes, and I got my answer from someone other than them!  They told me they didn't want me to find out that way.  I was PISSED!  From that point, I have been out-processing and trying to do anything that we wanted to do here in Japan.

So again, I apologize on not posting a lot in the past months, but I will try to catch up!
 

Cloth diapering from the start

So, it's taken me a long time to post this, actually it's been a draft for quite some time!  I've been busy...  But here are pictures of Ryder wearing different styles and brands of cloth diapers in his first 2 weeks of life.

 

This is Ryder in the hospital, only hours old!  He's wearing a Lil Joey with the umbilical notch snapped down.

This is Ryder at a week old also in a Lil Joey.  These diapers fit right from the start!  I love them! If and when we have another baby, I definitely want to get a few more of these!

This is an newborn Imagine diaper with the umbilical notch snapped down.  I like these, although they do wick a little due to the inner soak pad being exposed when snapped down.  They fit nicely below his umbilical stump though!

This is a Newborn BumGenius.  I like it's slim design, but because my lil guy had a tall rise, they didn't fit until he lost his umbilical stump.  This diaper only lasted about 2 months though, he started wetting too heavily to wear it without wicking his clothes.

This is a Thirsties size one with a prefold underneath.  It was a bit big, and didn't fit well until he was a few weeks old.

This is a Thirsties X-Small fitted and X-Small cover that worked really well at getting small for him to wear early on, and worked until he was about 4 months old.  It grew well with him and I never had a problem with it leaking.

This is a Rumparooz cover when Ryder was about a month old.  This diaper just didn't work for us because it didn't fit right. In order to have a prefold under I had to have the diaper fully unbuttoned for the rise.

This is the Imagine newborn diaper cover.  It got pretty small and worked well. 

My three munchkins!

Snow Snow and more SNOW

So this weekend Misawa broke a record... We recieved over 27 inches of snow in a 24 hour period of time!  It was blizzard conditions while it came down too!  

There is a road somewhere there... Covered under all that snow... This is the view from the back of the house...

The whole neighborhood helped in clearing the sidewalks and undiging cars out! Awesome people in this little housing area!

The kids love playing in the snow!

Trystian really wants to learn to ski... So he has these mini skis I picked up from the Homac!

Un-boxing the Vue

So to make a long story short, i really wanted this stroller and had been trying to buy it directly from the original company... Because I was patient, and maybe a little persistent... I recieved my new Baby Jogget Vue stroller today!

I apologize for the "messy" house, I am a mom of 3 you know... LOL

Scott was home to receive the box and I got to open it when I got home from work!

After opening it, it comes with the front wheels unassembled.  They were easy to just pop on though!

After setting it all up I put the seat to face me.  I really like it so far!

It folds up just like any other umbrella stroller too!

And yes, I imediatly went to the store with it!

Since I took all 3 kids by myself, I got to test it's capacity to carry stuff too...  The diaper bag is handing off the handles as well as formula bags on either side...

Once I have a chance this weekend, I will do a GOOD review!