Some Japanese finds and thanks

So I know that I complain a lot about how the shopping here is awful and they don't have anything cool, but I have found a cool store that is pretty awesome. I don't know the name of it, only that there's a bunny on the sign, so I refer to it as just that "the bunny store". It is strictly a children's store and it is pretty cheap. Somehow I managed to only spend $50 this last visit and this is what I got:

Here are three outfits that I had to get Kara. Two are little sun suits and the other is a cherry pant suit. I have some weird obsession with clothes with fruit on them. I think they are so adorable. Luckily for me the Japanese seem to have the same obsession. Cherries, strawberries, and watermelon everywhere!!!
Here are some sleepers, a pillow (which I think will be good for travel), and some little tank tops. I got most things in 12 months size (they have a conversion chart) because she has so many in 6 months size. Notice the cherries on the tanks. Love it!!! The cat on the pillow is named Marie, from Walt Disney's Aristocats movie. They have that cat everywhere. I think I like stuff with her on it because my cat, Chloe is white with blue eyes too!
Not too long ago, my friend Amy brought over this adorable outfit for Kara. Yes, it's a watermelon outfit. I think it is so cute. It was funny she got it without knowing my obsession for fruit clothing. Thanks Amy!!!
Amy also got Kara her first kimono and little Chinese outfits. Aren't they adorable? I can't wait until she fits in them to take some pics. The kimono has little fish all over it. You can click on it to enlarge it. What's a baby born in Japan without a kimono of her own? :)

Orange!!!

Okay so I decided to join in on the fun of Brenda's photo challenge. Sorry I am late, I have a baby as my excuse. LOL The color is Orange, my least favorite color in the world. Therefore it was pretty hard for me to find anything orange in my house, but I did manage. And you must know this isn't my best photography, but I was in a hurry!! So here you go...

This is the shirt I bought last Halloween. I know sounds a bit like I am full of myself (couldn't be farther from the truth), but I swear I bought it because of Casper rather than what is says. Cute huh?

Here's some of my hair products that I use. It's called got 2 b crazy sleek. You use it before you flat iron your hair. I adore my chi iron; this stuff is supposed to help you save your hair from damage it may cause. Here's one of my daughter's hand rattles (I know I was grasping for anything orange). The pic came out terribly blurry, but I am too darn lazy to try to find something to take a pic of at the moment. Forgive me, I will do better next week....

So proud

For those of you who haven't read it on my mother in laws blog, I want to share our awesome news......Nick made Tech Sergeant!! We have been waiting to hear for weeks and are so excited. We were trying to decide weather staying in the Air Force was for us or not and I guess we now have our answer. It would be hard to get out with him have made more rank. He made it sooner than most people do in their careers. He's put on 5 stripes in 10 years, which I think is pretty impressive. I gave him a card that read Impressive on the front and said But not surprising. It was too perfect. I knew he would make it. He wasn't convinced until he read the results. He let out a noise, which scared me half to death (I was in another room). Kara and I got him a cake and new game to congratulate him. The extra money will be so great.

Nick, I am proud of you baby! I knew you could do it. Always remember that I believe in you. I love you so much!!!

Family pictures

Before Maddy left I wanted us to get family portraits taken, against Nick and Maddy's wishes. Luckily the BX had some people there advertising pictures so I took them up on their offer. No the weren't cheap, quite expensive, but worth it. Of course when we got there Kara was hungry, even though I had fed her a little before we left, and was screaming her lungs out. Somehow the guy managed to get pics without her looking mad. If you enlarge the family pic you will see her mouth is open, quite hilarious. She was only 2 weeks in these pics, she is now over 2 months. I can't believe it. Time goes by so quick. Maddy is now gone and Nick will be leaving us in a little over a week. Crazy stuff in this place, a lot of adjustments. I hope it doesn't drive me crazy. Anyway, sorry I haven't been visiting you guys blogs, actually I have some, but haven't been leaving comments. I will soon.

Father's day pics

So Father's day was almost over and I realized we didnt' get any pics of Nick with Kara. They were playing on the bed and I captured these moments. Melts my heart <3

Them watching T.V. She got that from him!
Just hanging out
Daddy loves his baby!

She's laughing at him!
My favorite pic!
Playing together

What's with all the pictures, mommy?
Staring at each other
Giving daddy kisses, how cute!

Saying goodbye

It wasn't easy saying "goodbye" to Maddy or my mom last Thursday. My mom came to visit and stayed for about2 1/2 weeks. She came to meet Kara and to take Maddy back to Florida for us. The time she was here went by pretty quick. I felt bad she had to leave knowing she wasn't going to see her grandaughter for another 6 months.

Those 2 weeks were filled with all kinds of events. We tried to do all the things we wanted to do with Maddy before she left. We still manage to miss a few things but overall did the main things. I knew I would be sad but I didn't think it would hit me as hard as it did. The first time I broke down was while I was packing Maddy's bag. Everyone else was down stairs and I was upstairs packing it all. I had to go to the bathroom to get myself together. Then the night before they left, I was up all night dreading the next day. It was huge cry fest at the airport. People probably thought we were nuts, but it was VERY sad.

I will miss Maddy. I got so used to having her here that I couldn't imagine going back to life without her. Sure I won't miss the kids knocking on my door all afternoon(which made the dogs go nuts)or stuff being everywhere, but I will miss the joy she brought to our house. I haven't had to be alone in our house for the last year and it was so nice. Nick goes on a lot of trips, so I used to be alone a lot. Luckily I won't have to be alone ever again because of my baby girl. I know she will keep me entertained while Nick is gone, but I am sure I will want someone to talk to every once in a while that talks back. When Nick went on his trips Maddy and I would have "girl nights". We would rent movies and drink hot chocolate. She used to scrapbook with me. I couldn't have been more proud that she enjoyed something that I love to do. She made 3 books while she was here. She even started using more than one kind of paper on her pages, "to be more professional" like me (she would say). We also played hair/massage shop. She would put my hair up in all these crazy ways(the spider was the best). She has actually done that with me since she was 3 years old. The massage part just started this last year. She came up with all different methods (like using a pencil or karate chops), but you were lucky if it lasted 2 minutes. She is a very entertaining child and I will miss her dearly.

The Bachelorette

Jason
Jesse
Graham
Anyone else out there watch the Bachelorette? Probably not, but I do because I am a hopeless romantic. Sometimes I need some reality TV to get lost into. Ever since the bachelor came out I have been watching it, yes, EVERY season. I know sometimes it's down right raunchy, but hey it's entertainment. I will admit that I wish there had been more bachelorettes than bachelors, because looking at 25 guys is way more exciting than girls for me. So this season has been one of the better ones to watch so far. Deanna is pretty down to earth and her selection of guys was pretty nice to view. She's down to the final four guys: Jason (my favorite), Graham (the sexiest one), Jeremy (nice but not for me), and Jesse (the coolest one). I will admit that for the first time I don't believe she can go wrong. Any of the four would be an awesome person to share your life with. As I mentioned I favor Jason, because he's the most family oriented one. He's a single dad and I find that so admirable. He is also sweet, charming, and handsome. Now for Graham, at first I didn't get it and now there's something about him that I find very appealing. He is so sexy too!! Wowza! No wonder Deanna can't keep her hands or lips off of him. Jeremy is also pretty cute and sweet. I see where they have a great connection, but he's not really my kind of guy, a little too shy. Jesse is just great. He's such a cool guy. When I first saw him get out of the limo I was like, "NEXT!" Now I feel terrible for having thought that, he turned out to be the best personality on the show. It just proves that looks aren't everything and the more you get to know someone the more attractive they can become. I think Jesse is very cute, now that I looked past his florescent shoes and coat. So if anyone watches then I would like to know what you think?? I have a feeling the final one will be Jason, but I have been wrong several times before.

Our day trip

Anchors away!

The glass bottom boat was our first stop. I have never been on one before, which is a bit surprising since I grew up in Florida. But I have to say it was pretty cool. We saw fish, starfish, sea snakes, blow fish, and sea cucumbers. It was probably one of the coolest things we have done here by far.
This is the beautiful resort where the boat takes off. Nick and I are hoping to come back and stay a few days at this hotel. It had all kinds of cool things to do like jet skis, a mini golf course, and other water activities.
Maddy and my mom along for the ride.
Some fish
Me and Nick on the boat.

This is the view on the way back from the underwater observatory. That was our second place we visited. It was pretty cool. There were a lot of fish and coral around. I even saw Nemo.

This fish wanted it's picture taken by everyone. I must say he was very photogenic.This parrot fish was happy to have his picture taken!

I saw a lot of cool fish but she was the cutest thing I saw all day!!!

So our next stop was Neo park, a big petting zoo, so I was told. I was also told they had monkeys there that were running wild. That was the selling point for this place. Supposedly if you had bananas they would come sit on your shoulder. Notsomuch!!! Sure we saw monkeys, IN CAGES! I was so distraught. I wanted to hold a monkey, to have it on my shoulder, to feed it a banana. What the durn??? So anyone in Okinawa, don't waste your time on Neo park, it stinks, literally people!

After all the tons of birds we saw, I am thinking Neo park should be more like Bird World. They did have a petting zoo part, which, I kid you not, only had dogs and sheep. Yes, I said dogs... a Beagle, Poodle, and Pomeranian to be exact. Crazy stuff!!!

Not sure what this animal is but it was in one of the cages. WEIRD!

Some baby pigs, they were pretty cute!

My mom and Maddy by a fountain at butterfly park. This was our next stop. Maddy had been wanting to go for a long time and we had to take her before she left us. It's like a huge green house thing filled with butterflies and flowers. Maddy said it was her favorite place in Okinawa. It is pretty cool, but not my favorite.

Those things were all over my mom, must have been the flowers on her dress.

She was in awe of the butterflies. Look at her face, she loved it!

We were told that butterflies are attracted to red so Maddy made sure to bring a red shirt to change into. However, the butterflies didn't flock to her anymore than they did to me. So we are convinced they spray their red hats and umbrellas with something to make them go to them. But she had fun trying to get them on her anyway.

Look how happy she was to be in her stroller rather than the hot car. I love this face. My sweet baby Kara. She's just rotten, pure rotten.

Our final stop was a huge playground at Ocean Expo park. It has nets like this EVERYWHERE. Maddy loved it, but Nick was mad because he wasn't allowed to play. Poor Nick he's just a big kid himself. Overall we had a really fun day!

Our monkeys

Monkey #1 in a tree by the beach.
Monkey #2 being held by a tree. Yes, she's a bit cross eyed in this pic. LOL
Our two monkeys together.

So it seems our littlest one is going to have the nickname "monkey" due to her monkey hair, monkey toes, and some of the faces she makes. But have you ever seen a cuter monkey? I am sure you haven't. Maddy seems to think she is a monkey too being that she climbs trees and likes to pick our animals for fleas. She wants a monkey so they can pick each other's hair. Crazy I know. Our biggest monkey will be leaving us in 3 days to return to live with her mother. I can't imagine how different our life is going to be without her. That monkey will be missed, that's for sure.

My blue eyed baby

I am hoping that Kara's eyes will stay blue like her daddy's. By this age mine were already brown, so I think my wish will come true. She's my beautiful blue eyed baby!!!