More Gracie pictures!!!

We had another ultrasound done today, thanks to the hospital losing my 20 week ultrasound. They confirmed that she does indeed look like a girl and gave me some more pictures! When the tech went back to print a picture proving she is a girl, Grace had decided she didn't want everyone seeing that so she crossed her little legs. She is so stubborn!!

I've Been Tagged!

I was tagged by JLC and Erin !

1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules to your blog
3. Write 6 random things about yourself
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them
5. Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is posted.

Heather's Randomness:
1. I love Christmas!!! It is by far my favorite day of the year. I start thinking about decorating and shopping and making cards early in the year. I am almost done with my Christmas shopping for this year, and I started making Grace's Christmas stocking back in May. Oh, and I have to have a real Christmas tree every year!

2. I was home schooled for most of my life (2nd through 12 grades)

3. I am very stubborn. I once got into a match with my dad when I was about 1 year old. I wouldn't say "Please" so I got left in my crib. I think I finally gave in after hours but that was probably due to the fact that he was withholding my dinner.

4. I love milk chocolate and dark chocolate... but not white chocolate. I can't stand anything with white chocolate

5. I worked at the local YMCA for 6 years. I did everything - lifeguard, swim instructor, aerobics instructor, childcare worker, and front desk person.

6. I have actually experienced having more than 24 hours in a day... 38 hours days are NOT fun!

And I am not tagging anyone because I think everyone who's blog I read has already been tagged.

4D

Here are a couple pictures from our 4D ultrasound we had done today!! We caught Grace snuggled up and taking a nap. She had her knee up near her face... she must be a very flexible little girl!

Call me crazy....

We just bought Grace her first Christmas present today!! Yes, she is getting a pink rocking horse this year. She won't even know what it is but she can grow into it. And we are excited about it and can't wait for Christmas!! Here are a couple pictures of the horse... it sings a song to the tune of "Frosty the Snowman" and moves it's mouth.

And... they already have CHRISTMAS TREES at the BX. Of course they are the fake ones and we really want to get a live tree. We might go ahead and buy one of these as a backup in there is a year when we can't get a Christmas Tree here. We hear the live trees only last a couple days at the store. I am tempted to pull out my Christmas music and start playing it now since I am totally in the Christmas spirit.

On a different note, we are headed up to Okuma (the military resort) for 3 days and 2 nights for the Family Retreat that is put on by the Army Chaplain's on Okinawa. We are really looking forward to a couple relaxing days. If the weather clears up (There was a typhoon headed straight for us late last week but it turned and has since became a tropical storm and we are seeing a lot of rain from that right now) we might spend some time in the ocean or on the golf course. But if it keeps raining we will still have a good time... we might even head down to see the world's largest aquarium! Ok, it's off to go pack...

Peace Prayer Park

We also made a stop at Peace Prayer Park, which is at the southern end of the island. Here are some of the pictures we took.

We're not totally isolated afterall...

Here are some pictures of our trip to Naha. We had a great time shopping and site seeing. And we found some American type stores like Osh Kosh and Babies R Us!

The Ashibinaa Outlet Mall

In front Osh Kosh

The Babies R Us in Naha

This is where you turn to get to the Babies R Us.

Grace's new clothes from Osh Kosh

Another long weekend

Giant Banana Spider in our backyard (as big as my hand!)

We are really enjoying all of the time off Dustin has had lately. Last weekend was Labor Day weekend so 4 days of no work, this weekend he got another 4 days off for their battalion's 100 days of safety, and then there are several other things coming up soon he will be off for that we are looking forward to. We are going to a family retreat at Okuma (military resort on Okinawa) Sept. 17-19 which should be really nice and it is entirely FREE.... meals and lodging are all provided - thanks Army!! Sometime towards the end of the month (or early Oct) will be another 4 day weekend to make up for the Friday and Monday he had to work during the long weekend after they finished with their field training (and that was the weekend BEFORE labor day) So pretty much 4 long weekends within a month! So what did we do this weekend?? We decided to check out the pool on Torii Station. There is one on Kadena but it cost to get in and Torii has better hours. On Saturday we went to a bizzarre at Kadena Middle School with asian custom furniture and crafts--it was basically a waste of time but we would have never known if we didn't go. Afterwards, we got some practice changing diapers. We watched our friends' little girl Maggie who just turned 1---It was a lot of fun. We got out the stroller and went for a nice little walk and then came home to eat and read stories! Today (Sunday) we went to church then went out to eat at a Japanese/Italian restaurant with a group of friends. (Yeah, I said Japanese/Italian) weird huh! The pizza had eggs on it, and there were weird peppers on top of all the entrees. That ended up taking longer than we thought since there were so many of us. Tomorrow we are going to head down to Naha and try to find the Ashibinaa Outlet Mall and then check out Peace Prayer Park. The outlet mall supposedly has real American stores (there are malls on Okinawa, but so far we haven't found any with American stores--only Japanese clothing and stuff) The Peace Prayer Park is a monument to all the dead from the battle of Okinawa--American and Japanese. (Look at our next blog for pics!) We are hoping we can get an early enough start to make it back before the pool closes and maybe even check out the beach afterwards. We'll take our new camera and post pictures for everyone to see.