Snow!!

Monday was a holiday. So, in theory Shimon should have been off of work. Unfortunately for us, he had a big pile-up of work to do and was leaving on a business trip on Tuesday. Thus, no holiday for him. :-( It was actually ok, since it snowed - a LOT!! Things would have been even more messy if it had been a regular work day (as it was Tuesday was a bit of a mess with transportation anyway!).

This is what the snow started out like... yay, it's actually sticking!!

Overlooking the neighbors garden

 Within a few hours, it was looking like this.

The roof across from our living room!

The one thing that you cannot see is the horrible wind that went along with this snow. Due to the wind and the fact that Shimon wasn't home, we waited until Tuesday to go explore the snow. Which was both a good and bad decision. Good, because it was finished snowing and there was no wind. Bad, because the snow was all crusty and no fun to play with. :-( Though... we did explore it a little.

Curious about this white frozen stuff

Just a cute picture!

Trying to walk in his new shoes...

Mom and Touma

 I'm still hoping we get some more snow this year. Next time it snows I'm definitely going to try to get out in it sooner. Also, I'll layer up Touma's legs so he can crawl around in it! Either way, here's to hoping we at least get one or two more snow days this year!!

Holiday Roundup!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Since I haven't posted in awhile, I thought I would start with that greeting first. Geesh! The holidays flew by this year. There are two things I'd like to see invented: 1) Star Trek-style "beam me up, Scotty" teleportation technology and 2) a way to make time slow down just a little bit! It hardly seems possible that we're halfway through the month of January.

Our Christmas was busy, but really nice. We went to a few Christmas parties, had Christmas Eve lunch with friends, and had a relatively relaxed evening of church and dinner afterward. This year Christmas Eve was a day off for Shimon, so we didn't have to worry about how to work around his work schedule. Next year will be different I'm sure!

So, here are some highlights from the festivities!

On December 22nd, we went to my friend Lauren's place for a Christmas party. There was lots of nice food and drink and the little ones exchanged presents! (Exchanged, in that they both opened and ostensibly the present was given by the other!)

Eating yummy butter roll!

Touma ripping into the box, while Gwen looks on...

Gwen enjoying her ladybug backpack (with baby leash function)!

We did most of our Christmas celebrating on Christmas Eve this year. First we went to my friend Robin's place for a potluck lunch. The kids played a lot and parents got to relax a bit (especially the moms!). Shimon got to see what Touma may be like in the future as Robin's little boy, Oscar, is nearly 4! And what a lot of energy he has!!

Almost everyone made it in the picture... minus Shimon!

Touma enjoying a big boy toy - Spiderman!!

But he's not so big that he doesn't enjoy the bouncer still. :-)

That evening, after church, we came home and opened presents. Since Touma is still young, we kind of just flew by the seat of our pants on this one. Next year, we'll really have to figure things out and make it all a bigger deal!

Opening his first ever Christmas present, with mom's help.

Yum! Shoes!!

Box 2 - Touma did the thing he's best at and tried to rip the paper with his teeth. 

He really liked this shaker from Daddy.

New Years was pretty quiet this year. Since Touma is still small we didn't stay up really late. On the afternoon of New Year's Eve, we went to our favorite park (Negishi Forrest Park) and tried out Touma's new shoes and just enjoyed the afternoon. We headed there quite late and stayed until the sun was setting. Brrr... it was cold once the sun went down!

New shoes!

Touma was highly distracted by his new shoes and tried to eat them a few times...

Changing into easier shoes...

We actually got a lot of pictures, but most of them were not of Touma walking. Since the ground at the park was a little bit bumpy he got tired of walking pretty quickly and reverted to crawling.

Nice pic, Papa!

As the sun was setting, we got a family portrait in.

Happy 2013!