About Our Beginnings...

My photo
Hiro was born January 17th at 12:07 am at Kaiser hospital, 48 hours after the water broke. It was a natural birth, and a very positive experience. Judah was born January 1, 2010 at 1:08 pm 7 hours after the water broke. Judah was delivered at Andaluz Waterbirth center, which was a completely magical experience that we highly recommend to anyone having a normal healthy pregnancy. Malakai was born on December 23, 2011 after three days of inactive labor labor and three hours of active labor (three hours after the water broke). Kai was born at Andaluz as well, this time in "Sienna" the red room. It was a relaxing and delightful way to spend our first Christmas with Malakai.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

9-10 month Videos

Here are some videos ranging from when Hiro was 8 (almost 9) months old until just a few weeks ago. The first video is during our Saturday morning tradition of having breakfast together. The last video is when Hiro is crawling around and starting to nod his head. The last one is of Hiro crawling around...kind of long, kind of boring, but shows a lot of what Hiro can do right now. Obie does Turbo Jack as well.












Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Christmas Fun!

Christmas Tree Hunting!
We love December and all the festivities it brings! We always go to Sleighbells in Sherwood to get our tree. This year was extra special, since it was Hiro's first year with us (at least with him on the "outside").

Decorating our tree




Christmas Cookies!


Merry Christmas!

The Ford family paid us a Christmasy visit...what a cute family.
First Snow!
We were blessed with lots and lots of SNOW! In fact, we got snowed in with Becca, Josh, and MeeAe, which was such a blessings...if they were not here, I would have MAJOR cabin fever. We took 45 minutes to pull all the hats, scarves and warm layers out of the closets and put them on the babies. After all that, and buying new snow boots for everyone, we were outside for about 5 minutes before it was just too cold! Maybe we will have a white Christmas?




First Haircut
After several days of Hiro being called a girl, we decided it was time for Hiro's first haircut!


The BEFORE picture


The AFTER pictures!

Ten Months Old!

Hiroshi's tenth month has been a HUGE month of firsts. Our little man has taken up what we call "preaching." He points his fingers and makes deliberate motions with his head and arms while babbling phrases, almost poetically. He LOVES to push things around, mainly his truck. He also loves rocking and holding Mae's babydoll. He now can nod his head yes and no, although he doesn't always mean "yes" and "no" when he does it. He can point out Daddy and Papa from a pictures and points to mommy's nose all the time...ususally UP my nose. He has 8 teeth, four on top and four on the bottom. Hiro and Mae love each others company, even though now they notice when the other has a toy or food that they want!

Baby Story Time!
When we get a chance, we like to go to the library for baby story time. It's fun to have someplace to go that is especially geared for Hiroshi and other babies his age.

MeeAe plays with bubbles at the Tualatin library!

We try to get story time in at home, too!

Japanese Gardens
We discovered cultural passes at the local library. We've been going on FREE family outings ever since!
Daddy and Hiro against the beautiful Portland skyline.



The Children's Museum
We completely enjoyed our trip to the children's museum with Auntie Becca and MeeAe. It was so much fun to go to a space completely geared for the little ones. We did storytime and explored every room.
We painted the kid's faces. Messy, but a lot of fun!






Hiro's favorite section of the children museum was the water room. We could have spent the entire time in there!






Johnson Thanksgiving

We were so pleased Zach came up from Colorado this year! It was just like old times...with a little added Wii action!

Even Hiro wanted to play Wii!
Thanksgiving Table
Libby and Hiro on Thanksgiving
My handsome little man

Iwata Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Table
The little cousins playing together after the meal.

It's so cute watching the cousins interact now that they are getting "closer" in age.
lMommy, Daddy, and Hiro
Daddy and Hiro. Hiro LOVES to push things right now.
bSilly Nana!

Alexus Time
Lexi is such a delight! We have been having a lot of fun together on Wednesdays. She is such a help with the babies!
Excersizing with Lexi
Alexus practicing for her try-outs for a school play.


Sibling Christmas
For the last four years, the Iwata siblings forgo giving each other presents for Christmas, and instead have one night out of the year that we gather just for the purpose of enjoying being brothers and sisters. We are really blessed to have one another. This year was the most fun of all! There were more babies, lots of laughing and being merry. We had a wall sit competition and listened to Muppet Christmas carols late into the night. That sure does beat getting a Starbucks card!

Sisters wearing aprons I made them.

After the wallsit competition. I went down first!

Auntie Erin and Gabe wearing his Mommy's apron