Saturday, December 26, 2009
Merry Christmas!
We hope all of you had an awesome Christmas! Ours was amazing and the Christmas spirit is overflowing and we wish you continued happiness through the holidays!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
So Erin, what's up with you?
The best answer to that question, is through video. My life has been based around choreographing and teaching dance mostly the last four months. I have been loving it! My girls are so stinking fun to work with and they have been improving a lot this year. This is their performance at the Festival of Trees and they did a great job! (Especially for dancing on carpet!) The first video is Junior Company and the second is the Senior Company
Friday, December 4, 2009
Catch Up
Sadie is growing up so fast...literally. We took her to her 18 month appointment a week ago and found out she is in the 100th percentile for height! Not kidding! I was so surprised I had to find her stats from her 15 month appt. She grew 3.5 inches in 3 months! CRAZY! She is also learning things so quickly, it is so much fun to see. Lately she has been a wonderful helper with putting things away... Here is her shoe in with the food.
She loves to mimic us on the phone, so she would use the mouse and say over and over, "Hi! Hi!"
She helped out again by putting her shoe "away"...
My friend and I were in the front room and couldn't hear what the girls were up to in the back, so we went to check on them. They climbed up onto the chair by themselves and this is how we found them. Too cute.
Sadie insisted that I put her shoes on. She would not take no for an answer even if they were a tight squeeze over her pajamas!
This is her Halloween costume few people got to witness. (she was ill at the time.) She wasn't too happy with the hat, and overall removed the costume within 20 minutes.
She loves to mimic us on the phone, so she would use the mouse and say over and over, "Hi! Hi!"
She helped out again by putting her shoe "away"...
My friend and I were in the front room and couldn't hear what the girls were up to in the back, so we went to check on them. They climbed up onto the chair by themselves and this is how we found them. Too cute.
Sadie insisted that I put her shoes on. She would not take no for an answer even if they were a tight squeeze over her pajamas!
This is her Halloween costume few people got to witness. (she was ill at the time.) She wasn't too happy with the hat, and overall removed the costume within 20 minutes.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Go, Give, or Read
Greg Mortenson is coming to speak at BYU's Devotional on Tuesday Oct. 27 at 11:00 am. I would encourage everyone to go , even if you don't attend BYU. It will be more of a forum about Mortenson's devotion to educating children (especially girls) in Pakistan. I read his book, Three Cups of Tea, a few months ago, and was quite touched by his efforts. His philosophy is the most logically sound way to fight against terrorism. .. to educate! Frequently the ONLY choice for education is schools founded by the taliban or no school at all. Mortenson is providing schools that focus on mathmatics, literature etc. without the influence of the Taliban. So, if you can't go to the devotional , read this book. : It is only about a dime to help a child go to school for a month! If you can't donate any money, tell others about this book! 
Monday, October 12, 2009
We Love You Stouts!
You guys are the best! We couldn't have gone to Japan without you guys! We miss you a ton already and can't wait for you to be back in the States! We had sooooooo much fun with you!!! 
Friday, October 9, 2009
Japan fun Stuff!
Cultural differences:
Just enough room for us to sleep and store our luggage.
Of course the shared bathroom...
And the lovely sqatter toilets! Ryan didn't have to suffer with these at all because he literally can't squat because of his knee. Luckily there were a few western style bathrooms for him every now and then.
Public transportation is used way more than cars. We took several ferries, trains and buses.
There are tons of signs everywhere.
The doorways are not meant for people over 6 feet tall! :)
One place we stayed actually had furniture, but this is not very common. We went to a thrift store and found all sorts of amazing furniture for way cheap. There just isn't a demand for it in Japan. They had a 5 piece modern-style sectional couch for 50 bucks. Crazy!
No one really eats cereal for breakfast, usually they eat miso soup and other heavy foods.
Inside one of the houses we stayed in...
No couches, but they do have TV, fax, and computers.
Tiny cars driving on the left side of the road.
This is Stef and Jesse's western style toilet room. (Sorry it is dark)
Note the top of the toilet has a hand faucet that runs when you flush.
They have to separate garbages EVERYWHERE! There are four different ways to separate your garbage at home and everywhere in public you have to separate burnables from plastics.
Tons of shops are all packed together and are usually super small. There's 120 million people in an area the size of California, so they are always busy!
There are spiders everywhere, but this particular one was on the island of Uoshima, so they have the opportunity to grow really big. This one is the size of Ryan's palm!
A special shout out to the public bath houses is also in order. Ryan got to go twice, and luckily I only had to once. They have a time set aside for women and then the men. They just have a big open room with no stalls. They have an area where you sit on a bucket to rinse and scrub over and over. It has a shower head, and extra bucket and soaps. After you scrub and rinse a few times they have a giant bathtub that fits 5-6 people where you just sit and relax. It was actually very relaxing and not nearly as weird as I thought it would be. Of course Ryan loved it.
Sorry I did these posts backwards, but that's okay. I'm trying not to bore you guys too much, so I am trying to give you the abridged version. We went for ten days and it was so much fun!!! 
Where we stayed the first night. They provide the slippers for you to wear inside the room as well as different slippers for the bathroom. No furniture!
Where we stayed the first night. They provide the slippers for you to wear inside the room as well as different slippers for the bathroom. No furniture!
Just enough room for us to sleep and store our luggage.
Of course the shared bathroom...
And the lovely sqatter toilets! Ryan didn't have to suffer with these at all because he literally can't squat because of his knee. Luckily there were a few western style bathrooms for him every now and then.
Public transportation is used way more than cars. We took several ferries, trains and buses.
There are tons of signs everywhere.
The doorways are not meant for people over 6 feet tall! :)
One place we stayed actually had furniture, but this is not very common. We went to a thrift store and found all sorts of amazing furniture for way cheap. There just isn't a demand for it in Japan. They had a 5 piece modern-style sectional couch for 50 bucks. Crazy!
No one really eats cereal for breakfast, usually they eat miso soup and other heavy foods.
Inside one of the houses we stayed in...
No couches, but they do have TV, fax, and computers.
Tiny cars driving on the left side of the road.
This is Stef and Jesse's western style toilet room. (Sorry it is dark)
Note the top of the toilet has a hand faucet that runs when you flush.
They have to separate garbages EVERYWHERE! There are four different ways to separate your garbage at home and everywhere in public you have to separate burnables from plastics.
Tons of shops are all packed together and are usually super small. There's 120 million people in an area the size of California, so they are always busy!
There are spiders everywhere, but this particular one was on the island of Uoshima, so they have the opportunity to grow really big. This one is the size of Ryan's palm!
A special shout out to the public bath houses is also in order. Ryan got to go twice, and luckily I only had to once. They have a time set aside for women and then the men. They just have a big open room with no stalls. They have an area where you sit on a bucket to rinse and scrub over and over. It has a shower head, and extra bucket and soaps. After you scrub and rinse a few times they have a giant bathtub that fits 5-6 people where you just sit and relax. It was actually very relaxing and not nearly as weird as I thought it would be. Of course Ryan loved it.
FOOOOOOOD!!!!!
They have a plethora of fish and pork, but beef and chicken was a lot more rare. Cabbage is a staple, not so much lettuce.
My mouth is watering just thinking about all this stuff! It's soo freaking good! Curry anything here is amazing! As children in the US love pizza, children in Japan love curry!
Glorious ramen! We had to have this twice because it is so delicious. We have to find a recipe for this one!
Any of you who know me understands how epic this moment is. I do NOT eat fish let alone raw fish. It is gross and smelly and what's the point if you are going to smother it in butter? GROSS. But that is coming from a Utah girl who doesn't get fresh fish. I had a whole meal of sushi and it was delicious! I know, it is a miracle.
This was not delicious, it made me gag. Ryan didn't think the fish eggs were too bad.
I couldn't even taste the yucky seaweed!
The sushi place was awesome, they had a mini moat around the whole restaurant and little boats of different kinds of sushi were floating around. If it looked good, you take it and eat it!
So cool!
Again, this is so pinnacle that I actually ate two pieces of raw squid. This was served to us by the cutest couple on Uoshima, the Azumas.
This is breaded mackerel, swordfish, and chicken. Mr. Azuma caught this fish and everything else was grown in their garden. Amazing!!
A type of seaweed that I actually like, Mrs. Azuma gathered this and prepared it.
More sushi caught that day by the Azumas.
It was the most amazing feast. We enjoyed ourselves very much!I have to mention the fabulous Okonomiyaki . We didn't get a picture unfortunately, but it was so good. It is a Japanese pancake, but it isn't at all a pancake. It is noodles and egg, pancake, sauce, and meat. So delicious! Also Stefanie made some amazing curry and skiaki. We will be doing our best to make that stuff here. It was so GOOD!!!
Arigato Gozai Mas!!!
Places we went:
Peace Park in Hiroshima dedicated to promote world peace.
Peace Park Museum
A tiny island called Uoshima where Stef and Jesse lived for a while. The population is about 250 people.
Uoshima had it's fall festival with a Karaoke night and other festivities.
Part of the festival the was the carrying of the shrine. This was an amazing opportunity to see all of this because it only happens once a year.
One shot of the beautiful island.
An amazing park on the island Ehime, in the city Imabari.
The slides were ginormous!
Another part of the park, it was HUGE!!
This is Imabari Castle, it was one of our favorite places that we visited. It was amazing!
It was quite the sight, surrounded by a huge moat and walking in and around the castle was just gorgeous!
There is a museum inside the castle now, as it had to be restored after it burned down in one of the wars. This clam is real and it would easily fit a 3 year old inside of it!
One of many additional shrines within the Imabari castle grounds.
This is the Osaka castle. It is quite beautiful as well, the grounds here expand several blocks. Crazy cool!
The title of this post is one of the few phrases we learned in Japanese. We used it constantly as it means Thank you!
There are hundreds of pictures for me to sort through and I don't want to bore you guys too much, so there will be two more posts. One will be dedicated to food of course, and the other will be about cultural fun stuff. This is the VERY abridged version of the places we went to in Japan:
A-Bomb dome in Hiroshima. One of the last standing structures after the atomic bomb dropped.
A-Bomb dome in Hiroshima. One of the last standing structures after the atomic bomb dropped.
Peace Park in Hiroshima dedicated to promote world peace.
Peace Park Museum
A tiny island called Uoshima where Stef and Jesse lived for a while. The population is about 250 people.
Uoshima had it's fall festival with a Karaoke night and other festivities.
Part of the festival the was the carrying of the shrine. This was an amazing opportunity to see all of this because it only happens once a year.
One shot of the beautiful island.
An amazing park on the island Ehime, in the city Imabari.
The slides were ginormous!
Another part of the park, it was HUGE!!
This is Imabari Castle, it was one of our favorite places that we visited. It was amazing!
It was quite the sight, surrounded by a huge moat and walking in and around the castle was just gorgeous!
There is a museum inside the castle now, as it had to be restored after it burned down in one of the wars. This clam is real and it would easily fit a 3 year old inside of it!
One of many additional shrines within the Imabari castle grounds.
This is the Osaka castle. It is quite beautiful as well, the grounds here expand several blocks. Crazy cool!
The title of this post is one of the few phrases we learned in Japanese. We used it constantly as it means Thank you!
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