{Gavin}

I would like to dedicate a post to each of my kids and my husband over the next week. First, i will start with Gavin.

Here he is....hahaha! This is Gavin with his SORT OF upset face. It's that face where he is upset and is making it more dramatic than it needs to be. He kind of likes to play it up a bit. :) Anyway, i thought i would get that picture out of the way first. He is fun to tease.

In this picture below he is playing some football with his friends. He invited a couple of them over after school recently. They played football and played mario on the Wii.

I feel like i need to apologize for my photos. I havent' been taking pictures like i used to, nor have i been TRYING to make them look awesome like i used to. I think what happened is that i was spending too much time on it. I was spending too much time on this passion of mine and it was taking my time away from my kids. It was frustrating me. So i stopped. I still love photography, but i guess i don't know how to find a balance. With photography i feel like i am either IN or OUT. And when i am IN it takes too much time. I really want to go out and take some good pictures of them by the beach though. I CAN make time for that. :)

Gavin is very outgoing. Socializing comes fairly easy to him. He loves his friends and loves having friends. And his friends love him. It's fun to watch him in his zone when he is around his friends. Gavin likes and needs friendships. And kids just gravitate towards him.

Gavin is doing great in school. He catches on very quickly to his homework. They give him lots of homework. Maybe it's not a lot for these days, but when i was a kid i don't remember hardly any homework! He has about 1 hour of homework to do each night, AND if he forgets one night then he has TWO hours to do the next night. There have been times where we are so busy and we saved the homework for the night before it was due. Not good. It takes hours. Each week he has math assignments usually involving counting the time, counting money, or addition and subtraction. He always has 23 new words each week that he is given a spelling test on. Throughout the week he has to write each word in a sentence, put them all in alphabetical order, say them out loud to me, i quiz him on them, he has to find them in a crossword puzzle, AND he has to unscramble the word into it's correct spelling. Then he has to read a poem out loud to me so that he can recite it clearly to his teacher on Friday. He also has a few sight words that he has to know. He has a story he has to read each week and answer questions to. It's quite a bit. But he is learning a lot and progressing quickly.

Another thing he has to do each night is read a book. When he reads each night he writes the title on a list. When he reaches 10 books on his list he turns the paper in and gets a star on the board at school. Once he reaches a certain amount he will get a prize from his teacher. He is working really hard on that to make sure he reads each night. Right now he is reading Magic Treehouse Books. They are books that can have up to 100 pages or more. We count a chapter as a book read, since most of the chapters could actually be counted as reading TWO books. He is doing well. Gavin really wants a skateboard. I told him that once he reads 100 books we will buy him a skateboard. He is so excited. So far he has read 20 books and as fast as he is going he will reach that goal in no time at all.

Gavin is such a good big brother. He takes care of his brothers. He loves to play with and tease his brothers. Emphasis on TEASE. :) He loves to go over to the basketball courts often to play basketball games with his friends and with Tanner. If it's raining out then they will dribble the ball in the house up and down the hallway, which isn't very big at all. He gets along , mostly, with Tanner and Jaydon.

Gavin loves to play games with me. He is always up for a game of cards...Old Maid, Go Fish, or his scrambled States of America card game.

He loves to talk and have conversations. He likes to listen to anything we have to say about our childhood. We have a list of 100 questions and it's called , FAMILY TALK. It has lots of questions you can ask each other and it helps start good conversation. He really likes to ask us these questions to hear what everyone says.

He likes to DRAW pictures. The pictures he draws are mainly of his family members, either doing something silly or drawing us the way he views us. It's funny.

He loves to be funny and loves to laugh and make his friends laugh.

While Gavin can be very emotional, i think with it also comes the ability to sympathize with others.

Gavin LOVES playing his DS or the Wii or XBox. Yes, we have too many electronic games. If this were a house of girls i might have more say in what we get around here. Anyway, for having so many electronic games, they aren't allowed to play very often. But when we do play he loves it.

He isn't very adventurous when it comes to trying different foods. He likes to stick with what he has known for the past 7 years. haha!

He loves to tease and wrestle around with dad.

He is understanding a lot about Heavenly Father's plan for us. We have many conversations and one time we were talking about people who do things that aren't right, but that doesn't mean they are bad. He said "Yeah, they just don't understand who they are and where they came from." I loved that he said that because i feel like if we know where we came from, our purpose on this earth, and where we are going after this life, it makes going through this life easier when you can keep an eternal perspective.When we know the WHY of what we are doing and being asked to do then it is so much easier to do what we are asked. I just hope he remembers that one day when things get more difficult.

He is such a good kid. We love him so much. He is our first born. He was my biggest pain, just as i was my mom's biggest pain. I can't imagine life without our sweet Gavin.

{Okinawa}...another post

I want to fill you all in on a little bit about Okinawa. I love learning new things and love sharing them. Some people don't care to hear about it and so it isn't exciting telling them, BUT when i write it out and post it i receive a lot of satisfaction because i feel like maybe there is someone who will enjoy reading it and i have fun telling about it. :) There is a TON still that i don't know, but i will tell you what i do know for now.

This island is 60 miles long and 18 miles wide. Yes, it takes us about a 5 minute drive to get to the beach outside the gate. The population size in Okinawa is 1,318,218 people. There is a significant American influence here. Mainland Japan doesn't want hardly any of our bases on that land, so they stuck the MAJORITY of them down here in Okinawa.

Okinawans like being called Okinawans, not Japanese. It all has to do with what happened during WWII and how the leaders of mainland Japan didn't want the war to occur on mainland so they used Okinawa has their scapegoat. They had only just owned Okinawa for about 30 years at that time. Okinawans got the shaft because of that.

When Okinawa was their own kingdom, along with the TONS of other islands surrounding it, they were called the Ryukyu Kingdom. There is a lot of Chinese Influence here and lots of things they have and do here are derived from the Chinese because during that time they did lots of trading with the Chinese(for hundreds of years). And actually during the 14th and 16th century the Ryukyu Kingdom was an established trading hub between several Asian Countries because of the Island's convenient geographic location.

When people think of Japanese alcohol they usually refer to it as Sake or Osake. BUT Okinawa's Spirits are known as Awamori and Kusu, not sake.

There are many types of sushi; Nigiri Sushi, Gunkan-sushi, Maki-sushi, Temaki-sushi, Chirashi-sushi, Inari-sushi.

Goya is a bitter melon that lots of people eat here on Okinawa. It can be traced back to East India and Southern Asia. It is a VERY bitter melon. It looks like the HULK version of a cucumber. :)

Okinawa's meat of choice is PORK. And they love SPAM.

There are MANY caves all over the island. The caves were the Okinawans safe place of refuge during the war. The caves are a reminder of the war and carry Historical Significance. Most of the caves are located near the beach.

Dragon Boat Racing is a big event here. The dragon is a symbol of power and it is said that they govern the clouds and rains, and rule the rivers, seas , and oceans.

There is a HUGE tug of war that occurs here in Okinawa, located in Naha. It's a HUGE event. The rope used in the tug-of-war is the largest rope made from natural materials in the world. The streets are packed, just like NYC ON new years eve, with people who want to be a part of the tug-of-war. The history of tug-of-war in Asia goes back to 71 A.D. in China. A tugging contest was held to decide which religion, Buddhism or Taoism, was superior. Tug-of-war in Japan always carry some kind of religious implication.

Okinawan tombs can be found EVERYWHERE on the island. They are usually fairly large(larger than any you will see in the states), but becoming more rare because of space considerations. During the battle of Okinawa the tombs were used for protective shelter by the Japanese forces. But many tombs were destroyed during the war.

Okinawa is surrounded my many many small islands. And the south part of mainland is filled with tiny islands. I think they call that certain area "99 islands".

Okinawa has tons of castles on it. They are known as Gusuku. There are a total of 38 confirmed castle sites in SOUTHERN Okinawa dating back to the 14th century. You can go see what remains, which is usually the wall and foundation.

Many people in Japan and Okinawa practice Shinto and the Chinese version of Buddhism.

The Battle of Okinawa occured in 1945. It was a sad sad situation. Over 200,000 civilians, Japanese, and US service members were killed.

It's so fun learning about the many traditions(and there are many!) that they have here. It is one of the safest places in the world and also one of the most beautiful. The houses aren't beautiful, BUT the scenery is. And it is one of the best locations in the world for scuba diving and snorkeling.

There are many celebrations and festivals here, usually ocurring between march and october.

{Okinawa World and other things...}

This is from our tour we took around okinawa from ABOVE. I sat in the front and he even let me control the plane temporarily until shane LOST it. I guess my steering was bumpy b/c i totally made shane lose control and he puked. Poor guy. honestly, i was close to puking as well and was soooooo glad when we finally landed.

This picture is when Aunt Mandi was here. What would a visit be with a JENKS without basketball?!?! Definitely not the same.

We took Mandi to Forest Adventure Park where they have the ziplining and some other fun things. This place is a blast. We had tons of fun here. This is a picture shane took of me getting ready to climb up to the platform.

We indulged this night, after eating sushi. We ate some Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake. I am not usually a fan of cheesecake but this was pretty good. :)

Here we are at the Sushi -go- round. We had mandi try some of our favorites. I discovered my NEW favorite. The kind of sushi i enjoy the most is nigiri sushi. It's a little clump or rice with raw fish on top. I do not like the rolled up sushi because i don't like seaweed. It tastes fishy to me and i don't like the fishy taste. So, my favorite Nigiri Sushi is Aurora Salmon. OH SO YUMMY!

Tanner clinging to Aunt Mandi. He is afraid of heights.

Here we are at Araha Beach. We enjoy playing on most the kids playgrounds here as well. Japanese playgrounds are the best. This particular one is right on the beach.

We took our boys to the Kodomo -no -kuni zoo. It's a fun zoo that we all enjoy.

Oh, here is a random picture of my homemade bread. I no longer BUY bread. I make my own each week. I make 3 loaves and it lasts the whole week. It's the BEST homemade WHOLE WHEAT FLAX bread in the WORLD. We love it.

Here are the Eisa drummers at Okinawa World. There was some other cool stuff, but the lady told me to stop taking pictures b/c they aren't allowed. I didn't know, but funny thing is that right in this picture you can see the sign that says no cameras are allowed. haha! Anyway, its lots of fun watching Eisa Drummers. They move their legs all over , as you can see to the left of the picture and they do cool twirl jumps in the air.

Shane and i tried FISH THERAPY (Dr. Fish). It was on our way out of Okinawa World. You put your feet in and the small little fish surround your feet and eat all the dead skin on your feet. I didn't know what to expect. It tickled. It was this tiny vibrating feeling from each fish, plus it TICKLED. It was hilarious. They loved Shane's feet a lot more than they loved mine.

At Okinawa World they also make glassware. We watched the process and it was so cool. In this picture below the glass is very hot , which is why it is red hot. It's amazing how fast they can go. I could watch it all day long.

Oh, they have these kind of displays EVERYWHERE in Okinawa. We try to take advantage of them b/c the kids love it.

Another one in the cave.

We went through such a cool cave here. It was the biggest and longest cave i have ever experienced! I was amazed. It was fairly humid. We walk on this platform and most of the time there is about 1-2 feet deep of water underneath us. They have the biggest stalagmite here in all of Japan. Stalactites and Stalagmites here are definitely a site to see! In the water you would see tiny little fish. There was even a small waterfall in there with some water pools.

Another one! :)

We went to Okinawa World's snake show. It was fun watching! At the end of the show you can take a picture with this LARGE snake. We each took a picture. I put Gavin's in here b/c he was brave enough to do it alone AND his face went so red. It was so cute. The poisonous snake here in Okinawa is called the Habu snake. They showed us a habu and we saw pictures of what happens if it bites you. It's SCARY! BUT apparently the sea snakes are more venomous than the Habu is! Crazy. The mongoose is an enemy to the Habu. It can kill the Habu. The island brought mongoose here to control the Habu population, BUT turns out the mongoose became more interested in feeding on other things so now they are trying to control the mongoose population.

This is called a sanshin. This is the Okinawan guitar. Three strings and you can see part of it is made of snake skin. You will hear the sanshin in most of the music here on the island.

Entrance to Okinawa WORLD. :)

{Happenings as of late}

Kokusai Street...It's a big shopping street. It's a hot spot for tourists too. They have lots of stuff to buy and lots of FUNNY things we saw along our way. Too funny. Mandi was with us at this time and we had tons of fun. :)

Okuma. We love Okuma. It's beautiful.

The boys love going across the street to the basketball courts. They sometimes meet other friends over there and play basketball together or they go over and ride their bikes. It's so convenient that it's right across the street. :)

Here's Jaydon giving us his tough karate pose.

We took a flight around Okinawa to see what it looks like from above. Unfortunately it was a fairly hazy day. BUT it was still beautiful. In this picture, can you see the bridge? That bridge leads to my favorite little island...Kourijima. It's beautiful....absolutely beautiful.

Araha Beach. This beach has a fun pirate ship playground for the kids to play on. It's a wonderful little spot.

Shane is no longer going to texas in march. It is now scheduled for May and he is going to alaska. I think i might have to meet him there so we can do an alaskan cruise. :) AND he is going to alaska at the same time as the epic ride around okinawa, which means we can't do it. bummer. :) haha!

It's starting to warm up around here lately. I am happy about that. I can't wait to get in the ocean again.

I got a pedicure done recently, while mandi was here with us. We LOVED it. It was so nice and i love the way they do pedicures here. They do AWESOME detailed designs on each toe and is doesn't cost extra. It's one set price. Its the best, really. I already can't wait to go again.

For V-DAY i signed shane up to get some reflexology done. He came out looking sooooooo calm and relaxed. It's a rare thing. :) Soooooo i love seeing him that way. It makes me laugh. He needs to get that done MORE often i think. I am thinking he needs to do it every other week. I really think it will help him too. AND he totally loved it and is ready to go back already. :) I am proud of myself for doing that for him. haha! It can be really hard to surprise him.

I am signed up to do my FIRST HALF-MARATHON in April. I am really excited, especially since we get to run across the bridge to Kourijima, my favorite place. I think it will be awesome.

Jaydon is going through TERRIBLE TWO'S right now. It's stressful for mommy, but i am making it. :) He is VERY stubborn. VERY. The other two weren't quite like this, although i do remember have a difficult time with Gavin. He had terrible two's and horrible three's. The way jaydon is going he will have horrible three's too. I can't imagine that one.

Tanner is still really enjoying his preschool. He is a smart kid, but underestimates himself and usually will never show a person what he is really made of if he is put on the spot. You just have to watch for it in his daily activities. I think he acts more mature in many ways in comparison with kids his age. Don't get me wrong, he has many moments where he acts like a kid his age would, but he often surprises me with his calm nature and understanding.

Gavin is growing a lot. He is very outgoing and full of energy. His big thing right now is that he wants a skateboard. I told him i would buy him one if he reads 100 books. He is on a mission. We bought him one of those alarms for kids who wet the beds. Ever since we put that thing on him he has been waking up on his own. Amazing. haha! That alarm doesn't even have to go off b/c the THOUGHT of it going off in his ear makes him wake up on his own in the night! i love it. As soon as he gets it down, we will use it on tanner. So far gavin has only gone two nights without peeing. That's great though. Anyway, gavin is a great reader now. He loves playing outside with his brothers and friends and loves spending time with mom and dad too. I can't wait until his eighth birthday! I am going to throw him a BIG birthday party to celebrate turning 8! It's going to be so much fun for him. :)

{What r u up to?}

We are up to a lot lately. Shane's sister Mandi came to visit us last week and we had tons of fun having her here with us. I think we kept her busy the entire time too. :) So much fun and laughs. We loved it. I need to post pictures from that week here soon. Probably not until this weekend when i have more time to post some pictures.

Shane is leaving me for about 2 1/2 weeks in MARCH to go back to the STATES. tdy. He has some training to do and he also is going to take leave to go see his family while he is there. JEALOUS. :) I would love to see family. AND i would also love 2 1/2 weeks break from my children...well, maybe not that LONG, but close to it. :)

My parents are coming in APRIL. I cannot wait!!! They will spend 2 weeks with us. I wish they could stay longer.

Shane and I are doing something together in MAY called, "The EPIC ride around Okinawa". We will BIKE around the entire island. yippee. We will bike 231 miles in 3 days. Really, i am excited that i will get to say i did it. BUT am i excited about 231 miles in three days? Not too much. Shane really wants to do it though and really wants ME to come. Sometimes we do things for the one we love that we don't really want to do. This is one of them. I am sure i will gain a lot from this experience though. I might end up loving it and i know the ride will be beautiful. Sounds like there will be 7-8 of us. Yes, we will ride on the busy roads the whole ride. SCARY. I told Shane "If i have to pick a way to die it definitely wouldn't be on a bike road in Okinawa." :) Anyway, in order to prepare for this i am going to have to work a BIT HARDER at my biking and getting in shape. I don't want this ride to be torture b/c i am not physically prepared....if i am prepared it will be enjoyable. Here's to forcing myself into shape and experiencing the EPIC ride around Okinawa. After this i think i will set out to do whatever physical activity i want. If i can do this, i can do anything. i want to do an olympic triathlon and a full marathon. hahaha!

Life just seems to get busier and busier. It's going by so fast. Gavin is signed up for basketball starting in march and tanner is starting KARATE in March as well. In APRIL they will ALL start swim lessons again and from there we will be swimming all summer long and going to the beach all summer long.