spring dresses. beautiful friends.

Michael with the help of Milton...

...and the orchestra (music composed by Covenant Senior Brian)....

....brings in the Spring.

(The video is of Michael's conducting for the first time in front of an audience. Yes, I know Drew Belz took a better video with a better angle....but at least I got something :). I couldn't get the lighting right for my camera so I took a video instead. I just wanted a small clip at first, but thought the music was so amazing and Michael was doing so great I felt, out of respect, I should shoot the whole thing. The music was composed by Brian, a graduating Covenant student. )

My Childhood

My brother forwarded the following pictures awhile ago and I just got around to storing them on my computer. Looking at these photos, I remember the fact that I was never fond of my parents taking pictures of me. Now, I appreciate these photos so much. The life in the tribes were hard for me and I couldn't wait for the day I was back living in civilization. I'm realizing now that I was so busy looking forward into my life, that I didn't think twice about leaving my childhood behind. However, thanks to my parents who were committed to capturing our lives every step of the way, I can look back and see that I had a great childhood, though I may not have known it then. (And recognize the importance of living in the now and not being in such hurry to move on.)

To get here....

...so my parents can work....

...we took this plane...

...and this boat, and a fishing boat and a pearl ship.

In the tribe, we played house like any other children around the world.

Instead of a car, my family owned a dug out canoe.

Take your child to work day

Our home. My Mother.

Dr Yukari Takata in the house!!

So excited! My sister got her financial packet for her doctorate program and it's looking VERY good! So that means, no more Miko at our house and Yukari is coming back to the States!!!!!!!! I'm so proud of you Kan-chan! You are gonna rock!!

Fried Green Tomatoes

Inspired by the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, the boys fix'd us some good ol' Southern cooking. I have traveled the world and hands down, I say that Southern Cooking is the number one kind of comfort food. Okay, besides Nato and fried fish. I love all kinds of food, but there is a different kind of nostalgia that goes with fried foods than any other genre of dishes. It's an experience of guilty pleasures: fatty, salty and over stuffing yourself....mmmmm Yum!

Once upon a time

Oliva was born...

My Dad and Brother

My dad and brother came to visit last weekend.


They rocked us in bowling

(My dad beat us all with 8 strikes)
And they cooked us so Tempura and Soba dinner.

It was a short visit, but was a good one. We miss you guys!

Where's Wally

actually, let's play, Where's Miko.

Can you find her?

Look closer...yes, that is our beloved cat stuck in a tree. The same tree she got stuck in a week ago.

Apparently she hasn't learned her lesson. The first time, I noticed she was missing was when she didn't come back in the evening. The next morning I heard her meowing and started looking around in the bushes...then I looked up, and there she was. Vincent called Brandt to borrow their window washing ladder and proceeded to go after her. Once he got up to her, she freaked and jumped down herself...which makes me believe that she can jump down again. In the process she scratched Vincent by trying to hold on to his back.

This time, same thing. I noticed Miko didn't return in the evening. I didn't think she will be stuck in the same tree, but looked. And there she was!

Poor cat. and poor Vincent who has to go get her.
and poor me, who doesn't have anything better to do then blog about a cat in a tree.

Family Pictures

Family pictures taken before Yukari left - for mommy and daddy.

Family pictures are probably the most common kind of shots taken in this world. If you ask me, they are the most difficult pictures to take. Most occasions, I think the process of taking family pictures brings out the worst in families...which is ironic because the end result makes a family look so 'happy'.

Here, I'm waiting for the peeps to get to their places....it takes about 10 - 15 min.

One of many shots...trial and error. trial and error.

This is not posed. This is a 'true' family shot.
After seeing this picture, we all laughed - which is good b/c we finally were able to take the shot below.
The lighting isn't great, but we take it. We are relaxed and ourselves.
I hate taking family pictures, but I love the memories.

Advanced Style

I was illegally surfing the net at work.
Specifically, I was going through Mary's blog - and found this blog: Advanced Style - Proof from the wizened and silver-haired set that personal style advances with age.

Mary, where did you find this blog? It's awesome! Made my dreary Friday morning!

My predictions:

Micheal Kendall??Bethany??? Or maybe more Emily?

Maybe this is more Bethany??

Matt Laslo???? (I personally think this is my best prediction.)

Sienna???

Maybe, Vincent and I?...maybe not...at least hopefully not the hair.

Vincent?? Maybe too "hot". Maybe minus the glasses and the hat.

Anyways. It's an awesome site. Props to the photographers!!!

Isaac and Megan

. . .are engaged!

Congrats friends!

Here are some pictures from their engagement party.

More on flickr.

Couple with their cousin, Margret and Bronwyn.

Calvin and Isaac's matching boots.

Vincent and Will

Girls night out

Carrie's been in town for the past week! A FULL week!YEAH! I'm loving it!
She's been spoiling me, making me baths while I'm sick and cooking and cleaning for us. I feel like a bad host but I've felt loved. For sure.

Grace turned big 3-0!
Mom's wanted a break.
Carrie was in town.
What more reason do we need to have a girls night out?

Another addition

Meet Miko, the new member of the family.

She's our 'neice'. We are taking care of Miko for the next several months as Yukari goes off to Africa. For the longest time I thought my sister would be roughing it in Africa.

Not the case, really. She is heading off to Kenya and Tanzania to be an environmental analyst/assessor for an underground resort and a company called Monsoon Empires. (You gotta check out their webiste!) For the other part of the trip she will she'll be creating an eco-tourism packet for...I think the same company (different website)...The eco-tourism packet will include experiences such as Yacht 'hotel', Safaris, Gorilla Tracking and Scuba diving.

So. My sister will not be roughing it in Africa. Far from it. It'll be more like resort hoping.
Go get em' Kari....and get Vincent and I the hook up to come visit you. I'm so proud of your hard work and you deserve to have a great adventure!

Oh! And to follow her on this trip she's started a blog.

Holidays - the end: New Years

New Years at D's.

(Side note: D and I have celebrated 7 new years together consecutively. We somehow get stuck with planning or hosting the parties....except for the time we escaped to NY. Craziness!)

New Years is best celebrated with small group of friends!

This is of us counting down. And apparently I'm not a good videoographer - you can't see anything...and I cut it into two pieces by accident.

The last part of our singing.

Bean and Me...

Matt and Vincent
Happy New Years from the Howards!!

Holidays Part IV: Christmas and My Siblings

Christmas day was a bit crazy this year. First of all, Yukari and Yuji couldn't get down to be with us until Christmas Eve. Vincent and Brandt had stayed up until 3 AM the night before getting the Wii warmed up so we were already exhausted. Then Christmas Eve, Yuji's car decided to break down 2.5 hours north from here. So we had to forego Christmas Eve dinner for the guys to drive 5 hours to pick Yuji up. Yukari arrived around 10PM. The boys didn't arrive until about 1 - 2 AM. Then they decided to kick it with the wii for couple more hours.

Here is the crew the next morning. To enjoy Christmas day to the fullest, we pulled ourselves out of bed around 10am. We look a bit shabby, and so is the focus on the picture, but it truely reflects how we all felt from the lack of sleep.

Tired or not, nothing stops us from opening gifts.

The aftermath.

And here is Vincent, slaving away at the Turkey he couldn't prep the night before becuase he was on the road to pick Yuji up. Vincent was a good sport and worked hard into the night.

It's 1AM, now Dec. 26th. We are pooped. The turkey is finally done.
Thanks to Vincent we had a delicious Christmas Dinner to end off our crazy LONG Christmas day.