Kenna is 3!

We had a party for Kenna's 3rd birthday this past saturday (Nov. 8th). Nothing big. Just a few neighbors and two of her favorite friends. We cooked hot dogs and let the kids run around, opened a few presents, and enjoyed homemeade cupcakes. It wasn't much, but it was everything to Kenna.

Then on Monday the 10th (her actual birthday) we gave her our presents. This was the year for dress up. Every little girl loves playing dress up and Kenna is no exception. She was so excited about it. She loves the "fancy shoes", the clip on earrings, and hats. This girl even has quite a few purses that she loves to carry everywhere we go!

Here is she all dressed up for the first time with her new stuff.

It wouldn't be the same at our house if Daddy didn't join in all the fun!

You've come a long way, Baby!

Happy Birthday to me

Happy Birthday to me,

Happy Birthday dear Melissa,

Happy birthday to me!

Tink and Peter Pan

So, Halloween has to be one of my favorite holidays since moving to Okinawa. Being from Minnesota, the trick was to figure out what your costume was going to be, while still fitting it over a winter jacket. Definitely not cool for a princess or ballerina. However, the weather here is perfect for costumes and the greatest thing- NO NEED FOR WINTER JACKET!!!

This year, Kenna was more excited about getting dressed up and even remember how to say "Trick-or-treat". With her obsession with Peter Pan and Tinker Bell, nothing else would do for Halloween. Plus, it mean that Daddy could get in on the fun! What a daddy won't do his daughter!

Happy Anniversary!

I join my life to yours, not merely as your husband, but as your friend, your lover, and your confidant. Let me be the shoulder you lean on, the rock on which you rest, the companion of your life. With you I will walk my pathfrom this day forward.

With you I will walk my pathfrom this day forward. Whatever lies ahead, good or bad, we will face together. Distance may test us for a time, and time may try us. But if we look to each other first, we will always see a friend. Look to me for all the days to come!

I promise to give you the best of myself and to ask of you no more than you can give. I promise to respect you as your own person and to realize that your interests, desires and needs are no less important than my own. I promise to share with you my time and my attentionand to bring joy, strength and imagination to our relationship. I promise to keep myself open to you, to let you see through the window of my world into my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams. I promise to grow along with you, to be willing to face changes in order to keep our relationship alive and exciting. I promise to love you in good times and in bad, with all I have to give and all I feel inside in the only way I know how. Completely and forever.

A good marriage must be created. In marriage, the little things are the big things: Never being too old to hold hands, Remembering to say "I love you" at least once a day. Never going to sleep angry. Having a mutual sense of values and common objectives. Standing together facing the world. Forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family. Speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. Having the capacity to forgive and forget, and the forgetting what you forgave. Giving each other an atmosphere in which to grow. Not only MARRYING the right person, but BEING the right partner.

Chinese Garden of Zen

In the middle of downtown Naha. In amongst the cars, noise and hustle and bustle of the city, is a small garden. It is peaceful and quiet except for the roar of the waterfall. There are fish and turtles to feed and even a view worth seeing from behind the waterfall. Kenna managed to make some friends with a young couple who shared their bread with her. So that she could feed the fish. Imagine their surprise when she said "Domo" (thank you) and even bowed. Aside from the two elderly couples that had to take pictures everywhere and of everything, we were pretty much all alone and on our own!

Kenna and Mommy resting

Kenna looking up the pagoda

Simply beautiful! (Look closely, there is an aparment building behind)

Kenna and Daddy feeding the fish and turtles

Beach Time!

Kenna has been asking to go to the beach. So we took some family time on Saturday morning before things got busy and headed to a small beach on Camp Courtney. We were lucky that we were the only ones who had this thought as we got the beach all to ourselves! Kenna and Shawn were free to run and scream and play without me having to worry to much about who they were bothering! :)

It is always fun to watch Kenna play in the water!

Shawn and Kenna exploring the caves at the beach

Another creature enjoying the beach!

Trip to Cocoks

Here in Okinawa there is a wonderful place that all of the women love- Cocoks. I have to admit it is a favorite way to spoil myself! Recently, I took Kenna with her bestest friend ever- Becca! They both were tickled pink about sitting and soaking their toes and getting to pick out what they wanted on their toes!

Kenna and Becca

Here they are soaking their toes and Becca is still trying to decide what she wants!

Sitting in the big chairs watching their toes get done!

Birds, Birds, Birds, and a Scared Little Girl

Since it was Labor day weekend and we had a family pass to Neo Park, we took a trip up there. Kenna and I had been there before, for a birthday party, but this was the first time for Shawn. The park is full of wonderfully beautiful birds and opther exotic animals. We fed the birds bread and dodged the rain drops as it decided to rain while we were there.


Shawn developed a friend with this bird. It followed us through the park, eating from his hand. It was the prettiest color. It had a bright yellow beak and tail feathers, light blue eyes and a black body! Note the other on-lookers!

As you can see, Kenna is deathly afraid of birds! If we weren't holding her, she was glued to our legs!

Favorite Day

Today has to be my most favorite day in Okinawa (since the Hughes left the island that is). It is actually Shawn's birthday. He is 33 years younger today. In honor of that, he had the day off and we spent some family time biking and geocaching. Biking around our neighborhood allowed me to look at little closer at the houses and people.



Plus this well. Doesn't look like what we would think a well would look like. It got me to wondering how old it was and if at one time people used it for their water. However, now it is has overgrowth and algae. Anyway, it is amazing to see how simply the Japanese live. I am also shocked by how quickly new buildings, several stories high, go up. And while they live almost on top of each other, they still managed to make cement look beautiful and very livable.



Geocaching caches that were new and close to home added to our fun little bike trip. Even though we really only found one cache and then had a party pooper (Kenna) we still enjoyed ourselves. Kenna kept telling me to move so that she could see her daddy. How do you explain to a two year old that if you move she will fall over?! Remind me again why we put her seat on the back of my bike?????

Happy Birthday Nay-Nay!

Mona's Jungle

So with sun and humidity beating down on Okinawa, we try and find things to do indoors. This ensures that no one melts! Today we went to an indoor play area. If anyone remembers Discovery Zone, it is similar to that choas. Only the prices here are better!

Kenna and her friends like to run, climb, and of course eat snacks. She met a little Japanese boy on this trip. It was fun to watch them run around and play together. One speaking English and the other speaking Japanese, but it didn't matter to them. I didn't manage to get a picture of them together. I wish I had.

Saying goodbye

Having to say goodbye to one's child is not easy. While it is not that they passed away or that they are taking a right of passage like going to college. No, I am saying goodbye as we prepare to head back to Okinawa for Shawn to return to duty. 30 days of leave never seems like enough time. However, I don't think that all the leave in the world would make any difference.

Our last day together was filled with mixed emotions. Jenaya woke up rather ornery and Elle was quiet. She was in her thinking mode. Ian and Marni constantly picked at each other. I knew that it had to do with being torn. They were ready to go home. They were excited to see their dad and mommy number 2-Kelly. They wanted to see how much their little kitty, Pippa, had grown. However, all of these things meant that Mom, Shawn and MacKenna were leaving... again.


We filled the day with packing and searching Papaa's house for forgotten items and lost treasures. The kids filled their suitcases to overflowing and packed the back of the van. Already, the house seemed less full of life.

We did have one last hurray. Nay-Nay wanted to have a whipped cream fight and I had told her yes. To be honest, I didn't really want to. I was tired and depressed and struggling through my own emotions. However, she must have known something that I did not. She must have known that we all needed to laugh one more time together. That, as a family, we needed to be silly.

Shawn bought 7 cans of redi-whip and we all dressed in 55 gallon drum garbage bags. Those bags were huge! Poor Kenna had to wear a garbage sack instead. Less to cut off and less around the middle. However, all the rest of us wore one. Ian had to tie his on the side so that he had room to run and move. He looked like he was dressed back when it was in fashion to tie your shirt in a knot on the side of your outfit. Nay-Nay figured out that you could tie two of the corners between your knees and you would look like you had on knickers of sorts.

Flying handfuls of whipped cream and screams of laughter erupted from Papaa's backyard. Somehow the kids and I were more covered than Shawn. Must be some military tactics that he used. It may have only lasted for 15 minutes, but it was worth the memories and the laughter it created on such a yucky day.

While saying goodbye is never easy for me, I have strength in knowing that this road is the road that God wanted for me. I find comfort in knowing that He is in charge and has blessed me.

Oreo race

Did anyone else know that Oreo's were good for other things besides eating???

I had read somewhere that you could race with them. So Shawn, all the kids, and myself tried it. We split the cookies in half. Getting all the cream filling to stick to one side. Then we licked the frosting and stuck it to our foreheads. The loser was the one whose cookie fell off their face first.



Marni, Shawn, and I managed to break our cookies in the process of sticking them to our foreheads. Kenna didn't really understand what we were doing and proceeded to stick her cookie to her check, hand, and anywhere else that would make us laugh.



Elle, in all her wisdom of 13, decided that we were too silly and did not partake any further than being the photographer of us goofballs.



It took so long for the cookies to fall off (our body heat was supposed to melt the frosting, but I think I remember it needing to be double stuffed-oops) that we had to resort to helping them. We tried jumping jacks, but that only made us out of breath. We tried wrinkling our foreheads, but that only felt weird and maybe only loosen their position.



Finally out of frustration, Shawn pulled his cookie off and ate it. Winner or not, I was left looking like a dork all by myself!

Queen of three letter words

The kids and I have been playing Boogle like it is going out of style. It is amazing to me that even Marni and Ian can play. And since when did Jenaya get smarter than me??

There is something about sitting around the kitchen table with all of us searching for words, that has filled me with a sense of peace and greatfulness.

Peace, because I can see all four of my kids and know that they are healthy and happy. I can see how they have grown and the changes that they have made.

Greatfulness, because all seven of us are under one roof. I get to be mom, even if it is only for 30 days. This past year has had its moments when I questioned if we were going to be OK. God has shown me that he keeps His promises no matter what. He never forgets and always remembers.

And so I am off to be the Queen of three letter words!

Beauty Parlor

Kenna played beauty parlor with her big sisters, Miss Elle and Nay-nay!

She also did her own make up!! Isn't she beautiful?

Here she is putting "lips" on her client.

Nay-nay doesn't like how her "eye lash polish" went on.

Miss Elle let the new nail technican paint her nails

(Thank God for soap and water)