Gigi Cherry Blossom Pictures

I know it was a lot to ask to have you go to that link and look at 100 pictures, so I'm going to post the pictures of each of my girlies in their own blog post. Selfishly, I can pull them up and gaze at them at will now. ☺

Here's my adorable little Gigi. She is 17 1/2 months here and so sweet I could eat her with a spoon!

I love her hair up in a "Pebbles" ponytail style!

You saw this one before, but I doubt I will get complaints that you are going to look at it again! ☺

And yes, I'm including the black and white version as well for most of them. It's so funny to me how gorgeous and full of color the photos were...they still are so beautiful and special in a totally different dimension in black and white!

She just wandered around and around and our fabulous photographer, Danielle Caceres just clicked away! ☺

I love this one with her big smile and her toofies showing and her hair blowing in the wind!

Tom (GrandDad) likes to display his pictures in black and white, so I want him to let me know which ones to order. :)

Well, I want to give you a huggers too!!!!! (Yes, I even talk in baby talk in my head when there are no babies around.)

Of course I'll take two hugs!!!

I had my makeup done and while it was very pretty, it was just a bit much. Or as Mick says....this doesn't even look like Mommy's eyes. I love it when she is getting me from a bit further away or from the side when I'm smooching on Mick, but I guess I'm just not a glamour girl!!! Girly girl....not glamour girl!

All four of my girlies!!!!!!

I love you Gigi Wigi!!!!!!!

My 40th Birthday with Elvis

My 40th birthday fell on the first Friday of the month which is a big night out at the Officers' Club. Each unit sponsors a night a month at the Club and this one happened to be "Iwakuni Idol" with a Kareoke "competition." It was only logical that Mick dressed in his new Elvis costume that Tracy and Doug got him for Christmas!  

He was asked if he was young Elvis or old Elvis and he said that he was the Elvis that joined the Marine Corps and didn't make it big.

Everyone was so awesome all night long! Mick's Deputy's wife bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and my friend Mary had e-mailed a bunch of people that it was my birthday and to come out to the Club to celebrate. Mick got a cake and asked the bartenders to hang a birthday banner. He brought the pretty plates and napkins that Aunt Judy and Aunt Mary Frances sent me for my birthday. It was like a real party!!!!

Priscilla probably felt this lucky in the heyday!

From left to right is Nicci, who gave me a totally "me" necklace that I love, Megan, me (I think you know me!) and Mary. Good friends! Good times!!!



Simon, Paula and Randy even showed up to judge our competition and Ryan was there to emcee!

Be sure to notice that Paula's nipple is showing. :)

For the first song, Elvis warmed up the crowd by singing ♪♫♪ Happy Birthday ♪♫♪ to me!

His voice was amazing! ;-)

Then it was time for cake!

Coffee ice cream on one side and vanilla on the other. ☺

What a guy!!!!!!

Then I took the stage for the *first* time.

The judges sent me to Vegas with my rendition of "Let's Dance" by David Bowie!!!

I was a bit of a microphone hog. Mick and I sang "Summer Lovin'" from Grease and I was his backup singer on "I Want You to Want Me" by Cheap Trick.  Off the top of my head, the rest of my songs were "Start Me Up" by the Rolling Stones, "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred, "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks...there were probably several more, but it was over a week ago.  ;-)

Thank you Mick for such a fun night!

Forty is FUN!

Pictures with the Cherry Blossoms at the Kintai Bridge

Thank you, thank you, thank you Danielle Caceres, amazing photographer extraordinare! We just received the fabulously taken and edited pictures from our cherry blossom shoot at the Kintai Bridge on our 14th anniversary! You can see all of them by clicking here, clicking on "Client Albums" and entering the password of "susan". (And if you do so and are so inclined to comment, please let me know what version of the pictures you like best as an over-arching rule. The vivid, the soft or the black and white tint. Oh and which ones of the "Unedited" are MUST HAVES to have Danielle edit? Besides the completely obvious one of Gigi laughing (#74) and the one of Mick and Claire laughing (#92), I have #44, #45, #50, #58, #69, #78, #79 and #85. Thanks!) Here are a few favorites from the first cut.

This is my favorite of the six of us. There is a distinct advantage of having four daughters. Pink for everyone!

I think Audrey's Mom might really be Gwyneth Paltrow from the looks of these pictures! ☺

Olivia really got the "smiling with your eyes" part down in this picture! ☺

Claire looks as sweet as a cherry blossom itself here! ☺

Gigi was NOT in the mood for pictures, so Danielle had to catch her while she was wandering around. Gorgeous, huh?

I love this one in black and white too! It looks like she's walking through a field of bubbles! What fun that would be! ☺

Claire's smile is so sweet!

Danielle got one of each of three big girls with Daddy and one with Gigi and me. I don't like the one with Gigi and me because my makeup is too heavy, but the ones with Daddy are just precious!

Aunt Nico said that Audrey looks like Emma Roberts (niece of Julia) here. Definitely a movie star of some sort! ☺

They were taken on our 14th anniversary and I'm ever so grateful and happy to have Mick as my husband!

Thank you so much Danielle!

These will be treasured forever!!!

Mother's Day at Tsuzu Beach

Spring took it's time getting here, but it was such a pretty, pretty day today for Mother's Day and Audrey suggested we go to Tsuzu Beach to hunt for some sea glass. We got some HUGE pieces and Claire found an absolutely precious piece of pottery. I'll have to take pictures of our finds later, but here are some pictures of our girls.

♥ I'm such a lucky Mommy to have these four wonderful, beautiful girls! ♥

♥ And that Mick Wagoner....super lucky to have him too!!! (Even if Gigi loves him best!) ♥

Gigi loves the beach. There was no noisy, scary tide and squishy dirt...what's not to love?

Gigi fell off a slide on Thursday and had to have her head dermabonded. We weren't supposed to get it wet for a week, but we had to give her a bath tonight with hair washing!

Claire is so CLAIRE. We just let her wear what she wants and it's usually fabulous.

There were two cute doggies by the park. Gigi liked them, but not too close!

We went to the zipline and Gigi wished she was just a bit bigger!

Claire did a great job and went over and over!

I had to put both of these in here because the one above is so cute with Audrey clapping for her and then the sheer joy on her face is so sweet here.

I had so many cute ones of Olivia on the zipline. So fun!

Such a great idea to come here, Audrey. Thank you!!!

My sweet, sweet baby loved the little park with regular swings and a small roller slide.

I love funny Japanese signs!

California Chicken is a little takeout place for chicken, gyozas and fried rice right outside of the main gate. A retired Marine and his wife have owned and operated it since 1985. It was delicious! It wasn't exactly a Mother's Day Brunch at the Club, but just right for our day!

A very relaxing, fun outing! I love Tsuzu Beach!

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom!

I wanted to send you some pictures for Mother's Day.

I hope you enjoy them!

I'll talk to you in the morning for me! xoxo

Birthday Chop!!! (Hai!)

This morning there was a strange, fun site in our little garden. Lots of chopsticks in the dirt! Mick brought in the gift bag that was there too and told me he thought it was from our neighbor Mary and that she had put the chopsticks in to keep the birds from eating our flowers. I waited to open the gift until I saw her, but she said it wasn't her! So I opened the gift and the card said

"You've been chopped

(it's like being forked,
but with a Japanese stick),

 because you're loved a lot!

 Hope your birthday is GREAT!"

I took the card and beautiful Japanese candle out to take a picture of it. When I downloaded the picture I saw that the candle is right beside our first dandelion! (Sigh!) Oh well! I always have told the girls that dandelions are my favorite flower because kids love to pick flowers for their Mamas and no one minds when you pick their dandelions! :)

What fun from my mystery friend!!!!!! 

The card caption inside says "Because the wine's already chillin'!" :) 

HOORAY!

THANK YOU
(whoever you are!)!!!!!!!!!!

Obama Got Osama!!!

It happened on his watch, under his direction, by the superb bravery of the US military. It's time to give some credit and kudos because he sure would have been the one to take the blame if it wouldn't have worked so flawlessly!

There are a lot of good articles out there, but this one is short, fun and to the point.

Way to go President Obama

and

the Navy Seals!!!!!

Gigi's VW Panty Bug

Gigi loves playing with the basket of Claire's panties. Usually she takes them and marches them right over to the laundry basket, which is extraordinarily helpful. Today I was folding a load of white clothes (and we wash a lot of clothes around here, I bet it was only two days worth of clothes) and there were 11 pairs of Claire's panties in there.

But today she and Claire were playing Barbies AND panties and Gigi spent about five minutes stuffing panties into the Barbie VW Bug that Aunt Nico gave Audrey many years ago. :)

She's such a funny and BUSY baby!!!!

Month of the Military Child

On this amazing day, where I am so happy and proud to be a military wife and American, I thought I would show you pictures of the Month of the Military Child celebration last Friday.

It really is extraordinary, living on this base in Japan, sending your child to school knowing that each and every one of the children are somehow a part of our military. There are some kids whose parents are civilians (teachers, GS workers, etc), but every one of those parents are over here, serving the military and all of these children have Iwakuni as their temporary home.

There were a lot of fun activities for the kids throughout the month. Audrey talked and talked ("Daddy, did you know they were going to do that?!?!?) about how a bunch of Marines burst into the cafeteria when the 6th graders were there and took them out for a mini-boot camp! So many units came in and did special things for the kids.  The fire trucks came, the military dogs, robotics from the wing...it was a really awesome month!

The last day the parents were able to go have lunch with their child out in the field. There were 5, or was it 6, bouncey houses and a live band, The Rock and Roll Junkeez, made up of three teachers and a Marine wife.  The girls were really happy that I brought them Subway for lunch and both held my hand as we walked around. :)

Olivia with the two Brandons and her friend Kinley. :)

Clockwise from Audrey is Kate (4th grader, but tres cool), Lebet (short for Elizabeth...and her Dad is one of the Rock and Roll Junkees...and she has lived here nearly all of her life), Bobbi (who just transferred in from a Japanese school. Her Mom is a Japanese National and her Dad works for the government, perhaps the Navy?), and Haille (Mom is a 5th grade teacher and her Dad is the high school principal).

When I left the picnic lunch, I photographed the girls' classroom doors that had been decorated for the "Month of the Military Child. Some of the photographs aren't great (sorry!), but the decorations WERE! :)

This one was done by Olivia's class. Even small hands can serve the world!

This one was on Audrey's door. The Few, the Proud, the Kids!

Audrey's class decorated each window too. They were so cute; I wish the pictures didn't have such a glare!

I think that's a map of Japan on the left with the names of all of the units here at Iwakuni. On the right, a picture of a military Dad and a kid having "quality time." :) 

Audrey and her friend Shaina, who just moved to Hawaii, made this one together. Splatter paint is Audrey's favorite art and it says "Small Hands Big ♥'s!" She brought this home from school today, the first school day of May, and we hung it in her room. :)

I am proud of my military children. They have moved around and around (and around for Audrey), but they are stronger kids and will be stronger adults for it. We have enjoyed every where that we have lived while still loving "home" in Iowa/Nebraska. We are looking forward to settling down when Daddy retires from the military in a few short years, but wouldn't trade the experience for the world!