We ended December with Christmas and an engagement between my brother in law Ryan and his girl I mention all the time Stephanie Feurer. He proposed on Christmas Morning and she was so elated and in shock HAHA!! She couldn't believe I kept my knowledge of the proposal a secret...I didn't bring her along with me to get my rings cleaned and fixed all the time for no reason OF COURSE there was a reason...we needed to know what she looked at the most.
Onto Christmas for my family now...
Cowen and mommy celebrated with daddy's family in Dillon, MT and enjoyed watching uncle Ryan propose to Stephanie. We had a lovely ham and roast dinner thanks to Papa Phil and Grandma Nancy who provided the delicious roast and to Sheydens mother Shanda for the Ham. We sided it with some funeral potatoes/or mashed potatoes with gravy, broccoli, corn, and water or juice....then gobbled down goodies. We had Santa visit us on Christmas Eve and that entire weekend Skyped with Sheyden and Graison.
They celebrated in Japan of course and had a little mini tree that stands 2 ft tall. Not only did they celebrate there, but they enjoyed a little Christmas party for the kids and Graison got to see Santa as well...Santa brought him an early present and gave him a Hulk toy. I'm pretty sure Graison has a best friend out of Santa now for that one. Graison got to enjoy movies with his daddy too! They went to the new Hobbit movie and Graison watched all but the last 30 minutes of it in which he decided a nap was in order, they then later saw the new Night at the Museum and Into the Woods.
As for the process of this move, we have been going through the run around with the whole passport process for Cowen. One day it's "oh a tourist passport will get you here"...the next day it's "your baby will be booted from the country within 30 days of landing without the military no-fee passport"...then it changes to 90 days....then it changed to "your family can get here with your child having a tourist passport. No matter what he's protected under the SOFA act and they can not try forcing him from country because he is an infant and a civilian on this base".....so what does that mean?!!
WELL...that means that we didn't waste time and money on getting a tourist passport and that we will be able to get to Japan without having to go back to Spokane and deal with a huge mess. Now we wait for the passport to get here and we can be in Japan...hopefully by the end of January.
Cowens passport picture is so stinking cute...definitely took patience from everyone working with us to get the one perfect picture. The lady even stated that she may never be able to take an infant passport picture like his ever again. As for myself, I have just been trying to stay as relaxed as I can be even with my stressed out self. I went and saw my friend Marika and had her do my hair and I LOVE IT!! I definitely needed something new and my hair was starting to feel the effects of trying to stay light blonde when my roots want me to be darker. So we went as close as we could to my natural and added some "sun kissed" highlights to it.
While we're waiting on the passport, Sheyden has accomplished getting us a vehicle for over there and a base house. Now we need our household goods to arrive and that house will feel like our home.
Sheyden has been taking an advantage in learning the area we will be living in and already has lined up places he wants to take Cowen and I. He has been to be Kadena Marina twice, Araha Beach (pics) three times, golfing, fishing, the aquarium, joined the shop football team, etc... SPEAKING OF AQUARIUM...Graison absolutely loved it. Since they got to Japan and ventured to the beaches, all that kid has been saying is "me see sharks and whales!" Anytime he wants to go to the beach again it is that statement. So Sheyden and Graison were able to check it out and Graison loved it, he ended up coming home with a whale shark stuffed animal.
Well this is as much as I can really update until we know a little bit more about that passport making it to us. We're praying that everything stays on course now and that we can finally be back together as a whole. Graison has been missing and needing his mama but also has been doing so well with everything. He amazes me everyday and he's becoming such a big boy. Hopefully I can figure out how I can load a video into these blogs so you all can enjoy him as he grows and Cowen too! I'm sure we'll be getting into some fun years with these boys and even though we'll be far im hoping to be able I create a closeness with our blog! Enjoy the read!
Love,
Sheyden Candice Graison and Cowen
