If the shoe fits...

"You've held me back long enough! I'm going to clown college."

Matthew likes trying on shoes...anyone's shoes will do.
His 3 1/2 year old cousins shoes fit pretty well. Here he is trying on Uncle John G's shoes.
A tad on the ridiculous side.

Matthew doesn't see any problem with it.
You can see Anna watching him in the background. He tried wearing her shoes too.

He finally decides walking in these shoes in no longer feasible.
I think we may have a picture of my older brother wearing this exact type of shoe of my dad's when he was little. I might be making that up though.

Anna's Blessing

We blessed Anna this past Sunday in Scott's home ward in Oregon. The (not so) little dress we got for Anna was a bit on the big side, so I guess she can still wear it for a long time to come. She still looked cute though. Before and after her blessing she screamed and whined loudly, but she was nice and quiet (and reportedly "smiley") during the blessing. Here is Anna, drowning in her dress and laying on her Christmas present quilt from Aunt Ruth and Uncle Dana. My sister (Ruth) made it with her own two hands! It is so cute and soft.

Here's Ruth and Anna having a chat.

Ruth and Dana got to be here for the blessing. Dana's family lives in Vancouver so its just a short drive for us to get together when we are both with the in-laws. My brother Will, who recently moved to eastern Washington for grad school was also able to come for the blessing. It was fun having Uncle Will come, even though Aunt Courtney couldn't make it 'cause of work. :( We missed you Courtney!

Here's Anna and Matthew relaxing. They are having so much fun seeing all the aunts and uncles (and cousins and grandparents!!).

Seen during our Christmas holidays

Three generations of Guptill guys...er, I mean, two Guptills and a Santa.

Here's Anna on Christmas morning. She doesn't care about the presents, she just wants to get that sock off.

Matthew liked his ABC puzzle

Here's Anna and I on Christmas morning after her very needed outfit change.

Wow, that's a red outfit

Serious about eating his goldfish crackers

Getting ready to go out shopping.

I can't put my arms down.
Anna trying on her too big coat.

They're cousins...
Karlee and Anna hanging out.
They're about three months apart.

Guess who's older
Anna looks so helpless

And here they are after some serious shopping

Here we are stuck for 45 minutes on an off ramp in the middle of a bunch of semis. That's Scott in the middle, rubbing elbows with the truckers. Gotta love driving in the snow.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with family at Great Grandma Guptill's house (aka G3). It was a bit of a treacherous drive up there, even though it wasn't very far, but we had a good time. Anna got to meet Grandma for the first time. Anna loved being held by her right from the start. Here are the Guptill ladies getting acquainted..

Santa even made a special appearance. To the surprise of all, Matthew went right up and gave Santa a high five, then climbed into his lap. Later we tried to get both Anna and Matthew up on Santa's lap. Anna had been sleeping and kind of dozed off again while Santa was holding her. Check out Anna's one missing sock.

Here's Anna snuggling with Grandma again.

Matthew was sneaking little bits of candy whenever he could (candy cane!). He was a little bit wired, but hey, it's Christmas. He was having so much fun with all the cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.

Here's the graham cracker gingerbread house we made. Scott and I tried our best to make a free standing structure while Matthew snuck as much candy as he could. By the end we had a decent graham cracker house and a little boy with sticky candy cane hands. Tis the season, I guess. Hope everyone's holidays are going good!!

Coming to America...

...TODAY!!
After a few false starts we finally made it to the U.S. We were greeted by a LOT of snow in the northwest. It was a big shock coming from the relative warm of Okinawa. This picture is Matthew looking out at the Seattle airport. He called the snow "ice cream."

Here we are in the Naha airport in Okinawa (at the beginning of our trip). They wouldn't let us take our big stroller to the gate, but they do have these nice strollers to borrow.

Anna loved her Japanese stroller.

Our flights from Okinawa to Tokyo and Tokyo to Seattle went pretty well. Scott and I couldn't sit by each other 'cause we each had a lap child (thems the rules) so we sat across the aisle from each other. It wasn't so bad. The kids slept for a lot of our long flight. When we got to Seattle, they started to get fussy and tired of traveling (so did I).

So did this guy.

Seattle airport was crazy and full of lots of unhappy customers, including this guy (above) who appears to have given up on life. Luckily our flight from Seattle to Portland (a three hour drive) was not canceled, only delayed three hours. Portland airport was closed for a while because of all the snow but eventually opened one runway, allowing us to fly in. It was weird taxiing at Portland over all the snow. Portland airport was full of more unhappy customers than Seattle was. It was sad. Hopefully people will be able to get where they are going safely.

Here we are at Target in Clackamas (Portland area). I was amazed at all the snow - check out the truck next to the snow pile. So small. Scott keeps telling me how mild Oregon winters are. What else have you been lying to me about, Scott (if that is your real name)? Just kidding.

The snow covered trees of the pacific northwest. So pretty.

Our Year

If you were looking for a really looong slideshow of our first year in Okinawa, you've come to the right place. This collection of pictures from our year is 7 minutes long and shows some of our adventures, so I won't be at all offended if you decide to stop watching after about 30 seconds. Also, I won't know. So, watch as much (or as little) as you want. See, it's not as bad as being subjected to someone's vacation pictures against your will, right? This slideshow also has music - just a warning.

Happy Holidays!

Hi family and friends,

Greetings from Okinawa!
Well, what a year it's been, here's a quick update.
In January we moved to Okinawa Japan for Scott's job. He has been working as the financial services officer in charge of payroll for the Air Force base here in Okinawa. It is a very challenging job and keeps him extremely busy. This is a very active base with many unique pay issues that Scott deals with. He works with some good people so that helps ease some of the stress. We got a house off base, so we live out in the local community and we really love our little neighborhood. Grocery shopping at the local Japanese store is always an adventure. In April we took a week long trip to China - a once in a lifetime chance for us. It was a great experience. In May we were able to spend a week in mainland Japan touring Tokyo with Scott's brother John who was quite a good tour guide (he served his mission in Tokyo). Thanks John! In August we welcomed the newest member of our family, little Anna Rose, who was born on 08/08/08. Emily's mom was able to come stay with us in August to help ease the transition from one child to two! It was great having her come. Matthew really loved it. Matthew, who is now 1 year and 10 months old (almost 2!!) constantly amazes us with all the new things he is learning. He can say a lot of words and phrases and can communicate very well. He loves cars, trucks, dogs, computers, singing songs, chapstick and reading stories. He (mostly) loves being around his little sister and greets her each morning with a very loud "AWAKE!!"

Anna is growing big in a hurry. She is just over 4 months old and still at the top of the chart for weight and height, just like Matthew was. She is smiling and interacting with us more each day. She LOVES seeing Matthew and lights up when he comes to chat with her. She even tolerates his more heavy handed affections with good humor. She is a cutie.

We've really enjoyed exploring the island and getting a taste of Japanese culture here. We're excited that we get to spend this Christmas with family in the states especially since we probably won't be able to next year. Being so far away has really made us appreciate the friendships and family support we have back home as well as the many good friends we've made here in Japan (and elsewhere in the world). We hope everyone is doing well this Christmas season. Love to you all.
-The Okinawa Guptill's
Scott, Emily, Matthew and Anna

Blooper Reel

My family had some, now infamous, professional photos taken one year when we were kids. They came to be known, simply as "the family photos." There are six children in our family, so you can imagine it was no small feat to get all of us facing the same direction, let alone to smile for a picture. I can't tell you exactly what made these pictures so funny, 'cause it was no one thing and I don't want to incriminate myself or any of my siblings (we are all grown up now, you see). But, as I remember it, every single photo had something really wrong with it - there may have been some pants on backwards, fingers in eyes, someone staring, mouth agape, off in the wrong direction etc. You get the idea. I don't know if any of those photos turned out good enough to use, but we did get all the proofs in slide form (remember slides? man, I feel old). We would watch those slides every year, literally laughing until it hurt. I know they didn't turn out the way my parents were hoping, but I guarantee, however much they paid for those photos, we got that much enjoyment out of them and more.

These pictures are just some outtakes from my attempt at a photo shoot with the kids a while back. Not nearly as funny, I guess, as the Keeler "family photos." But I do see the value now in the "not so perfect" picture. These make me smile.

A nice moment

Still nice, not so photogenic though

Yeah, that's spit

Where did that ball come from?

How did he get his foot in the shot?

Now inexplicably on the other side?

When Annas attack...

Things have taken a turn for the worse

And magically made better by the presence of a giant caterpillar toy
Anna almost has a hold of it...

But not quick enough

Anna's expression here cracks me up..."whatever"
And this was just with two kids...

BONUS PHOTO!!
A random pic of me and some of my sibs...
This is not from the "family photo" archives...this was just a few years ago at Christmas, but you can see what we're dealing with here!

Tiny is the new Big

We weren't going to get a tree this year 'cause we thought the kids and I would be in the states by December 4th. Well, here it is December 14th and we're still here...and going to be here for another week. Sooo, we finally decided to get one. Against Scott's principles as an Oregonian, we got an artificial tree. We got it at the 100 Yen store (dollar store) and it's about 3 1/2 feet tall. We have it up off the ground so its harder for Matthew to get to. Here he is placing some of the teeny ornaments on our tree.

Here you can see our sweet 100 Yen find in all its Christmas glory. AAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

Anna's job was to hold the Christmas bear...she was doing good til Matthew came and zoinked it away from her. Next thing to work on: sharing.