Spring Time Girl

The weather is getting warmer so it's time to bring out all the cute little spring time dresses Grace has in her wardrobe. Here's the first one of the season. She seemed to enjoy wearing it! That's good because there's plenty more where that came from...

My Running Mate

First, let me preface this entry by saying I hate running, always have and probably always will. That said- I've started running again. I do it for a purely superficial reason. It's the fastest way I've lost weight before so I'm hoping it will help me to drop all this baby weight.

I go to the little gym here because there's a padded children's play area in the women's locker room. I set Grace down in it, get up on the treadmill, run my measly couple miles, and voila- I've worked out for the day. For all you exercise fanatics, please don't judge my pathetic exercise regimen. I hope to improve and add more to it eventually, but for now, it's a start.

I'm so determined to continue my workouts that there are days I pray we're the only ones in there because I've vowed that even if she's being less than cooperative, I'm still going to get up on that treadmill and run. I'm just going to turn up the volume on my iPod and try to ignore her being fussy for 30 minutes. Thankfully, I haven't had to do that. Even if she starts out fussing, usually by the end, she's sound asleep.

Here are some pictures of my running mate's emotional progression during my work out:

Starts off fussing and wanting to be out of her carseat.

Then the treadmill turns on and she startles out of her fussiness and wonders what the heck her mama is doing up there.

After half a mile or so, she gets bored and falls asleep.

Cherry Blossom Picnic

Today we enjoyed gorgeous weather and a fun picnic with friends under the cherry blossom trees. I never really went on picnics much before although I've always liked the idea. After the good time both of us had today, I vow to make picnics a regular event. Good food, good friends, good weather- what more can you ask for?


The three babies- Grace, Jasmine, and Gracie.


The shirt reads, "Bad hair day." It's getting harder and harder for me to tame my girl's wild hair.


Her eyebrows crack me up- they are so expressive and make for some cute little facial expressions.


I absolutely love my baby girl.


And to make a fantastic day even better, Mike came home with beautiful roses for me! I absolutely love my wonderful husband.

Good Mornings

How can every morning not be a good morning when you're greeted with this:


I don't know where she gets it from because it's certainly not from her mama or daddy, but Grace is very much a morning person. When I hear her wake up, I go into her room and the moment I peek into the crib, she'll look up at me and give me the biggest heartwarming grin. Even if I've only had 4 hours of sleep and am so weary I could cry, at that moment, I don't mind at all. Forget any of those caffeinated drinks- my baby's smile is the best energy booster!


Lately no matter how tightly I swaddle her, little Houdini here manages to get herself free.

The Irony

Mike and I go to the 11:00 mass every Sunday. We like starting our Sunday with church and enjoying the rest of the day in a leisurely fashion. However, despite our best efforts, it somehow seems that we are always running late for church. We'll leave the house in a rush and make it to mass just in the nick of time.

Today being Palm Sunday and expecting a large crowd, we left the house super early in order to make it to church 15 minutes ahead of time. We even took the shortcut which meant taking the highway and paying a 300 yen toll- roughly $3.00.

With all of those things going for us, we were the latest we've ever been to church. All thanks to the lovely Japanese traffic. It pops up at unexpected times and there's not a darn thing you can do about it. I just love it when you pay money to get stuck in traffic for an hour.

The base was having their annual Cherry Blossom Festival today so we decided to check it out for a while thinking Grace would enjoy the atmosphere. I didn't realize how crowded it would get.

This is what she was like the whole 10 minutes she was there. Not quite the reaction I was hoping for. I guess she doesn't like crowds...

After a rough start, the rest of our Sunday was nice and lazy- daddy and daughter took long afternoon naps and I baked chocolate almond biscotti and did a couple loads of laundry. It's a shame that our weekend is already at an end. I can't wait to see what adventure next weekend will bring.

Cherry Blossoms

Cherry blossom season is in full swing now so we decided to set out early this morning with our friends, the Blews, and fight the crowd to see the beautiful blooms and hopefully take some cute pictures. Because the season only lasts 2 weeks at the very most, if the weather cooperates, the crowds are insane!

This is our last chance to enjoy the cherry blossom season in Japan so I was especially anxious to get some good pictures of Grace. It was pretty stressful because we had to deal with tons of people trying to take their pictures too. Then at one point, we were posing for a family shot when an old Japanese man became overly fond of my baby and thought it was okay to keep trying to touch her. Thankfully he moved on after I turned and shielded her with my body. And before Mike had to step in. I was so afraid of Mike getting overprotective and doing bodily harm to the old man.

We got a few good pictures, but I'm hoping the blossoms will hang on until next weekend so we can go to a couple parks for some more photo opportunities. In the meantime, here are a few from today.

The Augustine family


Getting a good shot of all the kids a) looking at the camera and b) smiling at the same time proved more difficult than we thought.


On the train ride back home. My little model looks pooped, doesn't she?


After our photo shoot, we went to Grandberry Mall for an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet lunch and shopping. Here are the 'twins' with Mike.

Girls' Day Out

I enjoyed a rare treat today- eating at an all-you-can-eat buffet (very hard to find here in Japan) and shopping with girlfriends. We had so much fun, we're doing it again on Saturday!

James, Jojo's husband, was such a good sport to watch all the kids while the girls shopped. On Saturday, it will be Mike's turn...

And of course, I can't blog without posting pictures of Grace- her grandparents would be very disappointed if I did. So here she is with a cute flower bow in her hair, thanks to the Estoestas.

Looking a little unsure about the new bow.

"Mommy, are you sure this looks cute?"

"You're right- I AM cute!"