Happy Holidays

This morning I managed to paint my nails with a fun present theme. These days I am feeling more like myself and feel like I have a routine down. Ryuta takes regular naps now during the day and is sleeping at night. Getting a full five hour stretch at night really does wonders. I am not back to my pre-pregnancy weight yet, but for Christmas I asked for a gym membership. It's only $10 a month which is the most reasonable price out here in Ohio. I miss being able to go to the gym at BYU and only having to pay about $10 or $15 a semester. Starting January I am planning to go three times a week. A few of my friends in my ward also have a membership to this particular gym so we can go together sometimes.

During Thanksgiving Shinsuke gave Ryuta his baby blessing. My aunt also had her baby boy blessed. It was neat having them both blessed on the same day. My grandma was really happy having a grandson and a great grandson blessed. Shinsuke's sister and her family came for Thanksgiving and the blessing as well. We were sad that his dad couldn't be there, but I am glad that his sister's husband could be in the blessing circle.

This coming Friday, though, Shinsuke's parents are flying in. This will be the first time Shinsuke's dad will be meeting Ryuta, aside from Skype. Then Saturday we are going to start the drive to Kansas for a little Tsuchiya family reunion. We are gathering at his sister Ai's house. Shinsuke's two younger brothers won't be able to come. One is on study abroad in Nevada and the other one has to stay in Japan to look after his grandmother. But Shinsuke's older brother and his wife are coming. We will spend about a week there then drive to Indiana for Christmas and New Year's.

From left to right: Josh holding Lilia, Ray, Shinsuke, Ryuta, me, Anna, and Ai.

Once we get back from the holidays we will be going to a new ward. We haven't moved but the student married ward is being disbanded and everyone will be going to their local ward. I am a little sad because our friends the Quiner's will be in a different ward now since they live down in Grove City. But since we live so close to a lot of our other friends from the ward we will at least have them still.

My aunt Mindee, her husband Peter, and their baby boy Boston and us.

Ryuta in his blessing outfit.

A little update on Ryuta. He turned 3 months on December 2nd and is a whopping 15 pounds. That puts in the 95 percentile for weight. He is as cute as ever and is cooing a lot now. He's even laughed a couple times. This morning he almost managed to roll over from his tummy to his back. It will probably be another week or so before he accomplishes that. He's really fun to play with now because he interacts a lot more now. We can't wait to show him off to his grandpa and aunt and uncle next week!