Twenty Ten, Here we come!

Here we are at the last day of 2009. What a year it has been. All around the world, we have experienced a year so full of events, that it will be hard to forget that it all happened in one year. As I look back on this year, I am so thankful for all that I have been given, as I know that many others were not as fortunate as me.

This year has been unlike any other I've experienced. There were good times, and there were scary times. But, through all of it, my family was there every step of the way.

Though I'm elated every day to see the beautiful faces upon my little twins, I wouldn't wish that kind of pregnancy on anyone. The beginning was great, and I felt great, for the most part. But, by the end of the pregnancy I was on bedrest, hoping to keep those babies in for as long as I could. The pre-eclampsia overtook my body, and I was left "dealing" with it, and spending a majority of my time in bed. Thankfully, I was able to keep them safe in my belly until they were 36 weeks along. Born via c-section, the girls arrived on March 20th small, but safe and well.

Cooper has joined the ranks of the "terrible two's." I swear, it's almost like every child is pre-programmed to freak out as soon as they turn two years old. If I didn't know any better, I would believe that they are all a part of an army, joining together to fight for what they believe in, for what they want, never giving in to the enemy, no matter what the consequence. Talk about a war! However strong his determination is to prove that terrible two's truly exist, he is the most loving, beautiful, precious little boy I've ever been lucky enough to know. And, best of all, he's mine and I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world!

At eleven years of age, Kaitlyn has shown us the best, and worst, of what she is capable of. Leaving elementary school behind, and heading face first into middle school scared us all. But, Kate showed us that she's quite capable of handling the "new" world, and adjusted so much better than we'd imagined....Thank goodness. She also got to experience the joy and excitement of being asked to a dance for the first time. Rest assured, Corey and I didn't have that same excited feeling when she came home to announce that she'd been asked to a dance. But, being one of those things that comes along with middle school, we sucked it up, and let her go....NOT with the boy, but with a friend. She's lucky we didn't chaperone. Unusually tall, for someone in our family, she already towers above me, and above many of her friends. As much a hassle as it is to her under most circumstances, she might actually do some good with that height when she begins her basketball season in a couple of weeks - This will be the last time she is able to play for the Community Ed league. Next year, if she chooses to continue, she'll be playing for her school. It seems though, she already has her sights set on volleyball - I guess being a giant would benefit in that sport as well. In all, an adventurous year for her full of new beginnings, new friends and new experiences has paved the way for all the things she'll get to see and do through the next few years.

Oh what a year....And I couldn't have done it without my wonderful husband Corey. His faithfulness, his love for his family and his super intelligent brain, has helped me to keep this family safe and well. He works tirelessly, making sure to do all he can to ensure I can stay home with this family. Even though his back has been worse than any one's I've known, he pushed through, suffering excruciating pain on a daily basis, never knowing when it would get better or worse. Until just a few weeks ago, this was his life. And, then he met Tom Moline - Magician, witch doctor, native healer - I don't know what he does, or how he does it, but he saved Corey's back. He diagnosed the REAL problem and fixed it. This has improved his life greatly and I can't wait until he's back to his good ol' self! This year has also brought on some fantastic opportunities for him at work with local, and national programs. He has grown so much, professionally, over the past year. And, though I still see the child within him, it's the wonderful man he's become that I love the most. I think I heard him exclaim this year "I'm all growed up!"

It's the year we all "growed up." It's the year we found love. The year we learned that a beautiful voice doesn't have to have a smokin' body on a 21 year old to be successful. The year we saw that having 8 babies is possible (not recommended, but possible.) The year that "texting" boomed and that people are learning, one crash at a time, not to text while driving cars, trains and planes. And, we learned that the people of this nation no longer judge a person's ability to run a country based on skin color or heritage.

I hope that the next year proves to be better for us all, and that we continue to strive for the best for our country, our families and for ourselves. Twenty ten can be the year for change. It can be the year we discover great things. It can be the best year of our lives.

Cheers to all of you for a safe and happy new year!!

Dashing through the rain, in a Poncho in LA......

I knew that it would be sometime between this blog and the last.....It's been a month and a half. I did not expect it to be that spaced! Oops......

Thanksgiving was great. On Turkey day, Corey and I stayed home with the kids and did some "Cooper and baby proofing" throughout the house. Our children have become so wild that this whole house is now nearly under a complete lockdown. I just need a warden out front to keep scoundrels out! Ha. Corey's sister and family, and his brother and his wife were off other places doing Thanksgiving with their families. So, this family Thanksgiving was postponed a day. Still, we cooked a little Thanksgiving dinner for our family, and invited Flip and Maija up, as they were alone too. It was just a nice, small dinner and it was perfect. The day we celebrated Thanksgiving was great. Corey cooked the turkey (best turkey ever) and we all got together at Corey's parents house. All the immediate families, and some extended, joined in the eating festivities. In all, about 20 people graced the floors of Maija's house. Aside from Cooper attacking Aunika's ink well and dumping half of it on to Maija's white carpet, it was a very nice family holiday.......as are all here in Yasui land.

I'm a sucker for the holidays, and was ready for it the day before Thanksgiving. I've been singing Christmas carols to the kids for weeks, and pulled out the decorations right after Black Friday. Right now, our house is decorated in wreaths, holly, garland and displays, all for the holiday joy. I've been accused (mostly by my husband) of being "grandma-like" during the holidays. Ya know, some gaudiness is involved. But, what else should he expect? I was raised by my grandparents, and my grandmother gets quite, um, excited, for holiday decorating. We just decorated the tree a couple of days ago, though it's been up for a week and a half. We put the tree up before we headed to Disneyland for 5 days.....Yeah, some things just couldn't wait!

The Trip

Right before our long awaited vacation our dear Mackenzie decided to get sick. And, by sick, I mean a constant fever of 102 and above, sleepless nights, constant crying and such a loss of appetite I was sure she was losing weight. Just a few weeks ago she came down with a urinary tract infection, which is not too common in infants. We thought that this illness she was suddenly battling was probably a recurrence of the infection. We went to the doctor, she was catheterized, TWICE, she was poked and prodded, and we went to Portland for a kidney ultrasound and a VCUG...The stress was overwhelming. And the result? She had nothing! NOTHING! All of her tests came back negative and she was apparently just fighting (really hard) a bug that her little body had. Or, possibly teething. All this occurred the week before we left for Disneyland, and for a moment, we debated one of us staying home to be with her and sending Maija in our place. But, by the grace of something, she became miraculously cured the day before we boarded the plane. Whew!

I was worried about leaving the girls. Not because I didn't trust Maija, but because I was dreading leaving them for so long. Corey, being his wonderful self, set Maija and Flip up with a Skype phone so that we could check in and see the girls daily. That made the trip so much easier for me, and I was so thankful that I could see my girls, and that they could see me, every day we were apart. But, still, the separation was hard, and I won't be doing that again any time soon.

Day 1: We boarded the plane and got the kids situated. This was the first flight for both Katie and Cooper, and we were excited to be a part of the experience. Buckled in, we were all ready for flight - As the plane revved the engines and then finally soared down the runway and into the air, both kids were full of panic; Eyes were HUGE, both of them were gripping the sides of their seats. After takeoff, though, the flight was great. Everyone was comfortable. And, thank goodness, Cooper was happy!


We arrived in California and unloaded from the plane and reloaded onto the shuttle bus. After a thirty minute ride from the airport to the Paradise Pier Hotel, we looked forward to getting to the room and relaxing for a short while. We went on this trip with Corey's sister Kim and her family. A few days prior to leaving Kim informed us her plan of attack for each day. For day 1: Board plane in PDX at 11am, arrive in LA at 2:10, get to Hotel and be IN Disneyland by 4pm. Both Corey and I laughed at this, as we thought she was just messin' with us. But, as we all got to our rooms, which were adjoining, Kim announces: OK, we're dumping the bags and then we're off to the park.....Are you guys ready?! Ha....She was friggin' serious! It was 3:40 and she was hell bent on making it into that park by 4. I suppose that with older kids this is much easier. But, we had Cooper. He hadn't rested yet that day, we were all starving and we were already somewhat exhausted. So, we sent Katie with Kim so that she could begin her fun immediately. At 5pm Corey, Cooper and I were able to gather ourselves enough to venture into the park. And, as we headed out, we saw it....The rain was pouring down. Oh, crud.

Disneyland was just as awesome as I remember from my trip 14 years ago. Seeing Coopers face light up with astonishment was priceless. Even the rain couldn't damper that first moment as we entered "Mickey Mouse's house," as we call it here at home. We met up with Kim, her family and Katie, and headed on to the rides at Disneyland. Through the evening, we noticed that our clothes were beginning to get heavy, our sweaters and coats seemed a little longer than they were at 5pm and our heads resembled what we might look like freshly out of a nice, long shower. The evening ended, with everyone riding the "It's a small world" ride. Fitting, considering that the song has been a constant with Cooper for several weeks. He was amazed, and nothing in the world could take away how much he was enjoying this ride. Once done, we headed back to the hotel and hung our clothes, dripping wet, in the bathtub. We managed to put on pj's and it didn't take any longer than 5 minutes for every single one of us to be sound asleep. What a wonderful first day at Disneyland.

Saturday morning it almost seemed like a hurricane was outside. The rain was coming down sideways and it might have been 50 degrees outside. We had special "early entrance" tickets, and we wanted to take advantage of that since we're up so early with Cooper anyways. By 7am, we were on the monorail headed into the park. There were so few people there, because of the weather, that it was so easy to get to the front of the line in rides. We made sure to hit some of the really popular rides first: Nemo's Submarine adventure, Peter Pan, Space Mountain, The Matterhorn....All with wait times less than 5 minutes.

While on Peter Pan, Corey ran to the front gates to rent a stroller (lifesaver) and buy a few ponchos. I didn't pack well, and we weren't prepared for the weather we encountered. We headed toward the Pirates of the Carribean and the Indiana Jones ride. By the time we exited Indiana Jones, the rain was coming down so hard I could barely see in front of me. We decided that since it was nearly 9am, we should all probably find a restaurant to get breakfast in, and get out of the rain. The one place we ended up at was packed....of course it was, everyone was trying to get out of the rain. We ordered our food, tried to find a table, and ended up going outside to the patio under some umbrellas to eat. HA! We got out there only to find that the umbrellas were set up to shield SUN, not rain. So half of every table was in the rain. We sucked it up, sat in the puddled chairs and ate our breakfast as the rain doused our heads. It was a sight for sore eyes, but there we were! And looking back, it's just one of those great memories we made!

We continued our day at Disneyland, riding on rides, sitting in puddles, and for the heck of it since it wouldn't have changed anything at this point, we let Cooper jump in every puddle he wanted to. He loved it, we smiled, and all we wanted was for the kids to be happy under the circumstances. Even if that meant puddle jumping! We were back in our room by 4, showered and dried. The weather outside was not changing, so we decided to stay in for the rest of the night. We ordered food and ate in....Skyped with Meemaw and the girls. Just a great ending to another great day.


Day3: The forecast for this Sunday was not a good one. It was supposed to be worse than the day before and rain all day long, with a fully overcast sky. This was our day to tour Universal Studios. We planned for the bad weather by packing a second backpack full of extra clothes for each of us, as our day at Universal began at 10 and wasn't scheduled to end until 7pm that night. We all headed outside to find that the clouds were out, but it wasn't raining. Yay! We boarded our tour bus, and headed to Universal Studios. On the way, the sun began to peek out. "What??", I thought. Upon arriving at Universal, the sun was out, hardly a cloud was in the sky, and it must have been around 60 degrees. It's like the weather santa came and saved us!! However it happened, it made for the best day of the trip. We went on all the rides, saw so many characters and live street performances. The holiday season was aglow in Universal Studio world, and I wouldn't have traded places with anyone that day. Every single character, worker and show was wonderful. The food was fantastic, and the park nearly EMPTY! Yeah, it's like everyone had planned for such a crappy day, and avoided the park. We went to the front of the line on every ride, and got some really great pictures along the way. The studio tour was great. I loved seeing all the old sets of movies, and some sets that are still occasionally, and currently, in use. For instance, Wisteria Lane (Desperate Housewives) is REAL....I mean, the houses are not really full houses, but the set is REAL. There is a real road. All the house fronts are real. The flashy cars parked in front are REAL. Heck, the yards are real! It was so cool to see that and know that in just a few hours, camera crews and the housewives would be filming right there, right where I was sitting. T'was pretty darn cool. We hoped to get a glimpse of Teri Hatcher, but no such luck. We did see a wild coyote, and the tour guide so excited to see an animal in the park that wasn't mechanical or portrayed by a human. We closed our Universal day with a waltz through the "City Walk." This is an area directly in front of Universal Studios filled with stores, restaurants and vendors of all kinds. We caught a short concert stint of Emily Osment, as we headed into the Hard Rock Cafe...She was performing some Christmas songs, but her sound system quit working before she could finish. By the sounds of it, she wasn't happy. She ran off pretty quickly. Oh, well.....I didn't even know who she was until one of my nieces pointed out "That's Hannah Montana's BEST FRIEND!!"

Cooper fell asleep before we left the parking lot...He continued to sleep through the ride back to the hotel (45 minutes), as we unloaded the bus, as we hobbled up to our room, and even through the changing of the diaper and into jammies. Poor kid slept until 6:30 the next morning! In all, that day was my favorite, and I can't wait to go back in a few years when all the kiddos are older.


Day 4 we did California adventure and finished off with the Christmas fireworks show at Disneyland. Between the overwhelming orchestral Christmas music, hundreds of people standing above him, and the "bangs" and "booms", Cooper was maxxed out...He got scared to death, and nearly tipped his stroller as he clamored to get out and into any familiar arms that would hold him. That was his max, and he couldn't take anymore. After the show, we went back to the room. We decided that, even though we had another day pass at Disneyland, we'd use the early part of the next morning to gather ourselves for our trip home that afternoon. We packed, and headed down to the last event on our trip: The Character Breakfast. We'd looked forward to this the whole trip. All the main Disney Characters: Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, etc....were at this breakfast. Each character came up to every kid for hugs, dancing and pictures. Cooper was so excited for this, and we knew this was the kind of last memory we wanted for him to take home with us.

After breakfast, we headed to the airport. This flight home was not as easy as the flight in, unfortunately. We began the craziness at the security checkpoint. We thought we followed all the instructions, but apparenty Corey was supposed to remove the DVD from the DVD case and place it in a separate box for scanning. We did this with the laptop, but didn't have to do this in Portland. Because it came up "unrecognizable" on their scanner, they had to confiscate it to check it directly, then run in through the scanner again. Luckily, we weren't late for our flight or that would have been troublesome. We were now ready to board. The airline announced the boarding for first class and families, so we went up. They took our name as we boarded, but apparently didn't identify that in their computers. So, just before we were set to take off, the captain came back to see who all these extra people were that the flight attendant counted, but was not accounted for the in computer. After some questions of who was who, and who was where, it was settled, and we were set to go. Just before they had announced the boarding, an announcement came on notifying passengers that this plane had been chosen for random extra security checks. To then have passengers unaccounted for made it that much closer to us having to be that chosen family for the extra security check. I think that our restless toddler made them rethink that and soon, we were on our way! Thank goodness. 20 minutes into the flight our boy became restless. And halfway through the flight we became the family that had "THAT" kid. You know, the one who kicks the seats like a donkey, screams bloody murder for no apparent reason, and fights like Tyson to get out of the restraints. We did what we could to calm him, and he finally responded to the DVD I put on for him. He was moments from being asleep when we hit bad turbulence. The pilot came on to notify us to shut down all electronics and that we'd need to keep them off for the remainder of the flight. "What??!!" Turbulence is OK!! The moment I shut it down, the screaming resumed. He was exhausted and we were beyond calming at this point. We finally landed and quickly de-boarded the plane. We hurried to get our bags and rushed to the car. Aaaahhhh......Our own car. We loaded up, turned up the heat and headed home. Within minutes, Cooper was asleep. He slept the rest of the way home.

We picked up our girls, came home, and crashed. What a busy 5 days for us.

But, without hesitation, the next day Corey was back to work, I was busy at home with our kids, and life was back to normal before we could even "plan" to adjust. Exhausted beyond words, it took us a good 3 days to regain our strength to keep up with our home, our schedules and ourselves. It's now 4 days until Christmas, and, well, I've finally had a while to sit to blog. All children, until 5 minutes ago, napped happily and gave me this quiet time. An early Christmas present, I think.

We'll do some more wrapping tonight, and maybe finish the gingerbread house we began last night. We have our dinner/murder mystery party tomorrow night, and are so excited for it. Thursday night we'll have Christmas Eve with 40 friends and family at Flip and Maija's house. And Christmas morning, we'll get to spend with all FOUR of our Children, as Katie is home with us this year.

I can't wait to see their faces Friday morning. What a day it will be......

Merry Christmas to you all. Be safe. Be happy. Be MERRY!!