Welcome Baby Self!!!!

What a cutie! Daddy's lips and nose, Mommy's eyes?

Proud Daddy!

HOORAY!

Rylan's first and only cousin, Draysen Van Self, born December 30, 2007 - 7# 6 oz, 18 inches (Ry was 7 # 5 oz and 19 in.) We are so excited for Thy and David and can't wait to meet the little guy!

Workin' Off the Holiday Pounds!

Merry Christmas 2007!

My son, the PIMP! (Having a blast at Sabbath School in the new suit Grandpa picked out!)

Brothers.

Merry Christmas at the Yamamotos!

Okay, Chris bought a new card reader and so i was able to download some photos! We are still enjoying our time off here in WA!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful day with Chris' family -- Grandmamoto, Grandpamoto, Kevin and Steve! Great food, great presents, and lots of dancing -- with Rylan! Sorry, picture downloads will have to wait until we return to NC! In the meantime, enjoy Rylan's Christmas photos! Despite being sick, he did great! Here's the link, just type in "Joni Yamamoto" for the customer name!

Hi all! We had a wonderful time in Cancun with my parents, Aunt Virginia, Uncle Ben, Andrew, Molly and Kate, Les and Steve! Unfortunately Rylan got sick the night before we left and has been miserable ever since with herpangina (fever and ulcers in the mouth!). We leave today for Seattle to spend Christmas with the Yamamotos. Enjoy the photos and have a Merry Christmas!

Cancun Trip Dec. 2007!

CHARLESTON, SC

Canon -- Ft. Sumter.

Rylan's Second mini Gelato cone.

Friends!

A most awesome tree!

Another family photo - Merry Christmas!

Aleksandr and Rylan reading the signs along the river walk - Drayton Hall.

Drayton hall.

Sunday morning cartoons at the hotel.

Rylan's first mini gelato cone.

The famous Arthur Ravenel bridge in background of Ft. Sumter.

Fountain fascination.

It's so nice to have daddy's push the strollers!

Friday night bubble bath!

Aleksandr and Rylan in matching shirts.

What a wonderful "last hurrah" weekend we had with the Gould's in Charleston this past weekend! Thanks guys, for a great time! We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express (awesome), toured downtown Charleston, took a boat to Ft. Sumter, ate Gelato, had great Thai food, Indian food, Italian food, visited an old plantation (Drayton Hall) with a 265 yr old house, ate some more Gelato, and just had fun hanging out with our friends! Enjoy these photos!

Yes, they love being grandparents!

Family.

I love my "Papa"!

Where we belong!

Trying to contain the wiggle-worm?

Luckily, Rylan doesn't like heights........yet!

I love this picture!!!

The beautiful scenery at my parents farm!!



GIVE THANKS!!

Okay, finally here we are again! We had a wonderful week-long trip to GA for Thanksgiving! My brother, David and his very pregnant wife, Thy, flew out, we had Thanksgiving with 68 (yes, 68!) family members, a baby shower for Thy, participation in both church services where the pastor interviewed Chris about Iraq, and a trip to the mountain to Grandma's (Ry's Great-Grandma!). Whew! It was crazy, and Rylan had his fill of people for sure, but it was great! We also discovered that we can now travel during the day with him thanks to........the portable DVD player!!! Yea! No more driving at 2am! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy these family photos!

Chris and I spent two days catching up on CME (deadline 12/31/07) last week and then I decided to work a few half days - so no time for blogging! We are definitely "re-integrating" but I have to praise God for His wonderful care of our family. Enjoy these photos of the weekend!

A little overdressed for 65 degrees -- but SO PRECIOUS!!!!

Standing on top of the AC unit with the fan on - "Again, Again!"

Watching football with dad.

"A bug!" He's all boy.

Fixing the lawn mower, learning to drill, these are just a few of the things Ry's doing lately now that he has a dad!!! So much fun -- and a nice break for mommy!

Last week Rylan finally decided to put on the Elmo slippers Nick sent him while we were in GA, and loved them, wore them all morning! Of course, he has refused to put them on since!

Check out my Slide Show!

HOME!

A few more pictures of the homecoming!

Check out my Slide Show!

Hi all! We are getting used to having Daddy around - it's great! We're starting to try to organize the house around 3 people now instead of just two, and getting some "man" things done! A big thank you to my mom and dad who came to welcome Chris home and help me out during the past month! I'm catching up on the latest happenings with Ry -- here are some photos of him at the pumpkin patch and also Halloween with Aleksandr!

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It's finally here! The day we have been waiting for soooooooo long! Chris is finally HOME! Last night we had fun trick-or-treating with Lisa and Aleksandr and the last arrival time I heard before going to bed was 9:20am. My alarm was set for 6:00am. I received a call at 5:58 to say that the time had been changed to 8 am!!!! Rush, rush, rush - it took 45 min to get to Green Ramp!!!! But we had plenty of time and the plane touched down at 8:35am!! He was finally in my arms at about 9:30! Rylan was skeptical at first but has already warmed up! A big thank you to all of you who have been praying! And thank God for His answer!

Blog. Whoever made up this word was probably drunk. Anyway, I've decided to jump on the "blog"-wagon! Since I love reading other people's blogs, then maybe some of you will enjoy mine. Of course, it will mostly revolve around Rylan, but you knew that! Although, we do have a big event coming up in .......... 5 days! Stay tuned!