My Wonderful Hubby!

"Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone;
I will make a helper fit for him." Genesis 2:18

According to the creation account in Genesis, I was MADE to be a HELPER to my husband. This is my main responsibility as James's wife, according to God's great design. While I am to help him in many areas of life, the Lord has really been teaching me one particular aspect of this responsibility over the last couple of months - encouragement. I have realized that it's really easy to encourage James when things are going well; however, it takes on a whole new meaning when times get tough.

My husband is an amazing man. There are many things which make him wonderful, but one thing is that he understands his responsibility to provide for our family. I know that it is a huge burden at times, particularly now, with a fully commission-based job and a slow economy. It is very easy for him to get discouraged, which is understandable, considering he has a wife and daughter at home for whom to provide. I can understand why he feels so pressured, but I can't fully empathize with him, as I don't carry that burden myself.

This is where encouragement comes in. I've learned that what he needs the most from me during these times is encouragement and support. I don't always know the right things to say and when to say them; I don't always know when I should just keep my mouth shut and lend a caring and loving ear; I don't know when all he needs is a hug. But thankfully, the Lord has been teaching me these things. Don't get me wrong, I still often feel inadequate for such a huge task as encouraging my husband, but I know the Holy Spirit will guide me. It's just a matter of relying solely on Him and making sure I'm in His Word daily. If I'm not Gospel-focused it is impossible for me to truly encourage my husband, for hope can only be found in Him, not in our own talents, abilities, desires, etc. I just ask you all to pray for me (and him!) during this time in our lives. Pray that we will focus on Christ and that our greatest desire would be for Him and to grow closer to Him. Pray that I will be able to continue to lovingly support and encourage James and that I will be diligent at home, so that he can come home to his "En Geddi," and not to a stressful home. Also, please pray for James that he will get some leads at work, if it's the Lord's will. If not, pray that we'll find joy in our trial and in learning to lean fully on Him.

Ok, now I'm going to shift gears a little bit and brag about my husband! :) I can't even begin to tell you what a joy it is to see my husband interact with his little girl! I just love to watch the two of them play and interact. Hannah absolutely loves her Daddy, which is easy to see whenever she says, "Da-ee," because it's always exclaimed with much enthusiasm and accompanied by a smile. When she hears him coming up the stairs and putting his keys in the lock after work, she drops whatever she's doing and runs to the door (hopefully someday she'll learn not to stand right behind the door, as that can be dangerous :) ). I thought you would enjoy some pictures and a video (which was taken tonight) of James with his little girl!

This is how Hannah prefers to get her teeth brushed.

You can ask James about this one. :)

Bible story time!! Thanks for the Bible story book,
Uncle David and Aunt Michelle! We're really enjoying it!
A video of James and Hannah jumping. Well, of James jumping and Hannah trying to jump and laughing at Daddy jumping.

I hope all of that made sense. I had a lot I wanted to say, but wasn't quite sure how to word or condense it.

An Early Birthday Celebration!

James' birthday isn't until Tuesday (Groundhog Day!), but my parents are in town this weekend, so we decided to do a little bit of early celebrating while they were here. James got to choose where he would like to eat dinner, so he chose Sam's Philly Steaks in Tarzana. It's a bit of a drive, but they food there is yummy (which usually means unhealthy and greasy, as well). :) After dinner, we headed back to where my parents were staying for some cake and ice cream. While we're bummed that the whole family couldn't be here to celebrate, we're so thankful that Aaron, Kim, and Linnea are close by and were able to join us!James with one of his favorite foods in the world!

James' cake. It was chocolate cake with mocha filling and mocha buttercream for frosting.

The birthday boy!

Are All Women Born This Way?

There's a video on YouTube that was going around a few months back, called "Are All Women Born This Way." It's quite hilarious, so if you haven't seen it, you should definitely check it out. It's only about 30 seconds long.

I think we might end up with a similar situation on our hands, except with the addition of a phone.

Enjoying God's Beautiful Creation

We've been enjoying some BEAUTIFUL weather here in Southern California this past week. It's been in the mid-70's and sunny, so we couldn't resist getting outside to enjoy it! Hannah absolutely loves being outside, so it's been a good week for her. :) She's been exploring all sorts of new things - leaves, plants, bark, shadows, etc. A few days ago, I decided to take the camera along the other day to document our adventure! Here are some of them. You can see more on Facebook. :)

And here's so you can see just how much of a ham our precious, little Hannah can be:

Our Japanese Daughter

As I was sorting through Hannah's clothes, packing up the ones that don't fit her anymore, I came across this kimono that my dad's aunt had bought for Hannah in Little Tokyo in LA. It's been in her closet for almost a year now, just waiting for the day when she would finally fit in it. As I flipped through the clothes in her closet, I couldn't resist at least trying the kimono on her to see if it fit. :) It was still a little big, but she looked so cute in it that I had to snap some pictures. Of course, she doesn't look Japanese, but I promise, she is!!!


And I'm throwing this picture in for kicks, because I think she looks A LOT like her cousin, Faith! :)

A Fujita/Clark/Parker Christmas!

Well, I guess since Hannah's sleeping, dinner's on the stove, and my back is out, leaving me flat here on the couch, now is a good time to update everyone on our Christmas! We went up to my parents' house in Northern California, where my sister and her family also live. It was a fun time with a 5-year-old, two 19-month-olds, and a 15-month-old! :) We drove up on Wednesday night after James got off work, and it was nice to be able to have all of Christmas Eve Day to just relax and enjoy time with family. That night we went to look at Christmas lights and then came home to have our traditional Christmas Eve ice cream sundaes - YUM! It was also our 3 1/2 year anniversary! Times sure does fly!

Christmas morning, we headed over to my sister's house for our traditional Christmas breakfast (err...I mean lunch), complete with homemade cinnamon rolls (mmmmm!), potatoes o'brien, bacon, and frittata.

After breakfast, we opened presents, which took a long time! When you have three babies, each with a lot of presents, it takes a little bit longer than it normally would, but it was a lot of fun to watch the babies! For dinner (I feel like all I did was eat!), we decided to forgo the standard turkey or ham and went with prime rib. It was delicious, and we had it with homemade garlic mashed potatoes, roasted winter veggies (which is one of my new favorite sides!!!), and rolls.

The rest of our time was just spent hanging out with family and relaxing. James and I even got to go on a date, since there were plenty of babysitters! :) We had a great time, but the vacation fun had to come to an end, and we came home yesterday. So today, it's back to reality with piles of dirty laundry, new toys that need to be put away, meals to make, dishes to clean, work for James, etc., etc. :) We are thankful for the time that we were able to get away and celebrate Jesus's birthday!!!

Some of the presents we had to take up with us. Thankfully I had taken most of ours up at Thanksgiving!

Hannah doesn't get sweets very often...ok...she doesn't get sweets at all at home, but Aunt Sumiko fulfilled her auntie duties by introducing Hannah to Muddy Buddies.

They all played so well together!

Hannah's checking out the t-shirt she got from her Pichura cousins! She doesn't quite understand the significance of this t-shirt, but don't worry, she will! :)

Our little Christmas bunny.

Keanna made her annual trip to the dollar store to do her Christmas shopping. She must know Uncle James well, because she got him two decks of playing cards!

Opening her "big" present from Daddy and Mommy. It's a...

vacuum cleaner!!! Since Hannah is terrified of the real vacuum, we decided to ease her into the world of vacuums with a toy one!

However, her favorite toys were the ones we got at the 99 cent store - kitchen utensils. Here, she's basting my sister's house with her new basting brush!

Robbie's parents brought a piano down for my sister's family, and the babies wasted no time testing it out.

And today Hannah was busy working on her thank you notes!

I guess Hannah wanted to add something, because while I wasn't looking, she wrote this: ]\[
nnnn\\
;;;;;//;;

Free Movie Rentals!

Since it's Christmas and I know a lot of you watch movies during this time, here's a way to get a free movie rental or rentals from Amazon Videos on Demand! I just did this and got my credit - now we have to decide what to watch! Go here to see how to sign up.