Baby's Playtime

Saya playing on her play mat. Thanks Shiho!

Baby's New Pack'n Play

Finally, something to put Baby in for naps and diaper changing.

As she is getting heavier everyday, going up and down the stairs with her caused back pain. So this should help out a lot.

Our Little Couch Potato

Baby seems to be facinated with the TV and computer these days. I am sure it's just the lights that she's into but we thought it would be funny to see her on the chair with the remote.

Baby Sitting Up

Baby is getting really strong everyday. She is gaining more strength in her legs and her neck. When we sit her on our lap she hardly tilts forward anymore. It's only been 3 weeks since we got her and already, she's growing so fast.

Strawberry Shortcake

Saya wanted to try on a new hat as most of the hats we got her are too small. Doesn't she look like strawberry shortcake? Too cute!

Onara Taiso

In other words, the Fart Exercise! From Nodame Cantabile in case you don't know... my favorite drama.



Jeff

Bottom Biting Bug

My new favorite song...



Yes, it is addicting, just admit it.

Bottom Biting Bug

My new favorite song...



Yes, it is addicting, just admit it.

Saya's Eyelashes

I just get a kick of Saya's eyelashes so we tried to take a picture of them.

Ugly Ohagi

I tried. I really did.
For some reason they came out huge and messy. I gave up towards the end so they weren't covered all the way with the anko. They look horrible but still taste like an ohagi.

More Saya Pictures

I wanted to post a few more pics of Saya while she is sleeping upstairs. I miss her when she sleeps and I so want to go and pick her up. Ok no. I'll just update the blog and get ready to head out for our first outing together. We're going to attempt shopping at Babies R Us. That place is so daunting for us, I wonder what Saya will think. We''ve got our diaper bag packed and ready to go. I wonder if a massive poop will come out during our trip.

Here's a pic of me and Saya while she gets a bit of tummy time. We need to start giving her more time on her belly so she doesn't have a bald spot on the back of her head anymore.

More time with daddy!

Sleepy time in daddy's arms.

What a Journey It Was

Find out all about our trip to Japan and back and how we met Saya, our daughter on our Neima Family Journey blog, http://neimafamily.blogspot.com/. We hope you enjoy it.

Finally A Family of Three!

Our happy day has finally arrived. We adopted our daughter from Japan and now are in back in our house in Colorado. It's been a long journey but now it's all worth it.

Here is Saya Alia Neima. Born September 1, 2009 and in our arms on November 27th. She is all smiles and is sure growing fast. She's already wearing 9 month old clothing as 6 month clothing barely fits her. We love her very much and can't wait till everyone can meet her soon.

It's going to be a fabulous Christmas and New Year.

Christmas in Vegas 2008

Our family picture from Christmas 2008 while visiting Jeff's mom and step dad in Vegas.

New Zojirushi Water Dispenser!

This is one of those gotta have em items if Japanese. You can make green tea instantly. We were exposed to it my parent's house over the holidays and just had to get one. We've been using it to make cider and hot tea as well.

Toshi Koshi Soba

Black Friday, White Saturday

Finally, the first actual snowfall of the year. Of course the mountains have been getting snow already, but up there and down here are completely different.

Black Friday, White Saturday

Finally, the first actual snowfall of the year. Of course the mountains have been getting snow already, but up there and down here are completely different.

Monkey Munch Time

Time for some tasty tasties to start off the holiday season.

YUM.

More waiting!

Just a quick update on our adoption.

We have completed our homestudy, immigration paperwork and most of our dossier. We still have to receive our immigration approval before our dossier can be sent to the Japanese embassy. We are keeping our fingers crossed that our approval will come soon.

Yesterday we met with our Japan adoption coordinator in California. We were anticipating a long wait before our referral, but we were told that we need to be ready to travel soon after we receive the phone call, which could as soon as a couple months. We were really excited when we heard the news. We are now getting ready for our trip out to Japan and also starting our nursery for the new baby.

Our trip out to California was really short and we are both tired from lack of sleep but we feel that the trip was well worth it.

Today we had a long day of adoptive parenting class at our homestudy agency. It was long but we did learn a lot.

New dining room table and plant

Things are finally coming together after we got a new dining room table. We had a slightly more formal table in the kitchen and it just didn't seem right. We we got something more casual instead. Also we went to HomeDepot yesterday and found a plant for sale. So we just had to get one. Hopefully the kitchen looks a little bit better than it did before.

Boulder Falls

Another Lightning Shot

It's been a while since my last chance at capturing some lightning on camera, but this time I was able to. Sadly, it had to be from an upstairs window as it was pouring out.

For reference, here was my awesome, yes I said "Awesome!", shot from about 2 years ago.

4 Year Anniversary!

It was 4 years ago that Jeff and I got married. I can't believe how time flies!

The first year was really special and we went all out with our grooms cake and all but this year we're just going out to dinner. There is this place called The Keg in downtown Denver that serves great steaks. Gotta get the baked potato too!

New Homestudy Agency!

So we finally contracted with a new agency here in Colorado. Gosh, that was a really expensive lesson we just learned, but hopefully things will go smoother from here on out. We were so close to being done with the other agency so this sets us back a little, but not by much. Had we realized too late about the costs and issues related to the finalization, I think that would have set us back quite a bit.

So it's back to the paperwork again, but now that it's just retranscribing the information, it's not too bad.

Who done it?

Yesterday we went out shopping for 4 hours and got back just in time for a walk. Jeff got the dogs ready to go by putting on their collars and leashes. To our suprise the leather leash that we used on Ryder was split into two pieces. Someone sat in the dining room chewing the leash while we were gone.

Here is the leash:

Who was it? Bella or Ryder?

More Paperwork

Jeff and I managed to get our fingerprints to send to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation yesterday. That was fun. I can't remember the last time I had my fingerprints taken.
I think I had to get them before entering the school system. Anyways, so we should be ok for Colorado and now it's time to get clearances from California.

Lake Isabelle and Pawnee Pass

Here are some images from the hike I went on today to Lake Isabelle and Pawnee Pass in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. I accidentally left my camera memory card at home, doh. So I was limited to the in-camera memory available... a measly 8 Mb. That doesn't get you much.

Here is Isabelle Lake...

After the lake I decided to head up to Pawnee Pass. There is a lot of melt this year due to the record snowfall. You can see some of the results of that here...

And here looking down...

As I went up higher I took some shots as I approached the Continental Divide.

And decided to look back down upon Isabelle Lake.

And here is another shot of the Continental Divide. It was a bit cooler and windy once you get up into the open tundra above tree line. I think Isabelle Glacier is there somewhere.

Till another hiking day...

Shino Goes Back To Work

The day has finally arrived. I will be starting a new job as of Monday the 28th of July. It's been quite nice to be able to stay at home and get tons of lab testing and doctor's appointments whenever I wanted. I'm really grateful for that. I don't think I would have had the opportunity without being laid off.

Now it's time to make some money so that we're not butt poor to do anything. I will be working as a Regulatory Associate (contractor) at a company called Covidien. They market and distribute medical products and my division will be concentrating on respiratory solutions. I hope this job will open new doors and perhaps even meet some cool people. The company is located in Boulder so it's quite nice. The commute isn't all that bad, no freeway traffic just local roads. I did encounter a tractor at one point which slowed me down but it didn't bother me too much.

Here is the website for Covidien: http://www.covidien.com

I think this will be a big transition for me, Jeff and the dogs. The dogs will not like the fact that they can't go out to the backyard whenever they feel like it.

Finally, A New Start for the Neimas!

Hi everyone! Sorry we've been out of touch. We have been going through many fertility issues causing us pain, emotionally and physically. We never thought that we would encounter such issues nor did we ever imagine that we would end up adopting. Adoption is great, but the idea never crossed our minds till now. Throughout our journey we've cried, screamed and pitched fits, but now we've attained closure. So we're finally ready to take the next step. Finally!

We have decided to adopt from Japan through a small agency in CA. Adopting from Japan is pretty rare since the birthrate in Japan is pretty low and there are few agencies that have a Japan program. I hear the process can have emotional ups and downs, but after all that we have been through, I think we'll be able to handle it and can't wait!

We just started the application process and have a long way to go with the homestudy and dossier. Overall, looking at the big picture, paperwork and documentation is not that big a deal.

Thanks to all that have been supportive and understanding.

Shino and Jeff