"Begin today and write in it your goings and comings, your deepest thoughts, your achievements and your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your impressions and your testimonies. I promise you that if you will keep your journals and records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to you, each other, your children, your grand-children and others throughout the generations. Remember, the Savior chastised those who failed to record important events." --President Spencer W. Kimball

August 31, 2009

"Be Nice to Mommy"

So this happened a little while ago, but I'm just thinking about it and I think it's totally blog-worthy! Just a little example of how crazy my little Mone-pone is.... I was SOOOOO sick, like not leave the bed for a week sick....I guess it's morning sickness, something I've been very blessed not to have with either of my boys. I couldn't eat anything, and if I tried I couldn't keep it down. If it were up to me, I'd just lay down and sleep all day long (which is pretty much what I did.) It had been a few days and I was totally neglecting my boys because I just didn't feel good at all. Ova kept telling them that they could come in and uma me, but that they couldn't stay in the room because mommy was sick. All the sudden, I guess Mone got frustrated....I was dead asleep facing towards the outside of the bed and I woke up to a big huge punch in the stomach.... Mone came in and punched my stomach and he was yelling like he was so mad "Baby, be nice to mommy" I wanted to cry, but it was such a sweet gesture. I got up and gave him a big hug and kiss and told him I was okay. It was so funny to see how mad he got at the baby for making me sick, my cute little protector!!! ....hahaha!

Compliments of Pri*Sila Photography

So the last time we took family pictures with the whole Fangupo family was about 6 years ago, when Makai and Mote were like 3 months old. With Sau being gone for the last few years, we didn't want to take our pictures because our family just wasn't complete. You better believe that as soon as we knew the date that Sau would be home, Kiki and I were planning our family pictures...this time with about 7 more additions than our last picture back in 2003.... luckily, Kiki's older sister was kind enough, and patient enough, to take our family pictures. We went to a little spot up Little Cottonwood Canyon, and it was beautiful! Here are some of the pictures she took! Thanks Prisila, you're awesome!

Mom & Dad Fangupo


Fangupo Family Picture 2009


Family picture II


Ova's little family with Ma and Tea


Mom and her daughters, Siosiana & Alisi


Mom and all her daughters and granddaughters


Dad and his boys


Dad and his girls


Gramma Saane and her handsome grandsons



Makai and Filimone...my handsome boys!

August 24, 2009

My baby started 1st grade... :-(

Makai turned 6 years old on July 16th, and I can't believe it. Seems like just yesterday when we brought him home from the hospital, and now he's grown and starting 1st grade. Makai is such a good kid! He's such a good older brother to Filimone, he's caring and patient and giving. He graduated from kindergarden a few months ago and was SOOOOO excited to take the next step and start first grade. He started this past Monday, when I took him to his school to meet his teacher, Mrs. Newman and to see where his classroom was. It was so funny because Makai is a little shy when he first meets new people, and he was acting the same to his new teacher...after a couple minutes, he warmed up and started asking a bunch of questions. The teacher explained to him how the classroom was going to work and went over where to put his coat and backpack. She gave him a big piece of paper and a marker and asked him to write his name on it. He did and looked at me and smiled a big "I'm so smart mom" smile, I just had to laugh. His teacher told him to take his name and pick any desk in the classroom and that would be his desk for the entire school year. He took his paper and started walking around the room...he started at the back and made his way up to the front of the class. The desk he picked was right smack dab in the middle front row of the class. His teacher seemed pleasantly surprised and said, I'm glad you want to sit in the front I'm going to ask you a lot of questions! Makai said really quickly and loudly, OK!! I'm so proud of my little guy and I'm even more happy that he loves school so much.... I hope he'll still feel like that when he's in junior high and high school! We left and went back home and I was explaining to Ova how it went....the first thing he said was "did you cry?" Shows how much he knows me huh....I did cry...like the cry baby I am! But it's just cause I'm so proud of my Makai!

(Makai and his proud Mama)


His actual first day of school was on Tuesday, and it was killing me how long he was gone....I'm not used to him being in all day school. He's gone from 830am to 330pm. When I went to drop him off in the morning, I parked and got out of the van and he looked at me and said "mom, you don't have to walk me to my class anymore, I'm in first grade now, I'm a big boy" I got back in the van and drove around to drop him off. He gave me a big kiss and hug and told me not to cry... and I watched my little man go off to his first day of 1st grade. My little baby is all grown up!

So proud of my little bro!!

Misi is like the best little brother anyone could ask for. He came as quite a surprise when I was 9 years old and my youngest sister was 7. My parents were so excited to finally have a boy after having 3 girls in a row... he's been such a good kid his whole life. He's smart and handsome and has never done anything to get himself into trouble. 2 years ago he left to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Nukualofa, Tonga mission. What a HUGE blessing not only for our family, but especially for Misi because he gets to go back to my dad's home town and share the gospel with his family, and not only that...but he gets to learn the Tongan language. We always joke that my dad must have prayed really really hard to have Misi get his call there... hahaha. I can't believe how fast time has flown right by. He is now, since July 28th an honorable returned missionary. I just love to listen to his stories and to see and feel the love he has for the Tongan people as he shares his experiences. I'm such a cry baby and always get teary-eyed whenever the mission talk comes up. I guess it just brings back memories of when I went on my mission, 7 years ago. It's funny how similar my brother's experiences are to mine...only mine are in Spanish with my people of Chile and his are in Tongan. I told him before he left that the gift of tongues was real and that he didn't need to worry about learning the language, as long as he was faithful the language would just come to him. I remember this one time when I was in Chile, we were teaching about the apostacy and it was my turn to teach. I opened my mouth and all these Spanish words that I hadn't learned before came out and I was teaching and I made sense. The investigators would have questions and I would answer them quickly and accurately. At that moment I realized how real the gift of tongues was and I saw how much it not only helped my investigators understand the gospel, but helped me strengthen my testimony. That was the beginning of many experiences like that. My brother, now that he's home understands what I was talking about, and I think it's so awesome that we can sit down and talk about how our experiences are so much the same, but so much different.

We made a whole week-long celebration for his homecoming, which he well deserved! He arrived in SLC at about 8pm on July 28th and we were all waiting for him in the lobby of the airport...I totally could have went to the gate to meet him, but my mom wouldn't let me so I stood at the bottom of the escalaters waiting for him to make his appearance. He came down the escalater with his companions...and my mom, both my sisters and I started bawling like the cry babies that we are. He was just as handsome as ever, but a little bit thinner...hahaha! We stayed at the airport for a while snapping pictures and then he was off to get set apart. The next day, Wednesday we all just went down to the house to spend time with him. Thursday morning, bright and early we all met at the Provo temple and did a session as a family. That was so nice, and my parents were so happy to have all their children in the temple together. Patrick and Leslie, Ova and me, Lini and Marie, my mom and dad and Misi...it was such a great experience! After that we all went and ate at Chuck-A-Rama....cause you always have to eat after a session...hahaha! That night was a tribute night for Misi....Marie and Lini hosted it and it was so nice! I've never really heard of a tribute night before, but it was a chance for all the families (immediate and extended) to pay tribute or present something to Misi. All the kids had been practicing a dance for him and the preformed it that night...it was so nice! Friday was the dance and it was so PACKED!! I can't believe how many people showed up to support my brother....it was standing room only! Saturday we all just rested and Sunday was his homecoming program. He has grown so much in these past two years and now he's not a boy anymore, he's a man. I'm so proud of him and and grateful for such a wonderful little brother and a good example to my boys.

Here's at the airport...

Misi with Mom and Dad


Misi with Leslie, Pat and their girls


Misi with my little family


Misi with Marie, Lini and all their kids


Misi with our little sister Cindy Leka


Elder Makai, Elder Karrati, Elder Salt
these 3 Elder entered the MTC together, went to Tonga together and came back home together. They are mission brothers!


Misi with some of the missionary couples that served w/ him in Tonga


Misi with Uncle Daniel, Auntie Denice, McAbe and Lexi


Misi and his palangi brothers...his high school buddies


Uncle Misi and some of the kids


This was a picture of all of us at the Provo temple...family temple time is the best!


Some pictures at the dance on Friday:

Me and my beautiful cousin Sarah


Us girls at the dance with cousin Tine and her daughter


The little boy's dance for Uncle Misi


The little girl's dance for Uncle Misi


WELCOME HOME MISI, WE LOVE YOU!!!

August 23, 2009

It's a GIRL!!!


One of my really good friends at work has a sister thats an ultrasound technician. We found out around the same time that we're both expecting, she's about 3 weeks behind me! She goes to her sister probably every couple weeks, just to be able to see that her little baby is doing okay... she told me if I ever wanted to go with her, I could just let her know...well, I asked when the soonest was that you could find out what you're having, and she said probably around 14 or 15 weeks....(when normally your doctor doesn't schedule your ultrasound until after 20 weeks.) I told her that at her next appointment, I wanted to tag along.... the only stipulation was that I had to take her sister out to lunch...which was totally a good deal! A free ultrasound to find the sex of my baby in exchange for a meal at Sonic Burger....I like it!! I went with her when I was just 15 weeks along and was very very pleased to find out that we are finally going to have a little girl!! YAY! I won't be the only girl anymore!! She'll be here in late December....probably around Christmas time! We are so excited and blessed and can't wait to meet her. The ultrasound picture above is our little princess at 15 weeks in the womb...if you look closely, you can see her blowing bubbles!! :-)

July 14th, 2009 - WELCOME HOME UNCLE SAU

So Ova has 5 brothers and 1 sister and they are all really close. We were all devistated 3 years ago when we found out that Sau, the 2nd to youngest was going away for a while. He made some bad decisions in his younger life and it just caught up with him. He left on July 24th, 2006 and after 3 years of praying and writing and missing him, he finally came home! We love Sau very very much and hope that he learned his lesson and won't have to leave the family ever again!!


August 21, 2009

Caught up in FB

Okay, so I've been totally neglecting my blog because I started up a Facebook. I'm making a commitment to keep this updated....so many things have been happening, especially in the month of July.... I'm at work right now, but will post the happenings of the past month when I'm at home...I've got 6 memory cards FULL of pictures, and lots and lots of memories.....if you check in every once in a while, thank you! I'll be better about keep my blog updated!