"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

October 31, 2012

October Instagram

Halloween 2012

I'm pretty bummed that I slacked this year on Halloween.....my poor kids. :(  We carve pumpkins every single year.....and we didn't this year.  I'm kicking myself over it because Mone asked me like a million times if we could go get pumpkins, and I kept telling him to wait until it was closer to Halloween.....and then when it was closer to Halloween, I never had the chance.  My work schedule is crazy, both jobs....and baby Katea was in the hopsital so long....and I feel bad because I should have no excuse.  Sorry kids.  It won't happen again!  They are all such great kids and I'm only feeling bad because I'm kicking myself over it.....they didn't give me a hard time.

We did, however, do costumes.....and as you know from years past, I love to make homemade costumes!  I had some super cute ideas in my head for all my kids, but time was NOT on my side.  I'm going to save my ideas for next year though, and hopefully Ova will be healed and back to himself so we can dress up with our kids too! 

Makai has been asking me to make him a zombie....and he's been watching the Walking Dead tv series with Ova (while I'm at work....cause I wouldn't let him watch it if I were home LOL)  so I agreed that he could be a zombie and I YouTubed a few videos on how to make a realistic looking zombie....I think he turned out pretty good!  He loved it and was totally acting the part the whole night....as you can see in the pictures LOL

I always have fun trying to think of costumes for Mone, because of his long hair....he wanted to be the hulk, but my friend Kelly at work showed me this picture of a kid dressed up as beetlejuice that she found on Pinterest, and I just had to do that.  Mone at first was hesitant because he had no idea who Beetlejuice was, but as soon as I told him that he was a zombie, and that everyone would love his costume and think he looks so awesome.....he was right on board!  His costume actually took a little longer than I had originally planned on, my first idea totally failed.....I was a procrastinator this year and we didn't even start to look for his costume until like 3 days before Halloween.  We hit up the DI to find a black suit that I could paint white stripes on.  We were in and out of there super quick and we found exactly what we needed. Score!  My idea was to tape stripes down the suit and then spray paint the entire thing with white paint....and then when I take the tape off, it will be perfect black and white stripes.....ummm, yeah, not so much!  Ova helped me by taping the stripes on for me while I tried to get other stuff ready.....he wasn't too happy about it, cause that's so not his thing....but he did an awesome job, and I really appreciated his help!  :)  When all the taping was done, I tested my idea of spray painting on the back of the jacket, and I'm so glad I did it on the back, because it totally didn't work.  I used one whole can of spray paint on the back of just one sleeve.....the material on the jacket just kept absorbing the color and it looked more like grey than white.  Besides that, the spray paint was running and I could see it going under the tape so I wasn't going to have the straight lines that I had hoped for.  I stopped with the whole spray paint idea, and tried to think of other options.  I didn't have much time, and I didn't want to have to think of a whole different costume....but the perfectionist in me just wouldn't let him wear the jacket if it was all messed up and bled together.  I had some acrylic paints left over from when we painted the games for baby Katea's birthday party, so I tried painting it on the very bottom of the pant leg.  It went on super white, it dried quick...and when I ripped the paint off.....perfectly straight lines (well, not perfectly straight.....but good enough for my OCD to accept LOL)  I headed straight over to buy some more white acrylic paint....spent about an hour painting the jacket and pants, and then hung them to dry.  Yay!  The main part was done!  When it came time to get him ready, all I had to do was paint his face white, his eyes red....rat out his hair and spray it white....gave him some fake teeth... and there you go!  My very own beetlejuice!  Love how he turned out!


I asked Lautala what she wanted to be, and she said a witch.  That was a super easy costume.....just a black dress, a witch hat.....and I painted her face and arms green.  She was the cutest little witch ever :)

And my little cow.  This was a hand-me-down costume from Tala girl, but I had to dress baby Katea up in something.  I didn't take her out becasue it was too cold, but I dressed her up and took pictures with her older siblings before I took them out.  She was such a cute little cow with her chubby cheeks!

Our ward had their trunk-or-treat on Halloween day and it turned out perfectly because I didn't have to work.  I dressed them up and we headed to the church.  This was by far the best trunk-or-treat turn out we've ever had!  There were tons of people there....and everyone had candy for the kids!  They started with games for the kids inside the gym of the church, and then when it started to get dark, we all headed outside for the trunk or treat.  The parking lot at our stake center is huge and we had cars lined up from one end to the other.  The kids went from trunk to trunk, around and around until everyone ran out of candy.  My kids took their pillow cases for bags, and they were so full!  Holy candy galore!  They got more candy this year than they ever had before!  After everyone was done trunk-or-treating, they had some nachos and chili prepared for everyone....it was so delicious and the perfect end to a fun night!  I was so ready to go home, and the kids already had tons of candy....but Uncle Po and Aunty Siosiana wanted to take the kids trick or treating around the neighborhood.....so they went with them and I went home.  By the time they got home that night, their pillowcases were full!  Too much candy hahaha...

Halloween 2012 goes down in the books!  Everything turned out perfectly......except for the pumpkins....sorry kids, but like I said, it won't happen again!  :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 


October 29, 2012

Another year older and wiser too! LOL

So yesterday was my birthday.....Happy Birthday to me :).....the big ole 33.  I actually can't believe I'm that old now......33 sounds soooooo old, but I don't feel that old!  LOL  I felt super special all day because of all the texts, fb messages and IG shout-outs that I got........totally felt the love!  I had to work all day long, and Makai was totally bummed about that.  He kept saying "but mom, how are we going to celebrate your birthday if you're working all day?"  I told him not to worry....my birthday is not that important because I'm already old.  He got so mad when I said that and said "your birthday is important, don't ever say it's not" LOL  I did work all day, which sucked....I worked 7a-7p.......so that wasn't much fun, but I got an awesome surprise about half way through my shift.....Tea brought my kids to my work with a dozen roses, a birthday cake (Tea's homemade triffle cake, which is my absolute favorite) and some cute notes that my kids wrote for me.  Mone had a little birthday present that he wrapped for me.....the wrapping paper that he used was a dollar bill and he wrapped up 2 pennies for me.  He told me he'd been saving it for my birthday and that I can use it to buy a candy from the candy machine if I get hungry while I'm working.  So sweet! 

My Tala girl picked these yellow flowers for me :)

My absolute favorite cake!  I like it even better than chocolate cake!  It's white cake with cherry jello drizzled into it, pudding, bananas & whipped cream on top.....delicious!  Yummy!

My note from Makai :)

From Filimone :)

And Ova's taking me out to dinner tonight!  :)
I'm so excited for that because we haven't been a date for a long long time.  He's still bedridden and in pain, but he's going to go in a wheelchair, for me, for my birthday.  I love him!

A lot has happened this past year....and I'm so glad it's behind me now!  I remember on my birthday last year I spent most of the day in the NICU, baby Katea was just over a month old and I had already started holding her, but I was only allowed to hold her once a week for one hour.  I held her a few days before my birthday, but when my birthday came around....they let me hold her again.  That was the highlight of my birthday last year!  Back then she was just barely 2lbs......and now she's 18lbs and growing and healthy!  After work I took the cake that was leftover home, and guess who LOVED the cake.....little Miss Katea!  My mom came up after I got off work to wish me a happy birthday.  She gave me her old printer/scanner/fax machine and brought me brand new ink refills and help me set it up.  I'm 33 years old and she's still spoiling me!  :)  We dished the cake out for everyone to have some and my mom was sitting right by baby Katea, eating her cake.  Baby wanted some.  My mom gave her a bite and she went crazy....she couldn't eat it fast enough LOL...I wish I would have gotten some pictures of her because she was grubbin on that cake, without even choking....and she ate most of my mom's bowl!  Haha.....wow how much has happened, and far she's come in a year! 

I'm so blessed, I know that for sure.  I have a loving husband, 4 beautiful kids, a guardian angel, a good job, great friends, and a wonderful family.....  What more could I ask for?

It was a very very happy birthday for me!  :)

More firsts for baby Katea!

First time she got her chubby little toes painted!  :)

She learned to do a duck face LOL

She loves to play in her intellisaucer!  She walks back and forth playing with all the buttons, playing and keeping herself entertained for hours and hours!

She LOVES to play and interact with her brothers and sister!  Makai can get her laughing so hard!  It's so cute!

She's starting to eat more solids and she LOVES cheetos!

She also claps all the time, especially if you say "pasi, pasi"....I have tons of videos of her clapping, but I couldn't find any pictures!  She's also been exercising her little legs a lot because her brothers walk her around the living room everyday!

Good job my little miracle!
You're doing so awesome!

October 28, 2012

Throwbacks

Going through all my pictures trying to put them all in one location gave me an awesome walk down memory lane.  I love finding old pictures........it's amazing how just one look at a picture brings back so many memories....emotions, feelings and all.  That's why I LOVE taking pictures, and blogging my pictures....so I can always have and remember them.  Here's a few of my favorites! 

The quality of camera phone pix back in 2006 wasn't as great as it is now...but I still love this picture of my two handsome boys!  :)

This was the last few minutes as a family of 3.....Filimone joined us shortly after

Last picture of Makai as an only child 9/7/2006

Daddy welcoming Filimone to the world :)

My big Tongan boy!

Right after my c-section with my baby boy

Brothers....

My 3 men in 2006.....so handsome all 3!

Filimone didn't like our idea to put him in the pumpkin LOL

Filimone getting loves from little Lisi

Our family 2005 - state fair canvas picture

Halloween 2006

How sweet!

Halloween party 2006......fun times with the family!

We scared all the kids LOL

My two handsomes

Ova just got off work....me pregnant with Filimone

Mote ~ Makai ~ Nici

Little stud all suited up for church :)

Honeymoon in Hawaii 2002
Where it all started
Wish we were this size again....LOL