Birthday fun and Kamalu at 8 months

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm getting older. Not quite 30 but getting close. Kainoa made me breakfast. Then he picked up some pizzas for lunch during the football game. He got me flowers and the new Wii Fit Plus. My sister-in-law Emi and Kainoa's aunty came over to watch the game. BYU played Wyoming. 52-0. What a shut out. It was an awesome game. Everyone was on top of their game. RJ played well of course. And if anyone watched it, no, the false start was not on him but on #60.

After the game we tried out the Wii Fit Plus. The new games are so much fun. It gives you a pretty good workout.

Then we went to Old Navy. They had a great sale. 50% off all their outerwear. I also had a 30% off thing (stuff and save). I got a pretty styling coat for $25. I was so happy because I also found a pair of jeans that fit really good that I won't have to hem. It's so hard for me to find pants. Kainoa and I have the opposite problem. I can never find pants short enough and he can never pants long enough.

We ate dinner at Yamato's. It's a Japanese/Korean BBQ restaurant. I got shrimp and vegetable tempura and teriyaki beef. It was pretty good. We'll have to go back so I can get the curry. I tried some of Kainoa's aunty's and it was super 'ono. Then we went to the store and Kainoa got me a cookies and cream ice cream cake. That was super good too.

It was a great birthday. Thanks to everyone that helped make it a wonderful day.

Kamalu turned 8 months today. I can't believe that he's that old already. He's my roller. He doesn't crawl but rolls to everywhere he wants to go. That's a picture of him in our hallway. He loves to talk. Every morning he wakes us up with "Dadadada." He loves his baby food and eats it at least twice a day. He's super smiley. He loves his brother and sister even though they are sometimes rough with him. He doesn't like sleeping in his crib but he'll sleep on a fold-out Backyardigans couch that we put next to our bed. He loves to give drooly open mouth kisses. He's my little Asian baby. Well at least he looks more Japanese than the other two. We love our baby Kamalu!

Ku'uliko's 4 and Halloween

So we had an eventful week last week. Ku'uliko turned 4 on the 26th. I made homemade pizzas and a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (that's what she asked for). We had RJ and Emi over.

Then Kainoa and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on Thursday, the 29th. It's been 5 years. Wow! Even I can't believe it. 5 years, 3 kids later.....We didn't want to wait to have kids after we got married and Ku'uliko came along. I still remember our first anniversary. We got back from the hospital the day before. My mom cooked a steak dinner with all the fixings. We ate the top of our wedding cake which was still really good. We were staying with Kainoa's family at the time. His dad brought down their CD player and some music and Leimomi brought out some candles. And somehow Kainoa managed to get me some roses and a card. I didn't even get him anything. Or maybe I did. I don't even remember. This year he got me a deep fryer. It's a fancy one. Not the ideal gift for an anniversary but I like it. He likes it too. I got him some tall tees. We watched Couples Retreat with Kamalu. It was hilarious. Shaun watched Ku'uliko and Kalei. Then after our movie we dropped Kamalu off with RJ and Emi and went to Red Lobster for dinner. We just wanted a little time alone and Kamalu is going through that separation anxiety stage. Hopefully he'll get over it soon. It was a fun day.

Then on Saturday we went over to the Todds in American Fork. We had dinner there. Ilima made dinner in a pumpkin which is one of their traditions. It was really good. Then we went trick-or-treating together. It was fun to have the kids together. It was a little difficult walking with all those kids but it was worth it. Kalei walked for a little bit and then he rode in the stroller. I felt silly trick-or-treating with his Thomas the train bucket. Kainoa and I wore Michael Jordan jerseys. Of course it looked like a dress on me. RJ and Emi dressed up as jocks and wore their letterman jackets. It was a nice night. Kamalu was a little fussy because it was little chilly for him but he eventually fell asleep. Shaun stayed home to hand out candy and he said only 3 kids came by. I thought there would've been more. If they were smart, the kids would've raided our condos. It's a lot of homes in one place. More candy. Come on now. Oh well they missed out.

Well that's it for now. Until next time, a hui hou!

Halloween!

So here are some random pictures of the kids. They were trying on their beanies. Pretty soon we'll have to start using them. It's supposed to snow on Tuesday.

Here's a picture of the pumpkin I carved on Friday. It took me about an hour and a half. I printed off a picture and traced over it with a pencil to make indentions. Then I carved it out. I had to do the eyes freehand because it was hard to figure it out with the picture. It was really fun and I almost want to carve another one.

Well last night was a sad one. BYU lost. I actually went to the game with Kainoa, Emi, and Shaun. Emi's sister Darah and her husband watched our kids for us. It was fun to be there but I wish they could've won. RJ played well. I wish the coaches would've taken him out and put the backup center in. Then they could've let him play at left tackle or right guard. Somewhere else on the offensive line so that the quarterback could've had better protection because he wasn't getting any.

Tomorrow is Ku'uliko's real birthday. I still can't believe that she's going to be 4. Kainoa and I are celebrating our 5th anniversary on Thursday. Now I'm feeling old. I think we're probably going out to dinner or something. I'm craving some Red Lobster. I'm also excited about taking the kids trick-or-treating on Saturday. Ku'uliko is going to be a fairy, Kalei-Thomas the train, and Kamalu-a tiger. I'll post pictures of that for sure.

Ku'uliko's Birthday Party and Vegas

So we've been quite busy recently. First of all, my aunty Pearl and cousin Jared Furtado came to stay with us on Thursday the 1st. They came down for General Conference. Then my mom came the next day. Kainoa's parents were still here so we celebrated Ku'uliko's birthday early. Her actual birthday isn't until the 26th. We'll probably celebrate it again but just us. I know she felt left out this summer when we celebrated Kalei's birthday 3 times.

Anyways, we had a party for her at her cousins' house in American Fork. Thank you to everyone that came. She really had a good time. There was 'ono food of course. Ku'uliko wanted to eat "brown chicken" (teri beef) so I ordered some meat from the Springville Meat Company (the local butcher) and soaked it in teriyaki sauce. I have to order it there because you can't get meat sliced that thin at the grocery store. I also made crab cream cheese won tons, and potato mac salad. Kainoa made the spam musubis. Kainoa's mom made chili, hotdogs, and pumpkin crunch. My mom made her spinach dip and clam dip and decorated the castle cake. I made the chocolate frosting for the cupcakes and decorated the Happy Birthday cupcakes and Ku'uliko's cousin Emma decorated the rest. It was a My Little Pony party and she got tons of My Little Pony stuff. She was so happy and had so much fun playing with her friends and cousins. It was a full house. Here's the guest list: Ama (my mom), Tutu and Man (Kainoa's parents), Bumpy (Kainoa's Aunty Heather), the Todds (it was their house), Uncle RJ and Aunty Emi, Aunty Pearl and cousin Jared, Kainoa's cousin Nalani and her husband, the Sanchez's and Melia, the Snows and Fredricks (Emi's family), the Po'uha's, and Uncle Sheldon and Uncle Lono. I think that was everyone. It was a great party and Ku'uliko enjoyed herself.

My mom was able to get us tickets for General Conference. She went on Saturday and we got to go on Sunday to the afternoon session. It was awesome to be in the presence of the prophet and the church leaders. The choir was awesome as well.

I'm going to rush through the rest of this since Kamalu just woke up and I'm typing this with one hand. Kainoa had the next week off from school so we drove to Vegas with all three kids, my mom, and Shaun. Our Explorer has a third row but it was pretty tight. The kids did so well on the ride there and back. They did it without a DVD player. Of course we stopped in St. George to go to Jack-in-the-box. We met up with some family friends, the Monsons, and talked story. Kainoa was driving pretty fast so we made it to Vegas in good time. We stayed at the Circus Circus Hotel. We got a good deal. We shopped at the outlet mall the next day. Then we played tourists on Friday. We walked a lot. We went to the MGM, the M&M's and Coca-Cola stores, and the Miracle Mile shops at the Planet Hollywood. We met up with my good friend Lehua that night and ate at this place called Hash House-a-go-go. The portions were huge. Then on Saturday we took the kids down the Circus part of the hotel. We played some games and saw a circus act. My mom stayed at the hotel with the kids and we went to the football game with Lehua and Shaun. It was an awesome game. BYU 59 UNLV 21. RJ played so well. The highlight was getting phone calls telling us that we were on TV twice. They even did a close up on us. It was so funny because I stood up right as they did the close up. I had no idea.

Anyways now we're back to normal Utah life. I was enjoying the warmth of the sun down in Vegas. It was kinda chilly when we got back. The weather was better today thank goodness. I'll be posting more pics soon. That's it for now. Adios!

Happy Birthday Tutu and Aunty Emi!

So this past Saturday was my mother-in-law's and my sister-in-law's birthday. They went to the football game (yay for BYU!) and then we met them for dinner at the Art City Trolley Restaurant. It's this great diner that's in Springville. They came over after for cake and ice cream. They have the same favorite cake, yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I made the cake while they were at the game. Then everyone slept over. It was fun just spending time with each other. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that my mother-in-law and father-in-law came on the 19th to watch BYU's three home games. It's been fun having them with us. They've been taking turns staying at everyone's house.

Here are some fun pictures that I've taken over the past several days. The kids love having their Tutu and Man over. We had linner (lunch/dinner) at the Todds yesterday. We had beef stroganoff (Emi), mochiko chicken (me), broccoli salad (RJ), potato mac salad (me), and cake (Emma). There's a picture of the cake that Emma made. She did such a good job. She worked so hard. So cute.

So I went to an Instacare center. It's like a mini ER which is really close to our house. The doctor looked at my ears and took some blood. He says that I have vertigo, dizziness that is caused by an inner ear infection. It pretty much feels like everything is spinning as I move my head from side to side. It's been pretty tough. It'll go away or sometimes stay for hours. The only thing he gave me was a motion sickness medicine which makes me drowsy. I haven't been taking it because it makes things worse. My lab results from the blood tests came out normal but they said that I should follow up with my primary physician if it continued which it has. So I'm going to my doctor tomorrow. I hope they can find what's causing this because it really is getting irritating and painful. I haven't been able to drive and I try not to carry Kamalu if I feel it coming on. I even quit my job because I haven't been able to work. I just hope I get better soon.

Well when I figure out what's wrong, I'll update this. Take care.

GLEE!

Okay so I'm so grateful that I didn't have to work tonight. I worked last week Wednesday and missed the new show Glee. It's my new favorite show. I love it. Kainoa and Shaun love it too. It's too funny. So I'm not working next Wednesday so I'm excited. If you didn't know already, our family is into musical theater. All three of us kids performed in at least one musical in high school. Chad did Grease. I did Brigadoon and a Musical Review. Shaun did West Side Story. When we went to New York in 2001. We went to 4 shows. It was awesome. So Glee just brings back lots of memories. "Don't stop believing..."

Okay so this is what's been going on. I've been working 2-3 times a week. Kamalu has been getting fussy with Kainoa but they've been surviving. A girl at work quit so it's the scheduling has been rough. So lame.

So I'll explain the pictures. This pictures of all three kids took forever to take. It's always Kalei that turns away or looks up. Then there's a picture of Kamalu with his cousin Emma. We went over to her house, The Todds, to watch the game on Saturday. BYU killed Tulane 54-3. Now they're ranked #7. Crazy. Kainoa's parents are coming this Saturday to watch the next three home games. We're excited for them to come.

Next there's pictures of Kamalu and Emi's nephew Wes. He's about 2 weeks younger than Kamalu. They were having fun looking at each other. I went over to Emi's parents' house for her sister-in-law Dani's baby shower. It was so much fun to be with other women.

It was funny and scary because the next morning I woke up totally dizzy. I couldn't walk straight. The room was spinning. Every time I turned my head, I would get totally dizzy. I had to crawl to the bathroom. I drank some water and Coke but I threw it up. So Kainoa's aunty came over (she's a nurse). She took my blood pressure and everything looked okay. I felt better after I ate something. I'm okay now but sometimes I get dizzy every so often. So weird. Kainoa said I had too much fun at the baby shower and was joking with me that someone slipped something in my water.

Okay so I caught Liko like this in her room. She was sipping on tea and reading her book with her feet propped up. It was too funny so I took a picture of it.

Well that's all that's happened with us. Take care everyone.

Go BYU!

So all of these pictures were cute and I couldn't decide on just one so I put them all up. I took this after the big game this past Saturday. BYU won! BYU 14 Oklahoma 13. We watched the game at the Snows and it was a nail-biter. We were cheering so loud. My brother-in-law RJ made his debut as the starting center. He's started before but not as center. He was awesome. The whole team did awesome. The O-line gave the quarterback great protection, despite what a lot of people said. They went up against the #1 defense in the nation and Max Hall only got sacked once. Our defense did a great job as well. After the game was over, Kainoa and I were still in shock. We couldn't sleep that night. The polls came out today and BYU is ranked #9 in the nation. They jumped from #20 to #9. One of the ESPN commentators put BYU as one of his top 5 teams. It's about time that BYU get that respect that they so fully earned. Well we still have the rest of the season but that was a phenomenal start.
Here's Kamalu in his BYU shirt. It was actually Kalei's that RJ and Emi gave him for Christmas but it was too small. It's a 18 months shirt but it fits Kamalu pretty good. We just went to the doctor today for his 6 month check-up. He's 17 lbs. 10 oz. and 28 3/4 inches long. He's in the 54 percentile for his weight and 89 percentile for his height. When the nurse measured his height, she said, "Wow, he's tall." Yeah, I was thinking the same thing since his head is almost all the way to the top of his carseat. We might have to buy him another carseat soon.
That's our Willing update for now. Take care everyone.