Christmas 2011

So Christmas was great this year. It was Kamalu's first Christmas in Hawaii. We all had a wonderful with family and friends.

This would've been our Christmas card but I took it the week before Christmas and already ordered other pictures. Oops! Kainoa's always making funny faces in the background to make the kids laugh. That's why they're looking up.
The girls put on a performance of several Christmas songs. The boys wanted to join in of course.

On Christmas Eve, we went to my Grandma Kaluna's house in Pearl City for dinner with the family. It was good to get together with everyone. The kids had fun playing with their cousins.

Every Christmas Eve, the kids get to open one present and it's always pajamas that they wear that night. Kainoa dressed up as Santa this year in his homemade Santa suit.

Everyone was thrilled except for Kamalu. He was freaking out big time. He kept trying to get out of Santa's lap. It was pretty funny. I had to tell Kainoa to pull down his beard a little so Kamalu could see that it was just Daddy but obviously that didn't work.

I wish I had taken more pictures of Christmas morning. It was so cute. Kalei came up the stairs and went straight to this horse and hugged it. Good thing it was for him. He was so surprised and happy.

Kamalu had just woken up so Kainoa had to help him unwrap his presents.

The kids received a lot of presents, probably too many, but I just loved seeing their smiling faces as they opened them. Kainoa spoiled me too. He got me two pairs of earrings, a watch, a blouse, a purse, and shoes. He has such good taste. And for our Willing Family Secret Santa, Emi picked my name. She got me a purse, an iTunes gift card, and a watch/jewelry set. I also got a panini maker from "Santa" (my in-laws) and a cute shirt and purse from Shaun. Thanks to everyone for the gifts and goodies.

We went to church and the kids sang a couple of songs with the Primary. They were really good in church. Thank goodness. Kamalu even fell asleep.

After church we had linner (late lunch/early dinner) with Nuna and Uncle John. We had some 'ono Hawaiian food-laulau, chicken long rice, lomilomi salmon, poke, kimchee, poi, and haulolo (haupia/kulolo). Everything was soooooo good.

We really enjoyed ourselves. It was so nice to be home this year. I'm so grateful for all the blessings that we have received this year. I already know we'll be receiving a precious blessing next year. 2 more months until baby gets here! Yay!

Willing update

So of course I haven't posted anything new on this thing in ages. Here's some things that have happened to us. Here's the kids in front of the house with their Tutu and their cousin Kaitlyn. Liko was Draculaura, a Monster High character. She doesn't really what Monster High and I don't either. Her cousin Kaitlyn is really into it and wanted Liko to dress up like her. Kalei was a pirate and Kamalu was supposed to be one too. He was kind of sick and we managed to change him into his army pajamas. The kids had fun treat-or-treating and Mommy and Daddy raided their goods.
At the beginning of November, I celebrated my 30th birthday. Yup, I'm 30. I feel old but at least I feel that I have accomplished a lot in my 30 years. I'm married and have 3 kids and almost 4. I've been a crew member on the sailing double-hulled canoe Iosepa, served a mission in a third world country, been married to my sweetie Kainoa for 7 years, survived 27 hours of labor with Ku'uliko, 16 with Kalei, and a c-section with Kamalu. It's been a great 30 years with it's ups and downs.

Ku'uliko was a Super Raider (Good Citizen) for the month of October. They had an assembly at school to recognize her and the other Super Raiders this month. She was so happy and we were so proud of her. She's all sweaty in this picture because their assembly was outside. It was a super hot day.

Our kids are sometimes pretty crazy. Here is Kamalu showing his true colors.

At first Kamalu came upstairs the other night wanting to put on Kalei's backpack. He said he wanted to go to school like Kalei. Then next thing you know, all three kids were dressed up and pretending they were going to school too. I just love when they have fun playing together.

Thanksgiving was a good day. We had lots of food, the traditional stuff-turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, salad, rolls, and pumpkin and apple pie. I made the mashed potatoes, rolls, and apple pie. I love apple pie with vanilla ice cream. My weirdo husband will only eat it with chocolate ice cream. I thoroughly enjoyed all the food.

That night my sister-in-law Leimomi and I went to Windward Mall for some Black Friday shopping. I went to Macy's first and scored some deals on toys and clothes. Then we headed to Toys R Us and got more toys. Then to Children's Place and got more deals on clothes. We got back at about 3:30 am. Then I went back out to Windward Mall at around 9 am to Sears and the rest of the mall since it didn't open at midnight.

Then we went to the Windward Mall again yesterday to take the kids to watch Happy Feet. They loved it of course. It was actually a really cute movie. We also went shopping again. In our Willing extended family we picked names. We did our shopping for that yesterday. I think I'm pretty much done with all my shopping now I just have to wrap and send out everything.

Hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving weekend. I love the Christmas season. This year won't be a white Christmas here. Liko was a little sad about that. I am too but I'm happy to be in sunny weather. Until next time, a hui hou!

September 11th

My sister-in-law posted on her blog what had happened to her 10 years ago and I thought I would do the same.
I woke up to my alarm early in the morning and heard faintly on the radio about the World Trade Center. I seriously thought I was dreaming and still asleep. So I went back to sleep and woke up a little later. I headed to my Hawaiian language class and we watched the news. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I also kept thinking how blessed I was to be alive. A month before that my family and I took a trip to New York. We were there only a month ago. I kept thinking that as the world-changing events were happening. Then when I looked at the pictures I took on that trip, I realized that I had taken a lot of pictures of the Twin Towers. I even bought a Planet Hollywood shirt that had the Twin Towers on it. Had we put off that trip as a family, we would never have seen those buildings. I remember my mom also asking us a couple of times if we wanted to tour the buildings but we said "no." Of course I wish I had taken her up on that.
Last night I was watching a special about a photographer that took pictures of the aftermass of 9/11. She went and visited the people that were in her photos. It was really touching. One of them said, "We're not the heroes. We just were the helpers. The heroes were the ones that lost their lives that day." I am grateful for all those that sacrificed their lives and those who continue to put their lives on the line for our country.

#4 is on the way!

Here's the 3 kids with Tutu Kaluna.
With Great-grandpa Teruo

With Great-grandma Kimiko

Ku'uliko on her 1st day of 1st grade.

So of course I'm still a slacker. A lot has happened since the last time I wrote. About 2 weeks ago, I took a home pregnancy test and it came out positive. So #4 is on the way. Wow 4 really? Am I nuts? I must be if I'm adding to the madness that's already present in my life. I think I'm due sometime in April. I'm really tired and the morning sickness has been all day. I can never decide what to eat because I'm not sure what will not make me nauseous. Hopefully this only last for my first trimester but who knows. I had it for 5-6 months with the boys.

We just got back from Maui last week. We were there for 10 days staying at my mom and dad's. I flew by myself with the 3 kids. They were really good on both flights. People kept saying, "Boy, you have your hands full." Jokes on them 'cause my hands will be getting fuller.

It was a nice trip. All three kids got haircuts from my dad and I got a haircut at Regis. We swam a lot in my parents' pool and spent a lot of time with my brother Chad and his family. The kids just loved spending so much time with their cousins. Liko had her first sleepover. Well she attempted to sleepover the night before but got too scared. Then the next day Camden (who's the only boy) sleptover our house and Liko slept over their house. Camden enjoyed his time with the boys and Liko enjoyed her time with the girls.

I guess that's it for now.

Kalei's birthday

Kalei's birthday was on the 7th but I'm only posting pics now. Oops. He had a fun birthday. His Aunty Momo made him a crown. He wore it the whole day and I think some of the blue dye rubbed off from his sweat.

This is a classic Kalei face. I wanted to get a nice picture of him smiling but this is what I got.

Blowing out the candles. We're all on a diet so I made sugar free brownies. Luckily you couldn't tell they were sugar free at all.

He got a lot of cool presents. He got all kine themed stuff. Thomas undies, magna doodle, Cars 2 undies, shirt, and book, Thor shirt and yoyo, and Toy Story house slippers. My in-laws couldn't decide on what they thought they he would like so they got him all of them.

We went to swim at Papa and Nuna's pool in Kailua again. Kamalu loves the water. So do Kalei and Liko.

We visited my Grandma Kaluna yesterday in Pearl City. The kids enjoyed themselves. It was good to spend time with her. She gave me some of her 'ono mangoes. I can't wait for them to get ripe so I can eat them.

Some more

So this past week I barely lost 2 more lbs. Kainoa didn't lose any since he was out sick and didn't really work out. He's been working out double time this week though. He's been walking the Malaekahana bike path with us and he even biked to Subway in Laie to get his lunch the other day. I'm so proud of him and happy that he's doing so well.
I'm excited for my mom and family to be coming in a couple of weeks. I told her that I need new clothes since I'm losing weight. She said she could kind of tell when we skyped on Sunday. I've also been getting comments at work so I'm glad that it's at least showing now. I haven't been this weight since before I had Ku'uliko. I'm pretty happy.
I was a little bad today because we made funnel cakes at school for the class. I had three. Yikes! So I just finished a workout and will do another pretty soon to make up for all those calories. Kainoa and I have been pretty good at not eating junks and having soda once a week. We love the new Skinny Cow candies. The chocolate peanut butter wafer bar is so good and it's only 120 calories.
Sorry no pictures again but I'll post pictures of the kids next time. Hopefully I can write down next time that I've lost more weight.

Weight loss update

Just wanted to share our weight loss progress. Kainoa lost another 5 lbs. even though he was sick and didn't work out that much. I lost another 2 lbs. I've been working my butt off and I'm glad it's paying off. So far Kainoa's lost 10 lbs. and I've lost 5 lbs. in 2 weeks. We have my family reunion coming up next month and we're hoping we'll be looking skinnier by then. I keep staring at Kainoa's face because he's already looking skinnier. So we better keep it up.
That's it for now. Til next week.....

It's Summer!

Yay for summer! Now can the sun please stay out. It's been off and on rainy. Hopefully that's all done and it'll stay sunny out. So for Memorial Day we went to Kainoa's grandparents' house and swam in their pool. Here's Ku'uliko and Kalei on the ride over there. Liko loves to pose for the camera.

Kamalu didn't want to come into the water at first but then he decided to come in with all his clothes on. He ended up having a blast.

Of course Ku'uliko just loved swimming. Too bad I wasn't able to get a picture of Kalei swimming. Oh well. Next time.

One day the kids wanted to have a picnic and watch a movie. They really enjoyed eating in front of the tv.
And here's Kamalu after he ate his chocolate pop tart. Kanak attack. Bruddah was knocked out.

So Kainoa and I have kicked off our summer on a diet. We're really going to do this together this time. We posted our goals on the wall so we can see them everyday. We've been exercising twice a day and being strict with our diets. I've been jogging a lot and I have to do it while the kids are taking their nap. I also got these DVDs with Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels. They are killer. So far I lost 3 lbs this past week. I saw Carol, my cousin David's wife today and she said that I look like I lost weight. Thanks Carol for noticing! Made me feel really good and that I'm seeing some results. Hopefully Kainoa and I will meet our goals.

HOLY SHNYKEES!

Holy Shnykees (sp?) is right. I've been such a slacker with my blog. Not even sure if anyone reads it but I'm doing this to pretty much keep my journal going. How do I blog about the last 4 months without writing a novel? I figured I'd just blog about it through pictures. So here it goes......

Here's Kalei and Kamalu on their favorite ride at Windward Mall. Other than the mini train ride they have going around the mall. This one costs 50 or 75 cents for the two of them whereas the other one cost $3 a person. We're at Windward Mall pretty much every weekend. We can't stay on this side of the island all week long. They know us well at Maruki-tei since Kainoa loves the teri beef plate there and the rest of their food is super 'ono.

Here's my little character Kamalu. Doesn't he look like one of the characters from Fat Albert? He's my little singer except sometimes his singing is way too loud and it doesn't matter where he is. He just belts it out. This is Ku'uliko on her first day of school. She went from only going to preschool in Utah to attending Kahuku Elementary as a junior kindergartener. She knew her letters and most of their sounds before but now she's full on reading. She's been working so hard and doing so well. She's only been in school since the beginning of February. She was a Super Raider (like good citizen) last month. She'll be skipping kindergarten and moving onto 1st grade next year. We're so proud of her and all that she's accomplished.

Here's the kids enjoying the sun and the pool.

Kamalu celebrated his 2nd birthday on March 8th. We celebrated it here with just the family and then celebrated it again with his cousin Sophia in Maui.

We went to Maui at the end of March and Kalei got a haircut from Grandpa. He stayed still for most of the time. He got a little inpatient at the end.

The kids went Easter egg hunting on Easter morning. They enjoyed it so much. Don't you just love Kamalu's outfit. He's been only wanted to wear his t-shirt and diaper around the house and hates changing out of his pajamas into what Liko calls "dayclothes." He screams and won't take his pajama shirt off. At least he changes when he bathes.

Here's Ku'uliko and Kaitlyn in their pretty Easter dresses. Kamalu just had to get in the picture. He wouldn't move.

Here we are on Mother's Day. It was the rainiest day ever. We were soaking wet at church. I straightened my hair for nothing. Oh well.

This is Ku'uliko and Kaitlyn on the morning of their big May Day performance.

Ku'uliko was a cheerleader. We had to pay $20 for her costume but at least she gets to keep everything.

Sorry if I'm a little biased but the kindergarteners were the best. They did an 80's theme. Someone built a delorian and they had two boys dressed up at Doc Brown and Marty from Back to the Future. They went back to 1985. Half of the girls did Lisa Lisa's "Lost in Emotion" and then Liko and the rest of the girls did "Hey Mickey." I didn't even know they were doing that song. Then the boys performed a number from Beat Street. Then they performed Thriller all together. Liko was amazing. I didn't know she was such a performer. She knew all her moves and was on cue for everything. We were so proud of her. I'm so glad my mom was able to come and all the rest of the family.

Here she is with her zombie/vampire teeth.

After May Day, we went to Windward Mall and had lunch. Then we stopped at Papa's grave. It was his birthday. That's Kalei's namesake. It was nice to visit him.

And that's our life in a huge nutshell. Until next time, which hopefully won't be too long from now...a hui hou!

We're on the move

So if you haven't heard already, we're moving back to Hawai'i. We just decided last week and we'll be out of here before the end of the month. Kainoa has been under a lot of stress and decided that he wants to transfer to UH. So we'll be staying in Kahuku with his family until we find a place of our own. We've been selling all of our stuff on KSL (a popular classified website). We're trying to rent out our place. We had a showing last night and have another tonight. Hopefully we find someone soon. That's the only thing that's holding us back from leaving. My cousin Jared hooked us up with 4 buddy passes on Delta. We prayed about this and know that this is what we need to be doing at this time of our lives. I was a little doubtful about us leaving but everything has been falling into place.

We will miss the Todds, Kainoa's aunty, and all our friends that we made here. Even though we're sad to leave, we're getting excited to go back. I can't wait to get out of this weather. Our kids have been getting sick a lot. That's another reason why we can't wait to get out here. We'll probably be leaving in the next two weeks and definitely before the end of the month. Thanks to everyone that has helped us with this move.