Kamalu's Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Kamalu!

We celebrated Kamalu's birthday on the 13th at my sister-in-law's house in American Fork. My mom came earlier during the week and Kainoa's mom was here before that. It was nice to have them here and to have all our family and friends come. Of course there was 'ono food and the cake turned out great. I baked it and my mom decorated it. I wanted to help decorate it too but I was too busy cooking. Oh well, next time. And...it snowed! There was a snowstorm when he was blessed and we were joking about how Kamalu causes it to snow.

Liko helped Kamalu blow out the candles.

He wasn't as interested in the cake this time around. He took a nap up until this point of the party.

Liko and his cousins helped him open his presents. Thank you to everyone that came. It was a fun party and Kamalu enjoyed it.

Not a very flattering picture of Ku'uliko but it sure is funny.

Kainoa's brother RJ and his wife Emi and their daughter Moani moved to Oklahoma a couple days before the party. They have helped us so much since we've moved here and made Utah feel more like home. RJ got a job there so that's why they left. It was really sad but we're happy for them. Emi is the sister I never had and I'm going to miss having them so close. We miss them a lot and hopefully we can make a drive down there sometime soon.

Our family has been sick and I feel bad for my mom and mother-in-law who probably got sick from us. We took Kamalu to the ER because he was wheezing one night. Turns out it was croup and he's doing so much better. Ku'uliko and Kalei have colds and so did I. Kainoa is getting sick now too. The kids are not coughing as much as they were before, thank goodness. I think I got sick because I wasn't getting enough sleep since I was taking care of the kids. I'm feeling a whole lot better, just a little congested. I cannot wait to have us all healthy again.

My mom left this past Wednesday and Kainoa's mom left yesterday. Now we're alone. Not alone but it was sad to see them go. I hope that they can come back soon. Well at least I know that they'll be here in a year when Kainoa graduates. Hopefully someone can come before that. I miss home and wish I could go back but that's not possible right now. I'm hoping Kainoa can get a job in Hawaii after he graduates so we can move back. I'm crossing my fingers.

Happy 1st Birthday Kamalu!

Monday March 8th was Kamalu's birthday. We're going to celebrate it with all the family and friends tomorrow but I figured Kamalu should get some cake on his actual birthday. His sister and brother helped blow out the candles (one for good luck).

He thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is my favorite picture. I have a better one on my phone but he just loved using the spoon. I've never really seen him eat with a spoon. He usually just plays with it but this time he put it to use.

He kept wiping the frosting off on the high chair.

This was the end result. I shouldn't have given him a bath before this. What was I thinking? I gave him another one and found frosting up his nose. He had his fun though.

Before eating cake. I noticed that I don't have too many pictures of myself with Kamalu. Not the best picture but it'll do.

And I don't have too many of Kamalu and Kainoa but this is the pose that Kainoa chose.

He had an appointment earlier that day and received 4 shots. One on each arm and leg. Poor guy. He knocked out on the ride home from the doctor's. He's 20 lbs. 14 oz. and the dumb nurse measured him wrong. According to her measurement he shrunk a half inch. I forgot to ask them to measure him again but wouldn't that just be assumed that you would do such a thing. Lame. At 9 months he was 29 inches. We'll see what he's at next time we go in for a check up in 3 months.

Kalei was looking at the Toys R Us ad because there was a picture of Thomas the train in it. He fell asleep reading it.

The Willing brothers

Kainoa's birthday, Moani's blessing, and sleepyheads

Last week Friday was Kainoa's birthday. Happy 27th Honey! We had a dinner at the Todds'. I made meat jun, won ton, potato mac salad, and an ice cream cake. Ilima made yum-yum chicken and rice and the Sells made a green salad and fruit salad with fruit dip. Everything was really good. Kainoa was a little sick. He had the stomach flu earlier that week and was trying to enjoy the food as much as he could. Poor thing.

Then two days later, RJ and Emi blessed their baby Moani. It was a beautiful blessing for a beautiful baby girl.

Here I am with Moani. She's such a cutie. She's a cute mix of her mommy and daddy. She looks a lot like RJ but has some of Emi's features.

She's getting chubby and I love it. Ku'uliko and Kalei were really chubby babies but Kamalu wasn't as much. I guess it's because he was taller. We just found out not to long ago that Emi and RJ will be moving soon. We've been trying to spend a lot of time with them before they go. I'm really going to miss them, especially my sister-in-law Emi. She's been my best friend since we've moved here and really helped Utah feel like home. Since I don't have any sisters of my own, she and her sister Darah have kind of adopted me into their family and treated me like one of their sisters. We've gone on some girls only days out and it's been so nice to get away from it all and just talk story. Of course I'm sad but I know that this move will be good for them. Hopefully we can visit them during the summer.

Here's my silly boy Kalei with his Thomas the train cape that Ilima made for him. He loves it.
So I've been taking pictures of my two boys in funny sleeping positions. One night Kalei was crying after dinner because he wanted to eat a Rice Krispie treat. 2 minutes after I gave it to him I found him like this. He took one bite and fell asleep. He's still holding up a full sippy cup. Guess he wanted to make sure that no one took it away from him.

Here's Kamalu on the floor. I was doing the laundry and he was staring at Shaun playing his PS3. Then Shaun called me over because Kamalu had fallen asleep like. He's holding a fork from Ku'uliko tea set. He was so tired.

Then I found him like this yesterday. So cute.

This was Kalei last night. He fell asleep eating his dinner. He took one bite and was out.

I'm finally better from my cold so now I'm back on track with exercising. I did the entire DVD for the Biggest Loser Boot Camp yesterday. I think I did the whole thing once last week. I was getting frustrated yesterday because I had to pause the DVD like 10 times because of all the interruptions from the kids. "Mommy, I need this or Mommy help me." I wanted to scream but I finally got through my workout. It took me twice as long to do it and now my muscles are sore but I feel good that I perservered. Seriously working out with three kids is challenging. I was trying to do my push-ups and Kamalu was trying to crawl under me. Then Liko wanted to exercise with me but kind of got in the way. Oh well. That's my life and though it can be frustrating at times, I'm happy that my kids want to spend time with me. That will probably change when they become teenagers so I better enjoy the time I can spend with them now.

Valentine's Day

So our Valentine's Day went well. Kainoa and I celebrated it on Friday. Shaun watched the kids for us (the first time he watched all three). It was nice to be alone for a little while. We had lunch at Wingers (the best wings) and then did a little shopping. Kainoa got me some lotion from Victoria Secret's. Endless Love was my favorite scent for a long time and I've recently switched to Sweet Daydream. It smells soooo good. I love it. Then we went to Walmart and Kainoa told me to pick out my own flowers. Of course I picked out beautiful ones.

On Valentine's Day, I made an awesome dinner....steak, crab legs, grilled veggies, cheddar garlic biscuits, and homemade ice cream sandwiches. I really enjoyed the meal.

Ku'uliko was feeling under the weather so Kainoa bought this for her for Valentine's Day. Kalei was jealous but Ku'uliko shared. I guess I was supposed to buy something for Kalei and Kamalu because Kainoa said they were my valentines.

This Elmo balloon is taller than she is.

Kamalu loves to pose for the camera. He's my future BYU football player.

Here he is waving hi. I still can't believe that he'll be turning one in 3 weeks. My mom and my mother-in-law are coming for his party. I'm excited to see them. I wish my dad could come but he's too busy with work. I wish my father-in-law could come too but he's busy with work too. At least the grandmas will be there.

So I'm been a little sluggish with exercising ever since I had the stomach flu. I recently got sick with a sore throat from Kainoa but I'm getting better. I finally did the entire Biggest Loser Boot Camp DVD workout today. It kicked my butt but I feel good that I got some exercise in. I haven't lost any weight but just maintained. Hopefully I can get all my energy back and get back into the groove. I'll keep you posted.

The boys

My little cutie pie Kamalu loves to take a bath. He loves splashing the water and he loves playing with Ku'uliko and Kalei when they're all in the bathtub together. I still can't believe that he'll be turning one next month. This past year has gone by so fast.

Here he is in the kids' playhouse that's in their room. He loves to play with Ku'uliko and Kalei. It's kind of nice because I'm able to get things done around the house when they're playing together.

Here's Kalei in the bathtub. I'm trying to capture his hair that looked like a mullet but you can't see it too well here. It was wet on the bottom and dry on the top. His hair is getting pretty long but you can't tell because it's so curly. Just like Liko's hair.

Well I've been working out and trying to eat healthy for a month now and I've lost 7 lbs. Well some of the weight was from the holidays and all the junks I ate but I haven't weighed this much since I was exercising after Ku'uliko was born. I pretty much gained 3-5 lbs with each kid so I'm so happy to be seeing some results. I still have a ways to go but I'm getting there. According to my height, I should be 104 lbs. I was 104 lbs when I was a freshman in high school. When I came back from my mission I wasn't even that light so that's not my goal. I'm just looking to lose at least 10 more pounds if possible. The exercising isn't too bad. I'm finding the time to do it so that's not the hard part. The hard part is eating healthy. I'm trying to eat less and eating healthier foods. I've cut out a lot of snacking so that's helped a lot. I'm been cooking a lot more ground turkey and I was a little reluctant because I didn't think Kainoa would like it but he doesn't mind it at all. Last night we had tacos but I used ground turkey and he and Shaun really enjoyed them. I should've been using ground turkey this whole time.

This past Monday I was feeling horrible. I was throwing up and had body aches and chills. I haven't had the stomach flu in a long time. I couldn't hold anything down and my body hurt so bad. It only lasted 24 hours thank goodness but my body's been out of whack. I lost a pound or so because of it so that's good. I haven't done any hard core exercising since because I've felt exhausted so I'll be getting back into it next week. I'm fine now and no one else got sick (cross my fingers). Just my luck that I got it.

That's about it. I guess I'll be blogging about my weight loss now and hopefully I can keep it up. Wish me luck.

Cousin Moani

We invited Emi, RJ, and their new baby Moani over for lunch today. We had our version of Cafe Rio-steak, fish, and shrimp tacos, strawberry limeade, and pineapple upside down cake. Everything was muy delicioso. It was nice to spend time with them and of course eat good food. They moved to Cedar Hills after Christmas which is about a half an hour away from us. We try to see them every week if possible.

RJ took off Moani's clothes to wake her up so she would eat but she was too busy observing everything around her.

Ku'uliko and her cousin Moani. It looks like Moani is punching her in the face.

And of course Kalei had to get a picture with her too.

So Kamalu recently turned into a one nap boy. I found him like this the other day. One minute he was playing and the next he was asleep in the doorway of the kids' room. So funny. He's been sleeping better at night too. We'll see if he continues doing this.

As for everything else, I've been trying to exercise everyday. I've lost 4 lbs. and hopefully I keep losing more. It makes me feel so lame for not being more consistent before. I'm using the Biggest Loser Boot Camp DVD and biking on our recumbent bike that we have in our room. It's been going good so far. The hardest part is eating healthy. I've been trying to cook healthier too. Kainoa's lost 5 lbs. as well. We're supposed to have a Biggest Loser Challenge with all the Willing family but we haven't weighed in yet. Hopefully we do soon.

Baby Moani

Here's my brand new baby niece Emoani Kaleihulumamo Willing. She was born on Monday the 11th at 5:07 pm. She was 7 lbs. 2.6 oz (3 oz.) and 19 inches long. That was the first birth that I witnessed other than my three kids. Emi invited me to come knowing that I don't have any sisters of my own. I got to the hospital at 2pm and Emi was fully dialated an hour later. She pushed for 2 hours. What a trooper. Moani is such a cutie. I got to hold her today. She's teeny compared to Kamalu. As I saw her being born, all I thought was, "I really want another girl." We're not going to try for another one until September so I'll have to wait.


The proud parents, RJ and Emi. I'm so happy for them.

My little rockstar.

My silly kiddies.

Kamalu, my little cutie