CHRISTmas Weekend

Christmas has come and gone, and I'm a bit relieved.  Usually christmas is my favorite time of the year, but for some reason this year was alright.  It's probably because we've been busily working, and going to school, but it just hasn't felt like I thought it would this year. However, it has been a good year, and we have had such wonderful blessings.

This year,  I really really wanted to keep christmas about Christ, and not concentrate on the "material" things like most people do. To keep things simple, I'm just grateful and happy for my family, that we're alive, that we're breathing, that we're eternal.  This weekend was actually really nice, and relaxing for us.  On Christmas Eve we watched a few movies on netflix.  I tried staying up to make sure the kids slept before I wrapped their presents, but they didn't sleep and it was already 2 a.m. so I just wrapped their presents in front of them. lol.  My sister had sent some candy for them, so I wrapped each one up for them.  We had also went to D.I. the day before, and I got them some clothes from there and a few new clothes (pajamas, shirts..) from walmart so I wrapped those also. We also got them coloring books with markers that only can be used on that paper, which is my favorite thing cause now I don't have to worry about Moe drawing all over our walls. LOL.

This year we didn't have much for the kids, actually we never have much, but I think it's totally fine. Sometimes I think parents get caught up in how much of the material things they get, that their kids (as well as them) lose the real meaning of christmas. So I was glad with what we had, and I was glad that we got to spend time as a family, and I hope that as my kids get older, we continue to show them that christmas is about the birth of Christ, and to have presents is a bonus.  It's not about having lots of presents under the tree, that's not what defines a "good christmas."  Here are pictures from our Christmas morning:

The kids presents under the tree, looks like a lot, but we literally wrapped up
each things in one box lol.  We figured they didn't actually care about what was inside
rather they wanted to "rip" the paper hahaha

Kids ready to open their first present.  Before we opened presents we said a prayer as a family,
grateful for our family and the blessing we receive, those daily presents from Heavenly Father
are priceless :)

Firs present they opened was new pajamas!
Moe had Toy Story Pajamas, and Kesaia got Minnie Mouse ones.

Daddy and the kids in their new pajamas :)

Mommy's turn :)

Now onto the next present.. 

Bubbles from Aunty Mele (Moe's favorite, he always plays bubbles with Mele)

Kesaia with her candy from Aunty Mele

Moe's new coloring set, yayy no more marking the walls anymore LOL

Kesaia with her coloring book :)

On Friday, we had a Ugly Christmas Sweater Party with a few of our friends at my house.  It was so much fun, and I went to bed tired and full. lol.  We had lots of yummy food, and we played games as well. At the end of the party we had our gift exchange, and it was hilarious.  Whitney had a real white elephant gift (whereas the rest of us bought something under $5) and it was a head with nice pretty hair lol. Here are some pictures from our night.

The first game we played was to dress someone up like Santa..
and as you can tell this group won
The only material they had was tape, white tissue paper, a gold garland and a red plastic tablecloth 

Here's all 3 "santa's" lol

We also played the face the cookie game or whatever you call it
where you have a cookie on your forehead and you only use your facial
muscles to move the cookie down to your mouth
trick with it though was the cookie was chocolate covered so if you took long
you had a melted chocolate trail on your face lol

Did I mention all the yummy food?!?!?
This is a sausage dip and it was DELICIOUS! (thanks whit!)

We also honey walnut shrimp, chowmein, lasagna, cheesy garlic bread, salad, rolls,
and what's not pictured is rice, sweet 'n sour meatballs, shoyu chicken, and banana cream pie
:)

Mone loved his white elephant gift lol... He named it "Dave"

Hoku had a little thing that made all kinds of noises lol
farts, claps, etc... hahaha

It was a spongebob shaving kit thing, and whitney showed me and told me
maybe I should take it for my legs lol, I told them I hadn't shaved since like
summertime so that's why she's laughing lol

And then I braided Dave's hair and mustache lol

It was so much fun with our friends, and we even did some karaoke-ing. We will definitely have another party next year, and hopefully have much more games and what not. Overall everything from the food to the gifts, but especially their presence was wonderful.

And that's how our Christmas weekend was spent. :)

P.S. All is going well so far with my pregnancy.  I'm about 12 weeks along (3 months) and nausea has subsided (thank goodness).  I'm in the "fat stage" so I'm feeling pretty hefty right now. LOL. I show really quick, or maybe it's that I can't suck it in anymore (lol) so I'm sporting a gut, not a pregnancy belly right now. lol. I still haven't found a new doctor, well midwife, so I haven't even had an ultrasound yet.  I haven't quite made the FB announcement, maybe I'll do that when we find out what we're having... :)

Lusipi & Homework

I know the two sound weird, and your probably trying to figure out a connection and the connection is that those are the two I've had the most of this weekend. LOL. My mom and step dad flew in last week Wednesday and Thursday for a missionary farewell.  As always they brought lots of treats (chocolates, dried mango and mocha crunch) as well as a big bag of Lu (luau leaves).  So all weekend long we've been making lusipi, or more like all weekend long my mom has been making us lusipi.  She seriously has spoiled us too much this weekend, and it makes me very grateful for her.

This weekend and week I've also been trying to catch up on a lot of online homework.  I basically have until tomorrow night to do a 4 page paper for one class, and also take notes on a reading assignment g I will have a final on tomorrow at 5 pm.  So it's 2 big assignments that I need to get done, and I'm glad to say that hey I'm almost there, and I know I can do it. It's been a very long, at times stressful semester but after tomorrow I'll be free! woohoo!

My mom has talked to me about the possibility of having my brother come up and live with us to help us out with the kids while we go to school.  And let me tell you, I REALLY hope he does decide to come lived with us.  I know, or at least my mom says he doesn't mind, so I told her to talk to him and hopefully by the time the new semester starts he'll be here.  I would hate to take him away from his life in Kahuku, but frankly his friends are well...uh... he could have better influencing ones, and I want him to come out here and go to school and maybe we can send him off on his mission. Who knows, maybe I'm kind of jumping ahead of myself, but I just hope that he considers really coming down here.

Anyhow, so much to do in little time, but I just wanted to update my blog real quick since it's been a while.  Oh and we finally finished decorating the tree last week Friday.

Have a great week everyone! :)

Our Christmas Tree @ Night

Christmas Decor by the entry (from the Dollar Tree)

Dollar Tree sticker I found when we moved in and have kept this on our Door...
You'll always see this when you exit.. :)

He looks real innocent in this pic, but he is horrible.. lol
he loves to pull all the ornaments

Moe took this picture of me.. good photographer I say (for a 2 yr old)

The kids on Sunday afternoon

My princess with her mohawk looking hair cause she took her rubber band off her hair lol

My tree :)

The Holidays and Holiday Cheer :)

My Babies out with all the leaves :) Raking them up...

As sad as this sounds, I forgot I had a blog. :/ Ooops! LOL. I have just been so busy (and tired) since Thanksgiving, that now I'm finally forcing myself to sit and blog, because I still don't have free time with school finishing next week and all these assignments I have to turn in by then (curse you online courses with no deadlines and "just turn in everything by Dec. 8th" rules ugh! lol) So this is my 2 minute break to blog, then I'm going to take another 2 minutes to walk upstairs and grab me a drink then get back to business (school work).

Thanksgiving was such a busy, but fun day for our family.  I woke up in the morning and prepped most of the food, then we headed over to Fehi's family's potluck for the afternoon.  I had told myself I wouldn't eat too much knowing that we would still eat our meal at home, but I couldn't help it. They had yummy lusipi, manioke, feke (octopus), and desserts.  It was a small simple, yet heavy tongan meal. But it satisfied every Tongan craving I've been having for a long time. lol.

After the potluck we headed home and finished up our Thanksgiving cooking.  I had asked my husband to help me, but somehow he got out of it and ended up with the kids, but that was ok.  I had/made cooked turkey, mash potatoes, gravy, stuffing, beef stew, rice and cheesecake.  The best part of our meal (for me) was the cheesecake. Oh man, homemade is so much more better, that's all I gotta say.  It may take a long time (with baking and cooling) but it was so worth it. We invited Fehi's sister and her husband (Maopa and Amoni) over for dinner, it was their anniversary but they still came and ate then headed off to a movie.

I didn't take much pictures, let alone nice ones lol, I'm sure you understand.. Thanksgving, i'm the only cook, no time for pictures lol.  Here are the ones I took:

The turkey and stuffing :)

My beef stew

Homemade cheesecake, imagine strawberry topping on it :)

On Sunday night we went as a family to Temple Square to see the lights. Fehi's cousin was visiting and has never been to Utah, so we figure we'd show him one thing Utah is famous for.. the temple!

So the thanksgiving weekend was full of fun and food.  Now it's back to school and finishing it off.  :)

Happy Holidays!