Paper monster

We are a family of monsters. Sarah is a cookie monster - she could eat an entire package of cookies in a good 30 minutes. Tui is a meat monster - if its red and bloody, its for him. And malachi, is a paper monster - it is his favourite thing ever! If there's paper anywhere in the house, he will find it and he will eat it. and if i take it away from him and out of his mouth, boy oh boy does he scream!! Just as an example, yesterday Jacob was here visiting for the day (Mark and Bonita's 11 month old son). He had a muffin in a ziplock bag in his diaper bag, up on a chair. Malachi, without me knowing, got the bag off the chair, got the ziplock bag out, opened the ziplock bag, took the muffin out, took the muffin out of the paper, threw the muffin on the ground and proceeded to eat the paper. I tell you, this kid is a paper monster through and through.
Paper beware, Malachi is always on the lookout!!

Malachi's first Christmas

This was Malachi's first Christmas with us. He seemed to enjoy it well enough. He was super excited about all the paper around the house (paper is his favourite thing), and he was mildly interested in the presents. We spent the morning together reading the christmas story in Luke, opening presents, drinking milo and eating the rest of the dounuts. We then went to Tui's aunty Salote's house to have lunch, plenty of seafood that made Tui happy, and plenty of desert that made Sarah happy. Then we joined our ward for games and a BBQ later that afternoon and finished the day off with a visit to the Crawford convalencent home. It was a great day, dispite the lack of family members present. We had so many photos from it that i decided a smilebox would be appropriate.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

The best Christmas ever

In this years First Presidency Christmas Devotional, President Monson talked about having the best Christmas ever through service. Well, we took his counsel to heart and tried it out. After spending the day with family, friends and plenty of food, we went with some people from our ward to the Crawford Convalescent home in Sunset. We sang songs, gave them cards and gifts and just talked with them. It was such a moving experience. These people couldn't talk, hardly move and have next to no family to visit them. It must be such a sad life for them. But to see the smiles on their faces and in their eyes, it was amazing. We could see their spirits shining so bright, even though their bodies didn't work they way they wanted them to, we could tell they appreciated it. There was one woman in particular, Vivian, she didn't speak, but she had such a sweet face. We gave her our family Christmas card and a gift, she held hands with Malachi. When it was time to leave she looked at me and just nodded her head. I could tell she was saying thank you. I'm glad for a Bishop who inspires us to think of others, but not just to think of others, but to act for others.

'
This is me and Vivian.





This is just a quick shot of our friends singing their Christmas songs.

It really was the best Christmas ever!

Darkness

The power is finally back on!! Last night the power went out at about 7pm, and is only now up and running again. There were more storms, flash floods etc here in Hawaii yesterday which caused island wide power loss. You dont really know what dark really is until you have no power on your entire island. I'm talking pitch blackness that could swallow you up kind of dark. Kinda creepy. It wasn't too bad for us, i had just finished cooking diner so we sat down and ate. Malachi enjoyed crawling around in the dark and watching the candles. Unfortunately though, Tui's cousin Suliasi and Ashleigh were meant to have their wedding dance last night - never happened. We then spent 5+ hours preparing the food for the wedding in the dark - not so easy. We had to make hundres of Lu pulu, peal ufi and sweet potatos, and all without light. This morning, the sealing in the temple took place in the dark, very different experience. And so the reception was setup, without power. The Lord was looking out for us though; he stopped the pouring rain just in time for the sealing, and held off long enough for the photos to take place. And just as the reception was about to start with no AC and no music or lights, the power came back on!! I guess the Lord was waiting til the very very VERY last second to answer our prayers. But he always does :) All in all, the night of darkness wasn't so bad, and the reception turned out really nice.

Here is a picture of us with the bride and groom.

The best gift ever

Last night, on Christmas Eve I recieved the best gift i could have ever asked for. Even now as i'm writing this my eyes are tearing up. What was it? A phone call.
Let me explain.
I'm a sucker for Family, especially at Christmas. It breaks my heart to be away from my family at this time of year. I'm here in Hawaii, Richard's on his mission in Colorado, Dad lives in Alabama, Mum's in Wellington, the rest are in Hamilton. It's hard.
But yesterday was Christmas day in New Zealand, and Richard got to make his Christmas phone call. Luckily, Dad had just arrived in NZ and they were all at the beach together so when Rich called, they were all there. But what made it even better was my Dad called me from his phone, while rich was ont he other phone, and they put us both on speaker phone so i got to talk to him!! But not just him, everyone. After racking up a $100 bill on dad's cell for making international calls, Jessie rang me from her phone so i could keep listening. My family didn't know, but i was just sitting here crying as i listened to all their voices. It was by far the best thing i could have ever asked for at Christmas.

To my family,
You probably will never realise how much i love you all. I miss you so bad being away from you. I wish i could have been with you for Christmas. You are the most important thing to me.

I love you all.

Family Traditions

There have been quite a few talks from church leaders this year about establishing righteous family traditions. My family had great traditions that helped us feel loved and part of a family.My favourite of Christmas traditions is the Brunton Family Dounuts. In the week leading up to christmas, we would form a production line and pump out hundreds (literally) of home made dounuts that we would then deliver to our friends. It was a great opportunity to spend time together as a family and enjoy the spirit of giving. Originaly my mother was the main worker on this project (some times the only), and over time i've taken it upon myself to lead the pack. Last year, as Tui and i had our first christmas together, we talked about family traditions that we'd like to continue. The Brunton family dounuts was one of them. So last year me and Rebecca Blackmore made the dounuts together. But this year i was brave and made them all myself. Here are a few pictures of the process.

Just starting out

Me and my work

My little helper
The one man production line - not as easy as i thought

Getting nice and crispy

Glazed or sugar-cinnamon?

Malachi is ready to help clean up

The End result - yum!!!!

Aloha 'oe dear friend

No, i'm not talking about all our neighbors and loved ones that have come and gone. I'm talking about Tui's phone. Tonight we went to PCC for the Christmas canoe (again) and while we were waiting Malachi was playing with Tui's phone, like always. We have a broken phone that is identical to Tui's for him to play with but this clever little boy knows the difference and only wants the real deal. So we're sitting on the canoe, waiting for it to depart, Malachi's looking around at all the lights, getting all excited, then PLOP! Tui's phone goes into the lagoon. I quickly surveyed the situation and did the only appropriate thing - LAUGH, LAUGH, LAUGH!!! What else could i do? It was gone, you can't blame a baby, and what the heck, it's christmas!!! (Tui of course might have other feelings towards the whole thing.) So for now Tui's phoneless, Malachi's oblivious, and I have something funny to blog about.

Family Pics

So last week-ish we had some family pictures taken by none other then the fabulous Leeyen aka Lob-Lee. (If anyone wants family, couple, or baby pictures taken, let me know and i'll give you her number. She's amazing and has a really great assistant!) She did such a great job, especially considering Malachi had just woken up and was yawning in most of them and not interested in the rest. We had them taken for our first family Christmas card that we will be sending out this week, a little late, but eh! Here are just a few of our favs.

Memory Lane

So graduation took place yesterday - Congrats to all our friends who finally made it!!!! It's crazy to think that exactly one year ago i was in their exact situation - waking up at 6am to get ready, trying to get those stupid hats to some how stay on, meeting at 7am to start lining up, wondering at 9am why we had to meet at 7am for a line up that took 10 minutes, walking in, feeling important, hearing your name being called, shaking hands with an apostle, being buried under a ton of leis - GRADUATION! I can't believe that was a year ago already. I was so blessed to have my parents, my sister and her family, tui's sister and her family, Richard was here, and all my friends here to share that experience with me. I'm the first in my family to graduate from University. I was also 18weeks pregnant at the time. Sarah Alma Brunton Tafuna - College graduate! So here's a few pictures from back down memory lane....

Rain, Rain, Go away!!

It started raining last night and hasn't stopped. Hawaiian rain is brutal. For now we're ok, no water knocking at our doorstep. But our neighbor's in other buildings are not so lucky and the water just let itself in!
Will keep you updated.




UPDATE

Well that nasty rain did quite a big of damage. Half of the apartment complex we live in got about a foot of water in their houses, ruining their carpet, furniture etc, and at the worst possible time (Graduation took place 2 days later to many people had family sleeping on their floors, and others were packing to leave). The community was hit even worse, a lot of houses had at least a meter of water in their houses, and unfortunately, hardly anyone has flood insurance.


There was one good thing that came of this however; people pulled together like i've never seen. I remember walking out of my apartment and seeing three Samoan teenagers from the community, walking around the apartments asking if people needed help - these were the type of boys you'd expect to see making trouble, not helping out. Tui spent a good solid 8+ hours filling bags with sand, sandbagging apartments, moving furniture, hauling water - what a good husband! I also learned 2 very important lessons.
1 - 72 hour kits are actually useful after all (funny that....)
2 - stuff really isn't important - it's people that really count.

Lastly, heres a really cute picture of Malachi who stood in his crib watching the whole thing - he loooooooves rain!!!

He likes to move it, move it....

So Malachi's adventure of discovering what his body can do continues. Last week he started clapping, which he now does every time he hears music or is happy. (Or if i'm trying to get him to come to me and play, he just claps at me.)




He also, as of two days ago, started crawling. He was previously scooting and wiggling to get where he wants to go, but once he figured he could lift his hands, crawling was his thing. He still only does it occasionally when he really wants something like Tui's shoe or the electrical cord of the fan, (or in this case, our neighbor's ID card) but its so cute!! He's still just a beginner, but he's getting there!! Watch out world, here he comes.





There's also this video from when Kingston, Malachi's cousin, was visiting and we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Tui's cousin does a Tongan drumming show and let the boys play on the drums.

The Beach

The Tafuna family loves the beach! Well, Sarah loves the beach, Tui likes the beach, and Malachi isn't so sure. Tui hates the sun and malachi, we're not sure what it is he doesn't like. He loves sand, he loves water and he loves wind, but i guess the combination of the three on a large scale freak him out a little bit. However, he's getting better and Mummy is determined that he will love the beach just as much as she does. Here are a few pictures from our recent beach visits (even though it's meant to be winter here, it's still sooooo hot that we've been at the beach alot!).

These are some pictures we took at sunset beach one sunday afternoon, we just missed the good sunset, but i guess this will do....As you can see, Malachi wasn't very keen on the sand.

Thanksgiving

Well thanksgiving has come and gone. Although we're not Americans (actually, Malachi is, but we're trying hard not to remember that) we really enjoy this holiday. Tui loves any excuse to eat alot of food. And I love the message it brings - to appreciate what you have, to take a step back and realise how good life is, and make sure those around you know how grateful you are for them. We made a Tafuna Family Thankfulness Tree and listed all the things we were thankful for. At first it seemed like I'd made too many leaves, but once we got started it was amazing how many things we have to be thankful for, and we actually needed more leaves.



This year we took it easy and only went to 2 thanksgiving meals, the first at Tui's Aunty Salote's house (shrimp, muscles, ham, taro) and then a traditional meal at the Houghstons. We've been to the houghtons every year for thanksgiving since they moved here 3 years ago. They're done a great job bringing us 'legal-aliens' up to speed with the American holidays and traditions.

We then enjoyed the day after thanksgiving, 'black Friday' (named that because every store has mega super ultra sales, like everything more then 50% off, starting at like 3am while it's still black outside), at the beach with our neighbors. We ate, swam, played games, and then went to the movies to watch Madagasca 2 - THE BEST MOVIE IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD!!! It was so funny, I'm still laughing just thinking about it. We also had a lovely long nap. I love naps.



All in all it was a great holiday, with my 3 favourite F's - Food, Family and Friends!

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!!!

Life's little funnies

These are just too funny not to share with anyone.

1 - As you know, Tui comes from Tonga so English is not his first language. He speaks really well, thanks to serving a mission here in Hawaii, however he has occasional slip ups that put a smile on my face. The other night we were watching a moving and the following dialog took place.
Hey who's that girl?
I don't know.
She looks like Blueberry More.
Who?
Blueberry more.
Who the heck is that?
You know, she's in 50 first dates.
Ohhhh you mean DREW BARRYMORE.

I love my husband.

2 - Yesterday we took Sioana and Kingston to PCC (Polynesian Cultural Center) for the day. While we were having our VIP canoe tour, pushed by a handsome Tongan man, Sioana was feeding Malachi little pieces of rice cracker. We stopped next to a tree to take a photo and Sioana was quickly trying to shove the last piece of cracker into Malachi's mouth so we could take the photo, but he wasn't taking it - BECAUSE IT WAS MY MOUTH! She was busily trying to push a piece of cracker into my mouth, while i was giving her a very strange look. Once she realised it wasn't Malachi we had a great laugh about it all.

Once a mother always a mother.

3 - Malachi has become a lot more precise with his hands and directing them to where he wants them to go. He's also very interested in faces. Yesterday morning we were all lying in bed and Malachi was exploring our faces. He wiggled his little fingers over Tui's nose and one of his fingers went up his nostril. Tui squealed, baby pulled his finger out and found a surprise - A LITTLE BOOGER ON HIS FINGER! Our little boy was digging for gold and unfortunately he found some. I really wanted to take a photo but we were laughing so hard i couldn't move. Malachi just sat there looking at us.

So be careful where you put your fingers, you might just get what you're looking for.


It's little things in life like these that make it worth living.

Cousinly fun

Malachi has been having the greatest time with kingston. He is the only cousin Malachi has on Tui's side of that family, 9 months older. Malachi has loved riding Kingston's back, pulling his hair, stealing his crackers and most of all, grabbing ALL of his mothers attention. Here are a few pictures of their adventures together.

Having a bath together.

Swinging together at the playground.

Family Visits

Tui's sister Sioana and her son Kingston are here visiting this week from Seattle. It's so much fun to have them here, especially for Malachi to play with his cousin. And i think Sioana and I must have been friends in the premortal life because we have such a good time together, taking a million pictures, stuffing our faces and making fun of Tui and the fobby things he says. They're going to be here for 10 days to escape the cold before heading back and we're so excited to have them here.



We all went to the temple to take some pictures before it rained.

Life - something to think about

There have been 3 things happen this week that have made me seriously take a step back and look at how precious life is.

1 - my neighbor Ester gave birth to a beautiful baby girl
2 - my other neighbor's father passed away suddenly
3 - our ward did a temple weekend (we each did family research and found names to take to the temple. We did the baptisims, inititory, endowments and sealings. I was able to do the work for my great grandmother who i was named after.)

Through all of these events i have come to one conclusion - life is amazing. The way it is given, taken away, and given back again, it's so precious. I'm so blessed to know that life continues beyond the grave, that life doesn't just end in one foul swoop. And after this week i've made a commitment to myself to live better. I shouldn't waste my life away watching season after season of gilmore girls, i need to be doing things, learning things, making the most of the opportunities around me.

So here's to a better life, and a better me!

Grandma's Visit

Grandma Brunton has come and gone. She was only here for 3 very very short days on her way back to New Zealand. My parents have been living in Alabama for the last 3 years while my dad manages a project for the Airforce. The project should have finished by now but of course it's not and probably wont be until next march-ish. Unfortunately mum has a job she needs to start so is moving home without dad. Sad for them, but it meant that i got to see mum again. I really am a sook for my family, it kills me being so far away from them all, espeically with babies being born. I wish that malachi could be close to his aunty's and uncles and cousins and especially his grandparents. Needless to say, Mum's visit was a win-win situation, she got to see her grandson and i got to see her. I think me and my mum have become better friends since i've left home. She truely has become one of my best friends. It will be so sad not being able to ring her everyday. Thank goodness for emails.
All the photos we took are on her new camera (that im sooooo jealous of) so i will update when she emails me them, but for now, this is the last photo we took as we dropped her off at the airport, just before i started bawling.





We miss you grandma!!!!

The ABC's of Malachi

I got the idea from a friend of mine who made one for her daughter. I thought it was just the cutest thing, so here we go....

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Learning to eat

Malachi is now old enough to start eating food. So we've started the adventure of rice cereal and banana. The first time we gave it to him his facials were so hilarious Tui and I laughed for about 15 minutes. He enjoys the spoon and bib more then anything else - they're something to put in his mouth. The majority of his food ends up in his hands, on his head or smeared on his tray, but he sure has fun.
Here are a few pictures of our struggle to keep the food in his mouth and out of his hands.