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.

First Halloween

Malachi's first halloween has come and gone. He was a cow - oh so cute!!







































We were meant to be farmers but i couldn't get tui to put grass in his mouth, so we were more like cowboys/girls.












Malachi loved sucking on the mittens of his costume. We took him trick or treating around Laie to the faculty houses. He fell asleep after ab out 10 minutes - dead asleep. And taking a sleeping baby to get candy that he's clearly not going to eat looked a little dodgy so we called it a night. The Sarah ate about 60 pieces of candy that night and spent the next 12 hours curled up in a ball moaning. Tui then threw the rest of the candy out; it was a sad day.

He's here!!

After our 11 months of "single-married life" together we were finally blessed with our first child - a baby boy. Tonga Malachi Mark Tafuna was born on June 1st at 9.22pm after 14 hours of labor and 4 hours of pushing. He weighed in at 10lbs 10oz and was 21 inches long. He had respiration problems and pneumonia so spent some time in an incubator. After a very long 2 weeks we finally got to take him home. He has continued to rank in the 200th percentile for weight and height, at 4 months he weighed 19lbs and was 29 inches long. He is now 5 months old and such a joy to have, very active, verbally expressive and having a blast discovering all the cool things his body can do. Here's a quick review of his life so far.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Married life

After being married we had a wonderful 11 months together to be single and do all sorts of fun things before Malachi joined us. We miss that "single married" life - married without children. Here is just a taste of the things we got up to.


Our favourite thing to do is eat!!! Cheesecake factory is our favourite, probably because it's as far away from Laie as possible. We used to eat out alot....before we got poor :(


We went parasailing for a friends birthday - we HIGHLY reccomend it to anyone visiting or living in hawaii, its totally worth the 30 bucks


For a while we were both working at the Polynesian Cultural Center as guides - me as a tour guide and Tui as a canoe guide. We got to wear matching aloha wear and look oh so cute!





We visited Utah (for my first time), went to General Conference, and visited some of Tui's family. The cold was a nice break from humid hawaiian weather!










After 2 1/2 long years Sarah finally graduated from BYUH with a bachelor's degree in psychology. Sioana came out with her husband and kingston. Mum and dad came over from Alabama, and we were lucky enough to get Jessie, Katherine and Nick out here too. It was so great to be with family again!!

One fine day

I guess that in order to understand who we are now, you have to know where we've come from. Tui won't let me put up baby pictures (mostly because he doesn't have any) so I'm just starting at the beginning of our life together; our wedding.

We were married a little over a year ago in the Hamilton New Zealand Temple.It was a freezing day, but oh so wonderful.....

First one

This is my first post on the new Tafuna Family Blog.

Testing.........testing........1.....2......3...........

We're new to blogging so bear with us as we get the hang of things. But we're excited to be able to share our life here in hawaii with our friends and family.

Enjoy!