Little Lani Lady

Our Lani girl is 16 months now and her personality is really starting to shine.  She is still a snuggle bug, loves hugs and kisses and to sit on your lap and snuggle in bed, way more then either of her brothers ever did.  She does the rounds too, kiss mummy, then daddy, then malachi, the vili, then mummy etc.



Lani is still a little shy.  If someone comes into the room that she doesn't know she's freezes, stands still, and avoids eye contact.  Only with adults though.  If a kid comes over she's as warm as an oven.  She has my primary kids wrapped around her finger.  The only person she doesn't seem to need warming up to is my Mum.  Lani just loves her grandma.  Infact, often she will cling to mum and scream if Tui or I try to take her away.  When Grandma leaves Lani cries and runs after her.  It's so sweet.  She is shy when it comes to talking too.  At home we can't get her to be quiet, but if other people are around she's a mute.  Her vocab is amazing though, much more extensive then the boys was.  Everything now gets a one more description - coming, stop, more, down, out, gone, hiding, lemon, baby, ball, book etc.  And she does a few 2 ''word'' sentances too like ''luv ooo'' or ''more peeeees''.  It makes understanding what she wants so easy.  She also uses her expanding vocab to growl her brothers, all the time.



Now that she's a little older Lani can follow instructions really well.  Things like, go put this in the rubbish, or go get your shoes, or give that to daddy, she just waddles away and does.  If she's hungry she brings me and plate and says "Eat!".  Or I can tell her to go get a bowl or a plate and she does it.  But he doesn't always follow instructions.  Sometimes she just straight up tells me "No!".  Other times if I've told her not to do something she gives me a sly look and very slowly does the thing I told her not too.



Lani is fearless.  She thinks she can do anything her brothers do.  I have heart attacks on a regular basis.  She climbs up on things and tries to jump off (as she's seen Vili do), she sits on the very edge of the table or toybox to dangle her legs (dangerously), or running around the outside mat of the trampoline.  She is currently in the process of learning to jump, and actually get off the ground.  She tries all the time and tells herself "Jump! Jump!"



Lately Lani has become with ''pretty'' things - dresses, skirts, necklaces, hair clips.  She opens her draws and finds a dress then brings it to me saying "Nani. Pretty."  And she cries if you don't put it on her.  She then proceeds to stand in front of everyone individually until they say "Wow, pretty dress Lani."  She brings me the container of hair ties and clips and wants me to put them in her hair every morning.  The whole thing makes me sigh.  I was a tom boy until after high school, so I never did pretty stuff.  Maybe she'll get it all out of her system now and won't want to do it later.....????



Lani loves to draw and play playdough.  She loves playing with water (and I am hanging out waiting for warmer weather so I can actually let her).  She thinks everyone under the age fo 5 is a baby and calls them such.  She runs away from sacrament meeting to the nursery room and screams when we take her out (won't have any issues in 7 weeks when it's time for her to go).  She looooooves watching videos of herself and calling out "Nani! Nani!" (that's what she calls herself). She loves eating grapes.  She's doing an amazing job with a spoon feeding herself.  I love her more the older she gets.
Oxo
  

 

Grandma Park

Someone spoke in church on Sunday about the importance of keeping records - scrapbooks, journals, in my case a blog - of all the most important things in life, the things you'd want the next generation to know.  And I sure would like the next generation to know about this.



Today my grandmother turned 81.  Desiree Joyce Western, my Mum's Mum.  I gave my daughter her name for a reason, because I would love nothing more then for Lani to become even half the person my grandma is.  My grandma is such an amazing woman.  She has lived a life totally devoted to her family, and to the gospel.  Everything she has ever done in her life has been for the good of someone else.  My grandma and grandpa are the pioneers in our family, being the first to accept the Gospel, and have blazed a trail for us to follow, one of faithfulness and diligence. I am forever grateful for the example she has been for me.

As the mother of 8 children, her young life was spent caring for others.  My mother has told me that grandma never once raised her voice or got angry with any of them. 8 children.  That amazes me.  That sort of patience is something I long to have and have always admired in her.  Even now today she continues to care for a 50 year old son with disabilities.  Once her children had grown and gone, she then dedicated her life, and every waking hour, to family history, finding the names and stories of ancestors long gone, then faithfully attending the temple every week to make sure those names were linked to us forever.  I have such fond memories of spending the afternoon down at the family history center looking through microfiche on the big machines, helping Grandma find a name. She used to call me Sarah Sue.  Still does.  I love that.

I think I inherited my love of photos from her.  As long as I can remember, visiting grandma meant having your picture taken.  Twice. (In case the first one was bad). It didn't matter if she had taken your picture last week or last year, EVERYONE gets their picture taken by grandma.

Grandma is such a down to earth person.  She is almost the epitome of what a grandma should be - warm, homely, loves everyone before she's even met them, finds plenty of good in a person or situation, when all the rest of us see is bad.  Her house is been the one constant in my life, as my parents have uprooted so many times, moving cities and countries, my grandma's house has always been and will always be that figure of home to me, never changing, always there.  Constant, reliable, soothing.  She cares nothing for worldly things, happy to just have the basics, and then use what she has to help anyone else who has a need.  She is always thinking of others, especially her family.  And although her memory fails her, she remembers every name and birthday of all 90+ descendants.

My grandma is the type of person you just want to be around.  She makes you feel so good about yourself.  I get complimented more in 1 hour at her house, then in a whole month usually.  It's no wonder that my kids just adore her, and beg me to go see her on a weekly basis.

I love my grandma, so very dearly. Knowing that her years are numbered pains me.  I watched my Grandma as we sang happy birthday to her, surrounded by (some) of her great-grandchildren and grandchildren, and watched the tears come into her eyes.  The pride and joy she felt looking around at her family was clearly evident, and I thought I could have guessed what she was thinking at that moment - "This is what it's all about". My life can be so busy and complicated, and I often lose sight of what really matters.  But grandma doesn't.  She knows what matters.



My poor grandma being swallowed up by 9 of her 36 great-grandchildren.


I hope one day to sit as she did, 81, with my family around me, knowing they are sealed to me forever, and enjoying that feeling that comes from nothing else then from family.

Happy birthday Grandma Park.
oxo

 

Little lady's first prayer

We have been letting Lani "say" the prayer sometimes, usually at vili's request. She copies some of the words, adds some of her own mumble in, the usual 1 year old stuff. But today at lunch time I sat her in her high chair and put her plate in front of her. Then as I turned away I saw her fold her arms, close her eyes, mumble to herself and then say "amen!" It was so sweet it made me wanna cry and jump for joy. It's moments like this that make me sigh with relief; I must be doing SOMETHING right. I was so proud of my little lady, so glad to be her mumma. Oxo

Feeling blessed

Life is a roller coaster with its constant ups and downs. Today though I'm feeling incredibly blessed, mostly for my church calling. All the leadership positions in our church are filled voluntarily by invitation of the bishop. My calling at the moment is to serve as the primary president, or to be in charge of the program's in the church involving children aged 0-12. It can be challenging and exhausting and really time consuming. But more then anything else it's rewarding. The joy I get from working with these little people who have such big hearts and open minds is incredible. And to top it all off I get to work along side women who are talented and generous and dedicated to helping children learn about their saviour. Over the last few days I have been deeply touched by the strength and testimony of some of the sisters I serve with. I am so grateful for their willingness to serve, and for their amazing examples to me. I am so blessed to have the calling I do and would not want to be anywhere else.

Mandy's Garden

This week Malachi was part of his school's Junior school play called Mandy's Garden.  He was a worm.  They have been practicing for weeks, and Malachi has sung the songs so often at home that Vili has learnt them, and now he walks around the house singing them too.  It was such a cute little play about all the creatures in the garden and looking after your flowers.  Malachi has so much fun being in it, especially standing on the stage (he said that was his best part).  I'm really glad they do a school play every year so that the kids get the chance to be part of it.  I was never once in a school play my whole life.  Next year he wants to try for one of the speaking parts in the school play (coz he thought it was really cool that some kids got to use the mic).  We were such proud parents watching him perform.

 
Before going on stage with one of his little friends, the Pansie. 

 

Lani was excited to watch.  She danced to every song.

The whole crew.  They had flowers, lady bugs, bees, butterflys, katydids, lizzards, all sorts of garden creatures.

 

All the worms.

 

 

They did a little dance to the Gangnum style song that they called ''Wormy Style''.  It was so funny.

All done!

Good job Malachi.

Father's day 2013

We celebrated Father's day for Tui the day before, because he would be working on Father's day.  And since I knew I'd be cooking my heart out the next day for my own Dad, I opted to take Tui out.  He got to have a big fat steak, I didn't have to cook or clean up, so it was a win-win.



The food was all really great, the kids were surprisingly well behaved, and it was just a great night.

 
This girl and her faces.  She kills me.

   

 

Our true blue kiwi kids, what did they want to eat? Fish and chips.

 

   

Best Thai beef salad I've ever had.  Yumo!  It was so good I didn't stop to take a picture of Tui's dish.

 
Real life for a father right there.

 

 

I love that we have fathers and mothers day to celebrate the people that gave us life and have raised us.  And no one is a perfect parent, no such thing,, but my kids are really lucky to have a great Dad.

3 little Monkeys

Sometimes I wish I could clone my children, and then freeze them in time, so that I could always have a 5 year old Malachi, and a 3 year old Vili, and a 14 month old Lani, so that I wouldn't ever forget their little personalities at each age and stage.

 

But since that's out of the question, I'll have to stick with blogging.

--  Malachi --

 

- super compliant - 95% of the time, he just does what he's told, hassle free.

- has the memory of an elephant, he remembers EVERYTHING

- loves hugs and cuddles and snuggles, almost to the point that he breeches personal boundaries lol

- is an amazing reader - he can now read verses in the scriptures fluidly (except the hard words)

- he's a bit silly, which concerns me (and his teacher) and just loves to laugh

- loves riding his bike, swimming, playing basketball and rugby, and running

- recently discovered 'selfies' and takes them any chance he gets
- loves to learn.  This kid has brains and knows how to use them.

  

-- Vili --

 

- thrives on procedure-he is constantly pointing out the steps to a task and is thorough in making sure he completes them

- has started saying prayers unaided

- loves jumping on the trampoline

- tells me daily that he's my best friend, and also that he will NEVER be my friend

- plays with cars the way girls play with dolls - there's a mummy car and a daddy car and a baby car and they talk to teach other and play and go to sleep etc

- polices the rules where ever he is, and corrects people accordingly

  

-- Lani --

 

-Vocab growing daily - currently she can say mummy, daddy, dama (grandma), dad dad (grandad), jessie, yani (lani), vili, brother, spider, dog, up, down, car, dain (train), gone, more, peez (please), danks (thanks), dan tu (thank you), no, yip, don't, baby, puppy, moon, star, light, boom boom (trampoline), shhhhh, tum (come), tacka (cracker), tootie (cookie), nana or nani (banana), bar (muesli bar), apple, yummy, nose, eyes, ears, mouf (mouth), yey, wow, and probably a ton more that I can't remember

- despite her vast vocab, she's way quieter then her brother ever were at this age and barely ever speaks
- is a dare devil, climbs up, on around, under through EVERYTHING

-is slightly OCD and obsessed with shutting doors and drawers.  She literally walks behind me closing everything I open

- loves bananas, sandwiches and raisins

-has started pouting and saying "humphhhh" just like Vili

 

Some days as a SATM are hard, really hard.  They can be tiring and stressful and frustrating, and sometimes I can be a really sucky Mummy.  But the majority of the time, life with my 3 children is amazing and happy and exciting and joyous and funny.
And I am grateful everyday to have such sweet little people in my life.

 

 

    

 

I'm a Mormon!

Many of my friends know this.  Some may not.  But there it is folks.  I'm a Mormon.  A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Over the last few months, as I've been on a journey with some friends who have been learning about our church, I've come to realize how much confusion and misinformation there is out there about our Church.  Lots of people don't even think Mormons are Christians.  (Which we are, btw.)  

And so 

here

is a short video clip that really briefly explains what a "Mormon" is, and what we believe in.

Watch it.  Please.  Learn a little bit more about something that means so much to me

:)