Kia Ora!!!!!

We're home!!!  We flew in yesterday, spent the day with my sister and her family and my grandparents, ate some AMAZING food, loved the cold, and now we're at the airport waiting to fly out to Tonga.  Not sure if I can use the internet there, but we will post pictures when we get back.

We're excited to go and see Tui's family.  I already know that this visit is going to be over so quickly and we'll be sad to go home but for now we're just loving being away from Hawaii, and back at HOME!!!!!!

Malachi's 1st Birthday (Party 2)

So on Malachi's actual birthday, we opened his presents from his party, and made him some cupcakes to destroy. The first party was great, but it was nice just to have us, our little family, to celebrate with our little boy.

The presents - thanks everyone!!!

His tray of cup cakes.

What a good mummy I am to make those.

First, he starts out nice, just picking off the lollies.

And then he starts getting into it....

Tasting pretty good right now....

The end result!!!

I'm glad he enjoyed it. This was one mess I didn't mind cleaning up. Happy Birthday little man!!!

Malachi's 1st Birthday (Party 1)

Our little boy turned one. It's kind of sad that baby Malachi is gone for good, but big boy Malachi is so much fun to have. We had a little birthday party for him on Saturday here in TVA with our friends and neighbors that have watched this little boy from from a bump in my tummy to the rascal he is today. He slept for the majority of the party, which is my fault for having it during his nap time. We were really grateful for everyone that came and helped out. We love you guys!!

Here are some pictures of the day, taken by of course the lovely Leeyen.


Happy happy Tonga Karess - we love Karess!

Something must have been funny, right Joe?

Michelle, sporting a new little baby pooch.

Ashley, the best nursery leader in the world, signing the card.

The Lautaha ladies leading the way.

Paula, the supervisor.

Cheif cook Huni.
The sister in laws, in-law-in-laws, and me :)

He wore a Ta'uvala and sulu that I made for him right at the beginning, but he was tired and hungry and hot and so he wasn't very happy. But he looked cute.


His cake was decorate by his favourite Aunty Brookie (sorry to all his other Aunty's out there, but she really is his favourite!) He didn't know how to blow out the candles but he enjoyed picking the m&m's off and licking the icing (frosting).



Leeyen, aka the Tahitain Martha Stewart, made this cute piniata for the kids to play with. Mana thought it was hilarious, and Malachi prefered hitting everyone else with the stick, but it was alot of fun.



Our good friend Vaughn Bowels is a wizz whe it comes to balloons and he was kind enough to come and make some fun things for the kids. Malachi got a sword and a hat with antena's, he made flowers, money's on coconut tress, unicorns, dogs, you name it. Quite the talent.

Leeyen and the purple unicorn, of course.


Presents and his card.

All in all it was a pretty fantastical day. Hope you enjoyed it son, daddy says it was your first and your last.

Looking back

It's crazy to think that at this exact time one year ago, I was holding my son in my arms for the first time. He was an hour old. Now he's one. But before I do his birthday party post, I wanted to do a post looking back, at this year that seems to have flown by. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, told me "Oh they grow up so fast", but I didn't believe it until suddenly my tiny little squish is suddenly this kid running around pulling things out of cupboards.

So here's a quick look at this last year of Malachi's life. (When I say 'quick', I just mean that it's not ALL of the 203,456,673 photos I have of him......its still quite lengthy, but he's cute so who cares!)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The end

Yesterday was our last Sunday in the BYUH 5th ward, which meant, time to be released.
I've served as the Education counselor in Relief Society for the last 6 months. When I was called, it was the last thing I wanted. I was happy conducting the music in sacrament, no preparation required. But I have grown to absolutely love my calling and the sisters that I served and just the organization itself. I have really gained a strong testimony of Relief Society and the impact it can have on the lives of the women in the church. I've seen how it blesses people's lives.

But I think that mostly I enjoyed my calling because of the people I served with. Michelle and Francis are amazing, they made me want to do better. I'm so grateful I got the opportunity to serve with them. There are certain people in my life that, if I hadn't been forced to get to know them, I probably wouldn't have. Sure I knew both these people, but having worked with them so closely, they've become very dear friends and I love them both. Lots of late night chats, extended meetings, a bazillion emails, lots of laughs, it was an absolute pleasure working with them. And i'm sure going to miss them :( .


But life goes on, the world keeps spinning and i'm sure there's a nice calling in nursery waiting for me in our next ward.....or a librarian......or assistant birthday coordinator.... :)

Memorial Day

Memorial Day. What a memorable day. This is how it went.

6am - got up and ready to leave to go and hike Diamond head. We'd been before but once i got to the top there was this guy selling certificates saying you made it and you can only buy them at the top, and they have the state seal and everything.....but i had no money!!! And i've been determined ever since.
So this was the nice drive there.....


.....and then we realised we had our wallets but our wallets didn't have our cards or any cash in them so we couldn't pay to get in.....

.....and so this is the nice drive back.


10am - too hot and frustrated to go all the way back to town again, we went with our dear friends the Houghtons to castle's beach which was BEAUTIFUL!! We loved it! We swam and soaked up sun and played with sand, some of us ate sand, it was great.


2pm - decided I really did wanted to hike Diamond head and so we got ready, again, and went back to town, again. The hike was good, not as long as we remembered it. Poor Tui had to carry Malachi up. The view was beautiful.


Then we walked around Waikiki for a bit, and ended up at the Ala Moana beach park for the Lantern floating. They had great entertainment, the weather was amazing, and the whole thing was just cool, although the pictures from my little camera just don't do it justice.

It was a long day. But a great day. A memorial day......