Be Mine, Valentine

I LOVE the holidays.  It is a mild obsession I guess.  I stay up way too late every holiday & birthday eve to decorate the house and make sure the details are in place.  This valentines eve was spent doing to  cards that I procrastinated on.  Everything was cut out for Tevita and Malia and they just had to write their names on them.  It was late, I was getting tired and was rushing them along.  Malia happily drew a heart and wrote her name on every card, red marker for the boys and pink for the girls, naturally.  Tevita was not happy about it at all (he hates writing and the thought of having to write his name 25 times was not gonna happen).  Malia shouted out "I'll do it", and she did!  In true Malia fashion she lined up 6 cards at a time, decorated each heart different with smiles, polka dots, plaid etc and signed Tevita.  He decided to pay her a quarter for all her hard work.  They were both happy.

Signing Tevitas Valentines

The finished product

After that, all the kids were asleep except Malia.  I told her she had to go to bed cause Cupid was coming.  Malia asked "Whats Cupid?", so I took her to the computer and showed her pictures, and told her to go to bed.  She did.  This Valentines was a particularly special one for her cause she got her ears pierced for christmas and this was they day she had been waiting for to change her earrings.  She was the first one up, beaming with excitement as she saw her little valentines basket, rushed over to open it, and then decided that she wanted to wait for everyone else.  One by one the kids woke up and the excitement grew.  Tevita would not budge so I told her to go wake him up.  In the room I hear her explaining to him all about Cupid, the naked angel that goes around and shoots people.  He didnt budge.  Then she told him about the goodies that were waiting for him and he bounced right out of bed.  Everyone ran to their baskets.  Malia, my little angel grabbed Linas basket first and read her card to her and then took out everything one by one and showed it to her before opening her own stuff.  Ooh, the excitement as my kids opened their baskets.  They were so happy.  Malia was elated with her new red heart earrings that Cupid brought her.

 

my baby lina, 8 months old already

 After baskets we enjoyed our favorite breakfast of crepes filled with fresh strawberries, brown sugar and sour cream and rushed off to school.  Shortly after that my husband surprised me with a singing telegram.  It was totally unexpected and such a fun treat from him.  He also surprised me with a bunch of new orchid plants cause he knows they are my favorite!  Love that guy!  At lunchtime, Shalye, Lina and I went back to the school for the annual Valentines Lunch.  After that, I helped with Tevitas class party.  I had Lina and Shalye with me.  The party was a hit.  Afterwords we walked to the car and Shalye told me she had to go to the bathroom.  With hands full, Lina in her car seat and toilets far away I told her to just go right there by the car.   So she did.  I looked down and she had crapped right there in the school parking lot.  I laughed, cleaned it up and headed home happy that I got to spend nearly the entire day with my little valentines.

The Peeper

So, I look out my bedroom window yesterday only to find a ladder perched up to my tenants bathroom window.  I yell down to Tevita and his friend and ask them how it got there.  Apparently, Tevita put it there.  Later when I asked Tevita what he was doing with the ladder he responds (in his cutest Tevita voice) "Well mom, I was just looking for a baby ant.  A tiny, tiny baby ant.  He really needs to be with his mom right now."

Really?  Really!  You think I am gonna believe that one?  I called him on it and now I know I have a peeper in the house.  Takes me back to the peeper Sharon and I had when we lived in Provo.  After some suspicion and a whole lot of investigative work, we learned that we did indeed have a peeper, and he was our friend!  Creepy!  And now my son is the peeper.  Wow.

Homemade Halloween

I hope everyone has as much fun on halloween as we did.   This year I ended up making all the kids costumes, starting two days before halloween, and LOVING it.  It gave me a great reason to be creative again, and it is completely possible that I may make my kids costumes every year! Is there an age that homemade costumes are totally lame?

Also, last minute we pulled together our annual meet-at-our-house-to-eat-then-trick-or-treat.  It was due time to get the Uluave family together again, and we had such a blast.  Not to mention delicious food. It is so wonderful to see the cousins together, all ages, just hanging out.  After trick-or-treating they all took their candy upstairs and decided it would be a good idea to "share" which meant that each of them poured their entire bag on the floor into one large pile.  There was candy everywhere!

Moana street is THE street to be trick or treating on if you live in the Hauula, Laie, Kahuku area, and 1,000 pieces of candy is never enough.  It is incredible, more like a street fair.  Everyone brings tables and tents to the end of their driveway, along with spooky music or whatever other decorations or part of your house you may feel is necessary, and they pass out candy from there.  There is none of this freezing, walk up every long driveway kind of stuff.  Just walk down one side of the street and come back on the other and thats it.  Bam.  Done.  Pretty amazing if you ask me.

Today was a Good Day

Always love it when Sharon comes to town, and as a surprise makes it nearly perfect!  Sharon and I pulled it off, and shocked Wendy and the kids with Sharon in town and a night at the Sheraton!  It was so much fun.  Weather was sunny but not too hot, view was incredible, room was HUGE, and it was priceless to see my three littles in their goggles splashing around the pool together and allowing me a minute to relax!  The kids are so excited to have their auntie back for a few weeks, and Im excited to have one of my best friends back.  Thank you Sharon for a fantastic day.

Today I cried.....

Today Sharon sold her car.  As I went to pick her up from giving it to the new owners, I totally cried.  I realized what a staple item that car has been around our house the last 5 years.  It was the horn, really.  That horn could make my kids dive undercover from anywhere in the house.  They would squeal at the top of their lungs, "Sharons here.  Hurry, hide.  Now!"  If Tevita was playing in the neighborhood and he heard that beep-beep, he would come running down the street, all dirty with a stick or two in hand.  He would give Sharon a big hug and kiss and then run away.  We will sure miss that car, but we will miss Sharon more.

My Shalye

Oooh how I love this girl.  She is maybe the most quirky thing around.  Every day she has me laughing, sometimes not even at what she says but just how she says it or the voice that she says it in.

For the last few months she will only refer to Malia as 'Shalye'. 

Nearly anything you tell her will get a squeaky response of "Welcome Mom". 
For example: 
ME:  Shalye, I just love you so much.
SHALYE:  Welcome Mom.
or
ME:  You look so adorable in that outfit!
SHALYE:  Welcome Mom.

It never fits, and I laugh every time.

She will always stand at the bottom of the staircase and say, "Tall, tall mountain.  Too big.  Carry you!"

Truth is, it really does not matter what she says.  It is that squeaky voice and the mannerisms that go with it.    I love that she gets to spend so much time home with me!

IT'S A(nother) GIRL!!!!

Now that we have all grieved just a little, I am happy to announce we are having another baby girl.  She is due June 16th. 

We were all CERTAIN that it was a boy.  I cried a little and was in shock a lot, but am alright now and am really excited to meet this baby girl of ours.  When we were telling the kids what we were having, Tevita started beating his head into the pillow grunting things like, "uuh, I really wanted a brother."  He left the room.  A few minutes later I went into the living room and sat down by him.  He expressed his frustration that he REALLY wanted a brother.  I explained to him that I understood and that daddy and I really wanted a boy too but at this time Heavenly Father has decided that we needed another baby girl to join our family.  Tevita stands up and shaking his fist to the sky, yells,  "Heavenly Father, you are going to pay for this.  You owe me a million bucks."