Our President....

While in Maui I happened to come across this picture of good ole Barak hanging up in one of the store windows. I knew there would be those of you out there who would get a kick out of it. ENJOY!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

 

I just have to share some of my day yesterday. It always seems like when there is an important event I have to go to...things start to get interesting. I knew it was going to be an interesting day when I was driving Mat to work in the morning and he yells, "RED LIGHT!!" right as I fly through the intersection. I absolutely spaced it and was thinking of other things. Luckily it was a small street not a major intersection. The Lana and I went to the store to get a few things and some flowers for our Relief Society activity tonight. Lana brought her toy shopping cart and followed me around the store. It was the cutest thing and I think I'll have her bring her cart more often-it helped to keep her interested while I was doing my own thing. My friend called when I got home to remind me that one of our volleyball players at church had a game at his high school that afternoon. On the way out I thought I'd take the flowers and drop them off at the church so I wouldn't have to come back for them later. Lana ran all the way to the elevator and as she turned the corner out of my sight I just hear, "I'm making SHI-SHI!" Great- so now she's wet and there's a puddle of pee right by the elevator. So we walk all the way back home, get her cleaned up and changed and then as we head out again she starts a meltdown (naptime) and says her feet hurt, she can't walk and it's too hard. As I use all the tricks in my book to get here to walk to the car I notice that there is something in her hair. Of course it's GUM! I can't get it out so I grab the fingernail clippers from my bag and start hacking away at my daughters beautiful hair. It was the grossest thing. I should have taken a picture but I'm kinda glad I didn't. We get in the car and it's unbearably hot- out of nowhere it's 91 degrees. The flowers and starting to wilt. As we pull into the chuch parking lot I notice no one is there and everything is locked. I think to myself, "it's lucky that Mat keeps the keys to the church right here in the car!" As I open the door I hear a beeping sound and realize, sure I had the keys but not the CODE TO DISARM THE ALARM! So it goes off with sirens and lights and I call around for the code desperately and can't get a hold of anyone. Finally I get a call back from our bishops sweet wife and she helps me disarm the darn thing. 15 minutes later we're finally off to the volleyball game and right before we get there my friend calls: the game is over. AHHHRRRGGHHH!

Anyway, at several points in the day I was very irritated and frustrated. However, there are so many things to be grateful for: the RS meeting turned out pretty well, Lana made me smile and laugh all day, I had a nice time visiting with friends, and Mat was so gracious to help out with the nursery. hehe. Anyway, I'm tired of typing but the good always outweights the bad and looking back it's all pretty funny. Hmmm...what should I do today?

Need some pee? "urine" luck!

Is it just me or is it weird that the nurses encourage me to take home urine sample cups so I can bring them in (full) to my appointments? Just thinking about carrying that around kinda makes me laugh. Luckily I can pee on command while pregnant. It seems like I've always gotta go. Lana thinks the whole thing is hilarious and took a cup home from my appointment today. Thanks, Lana!

Snow White...Cinderella...

Lana has been "helping" me clean the house and says she's either Cinderella or Snow White. I love that she likes to help me (of course when she wants...not necessarily upon request). Her new favorite thing is dusting. Just out of curiosity, what chores do you have your kids do?

Ready to move to Maui...

As always, Maui is just what I need to feel peaceful and complete. It explains so much to me about who Mat is when I learn more about where he comes from. There's just so many sweet and down to earth people there and it's absolutely beautiful. We had a great time with Mat's family! Lana is so lucky to have such awesome grandparents, super cool aunty and uncles and fun cousins.

Lana had a great time playing with Grandma and Grandpa Tanigawa, U'i (she finally got it straight, U'i!) and Uncle Mike who would always play with her and Bear in the yard. We had fun walks up to Makawao town and Lana had her best dream ever while sleeping at Grandma and Grandpas. (A sleeping beauty dream that she spent 10 minutes describing to me when she woke up)

Grandma Sharon, Grandpa Nelson, Uncle Chad and Aunty Stephie sure showed us a good time as well! We had lots of fun trips to dinner, many late nights playing hanafuda and texas hold'em. We also got to celebrate Chad's birthday with him and that was fun too! One of the funniest things was when Grandpa Tengan and Lana were tickling each other! And Grandma Sharon discovered she had a little shadow named Lana that followed her around EVERYWHERE!

And of course our trip couldn't be complete with out COUSINS! Lana's energy was multiplied by 20 when she was playing with Kama, Noa, Avei and Amira. They are so sweet to her and she really had a great time playing with them. At this moment Lana is making believe that she's playing with her cousins. I just heard her say, "Mom, take a picture of me and Noa!" Tali and Kaulana were so nice to have us over to their house for pizza and games. We all watched while Mat and Kama went head to head in a Wii Fit challenge. They would have gone all night...and now that's what Mat and I keep trying to find- a Wii Fit so we can practice!! Luckily all of our fun with the cousins can continue in California when they come to DISNEYLAND in a few months. WHOHOO!

Thanks to all our wonderful family who made us feel at home! We love you so much and are grateful to have such a loving family.

Party in Oahu!

The first week in Hawaii we stayed at the Waikiki Marriott (I guess tradition now since Mat's work paid for that one!) We were right across from the beach and had a sweet view of Diamond Head from our window. One day while Mat was busy working we headed off to the Honolulu Zoo to hang out. We saw some funny things (Lana's favorites were monkeys swinging from a tree and a goat that climbed on a rock right next to her and started to pee). On the way out we walked through the gift shop and Lana wanted a shark mask that I thought looked so cool. She named the mask "Bruce" and wore it ALL THE WAY BACK to the room. Everyone was laughing when they saw this 3 foot shark walking around.

The days that Mat was out at BYUH were my FAVORITE! I really miss going to school there and after all these years it's really nice to still see a familiar face or two. We visited with some of our old professors and co-workers. Mat and I had 2 mutual teachers we saw: good ole Kajiyama Sensi and Dr. Miller. It was really good to visit with them and see how they were doing. Kajiyama has a cute granddaughter named Keilani and we finally got to meet Dr. Miller's wife and kids. Lana had a blast playing with them for a while.

The highlight of this trip for me, and Lana and Mat would have to be the YUENS! They are the coolest, funnest (yes, funnest!), nicest and most hilarious friends! They are always so hospitable and totally go out of their way to help us out. For example, last year they lent us some beach stuff and then let us take a shower at their place AND get us dinner. This time was so fun because Lana and Aaron got to play together. Aaron is such a character and so sweet. Lana went down for a nap on their couch and he kept coming over and giving her kisses. He has the best facial expressions that I thought he got from Carol but I guess he got them from David. It was the best catching up with my best friend, Carol and so refreshing to just relax and have fun. We went to the visitors center, park, Hukilau Cafe, beach (really quick...haha), Carol made us dinner one night, we played some guitar hero and they even hooked us up with the best seats ever for the BYUH basketball game. I can't remember the last time I cheered so hard and had that much fun at a game. Aaron was such a sport, you could tell he was used to it. Lana lasted like 10 minutes, even wore her shark mask...to scare the other team, and then passed out for the rest of the night. It was the ultimate game because BYUH played so well, the other team was stressing. There was a fight (YES!!!) and they served ice cream to the crowd afterwards because the score was over 100pts. Thanks, Yuens for making our stay in Oahu the usual wonderful time. We had a blast!

A Very Happy Two Weeks

We just got back from our wonderful trip to Hawaii and we are all so glad that we went! There's nothing better than spending time with friends and family and that's just what we did. Many more pictures to come!