NEED...

Must blog, clean, do my never ending to-do list, and so much more.  So much has happened this month.  I'm such a slacker but I will get it done....eventually!

Morning Convo's with a 2yr old

Me:  What do you want for breakfast Elina?  Oatmeal or yogurt and toast?
Elina: Ummmm......(long pause) Mac n cheese?
Me:  No.  You can have mac n cheese for lunch.  It's either oatmeal or yogurt.
Elina:  Hmm.  Yogurt.  (longer pause)  Mac and cheese??? (with the hugest grin on her face)
Me:  Sorry not for breakfast.
Vili:  Elina, what do you want for breakfast?
Elina:  Ummm....oatmeal mac n cheese!!!

This conversation went on for a good five minutes until I fed her yogurt and toast.  LOL!  I swear this girl would turn ME into mac n cheese if she could.  Hahaaha!

Mother's Day 2012

Here are the two beautiful reasons I get to celebrate this special day....

I love my daughters like crazy and am so extremely grateful to be their Mom.  We spent the day house hopping and basically stuffing our faces.  Haha.  Went to my in-laws first and then to my Mom's after.  Love those two ladies!  They are such great examples to me of the kind of mom I want to be for my kids.  

Will I ever get a normal picture with these two in it?  Lol

Here's some pics from when we went to my Mom's.  My first cousin, Alana, got married the day before so we were lucky to have family in town from California.

My beautiful Mom with us girls (missing Dom)

My mom, me, and my girls (3 generations).  Love my Mom for all the sacrifices she has made in her life for me and my siblings.  Being a mom now I realize just how much she did for me.  I look up to her in so many ways and hope to follow in her footsteps.

With my Grandma Penina (4 generations) and Aunty Neni

Love my grandma so much!  She lives in California and we rarely get to see her.  This Mother's Day was so special because she was here to spend it with us.

Anniversary Celebration

Last year we totally spaced it and forgot our anniversary.  Who does that?  Probably just us.  We had a sick newborn and a sick toddler who just got out of the hospital the week prior so we ended up at the doctors office.  It was convenient that we both forgot though but we're pretty low key so we just laughed it off.  This year we made it a goal not go forget!

First off I woke up to these beautiful flowers!

Anyone who knows my husband knows that he doesn't have a romantic bone in his body.  Lol!  But he managed to surprise me (more like shock me) with these flowers and I felt so special!  I think it feels more special when you're not expecting anything either.  I was supposed to surprise Vili with a fishing license but got moded.  I guess he has to be there with his I.D. because he has to sign a few things so my surprise for him didn't work out too well.  Lol.  It's the thought that counts right?

So for dinner we were supposed to go to a fancy schmancy romantic place in Salt Lake but Vili got off work later than we expected so we decided to stick around Provo.  We kept it simple with P.F. Chang's cause we've never been there and wanted to try something new.  The food was great and most importantly, we got to spend some much needed time together, alone and away from our kids.  We finished our anniversary celebration by going to do an endowment session at the Provo Temple this morning.  We don't get to go to the temple together often and rarely do get we the chance to do sessions so to be able to attend a session together was the perfect end to our anniversary.

Four years down....

Four years ago, today, I was married and sealed to the love of my life, Vili Samani, in the Mount Timpanogos Temple.  I look back at our four years of being married and I can't help but feel so blessed.  My marriage is far from perfect and anyone who is married knows that it's not easy.  Anyone who claims it's all peaches and smiles is in denial or is a newlywed (no offense).  Lol.  

A close family friend of mine always said, "It takes more than love to make a marriage work."  I think it's so true.  Sometimes love isn't enough.  There are times in my marriage when love flies right out the door and all I think is "Why in the beep did I choose to marry you again?!?"  Don't deny it.  You know you've thought it too.  Lol!  But it's during those times that other traits come into play such as respect, patience, humility, kindness, forgiveness, etc.  It's times like those that make me so grateful that I chose Vili as my eternal companion because he doesn't give up on me even when things get tough.  

He makes me feel like I'm worth it even when I'm such a headache.  He makes me feel like I'm the most beautiful person in the world and lets me feel comfortable being me.  He encourages me to be a better person and helps me to see the best in others and in myself.  He makes me laugh until my abs hurt (or what little abs I have left after child bearing...lol) and I'm hunched over and crying.  He lets me talk his ears off at night when all he wants to do is sleep.  He is so patient with me.  Most importantly, he strengthens my testimony in the Savior through his selflessness and dedication to the Lord, myself, and our children.  

Vili Samani, I love you!  I couldn't imagine life without you by my side and wouldn't trade you or anything we've gone through together for the world.  We've got four years down and eternity to go!  Happy 4th Anniversary Hun!       

   

Talanoa's Birthday BBQ

We invited family and friends over to the park to celebrate Talanoa's first birthday.  We ate good food, were in good company, and seriously had so much fun!  Thank you to everyone who helped to make her day special.  There's so many more pictures to add but these are the one's I have ready so far.

This is what happens when you try to get solo pictures of the birthday girl by herself....

you don't get any good one's.  Lol

The birthday cake her Dad picked for her

Singing Happy Birthday!

The Talanoa's 

(In case you didn't know....this is who one of the 

beautiful women my daughter is named after.)

We sang Happy Birthday again but to Elina.  Lol

Boy did she enjoy eating her cake!  She cried so hard when we took it away.  I wish I would've recorded this but of course you never think that until after.

They can never take a normal picture together.....

Pinata Time!  We found this cute cupcake pinata at Hobby Lobby that's made for little kids.  The strings hanging at the bottom are for kids to pull one by one until it opens.  I was surprised how much the kids loved it!  Notice how there's a rope tied around the entire pinata?  Well that's cause we accidentally put way too much candy in there and it was too heavy.  We must be Tongan!  Lol

 Eating her pinata treat.  She loves lollipops!

Love this picture of Vili and baby!  Minus Vili's self-made 

African shorts that I always try to hide from him.  Haha

Made this birthday hat for her so I had to get a picture.  Haha

April Adventures

Don't you just love my corny titles for our monthly family updates?  Hahaha here are the updates for April and some of what has happened so far in May.  Lots to tell so without further ado here they are!

TALANOA:
-turned 1 on the 28th.  Birthday blog to come.
-can stand on her own as of 2 days ago :)  Blog to come.
-has 8 teeth now.
-hates grass for some reason and cries every time we try to sit her in it.  Strange child.
-new words:  Jack Jack (Cheka's dog), ashes (from Ring Around the Rosey),  town ( from Wheels on the Bus), stop, pop pop (lollipop), kaukau (means shower in Tongan), and papa (grandpa)
-finally said MAMA a couple days ago!  This should go under the last bullet but I've been waiting a long time to hear it.  And yes, she said mama after all the words listed above :(  hahaha!
-understands small phrases like sit down, hug, come here.
-decided she must fight to the death with every toy Elina wants to play with.  If Elina has a doll, she'll cry for it and won't stop until we give her the very doll that Elina is holding.
-loves any and all stuffed animals.  Snuggles with them all the time.  They really make her happy.
-is now crawling on her hands and feet.  Yes, feet and not knees.  Lol
-learned to blow her nose so she blows her nose on any napkin, wiper, or piece of clothing she sees.  Also forces us to blow our nose by holding up tissue to our noses.
-cries to feed herself and lately has been throwing the biggest tantrums when I try to feed her and refuses to eat.   Such a drama queen.  Haha!  So, I let her feed herself and then just give her and Elina a bath afterwards because of the HUGE mess she makes.

ELINA:
-seriously loves music.  She cries to watch YouTube because she wants to listen to her favorites.  Lately it's been Friday Night by Katy Perry, the hunger games theme song by Taylor Swift, and of course her usuals Beyonce and Jessie J.
-loves to sing songs with her sister.  Favorite song this month is probably Pat-a-Cake.  She can pretty much sing the whole thing by herself along with doing the actions.
-tells her dad all about her day when he gets home from school.  She tells him if she watched tv, what she ate so far, the games she and her sister played that day.  It's the cutest thing.
-wants to eat mac n cheese for every meal.
-has gained a love for anything pink!  Loves to point out everything that's pink as well.
-wants to try to do everything by herself.  (Ex:  buckle her own carseat straps, do her own hair, get herself dressed)
-favorite line is "I wanna watcha movie!"  Begs Vili to watch movies every time he turns his xbox on.  Lol!  And of course he gets her hooked on the freaky cartoons like Rango, Monsters Inc, and The Tales of Despereaux.  I mean, seriously?  At least Tangled or a Disney classic!  Lol.
-has been on a nursery strike and refuses to go.  Not sure why but she hasn't gone all month.
-is doing such a great job at potty training.  I really like the whole not forcing her thing.  She used to just sit on her potty and say "boo boo candy/chocolate?" (lol) but now she really goes at least once or twice a day on her own free will.  Blog to come.

VILI and I:
-I started couponing again.  It's so hard to start up after such a long break so we'll see how this ends up.
-I went to my first Zumba class last month.
-It's yard sale time so I started going again.  I am my mother's daughter.  Lol.
-Gained a love, testimony, and appreciation for visiting teaching.
-Vili has been surveying the freeway with some of his construction class to get more experience under his belt.
-Vili just got done with another semester of school and now has the summer to relax!
-We got the Pass of all Passes and can't wait to use them!

**  Note to self:  Maybe I should do a bi-weekly update?  These seem so long!

I'm telling you...never a dull moment with
these two!  Lol

This is what I deal with when I let her
feed herself!  Smiles and a huge mess.  Lol