Fine, you win!

My husband's bedtime routine is so much cooler than mine.  I just got kicked out of bed because my kids wanted his way and not mine.  Like he walked in the room and laid down by us and they totally crawled over me to him and then I was invisible to them.  Not to mention this was after my whole entire routine with them.  I'm just a tad bit jealous.  Lol!  So for mine I keep it way traditional with a bath, books, prayer, blah, blah, blah.  Vili doesn't do any of that.  He just watches YouTubes with them on his phone.  I always hear them cracking up and then next thing you know they're knocked out.  So not fair!  I have to be the boring mature parent.  Lol!

Newbies to FaceTime

How sad but cool is it that this was our first ever FaceTime sesh? We're new to the iPhone/iPad family and we see each other all the time anyway so there was no real need for FaceTime until Dom and Losi went to California. Now Elina complains when she's just on a regular call saying she wants the one with the picture. Kids these days! Lol

And just for the record....Molly makes the cuuuutest faces ever! She can copy just about any face you make at her. Haha

Cuzzies

Lynnea came to visit a couple times :) Craziest event of the night was Lynnea running off to the room and then we hear a loud "boom!" We all look at each other like "What the freak just happened?" Don't worry, Lynnea just hit the wall because she was running too fast. Hahaha! Love that girl!

Then I had to shower the girls for bed and Lynnea was so sad. One quick call to Elisha and she was in the tub having a blast. So glad they are all close in age and will grow up together. We'll have to work on the getting along part as they get older. Lol!

Discipline

I need Nanny 911 to come help me raise my kids. Lol! I made a goal today to not flick my kids ears or hit their hands mostly because they've started hitting each other and I know it's my fault. Such a bad example but today I did great. Not one flick, spank, or time out. Only redirecting and constant reminders of what is expected. But it totally got me thinking....How do white people NOT hit their kids? Like seriously? Lol. I lasted one whole day without flicking or spanking but it took all the patience I could muster. How do I make this last a lifetime? I feel like talking and time outs can only do so much. We were hit occasionally growing up and we turned out fine. Look at me rationalizing already! I think I'll start a Nanny 911 marathon so I can learn other methods of disciplining. I suck at being consistent and at being firm! If you are reading this and have a toddler, I could really use some tips.....and prayers. Lol!

PS.... How funny will this be for my kids to read as teenagers if they are still getting spanked??? Lol!

1 o'clock church sucks!

And this is why! It's 10pm and my kids are beyond hyper because they woke up from their nap at 7pm. We even went to Chili's with Dom and Molly to eat my emotions away. (I'm a little dramatic but I justified eating out because its been a loooong stressful week.) Now they are delirious and laughing at everything and won't stop. I'm so tired but their laughter is contagious! All they want to do is play and all I want to do is sleep. Dad is off in 45 minutes so there's hope. Lol for now I'll just blog on my phone while they burn some energy!

Eagle Mountain Play Date

I needed girl time and my kids needed to get out of the house so we went to Africa (aka Eagle Mountain) to visit Dez and her kids. I'm so shocked at how well our kids play together especially because they're all so close in age. Elina and Thor were both born in January 2010, a few weeks apart because Thor was a premie, and Talanoa and Eva are 3 days apart, both born in April 2011. Everyone jokes that we planned it that way but we really didn't. Lol.

Only hitch of the day was Elina's accident :/ (Only accident so far this month...crossing my fingers.) She was playing in the kids room upstairs and then we hear her crying. Went upstairs to check and she's covering her ears (so I won't flick her) telling me she pee pee'd and asking me not to hit her. Hahaha horrible mom, I know! I think she was so focused on playing with the toys and held it until it was too late. Sorry Pili's! Promise to still let us come over? Lol!

Longest Sick Day

I had one of the worst days yesterday.  My FB status was "I want to kill my kids and we've only been awake for 2 hours.  Not a good sign.  Lol.  I have to LOL before I have a melt down! :/"  Surprisingly, I didn't have a melt down but maybe I should have.  A good cry always makes me feel better but that status pretty much summed up my day yesterday.  I'm on my period, I felt sick, the kids are sick, and worst of all I didn't sleep well so it was a recipe for disaster even before I started my day.  I think I could handle it if we didn't have to stay indoors or if my kids didn't cry so loud.  They cry loud in general but cry louder and longer when they aren't feeling well.  It seriously drives me to the brink of insanity.  Luckily it was Vili's school day so we got some daddy time for a few hours and we had some visitors (Mom, stepdad, MIL, FIL, SIL) which made the day go by a little faster.  Good thing it's a new day and I got to start it alone, at work.  Lol!  A nice 8 hours to wander aimlessly online and on my phone and interact with adults while Vili tends to our precious little one's.  Odd thing is I miss them already.  I wish it were spring already.  Maybe I have the winter blues or seasonal depression?  Or I just need sleep!  Lol.

Waffles & Tutus

The kids are sick so we're on a movie marathon. So why not blog? Thanks Elisha for introducing me to the blogger app! It's amazing! And thanks iPhone for having a decent camera that I can take pictures with. Holy side note. Lol!

Back to my post. A few Saturday's ago we invited ourselves over to Ikani and Elisha for breakfast. Lol! They make the beeeest homemade waffles ever! If you haven't tried them you're missing out! We ended breakfast with a tutu dance party. These kids are crazy! Lol

Sick bug is here

Both kids are sick with fevers and coughs and talanoa has an ear infection so it's going to be a long day. Doesn't help that Talanoa spits out her medicine, literally, and screams bloody murder every time I try to do her ear drops. Thank you, on call doctor, for traumatizing her and making her ears bleed when u checked them. Elina is super sensitive when shes sick so that means lots of crying from her today. The blessing of the day is that they're both still asleep and it's 9:30am :) and that this is their first real sickness this winter. That's a shocker!

Patting myself on the back for this one

We started scripture reading with the kids this year. We're supposed to read everyday but we've only done it a handful of times so far this month so there is definitely room for improvement as the year progresses. The kids are too young to read so we let them repeat one verse after us word for word. They love it and they totally think they're reading. Lol! I've noticed though that they've gotten more antsy and restless with time so sometimes one whole verse is asking way too much of them. Elina does ok with her one verse because she can repeat phrases rather than one word at a time. Talanoa can barely sit still long enough to finish a sentence. Lol. She adds a few of her own amen's in there mid-verse. I think it's her attempt to hurry to the end. Haha! It's funny to hear them enunciating each word but they do a great job tackling those big words. I think this will help with their reading skills and their vocabulary.

I love that they are learning about the scriptures even though they don't understand anything. Now they actually know what the scriptures are (huge step for our family) and get excited to flip through them. It's rewarding to see them with scriptures in hand and a smile on their face. I really hope we keep this up, more for my kids than for us even though we need it more than they do. They motivate me to want to be better for them and I hope we can help them build a strong spiritual foundation while they are young.

She cries to hold them herself.  Little Miss Independent!

Elina offered her photography services for the rest of these pictures.  Lol

Fat Cats

We went bowling earlier this month (can't remember when) and I never posted pictures.  Looks like I need to add a goal to my list for this year.....be more timely about my blogs.  Anyhoot, the kids loved bowling!  Molly was all smiles, Lynnea would wave bye as the ball went down the lane, Talanoa would shout "I did it!" after pushing her ball, and Elina would do a happy dance once her ball took off and had to be reminded that she hit pins.  I did horrible like I do every other time I go bowling.  It's always hit or miss with me.  I'm either amazing or horrible and this time it was all kinds of bad with gutter balls galore.  Lol.  I think Vili won but can't remember.  All I remember is how cute the kids were and the amazing food I had from the Mexican restaurant that's not Cafe Rio.  What's it called again?  I really can't remember but it was amazing.  Maybe I'll go there for lunch tomorrow.  Lol.

Post-baby PMS...

Is straight up horrible. It's the worst it's ever been for me my entire life. My hormones are craaaazy and my mood swings are ridic. Not to mention that I have zero patience too. My poor family has to just endure it. My husband thinks I can just wave a wand and magically control my emotions. Ugh....wrong! If I had a magic wand I would make him disappear for a week until it's over. Lol As if I want the mood swings! Worst part is knowing it's right around the corner because I get super tired and extremely cranky and then there's the dreaded bloating. I wish it would just all go away! I almost think being pregnant is better than this for the next 5-7 days. Lol. What happened to the days when it would just last 3-4 days? I hate being a girl sometimes!

New Year New Us

It's a new year and hopefully a new and improved me.  Here's some of our family goals for this year in no particular order.

-Start fasting and paying fast offerings.  It's been yeeears since I've fasted so wish me luck.  If you hear a stomach growl in sacrament it's probably mine.

-Have regular FHE's with lessons, activities, and/or crafts for the kids.

-Read our scriptures and pray together as a family everyday.

-Attend the temple once a month.  Seems so easy but it never gets done.

-Stop yelling at the kids and stop flicking them.

-Make healthier food choices and try to be more healthy in general.

-Make weekly menu's to help us from eating out so much.

-Keep our home clean and organized.  Do laundry once a basket is full and dishes as soon as we're done eating.

-Have more date nights with Vili.

-Less social media!!

-No phones during meal times.

Dreamy December

I'm so sad.  I ususally keep my notes for my monthly blogs on my phone but it got erased.  That's my consequence for procrastinating this blog post.  Sad day!

Talanoa:
-Announces when she farts or boo-boo's.
-Had her 18 month check up this month (super late).  She is 98% for height (34.75 inches) and 90% for her weight (27.29 pounds) so she's slimming down.  Lol.  I can't remember her actual height and weight since it got erased.
-Likes to pick our her shoes for the day.
-Cries when we put her jacket or panda beanie on Elina.
-Is always taking her clothes off.
-Screams "Meeeee!" when she sees pictures of herself.  It's so cute!

Elina:
-Has been introduced to the movie Robots and her new favorite, Tinker Bell.
-Only knows two colors.  There's pink and everything else is blue.  Lol.
-Gets excited to tell us when Talanoa shares something with her.  Ex:  "Mommy, Talanoa share with me.  Oh, thank you Talanoa!"
-Had a couple potty accidents this month.  We had to throw away 2 pairs of her pants because we couldn't get the pee smell out of them. 

Vili and I:
-Went with the kids on the train for the first time.
-I seriously have the best boss ever!  Debbie Curtis is her name and she is amazing!  She got matching outfits for the girls (Elina wore it to the Pacific Generation party) last month just because and then she got me a cute necklace for my birthday and gift cards for Christmas!!

New Years Eve

Vili had to work, yet again, but he did the sweetest thing for me on New Year's Eve.  He helped me deep clean our apartment to start the new year off on the right foot with a clean home.  Best part is he didn't complain one bit.  Love my man!  I decided not to take the girls to the dance at our ward (which I'm still being lectured for by my inlaws.  So fun!  Lol) because I didn't have the energy to get them ready and chase them around the chapel for hours.  We ended up hanging out at Cheka and Tali's with Ikani and Dom's families eating Panda, McDonalds, and junk food while talking stories and playing Scattegories.  We're all getting old so we headed home at around 10:30pm.  We rang in the new year with our little family, Vili included fresh off of work, in the comfort of our own home on our couch just the way we like it. Not sure why I didn't take any pictures that night but life goes on.  Here's to a better year and a better me!

Winter Wonderland

This was our last hurrah for 2012 and it was only natural because of how much it has snowed in Provo this winter!  We had a snow day with the grandparents and the kids didn't want to get out of the snow at the end of it.  We were supposed to build snowmen but the snow was so soft and powdery that it wouldn't stick together so built a mini slide and a fort instead.  Grandpa Lemoto even busted out the sled and pulled the kids on it.  Actually, only Elina and Molly because Talanoa was terrified of the snow and wouldn't go near it.  Lol!  She hated seeing the snow on her boots and would dust it off of anyone's boots she saw it on.  What a silly girl!  I thought she would warm up to it but she just chillaxed on the steps having a blast watching eveyone.  Every once in a while we would hear Talanoa's laughter and it was enough for me to hear her enjoying herself.  Elina on the other hand was hands on the whole time building, throwing, and even eating the snow.  She was in snow heaven and so was Molly girl!  We eventually got them to get out of the snow to go in and warm up with some koko before heading to Costco to eat.  Love spending time with my family!

I made a snow angel after Losi threw me down into the snow.  Lol

Putting in work to build her slide.

Snow ball fight!

Lemoto buried himself ...

and Molly was not a fan.  Lol

Please excuse my morning looks.  Not sure why I look like that but check out the scarf I crocheted.  Haha!

Talanoa in her favorite spot on the stairs getting that darn snow off Molly's shoes.

Isa came to perfect the slide.  What a good aunty she is!

Sled time!  Grandpa is the best!

See!  She hated that snow getting on her boots.