flashback friday: halloweens past

there's been a few Halloweens that I haven't documented yet...and it's high time that I catch up on all the costume cuteness over the last couple years.

 

2010: ahonui insisted on being cat in the hat that year...all on his own.  no other costume would be acceptable.  it was too funny.  we then dressed up baby nahe (who was only 2 months old at the time) as a sweet little pea in a pod.  sooo darling. 😊

2011: ahonui was addicted to first person shooter/zombie video games a lot more than I preferred, was able to control, or liked to admit, so that year he really wanted to be a zombie.  ummm - denied! so his backup costume was to be a war soldier...ohhhkaaaaay.  but since I didn't have his soldier costume by our ward trunk-or-treat party, we improvised and my clever mother scrounged around our apartment for a last minute quickie to throw on the boy...we found some red little boy boxing gloves, threw a kitchen towel around his neck, put on his red bball shorts, dabbed some black eyeshadow under his eyes, and voila! a boxer was born.  and nahe was a sheep - because it was the cutest, more original (not a witch, clown, or bumblebee), best-fitting costume I could find at Walmart. what can I say, I'm not a seamstress!!

2012: it was ahonui's first year at laie elementary and the school has a little Halloween parade so we dressed him up as a ninja last year (he was pretty into the Lego ninjago series).  nahe still doesn't have much say in what she ends up as for Halloween so we put her in a fairy princess getup.

we always have a ton of fun taking the kids out for the long walk around town to get as many goodies as possible until the little legs give out and the fussies start rearing it's ugly head for the night.

what do your kids like to dress up as for Halloween?  do u make your own costumes, buy them, or improvise with whatever you can find around the house?  sometimes those are the best ones!!

I'm kinda curious to find out what ahonui's costume request will be this October...and also if nahe will have an opinion on what I put her in when we parade around Laie.  we'll see!

my kind of mother's day

I realize that this is a tad late for a Mother's Day post, but I didn't want to forget how special this day was for me...

woke up to pink tulips and breakfast in bed...french toast, spam, and scrambled eggs!  I didn't even know that Brandon knew how to make french toast!  what a sandbagger.  I assume that he's been reserving those amazing culinary skills for a really special day...like our 7th mother's day together.  fascinating.

 

 

then ahonui gave me a card that he made...

 

I honestly think that these little homemade creations are the most meaningful, special, and heartfelt gifts that you could get.  it was actually the first time I got something from him where he understood what he was doing, what it was for, was mostly legible, and didn't have stick figures performing disturbing acts of violence.  thank you, son!  I will treasure it always.

 

 

then we went to church, and nahe made a beautiful little lollipop flower pot in nursery.  but apparently, she made it for herself - on mother's day.  because she clutched the pot close to her chest and refused to give it up when i asked her if she made it for me.  rejected!!  she's two years old...I guess I can let this one slide.

 

after church i was gifted yet AGAIN with a little nappy nap.  and my day was complete with happiness.

 

i think the following illustration (courtesy of a random FB post) accurately describes what a mom really wants on a day off.  and i gotta say that this past mother's day not only made me feel truly loved, but also like i'm not doing such a bad job as a mother to my little family.  could not ask for more.

 

easter 2013

this year we tried to teach the kids of the true meaning of Easter. and while ahonui seemed to hold on to what was taught a little more than nahe, they were both still very eager to get out into the backyard to hunt for eggs.  hmmm...another reminder that a six-year old's attention span is so very short.

lucky for them, they had two egg-hunting opportunities! on Saturday we went to kahuku to play games, have an Easter lesson, indulge in corn chowder, and spend time with my in-laws. oh right, and how could I forget that they always get spoiled with a hefty basket full of goodies from grandmas & grandpas on both sides. I think we're set with a candy stash for the next few months.

then on Sunday, we traveled down the road to marcus & nue's house for another Easter party.  the potluck dinner was so delicious, abundant, and varied that i'm pretty sure i gained back all the weight that i worked so hard to get off these past few weeks.  arrrrggggh.  i loooooathe myself.

but then in order to hide the eggs throughout the front and back yards, the mommies took all 16 children, between the ages of one and thirteen, out for a long walk...over and through the humongous cricket field, stopping for a tug-o-war competition, then out past the graveyard and back to the house.  not the easiest task when you've just scarfed down what felt like an entire cow.  let's just hope that some of those extra calories consumed were efficiently burned into an oblivion.

by the time we got back to the house and the easter bunny had finished it's business, the kids couldn't wait to be let loose into the bowels of the egg-filled yard.

this time with cousins, aunties, uncles, and grandparents are certainly priceless.  and although the weekend went by in a blur, our easter family fun time sure filled our social, physical, and spiritual cups and readied us for the week!

hau'oli makahiki hou

we plan on celebrating new year's eve with a bang.

the utah vacay

yes, this was back in december...but this baby is keeping me awake and blogging is probably one of the very few things i can do at this time of night (or early morning) that doesn't require loud noises to wake everyone up.

needless to say, our trip to utah was much needed and long overdue. we had an amazing, wonderful time visiting with family, playing in the snow, catching up with old friends, soaking up the christmas spirit in a real winter wonderland, and simply spending quality time together as a family.

a BIG, HUMONGOUS thank you to the nawahine ohana for their hospitality and never-ending love they have for us...i always feel at home when i get to stay with them. as soon as we arrived from the airport, they had a huge pot of beef stew waiting for us on the stove. seriously felt like we were coming home, to a colder climate, that is. haha! their house in lehi was absolutely beautiful! it almost convinced me to move to the mainland - but the 4 layers of clothing we all had to pile on just to go to walmart across the street withdrew that notion for me pretty quickly. let's just say, i'm a t-shirt & lavalava type of chick. ANYWAY, we had a ton of fun staying with the nawahines. we are so blessed to have family that are so wonderful!

darren & kaloi nawahine's children...breesa (we celebrated her birthday before the cake was ready - lol!), iosepa, and keahi. ahonui just loved his cousins! every day the little guy would wake up and run out of our bedroom to look for his cousins to play. we love these kids!


christmas evening with brandon's cousins and aunty manu. brandon grew up with them until they moved to the mainland, so it was a nice reunion for him and great for ahonui & i to meet them for the first time. nothing better than family during christmas time...can i get an amen?


the main reason we flew thousands of miles to the freezing cold...a forever friend, tali (formerly alisa) & inoke hafoka got married in the oquirrh mountain temple on december 30, 2009. we also were able to celebrate their marriage the night before at a dance held in their honor in salt lake city. mahalo to tali & inoke for giving us an excuse to have a getaway!!


the oquirrh mountain temple in sandy (i think). it was higher in the mountain tops and one of the recently built temples so there weren't any homes or buildings around it. so incredibly beautiful and secluded. the spirit was definitely strong that day.

best friends who are like sisters to me...miki, me, sarah, titi, and mary. while we waited for tali & inoke to come out of the temple, we beautifully froze our okoles off! i'm quite sure the temp that day was a mild 21 degrees. but what does cold weather matter when you've got amazing friends to keep you warm? it was sooo nice to finally catch up with them. i only wish i could have spent more time with them during our trip. everything seemed to go by way too fast!


boarding the plane on our way home. sad :'-( our flight was too early in the morning for ahonui to do much. he refused to walk, brandon & i refused to carry him. so we compromised and he got to ride the carry-on! lucky kid. unfortunately though, ahonui caught a bad cold & fever a few days before the wedding. he ended up getting a high fever and was out of commission for a few days during our trip. i felt so bad for our little trouper because we still took him out of the house even though he wasn't feeling well. throwing up, high fever, and just miserable. we ended up taking him to the docs right before we headed to the wedding reception so he was a little better by the time we headed home. we're just very, very grateful that he was a GEM throughout the entire flight there and back. thank goodness for ipods and in-flight movies!

some of the highlights of our trip:

• christmas with the nawahines & jimenez families
• tali & inoke's wedding
• sledding at tibble fork canyon
• temple square lights
• visiting with family & friends
• family portraits in the snow
• shopping...quiksilver outlet, shade clothing, provo towne center
• eating out...red robin, cafe rio, tucanos - YUH-MEEEE!!!

to sum up our vacay...relaxing, cold, and waaaay too much fun!

i'm dreaming of a white christmas

because by this time next week we'll be in utah!! it will be the first time i'll be experiencing a real white christmas so i'm stoked. we leave hawaii monday night and return on new years eve. since this will be our first trip since our honeymoon together, brandon & i are so excited to spend time with family and friends that we haven't seen in a while and to also show ahonui a whole new world! my good friend, tali, is getting married in the oquirrh mountain temple and that is one of the main reasons we decided to make the financial sacrifice and finally take a much needed break. airfare for three people and SNOW will be our christmas gift to ourselves this year...


so from our 'ohana to yours...merry Christmas!

it's been a while...

...a long while, i know. i would like to say that a lot has happened since the last post, but that's not quite the case. life has been zooming by lately and our little one doesn't seem so little anymore. he is officially potty trained, we can pretty much decipher what he's saying, and finally - he is now able to keep himself busy & safe most of the time without constant supervision. woohoo!

so here's what we've been up to since the last time...
we had too much fun this past halloween. brandon requested off from work about 5 months prior to october 31st, so pcc had no room to hold him back from his fatherly duties on halloween night this year. i bought ahonui's halloween costume ("super why" - for those of you that don't know, he's a storybook-reading-superhero that somehow saves the day via changing classic well known stories. sassy.) from amazon probably back in july or august because he was very much into the cartoon way back when. of course as i should have known, his attention quickly turned to the 'ol "toy story" phenomenon and so by october his obsession with woody & buzz lightyear would've really appreciated a halloween costume as such. it's a good thing he's only two years old and seemed grateful for the cheesy superhero costume we had waiting for him.

brandon & i celebrated our 4th anniversary on november 3rd. i didn't realize it when we planned our wedding date, but i've grown to really favor the timing of our anniversary each year. it's right after halloween, and a few weeks before thanksgiving...which is pretty much the beginning of the holiday season. it feels like so much joy and excitement happens around this time of the year and so i've gotta say that i'm quite thrilled that the celebration of our love for each other is included during this special time every year. anyway, in observation of our love day, we went window shopping at windward mall and then ate a scrumptious dinner at ala moana's macaroni grill - our favorite! as always, we end up talking about ahonui almost the whole time we are on date nights and we were missing him so much that we felt it necessary that we surprise him with an anniversary gift as well. this little guy scored a fully loaded buzz lightyear action figure which prompted quite a bit 'o squeals of delight upon the opening of the toy. happy anniversary to ahonui!

now that i finish work at 2pm-ish, my list of things to do each day doesn't seem quite so overwhelming. and despite my long list of daily chores that i create for myself, somehow...someway...when i put ahonui down for a nap, i often end up putting MYSELF down for a nap as well. totally counter-productive for my list.


so i think that's about it for now. mostly because i'm falling asleep as i type...and also because ahonui is throwing things at the tv - just for kicks.

easter excitement

we didn't do much to celebrate easter this year, but ahonui sure did! last saturday morning my in-laws picked up ahonui and took him to the annual gunstock ranch easter egg hunt in kahuku - while brandon went to work, and i stayed home to clean.

apparently, there was quite the crowd this year. but i'm so happy ahonui was able to take part in the activities: a big time easter egg hunt, pony rides, petting zoo, and who could forget getting nice & dirty in the mud?

he came home a few hours later with mud-covered reminders that i am supposed to clean the house at the end of the day - not the beginning!

*in case you were wondering...this is my sister-in-law's feet - not ahonui's. lol.

 

i was a little surprised that he didn't knock out after a good scrub in the bathtub and a yummy lunch, but it was fine with me because we had an easter party to celebrate at the nikora home!

ahonui & i met up with my family for an easter egg hunt and a huge easter feast. now that gramps has passed away, it's sad that we don't have big extended family gatherings anymore. i'm hoping that this past easter will be a forecast of many more awesome family get-togethers in the future. our kids were able to enjoy each other's company decorating eggs prior to the easter bunny's arrival.

once the easter bunny had completed it's annual duties in my family's backyard, all the kiddies ran outside for some happy hunting. ahonui caught on quick to the task at hand.

 

and i just couldn't resist showing off the cutest and newest nikoras...yes, they're FIRST cousins! i love it. on the left is baby j and on the right, little gabby. they're only one month apart in age.

 

i ended the night with a little hunt myself - searching for my son, that is. i found these two hiding & playing in one of my mom's cabinets. i have a hunch that royal & ahonui will be partners in crime for a long time. when we went to pick brandon up from work, ahonui's head began drooping as soon as we passed the temple. i think limiting his consumption of easter candy from that day was a good idea, retrospectively.

happy birthday, son!

ahonui tehaumarinoongarangi kahaialii...we were finally blessed to have him in our lives exactly one year ago - and what an adventure it's been!


not much planned for today, but i would like to bake a special cake for our little one. he will pretty much eat anything that i give to him and it seems like he enjoys every single bite. i cant recall ever giving him cake before, but as the naughty mother i am, i have given him ice cream! so i'm excited to see what kind of reaction i'll get from him when he takes a scrumptious bite of his first ever birthday cake.

this saturday we'll have both brandon's and my family over at my mom's for ahonui's birthday party. just a little dinner with the grrindz that everybody loves! i hope ahonui has a great time.

fyi: we had a very nice holiday break. i was off of work for both the christmas holidays and new years holidays. it was great spending that extra little time with ahonui and brandon. for christmas eve we ended up at brandon's aunty's house in kapolei. they had a lot of food and some games to play. ahonui's first christmas morning was chock full of toys, but he wasn't too thrilled about opening presents. i take it he's still learning the concept of gifts. he actually wanted to eat instead of open presents...surprise, surprise.


new years' eve was a great celebration with, of course, lots and lots of fireworks! we went over to marcus & nue's house next to laie park, so we got an earful of not only our own firecrackers, but our neighbors at the park. it was awesome. only in hawaii can you find people celebrating new years eve like that, and i wouldn't have it any other way.

anyway, i just wanted to say...happy birthday ahonui! we love you!!!