festivities...

I was not very good to focus my kids this year

(or myself for that matter)

on the reason for our Pioneer Holiday

(thank goodness we had an

awesome sharingtime in Primary).

Our day was actually quite boring,

I spent several hours at my school

trying to get a handle on all I have to do

to get ready. Knowing August is

JUST AROUND the corner, my stress

level is beginning to go up!

(THAT is not the focus of this post though)

But we did get some of our own fireworks

and our AWESOME neighbors

invited us to join them, so we put on

quite the show!!

Here come the kids.... Quinn getting things ready.

mom and Ash just chillin'
(Nalu missed all the fun. He was actually kind
scared on the fourth of all the loud fireworks,
so I put him to bed at his regular time and

HE didn't even know what he missed)

Kaipo checkin' out the loot.

Ash being his cute self.

Imagine that...Kaipo chasing someone.

Some of the neighbor kids having fun with the glow sticks.

with boys EVERYTHING becomes a sword, right?!

everyone enjoying the show.

Ame and her papa.

Hopefully next year I will focus myself

and kids attention on the reason for this

special holiday.

So many sacrifices were made by those

of TRUE faith. Such an example and strength

to me, and a motivation to not lose hope

or faith in difficult times.

(I love this verse from Come, Come Ye Saints)
Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard?

'Tis not so; all is right.

Why should we think to earn a great reward

If we now shun the fight?

Gird up your loins; fresh courage take.

Our God will never us forsake;

And soon we'll have this tale to tell-

All is well! All is well!

Another Success

Saturday was Ame's annual luau.

It was a great success.

I missed a lot of it, because I was

a Hula Mom, which meant I was backstage aqwwhelping all

the little Keiki get into their costumes.

All 22 of them! I had one other mom helping.

Let me just say CRAZY!!!!
Trying to get all these girls, ranging in age from 3-8,
undressed from one costume, finding their other

costume and tied, rolled, with all their accessories

was no easy task?! On stage some looked

far from perfect, but they all made it out there on time!

(I don't actually have pictures of any of the little girls,

as Quinn was the photographer, and the focus was somewhere else...

*iAme has done soo well this past year and has been

a great example & leader in her class.

She is very anxious to now be moving up to the

PRETEEN class.

She will be learning more challenging routines

and now the youngest,but it will be great for her!

I am excited to see her become even better!!

***************************************

Videos below:

#1 Kaipo as a volunteer doing the HAKA.

#2 Ame's doing tahitian. There was another video

of another dance that was better,

but it was too large of a file to download.

(I don't know how to shrink the file to make it fit,

so if anyone has advice please let me know)

This dance was a transition one, that went from

Keiki I, Keiki II and then Ame's group Keiki III.

To my defense, the older girls dressed themselves

and we had some adjustments that were made

after they danced that one.
i
k

Craziness=Memories w/Cousins

We were soo lucky to have my sis-in-law Debbie

bring her four boys out to Utah for a visit this past week.

We got to spend a few days with them.

I was NOT very good about gettings pics of all

of our fun together (hopefully Karli and Debbie were).

We went to the Hill Airforce Museum together. My sis Kar

and her girls joined us as well. After a few hours there

we headed to the best place for lunch with 11 kids...

McDonalds of course. The kids ate and played,

and us MOMS got to chat a bit.

Then the Asplund boys came to our house for a sleepover.

Quinn was out of town for a work conference, so I

definitely had my hands full!!

The kids got along surprisingly well, with only a

few minor setbacks (but easily solved).

They enjoyed their time together playing at the park,

watching movies, dress-ups, basketball, games,

eating and coming up with anything and everything

to keep themselves entertained.

I loved getting to know Evan, Kyle and Luke a little more and

seeing their cute personalities shine.

I defninitely got some good laughs!

We got to meet up with Karli and Debbie

again the next day with ALL the kids of course

and go swimming @ North Shore aquatic center.

There wasn't as much MOM talk time here.

Trying to keep our eyes on all these kids

kept us pretty occupied.

ALl in all we had a grand time with our cousins.

We soo appreciate Debbie making the effort to

come out here and providing this great opportunity

for the cousins to be together.

THEY don't realize it now, but they are making

Memories and hopefully they are all fond ones!!
They sure are for us!