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!

friendships

We ALWAYS look forward to this opportunity each summer,

when Jamie Maxfield and her family come to Utah.

We were also excited to have Tiffany and her two adorable

children, Jamie's sister Carly AND my sister, Karli with her sweet girls,

join us as well. Needless to say we had a house FULL!!

12 kids and 5 adults.

I love these girls soo much. I could seriously have talked

to them for days. We never have enough time to

catch up. But I still cherish the time we get together!

No matter how long we haven't seen each other, it is just

as though we are roommates in college again, as

comfortable as can be.

Thank you my dear friends for coming, letting our kids

make memories, and just doing what WE do best...

TALK, TALK, TALK!

surprisingly with all these kids, there was very little fighting.

some were doing this...

many were doing this...

it was definitely another wonderful memory made!
*******************
Ame and Jordyn were lucky and got to have a

sleepover together. Jordyn is such a sweet,

somewhat reserved, easygoing girl. Such a cutie!

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

I also got to have a wonderful BELATED birthday

lunch with another dear friend, Jodi.

She is one of those individuals who inspires you

in soo many ways. Someone you want to emulate

and grow up to become! Thank you Jodi for

a delicious lunch and even better conversation.

We too could have talked for many more hours!

Wedding Day

This past week we attended the wedding and reception

of our nephew Kekoa.

He lived with us for a few months last year,

so we have a special place in our hearts for Koa.

This is Quinn's oldest sister Kuulei and her boys
Kekoa and Ikaika.

After the wedding we did A LOT of waiting around

these cousins sure looked cute in their matching dresses.

the kids sure love Ashlyn, Sheri (and Kimo's) daughter.Ash is quite the photographer

I am sure this was such a surreal moment for

Kuulei. I teared up as I thought about the day

my own children get to this point.

Soo glad I have many years to prepare!

there was LOTS of dancing and my kids had a BLAST!

loved these decorations

and the cake

It was a beautiful night!!

Ame and I talked on the way home,

the one things that would have made this

night perfect and SHE replied...

if they would have gotten married in the temple!

*I am so glad she already knows*

Bday

MY day started with a trip to the dentist

with my boys. But the best gift ever was

NO CAVITIES. Much better than the last visit.

When I got home this is the note I found...

(for some reason everytime I loaded it on here

it posted side ways). Ame is such a sensitive,

sweet girl! And that microwave LAVA cake

WAS a great surprise (thanks for teaching

her that trick mom). A great start to my day!!
Then Ame joined me on a mommy/daughter

date of shopping and root beer floats. Quinn also set up a surprise dinner with some very

dear friends. We could have talked all night,

but evetually we got a phone call for a crying

20 month old who needed his mama!

Then on Sunday, Quinn treated me again, by inviting
HIS family for dinner that HE made (mostly anyway).
He even made this cake (well his sister decorated it
with the berries). Very delicious!
Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures from this gathering.

Nalu just follows Amaya around taunting her!
Isn't he sweet!!!

Although I am NOT grateful to be a year older, I am thankful

for all the wishes and love I felt from so many family and friends!
Of course what is a gathering at our place without

a little dancing...

Fourth of July Celebrations

We had a FUN FILLED 4th of July.

I did a 5K run in the morning (wimpy run compared

to the ones many of my friends are running), then

we took the kids to the Layton Parade, Quinn played some

pick up vball in the park, we walked around the park

and booth for a while, got some shave ice.

Headed home for a few hours to nap.

Then spent the rest of the evening with our

good friends the Wadman's. They were gracious

enough to invite us over for a BBQ.

Then we headed down the street to watch the city

fireworks. We waited and waited...

and they finally began.

Even though LOTS of our neighbors had the really

GOOD fireworks for several nights, Kaipo insisted we

do our own too. We don't spend much on ours.

But he was happy anyway!

This year I tried to be much more mindful

of my blessings and freedoms.

I feel soo much gratitude for all those who

have lost their lives, so I could have the life I do

(as hard as it may be at times), at,

and my children can enjoy life each day!

Friends

This past week I got to go to lunch with some

old friends/neighbors from Riverdale.

It was a lot of fun catching up and much needed

GIRL talk!

Then Saturday night we went to Movie in the Park

with some more friends.

the kids saw Heidi, one of their old babysitters.

She ran up and gave them all hugs and told them

how BIG they all were. She was very cute with them!

Tara and I had some great talk time!

there was even FREE ice cream!

can't beat THAT!!

More Fun SuMmEr memories.

kids and their randomness

Ame has been creating some AWESOME FHE lessons lately.

This one was titled:

"There is Beauty all around when there is love at home".

We talked about what can bring Peace and Love into our home.

Ame LOVES sharing her creativity and

she continues to fill our home with the spirit! And the boys and to share their Scripture Power

Books from Primary too.


From the above pictures you can see the boys were
ready for haircuts. They all got the same one...
NO MAINTENANCE!

Firework is our new pet fish. He's made it 3 days now?!

I always find randomness on the camera.

This time Ash got ahold of it...

what a wierdo!