"Fun Friday" Here at Home!





Thursday night was kind of interesting for us. Lani started crying when she remembered about school the next day. I guess a little girl in her class named Sophia has been giving her a hard time. She said she'd been pushed really hard and had her toe stomped on and even pinched! I tried to talk to her about telling her teacher next time and also about just avoiding Sophia altogether. It really didn't help until I reminded her that the next day would be "fun friday" at school and that meant painting, playdough, etc. That did the trick and soon she was smiling again.





Kiara had heard our conversation, I guess, because she told me that she wanted to go and have "fun friday" at Lani's school, too! I told her that we could have it right here at home, and that was all she needed to hear. Well, on friday morning, I woke up, got Lani off to school and then started in on my morning chores-you know, the usual stuff like washing breakfast dishes and picking up around the house. I had this great idea, this would be a great time to dust, scrub bathrooms, vacuum, mop, etc! However, Kiara was having none of it, she wanted to have fun friday and she wanted it now! I conviced her to at least let me dress her and do her hair after brushing her teeth and I barely was able to put on some work-out clothes and I was dragged out to the backyard patio to start a rock-painting project. We had so much fun painting rocks together-Kiara doing the base color, me doing the faces and then Kiara finishing up with the decorative polka dots, etc.

So, I was pretty happy that I could just put my chores aside for a day to have some much-needed fun time with my two year old, when Lani came home from school and announced that she didn't even get to have a fun friday at school and she wished she had stayed home! I had to figure something fun out and fast, so I promised her that if she would take a nap (Kiara always does-Lani usually doesn't), I would let them both stay up as late as they wanted and have a "slumber movie party" with Mom in the front room watching movies on the 42" LCD tv. Lani napped like a little pro and so we had to shop for some goodies and we were set! We had such a great time! They kept me up until midnight when I finally told them that I'd had enough partying and needed some rest! They agreed and fell asleep. I guess I should cherish these times because it won't be long before they will be teenagers and will think that Mom's ideas are "totally lame" and it won't seem fun to them anymore. But for last night, it was they best night ever!

Kiara and Lani showing off all their goodies:

popcorn, Laffy Taffy, M&M's, gummy frogs, Oatmeal cookies, Oreo cookies and zucchini cake.

There she goes! (sniff, sniff)


Okay, so today was Lani's actual first real day of kindergarten and if you would have asked me last night, I would have told you that I doubted she would actually go. Well, this morning was the total opposite! Let's go back to about 8:00pm last night when she had been bathed and fed and was on her way to bed, this sadness totally took over her and she swore that she didn't want to leave me, even for school! At first, I tried to be brave and not cry, but we decided to have a prayer together and in the middle of it, I heard her start sobbing! That was it-I totally lost it! We finally dried our eyes and Lani decided that she would try just one day of school before deciding not to go at all. She finally fell to sleep and I was worried about the morning.

Lani leaving home for her first day of kindergarten

When she woke up, however, she felt great and as she ate her bacon and eggs breakfast, she announced that she was going to ride the bus with all her friends! She boarded the bus like a little "pro" and as soon as the bus pulled away, her Dad insisted on driving to her school to watch her get off and walk in, you don't think he was sad, do you? We did and it was great!

Waiting for the bus across the street from our house.

We hadn't really talked about if she would ride home on the bus so I went to her school just in time for school to let out. When Lani saw me, she said "Mom, why are you here? I want to ride the bus!" That's when I knew that she would have no trouble at all for the rest of the year and my little girl is all of a sudden grown up enough to do it herself!

Lani saying goodbye to her bus driver as she gets home from her first day.

Hey, that was so fun, can we do it again?!

She actually made it home and after a good lunch at home and some rest, I decided to take Lani on a little Mommy Daughter date to have ice-cream and celebrate her first successful day at school. It was a wonderful day and one I don't think I'll ever forget! Love you little girl

Say Shrimp!!

So, here are some pictures we took at SUU campus last night. We really didn't take much time, but I like quite a few of them. At least Kiara is smiling a little bit!

Last time we went to do pictures, a couple of weeks ago, our good friend Brenna Morgan was nice enough to take a couple of hours just to try to get some good shots of them, but Kiara would not smile for her! She seemed to be nervous around Brenna. We tried everything, but we only really got one shot that actually looked like her natural smile. It was so disappointing for me because it's not everyday that we have that kind of opportunity.

So, as I said in my post from last night, I kind of bribed (especially Kiara) that if she would take more smiling photo's, I would take them out for shrimp dinner and here's just a few of them. Who knows, maybe someday we'll actually get Gene to do some pictures with us. We had a great time together though and it was a beautiful night!

Wow, right here in little old Cedar City!

Tonight I decided to treat my girls and take them out to dinner. I almost never take them out to eat any place other than Wendy's or Arby's, so I decided that with Gene at work until nine, I would just let them get dressed up and take them to a restaurant. They both love shrimp (who doesn't-HELLO!) so we decided we would go to the Chinese place called the Lucky Buffet here in town. However, I wanted some cute new pictures of them so I decided to bribe them just a little bit and tell them that if they would let me take some pictures of them on the beautiful SUU campus, then I would take them to eat there.

So we got some pictures done and decided that it was about time to go and eat. We went in to Lucky and sat down to eat our food when I glanced up just in time to see two men dressed in very nice suits walking into the restaurant. The second gentleman caught my eye and all of a sudden I realized that it was Elder Dallin H. Oaks! They were being seated just across from our table. I turned around to check out the table behind me and noticed that the couple seated there were looking in his direction as well and when they saw me look at them with a questioning look on my face, they nodded and mouthed the words "it's him" to me. I noticed, however that no one in the whole rest of the establishment even knew who he was. Either they aren't members, or they don't pay too close of attention to General Conference! I leaned over and told my girls that there was an apostle right next to our table. If any of you know my Lani, you know that she was absent the day they handed out "shyness" -there's not a shy bone in her body! She wanted to go over and shake his hand, and of course, I wasn't going to stop her! I let her and she went right over and smiled and said "Hi Elder Oaks!" He was so nice-he looked up, smiled and shook her hand warmly and spoke to her. I couldn't quite make out what he said to her, but when she came back, she told me that he had thanked her for coming over to say hello. The people who had been seated behind me wound up being from St.George and said that they had just come up to Cedar to shop at Cal-Ranch and then wound up staying for dinner. They ended up paying anonymously for Elder Oaks and his friend's dinners. I guess it's not very often that you get that opportunity! Anyway, after our dinner, I noticed that Elder Oaks was about done himself, so I decided that I would like to go and shake his hand, so I took Kiara over and we said hello, of course apologizing for interrupting his dinner, but I told him, "you know, it's not every day that we get to have you here in Cedar City!" To that he replied "I know, it's not everyday that I get to come here!"

Anyway, I was very excited that my girls got to meet an apostle of the Lord and shake his hand. What a wonderful experience! I was thinking that I have probably already met him in Samoa. I was fortunate enough to get to meet so many of them as a kid. Having grown up there attending an LDS school, they came to visit us there quite often. I have met President Spencer W. Kimball, President Howard W. Hunter, President Gordon B. Hinckley, President Monson, President Boyd K. Packer, Elder Jeffery R. Holland, Elder Dallin H. Oaks and probably many more that I can't remember. I think about how special my childhood was because I had met such wonderful Church leaders growing up and I am so thankful for that.

What a good night, right?! I hope my kids don't forget this night. I guess they probably will, but at least I can tell them about it and remind them how special it was! I guess it really was one "Lucky Buffet"!

Holy Deer!


So, this morning being Saturday morning, I decided to stay in my pj's and just clean my house top-to-bottom. I didn't check my email until this afternoon and noticed one from Kelly.

He says that these deer showed up in their backyard this morning to eat the leaves off their lilac bushes! I was thinking that the hunters in the family would get excited about this! These are some nice bucks! The bow hunt is starting right about now here in Utah, I wonder if it is on at the same time in Colorado? Awesome! I would love to wake up to that in my backyard! Thanks for the pictures, Kelly!

Love you, Lani Lu!

Our Big Kindergarten Girl!

Lani in her school outfit and with her sad, but extremely proud Mom.

Okay, today was a good day, I guess. I took Lani to school for the first time. It was just an open house to meet her teacher, see the classroom and meet all her classmates for the first time, but it was still hard for me! It seems like it was just yesterday that she was born and I was the first one to hold her tiny little beautiful self and marvel at all that hair on her head! I couldn't believe how much I loved her! What a wonderful blessing she has been in our lives!

Lani with her friend and classmate, Avery in front of Three Peaks Elementary.

I can't believe how fast she has grown up! In two weeks, she will be catching the bus and everything! Good thing it stops right out front of our house, huh? She is so excited, she cannot contain herself-after all, she's been watching the school kids get on and off that bus outside her bedroom window for the past 3 years since we moved up here. I'm happy for her, but at the same time, I will miss her like crazy!

I am so proud of you Lani and totally grateful to be your Mom!

Lani with Mrs. Topham (the best kindergarten teacher in the whole world!)

Our Favorite Cousins

Saturday night was so fun for us. We had a surprise visit from our favorite cousins Charmaine and Lani Piula. They came up for a friend's wedding reception and ended up spending most of the night with us. We have missed them both since they moved back to St.George.When they both lived up here, we were lucky enough to see them all the time. They really are so good to us though and always stop by even when they travel to Salt Lake to visit. You are both so awesome, thank you for making us feel special!

We Love Our Neighbors!

So last spring, I decided to make my own fire-pit out in our backyard. I have always loved sitting around a campfire, so I thought it would be fun to have that right outside. There's just something about watching a fire that relaxes me.
I dug a huge pit, mixed and poured my own cement and stacked windsor blocks around it to finish my fire-pit. We have really enjoyed sitting around it roasting hotdogs and marshmallows.

A couple of nights ago, we finally had a dry, calm evening and so I decided it would be a good night to have a fire in our backyard and roast some marshmallows. Lani and Kiara wanted to invite our new neighbors and friends Ally and Jessie. What cute and polite girls they are! I'm glad my girls have them for friends.

We had so much fun together! After that, our other neighbors from across the street came over-it was just a big party night at our house. It was great fun!

Ready, Set, Cut!

Okay, so last week, we decided to see if we could get Lani's
hair cut. (she's been asking for quite a while now) I had been dreading it, thinking that she would hate it. Especially since she's had long hair since she was a year old! We called our wonderful friend Killeen who does hair in Enoch. She had us come to her place-my girls just love it there- and Killeen went to work! Boy, did she have her work "cut out" for her! I just know that she should have charged us much more than she did, because by the time she cut and thinned, she had cut enough hair to equal about five different people! You know, if you see Lani's "do", you would think I should take her back for more thinning! This girl has so much hair!

Lani totally loves her new do and is having fun finding new hairstyles to do since there weren't many ways she could wear her hair before.

Where Did The Summer Go?

Wow, that was fast! Is it just me, or is the time flying by faster and faster the older I get? I don't appreciate how fast my girls are growing up! It seems like I waited so long just to get them here and now they are almost all grown up! Can you believe that Lani gets to start kindergarten next week? Most of the time she is very excited-I think the unknown makes her a little bit nervous. We keep on telling her that she will love school so much that she won't want to be home on the weekends-she doesn't believe us yet, we'll give it a week or so!

The summer has just been gorgeous up here in Cedar City! That is, after all, one of the biggest reasons why we moved up here, away from all our friends and family in St.George. We spend most of the time during the summer and fall months outside! With such awesome temperatures, it would be crazy not to! There are so many great parks here for the kids to play at-there is plenty for them to do.

Check This Out!

So, the other day, I got this picture from Kelly of two of his beautiful girls Emily and Abi showing off their catch! Hey Kelly, where are yours? Did your awesome girls outdo you? I know mine outdo me! It must run in the family, huh? Way to go Emily and Abi, you two are great fisherwomen! Keep on fishin', those are times you'll never forget! Maybe the next time we are all together, we can go fishing. Thanks for the cute picture, we love it!

So Much Fun!

I can't believe how much fun we had on the 24th of July! In fact, I forgot to mention one of my girls' favorite things about that day! We decided to go to Enoch and play at the park. After doing that, on our way home we passed our good friend Deb's farm which is over 100 years old and I happened to notice that she was in her swather cutting hay. I stopped, remembering how Kiara had expressed a desire to ride on a tractor. Deb let Kiara and I ride with her to finish the field she had been cutting. She then totally spoiled all of us with treats (that's no surprise-Deb always spoils us!) and then invited the girls to ride on their Little Tykes train.

This train is actually the one she bought for her kids like 20 years ago! It was so neat and my girls had a blast! Deb also took pictures with her camera because I didn't have mine. Thank you for helping make our day so special Deb!