Aaaaah Summertime!

Ah Summertime!

So our summer started out with me working part-time for about a month, but that didn't work out, the 4hrs they promised upon interview turned into 2hrs which I didn't feel was worth it to be away from my girls rather than spend their summer with them, so now I can! YIPEE!!

Sleeping Beauty Kiara on the trip to Salt Lake.

She's awake now and super excited to be here!!

One thing about working, it made it possible for me to save up enough money for us to have a little vacation.....the girls chose Lagoon, so we made a 4day trip out of it! Our first night we stayed in Taylorsville and the girls were so excited to get to swim and feel like they really were on vacation.

Noelani enjoying the pool and a moonlit swim!

Funny little mermaid!

The next morning, after a delicious breakfast we are off to Lagoon...It's what fun is!! :)



Waiting for Lagoon to open...we're excited!!



My Beauties!

Kuni was with us...he took the day off to go...it was a blast!! :)

While waiting for the girls to ride the Jumping Dragon, we decided to try out the camera on my new phone...and finally we figured out how!! haha

 The Ladybug Drop!

Lani and I on our way to the Terrorride!! Oooooh!

The Carousel

one of our favorites!

Kiara age 6

Noelani age 9

Together again!

You can see Kiara and Lani's outlines in the green gondola.

Beautiful Noelani

Lagoon day is finally over and the girls are enjoying complimentary ice-cream bars at our second hotel "The Marriott"...yes, thanks to Priceline we stayed in style! Now we need some much-needed rest to be ready for our cousin's wedding early in the morning at the Salt Lake Temple!

 Waiting outside the temple for the bride and her prince charming to come out...Kiara was supposed to be a flower girl, hence the dress. But while waiting we enjoyed taking some pictures around the temple grounds.

 

One of the fun things we did was to go check out the new City Creek Center Mall in Downtown Salt Lake...what a gorgeous mall...the girls loved it. And then we went to our favorite park Liberty Park after a nice lunch with Kuni and his son, Pio.

 

 

We all had a great time on our trip to Salt Lake...on the last day I could hardly get the girls to co-operate so that we could leave to go home. They have been so homesick lately...so on our way out of town, we headed for one of our favorite places, Daybreak for a dinner picnic on the shore of the lake. It was so nice to watch the sun go down...and it reminded us all of our old stompin' grounds. We were at Daybreak every single day for walks each morning and evening around the Lake. What a Beautiful place!! 

Happy Valentines!!

"Our neighbor valentines treats"
Cake batter Truffles and Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
We love our neighbors!

 

How does time fly by so quickly? Seems like it was just Christmas yesterday and now it's Valentines again!! We have been doing all kinds of fun stuff...the Saturday before Valentines I decided to make my special breakfast for my girls since Lani rarely stays at my house...she had decided to sleep over and I figured I needed to take advantage of the morning together and treat my girls. We had eaten steak and shrimp the night before, so I decided to do our scrambled eggs with steak, onions, spinach and cheese. I also did whole-wheat waffles from scratch and homemade buttermilk caramel syrup. Of course a little fruit and some milk and we were all in heaven!!

Valentines Breakfast

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"Lani and Kiara enjoying their Valentines Breakfast"

It has been a great Valentines for us...and I am the happiest Mom in the world...my little Valentines are the best!! I couldn't be happier than I am right now to just be their Mom and I hope and pray that I can even be half as good a Mom to them as the joy they bring into my life.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE...MAY YOUR DAY BE FILLED WITH LOVE!!

Sniffle Sniffle, Sneeze Sneeze, Wheaze Wheaze!

So my little Kiara has been sick for what seems like 3 weeks yet no fever...just miserableness!! (is that a word?) I finally asked to be referred to an allergist and boy am I glad I did that! For most of her life I felt she was allergic to animals because even the slightest contact will usually at least give her hives and she's itching miserably for a week....and she's had neverending hayfever as well. So today was her big day and as you can see from the testing, she was allergic to a lot of things! As I suspected, dogs and cats were big, along with bunnies and guinea pigs...but the most important was when they did the mini-cat scan on her sinus cavities and she was almost completely blocked!! My poor little girl had been suffering for who knows how long with severe sinus infection and pain! I am so thankful we were able to see Dr. Pena today and she is taking her meds so that she can finally have some relief from these awful problems!

Now maybe she can just focus on being a kid and having fun again....love you little Kiara! <3 <3

Better Late Than Never....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

So it's really hard to believe that it is 2012 already...time sure does fly when you're having fun and we've been having so much fun in our new home and with Kiara in school, that we've almost lived here a year and hardly noticed it! Guess that means we like it, huh?

It sure has been fun to have my girls in the same school, even though they don't live in the same home...and Kiara is so thrilled when her sister stops by her classroom just to give her a hug and tell her she loves her!

I can't believe that Lani is 8yrs old...seems like just yesterday that Lani was starting school...now she is this grown-up, talented, smart, beautiful child...who loves to listen to her mp3 player and sing and dance to all the latest and coolest songs. She loves to sing karaoke and does a great job of it too...I am so thankful to be your Mom, Noelani! I love you :)

Kiara is also such a big girl...in kindergarten and loves to read and learn...her favorite is math though and she might be 3yrs younger than her sis, but she is almost as tall...that's saying a lot too since Lani is the tallest in her class! Kiara is so talented as well and loves to dance! She is in love with Justin Bieber and loves to watch his movie "Never Say Never". Kiara is such a sweet and caring little angel...she is very observant and looks for opportunities to help out around our house. She is the first one to be there to put her arms around anyone who might be in need of a hug...believe me, I am usually in need....it's hard being a single mom, and she always knows the times I need her most. I am so thankful to be your Mom, Kiara! I love you!

I know we all make new years resolutions...and perhaps mine is the same as always...to be a better Mom and take my sacred role very seriously. I hope and pray to become even half the mother these precious little spirits deserve!

Christmas!!





Our new house all decked out for our first Christmas here. Kiara and I were so excited to be able to spend Christmas in our own house again!

Wow, I can't believe how fast time flies. Seems like we just moved in and now it's three days until Christmas! We decorated our house with lights early in the season, put our trees up early and have been ready for a while, yet I still can't get enough of the Holiday Season, makes me sad to think that it's almost over.

How very blessed we are..........

It was just a wonderful Christmas filled with love and happiness for us...our favorite season of all...Christmas, the time to celebrate our Beloved Savior's Birth....Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!

Halloween!!

So this year we finally got to be in our own home for Halloween...something we hadn't been able to do for 2 yrs since the divorce. As you can imagine, Kiara and I were very excited about that! We have some awesome neighbors in our new neighborhood and we were so excited to do our trick-or-treating here this year, with them!

My niece, "Big Lani" (is what we call her, although she isn't big at all!) is a flight attendant for Skywest and she called to say she would be here the night before Halloween to sleep over and to be with us all day for all the fun! We were sooooo excited...it had been months since we had seen her.

Halloween eve was an exciting day already for Kiara because she had been in her very first Primary program at church and she did a great job! Last year our very first sunday at a new ward and they were doing the program...she wasn't feeling it, so she didn't get to participate in that. So Big's plane flew in and our partying began....so much fun!

Halloween morning was soon here with a very excited Kiara...this being her very first time to wear her costume to her kindergarten class and parade around the school with all her friends! Kiara was happy to be a princess and to wear the costume she had worn last year (which made me happy, since I spent a small fortune on it!).

 Lani had a harder time deciding what she wanted to do about a costume. She loves to dress up really scary, but her Dad refused...he wanted her to be a princess this year. A week before halloween we found this costume online for ten bucks! She was the girl from the "Prince of Persia" movie. I thought she looked adorable!

We had so much fun at the girls' school...watching them parade around the halls in their Halloween costumes with all their little friends! I only got one picture of Lani during her parade because we waited for so long for it to start, my battery died...but I am so thankful I got what I did!

It was such a fun day and we are so glad we got to spend it with Big Lani...thankful for the time she chose to spend with us...we love you Lani!

Lani waving as she and the pilots board their flight out of Cedar City.

A Much-Needed Girl's Night Out!

So last month Kiara and I bumped into Gene at Lin's (where he works as a bagger) and he hands me his credit card and tells me to go purchase tickets for the girls and I to see "The Little Mermaid" at Tuacahn. I asked him if I should buy my own ticket and that way he could go too, but he said he wasn't really interested in seeing it. There weren't many seats left, but we managed to find some pretty decent ones and we were so excited!!

It was a very long, drawn-out wait for the day to come, but Oct 3 finally arrived...the girls went to school...this entire week is early out (not sure what the point is for kindergartners to even go) so we got an earlier start in heading down to St.George. Of course, we had to dress up, especially since we don't get to go anywhere dressed all up other than church!

We stopped in Washington to visit my wonderful friends, Lillian and Doug Hunt. I've known Lillian for over 20 years now. She's the kind of friend that you can lose touch with for years, but upon meeting, it's like no time has even gone by. We had a wonderful time visiting with them...in fact, we spent way too much time there...almost didn't have time to eat dinner! lol

My girls are so funny...they love to eat at Chuck A Rama...so that's where we went...we barely had time to get there, eat and still make it out to Tuacahn in time for the show...but they had a great time. You gotta love kids, they manage to have fun wherever they are and no matter what the circumstances may be...they don't let stress and schedules get to them...I need to be more like my girls...just love em!

With dinner done, we were heading out to Tuacahn, excited, but I was worried because all I could see were dark looming rain clouds and I found myself praying silently that we would be able to see the entire show! Upon arriving, we quickly noticed that it was packed!! We hurried in to find our seats...as we felt the sprinkles of rain here and there.

I had taken Noelani to Tuacahn when she was three, to see "Beauty and the Beast", but she didn't remember it at all...and Kiara didn't remember ever going to Tuacahn even to see Santa and the live Nativity...So of course, they were both very excited when they saw the enormous stage and the beautiful back-drop of the red rocks. Having been involved in "Through The Eyes of Mary" for years, they were both so aware of the many spot-lights and the amazing sound systems even before the show started.

But before we knew it, the actual show began and the real magic started to happen...Wow, what a show!! I have seen many Tuacahn shows, but this one by far was my favorite! The cast was amazing..from the Sea Witch to Sebastian, who both had the most amazing voices... Prince Eric, Flounder and Skuttle...it was amazing! The effects they used...making you forget they were even on a stage...literally it was like they were underwater! The costumes were amazing...it was so much fun to see my kids' eyes light up like that...they were on the edge of their seats from start to finish! It did rain on us a couple of times and the show had to stop for a few minutes, but we were fortunate that we got to see the whole show! As we left the theater, we saw Skuttle the Seagull and the girls were lucky enough to get a picture with him. We tried to get one with Ariel and Eric, but the line was entirely too long, so we had to leave. But we had a wonderful night!

I am so thankful that we were able to go and see this show...we look forward to seeing Alladin next season.