A Letter to Family & Friends

Aloha Family & Friends,

Christmas crept up on me again this time and it didn't matter that I was actually looking forward to Christmas and thought I was prepared for it...I, like always, procrastinated on some things so I didn't get everything I wanted done for Christmas like writing a real letter to enclosed in my Christmas cards sent out to the family. In fact, I thought I had plenty of time and therefore put off making my cards til I got up one morning and realized that Christmas was less than a week so I didn't make enough cards to send to all of you. So, I've decided I'll just a post on here in hopes that you(our family and friends) might be able to read it...it's a little update on what's been happening all year. So, bear with me, this post might be a little long winded...LOL.

Our family has been tremendously blessed and I didn't want to be an ungrateful person by not recording all the happenings of this year. I will try to make it less detailed as I can so you don't get bored and start beating your head to the wall...or do worse, exit me out in the middle of your reading..LOL. So here goes nothing.

We start off this year in January celebrating Joey's 8th birthday and getting him baptized on the same day, you can read that about that here. He has been looking forward to turning 8 for the longest time because he was very anxious to start cub scout...to him, being in the cub scout means he's officially one of the big boys. At the end of January, we celebrated Chris' 14th birthday and was ordained a Teacher in his quorum. It was also in that same month that Kevin started his new job at BYUH. After seven years of commuting to and from town and going from one job to another and dealing with not so pleasant bosses and co-workers, he was finally offered a great job at BYUH working in their MIS department. He is lot happier since everyone he works with are so much nicer and more than half-way decent human beings. And him working so close to home, he's able to attend daytime school functions and of course, I am more than happy that he is able to take turns with me dropping the kids off to school in the morning, a lighter load on my part.

As February rolled in, Kevin and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary...for more detail, read it here. Can you believe it, after eighteen years, he still can manage to make me blush...lol..and yes, I am as much in love with him as I was eighteen years ago.

As March and April rolled around, along with Easter, we celebrated Jonathan's 12th birthday. That was an exciting time for him. He was anxiously looking forward to moving out of elementary to intermediate school which to him was THE place to be. Not only that but he moved out of Primary into the Young Men program and ordained a Deacon and joining the Boy Scouts. I have never seen anyone sooo excited to attend his first Boy Scout meeting. My baby boy has gone and grown up on me(he was my baby for the longest time so it feels kinda weird to see him all grown up and joining the big boys.)

In May...now that was an exciting month. We were able to attend the elementary school May day program, Jonathan's last may day...see more details here. This was also the month Stephanie graduated from High School{more details on the graduation here}. And as an added bonus, my MIL who the kids called Nanny came to visit us to attend the graduation. The kids were soooo thrilled to have Nanny to themselves since they haven't seen her in like forever...the older kids that is..the three younger kids have never met her so it was their first time to see their Nanny. (We miss you Becky, mom, Nanny!! and looking forward to seeing you again soon.)

June was a memorable and exciting month for Jennifer{more details here}. She was fortunate to attend the Carnegie Hall Festival this year with her choir. After two years of hard work, singing practice, fundraising, she along with the rest of the choir sang their way to New York and not only that but they were able to go to Washington, DC and sang to our Senator Akaka at the Capitol. And the fun didn't end there...they made their way to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia on their way to New York. For most of the kids like Jen, it was a first time for them. Kevin's brother, Dwayne and his family also came to visit us in that same month. It was a memorable time for us...(miss you too Dwayne!!)

In July, we celebrated Jen's 16th birthday. (See, the pattern here...seems like most the birthdays listed are milestone ones.) Jen decided to have a sleepover for her birthday instead of big drawn out party and just invited her very close friends. So I made her special bday dinner and rented her some horror movies by her request and let her turned her celebration into a slumber party. That was a night to remember...there were so much screaming from the girls as they watched those horror movies...silly silly girls. She also started working at the Polynesian Cultural Center at the Gateway Restaurant...she's hoping to try out to dance at the Night Show in the next year or so.

August was Kevin's bday and Danny's 7th bday. Because he was such a quiet boy, sometimes we forget that he's even around. Although he likes hanging out with his friends, he much prefers playing quietly by himself. It was also the month school started so the first week of August was a lot of chaos but I'm happy to report that it was smooth sailing after that.

September we celebrated Kaitlin's third birthday. I am proud to report that she got the potty training down pat before her third birthday and she was very proud to call herself a big girl because she no longer has to wear diapers or pull-ups.

October has two birthdays. We celebrated Stephanie's 18th birthday which I neglected to write a post about. We waited for her to get her driver's license til she was eighteen so right after her birthday, I took her to get her driver's license. So now that she's an official and legal driver, I find I had to hide my car keys from her at times because she seems to have gotten into her head that my car now belongs to her and she doesn't need my persmission to drive it...teenagers!! It was also my birthday so I celebrated my birthday by doing fashion show at BYUH for BYUH Women's Organization modeling some beautiful island gowns. A fun experience but one I am happy to say I am not doing again, thank you very much.

November was a little on the quiet side, no major thing except Thanksgiving which I will not go into detail. Want to salivate over some yummy stuff, go here.

Which brings me to this month, December. We had a great Christmas this year. We've been doing the pixie deal for some Christmases now and it was really a great thing to do because the kids have learned to focus on someone else for Christmas instead of what they want to get themselves. And because we are a one-income family living in the one of the most expensive place in the world, we are always on a budget so the kids have learned to be creative with their gift giving on the small amount of money we gave them to spend. It was really a wonderful thing to watch my girls bargain shop to get gifts for everyone they have to get gifts for that the receiver would really like. The boys were superb too.

Since Steph has decided to take a little break from school she now plays the part of an assistant coach for the Kahuku High & Inter. School Canoe Paddling team...her favorite sport in the whole world. Because she loved it so much, she just had to give her time teaching those kids interested how to paddle and she had convinced Chris to join in on the fun. At first Chris was hesitant but now he finds it's actually a sport he loves. Their first official race will be this Saturday so I definitely need to go watch and show support.

Hope this little update is very informative to all of you. We miss and love you all. Hope your Christmas was a peaceful one and that your New Year will be successful one. With love, from me and mine to you and yours.

God bless!!

Christmas Pictures

Christmas is in four days and I realize that I am not at all ready for it yet. I haven't even mailed out all my Christmas cards yet, not even sure I'm done making them. Oh well...

Anyways, I wanted to post these pictures we took a few weeks ago so my MIL can look at them in case she didn't get her card in time. This usually the different pose we take whenever we have our pictures taken. As I mentioned in this post, I've decided to have our pictures taken at the beach this year and as you can see, it was a real distraction to stand still and pose when the water is sooo tempting like that. Some of these pictures are labeled...click on 'em if you want to see it.










Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season. I know it's a busy month and with Christmas in four days, I'm sure every kids anywhere is excited about Christmas whereas I'm sure the adults are as crazily busy as ever. Remember to take a little break in between and reflect on what the true meaning of Christmas is. On that thought, I want to wish you all the best this Christmas. If I don't read, respond to anyone's post from now til Christmas, just know you're in my thoughts and prayers and a have a very Merry Christmas.

Take care and God bless!!

Pearl Harbor Remembered and a Tribute to the Armed Forces

Today, 68 years ago, Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu was attacked by the Japanese Troop. I would have to say that is one of the sneakiest thing that an enemy has ever done..the Japanese sneaking up on U.S. like that. So today, I just want to do a little remembrance tribute to all those unsuspecting soldiers who sunk down with the ships at the harbor and for all those soldiers who lost their lives defending themselves from that vicious and sneaky attack.

For the lives lost...we will always remember you and for all you did, what you died for. To the families of those loved ones died at Pearl Harbor, me and mine will forever be grateful to you. In memory of those brave soldiers, I've enclosed a couple of videos here. Pearl Harbor will live on in our hearts forever!!

Hope those two videos were a touching one for you. I've decided to enclose one more video...this is a gratitude video. Because of all that the people in the armed forces are doing to protect the people of this country, every American should be singing this song. I'm ending this post with this last video as a way to say thanks to every soldier everywhere, from the past, present and future, for what you're fighting for, for putting your lives on the line that we as a people living as a nation can have all the freedom we have today.



I am extremely grateful for the selfless acts of individuals who care so much about people as a whole that they hardly give a thought to themselves and put their lives out on the line so this great nation can stay the great nation it is, that America will forever stand as a safe haven for any and all who seek a place of refuge. And I am forever grateful that because of the armed forces, my family, my hub and my children can proudly stand under the flag of USA and proclaim their heritage. Thank you.

Food, Food & Who's Got Food

I know Thanksgiving is over but I just had to share what I did on Thanksgiving day. OMGosh, all those food, I'm still stuffed from them. Who's idea is it anyway to wait til close to the end of the year to stuff ourselves like pigs? My fridge is still loaded with left-overs and my hips and belly are even wider and bigger than they were.

Not that I'm obsessing over my weight or anything. I actually didn't mind the pounds I picked up over the years but do the food have to settle in the middle of my body, my belly and hips? Why didn't it distribute itself proportionately throughout my body? Huh? I'd like my butt to be a little bigger..LOL..or even better, why not make me a little taller so then I wouldn't look so much like a plum? And the thing is, in a few weeks, I'll be stuffing myself again celebrating Christmas...I can't help it, I see food, I have to eat it.

But enough about that. How is everyone's thanksgiving? Did you stuff yourself as much as I did and did you have a great time? Was it a stressful time for you? Did you spend practically all day in the kitchen preparing a big feast for your family? I had a great time for Thanksgiving. I only had to cook one dish for Thanksgiving. One of my best friend along with any friends we know got together for Thanksgiving and have a huge potluck. There were so many different delicious food, it was hard not to sample any of them. Here are some pictures.

These are just a few of the food I managed to take pictures, there were three tables of food....salad table, main dish with the starch and a dessert table. There was the traditional Thanksgiving food, turkey with its trimming, ham, mashed potatoes, yam, etc...then there were some local food, my absolute favorite, Tahitian Tuna sushi..hmm, yum.

There's my friend Jackie giving me "shaka" sign...this her house. She was our hostess and we have our party in her backyard.

Here is my plate of food...the first plate anyway..LOL. See the shrimp, oh my, I can never pass up shrimp and tuna..raw tuna that is. Yeah I know, it may sound gross to some of you about the raw tuna but don't knock it yet if you haven't tried it yet...kabish! LOL


We even had live entertainment.


Since everyone was so stuffed and there still tons of food, we decided to have anyone interested to stand up and learn to dance some of the Tahitian dances..of course, I designated myself as the photographer so there is no way you will see me up there making a fool of myself especially since that kind of dance and I don't mesh well.



Even the guys got up and did a number, of course by then, I was already too lazy to do anything but just sit and enjoy the view. We ended the day with Karaoke. Talk about a fun, memorable day.

Look at the contented faces of my kids...LOL.

There ya have it folks...a great Thanksgiving weekend. I am so thankful to be able to spend the day with those I love, my family and great friends.

Congratulations to the Winner

Thank you all for entering my give-away. It was very fun reading all of your comments.

The winner of the give-away is Emily over at Art & Sewl who wrote, "Oh man - I want to win like nobody's business!! It is all so cute and I need it all. Please enter me. I never win these giveaways so fingers crossed my luck changes!!" Congratulations, Emily...email me your mailing address and I'll send your prize off to you.

For those of you who voiced your interest in the tote bag and crayon roll, go to this site for the tutorials. I think you will find more fun and easy things you can create too. As for those of you on this island...all THREE of you, yes, you three, you know who you are, we can get together and have a fun day making these two items, aight?

Ok..thanks again ladies for entering.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Aloha all,

I don't want to let this day pass me by without expressing my gratitude. There are so many things I am grateful for so I'm just going to list a few:

1. My Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ
2. My family...my hub and kids
3. Friends
4. Good Health
5. Living in a Free Country
6. A Home-roof over my head
7. Food and all the other modern convenience of life that sometimes I take for granted
8. Extended family (parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and in-laws)
9. This beautiful world I live in
10. Living on a beautiful island where it's pretty much warm all year right
11. The Troops who're out there fighting for my freedom(thank you guys so much for all you're doing)
12. I am grateful that I am teachable enough to learn new skills and able to share it with anyone
13. This last one...I am really thankful for all you bloggy friends out there and all those who read this blog and comment on it...it means a great deal to me

And so many more....

Anyways, I found this video and I liked it so I thought I'd share with you all. So, have a great Thanksgiving and may you stuff yourself to overflowing..LOL. Enjoy!



♥ and G0d bless!!

Picture Taking at the Beach

Christmas is right around the corner and that's all I can think about these days. In fact, everything I do or think about has something Christmas thought to it...I don't know why that is but seems like I'm more excited about Christmas this year than I was any other Christmas. And not because I'm getting loads of presents or anything like that...heck, I haven't even started shopping for my kids yet. It's just the feeling about Christmas and I can feel it in the air. And I kind of feel a little guilty that I am not even thinking about Thanksgiving at all...don't get me wrong, I will have my Thanksgiving get-together and I have loads of things I'm grateful for.

Like everyone else around the holidays...family picture becomes a must on my list. But to cut down on the cost, I take our family pictures(have a friend do it or whoever was available at the time we needed the picture taken) instead of going to a photo studio to have it done. I'd rather spend the money on something else than have it spend on pictures...of course, if I have a professional photographer as a friend, I would pay her to take my family photos. And since I make my own Christmas cards, I think it only fitting that the pictures that go with it be also made(taken) by me.

Anyways, for every year since we started doing this and the kids were old enough to actually cooperate with a smile on their faces, we've been going over the Laie Temple (for those non-Mormon readers, this is the Mormon Temple) to have our pictures taken there. The Temple itself is beautiful and the landscape is absolutely breathtaking. Unfortunately this year, we are unable to do that because the temple is closed for renovation. So, I decided that we will have our pictures taken at the beach. I love the idea of sending our Christmas cards to our family on the mainland with a picture of us at the beach(a kind of a joke strategy my hub and I have started to share to torture our family on the mainland to get them to come visit us..naughty uh? LOL).

So yesterday, after weeks of planning, color outfit to match, I made a deal with a friend of mine to bring her family and we can each take each other's family pictures. Everything worked out pretty smoothly until we got to the beach. Trying to control the little kids to stay away from the water long enough to take pictures was a bit of a struggle. I have to keep explaining to them that it's still Sunday and we still need to keep the Sabbath day holy and that we weren't there to swim which was really something else. We took tons of pictures since everytime most of the family is ready with a pose, one of the kids would move or blink. And I want to say that my hubby and my friend's hubby were real troopers, they didn't complain once and went along with both of our whims. When we say, stand a certain way or look a certain way...they did, which helped because when the kids see how patient the dads were to the mom, they couldn't help but follow suit. I am happy to report that I got what I needed out of our little photo session and didn't lose anyone to the temptation of those beautiful rolling waves. Oh but how the kids were so tempted to jump in the water full suit.

I was going to wait til closer to Christmas to show off the result our photo shoot but I am so excited about how these ones turned out. My friend took these and just emailed them to me so I thought I'd post them. We decided to do a walk on the beach and have her take different take on it. As you see the number of people in the pictures, you can give me virtual high five for tackling this task and managing to get away with everyone's cooperation. Enjoy.

(From left to right: Steph, Jon, Jen, Chris, Kat, me, Kev, Dan, & Joe)



Oh by the way...my give-away is still on...if interested, go here to enter. You still have til this Sunday.

Spiritual Sunday

We're having a Regional Conference and President Monson is going to be our main speaker today. I'm so excited to hear him speak today so I thought I'd share that with you all.

Response (Post), New Moon and Give-Away Reminder....

Ladies, it was really fun reading your comments on my give-away. Thank you for all the nice wishes, sure appreciate it. Some of your comments require responses from me so I decided to make it into a post, just keep my fingers busy..LOL.

Ter, I'm sorry you're not entering my give-away but I appreciate the wish nonetheless. Crash, I am not picking the winner til next week Sunday so easy girl...LOL. You do know you're my favorite dummy, right? You ROCK too!!
Jenna Z...making the box for the card was absolutely fun. Niecey, I'm not a seamstress, the only thing I can do on a sewing machine is sew a not-so-straight line..LOL..but I saw the tutorial on another blog and it looked simple enough so I figured I might take wack at it. I think if you are an artsy person, then you definitely qualify to in the crafty category. At least that's what I think. Anyone agree with me? Iwa...I was cracking about your suggestion for the extra entry from knowing my son Jonathan. About the totebag and crayon roll, I wrote a post about it before, you can go here to read where I got the tutorial for both items. Actually, I would love to see the ones you make (if you decide to make them) on your blog.

You guys are the best....you don't know that makes me feel to read you all admiring the home-made things I made. I am definitely sending you all my best and may the lucky one among you walk away with this loot...LOL.

Aight, enough about that...who's seen the movie New Moon yet? Anyone? I just got home from watching it with my daughters. We have been waiting a whole year to see this movie so we can have our girls night out and have been planning on it since the we watched Twilight. Living where we are, the closest theater that actually play new movies are 45 minutes away. So when I found out that the theater in the next town would playing the movie on opening night, I was bumped up about it. I now can go close to home and still be able to one of the first ones to see it. Unfortunately, tickets for the midnight show Thursday night was sold out so I got the next best thing...Friday morning show at 11.

I am having totally mixed feeling about the movie. As you all know, when a movie is produced based on a book, it's not as good. I mean those producers seem to always skip out on some specific detail that I thought shouldn't be left out so of course I go to the movie with that in mind. After today though, I'm tempted to make a promise to myself...and that is that I should never watch a movie based on a book that I've read. Maybe I should just do one or the other...either read the book and not watch the movie or just skip out on the book and watch the movie instead. I always set myself up to think the movie would actually do justice to the book and as always get myself disappointed.

"What the heck are you trying to say?" some of you may be thinking and asking me in your mind. All I'm saying is the movie is great and all, it's worth going to it. In fact, if any of you want to go, take your spouse with you unless of course your spouse is a Twilight cynic, in which case, leave him at home...LOL. My daughter Jen loves the movie and since she didn't read the book, the movie was exciting for her. Steph and I both read the book so we weren't as on cloud nine as Jen is...in fact, because we both read it, we were actually able to talk about what's missing in the movie that's written in the book. I do hope that all those people who've been on edge waiting for the movie for a whole year, who've actually made a celebration out of going will find the movie to their liking or that the movie live up to their expectation. I'm going to be honest and say that the New Moon movie didn't affect me as much as the Twilight movie did. (Oh don't get me wrong, Jacob is one hunk of a werewolf and Edward still rock my fantacy..yikes, that sounds so corny...and Bella is still Bella, clumsy as always but it just feels like something is missing, I don't know.) But it's to be expected, right? Hopefully by the time Eclipse or Breaking Dawn comes around in a movie, I would've forgotten all about what I read in the books.

Then again who cares? I got to hang out with my daughters today, just my girls and have a bit of a bonding moment with them since they are both moving on to other aspects of their lives. I mean they actually set aside three hours today to hang with their ole mom to watch New Moon with even though I know they would much rather hang with their friends. So, you moms or even grandmoms out there, grab your daughters or granddaughters and take them to see New Moon, or any other movies you want. It's a great way to squeeze in a little teaching moment or even see them drool over a puff werewolf and if you're a vampire fan, you guys can have a little debate on who's hotter, a 100 year old vampire or a 16 year old werewolf...ahahahah.

Before you do that, enter my give-away if you haven't already and if you have, share the love, let your friends know. Again...go here, or scroll down or look above this post to see how to get to my give-away. Have fun and oh....Aloha!!!

Blogoversary and First Give-Away

Ok, I just realized that yesterday was my Blogoversary and I was too busy running around trying to meet family obligations that I never got the chance to throw myself a virtual party here yesterday. So I decided today, I'm going to do just that. Not that there is anything to really celebrate since I hardly ever post much on here but hey, just the thought that I actually started a blog and kept it for a year, that in itself is something, no? So for that, I'm going to celebrate like every blogger does, I'm going to give something away to one of you wonderful people out there who either reads this blog or stumbles upon from time to time...my first EVER Give-Away...how exciting is that!!

So, here's what I'm giving away today...the items I have are basically what sums ME up (or who I am). Here we go:

Let me break this down so you'll can see what you're getting

These first items would be the perfect description of who I am first and foremost...I am an islander so therefore I'd like to share a little of the island girl with you and of course since I live on an island, what better way to share than to send you a little island scent your way.

Enclosed here are two bottles of Body Lotion, Bath & Body Gel, a packet of Bath Crystals and Perfume, all in Passion Pineapple scent. Wouldn't you just love to make yourself smell like something totally delicious and edible? LOL And of course, here's a box of Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts..every woman's addiction (chocolate), per say. If someone from the mainland win this stuff, she can put this on or while taking some hot bath with this aroma whipping around her, she can imagine staying on a tropical island where it's warm while enjoying the melt of the chocolate in her mouth...hmmmm, yum!


This next one is a box of hand-made(made by yours truly, of course) Christmas card, a set of twelve. I made the box so when the user finished with the cards, she can still find some other use for the box.

The image and sentiments on the front of the card is in gold, in other words, I embossed them in gold so it gives it the perfect shine to go with the season. Inside of the card is left blank except for a "Merry Christmas" saying so the owner of the cards can personalize them and it's FREE so therefore she doesn't need to buy any...unless of course she has more than a dozen people to send Christmas cards to in which case she then has to buy the rest.

This is what I do as a hobby and I guess you can say this is a passion of mine or the little talent I can actually say I have and I truly like sharing this part of me with you.

This is what the card looks like out of the box...you can click on it to see the details.


Here it is again with its envelope...even the envelope is designed to coordinate with the card. Say that you want this and it's yours, seriously.



Now this last one is something I picked up from blogging. I did a post about this one, you can see it here. My little Katie is the reason I venture out to try something like this and of course since she's soooo into Princess, I have to use the Disney Princesses as the theme for these two items.

These are the reversible tote bag and the crayon roll. Hubby was sooo happy that I was actually using the sewing machine he bought me two Christmases ago, he was actually happy to shell out the money to buy any materials I want..how sweet...LOL.

Anyways, this part of the give-away you can say is the little mommy in me, the side who wants to create things her hands for her little ones especially if the little recipient is very excited to get the items her mom made even if it's sometimes not the best, know what I mean.

Here they are again...

That's what the other side of the bag looks like and this is what the crayon roll looks like rolled out.

I figure everyone has a little princess out there, either a daughter, granddaughter, niece, little sister or even a god-daughter who they would move mountains to make happy. This will be just the perfect gift for this season, don't you think?

So there you have it folks, my little something that I want to give away as a way to celebrate my Blogoversary.

And look, everything fits perfectly into the bag...how clever is that!Alright, I've dragged this on long enough...all this goes to ONE LUCKY WINNER. You only have to do two things....first entry, leave a comment and tell me how clever you think these handmade creations are excluding the scenty items.

Second entry, blog, tweet or facebook this give-away and then leave me a comment about your entry with your link. (Shoot, I'm soo in a giving mood, you don't even have a be a follower to enter.)

I will use the random picker to choose the winner and you have til Sunday, the 29th at six p.m. my time (Hawaii time) to see who the winner is. Aight, let the game begin!!