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!!