Brothers

Tyler was home sick today. I came into the living room and found this scene. So cute. Heehee. They have the same profile. They must be brothers.

President's Day with the Niu Side

Today we got together with my side of the family. We all live (well most of us), on this side of the island. I decided that it's been too long since we've all gotten together, so I emailed everyone and we had fun at the beach.

*Just a side note, I still haven't put up all the pictures from this day. Blogger is giving me attitude about it. Hopefully, I'll get all the pictures up soon.


The big girls hanging out in the water.

Shalee. She's so cute. (Aunty is sorry if this spelling is wrong).

I love this picture of Sharae.


A sweet shot of Reagan.


Micah and Shace finding little ocean creatures.

David hanging out on the shore.

Fahren is the oldest cousin. She's such a great big sister, helping her mom with the kids.

Alvina (Shaun's wife), helped out a lot with this get-together. Thanks Vina!

Jace and Randy. This was Jace's first time at the beach.

Leigh and Lizzy. They are both the same age and are in the same Math class at school.

They're trying to ignore the camera. LOL. Actually, I don't even think they know I snapped this picture.

These two are my cousins. David (on the left) and Shaun (on the right). David is the oldest and Shaun is the youngest. They were our cooks. Thanks guys, the food was great! My other cousin Rachel was there, but I haven't gotten that picture up yet. I'll keep working on it.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

It's that time of year again, the Kahuku Elementary's Annual Sweetheart Luncheon. I love participating in this activity. It's fun to see all the kids with their parents having lunch everywhere in the school.

We set up our picnic outside.

Our resident baby. He follows us everywhere we go. You'd think we were his parents or something ; ).

Micah had lunch with us first. He was happy to see us. Every time we're late (like 3 mins), our kids always think that we've forgotten them.

Here's the spread. They requested McDonald's, but I just couldn't do it. McDonald's food is just not romantic enough for a holiday such as this. So instead we had Dino Nuggets (microwaveable), cause that's so much better, along with tater tots, strawberries, grapes, and juice.

Dessert was extra special. I tried a new recipe: salted fudge brownies. It was good. After the luncheon, I took it home and cooked it longer and it turned out so fudgie.

Tyler and Kara came a little later. They were pleasantly surprised with the spread and ate up.

As for my Valentine's. Well, my wonderful hubby was so on the ball, and had ordered me a box of Big Island Candies, that came last week. He was trying to surprise me, but I was home when the box arrived and it said, "BIG ISLAND CANDIES" on the box. I told him that it was still a surprise. I was lame this year and just got Randy a card. He's so good though and loved it anyway.

Happy Valentine's!!

Love

I know I have this picture on another post, but I wanted to repost it. I entered this picture in for fun for a photo assignment. The theme is LOVE. When I saw the theme I immediately thought of this picture because to me it shows how much these kids love their new brother. I'll be surprised if this picture gets chosen, but in honor of Valentine's, here's one of the many faces of love.

We Just Needed to Get Out of the House

It had been a Saturday where some of us had been stuck in the house all day. Me , because I had worked last night. By the time evening fell, the kids and I had cabin fever and needed to get out. Randy and Tyler decided to pass. They had spent the morning at the orthodontist (that's another post) and were tired out. So I grabbed the rest of the kids and headed on over to BYUH for their Winter Foodfest (yeah, the diet thing wasn't happening today).

The Tongan Club offering a good BBQ plate, along with manioke and lu pulu.


Micah trying to navigate through the crowds. There were a TON of people. The last time we went, I don't remember there being this many people. TONS I tell you.


There's my monster. So cute. Look at those cheeks. Don't you just want to pinch 'em. He did pretty good while we were out, but he was tired by the end.


There were inflatables to jump on. Micah and Kara went on one. You can't leave these kinds of things and not jump on one of those kinds of things.


She just finished eating ----- thus the smile.


My cabin fever children. Happy to get out and get some fresh air. Really, the one in the middle is happy, he's just trying to be macho about the picture.


This is what happens when you leave the camera with a 13 year old.


Next time I'm getting Filipino food. It looked good. It all looked good. It was so hard to choose from.


Behind the "stage" where all the performances took place.


Guess what kind of food I opted for. I don't remember what it was called, but it hit the spot. We may live in the country, but there's plenty around here to do.

Braces!!!

Well, we've got braces again. This time it's Tyler. I would put a picture up, but Tyler didn't want to show off his new hardware, so I decided not to embarrass him. I will say that his braces were kind of a surprise.
I had made an appointment with the orthodontist to take off the spacer he had on his teeth. The receptionist had mentioned something about Tyler getting braces. I kind of brushed it off and thought, well, I'll talk to the orthodontist when I get there. Mind you, this appointment was made 2 months ago. His appointment came and I had Randy take him in. I had worked and was too tired to join them. Randy said that Tyler went in. When he came back out, he was wearing the braces. Randy wasn't sure what to think. We knew he needed them, and we were planning on getting them a little later this year. Oh well.
When Tyler came home to show us, we were definitely all surprised. Well, this should help Tyler. Can't wait to see what his teeth will look like when it's time to get them off.

Valentine's Luncheon with Leigh

Leigh's Avid Class put on a Valentine's Luncheon. They had it at the ever local "Tita's Grill". Now if that name doesn't say country-local, then I don't know what does. I have to say, Randy and I were pleasantly surprised. The food was great, very simple, spaghetti, a green salad and a big slice of their famous "polynesian bread".


The set up was special. It was like a buffet line, but we were served our food.

Mmmmmm. That spaghetti was good. Excuse the angles of some of these pictures. I was trying to get fancy, but I was kind of rushed that I think I went to the extreme. So if I've given you a crick in your neck from looking at these, I apologize.


My weakness ------- brownies. I was a good girl though and had only one.


Our valentine -----Leigh. We're so blessed to have her. She does so much for our family. We love you Leigh and were so happy to join you for such a special lunch.

History Day - War Ends Depression

Did you know that? I didn't. This year's History Day topic was "Debate and Diplomacy".

Tyler and his partner researched information to argue the point that even WWII was not a good thing, it did help boost the economy in the US which in turn helped end the Depression.


These boys worked on this board for a couple of months. They were so glad when it was all done ([in hushed tones] so was I).

With all their hard work, the boys made it on to Districts. Tyler though felt that it was beginning to be too much. Moving on to compete in the District Level does mean more work. Usually, the board gets a little revamping because the competition is stiffer. Tyler was done with History Day and informed his teacher that he wanted his name withdrawn from the District Level. I have to say that I was disappointed, but a little proud I guess at the maturity of that decision he made on his own. (sniff, sniff) My little boy is growing up.

Just Hangin' Around

It's what he does best.

FHE Legos

When we have FHE, everyone has a part to do. Today, Micah was in charge of the activity. He wasn't sure what to do, so he went to his dad. His dad gave him a good idea. A type of cranium activity involving legos. We were to construct a scene from the scriptures with the legos and then guess who was in the scene.

See if you can guess.

1)
2)
3)
4)
How'd you do?

Ready for the answers?

1) Jonah swallowed by a whale. (Tyler)

2) Noah's ark (Micah)

3) King Benjamen on his tower (Malie)

4) Ammon after he cut off the thieves' arms (Kara)

#4 was my personal favorite. So here's an idea if you're in need of one for FHE. It was fun.

What My Kids Do on a Sunday

When my kids are bored on a Sunday, they get real creative with what to do.

Kara loves to sew. She took my scrap pieces of fabric and hand sewed these stuffed animals herself. I thought that that was so cute and awesome that she did that all by herself.


This is how Tyler expresses his creativity sometimes. It was actually kind of funny when he first showed us his creation. I don't remember what he called it.

How creative do your kids get on a Sunday?

Night Time Routine

I recently went back to work. I was a little worried about how the baby was going to do without me. My wonderful husband used his own technique. Almost every night I'm gone (2x's/week), after the baby's been fed and bathed. Randy rocks him back and forth while they watch some sort of U.H. sport on TV.



He looks like he's drifting from this angle.





Apparently, it works every time. It would probably work on me as well, seeing as I don't like to watch sports myself.

2nd Class

We finally had a Court of Honor and Tyler was able to be recognized for achieving the rank of 2nd Class.





Keep it up Tyler!