Happy Holidays

I was gonna send a Holiday card that listed the top five of our 2011... but right when I was gona check out I saw the price was 2.50 a card haa haa so Im gonna blog it :)

1- Athena started Kindergarten and loves it

2- Achilles hits the terrible 2's and kills us but is very entertaining with his dance moves :)

3- Sister Katie Ika got her mission call to Micronesia Guam and is adjusting quite well

4- Last year in student housing! Made so many amazing friends and loved all that came with it such as the free workouts and the free Institute classes

5- 5 years of marriage down.. the growth has been enlightning with a better knowledge of the bigger picture :)

Sad times too :( RIL Janelle....

Heres to 2012.... something I read Last night

Your reputation is what others think of you and your Character is YOU!

Heres to a growing yet optimistic priming of my character;)

Happy holidays please be safe and stay warm, I have korean blankets if u need one LOL

Think to Thank

With Thanksgiving 2moro I see so many grateful people expressing what they are thankful for :)

There are so many things Im grateful for but at this particular time I can say Im truly thankful for a Grateful heart... so I can remember to not always want more but to be happy and loved with what I have!

Pinterest! LOVE

Im obssessed with this site...

pretty.... wana make one soon :)

Hunger Games!

Cant wait for this movie and feel a lot better about the end seeing who they casted for Peetah woo saaa ;)

Organization is what I need with my makeup! this is cool

Oh man my kids would love this but who wouldnt? that would wake me right up in the morn lol

Want this to be my next read! Love wearing Toms not only for the comfort but because they donate a pair for everyone you buy, we bought ours in memory of Janelle

Want this magnetic polish for my next nail adventure with the girls..

oh yay a cute healthy snack, strawberries in greek yogurt frozen yummmm

aw the reminder to think of others

gosh I wish I had her hair ....... and her face lol

aw the things we gripe about sometimes lol

me for all my sisters, LOL

we seriously did this! it was so fun wish we had our pics... we also piled up with our heads poking out.. oh how I had such an awesome childhood

shouldve done this for breast cancer awareness, next time!

totally turning my fridge into a chalkboard ;)

birthdays

October is over but I wanted to bring up all the birthdays in my family that fall in October.. what a busy month, most importantly my Grandma Kalolaine Vaka Mapa... she turned 88 this year and is still kickin :) something I admire about her is her dedication to the Gospel... she has served so many missions and has been by herself for awhile since my grandfather passed away about 21 years ago.  She was very good at geneology work and always showed us her map of our family history going all the way back to adam and eve... pretty cool :)

October

This month has been an emotional roller coaster aaaaaaaahhh dont like those rides too much.. reminds me of how human I am lol I have this picture of how I want things to be then the practice part comes into play and I wonder if I should short change my goals... being at home with my kids gives me so much time to think, changes this month have been really hard and we have been trying to get over the slump.  I cant seem to keep the sad stuff outta my thoughts but we are working on it everyday... I guess I jus needed to vent it out.  You know what they say when ur feeling down, count ur blessings :)

Things I am grateful for

A hard working ambitious husband who has come so far with me in spiritual and physical strengthening, Im glad hes here with me on this journey

A beautiful obedient daughter who pushes herself to learn more and more! I have to check on her every night to make sure she sleeping and not reading or doing her math work book lol Kindergarten is far more intense then from what I remember lol

A naughty but oh so cute lil boy whos my bff cuz he literally wont leave me alone ;)

I am the Faith in God leader in my Liberty 3rd ward and enjoy it so much, these girls are so fun and push me to be consistent and alive lol

My testimony of the plan of salvation, I find comfort in knowing I can be with my family for eternity and that all that we do here on earth is priming us for the day when our time on earth is done :)

blog stalker ;)

as I was checking out other blogs, (have u noticed many new blog hoppers? :)) I saw this post

"I find the whole concept of being ‘sexy’ embarrassing and confusing. If I do an interview with photographs people desperately want to change me-- dye my hair blonder, pluck my eyebrows, give me a fringe. Then there’s the choice of clothes. I know everyone wants a picture of me in a mini-skirt. But that’s not me. I feel uncomfortable. I’d never go out in a mini-skirt. It’s nothing to do with protecting the Hermione image. I wouldn’t do that. Personally, I don’t actually think it’s even that sexy. What’s sexy about saying, ‘I’m here with my boobs out and a short skirt, have a look at everything I’ve got?’ My idea of sexy is that less is more. The less you reveal the more people can wonder." --Emma Watson.

Maybe they should pass the memo to the Disney channel lol I like that, kids dont really understand this concept until someone famous makes it cool... I love Harry Potter books:)

A Little Heaven on Earth

a popular proverb says “Thee lift me and I’ll lift thee, and we will ascend together.”

I got this from an article in the Ensign...  Everyday is a work in progress to achieve a little heaven on earth, with busy busy schedules and a funeral on top of it this week my husband and I have counted our blessings and have pulled more than usual towards spiritual guidance for ourselves and others in our humble abode ;)  A scenario this article puts into my mind is that having a Celestial Marriage is like climbing a mountain and binding yourself with your eternal companion as you climb together and when you have children you tie them along with you for the ride, it puts into perspective our responsibility to live a consecrated life not only to bless our posterity but to make our journeys here on earth together a harmonious(awesome) one! :) I love my life.  May my sweet loving sister in law Janelle Lula Tongaonevai rest in peace and send some love and comfort to her eternal love while he gathers his faith in the lord to endure his stay here on earth, till they meet again! our heavenly father has an eternal plan we can't understand many times but I hope hes comforted in knowing he took her to the temple and that their marriage is eternal... ofa lahi atu

 Famili Ke Ta'engata

Ending of Summer 2011

My sister has been gone for a couple weeks now and has finally set off to Guam she is located in Saipan right now which is about a 45 min airplane ride from Guam and learning Chuukese :) shes excited to get to work! we miss her so much but theres something about the gospel thats so beautiful that I cant help but be so proud and happy :)

Athena is playing the piano now, we found an awesome music student that lives in the building next door :) and she starts Kindergarten this Fall.

My brother in law that just moved in with us will be a Jr this year and playing Football for Highland :)

as you can  see we took new family pictures!!! Our good family friend Latu flew in from California on the weekend we had Katies farewell and we all met up downtown at the Temple :)

 

We just had a Mataele/Ika family reunion, green rocks



Sister Ika

My little sister has been called to Micronesia Guam, seems like it all happened so fast because as soon as she left I have really missed her. I am so happy that she has chosen to give the lord 18 months to help spread the gospel!  I know she has a strong testimony and has gone through much adversity to get to the mission field, Im so glad she has made good decisions in her life and pray this will help bless my brothers to come back to church strong.  I am so grateful for the restoration of the gospel and the atonement that ensures our salvation if we live according to our savior... I am so blessed to have parents that never took breaks on gospel teachings in our home.  Ofa Atu Sister Ika

my lil ace

My daughter jus turned the big 5 and is so ready for kindergarten, please excuse the bragging because this is for her to read one day ;) she graduated from upstart which is a software that was provided by the Waterford Institute and was free :) she learned math reading and science and has already started to attempt reading books.  She practices soccer and softball with her dad a couple times a week and loves to workout hard with him and Hunter, she loves to learn her articles of faith and just passed number 6 off.  She loves to work on crossword puzzles and draw pictures to hang on her wall.  She always wants me to buy her new math workbooks and cross word puzzles because she goes through them really fast.  This year we went swimming as a little family and watched movies after, she asked for a plant and gummy bears lol.. Her dads sisters brought her tons of gummy bears and chocolate, uncle william aka fish bate hooked her up with some money, birthday song from auntie Ana and Adrian in Oakland, and many texts and birthday shout outs via text and facebook :)
She will start Kindergarten this fall and totally wants to take the bus to school... I told her I can come eat breakfast with her before school and she told me that its pretty much for the kids so I shouldnt lol wow life goes so fast ya know?

Happy Fathers Day

I'm a day late... fathers are such a blessing to have, I think about how much harder it wouldve been to not have my father around because my husband lost his dad at the young age of 3... hes naturally a fatherly figure to my kids and sometimes a mother lol he puts so much love and effort into his kids that he makes being a family a lot easier.  Im sure his father is so proud!  My Dad is tight because he conquers everything in his path and more, he picks up new talents by the week lol and sharpens them so that he can become an expert.. he shares his talents and loves to help, after all he is a teacher :)

I've had a hard life, but my hardships are nothing against the hardships that my father went through in order to get me to where I started.- Bartrand Hubbard

We are simply blessed

I laugh when my husband says it the best day of my life ha ha but it really has been one of the many happy times.  6 yrs ago we got married but 5 years ago we were sealed, Im so grateful but especially humbled to see where we have come in this time together.  Love is something that everyone seems to have different definitions of.  Bell Hooks writes in her book about how SELF LOVE is the foundation of our loving practice, without it our other efforts to love fail.  Giving ourselves love we provide our inner being with the opportunity to have the unconditional love we may have always longed to receive from someone else. This is a nice awakining that has seem to go wrong in modern society, to fall victim is to never experience true happiness and through gospel principals and knowing my family can be forever through righteous actions, I have come to Love with faith because I have felt and still feel my saviors love and therefore have been tremendously blessed with my Love.  Bell Hooks inspired me to use Love more as an action than a saying, one of her quotes that inspires me and makes me smile

"Living simply makes loving simple."