Our Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve we spent majority of our day baking goodies to give away to Family up here and ended our evening in a nice chill mode at home with Family, cooking a nice dinner and watching movies!

Oh, Christmas Tree.

My FAVORITE Present = My FAVORITE Person :)

Goodies we made to give to everyone;
Peanut Butter Cookies prepped 3 diff ways,
& Chocolate covered Pretzels prepped 3 diff ways!

Christmas morning we woke up early, got Rush in "Happy Girl Mode" because she is SO NOT a morning person, and had her open presents! At first she just looked at all the wrapped presents we put in front of her and she didn't even touch them. So we started to rip one open and told her to finish opening it but instead she said "Uh-Oh" and tried to cover the part we ripped, back up! Lol It took her awhile to realize she could FINALLY open up all her presents! (She got so use to all those days of just looking at the presents sitting under the tree because we strictly told her not to touch, haha! So Obedient:)

After we opened all our presents, we made breakfast which consisted of: Belgium Waffles topped with Ice Cream. Strawberries, and Whipped Cream, with a side of Link Sausages. Super YUM! Growing up our Kalama side had the tradition of Special Occasions = Special Breakfast which was the Waffles and all the fixings! So I decided to continue that tradition with MY little family! For the record, Rush LOVED it! I mean, what kid wouldn't Love Ice Cream for breakfast?!

Ms. Hello Pretty Kitty opening her presents!

Our bomb breakfast!

 After breakfast, we went to Sacrament then headed up to the Johnson's hale for the rest of the day/night! It was such a lovely day spent with wonderful people!!

The Lovely Johnson's.

I hope you ALL had a wonderful Christmas filled with wonderful memories you can cherish forever! We are SO grateful for all we have and the opportunity we had to spend such a special day with people we LOVE! Jesus is DEFINITELY the Reason for THIS Season <3

Christmas Fun!

Last Saturday we took Rush to North Gate Mall where they had a bunch of activities for their Kid's Club! North Gate & Tacoma are the ONLY malls near us that have a Kid's Club. It was so awesome because right when we got there, Rush got a Goodie Bag full of stuff plus a list of places Kids can get discounts at around the Mall! There was also breakfast for the kids and their families (ALL you can eat California Pizza & Cinnabon with unlimited Capri Sun & Bottled Water) while Santa got ready to come out. When Santa was finally ready, he dedicated the Play area that was recently built. Rush had so much fun playing with the other kids! Then they did activities like make Reindeer food to leave on our front lawn so Santa knows where to stop lol, Write a letter to Santa, and even make a Santa Clause Christmas Tree Ornament. Overall, it was super fun and I think EVERY Mall should have a Kid's Club! 

Bomb Breakfast! Haha

Mr. Clause

Rush and Cousin Kamea playing in the newly dedicated Play Area!

Rushy on a Boat!

Her silly smile!

Reindeer Food Instructions

Daddy taking RushRush through the Reindeer food line.

Rush's Reindeer Food!

Rush's Letter to Santa!

Rush's Santa Ornament!

Rush's Creations!

The cutest pic we got of her in her FULL outfit.

The ONLY way Rush will go down a slide.
No matter how small the slide is, haha!

Finally accepting...

So since we've been here in Washington, I've liked living here! Missing home (of course!) but liking the Independence and living on our own. Although its been 2 and half years living here, I am FINALLY accepting that [this] is our home now. Our real home will always and forever be Hawaii, but this is our current home.

Its been 2 years exactly since we've moved into our 1st little apartment that we still currently live in and from the moment we moved in here, I told myself "this is only temporary." I never saw us living here that long as I've always dreamed/wanted to get our own house! Not necessarily to OWN but just to be in our Own Home. Again, I have Finally come to accept that we DON'T need our own house yet! What we have here is absolutely perfect! Our room is big enough for our Family of 4 and our living room is big enough for 4-6 more people to stay with us or even live in! No joke! haha. Yes, we only have a 1 bedroom BUT it's a VERY spacious 1 bedroom apartment!

So I'm happy to say that I've finally accepted life here. When people would ask us how long we plan on being here in Washington we'd say, "not very long, couple years tops!" But being here for these couple years really opened our (my) eyes to life here on the mainland and life being independent. So the next time someone asks me how long we see ourselves living here, I'll say, "However long we're meant to live here."

-Home is wherever I'm with my Loves. :)

Happy Thursday!

is when: what you think, what you say, and what you do are in Harmony.

-Gandhi

Thanksgiving Update.

I wanted to talk about what we did on the "Official" Day of Thanks. I believe EVERYDAY should be a day of giving Thanks! The Lord blesses us in soooo many ways, each and every day, some blessings BIGGER than others; but ALL are blessings none the less. I recently heard a quote saying, "If the Lord blessed you with ONLY what you THANKED him for Yesterday, what would that leave you with Today?" (Something along those lines) I heard it in relief society a little while ago and it stuck with me everyday since then! I mean, when I prayed at night, I of course Thanked Heavenly Father for everything we have and have been blessed with but it got me thinking, thinking about specifics! SO many things in our everyday lives that we take for granted. I've been focusing more on the little things, the things that matter most & less on the unimportant, unnecessary things in life:)

So for Thanksgiving, we went over to Lincoln's cousin's house. He had other family that also drove up from Utah to spend Thanksgiving with all of us as well. It was so fun! It was nice to spend quality time with Loved ones while we stuffed our faces [multiple] times that day. Haha! It was mainly nice to create new memories that we can cherish forever.

Our menu consisted of:

Pupu - Aunty Iris's Crab Dip with Ritz Crackers.

Main Course(s) - Rice, Turkey, Ham, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Homemade Stuffing, Candied Yams, Green Bean Casserole, Lupulu, Macaroni Salad, Homemade Buttered Rolls.

Desserts - Pumpkin Crunch, Panipopo, Papa 'Ole's Bread Pudding, Custard Pie, & Homemade Chocolate Haupia Pie.

OBVIOUSLY there was so much food that I couldn't keep count and forgot to take pics of some of them. I may even have forgotten some of the food we had, this was just what I remembered off the top of my head! LOL Yes, we had a very filling day!!

After we ate we played games and watched Football. Again, it was such a nice, relaxing, day spent with LOVED Ones. :) Hope you all had a Wonderful Thanksgiving as well!

(One of the games was putting together a Puzzle, timed!)

(Aunty Sheila & Makoa)

(Rush and Cousin Kamea
playing pin the Tail on the Donkey)

Rush and one her namesakes, Aunty Sheila.
(Aunty was playing the ukulele and Rush was dancing with the stroller lol)

Beautiful Sunday, Beautiful Sabbath.

Today I am grateful for the Beautiful Sunshine. Fall truly has been so good to us this year! We've seen so many sun-filled days that it doesn't even feel like November! The beautiful colors of nature remind me of how truly blessed we are! So grateful for the little things in life. I am also grateful for the Wonderful messages I heard today in church, as well as every Sunday! Love feeling Spiritually fed every Sabbath:) Grateful for the Gospel and the comfort it gives my soul. Grateful for being SO Blessed<3

Sweet Teeth 2011

Rush's Hello Kitty Pumpkin

Halloween Cookies made from
the left over Pumpkin meat:)

Rushy's Cookies;
Pumpkin, Ghost, Witch & Cat!

Rush with her Notoa & Ka'io cousins :)

Ready to Trick-Or-Treat!

Couple hours later I started Driving while daddy
ran up and collected the Candy for Rush! lol
(Sorry Bout IT, it was freeeezing!)

Daddy & RushRush

BIG Smiles from the Pink Kitty

All Pau Trick-Or-Treating;
Time to pig out on Sweets! ;)

~ THE END ~

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we got to go to one of the Pumpkin Patches near our home.
It was soooo much FUN! We met up with Family and enjoyed watching the little ones run through the Big Pumpkin Patch to pick their Pumpkins!

Just one Year ago we went to our FIRST Pumpkin Patch ever but Rush was too little to walk around. It's crazy how BIG she's gotten in just ONE Year!! She was SO happy she got to run around with all her cousins and be a Big Girl picking her own Pumpkin in the patch. She. Had. A. BLAST!

Here are just some of the pics of our Family that we got to take there :)
The rest of the pics I'll put on an album on my Facebook.

It was also my cousin Tania's FIRST time to a Pumpkin Patch! She's here visiting us for a few weeks so it's also here First time to Washington State. It's so nice to have company for me and Rush while Lincoln goes to work through out the day! We're so glad we were able to take Nia with us so she could experience something Fun on her second day here. :)))