my last day =(

today was my last day at home. it was a sad realization. i decided that i'd spend it with the family. first, ally, evan, and i went to the beach and had some fun. here are pictures of our adventures...

ally and bubs when they first went into the water.. then getting braver and going past the foam.

playing in the sand. i couldn't go into the water, so i tanned on the rocks and watched them have fun. =)

then i took the family out to dinner. mom decided that she didn't wanna go to dukes but that she wanted to go to the hanamaulu cafe instead. so we went there. it was the "traditional" dinner non-traditionally. =P

the family at the restaurant, with all the many plates of japanese and chinese food. it was a feast! we had beef & tomato, beef & broccoli, chicken oriental salad, mac salad, rice, miso soup, and some other japanese chicken heka (i don't remember what it's called... ask dad).

it's been good to be home, but i'm sad that i'm leaving tomorrow. heavenly father has been kind. =)

fhe lesson

i taught the lesson for fhe . i used pres. eyring's talk (the home teaching lesson for december) about being home for christmas. i shared about how being home for christmas has been so great, but also how we would like to end up in our heavenly home as an eternal family. so now how we can we can create gingerbread "homes". =P plus, i wanted to finish one more thing on my list of things to do while i'm home. so this is how it went.

we created the icing... dad with the egg whites, bubs with the powdered sugar, and ally with the mixing (that's why she's at the sink)... and then we laid out the goodies for our decorations.

then we started creating the framework for the gingerbread house.

after that we started working on the decorations.

here's everyones final products:

bubs wanted to make his special. so he created a balcony with "people" in it. (and you see those flowers in the front? he made that too! =P)

look... now isn't that pretty?? =)

time at home

so since i've been home it's been great to just sit and be with family. today dad had to go back to work, so we just stayed at home and vegged. i found it interesting, however, that everyone had their own "media" to play with. mom was working on her blog on the desktop, ally was on my laptop, i was watching tv and bubs was on the house laptop. even more interestingly funny was evan's inventions because he wanted to watch from the laptop more comfortably.

it's on it's side because it heats up fast and he wanted to make the chairs more comfy.

his okole was coming sore so he adjusted and revised his creation to make it even more comfy.

lol... isn't this SOOOO bubs??

last sunday

today was my last sunday in kekaha ward (and i just realized the last of the year), and it was... interesting. first because we were late (bathroom problems). then ally and dad gave talks today and they were good. but they were both about goal setting... and we had a high council speaker as well. i was gonna go to nt max's young adult class but she wasn't here so we had to stay in the old folks class. nt phyllis miyake taught the lesson, and uncle howard talked to me the ENTIRE time about helicopters, the army, and his old girlfriends. =S in relief society, i felt so out of place... but it was good. the lesson was taught by nt tuzie based on pres. uchtdorf's talk, the love of God. it was a good lesson, and i appreciated it.

but that was basically my sunday. it was kinda weird feeling to be in relief society (last week i was helping mom in primary) and yet it was more weird that i won't be there for another sunday. it's been a long year, and i'm glad that i spent the last sunday of the year here at home. it's been good to be home. =)

yay for christmas!

this morning has been a wonderful morning. we woke up at 8, to see a bunch of presents under the tree!

we washed up, and gathered around the couch to listen to dad read the christmas story from the scriptures.

but finally got to open presents at 9. we opened up cosmo presents first...

i think they liked the byu shirts cosmo got them. =P mom and dad both changed their shirts to the new ones! =P then we did pixie presents. evan went first...and he had mom.

he got mom socks, house slippers, earrings, and left money for lotion and sunglasses. do you notice mom's facing her head to the side. that's because she wanted to show her earrings! lol

ally was next and she had me.

she got me a bunch of makeup, earrings, and hair clips. thanks ally!

i gave my presents to my pixie, dad.

i got dad a pillow, church white shirt, sunglasses, smal comb (to put in his back pocket), mi:III, and socks.

mom went next and gave her presents to ally.

mom got ally sunglasses, a watch, shorts, jeans, and a hoodie.

and dad was left and bubs opened up his pixie gifts.

dad got bubs a tie, darts, dart gun, golf balls, church pants, and jello.

after we opened those, it was the santa gifts. mom was really happy about her wrapping (bubs wrapped it. isn't that sooo bubs??)

finally after all the gifts were opened, we played with all the toys. me and ally were shooting with the dart guns...

...and mom and dad were playing with the air hockey that ally got.

isn't that soooo funny??!! they created the baracades themselves. i dunno who won tho, before it broke. lol... what's christmas without breaking the toys first!?? we also spent some time playing candyland. do you remember that? it was hilarious how boring it was... but it was good for memories.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

happy christmas EVE!

today was pretty much a cruz day. we cleaned the house, and then we hung out until it was time to go to the arashiro's party. it was a good day. across the street, our neighbors (the wongs) have a sign up, i thought it was cute:

at the arashiro's we had ono food. there was the usual... kalua, lomi salmon, mac salad, pork-peas-pimento, chicken, shrimp, poi, and lots and lots of desserts. just look how ono it looks!

here's a picture of mom, dad, and bubs during the dinner. dad was having a little of his spasms but he was enjoying the ono food. i'm glad he was able to make it to the arashiros tho.

then, when i was pau eating i saw that imai, jessica, and baby waianuhea came. so i stole her away, and was playing with her for the rest of the night until they left. it was sooooo cute! she's such a happy baby, and she loves to dance. keali'i was playing a song on his cell and she started dancing along. it was ADORABLE. but here's a picture of us.

(now even though i look fat and white in this picture, look at how cute SHE looks! isn't she sooo cute! just look at that smile!)

anyway... MERRY CHRISTMAS (eve) everybody! hope it's a happy one!

cinnamon rolls

when i came home i made a list of things that i wanted to do with the family. one of those things was making cinnamon rolls. here are some pictures of this "adventure."

mom and ally preping the cinnamon rolls.

after the cinnamon rolls came out of the oven, mom was spreading some icing all over the cinnamon rolls.

the final product. it was cooking for a little longer than it should've but it was still super ono. one down, a couple more to go! =)

busy day

today was a very FULL day! this morning... ally, evan, and i left for lihue to do/finish up our pixie shopping. i drove there and back... and on the way home from lihue i had ally take picture of the mountain... isn't it so pretty?? =)

when we came home bubs and i went to the beach (inters). it was great! he went boogie boarding and he was so proud that he rode one wave all the way out to the rocks. here's inters (there really is no beach), him modelling his boogie board, and both of us.

after we both were pau bocha, we were ready to watch the bowl game (or at least i was). i watched it with dad, and he was getting into it!! =P can i just say that i love dad is such a byu sports fan! it's so much fun... and look! he's even wearing a byu shirt! =) these are pictures of him cheering, punching his fists, and texting the utah family because he was so excited about the score (notice the cell in his hands). as a side note, i was very impressed with the way the defense was playing... too bad they didn't play like that all season! but it's ok, we still won! =P

we believe

tonight was the premiere showing of "we believe" (kekaha ward made a video of their testimonies thru song, scripture, and talking). it was really good. it was a documentary but i think i enjoyed it because it was of people i knew. they even had their own poster:

when you walked in, guess who was playing the "prelude" music?

yup that was john, uncle kunane, and one of nt wendi's friends, abe. i was pleasantly surprised that there were so many people... it was a full house!