New Year's Eve!!

We are about to roll in 2018!  Another year down and our family is happy and healthy.  We have been so blessed this year. 

Today church was cancelled due to cold weather.  The temperature was suppose to be pretty cold!  It dipped clear into the negative 20s!!  We enjoyed the day and home and were very happy not to have to leave our warm home. 

I made some Pani Popo with some hot chocolate and we enjoyed the night.  Oh, and I made some cinnamon rolls for Tyler because he doesn't like Pani Popo. 

Here's to a wonderful 2018!!

Happy Birthday Makai

Makai turned 8!  He is excited to be 8.  Makai weighs about 100lbs and loves food.  We are working on having a healthy relationship with food, but the boy just loves food.  For his birthday he wanted a lemon cake like what Kory had, but I just didn't have time after work to make him one, so he got a cake from Costco.  It was so rich we ended up having to throw some of it away, but it was good.  Makai is a typical boy and loves all things BOY.  He loves Lego's and star wars.  The day after his birthday we took everyone out of school early and went to see the new Star Wars Movie.  He got Legos for his birthday and a Nerf gun.  He was happy as can be.

Basketball for Kory and Trey!

Once football ended for Tyler and Kyle basketball started for Kory and Trey!  It was the first time either of them had played on a team and we learned a lot about both of them. 

Trey's season started first.  He plays on a team with three other boys from our ward which was nice. He learned a lot about himself.  His first game he was ready to go out and rock the game, but within a few minutes he had traveled and gotten a foul called on him and he kinda froze.  As  a mom it was so hard to watch.  I saw the fun zapped right out of the game.  He was holding back tears.  They lost their first game and at the end he lost it.  Tears streamed down his face.  My heart broke.  He also didn't score any points which didn't help. 

The second game Trey could hardly even play!  He spent the game biting his nails. His nerves just got to him.  But he did make a free throw which was a plus. 

Came to dad for a pep talk!

Game three the team won!!  The smiles were huge!!

 

Jacob, Trey, Ethan and Scott

Makai was excited for his brother!!  

It was the only game they won all season!  Trey struggled with some anxiety, but learned and grew from the experience.  He is excited to play again this winter.  He did reach his goal of making 20 points during the season.

Kory started play basketball for the first time this year.  He made the C team which was good because all his games were home games and he played with a lot of his friends.  

Low five!  Kory enjoyed his team-mates and even the other team-mates.  Often after the game everyone would just laugh and talk about everyone's good plays.  It was a good experience for him.  

Kory had fun on the court.  They won most of their games and got second place in the final tournament.  It was great to see them learn from game to game.  Kory had a few amazing shots.  

Trey was excited after Kory's first win!!

Thanksgiving!

We had a fun Thanksgiving this year. All the Salanoa side came!  Minus Helene and Tini.  They were going to come, but last minute had to cancel.  However, everyone else made it.  We were worried out house would be too small, but it all worked out.  Tj, Dora, Yaya, and Adonis came in November 18th late in the evening.  James, Cindy, Emjae, Julie and Samuel came in the 19th in the afternoon.  And mom and Lu came in on the 26th at about 3 in the morning.  Monty had finals that week and the kids and I had school so the real vacation didn't begin till after school on the 20th, but we had a good time.  We did a lot of eating and played a lot of scrabble and Monopoly Go.

Cousins were happy to be together again

Adults were happy to be fed

And Samuel was happy to have a cozy aunty to sleep on.  It was so sweet to watch him just crawl into her lap and within a matter of minutes he was out!

I now know where the boys get their good looks and need to pose

For Thanksgiving we decided to go to the zoo.  We had planned to go to the zoo because we were going to wait to have dinner then Helene and Tini came, and didn't want to change plans.  It proved to be a great day to go to the zoo.  It was practically empty!

It was the first time Yaya had been to a zoo!

TJ enjoying the pengins!

Trey enjoying the aquarium. 

Makai resting with the gorilla

Later resting with our gorilla

Kids are go cute when they are sleeping

We also ate a lot.  Twice we ate out.  I've not sure how the restaurants felt when they saw us all walk in.

Nana and Lu with all the grandkids

Saturday we had our Thanksgiving.  It was perfect. 

Thankgiving 2017.  Thanks for coming everyone.

No one left hungry.

We also went to the botanical gardens one day and took everyone to the Trail Center at winter quarters and looked at all the gingerbreads for the holidays as well. 

Sweet moment!

Samuel saying he didn't want to leave

Till next time!

Fun time was had by all.

TJ and his family left a day after everyone else so we took them to the one other fun thing to do in Omaha in the winter.  The ferris wheel in a Scheels.  A first for Yaya again.   

We got everyone get on.  We may or may not have broken it, but they had to call someone over to look at it after we all rode it. ???  

Memorable events from the trip:  James really wanted Sushi, but Cindy doesn't like it so we never got any.  The night they left we went to get Sushi, but it wasn't good so James got the final laugh.  

TJ was on some diet during the trip so he wouldn't eat bread, but he would eat 2 honey buns every night.  That was kinda funny.  Noble effort.  He did go to the gym a few times during the trip which was more than any of the rest of us went.  

Cindy brought a SCRABBLE bible.  That girl is serious about her scrabble and she usually always wins too.  

James and Monty both left the football game on Thanksgiving with limps.  But the Turkey bowl was loads of fun so they would both do it again.  

We never went to bed before 2am at least. 

Lu wore his headphones the entire trip!  Not sure what he listens to, but he listens to it all the time!

A very memorable Thanksgiving!  

Maui-- I mean Makai

Our friends daughter had a Moana party.  She is a sweet girl who was born without a brain.  Each birthday they throw her a big party because they don't know if it will be her last.  This year she turned 12.  Her mom asked Makai to be Maui at the party!  He loved it.

Family From Australia and New Zealand

We were excited to meet some of Monty's family from New Zealand and Australia.  They came to the United States for about a month and have officially seen more of our country than we have with this one trip.  They drove so much and on one of their drives  they were going to drive right through Omaha.  We were excited to meet them and learn more about life where they are from.  Nana's sister Trina lives in Austraila and looks so much like Nana that we all had to take a second look. Kory has a teacher at school who didn't believe he had family from New Zealand.  ????  Well, here is the picture to prove it.

Thanks for stopping by for dinner!  We loved meeting you.

Fall =FOOTBALL!!

Tyler and Kyle spend a lot of time at football practice!  We usually have a game three times a week because Kyle has is Freshman game and Tyler has his Varsity and JR Varsity games.  This year we were lucky because the weather was pretty good for most of the season.  We were only rained out of one game that I can remember.  We practically had to swim back to the car, but it was a fun adventure.  Kyle made the B team at the beginning of the season, but worked hard and by the end was on the A team.  He works so hard in football and puts all his heart and soul into the game.  He had a few plays that were rather powerful and left me the audience speechless.  One game he even hit a kid so hard they postponed the game for about a half hour while the ambulance was called to take the kid to the hospital.  Kyle felt really bad, but the kid was totally fine.  We watched the play several times on Hudl and it was a clean hit!

I love to see him on the field!  He is happy on the field.

Notice his double knee braces.  

In one game Kyle overextended his Knee.  It took several weeks for it to heal.  He wanted to go back on the field after he was first hit, but the trainers wouldn't let him.  The next day he was on crutches.  It's hard for him to sit out, but he did while his knee healed.  He now has knee braces in hopes it will not happen again.  This is the part of the game I hate, but he loves it, so we let him play.  I believe the A team went undefeated!!  And Kyle won Special Teams player of the year!

Tyler worked hard this year. The varsity team went undefeated as well this year, but lost in the semi-finals.  He worked his way up to a pretty good position on varsity for the first playoff games, but then fell during the first quarter and dislocated his elbow.  He was a trooper and handled the pain like a beast, but this knocked him out for the rest of the season. 

Makai was suppose to color this at church on Sunday.  We all decided it looked like Tyler with his dislocated elbow!  Haha.  

Priceless Moments!  Trey helping Tyler do something he couldn't do on his own.  Thanks Trey.

Tyler and Kyle at their Football banquet.

Kory is a TEENAGER!!!

It's official!  We have three Teenagers!  At 13, Kory is taller than me by at least an inch.  He loves to draw and does an amazing job!  He likes to draw basketball players and will spend hours and days drawing the same picture to get it just right.  We are always impressed with what he does with a pencil.  He also loves to play basketball, play basketball video games and SLEEP.  He sleeps a lot these day!  He often falls to sleep after school and is hard to get up in the morning.  Unless, he is waking up to play basketball.  If he is waking up to play basketball he gets up just fine.

Kory picked his own gifts this year.  He wanted a lot of rapper gear.  I didn't let him get a chain or a Tupac shirt, but he did get a Chance the rapper hat and Conner McGregger shirt and a Lecrae shirt.  He's into rap.  I'm not so much, but I have to let him be himself--to an extent! 

For his birthday he wanted chicken fried steak for dinner with a lemon meringue cake for dessert.

This cake may have been the best cake I've ever eaten!  It did not disappoint!

An art project Kory made in art this year.  His theme was cartoon and he even had CLOUD MAN(bottom right)--a cartoon he created and writes stories about.  He's pretty funny and shoots lightening out of his behind!  That makes all the boys laugh.

   

SHHHHHH!!!

Kyle noticed this sign when we dropped the boys off to go on a scout campout!  So funny.  We are all human.  WE are really curious how long it has been there!

Why Boys Need Moms

How we love this boys!  We often say his is a HOT MESS because he is.  He is ALWAYS late getting ready.  He'd rather read a book on his floor, stay in the shower for 20 minutes(and then go back to sleep), play with a lego...anything other then get dressed.  However, we manage to get him out of the house everyday--with some help!! 

He had no idea why I wanted to take his picture.  So sweet!!  

Happy Sabbath!! 

Funnel Cakes

Kory had a funnel cake a school this year and really wanted to make some at home.  I'd never made them before, but it was actually a lot of fun to make them with him and I will say they were delicious. 

Thanks for the fun idea Kory!!