TEAM TAUKEI'AHO

ALOHA

2011-08-01T11:32:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to be here in 2 days. Maui....here we come. I'm so excited to spend time with my great friends. I will for sure miss my hunny, and my kids, but I think they will be OK.

Maui

2011-04-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

Fred and Sisi had the opportunity to go to Maui with a group of our friends. They obviously had a great time, I mean who couldn't have a good time in Maui. Sisi hadn't been to Maui since she was 1 1/2 so she really had a good time visiting cousins, grandparents, living at the beach for a week, and came back with a nice tan to show for it:)

Notice Fred and his sprite and pepto... I don't think he was feeling to great. Also notice Mike sitting next to him...the guy that has lived in Ephraim his whole life. He hates being away from home, and obviously still dressed like he was still in Ephraim. lol

Tyler's Baptism and Emmie's Sealing

2011-04-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

This was an amazing day, words can't express the feelings felt this day. In December we were able to have Emmie sealed to us as well as Tyler baptized. Our original plan was to have Emmie sealed on a Friday, and Tyler baptized the following day on a Saturday with the the Stake baptism's. Well the week before we found out that because Tyler was 8 years old, he had to be baptized before going into the temple to view the sealing. So Tyler ended up having his own personal program and baptism on a Friday morning, and right after his baptism we went to the Temple to have Emmie sealed to our family. It was such a special experience taking our kids into the temple. We took them to the kid's room, where they stayed 4 of the sweetest old ladies. They let the kids pick out their white cloths, and then played in the play room til we were ready to have them come into the sealing room. We had an all white sealing, so they were able to go through the celestial room to come meet us. Words cannot express what it was like to see all 4 of my kids walk into the sealing room and the look on their faces in amazement as they tried to take it all in. What a great experience that was for all my kids, especially Tyler to be able to be baptized and then enter the Temple all in the same day. I hope that they will always remember that day and the feelings they had. I know that I will always keep that day close to my heart and remember how grateful I am for our heavenly fathers plan for us and our children. I have peace in my heart knowing that Emmie is sealed to us and will forever be a part of our family. I'm also very proud of Tyler and the choice he made to be baptized.

HULA

2011-04-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

Back in August Sisi joined Guava Jelly Hula Studio's ran by Maria Fano. She absoltely loves it and if I say so myself does a pretty good job. She has performed a lot of Solo's around town at catering's, Luau's, High School assemblies, and much more. There group just performed for there first time together at the Snow College Luau and they were all so cute and did a great job. Here are a few pictures of her dancing.

SO MUCH TO CATCH UP ON.

2011-04-02T11:35:00.000-07:00

So much to catch up on, so I guess I'll start with Emmie. Wow...this past year has been a crazy one for sure. We have been through so many up's and down's. Adopting a baby has been quit the experience to say the least. We are so grateful for Tieni (Fred's sister) for the decision she made for us to adopt Emmie. I know that since giving birth she has struggled with her decision, but we hope that over time she will find comfort and peace in her life. Emmie is such a huge part of our family and I can't imagine life with out her. She loves her brothers and sisters and they give her attention non stop. I can't believe she is almost 1! I wish I could slow things down a little so she will stay a baby for a little longer. I'm 110% sure that this will be our last baby, which makes me really sad...I think:) Emmie has been such a good baby, she is very easy going. And I wish I could take credit for her being so cute, but Fred says that will have to come from him:) Here are some pictures of Emmie over the last 10 1/2 months. 6 Days Old

Pictures taken by oopsydaisy photography

Emmie 3 weeks old.

6 weeks old @ Lake Powell Lake Powell--Tyler 7, Max 2, Sisi 5, Emmie 6 weeks.

Emmie 8 weeks @ the 4th of July celebration.

Emmie 3 months

Emmie 4 months

4 months

Emmie 6 months

6 months

Emmie 7 months

Bath time @ 7 months:)

Emmie 10 months

Emmie 10 months...is she not the cutest thing ever:)

Emmie's first time seeing grandma since she was born...Emmie loved her!

Emmie today....10 1/2 months old

We love you Emmie lou!

First Broken Bone

2010-11-18T19:28:00.001-08:00

Well this is the first broken bone in the family. We've had lots of stitches, but no broken bones so far. Tyler called me from school, he was crying and said his shoulder hurt. I asked him what happened and he said he was running out to recess, tripped and fell. I new he was probably really hurt, cause Tyler hates being hurt and will try not to act hurt even when he is. When I got to the school he came walking out to the car with his arm hanging. I asked him if he was sure he was hurt, or if he wanted to try and stay to school. He started to cry and said he was sure it was hurt. When we got home Fred tried to take off his shirt and right then we new he was hurt. We couldn't get his shirt of so I looked inside the shirt and this is what I saw. So we went to the doctor, got an x-ray and sure enough he broke his collar bone pretty good. He will be in a brace for 6 weeks as long as its healing the way it should be. A week later he is still in pain whenever he moves or touches his arm.
However I was really shocked when he was telling me he just tripped and fell, so that day I kept asking him exactly what happened, who was with him or by him. He said no one was by him and that he really did trip and fall. Yesterday someone asked him how he broke his collar bone, and he told them that a kid tripped him at recess and he fell on his shoulder. I asked him why he lied and he said that he didn't want to the kid to get in trouble. I guess the kid took Tyler into the school after it happened and told the teacher that he accidentally tripped him and didn't mean to hurt him. Tyler was not about to tell on that kid. I thought it was nice of him to not want the kid to get into trouble...but he still lied, so he was grounded today. He didn't like that, but we had to go over why it's not good to lie especially as his baptism is approaching. I hate that he's at that age where he can actually lie without me knowing, that means he's growing up and that makes me sad.
We have to go back every 2 weeks to make sure it's healing right, so hopefully he can be recovered by Christmas.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-07T15:50:00.000-08:00

Halloween is so much fun, but also a lot of work if you ask me. Manti shuts down main street every year so everyone can trunk or treat on main street. So we all back up our cars up towards the sidewalk and watch thousands of adults, and kids walk by our car for a couple of hours. We served free hot chocolate at Fred's Sports Grill this year and the city also served free hot chocolate.

Sisi the witch, and Emmie the black cat.

Max wanted to be scary, but like always wanted to be a football player too....so we did both.

Trunk or treating on Main Street.

The school celebrated Halloween on Friday at school and Tyler wanted to be a scary football player, then the city celebrated it on Sat. so he decided to change and be Troy Polamalu.

School parade

Carving pumkins

Accepting the change

2010-11-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

So last year Fred and I forgot our wedding anniversary and 3 weeks later realized we got married sometime around this time of year. So I called my OCD Sister Emily who remembers every date in the world sister to find out when I got married. So even after forgetting our anniversary, even when I did remember I still didn't remember the day we got married. So seeing that I have set my phone to remind me every few days that I have a wedding anniversary coming up I've been thinking a lot about how my life has changed in 9 years.
When I got married I was a neat freak, and I was determined to stay that way even after having kids. I was not about to have a bouncing chaotic house, with toys and bumbos consuming my living room, or sticky stained floors. I think there was even a point that I thought I would never dishes in my cupboard that didn't match. I liked a clean house, perfect decorations, my bed made everyday just because it looked nice, I showered daily, and the list goes on. But then we brought our first child home and things started to change. I have to admit it took me a while to accept the change and the more kids we had the more it changed. I would change Tyler's cloths every time he drooled or spit up on his cloths. I would walk around the house trying to keep things perfectly organized. I hated bottles sitting on the counter, I liked them in the cupboard. Then I realized that if I was freaking out at every bottle sitting on the counter, or bumbo sitting in the middle of the living room floor, that I wouldn't enjoy mother hood. So as I sit here now we have 5 4 kids (I almost counted Fred as a kid:)my house is filled with chaos, bumbos, toys, bottles on the counter, in fact I think I have more bottles and sippy cups than I do regular cups:) and many stained, sticky floors. These are the days I look around and wonder will my house ever stay clean for more than 24 10 hours, will it ever be fully decorated the way I wished it would be... And I say yes... it will. This is just a season of my life. What will I remember about my kids when they are grown? Will I remember clean counter tops, or always being stressed about the the piles of laundry? Or better yet what will my kids remember most about me? That I was a good housekeeper, or always running around telling them to pick up after themselves, or how they have freshly washed sheets every week. Or will they remember me on the floor wrestling with them, or playing Mr. Potato head?
I have to admit that I do have my days where I'm pulling my hair out and yelling at everyone that I'm sick of the mess and tired of picking up after everyone...but then when my 2 year old looks at me and says "WHY MOM" it reminds me that it's not about the clean house, or about perfect decorations. I really do love having a clean, organized house! However, having small ~~crazy~~ sweet children has forced me to be creative, to de clutter, and I've definitely become more patient with my messes. I wake up some days saying that I'm not going to clean again and then a few hours later I get sick of the mess and go on a cleaning frenzy, but I also have those days where I just leave it the way it is.
I've been through the change, and realize that things just aren't as important to me as they were 9 years ago. I'm thankful for the change! :) I'm thankful for bouncing kids, and bumbos! Did I mention that I'm ~~20 ~~lbs~~~~ ok 50 lbs heavier than I was 9 years ago... I haven't quit excepted that change yet:)

Trash turned Treasure

2010-11-01T16:15:00.000-07:00

Following Fred home with a load of treasures:)

I started seeing old furniture re-done, I love old windows for frames, I love being able to decorate my house with stuff that I've done myself (and so does my pocket book cause it's much cheaper)ect. ect. ect., which was the start of my addiction to yardsales. My sister Emily lives in Spanish Fork and on their city website they list all the yardsales, which they also do in Spingville. So the night before the yardsales she would map them out so we wasted no time at all. We would usually start at 6a.m. and by the time we went back around to all our yardsales with a trailor to pick up our goods it was a whole day process. I think our record was 31 yardsales in one day :0. It became a hobby that we became very addicting. I got lots of baby cloths, antique furniture, bedroom sets for almost nothing at all. I can't believe some of the cool pieces of furniture that people were getting rid of. Something I would normally do, but after seeing these pieces re-done I will never do it again:) I might need a bigger house to put it all in, but we'll worry about that later.

So this was really someone's trash, that I new we could use for something. A guy that was at the drive up window at the grill, and had a truck load full of headboards and footboards. He said he was headed to the dump.....I stopped him and told him I would save him a trip to the dump and he could take it to my house:) I took 2 sets and painted them to put in Max and Tyler's room, but this is what Fred's doing with the rest of them.

For the seat of the bench we used leafs from a table. My grandpa told me he needed them thrown away because he didn't have the table for them. So I had almost got rid of them, but glad I didn't cause Fred found a use for them.

He even made a little one for the kids.

This is the final product.

Isn't he handy:)

This hutch was $35.00...isn't it ugly?

This is the top of the hutch

and this is the bottom.

So we won a TV at a football game from a raffle drawing...lucky huh. Well I didn't have a stand for a flat screen TV so this is where the ugly hutch comes into good use:)

So I ripped out the glass doors, used $20.00 worth of spray paint, a little glaze, and this is what we now use for our entertainment center. Not bad for $55.00.

Fall Sports 2010

2010-10-31T17:01:00.000-07:00

You gotta love fall sports. It's been super crazy with both kids in sports and Tyler playing 2 sports, but its so worth it.

This is Tyler's first year playing flag football and he loves it.

Tyler has been playing soccer for a few years now and it's been fun to see how much they improve each year.

The kids riding with Fred in the high school homecoming parade.

This was Sisi's first year in Soccer. She wasn't sure she really wanted to play but once she did she loved it. We decided to switch things up this year, so we took Sisi out of her dance class that she's been taking for 3 years now and put her in a Hula dance class in Spanish Fork. It's been a lot of fun to see her dancing hula, tahitian, and tongan, and she loves it.

Shed Renovation

2010-09-15T20:31:00.000-07:00

So as many of you know Fred's dad comes out every year during pageant to help us out with the restaurant. Well this year for many reasons he decided to stay a little longer. He told Fred one day that he was going to live in this shed in the back yard. We told him it was full of wood, and crap and it wasn't livable. Well he was determined that we make it work, so this is what we have done with it so far. He has been living in it for a couple of months now, and absolutely loves it out there. We are so sad because Pa is going back to Maui in 2 weeks. He has been such a huge help to Fred, and we have all loved having him here to spend time with us.

Here is an outside picture of what we call "The Shack"

Notice his shoe hook that he made.

This is what the Shack looked on the inside.... It took us over 4 hours just to move all this out.

All this stuff was here when we moved in...

After everything was cleaned out, sprayed down with the hose, and sprayed extra good for bugs, and spider. We were having a little more hope at this point.

And this is now. Fred used to do insulation so that part was easy, but he had never done sheet rock and he did an amazing job. We haven't taped or textured yet because Pa was so anxious to move in, so this is how we have left it for now.

Not bad hugh?

When Pa moves out, I plan on continuing the project. The kids would like it to be a game room, or a place they can take their friends and hang out, and maybe watch a movie or two. Tyler goes out there a lot right now to hide from Max while doing his Lego's. I've even thought about decorating it really cute for the holidays, Christmas tree and all, and have that be Santa's place to drop the load. I think it would be fun to go out early in the morning have it all nice and cozy, with lots of blankets, hot chocolate, and spend Christmas morning opening presents in the shack.

I will miss this....

2010-09-05T20:46:00.001-07:00

Fall is my favorite time of year, but I will miss my garden so much. I love walking out to the garden every day and picking food for dinner. Because of the late winter this last year our apple tree's and peach tree froze, which my kids were so bummed about because its there favorite things to pick and eat. I didn't get pix of my raspberries, but we had so many. My kids would go out every day and sit on a chair and pick and eat. My favorite is making fresh salsa from the garden, and Tyler's favorite is cucumbers and vinegar. We had to cover our garden tonight for the first time because it's suppose to get down to 28 degrees tonight. Hopefully we can continue to pick food from the garden for the rest of this month. I think I will have myself a tomato sandwich everyday til the tomatoes are gone:)

Our garden

People in Manti tell us every year that we cannot grow watermelon here.... I don't know what there doing wrong, but this is what we get every year and a lot of it.

yummy, yummy!

Grape vine....isn't it adorable:) (ignore the ugly cooler sitting there:)

And the grapes that come from it. This is also one of my kids favorite to eat.

yellow squash.

cucumebers

Anaheim peppers

Cantelope

So excited for halloween this year, because of all my pumkins:) I'm definetly growing more of these next year.

Tomatoes...waiting for these ones to get ripe.

I should have taken a picture of the watermelon when they first start out, cause they are the cutetest little things ever. I always want to pick them for a decoration in my house but Fred wont let me:) I don't think they would last very long either.

Back to School

2010-09-04T18:17:00.001-07:00

Sisi and Tyler started back to school a couple of weeks ago and boy is it great. Tyler is loving 2nd grade which is really surprising because he's not my kid who loves school. Sisi loves kindergarten which was to be expected, but she has also been a little hesitant to leave me some days too. Max begs us every morning to let him go to school because he says he's a "school boy". I don't have any pictures, but he puts on his cloths shoes, and puts on a backpack every morning and rides with us to take the kids to school, then comes home gets undressed, takes the back pack off and goes and lies in bed and watches cartoons lol. Oh how reality will hit him one day when he really has to stay at school.

(nice smile Tyler:)

Sisi kindergarten

Tyler 2nd grade

I love summer, but it is really really nice to be back into a routine again. And my favorite part is that ALL....yes I said ALL meaning all 4 kids are in bed by 9PM. Sometime Max is up a little later, but for the most part from 9 to 10pm is heaven for me:)

Warning...summer 2010 all in one post.

2010-08-04T21:30:00.000-07:00

OK, I will try and make this short and sweet due to the bazillion pictures I have on here. This summer has been great in many ways, and in many other ways it is nice to have over. We have had such a busy summer, at home and at the Grill. I would have to say that having 4 kids is an adjustment. I basically run in circles around them all day:) but love all of them very much, and can't imagine life without them.

Well Saula has been in the mission field for 6 months now, it's gone by so fast. It actually doesn't really feel like he ever left because we see him so much. He is serving in Springville right now, which is where my grandparents live and also where I have become addicted to yard sales (but that post will come later) so we see him a lot. Some of the time it's planned and other times we just run into him. My nephew Derek was ordained to be a deacon a couple of weeks ago and we were having lunch afterwards at my grandparents so we invited the Elders since they didn't have a dinner appointment that day. It's so fun seeing him and seeing how he changed with all the experiences he's gone through and people that he's met along the way. It's crazy how many baptisms they have here in Utah.

Snap shot of Emmie at 3 months

and of all the kids

Oh and this is a picture of my garden. I want to take some pictures of everything that's growing in it. Its so fun being able to eat out of the garden every night.

and another picture of little Emmie. She weighs only about 11 lbs now and is still so tiny, but very tall.

Isn't she adorable? And that outfit she has on was $1.00 at a yard sale....yes I said 1 buck for the whole thing....love it!

We were able to get the 2 older kids into swimming lessons once this summer. They loved it, and I wish I would have done it more than once because they learned so much.

This is Tyler floating.... opposed to sinking:) lol

Sisi being brave jumping off the diving board for the 1st time. Wahoo! Tyler did too, but I could never catch him when he was doing it.

We were lucky enough to make it to Lake Powell twice this year. It's one of the greatest places on earth. And just looking at this picture of Emmie, you can tell that she was just as content of the rest of us. Her 1st trip down she was only 5 weeks old, and she loved every second of it!

All 4 kiddos loving life at the Lake.

I really am to old to go tubing:) but Sisi talked me into it, and boy was I worn out after the ride.

And Fred's probably a little to old to be jumping off the house boat while trying to catch a football at the same time, but as you can see he did it anyway:)

Max doing what he does best....waking up Emmie.

Captain Max.

Fred taking his dad dinner on his little rock island, his dad wouldn't stop fishing to eat. Have you ever seen other side of heaven when they take Kolipoki his dinner to the little island because he wouldn't come in and eat. kind of the same idea:)

Max out on the little rock island doing some fishing as well.

Sisi, and her 2 cousins

Fred cutting up the fish his dad caught so we could have it for dinner... it was soooo yummy

Another fish that Pa caught. He caught so many fish, and wanted to keep all of them. So we would secretly let the small ones go when he wasn't looking....shhhh don't tell. And he wouldn't use a fishing pole after the first day, he said the old fashion way is best. So he put fishing line on a bottle and fished like that day and night.

This is the life!

Fred's dad loves Lake Powell. We were actually not planning on going on either trip this year, just because it's a little scary leaving the grill for that long, but Fred's dad told us that he was going with or without us, so we decided to go.

Max is definitely going to be our big sports kid. He has a ball wherever he goes.

This is where we would find Pa most of the time, he would sit in the water for hours...even while sleeping.

Twinkies + Lake Powell = Really happy boys

Like father, like son.

The 1st night we had a huge wind storm so I had to sleep inside the houseboat with the kids, and this is where I slept with the 3 kids....not fun.

We blessed Emmie the day after pageant which was also Max's birthday. Note to self, don't ever do a baby blessing the day after pageant. To make a long story short, we thought we would have time to prepare to feed 70 people and have a baby blessing and a birthday party the day after pageant....well not so much. The last Sat. of pageant we thought we could just use some left over chicken from the grill, and we had a few people bringing salads so we figured we could pull it off. Well we sold out of chicken that night. So by the time we got done with pageant it was after midnight, all stores were closed. As I was frosting cupcakes at 3:30 am trying not to have a melt down I realized we really had NO food besides the few salads and deserts that people were bringing. Lucky we had church at 1:00. Fred went to walmart at 9am, cause that's the earliest anything opens around here on Sunday, and he came home with food...lots of food. He had 2 BBQ grills going outside, we had meat in the oven, and on the stove, we all cooked frantically while trying to get the kids ready for church, and it all worked out as you can see in the pictures of the food below. That's the nice part of being married to a man that can cook up anything. We had a great turn out, and had lots of friends and family that came, it was a lot of fun. Fred did a great job blessing Emmie, and I cant imagine life without her. I'm so thankful for Fred's sister, she gave us the greatest blessing in the world.

This was one of the few pictures I got of Max opening presents. He loves Toy Story, so when he got woody he was a pretty happy 2 year old.

Max is one of a kind, he is so full of energy and can melt anyones hearts. This is the kid that has never met a stranger....he thinks everyone is his best friend. He will go with anyone who wants to take him, without any thought at all (which is scary sometimes, like when I left him at a yard sale:) Max loves sports, he can't get enough of it. He is a very active kid, he goes to football practice with Fred a lot and comes home and shows me what he did that day at practice. He tells me he does Templar Jacks (jumping jacks), tackels, does Defense, and runs really fast. When he's getting in trouble and I'm counting to 3, I will say 1...2...., and then he yells 3 and starts to laugh. This kid will be the one I have to watch out for. I can't imagine life without Max, it always makes me wonder if we had another kid what their personalities would be like. DON'T WORRY, NO MORE KIDS FOR US:)

All Emmies Grandpa's, the 2 in the middle are her Great grandpa's.

Who would have thought with this picture that a few hours before this we had no food at all. THANK YOU FRED!

All the grandkids

I wanted to make cute cupcakes, and at 3:30 am this is what I came up with. The Toy Story cake and Emmies little cakes were so dang cute. My visiting teacher made them for me, she also runs the candy store here in town. She did such a great job.

SISTERS....Sisi is such a good little helper with Emmie, she loves being the little mommy in the house.

All 4 kids

Pageant 2010

We live across the street from the temple, so this year we decided to sale our Hawaiian Plate Lunches from our house along with a few other things. Let's just say it was a lot of work, but well worth it to do it from our house. The coke stand is where we sold the plate lunches, and we sold out almost everynight. Our house was a little crazy for the 2 weeks of pageant.

Sisi sold these.... Just because we had a lof left over from the cupcakes :)

And Saula's district was assigned to work one night at the pageant, so they came down and spent the night in Manti. He brought a few of the Elders to the house to eat, then we fed all of his district after the pageant that night(21 Elders) it was so fun having him back home for a day.

She also sold Otter pops, and water.

My niece Jessica came and stayed during the pageant to help me out, which was huge help.

And this is what Fred's dad does for 2 weeks straight every year. We fly him here from Hawaii for pageant and he cooks chicken all day long for us. We are so grateful for him, and all of his help.

This is Tyler and his best friend Kayson selling suckers. Kaysons mom made suckers for them and they sold out almost everynight. At the end of pageant after selling their suckers for .25 they made $100.00 which they split in half....not bad for a 7 year old.

Tyler lovin Emmie.

And this was a hit. We decided to do a little something on the side this year, and this is what we came up with. Chocolate covered strawberries. I realized after pageant was over, and with all the blisters on my fingers, that people really love chocolate covered strawberries. These were a hit, I sold out everynight. On the weekend nights I had a line of people that would wait like 20 min. for these....so crazy.

My nephew Jared, and his Friend Taylor came and stayed with my mom for a month so they could be in the pageant. They didn't have much free time cause Fred put them right to work. It was so nice to have them here during pageant because they would do whatever we asked them to do, they were our little runner boys.

4th of July party. We always meet up with the Steven's and have a big bbq which Fred always makes amazing food for. And this year since we live on main street now, it was even better because we didn't have to leave the house for the city fire work show because we live across the street from where they do it, so it was perfect.

I'm wondering if Reggie and Bo are watching a fire work in this picture, or just in a complete daze.

The 4th of July wears you right out. Max didn't make it long before he needed a nap.

Niether did Sisi.

Fred ususally gets asked by the city to sit on the dunk tank every year. I think it's because they know a lot of people will pay good money to dunk him. And of course Tyler took total advantage of the oppurtunity to dunk his dad with out any repercussions.

And so did Max.

Water straight from the hose, so cold.

4th of July 2010- Max, Tyler, Emmie, and Sisi

So all in all a super fun summer.Sorry for the long post with scattered pictures. At least its done;)

Baby Emmie has arrived

2010-05-30T18:23:00.000-07:00

Emmie Maile Taukei'aho

born May 15,2010
6lbs 3oz-18 1/2 long

Photo by Oopysdaisyphotography.com

Man I have a lot to blog about, but I will have to catch it up later. But in the meantime I must blog about our new baby girl.

Well life's a little crazy, but baby Emmie Maile (pronounced my-lay)is finally here. She was born on May 15th. She weighed 6lbs 3 oz, and was 18/2 inches long (I think the height was a little off cause 2 weeks later she's 20 inches)She is so much smaller than my big babies, she is so tiny! It has been quite the experience, and blessing for our family. She is so beautiful, and has been such a good baby so far. It has been great not having to go through all the pregnancy stuff, and especially not having a c-section, but mentally draining for sure. We love her so much, and can't imagine life without her. For those of you who don't know, we adopted Fred's little sisters baby. She lives in Maui, and came to Utah in April to stay with us so she could have the baby here in Utah. She is an amazing person, and such a great example to all of us. Her delivery was amazing. She went through it all with no epidural, and went very fast for it being her first. We arrived at the hospital in Provo around 11am, and she had her at 2:08pm, even the doctors were surprised. She went through a lot of labor at home, but didn't want to bug any of us, so she let us sleep while she was in pain:( But as soon as we woke up, she told us it was time to go. My house was a mess, and I was feeling a little anxiety about bringing home a new baby with out being fully prepared. With c-sections I know exactly when the baby is coming, and am able to have the house all ready and set to go...not this one. But my wonderful Sister, mom, and dad came to the rescue. They cleaned my house, did my laundry, mowed my lawn, and made sure everything was ready for us to come home(thank you all so much). We will forever be grateful, and in debt to Fred's sister for giving us such a sweet little girl. The kids love her so much, and can't stop fighting over who gets to hold her.

I was so excited to be able to go to the nursery. Having c-sections with all my kids, I don't get to see any of the fun stuff, and usually don't get to see them for an hour or so after there born, so this was so fun.

Elder Taufa (Saula) even made it to the hospital in between his appt's. I love this picture of him looking in at the baby. It was so good to see him, we miss him so much!

Saula with his companion Elder Jones, who we also new before Saula went on his mission, because he served in Manti. So glad they got to come.

Sisi was so excited to be there, and to be able to hold her right after she was born. She is so excited to have a little sister. She says we have way to many boys in our life:)

Grandma Teu, Lala (Fred's niece), and Sisi with baby Emmie. Were so happy they made it from Hawaii before the baby came.

24 hours later, and NO sleep:)

Big sister Sisi

Max really isn't mad in this picture, he's trying to say cheese. All we hear from this kid now is, "I hold a baby" repeated all day long:)

Harmony Strickland took all these pictures below. It was so fun, and a lot of work, but well worth it. Her website is Oopsydaisyphotography.com She does great work. Thanks Harmony for the great pictures!!!

6 Days Old

You gotta love the baby fur on this girl. She doesn't have it any more, but it was sure cute while she did.

Is she not the most precious thing in the world:)

Sisi turns 5

2010-02-18T19:34:00.001-08:00

Sisi finally turned 5 at the first of the month. She has been waiting so long to be 5. She had a little party, and invited some of her older friends:) The older girls gave her and her 5 year old friends mani's and pedi's, they had a fashion and talent show, and did a lot of girly things in between. Sisi absolutely loves being extra girly, she always has makeup on, and does her fair of dress-up each day. Sisi wanted a build a bear for her birthday, and after an hour in the store she finally chose the right one:)
I didn't have battery's for my camera, so I was only able to get these 2 pictures, I know what mom doesn't take a million pictures on there child on their birthday? Sorry Sisi, we'll make sure the camera is ready to go for Birthday #6.

finishing up the party watching "UP"

Elder Taufa

2010-02-15T18:55:00.001-08:00

This was kind of a crazy thing to do, I felt like I was sending my own child on a mission. After purchasing all of his mission stuff, and going through all the paper work, and stuff that you have to do before going into the MTC, it was quit the process, something I never thought I would be doing at the age of 31.... yikes.
From what I've heard about dropping missionaries off and how quick the process is, I thought it sounded a little brutal. It was actually was very smooth, and also much easier on the Missionaries.I thought that the departure, and saying all the good-byes would be VERY hard on Saula, but you could tell as soon as we hit Provo he was ready to go. It was such a good feeling to not see him sad. I think his parents were in serious shock because of how easy it was for him to say goodbye. Saula is a very tender hearted kid, and usually gets VERY VERY sad when ever he has to leave to go somewhere. It doesn't matter if he's leaving Hawaii to come here, or if he's leaving here to go back to Hawaii, there are usually alot of tears and persuading going on....
We new he was ready to go on his mission, and all though he's not going to far(Provo) it made it alot easier on all of us to see him so happy. He just left Wed., and we have heard from him twice. He loves it so far, and said it's better than anything he ever expected it to be. He keeps reassuring us that he's fine, and to not miss him because he's happy where he's at.
Because of his mission being in our area, every time he gets transferred will be like a new mission call for us, to see if he comes closer or farther away, so we are so excited to find out where his first area will be. I think the farthest area away from us on his mission is 4 hours:)....not to far. Anyway, we are so happy for Saula, and glad that he is happy. Here are some of the pictures from the MTC.

As soon as we left the MTC we headed to Emery for Freddy's basketball game, which made for a VERY long day.

Our trip to the Temple before he left.

WISHING WINTER WAS OVER!

2010-02-02T16:34:00.000-08:00

Like everyone else, I think we are ready for winter to end. But in the mean time here are a few random pictures.

One night before bed I told Tyler to go get Freddy so we could say prayers. As soon as I said that Max came in the front room and did this. I had my phone so I hurried and took a picture.Its funny how he can go from being a little stinker, to this.:) I'm pretty sure he's praying for winter to be over.

Max hasn't mastered running as fast as he can, and turning all the corners with out running into the wall. The Doctor saved us with super glue, so we didn't have to go through the trauma of needles and stitches. I'm sure it wont be the last time for this kid.

We've had plenty of sleigh riding days this year, and as you can see it gets very tiring. But the kids love it, and can't get enough of it.

Saula will be here on Thursday, and reports into the MTC next wed. Can't wait to get him here, we are hoping that his first area will be Manti:)
I suck at blogging lately, but life is good!

Christmas dance recital

2009-12-23T21:52:00.000-08:00

Sisi loves to Dance, and loves getting all dolled up a few times a year for her rehearsal. She has amazing dance teachers, and were grateful for that.

All smiles.....she waits for this night all year long:)
Focused and ready to perform

They danced to "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth", and also to a bumble be song.

Sisi was so happy that she got to dance next to one of her favorite little friends Janessa

Sisi and Kennedy. This is one of her other favorite friends from school.

Sisi and her cousin JuneShe was so excited to perform in front of a big audience, and especially for Grandma, Aunt Jen, and her cousin June that came to watch. She did great, and had so much fun.

HAWAII

2009-12-16T20:44:00.000-08:00

Fred surprised me one day at work, and told me I better go home and pack cause I was going to Hawaii the next day.
Before I start, I just want to say that I think my husband is the greatest:)
We were originally going to go with some friends, but Fred couldn't go at that time so we decided to to wait and we would go in the spring.
So our friends didn't know I was going, and we ended up surprising everyone there. I didn't tell Fred's family or Saula that I was coming, and showed up with lei's at the motel to greet my friends. It was so fun! We had to wait at the airport for Saula, because Fred didn't call them til 30 min. before I landed. We probably should have given them a little more notice that I was coming, but it was warm and I was in Hawaii so I didn't care. Traveling by yourself with an 18 month old is not the funnest thing to do, but it was well worth it once we got there.
It was so fun to see Saula again, and to spend time with ALL (20 of them)Fred's family which we don't get to do much of. Max wanted nothing to do with me(which was awesome) once he saw all the little kids. Fred's family had never seen Max before, so as soon as we got to the house, he was completely spoiled for 9 days straight. He NEVER wanted to come with me the whole time we were there, in fact when we left to come home he was kicking and screaming as I was walking through security because he didn't want to leave the kids.
While we were there we ate out at my favorite places every night, and spent time at the beach, but other than that we didn't do much but relax.

Fred's dad has this over size surf board, as you can see the kids loved it.

Oh how we miss Saula, and are so excited that he coming back to Utah for his mission.

I don't think Max could ever get enough of the sand and ocean.

Fred's cousin Leo hooked us up with the zip line. I'm scared to death of heights, but I did it.

Fred's dad has all the kids rub sand all over him, I guess you could say it's somewhat of an exfoliating treatment:)
Max with his Aunty's that spoiled him to the point that he didn't want to come home.
Eating at Bubba Gumps with our friends
This is Fred's dads plantation, we went and picked food for dinner. Notice Max has no shoes on, he didn't wear shoes the whole time we were there, not even to church. I think he was meant to live in Hawaii as much as he hates wearing shoes, and loves being outside.
Helping Papa plant his garden.

Nice moves Max:)

Saula, and Mani
Making Lei's for our friends
Tieni, Lala, Max, and Laite

It was snowing so bad when we got back so Fred was late picking us up, so this is us waiting.

This is what we came back to..... not fun!!!

Halloween Pictures

2009-11-09T18:43:00.002-08:00

I've been meaning to post Halloween pictures, but I think I'm so glad that it's over so it's taken me a while to do it. We had Scream, Hannah Montana, and our little BYU football player. The night of Halloween is fun, but I don't like the parties and all the work leading up to it:) I know I'm a Halloween scrooge. But here's the pictures of the kiddos.
Manti shuts down main street for 2 hours, and has a trunker treat that goes down the middle of main, it's a lot of fun for the kids, and they get tons of candy. Fred bought over $100 worth of candy (over a thousand pieces) and still ran out. Every year we put out chairs and hang out in front of the grill to watch all the crazy people go by. Fred also gave out Fred's Sports Grill gift certificates to the people with the best costumes, so we had a lot more people that came by our way thinking they were getting free food :)

My brother and his family were down for the weekend, so the kids had fun doing Halloween with their cousins. This is Tyler with his cousin Jacob.
Sisi and her cousin Erika
This is Sisi's favorite (big girl) friends. Brooklyn is my friend Susan's daughter, and she is so good to Sisi. Her and her friend Sydney took Sisi and Erika around town like big girls....they loved every minute of it.

This is one of the teachers from the Elementary, she had a bottle of swine flu spray (water) spraying everyone down with the swine flu....she was so funny.
My nephew Owen standing by the headless horseman. He stays on his horse all day, and rides around town but won't talk to anyone:) SCARY. It's one of Fred's football players dad, I think he really enjoys freaking people out.

My sister in law Jen, and little June as Dorthy. Jen always gets all decked out for Halloween and looks so cute doing it.
Were hoping the Bench Warmer bench isn't where Max will be spending his football years to come.
Max was unattended on the counter at the sports grill for just a minute:) and I think this kid (Snow's Quarter Back) thought we were not being safe by leaving him there (which he was right), so he came up and sat by him tell someone came to get him, I thought it was so funny, and so nice of him at the same time.
And finally the good old Main Street parade.

Besides everyone being sick, life is good...

2009-10-28T20:04:00.001-07:00

So like everyone else, we have been sick... surprise, surprise. But other than that life is good.
Football has almost come to an end, what will it be like to have Fred back again?(I didn't mean for that to ryhym) Little Fred will go onto basketball so he will still be gone a lot with practice and games, were excited to watch him play. Between Fred coaching football, and being in the bishopric at the College I feel like a widow most of the time.
However..... there was a Polynesian father (31 years old living in Provo) of SIX GIRLS ranging in age from 1-9. He unexpectedly died 2 weeks ago from an enlarged heart.... yes he died because his heart was to big. That brought back many memories of my brother Erik's death, and him leaving behind a wife and child. Saying that I am VERY grateful for my husband, and all he does for our family, I don't know that we could honestly live with out him. It will just be nice to have him around a little more once football ends:)

Random Pictures...
This is Sisi being bored, something that happens daily:(

Our little Tailgate party before the game:)

Max STILL has an obsession with football. Foo-ball is one of the only words he knows how to say. Actually he can almost say touch-down :)...

Have I mentioned what a good kid Freddy is? I can only hope that my own kids will be as good of kid as he is... We love Freddy, and glad he is with us.

I love Snow, but not in October. There is nothing more beautiful than the Temple when it snows. I love where I live, this picture was taken right out my front door.

Sisi looks a little raggedy in this video, but she's been into "writing"(she can't write) her own songs, and loves when I record her singing.... To much Hannah Montana:)

Because I love my kids!!!

2009-10-17T21:33:00.000-07:00

Some of you may actually think I like spending my Saturday mornings wearing a football helmet around the house. Well I don't.... I only do it because I LOVE my kids:)

Life at our house...

2009-09-23T15:29:00.000-07:00

Sisi finally started school 2 weeks ago, hooray! She has been waiting for so long. It would make her day if she could be in school all day long. Tyler cries because he has homework, and Sisi cries because she doesn't. I can't believe how fast she has grown up, it's so sad. She's starting to get a little (a lot) sassy. I don't know if it's just her age, or if she watches to much Hannah Montana, probably both. Before I know it she will be graduating from high school, and I will miss having little Miss Sassy Sisi around, so were grateful to have her. I haven't been taking to many pictures lately so I decided to bust out the camera and start taking more. So here's a few pictures of what we've been up to.

Sisi loves when we straighten her hair. I on the other hand hate it because she looks so different, and grown up.

Sisi in her jersey, she's loves getting all decked out in football attire for the games.

We told the kids they could walk to the store, and this is what we got. Don't worry we walked behind them, just far enough behind that they felt they were being big kids and walking alone.

It was homecoming last weekend so we had the annual little homecoming parade. Tyler managed to make his way onto one of the fire engines, and after wards he told me that being in the parade is much better than watching:)

Who can believe it, Max is 15 months. He is such a fun little kid, I just can't get enough of him. He makes us laugh so hard!!!

And this is Max-a-million after he was left alone with a blue sugar cookie, what a kid....

I'm blogging

2009-09-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

Well like everyone else life is CRAZY.

We ended our summer with another Lake Powell trip, it was so much fun. My sister, my parents, and a bunch of our friends went with us this time.

There were a ton of Striper (fish) boils down there, and the men got a little obbssed with fishing cause they were catching so many.

Dean and his SUMO life jacket

Sisi and her Sea Shells:)

We went into a little canyon that had a ton of frogs. The kids caught at least a hundred and brought them back to where we were staying and let them go. There were frogs every where!

The houseboat
Max, and Fred... Max loved Lake Powell, and was so sad to be home.
Love the lizard on Haley's head...
Dave had to sleep with his fishing pole so if they started yelling that they saw a boil he could jump up and not have to look for his pole, they were hilarious
Tyler and Bo
Wesley flirting with the girls, and the girls loving it:)

My best friend Janey had a baby in June. She is the sweetest little baby. This is at her baby shower, it was so fun having her there.

I stole this picture from Janey's blog, is that not the most precious picture ever...

We had a TOWN party at the Fred's for Devin before he left for Green Bay. As many of you know he signed as a free agent with the Packers, but during the 2nd pre-season game broke his leg. The bone was coming out of his leg, he had surgery that night. A rod, and 2 plates later he is done for the season. They liked Devin so much that they still signed him, and are keeping him with his broken leg. We know he will recover and be back out on the field next year.

The party was a lot of fun. We served over 600 hundred hot dogs and drinks. The town loves having a home town hero... Devin is in the process of creating the newest burger at Fred's named after him.

This was a Kodak moment, Devin holding Max... All summer long Max would cry when Devin was any where around. Devin finally did enough smiling and bribing to get him to like him:)Tyler and Reggie showing there muscles.

And last but not least, Tyler is a 1st grader YAY!!! It has been an adjustment for him to get up so early, but he's getting the hang of it. It's nice to be in Manti so close to the school. The Grill is a block away so Tyler rides his bike or walks everyday which he thinks is pretty cool.

Lake Powell

2009-07-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

We Just recently got back from a summer trip to Lake Powell. It really is one of the greatest places on earth, I love it! This was an all family trip and everyone had so much fun. All the cousins got along great, and we got a lot of R&R in so it was nice. Not to mention we left the morning after the pageant was over so Fred and I were SOOOO ready for a break.
We are headed down next Friday again, and are bringing some friends with us this time. It will be a lot of fun, and another good break before football season starts.

Sisi singing with her sunscreen microphone, while Fred plays the guitar with the paddle. Fred's dad sleeps through it all:)

Tyler's first time jumping off the houseboat. Yikes!

One of Max's favorite parts of the trip. Sitting on Grandpa's lap in the boat.

Grandpa Taukei'aho and Tyler. They rowed in that little tube all over the place.
Fred's dad was here visiting us from Maui. He was able to stay with us for about a month. He came to help us with the pageant, and then we made him come to Lake Powell with us before he went back. He is so easy going, and so easy to have around. He doesn't speak much English, and he just kept saying when we got to the Lake "I love da house, da house nice" :) He said that he will come every year and help us with pageant as long as he gets a trip to Lake Powell inl. We were all sad to see him go, especially the kids.

Max had his first birthday party at Lake Powell. I can't believe he is 1!!!! He has been walking since he was 11 months old which has kept me going non stop:) He is so much fun, and has been such a good baby. However since he's started to walk, he wants to be outside ALL the time. He wakes up in the morning, and the first thing he does is go by the door and cry, it's getting a little ridiculous. But other than that, he is a lot of fun!

Fred's dad loved sitting in the boat, he would sit there for hours without moving.

I love this picture of Max. He thought he was in heaven down there because he was outside 24/7

Fred Knee Boarding:0

Freddy, and Pa fishing off the back of the houseboat.

I seriously think Fred's Dad would just go in the water to sleep.

I had to post this picture for Tyler. If you look at the top of the rocks where it looks like a little cave, you can see some little bodies:) This was Tyler's favorite thing to do when he was there. Him and his cousins would go up there and play, and they thought it was the coolest thing ever. They called it there cave, and who knows what else they would do up there, but they loved it. He keeps asking me to blow a picture of this up for him so he can hang it on his wall in his room.

As you can see we have a new addition to the family picture. On the left side of the picture is little Fred. He got here from Maui about a month ago, and is here living with us now. This is Saula's little brother. He is almost 15 and will be a Sophomore in High school. He is a really good kid, and fits right in with our family. I'm getting pretty good at this teenager thing, I'm hoping to be a pro at it by the time my own kids are teenagers.

Pray for Sadie....

2009-06-24T20:41:00.000-07:00

Sadie is fighting her last hours of life. Please pray for her and her family at this time. I don't personally know Sadie, but have followed her blog for over a year now. We all need to be more grateful for our kids. I can't even comprehend what this family is going through at this time. I have lost a brother, and I know that it was the hardest thing I have ever gone through personally, but to lose a child this young to cancer, and see them struggle and go through so much before they move on is to much to even imagine.

http://www.sadiehuish.blogspot.com/

The Month of May...

2009-05-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

I had this post all nice and laid out with pictures and words all in the right spot. Then I posted it, and it all went crazy. I didn't have time to fix it, so sorry for the craziness of this post.

Just like everyone else the month of May is CRAZY!
I really don't know if I can stand one more program, graduation, recital, game, or catering all in one week. I would vote to spread it out into 2, OK maybe 3 weeks, it would just seem to be so much calmer.

I do love the month of May for many reasons

*Summer time is just around the corner
*Softball is over, and we won:) What better way to end, than with a State Championship.
(Not to mention I don't have to deal with Psycho parents any more, I will stop at that because I could go on and on about what parents should and should not do when there kids are involved in sports)
*Sisi's Dance is over (YAY) She loves it, but I'm glad to have a break for the summer.
*School is almost out.
*My kids can pick out their own cloths almost everyday of the summer and wear them even if they don't match:)
*It's the beginning of the busy time for the Sport's Grill (That's good and bad I guess)
*The kids can play outside everyday, even if it is raining.

I'm really excited for Summer time, and summer vacations. I'm planning a trip to Hawaii which will be really fun. I'm hoping Fred can come with me, but if not it's just Max and I. Fred's family hasn't seen little Max yet and we miss Saula a ton, so I can't think of a better excuse than that to have to go to Hawaii.

Random pictures from the month of May...

Mayday:) and Sisi's Pre-school Graduation

Sisi's at her Dance Review Tyler's first T-ball game (It was hilarious)

It was such a great feeling to take State. We had such great girls this year, and they worked so hard. It was a lot of fun, I'm really going to miss it. But what a great way to end!!!

Max is getting so big, he will be 11 months old next week. He is such a happy kid, and is so easy going. Just the past couple of weeks since it's been warm, we have realized how much Max loves being outside, and loves the water. He would stay outside all day if we would let him, he sits by the window, and will cry every time the door opens because he wants to be outside.
We all love the Rhino in the summer time, and it's becoming one of Max's new favorites.

You can't see the water in this picture but he is sitting in the sprinkler. He will crawl right to it and just sit there. We know he's cold, and he knows he's cold but he wont get out.

I had to take some stuff to Jen (my sister in-law) and Max didn't last more than 2 seconds before he crawled into the pool. Thanks Jen for letting Max crash your pool party:)

Lane, Steve, and Boog

This is my Crazy brother Steve and the Bear he
shot last week. I'm sure he had the time of his life chasing an animal that eats people for dinner, but me on the other hand was grateful it was dead when I saw it....

This is Max in Saula's room the day he left. He played in there for hours, and would cry every time we took him out. We all miss Saula, and talk to him pretty much everyday. Were glad he's doing good, and hope to see him soon.

Just using my head!

2009-05-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

We had a long break between games this past week so Susan thought it would be a great idea to get some alumni to scrimage our team. I didn't think much of it, and considered myself way to old to attempt the embarrassment of this game.
I showed up to practice and soon realized that there was a crowd there, the field was chocked, lined and ready to play on, and our (high school) team was in full out uniform. Then came the cameras...Channell 3 showed up to record the game which meant that it would be replayed on the local channel. Yikes!!! My only thought was good thing I wasn't playing:) Then came the problem of having only 8 players:( you need 9 for a team, CRAP.... I think you get the picture, I ended up playing..... I was a catcher in high school, and have been catching for girls during warm up's for the past 8 years, I felt pretty confident about catching the ball and warming up Mandi Hatch who pitch's between 60 & 65 mph, I was actually excited to do it. The thing I wasn't excited about was hitting, running , sqauting down for over an hour with full gear on ect, ect, ect..... So the way this happened was by me NOT paying attention, thinking that Mandi new I was not watching her at all. She was talking to Susan, and someone from the stands asked me a question, so I assumed that she was talking- I was talking- and the ball was not being thrown, wrong.... Well Mandi proceeded to throw the ball while not looking at me, and I continued to not pay attention and continued talking and was blind sided by the ball. I had no idea that the ball was even pitched to me til after I was hit, nice huh. Being the hard headed person I am haha, I played in the game and had a blast, but as the night went on I began to repeat myself and forget things. I soon realized that I had concussion written all over my head. But we won the game 3 to 1 which made us all feel a little younger, so it was worth it:) Since then the baseball on my head has gone down, and though it's still hurts you would never know I got hit looking at me a week later, thank goodness....

An exciting part of the week was finding a place to live in Manti. We have been looking for the past few weeks and were just about to give up, when we found a house to rent 3 blocks away from the Sports Grill... I will still be managing apt's and have to come back to Ephraim a couple of times a week to do that, but it will be nothing compared to the trips I'm saving driving to Manti everyday. We have lived in these apts for 5 years, and have never lived in a house. I can't tell you how excited we are to be so close to the Grill, and the Elementary School. Tyler will be able to walk to our work, or home, or Grandma's, I can't wait!!!

The down of the day, and days to come is Saula moving back to Hawaii. We took him to the airport today, and it was not the funnest trip. He cried all morning before we left, OK we all did. Just when we thought we were getting our selves together, it was time to say good bye at the airport which made us all cry again. I honestly never thought it would be so hard. 3 years ago when he moved in with us I thought it would be a miracle if he made it this long, and thought I would be so excited for him to go home. Well, not so much, it was HELL!!!! We have definitely been through some challenges with him, but we were no where ready for him to move out. It was kind of a bitter sweet moment. We are so proud of him for making it this far (it's not easy moving to a new place your Junior year of high school away from your family), and so proud that he is moving back to Hawaii to put in his paper to serve a mission, but it is really hard to have him gone. I'm hoping that he will be called somewhere that he will have to come back to the MTC in Provo so we can see him before he goes, but if he goes else where I will be taking a trip to Maui to his farewell. Saula has been such a huge part of our family, and we will always consider him as one of our own.

The rest of our week is all about Softball now. We play tomorrow through Sat as long as we keep winning. We had our team dinner, and last meeting tonight which was great. Fred showed our girls this video below, which made me cry again today. Hopefully we can pull of a State Championship, but either way it has been a great year with a great group of girls. I will miss Coaching them:(
Take time to watch this video it's GREAT...... Sorry I couldn't figure out how to get the video right on my blog, but I PROMISE IT'S WORTH WATCHING!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4uG2kSdd-4

Pray for Sadie!!!!

2009-04-20T16:13:00.000-07:00

I found this blog on my friend Kelly's blog, and have been following it for about a year now. I don't know her personally, but she is an amazing little girl along with her family. She has an inoperable brain tumor, and is not doing so well. I cry every time I read her blog, and Fred tells me to stop reading it because it just makes me sad. When I read her blog it makes me appreciate my kids, and life in general a lot more. She really needs all of our prayers at this time, along with her parents.... To see her story click here http://www.sadiehuish.blogspot.com/ I also have a link on my blog under Favorites called Pray for Sadie. I can't imagine having a child go through what little Sadie is. I can't imagine being a parent having to make a decision on when is the right time to let your child go.... So Sad....

Easter

2009-04-19T18:10:00.000-07:00

Easter weekend was pretty much full of rain, snow, and candy.... All the family was here for the weekend which always makes for lots of excitement. There was lot's of four wheeler rides, not to mention the ride that Fred and Ryan went on and thought they were experts and went to the top of the highest mountain, and found the deepest snow.... Then they got stuck and had to call Steve (my brother who is the expert) to come pick them up because they were sooooo stuck. They left the four wheelers over night, and had to go back up the next day to get them un-stuck. I learned along time ago to say no to four wheeler rides when they go...

Tyler lost his first tooth on Easter morning, which he was so excited about. He didn't really like that the tooth fairy took his tooth and didn't bring it back though, he was hoping to keep it forever.
Fred had the kids Friday morning at my mom's while I was working at the apt's. When I got to my mom's to get the kids, I found Fred, Tyler, and Max with shaved heads... He thought he was doing me a favor so I didn't have to do it. ( I wouldn't have exactly shaved all their hair off, but I guess it will grow back)

Visiting the Cemetery

The annual Easter egg hunt at the city park...
This is a picture of Fred going over the game plan for the big hunt. He was really telling the kids which candy he liked, and where to find it:) Tyler didn't last long, he was cold so he went across the street to my moms house.

As you can tell Sisi was very focused and determined to get as much candy as she could.

This is our softball team this year... We are undefeated in Region so far, and have 2 weeks to go. Hopefully we can finish off good, only time will tell:)

This is our Senior girls that I started Coaching when they were 10, CRAZY!!!!!

Update.....

2009-04-06T17:03:00.000-07:00

WARNING: Long post ahead... You may just want to look at this cute little picture of Max and his football and X right back out of my page, because you may get bored. This is kind of a journal post for myself to remind me how crazy/busy I am, and how next year at this time I'm probably still going to be crazy/busy but maybe not to the extent that I am right now... I'm hoping it works:)

Well life for us is pretty CRAZY right now! I'm not really sure how we do it, but somehow we do.... Max is 9 months now, and he keeps us going all the time. He is such a good baby, I find my self all to often telling Sisi and Tyler that they cry more than Max, and he's the baby... KIDS :)

So Softball started over a month ago and we now only have 4 weeks left, YIPEE... This is my last year Coaching High School Softball. I know I said this last year, and here I am again Coaching this year, but it's for real this time:) Between Accelerated softball, and High School softball Susan (The head Coach) and I have been Coaching with each other for the past 8 years. Our Senior girls this year are the girls we started out with when they were 10 years old, which is my reason for Coaching one more year. I really do love Coaching and love the girls, but it is alot of time away from my kids, work, the grill, ect. ect. ect.... I'm so lucky to have such a supportive husband through it all, if it was his choice he would want me to keep Coaching. We play 2 to 3 games a week, some of them being out of town, hours away and he still comes to all of them. It is alot work to just get the kids ready, dressed, fed and out the door without forgetting something as important as a diaper bag, let alone having to go sit through a game for 2 hours, but he still does it. We both go through this with each other but at different times of the year. When it's football season I go through the stress of getting to every game, through every game, and home from every game all in one piece, and then the roles are reversed once Softball season starts for Fred.... I can honestly say that I have not done more than a couple of loads of laundry, or cooked more than 3 meals since softball started. A couple of weeks before softball starts I always have a little anxiety about how life is going to work, and how are kids are going to get to and from school, but Fred just kind of snaps into game mode and takes over. Fred is so easy going that it makes it easier to survive life when it's so crazy, Thanks Fred for everything....Saula and my mom are also a big help as far as filling in at work or watching the kids if they are sick and can't be at the Grill, so thank you Saula and Mom...

At the first of every season we go to St. George for a softball Tournament. The kids obviously love this because it's warm and they get to swim.

Here Fred is again taking care of the kids at the pool after a long day of watching softball.

This year was especially fun because my friend Joni from Vegas came up for the weekend, and my friend Janey also lives in St. George. They were so nice and came and watched our softball games, and then we all---Janey and Ricky, Joni and her kids, Molly and Ameen, Emily, Susan and Dean all went out to eat at my favorite place RED LOBSTER. It was so fun to spend time with them, and just hang out...
We actually had so much fun that we went to IGGY'S the next night. This is Tyler, Tyson, and Sisi playing games on the Blackberry and I-pod's while we were waiting to be seated, how cute is that... My kids loved playing with Joni's boys, and Molly's boy Tyson. I wish we all lived closer together, It was so much fun....

Right now I'm working about 3 days a week at the grill, and Max and Sisi come with me when I go, YIKES is right!!! Sisi watches cartoons in the back, and Max use to take his nap in his car seat during our lunch rush, but not so much any more. It is a little stressful having him there when we have 20 orders up and he is crying, but we just make it work! He still does pretty good but when he has those day's that he just doesn't want to be there it's definitely a challenge. We are just trying to hold out for another month til school gets out, which then we will have more day workers so I won't have to take the kids there any more:) Yay!!! We have had the Sports Grill for almost 3 years now, which is crazy. It is for sure alot of work, and has it's ups and downs, but we are grateful to have it.

Max being the BIG helper at work...

This last weekend we had the Snow College Luau. Fred does the cooking for this every year, it's always a project in itself to cater for 600 people, 1/2 being Polynesians(so you pretty much have to make double for them:). He always does a good job, and the food was so YUMMY:)

My kids were so tired, I had tried for hours to get them to sleep while we were at the college preparing for the dinner. I tried everything, and nothing would work... So look who finally gets them to sleep after hundreds of times around in a circle, Thank you Tyler!!!!

Tyler waiting patiently for the Pig:)

CONFERENCE WEEKEND...

Fred and the boy's watching conference (OK Maybe sleeping a little too)

I had to take this picture of Fred and Saula in their suits before Priesthood session so their family in Hawaii will know that they really did go:)
It was also Saula's birthday this week. It is so crazy to think that he is 19 and going to be going on a mission soon. He will be moving back to Hawaii in about a month:( It is a bitter sweet moment knowing he will not be living with us any more.... Saula moved in with us when he was 16 which means he has been living with us for almost 3 years now, I feel like he is one of my own. I am so happy that he has accomplished so much while living here, and so sad that he is leaving. I really don't know what I will do when he is gone. My kid's will for sure miss him, especially Max. Saula and Max have always had this little bond between each other that no one else has. I'm sure his family will be glad to have him home for a little bit before his mission, but we will miss him tons....

Tyler begged and begged to go eat at Los Amigos as soon as Fred and Saula got home from priesthood, so we did. (Not like we don't eat there enough all ready)

Brown people are more scared of you than you are of them!!!!

2009-02-22T21:09:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago on a Sat. Fred and I were trying to decide what we were going to do for the day. I was getting bugged, and telling him that we would probably just sit around because we couldn't get him off the computer (He is so addicted to KSL and E-Bay).Right then he said look at this. He showed me a TV on there, which he shows me alot of (Our TV went out on us about 6 months ago, and we bought another really old one for 50 bucks off KSL) he has been wanting one for a while, but we just haven't wanted to spend the money on one.... He showed me this TV and the price, and I thought for sure it was a fluke. Well I called the guy and sure enough it was the real deal... We got in the car and drove to Draper, and the house we pulled up to was pretty big, and nice, and new:) along with the other houses right next to it... We took Saula and a couple of his friends with us so they could carry the TV (they have gotta be good for something right). As we pulled up, everyone in the neighborhood froze. I'm pretty sure they have never seen a colored person before, and I'm really not kidding. There was a teenager pulling out of his driveway, and the second he saw the boys get out of the truck he stopped, got on his phone, and began to drive slowly back into his driveway. People started looking out there windows, walking out on their front porches, ect... They weren't sure what 4 Brown guys, a white lady, and a baby were doing in their neighborhood, they were in panic mode. Oh yeah and the people we were buying the TV from were not home yet so we had to wait for about 15 minutes for them. The teenager came back out of his house pulled up to us very slow, and said can I help you guys with something? Saula said we are just here to pick up a TV (idiot)... The kid had this look on his face like "Please don't rob me" .... As soon as the couple got home they gave us the same look. The guy opened his garage, which was shining from top to bottom didn't have a speck of dirt in it, and had cars that he had probably never driven before. He had a terrified look on his face like he had also never seen a colored person before. Fred handed him 2 hundred dollar bills, and said these aren't fake.(Trying to be funny because we had received a counterfeit hundred dollar bill at the grill a couple of days earlier) well the guy didn't think that was funny. He started checking out the money, and showed us the way out really quick. I guess being married to a Polynesian, and being around them alot I don't really find them intimidating, and I hope most of you don't because they really aren't:) Just don't get on their bad side JK......But we seriously got a good laugh about it... And we got this TV for $200.00, it is a Sony 57 inch, and I don't think it was ever used... They had it sitting in a little dining room that was also never used... I'm sure the neighborhood has all upgraded their security systems since we left, but who cares cause we got a freakin good deal on a huge TV... It's way to big for our apt, but hopefully it will fit really nice in a house someday:)

Moral of the story is---- Don't be scared of Brown people, they are more scared of you than you are of them:)

4 years old

2009-02-10T12:21:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISI...

I'm a little behind but better late than never. Sisi finally turned 4 this month. She has been waiting for so long to be older than 3, actually we all have. She has always acted older than what she really is.

Sisi is super smart for her age, and she continually tells Tyler how to do his homework, or how to say thing's properly. Tyler loves when he's sick because he can miss school. Sisi cries when she's sick because she wants to be at school. She is always asking for more homework, or ask's Tyler if she can do his, of course he says yes, then I say no, and then they are all sad:)

We love having Sisi in our home. She is definitely a GIRL, and always makes sure were all doing what we are supposed to be. Without Sisi we probably wouldn't make it to work everyday, or have dinner, or change Max's diaper ect... She let's us know what needs to be done around the house and doesn't let us forget. Sisi loves having alot of boys in the house, and gets a little extra attention from them just cause she is the only girl...

We love you Sisi!!!

]Sisi is 4 days old in this picture. It's so crazy how fast time goes by!

2009-01-30T14:51:00.000-08:00

So there have been a few more articles come out in the Tribune, Deseret news, and Sanpete Messenger this week about Fred's Sports Grill, and the Jersey's we have hanging on the wall.... We have been really shocked at the reporters calling about the jersey's. I guess not to many people have signed Jersey's from two teams playing up against each other in the Super Bowl, and personally know both of them... We are really excited for both Brett and Deuce, and know that they have both worked super hard to get where they are today. I wish somehow they could both win and both come out with big Super Bowl rings, but I'm not sure that's going to happen.

I do have to say that we have had a lot of business because of the articles, we are selling a ton of Deuce and Diesel burgers. We even have had people from Provo that have never been to Manti before, and came in just because they read the articles. We owe them alot for the publicity they have given Fred's. I've thought about offering to buy them and their families lunch @ Fred's but I'm pretty sure they don't need anything free at this point in their lives, but we will still offer up a free lunch to both of them:)

So we really aren't sure how the new's reporters originally found out about the burgers, or the Jersey's in the Sports Grill (especially the one's from Arizona), but hey we won't complain the free advertising has been great....

Here are the links to the articles-----------

Super Bowl: Snow a winning draw for Cards' Deuce

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11583591?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com

Burgers, jerseys rivals for big game

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5620,705281385,00.html

These are some pictures from the Salt Lake Tribune....

The Famous Deuce Burger.....

Super Bowl Article

2009-01-24T14:47:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to the article that was done @ Fred's this week.http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_11545818

Super Bowl 2009

2009-01-22T19:35:00.001-08:00

Tuesday was a crazy day at work... Two of our friends happen to playing up against each other in the Super Bowl this year. We have both of their jersey's hanging in the Grill, and a burger named after both Brett and Deuce. Fred got calls from 4 different newspapers on Tues., 2 from Salt Lake, and 2 from Phoenix. They some how heard about the Deuce Burger, and wanted to know how we got Jersey's from the Steeler's, and Cardinal's... The Salt Lake Tribune came into the Grill on Wed. they took pictures, and did interviews for an article that they are putting in the paper on Sunday. We were super busy, so they spent alot of time talking with my mom, Brett's dad, and Coach Coburn (Snow's Coach).

Coach Whittingham from the U also came into the grill that day. He was in town doing some recruiting at Snow.... When word spread that he was in the Grill the local paper came in to take pictures of him as well. He is a super nice guy, and was happy that our place was painted red lol...

This is a picture of the reporters, my mom, Brett's Dad, Fred, and Coburn eating lunch after everything slowed down a little. The reporters said they are going to be at the Super Bowl, and this up coming Tues. is media day with all the players. They said they are going to hit Deuce up and ask him about the Deuce Burger and see what he has to say about... I talked to Deuce, and he said he will say it's the best burger he has ever had. Thanks Deuce....

Happy New Year

2009-01-03T09:48:00.000-08:00

I feel like I have not blogged forever! Christmas was super fun, and super tiring. I posted some pictures of the Christmas Programs, Dance review, and all the rest of the Holiday hype below. Hope you all had a great Christmas.

This was our Christmas card picture this year. Sorry if you didn't get one. I'm not very good at getting cards done, let alone getting them mailed out.

Making Cookies for Santa....

Christmas Eve PJ's

Max's 1st Christmas. He loved every minute of it.

Tyler's Christmas was all about the WII....

Sisi's Christmas was full of her Bitty Baby American Doll, and Hannah Montana.... (She told me she is officially changing her name to Hannah Montana because she's is a rock Star...)

This was Sisi's first big Dance perfomance. She did great, and loved the big audience...

Tyler's Christmas program is always hilarious.

Sisi was a star for her little play.....

It was such a fun year, and we are excited to see what this year brings... Happy New Year!!!!

OH HELP....

2009-01-02T08:44:00.000-08:00

I am not so smart, and just lost my friend list. Please leave a comment so I can re-add you.... I think the Holiday's made me stupid:)

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree.....

2008-12-12T23:32:00.000-08:00

Spencer came down last Sat. night to spend the night at Grandma's with all the boy cousins. Before he left for home on Sunday we all headed out to the Cemetery to put up Erik's Christmas tree... We all miss Erik a little more around the holidays, but know that it is especially a hard time of year for Michelle to be with out Erik, and for Spencer to be with out his dad, but are still so lucky and greatfull to still have them as a part of our family. This picture below is My dad and Spencer putting up the tree, I know that meant a lot to my dad to be able to do this with Spencer. Spencer is such a good kid, and it gives me some comfort to know that he will be with his dad again some day.

You cant see much in this video below, but its all of us singing We Wish You A Merry Christmas around Erik's head stone.

Sisi, Derek, Spencer, Tyler, and Wesley...

And the hunt for the tree begins.... This year we didn't go quit as far as last year, but we still had to go to the top of the mountain to cut down the Christmas tree. Thank goodness for Saula, and his friend Antz that came with us. I can never seem to find a cute small tree, but can always seem to find the top of a really big tree that looks nice. Sisi was the only one that came with us. Tyler decided to stay at Grandma's and help entertain Max while we were gone. It's always so fun to be in the mountains, and I love having a real tree.

We cut about 5ft off the bottom to make it fit in our house:)

Decorating the tree....

Sisi told us that when you decorate your tree you are supposed to sing to it, so she sang this song. I had never heard this song before, and thought it was so cute. She said she learned it in school. A couple of days later I went to her Christmas program and it was all about a Christmas tree. This was one of the songs they sang.

Dinner Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

2008-12-10T20:18:00.000-08:00

Dinner Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!
I dont know why I do things like this because I never win:) But I guess I will keep trying.

Happy Birthday Tyler

2008-12-06T05:28:00.001-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER

Tyler turned 6 today. Tyler is quite the kid! He really thinks he's the funniest person on the earth. He is constantly trying to be funny and telling jokes. When I think of some of Tyler's most favorite things to do, I think of him standing on his head and playing football. Tyler is constantly on his head. If he could stand on it all day long he would (actually he does). We figured to avoid full brain damage, we should try and limit the time he spends on his head, so we are constantly telling him to stop standing on it.. When he goes to bed at night he's on his head. As soon as he gets up in the mornings the 1st thing he does is stand on his head. He seriously doesn't even know he's doing it any more because its more natural to him than standing on his 2 feet...(Do any of you know if standing on your head is harmful? I'm not exaggerating we can't get him off his head.)

Tyler loves playing football.... But especially when Wesley and Derek are playing with him. He loves when Wes and Derek come to Manti which is almost every other weekend. He would play football 24/7 if Wesley and Derek were playing with him(his cousins).Tyler also loves sleeping at his grandma's house, he would sleep there every night if I would let him. He has spent many weekends there and even snuck in a few Sunday nights, then Grandma just drops him off on her way to work Monday mornings. We're really lucky to have Grandma close by, she watches my kids alot, especially during the winter when we work at the grill a lot. Thanks Grandma...

Snow College is playing for the National Championship today so Tyler gets to celebrate his birthday watching Saula play football. We might sneak in Chucky Cheese or something fun afterwards, but he's pretty excited to see one last football game.

Tyler is such a good big brother to Sisi and Max. We love having him as a part of our family. I can't imagine life with out Tyler.

We love you Tyler and hope you have a great day Celebrating you!!!

Picture up above, a
little concerning!!!

Merry Christmas

2008-11-30T18:06:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

5 Months old....

2008-11-26T10:22:00.000-08:00

Max is such a fun little baby!!! He has always been so smiley, and happy. I cant imagine life without him. Sisi and Tyler love playing with him, and making him laugh. I love the look on Max's face when they come home from school after he hasn't seen them all day, he gets so excited.

Max loves to eat. He now weighs 20 lbs. He also loves rolling over, but gets so frustrated because he cant get back over. He Love's watching Baby Einstein. He loves going for walks. And his new favorite thing to do is growl at you. He thinks its so funny when you do it back to him...

I cant believe how fast they grow. Its so sad, but at the same time so fun to watch all the new things he learns to do.

People keep asking me why he doesn't have hair like my other kids? Well he did have hair, I have just cut it 3 times since he was born... He kept rubbing the back of his head, which created bald spots, and his hair was growing in thicker in some spots, and not in others. It bugged me so I cut it! I think after this cut, it is finally starting to grow in even.
The most frequently asked question we get about Max is.... Why is he so white??? News flash people, I'm white! I think last week I seriously had over 15 people make the comment about him being so white. The ones that make me laugh are the ones who I have no idea who they are... Just to let you all know, Tyler was also a light colored like Max. Tyler just had a lot of black hair so he looked a little darker. I think Tyler and Max look a lot alike. Sisi was the only one who was born with dark skin. We like our "WHITE" babies, but for some reason they keep turning brown . Maybe its because of their dad, I don't know!!!!

Tyler @ 5 months

Max @ 5 months

Invisible Woman

2008-11-22T07:11:00.000-08:00

Why do we do the things we do? Do you ever feel invisible? My answer is yes! But its OK..

Should I, or Shoundn't I

2008-11-18T15:07:00.000-08:00

I have thought about going private for a while, but today I just thought about it a little more after this----
I was looking up something today on Snow College's Football team, and decided that the easiest way to do it would probably just GOOGLE Snow College Football. Simple right? Yes it was very simple, I found exactly what I was looking for. There was only one problem, as I looked at the top 3 sights that google gave me #3 just happen to be my blog :o YIKES...

My life really is not that exciting to be looking at for those people who know me, let alone those people who don't... I have seen stories on the news, and heard about bad experiences people have had with blogs, but what do you all think is the danger of not going private... Or do you think its safe for anyone, and everyone to be able to view your blogs? I thought well I could just remove my kids names from there pictures, but I would also have to go back through every post, and remove their names from there as well... Looking for opinions, or suggestions, what do you think??? Leave your e-mail address any way just in case I do go Private.

Boohoo Sniffle Whimper Sob Whine......

2008-11-17T19:12:00.000-08:00

WARNING WHINING BELOW!!!

Well Manti lost, and it was SAD!!!

We were tied at 28 with 2.5 SECONDS left in the game, and North Summit kicked a field goal and won by 3! Does it get any worse than that??? Not at this house... I felt so bad for the team, and if you have never seen football players cry, well they do and its sad. They were a great team and Fred loved Coaching them, it just sucks to lose. Oh well life goes on right?

On a better note Snow College won again, and the # 1 team lost, which now makes Snow the #1 team in the nation. They will be playing for the National Championship on Dec. 6th at Rio Tinto Stadium. YAY!!!!!

This was my kids at the first of the game. They were not this happy when it was over, in fact Tyler cried for a good 30 min after because he said that he wanted the trophy, and his daddy was going to be mad....

7 YEARS...

2008-11-10T20:47:00.000-08:00

Today is our 7 year Anniversary... I would have never thought 7 years ago that I would be where I am today! I reminded Fred yesterday that today is our anniversary, we usually both forget but this year I remembered:) It has been a really fun day, I have done 7 loads of laundry, cleaned the house, bathed Max twice oh and lets not forget Tyler & Sisi's bath too:) Fred did make it home today for an hour (long enough for me to take a shower)and also brought me flowers, but had to go back to watch film for this weekends game... Real fun huh

He told me yesterday that he was grateful for a wife that understands that our anniversary is almost always centered around football or something that has nothing to do with "US"... I cant complain, I cant imagine my life without Fred... He is so good to me, and our kids! I have to say that days like this I am grateful for all of the laundry, cleaning, football, bad times, and good times that I have in my life. I was thinking about my brother today, who passed away 9 years ago and left his pregnant wife behind. She is still a single parent, and does a great job at it, but she celebrates her anniversary EVERY year with out her husband. (We love you Michelle, & Spencer)

Some times I find my self complaining about not seeing Fred enough, to much football, work, ect.... I have no room to complain! Life's good, and I'm so lucky to still have my husband here with me today!!!

I love you Fred, thanks for the greatest 7 years of my life...

This week is also a Happy week at our house because...

Manti beat San Juan, and are now playing for the State Championship this Sat...

Snow beat Phoenix, and are now Conference Champs, hopefully they will be playing for the National Championship in a few weeks.

I thought I would post a few funny pictures of Fred Coaching:)

GO TEMPLARS TAKE STATE!!!

I've been Tagged X3

2008-11-07T07:50:00.000-08:00

A tag about Fred..... Hmmmmm
(I wasn't going to do this but my sister told me I'm a blog party pooper cause I don't do tags that often, so here goes...)

1. Where did you meet?
Snow College, we actually new who each other for about a year before we officially met or talked to each other, but Wal-mart was the first time we actually met.

2. How long did you date before you got married?
1 year( the first 3 months we dated I kept it a secret, because I swore that I would never marry a polynesian. I guess it didnt work)

3. How long have you been married?
7 years

4. What is one thing he does that surprises you?
Clean the house, which never happens during football season!!!!!

5. What is your favorite feature about him?
His smile, and laugh....

6. What is your favorite quality about him?
He can start a conversation with any one, and become their friend instantly. He also is a good cook, and does most of the cooking around the house...

7. Does he have a nick name for you?
Not that I know of :)

8. What's his favorite color?
I don't know... I don't think he has one.

9. What is his favorite food?
Tongan food (pig, horse, lu pulu, ect...)

10. What is his favorite sport?
Football, Football, and oh yeah Football!!!

11. Who said "I Love You" first?
I don't know :0

12. When and Where was your first kiss?
Anderson Hall room#...... hmmm, I'm not sure the room # I always went through the window.

13. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple?
Eat out, go to BYU football games, and sleep in....

14. Do you have any kids?
Tyler, Sisi, and Lil Max. You could probably count Saula as one of our own as well...
When ever Fred leaves town or goes to the store, he always takes the kids with him. Sometimes they don't want to go because there busy playing or doing something, so he just ends up taking Max:) but he hates going with out them...

15. What is a hidden talent of his?
Public Speaking, and cutting guys hair...(he does it better than I do, and I went to beauty school)

16. How old is he?
31 almost 32

17. What do you admire most about him?
He is so giving, and very un-selfish.... He hates taking orders at the grill, because if it was his way he would give everyone free food, even if he didn't know them. So we try to keep him cooking as much as possible.
Little kids always come into the grill and ask if we have any thing they could do to make a little money. Fred will never say no, he always puts them to work either picking up trash, raking leaves, or washing windows, and then pays them way to much.
Any one who calls for donations, he gives them my cell # because he wont say no. We get about 5 calls a week on donations, and you would think by now he would just say no, but he continues to tell them my # instead..... I'm getting really good at telling people no when they ask for money:)

18. What is his favorite past time?
Golf, going for a ride on the rhino in the mtns, and watch anything sports related on T.V.

19. What is his favorite kind of music?
Reggae

20.Do you think he will read this?
I don't know!!!

Halloween

2008-11-01T13:44:00.000-07:00

Halloween 2008 Manti ended up having a play-off game on Halloween this year. They won 34-10, so now they are off to the Semi's next week. Hopefully they can pull it off and play for the State Championship the following week. Sisi stayed in her costume the whole day, while Tyler decided to change for the football game, he didn't think that would be very cool to go play football with the big kids and be wearing a costume.
Manti shuts down main street for the trunk or treating. We handed out over 1,000 pieces of candy. I had Emily hand out candy while I helped Fred inside the grill. Yeah that is her, the Pregnant Nun..... Halloween was a lot of fun and definitely a lot of work!!! My neighbor has a little cat and it seriously freaked out when it saw Sisi, it thought she was a cat. I have never seen a cat go crazy like that before. It was dang funny....

BYU Football.....

2008-10-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

MAX & MAX

How cute is this Picture of little Max, and Max Hall? We sat by Max Hall's family at the game, and by the end they realized that we had a baby Max(Just for you non football fans, he's the QB for BYU). Max Hall's mom said to come get a picture with him after, so of course we did. He was in the middle of a bunch of people signing autographs, and Max's mom just took our Max, and said Baby Max is next for a picture. When Max Hall took our Lil Max he didn't have a good hold of his back and almost dropped him, he said "oh sorry I almost fumbled him..." It was pretty funny!!!!

Tyler and Harvey Unga.... (running back for BYU #45)

All the Boys went down on the field before the game to get a little pre-game ACTION. Max wasn't sure what was going on, but he seemed to enjoy every bit of it....

Tyler also got a picture with Max. (His eyes were closed, but its still a cute picture)...
To the left is our friend Coleby Clawson (#41) He played at Snow College, and was a huge part of their team, and now is doing amazing at BYU... Him and his cute wife Bree lived in our apts last year before heading up to BYU. They have the cutest little girl ever, her name is Chesni and she is a doll... Thanks for the Picture Bree, we should have had you in it, not taking it, what were we thinking???

Coleby had an awesome game. He had a lot of big momentum plays for the Cougar's, that got everyone excited. Good Job Coleby!!!

This picture below is with Fred's cousin Reno & Fahu Tahi (Good old Reno, what a guy)

Tyler giving the players five after the game....

Tyler with his cousins Wesley, Spencer, and Derek...

This was the first BYU game we have been to this year. All of Saula's home games were the same as BYU's so we haven't been able to make it to more.... We usually are die-hards and don't miss any but this was really a fun game to be at. A little close for comfort, but hey its a win.... Tyler loves going to BYU games, and the older he gets the more he loves them.

GO COUGARS!!!!!

Oh and dont mind Fred's facial hair, he lost a bet with his football team, and still has 3 weeks before he can shave... What was he thinking...

2008-10-22T11:38:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of this last weekend. It was UEA and my brother was going hunting with the rest of the family, so their family came down on Thurs. We don't see them often because they live in Tremonton so its always a party when their down... We tied a lot of quilts aughhh(not my most favorite thing to do but it was nice to get them done thanks to Brenda)...Ate a lot of food, and our kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins...

This is my niece Jessica, She was playing with Max and had him laughing so hard. I love when she's around. She gives me pedicures, and plays with Max, its great!

Max being so Serious...

Fred's Uncle Roy and his friend Chuck came and camped in their trailer in our parking lot:) This is the deer they shot (Chucks deer is a little small, but hey its a deer)...Hmmm wheres Freds????

A little Football with the cousins

And more Snow College Football... Emily also came down for the weekend (shocker), and all the girls went to the game while the guys were hunting.

And out comes the purple sunglasses. Sisi always sneaks in sunglasses where ever we go, even if the sun is not shining.
Snow College won again, now they are 8-0... I love this picture of Saula sitting on the bench, it explains how exciting the game really was... He did really good this game he had a sack, and a few tackles. Need I say more that Pima needs a new Coach, or maybe just get rid of their football program... I feel so bad for some of these teams... How horrible would it be to practice everyday then drive 16 hours and get beat this bad????

THE DEER HUNT!!!!

2008-10-21T17:41:00.001-07:00

Those of you who watched the news last night would have seen the story on the Deer hunters who ruined someones retirement fund. Instead of finding deer up Ephraim Canyon, they found Marijuana.... LOL One of my dads friends called him and said that this was the most successful hunt he has had in years. My dad asked why and he said they made a huge drug bust, while searching for deer. 2 Hispanic guys were actually sleeping in the mountains keeping watch over the plants, but as I'm sure they soon found out, you need more than 2 guys to hide thousands of plants, located in 4 different spots the size of football fields. This is one of the biggest drug bust in Utah, right here in Ephraim....No wonder why Fred hasn't seen any buck this year, there all dead from eating marijuana plants ha ha....

I kind of figured that who ever I married would probably be introduced to hunting one way or another, seeing that my brother Steve is a die hard/freak about it. I was hoping that Fred being from Maui, and also Tongan would some how escape the hunting disease ( that's what Steve calls it, and he says once you've got it its hard to get rid of). Well he didn't!!!!! This was the e-mail I sent out to friends and family 2 years ago after Fred's first hunt.

OCTOBER 25,2006
Hello friends,
Here is a couple of pix of Fred after he killed his first deer. He had
only shot a riffle a couple of times, and decided to take on the big hunt.
He was like a little kid on Christmas morning. This kind of stuff definitely
doesn't happen in MAUI.....
This is what the hunt consisted of....
4 DAYS shooting at big deer and missing!!!
$400.00 Gun!!!
$500.00 in clothing!!!
$82.00 speeding ticket!!!
Gas $??????
$30.00 for each box of bullets!!! (5 boxes total)
Dave,Chase, & Steve's guide service $ ?????
Made his wife Crazy!!!!
Was the laughing stock of the hunting crew, because he was such a terrible shot!!!
PRICELESS!!!!!!!!
We are glad he got one, and glad its over. Thanks for looking.
The Taukei'aho family.....

For those of you who cant see the horns, it barely had 2, AKA small deer.....
Last year he came in the house the very last day of the dear hunt, and said I ruined it for everyone. I asked why, and he said... I shot at the biggest deer we have seen this whole hunt, and MISSED AGAIN :) So none of us got a deer....

This year he just happened to tell me a few days before the hunt that he kind-of sord-of bought a gun, and it was kind-of sord-of expensive... He is still hunting as we speak right now with my dad, who could probably care less if he really got a deer, but it makes for a good excuse to get out of work, and do absolutely nothing around the house for 5 days. So I'm pretty sure there all on a nice ride up the mountain BS'ing waiting til it gets dark to come home....

I have decided that this hunting thing really isn't PRICELESS....

P.S. Im still trying to be a good supportive wife, so GOOD LUCK Fred I hope you find the big one you have been searching for...

P.S.S. I think Fred put more thought into the Deer Hunt than he did choosing our kids names...

SNOW COLLEGE FOOTBALL

2008-10-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

Here's to all Saula's family in Maui. It was Homecoming week at Snow College. I posted a video of the Team doing the Haka before and after the game, and a slideshow of Saula.... They played New Mexico Military, and of course killed them.

Snow College is ranked 2nd in the Nation... Hopefully if they continue to win they will get a shot at the National Championship. Just to let all of you know back in Hawaii, Saula is doing great.... We love and appreciate Saula, and are so proud of him and his accomplishments. Thanks for letting him be a part of our family.

GO BADGERS!!!

Double click on the "VIEW ALL IMAGES" to see all of the pictures in the slide.

2008-10-09T22:38:00.000-07:00

WALK TO SCHOOL DAY, A DAY LATE

Every year the school has a walk to school day, which means your SUPPOSED to walk your child to school. Its Suppose to encourage them to be healthy and stay fit. I thought that if we showed up to school a little early he would not notice all of the kids walking. Well it worked. I thought I got out walking him to school. I really don't mind taking the stroller and going for a walk with the kids, but for some reason when we are supposed to be some where on time walking just doesn't seem to get the job done (I drive alot faster than I walk as you can imagine). Well this morning as I was getting Tyler ready for school he said "Mom we were suppose to walk to school yesterday, and we didn't are we going to today?" (Crap he has learned to communicate with kids at school.) "No Tyler not today I think we will be late if we do." then he said "All the kids did it with their moms, and you forgot. We can just walk fast my teacher wont mind if I'm late." The guilt set in, and here we are walking to school. I even walked fast and we were still late.

SHOPPING
We went up to Provo on Sat. and did a little shopping. The kids needed some Winter Coats, Cloths and shoes. Fred left with the kids, and I was just looking around thinking to my self this is so nice shopping with out the kids. Then I remembered that Fred was in the mall with the kids, and that's not a good thing. For some reason Fred just buys random things that the kids don't need when I'm not around. I ran into my friend Erin and talked to her for just a min. and then told her that I needed to go find Fred so he didn't spend to much money( which was kind of a joke). As I began to walk off this is what I see. Fred coming out of CHAMPS and my kids all dressed in blue. Is it really necessary for my kids to have so many BYU jersey's. They didn't have one Max's size so he settled for the beenie....

IS THIS WHAT ARE HEADS ARE USED FOR? HMMMM I DONT THINK SO!!!!!
I swear this kid is going to have brain damage. This picture below is Tyler at the Snow College Powder Puff game. I was sitting in the stands and had no idea where Tyler was til I kept hearing all these girls cheering. I looked to see what they were cheering about and this is what I found. He was twisting on his head, and doing all kinds of things up side down. The more he did the louder the girls cheered. His teacher asked me if he stands on his head at home, because during every recess or break they have he is standing on his head.

This was Fred playing on the floor with Sisi, and look who ends up on his head. He seriously finds some way some how to be on his head, and he is always searching for new ways to do it. Fred is a little concerned that its a little more related to something a cheerleader might do verses a football player.

Seriously So Blessed

2008-10-08T22:48:00.001-07:00

Well we all need humor in our lives right? Well my friend Janey introduced to me to the "SERIOUSLY SO BLESSED BLOG"http://seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/ some of you may have seen it, but those of you who have not, it is hilarious. Some of you may not find it as funny as others but I think it is dang funny, to funny not to share with the rest of you. What makes it great is the story behind the blog. Just click on this link below to view the news clip of the lady behind it all. http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4108250&autostart=y

#1 Goalie!!!!

2008-09-21T11:24:00.000-07:00

As I watched Tyler's soccer game last week I looked at Fred and said "I have never played soccer before, and neither have you." I then said "I'm pretty sure as a goalie your supposed to be focused on the game, and waiting intensely for the ball to be kicked at you. Then do everything in your power to stop it." Fred agreed, and said "yeah that's what your suppose to do." I said "Well you might want to explain that to Tyler, because I think he is doing the opposite."

When I got home I decided to look up the definition of a goalie just to make sure we were right, this is what I found.

For every SOCCER TEAM, there has to be a goalie. Many people believe that the goalie, has the toughest job in the game. A goalie must TRY to stop all shots that are directed towards him or at the goal. If an opponent scores, a lot of the time the blame is shifted towards the goalie.

WOW, Tyler has alot to learn about being a goalie.....

2008-09-13T07:54:00.000-07:00

First Day of Pre-School

Sisi had her first week of Pre-School. We were a little worried that at the last minute she wouldn't want to go. She has been so excited to go for so long, but she is definitely our Velcro child, but as you can see she proved us wrong. She was so brave and got on the bus with no problems. I think the Hannah Montana shirt helped a little. We bought this shirt about 2 months ago, and it is long sleeved so obviously she couldn't wear it in the summer, so I used it as a bribe for the first day of school. Now she keeps asking me, when she can go back to school so she can wear her Hannah Montana shirt. She was a little upset when she got home the first day because they didn't send any homework home. The second day she came home with a bunch of homework so that made her happy. I'm sure being happy over homework wont last for long.

SOCCER

Tyler started Soccer last week. Yes he is the one in the red shorts that does not match. We didn't have our jersey's yet, and did not think about colors (duh what was I thinking). Tyler was sad that he didn't have a number yet so Fred brought him his Kevin Garnett Jersey so he would match the rest of the team.

It is so funny watching these little kids play soccer. Every time Tyler's team gets a goal, Tyler yells touchdown. Actually every time the ball is kicked out of the lines, he yells touch down, then he turns to us and gives us a thumbs up, or the Shaka sign. We weren't sure how he would like it, but he loves it. He's not the fastest little guy but were working on it... :)

Sisi thought it would be a good idea to take a picture with Max and Tyler before she left for school. I think Max is loving it with both of them in school at the same time, he can actually go a couple of hours without being kissed every 5 minutes...

ROAD TRIP

2008-09-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

We left for our road trip Friday afternoon, and headed for Kanab to watch Manti play. They won again which was a bonus for us. Fred is not that fun to be around when they don't win, and seeing that we were headed to Arizona after the game that would have made for a long trip with a mad husband:)

After the games, Tyler and Sisi love going out on the field to find Fred. I cant tell if they are really excited to see Fred, or just really glad the game is finally over...

After the game, we drove 6 hours through the night to Mesa. It was actually kind of peaceful to be awake that long, and not hear any kids. They slept the whole way there which was really nice. On the way home we drove during the day. Thanks to the movies, a few treats, and the DS, they were actually really good for being in the car for 8 hours.

After the long drive to Arizona, Sisi was so excited to finally see Saula she wouldn't let him put her down. Saula is so good with our kids, and they hate when he's gone away from home.

Saula didn't know we were going to be at his game. We walked into the stadium on the side that he was warming up on so he could see us before the game started. When we got close we yelled go badgers. He turned around and looked at us, I think he was really surprised to see us there. It was alot of fun to be there, and to finally watch him play.

Sisi always wants to wear her Jersey on game days. However it was so hot that she didn't last for long wearing it this time.

Max supporting the Badger Hat

Holy Cow.... Arizona is HOT. It was 106 degrees at kick off. I am not sure how people live there, but I'm sure glad I don't...

We took the kids swimming to try and beat the heat. I think it was the first time they didn't hesitate swimming in cold water.

I also got to see my good friends K.C. & Karole Anderson at the game. I usually only see them on Karole's blog, so it was really good to finally see them, and their kids. Don't worry Karole, I wont forget how hot it is there!!!!! I feel for you.

FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOTBALL

2008-08-30T23:40:00.000-07:00

Yes this is us, in our BYU blue. In order to be allowed in the house on Cougar game day, we have to be wearing blue. Its just an insane tradition in our house. Crazy I know!!!!

Football has officially started!!!

For those of you who don't know Fred coaches football at the High School, and Saula plays for Snow College. Football is my favorite time of year, although I don't see Fred much because of it, I still love everything thing about it!!!!

This last weekend was Saula's first game for Snow College. After living with us for 3 years, he feels like one of my own. It was a little weird sending him off to College, and getting him off on his first road trip. I have to admit I was a little worried about him, and constantly wondering if he was going to be OK. After I realized that Snow College is 2 blocks away from our house, I figured he would be OK at school, but sending him on a bus to Colorado to play Air Force was a little nerve racking. I'm happy to say that they won 56 to 17, and he made it home safe....
FUNNY STORY: I turned the radio on to listen to Snow's game. I was listening to the pre-game show and they were announcing the starters. When I heard them say "starting at defensive tackle Saula Taufa" I was jumping up and down screaming, I was a little excited to say the least. However I didn't realize that my front door was open, and as I walked out of my room my neighbor was standing there knocking on the open door(I obviously couldn't hear it because the radio was so loud) she said Oh is Fred home too? I said "NO" she said are you home alone? I said "YES" she started laughing at me for jumping around and cheering like an idiot, as if the people in Colorado could hear me. Next time I will shut my door!!!
We are headed to Kanab on Friday to watch Manti's game, and then driving to Arizona to watch Snow's game. We are going to suprise Saula, he has no idea were going to be there, Im so excited!!!!!!

SUMMER OLYMPICS 2008

2008-08-24T22:41:00.001-07:00

So Tyler has found a new idol.... Yes this is MICHAEL PHELPS. He is so sad that the olympics are over. Thank goodness for TIVO. I use the Olympics as a bribe. I tell Tyler that if he is good at school, and if he comes home and does his home-work he can watch Michael Phelps on TIVO. He liked watching the other events during the Olympics, but said that swimming was his favorite. He would get so excited when he would see USA logo, or the American Flag. He would say look mom our team is in this event. Then he would be glued to the TV tell it was over. If the USA won he would get so excited and run around the house saying we won again, we got another gold. It is kind of scary to think that the next time there is a summer olympics, Tyler will be nine years old... He keeps asking me when he can go to the pool to start practicing to be in the next olympics so he can be like Michael Phelps, and win a gold for the USA...

DONT YOU SEE

THE RESEMBLANCE

Update.....

2008-08-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a while since I blogged..... I'm still trying to figure out how to adjust to a busy life with 3 kids....
Now that summer is over, we have really been busy. It is the Sanpete Country Fair this week, which is one of our busiest weeks of the year at the Sport's Grill. Tyler started school, and Soccer. Fred and Saula both started football, and Sisi is getting ready to start her dance classes, and Pre-School. She is very excited to say the least.( I'm just hoping that she will stay that way:)

We had Max's baby blessing a couple of weeks ago, and were able to enjoy all the family being here for it. It was a really great day. Fred took care of everything that day, and also did an amazing with Max's blessing. He went all out on the food of coarse, we seriously could have fed 50 more people. I am really so grateful for Fred and his ability to cook. I never have to worry about being in charge of food when it comes to a big get together. Thanks Fred!!!

It was my Grandma Wardle's 80th Birthday Party. We got together and had a big party for her, it was alot of fun. She is the Greatest Grandma ever, we love her....My cousins wife is a photographer, and was taking random pictures of the kids. Surprise, Surprise Tyler is standing on his head in most of the pictures...

Tyler's 1st day of Kindergarten.... He was so excited to be back at the big school. His 1st year of Pre-School was also at this School, so he was already familiar with it which was really nice...

We attempted family pictures the morning of Max's baby blessing. It is always a good thing to have over with, it is alot of work to get that many people together and be smiling at the same time.....

Sorry I couldnt get the Slide show to pull up automatically. You will have to click on Slide to view.

TEAM TAUKEI'AHO

ALOHA

Maui

Tyler's Baptism and Emmie's Sealing

HULA

SO MUCH TO CATCH UP ON.

First Broken Bone

Halloween 2010

Accepting the change

Trash turned Treasure

Fall Sports 2010

Shed Renovation

I will miss this....

Back to School

Warning...summer 2010 all in one post.

Baby Emmie has arrived

Sisi turns 5

Elder Taufa

WISHING WINTER WAS OVER!

Christmas dance recital

HAWAII

Halloween Pictures

Besides everyone being sick, life is good...

Because I love my kids!!!

Life at our house...

I'm blogging

Lake Powell

Pray for Sadie....

The Month of May...

Just using my head!

Pray for Sadie!!!!

Easter

Update.....

Brown people are more scared of you than you are of them!!!!

4 years old

More Articles

Super Bowl Article

Super Bowl 2009

Happy New Year

OH HELP....

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree.....

Dinner Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Happy Birthday Tyler

Merry Christmas

5 Months old....

Invisible Woman

Should I, or Shoundn't I

Boohoo Sniffle Whimper Sob Whine......

7 YEARS...

I've been Tagged X3

Halloween

BYU Football.....

THE DEER HUNT!!!!

SNOW COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Seriously So Blessed

#1 Goalie!!!!

ROAD TRIP

FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOTBALL

SUMMER OLYMPICS 2008

Update.....