It's Potty time!!!

Kalena has this thing that when she goes to the bathroom she is there for no less than 5 minutes now. My mom got us a subscription of "Family Fun" and I put them in our kitchen bathroom to read. Who would have thought that my 3 year old would pick them up every time and look through one of them completely before she got off the pot. Cliff had taken pictures of it earlier, but I couldn't post the picture because of embarrassment for her being undressed at the time. But, I snapped a couple tonight and here she is...about ten minutes later she got off.

Stairway to crack-up!

While Cliff was taking his lunch break the kids decided to play with each other and slide down the stairs. Funny thing is is that Maika's legs are so short that every time he hits a lower step, his legs fly up. So, Cliff decided to film it and here is the result.

Cyst Saga continued....

The day we were admitted to the hospital and the beginning of the long waiting game.

At Tula'i's checkup yesterday, the doctor took out his drain from the cyst and now this is what it looks like. I have a close up but don't want to gross anyone out.

Never thought that he would be so tired from everything going on that he would rather sleep than eat. AND boy does he LOVE to eat!!!!

Kalena's Hohawk

Kalena always wants a mohawk in her hair when we style the boys hair like that, so this time daddy tried to just get it all to stay up in the air. I shot the picture and it turned out perfect because her hair just fell right after I snapped it. She loved the do.

NO Place like home

So, we went to the doctor yesterday and ended up being admitted to the hospital to drain the puss out of his cyst. The doctor couldn't perform surgery with it all infected and full of puss. We waited in the hospital until midnight to finally get him in the O.R. and didn't get back to our room until 1:15 in the morning. My poor little guy didn't have anything to eat for 10 hours before his surgery and then the whole night didn't get anything to eat or drink, just an I.V. Needless to say, he was starving this morning when he woke up and downed 3 little cups of the apple juice in no time. He even had a thing of banana baby food that usually he wouldn't eat. We were discharged around 11 a.m. and as soon as we got home he ate like a pig...8 ritz crackers and almost 2 full adult pieces of pizza. He is doing well with a drain still in his cyst and so the saga will continue until we get the darn thing taken completely out of him. Hope that will be soon. Tula'i is excited to be home and so am I. Like they say on "Wizard of Oz," "There's no place like home!"

Don't touch or I will hit you!

Well, this hasn't been the best week so far. I am tired, but on top of that we are dealing with insurance, hospitals and authorizations that I found out I don't need to have. In the mean time, Tula'i is the one suffering and had to go back to the pediatrician to get put on an antibiotic. So, here is the run down of the picture and his infected cyst. We went in for his 1 year check up and the pediatrician caught a white spot just below his neck that has been there ever since he was born. She felt it and there was a hard lump underneath and tells me that it is a cyst...not cancerous, but it can get infected. So, she refers me up to childrens primary hospital and they tell me that I need an authorization from my insurance to before we are allowed to have a consultation done. I go ahead and schedule an appointment for the 9th of Sept. They call me the day before letting me know that they haven't received an authorization. So I tell them that I got one in the mail, but it doesn't have the specific doctor on the authorization for him to be seen. We cancel the appointment and I call the pediatrician to tell them I need the doctor's name faxed to my insurance to get the approval. In the mean time, his cyst is a little pink around it. Friday comes around and the cyst has become infected, huge and red. I call my insurance at 4:30 P.M. only to find out we don't need an authorization to be seen for a consultation, only if they are going to do surgery. By this time the weekend has arrived, offices are closed and I don't want to pay an emergency room bill if I don't have too. So, I asked Cliff to please give him a blessing just so that I know nothing will happen until we can get in to the doctor. Here we are on a Wednesday, a week later from the first scheduled appointment finally getting in today for a consultation. Since, we have had to pay for an antibiotic and another pedicatric visit to get the antibiotic with a lady up at primary childrens who almost still wouldn't schedule an appointment for me because according to them, we have to have an authorization.

Another Haircut...

You may be thinking..."Why doesn't she learn her lesson and not give scissors to her children or put them in places they can get to them?" Well, just so you know, it was not my hair this time and it wasn't Maika with the scissors. I did laugh at the haircut though because it happened to be barbie. Kalena cut her hair by herself and when she was done she walked right over to me where I was sitting and said, "Look Mom, Barbie got her hair cut." Thank goodness it was only a $5.oo barbie doll and not $30.00. So here is barbie's pretty hair now.

Just get a REAL photographer

So, I decided to take the kids out one more time to try and get some pictures of them. After all the time it takes to get them ready and trying over and over again, you think I would just save some money and pay a professional photographer. Well, I think I am going to finally break down and do it. Maybe though, I will wait until the next baby is born and summer comes around. I have tons of pictures of the kids just trying to get one good one, but I don't have one great one that I love. Since we didn't have conference today until 1 p.m., I figured I better get them out a little earlier so that Tula'i will not be so cranky and get at least a decent one with him. Well, here is how they turned out.

The way most of the pictures turned out...all 3 looking somewhere other than the camera. I would even make stupid noises and faces to try to get them to look.


Kalena almost choking out Tula'i because she wanted him so close to her. Maika actually smiling & looking at the camera at the same time.


The only good picture of Tula'i smiling.






Tula'i always trying to reach for something in I don't know how many shots I took at this spot. Once again, the others looking off into space.


I really like this one of Lela and Tula'i.


Kalena blowing a kiss because I asked them all to give me kisses, so she is the only one that did.

Dad's 2nd trip to Hawaii by himself!

Well, Cliff has been gone since Thursday morning. I told him that one of the brothers here needed to be with their brother over in Hawaii for the funeral of his best friend. Cliff was the lucky winner because of our Delta skymiles. I actually pushed him to get out of here without me. He has been busy with funeral stuff and so it hasn't been a real relaxing and just hang out at the beach trip. His brother, Joe, and the family are holding up well. Same with Les' family. My heart goes out to all of them.

But, this time around having to be with the kids hasn't been too bad. I decided to take Maika off from his pacifier while Dad wasn't here to shove it back in his mouth to just make him quiet. It was a rough first day without it yesterday, but we got through it after him kicking the floor, running out the front door, and rolling around screaming "I want to go nigh, night" for 45minutes before finally settling down to take his nap. Then at night I decided to go watch "Mamma Mia" with my friend, Valerie. (By the way, that movie is hillarious...LOVED IT) It didn't take as long for him to settle down because I pinched his cheek real hard and told him if he woke his brother up from his peaceful sleep that he would get it again. After that, I felt a little bad, but he quieted down so I could leave and Lela didn't have to give his pacifier to him. I think after today, or at least hope, that it will be a cake walk and it won't take him 45 minutes to realize that he isn't going to get it. Aside from this, the kids have been pretty darn good. I get a little irritated with them at night, but not near as much as I did last time he was gone. I had them in bed by 9p.m. the first night and a little after 9 last night.

In Memory of Les Faletea

After a great weekend of fun and enjoyment with my sister and her family, Cliff received a call from his oldest brother, Jr., saying that their brother's best friend, Les Faletea, had just passed away from a heart atttack. He was an amazing man. When we would go over to Hawaii, Les' family would be at the beach with all of us and hang out. He was a very giving man. Not only was he a great friend to Cliff's brother, Joe, but he was known throughout as a excellent surfer in the surfing world, hence the picture of him surfing. Joe would tell us stories of him taking his children out on the surf board without having them strapped to him or anything and they would love the ride. One of his sons would even fall asleep while out on the board. My heart dropped when Cliff reported the news to me and I began to cry. I feel very sorry for his wife, Mary, and the 4 small children that were left behind. He was in very great physical shape and no one would have ever guessed that it was his time to go. But, I am thankful to have the knowledge of the gospel and knowing that families can be together forever, even friends and loved ones will be able to see each other again.

Michael Jackson came to visit...

My sister and her family drove down from Washington State...10 hours of driving after school with 4 kids. They arrived here Saturday at 2 a.m. and we talked for a few minutes and went back to bed. My kids had a slumber party the whole weekend and loved every minute of it. Saturday, around 10 a.m., they left to go and visit some friends that flew up from New Zealand and Kalena was so heartbroken. She wanted to go with them and cried for a few minutes afterward. But, that passed and they returned at night and they all slept on the living room floor. Maika enjoyed every bit of it just as much. If all of you knew Maika, he is shy and usually when someone comes over that he doesn't know, he is attached at the hip to either me, Cliff or Lela. Tula'i was just as good. Cajsa's kids loved all three of them and they enjoyed playing with them. The weekend came and went so quickly. We had a family get together on Sunday so all of my brothers could come and see them. The food was EXCELLENT, thanks to my wonderful husband who knows how to BBQ very well and the side dishes that were brought over. We played a couple of games and then one of my brother's left with his family. The night was still young because soon to follow was a dance competition between father and son, John and Wyatt, that would make all of us have tears of laughter.


Little did we know that Hitch would join in the competition and waste on everyone with the pizza dough toss and q-tip moves. Cajsa told me that if I posted her dancing on the blog that she would get revenge so I am going to have to see what she does to get me back because I think all of you need a good laugh.