it's a wrap!

Every Christmas season my workplace, American Indian Services, holds a Christmas Wrap! We fund raise and gather toys, clothes and other gifts throughout the year for Native American tribes in need. When everything is together we set it all up in a chapel and call in the volunteers! The volunteers wrap every single gift and representatives from the reservations come and pick them up and take them to their tribes. We hope it makes Christmas a little brighter for some Native American children who wouldn't be able to have it otherwise.

It was a fun day - we all got there around 6 am and wrapped HUNDREDS of toys. There was hot chocolate and snacks for the volunteers. Sarana and the rest of the AIS team kept everything organized and running smooth. It was a lot of good fun!

Some of the best volunteers - my FAMILY.
Loren, Tiare, Ni'i, me and Reenie

crystal's bridal shower

Crystal Nagy is getting married to Spencer Hafoka December 26! Crystal and I danced together at PCC and she is seriously, one of the most gorgeous people I know. She is beautiful inside and out and I am so happy for this cute cute couple.

Her future sister-in-law, Line, threw the bridal shower. It was beautiful!

Congratulations Crystal and Spencer! We love you guys!

michael got his mission call!!!

Michael will be serving in the PUERTO RICO, San Juan West Mission. He reports to the Provo MTC January 14 to learn how to preach the gospel in SPANISH. I'm so excited for him, but I'm going to miss him SOOO much!
Congratulations! Love you, Mikey!

THAT's nice

So this is what happened. . .

I was feeding Kina when I realized how quiet the house had gotten. I called Malia and she didn't answer me. I finished with Kina and started looking for Malia because I KNOW how she likes to find trouble. I walked around the house and couldn't find her. Finally, I looked in the bathroom (the lights were off so it was dark) and she was standing over the toilet peering in. I said "Malia! Come here." She looked at me and then looked into the toilet and said "bye bye". I turned on the lights, walked over to the toilet and this is what I saw. . .

It's a POTATO! Yeah, I thought it was something else at first, too. Malia gets into the cupboards in the kitchen and walks around with random dishes, but she had never gotten into the potato's before. Anyway, so she dropped it in the toilet and I thought it was so funny that I ran to get my camera (for the blog, of course) and after I took the picture I left the potato in the toilet so I could show Wayne when he woke up.

I wish the story ended there.

About 10 minutes later, I forgot about the potato and started working on the laundry. I didn't think about it again until I heard the sink water running in the bathroom. I looked and saw Wayne! He had woken up and went to use the bathroom. I ran to the toilet to show him the funny potato. . . and it was nowhere to be found.

. . .

5 hours, one root master and 70 DOLLARS later. . . the potato is now miles away (they just had to push it on through), our toilet works again and I'm really regretting not taking out that potato when I had the chance.

FHE at the INOUYES

Things I liked about FHE at the Inouyes

1. the cute invites Ula made. (I swear, some people were blessed with all the talent.)
2. the yummy appetizers everyone brought (stuffed mushrooms, eggrolls, deviled eggs. . YUM!!)

3. beating the boys in BLURP! (yeah, we won. EVEN with the boys cheating the whole time)

4. listening to Ula sing Karaoke. (she was umm . . . the ONLY one I liked listening to. No offense, Wayne. lol)
5. spending an evening with friends (can't go wrong with the Hafoka's, Inouye's, Aupiu's AND Kaufusi's. LOVE you guys!)

Spencer happy on David's shoulders

Malia totally enthralled by Devon's tatoo. LOL

Thanks for a great night, Inouye Family!

saturday fun!

Sat-ur-day is a spe-cial day. . . it's the day we get busy and PLAY!
For us, it was a FAMILY DAY!

Wayne got up early to go "running" (that's code for touch football. He thinks he's so tricky). He got back with his board shorts totally grass stained so I'm assuming he had fun.

First, we went to our ward Christmas party. They did a brunch this year - much more economical for a Tongan ward with a lot of healthy eaters like us! We had chicken, ham, potatoes, rice and a LOT of dessert! YUM!!



After naps, we went to the BYU vs. UC Irvine volleyball game at the Smith Fieldhouse. BYU won in 4 games!! We cheered for the star player, #17 Futi Tavanaa. He was the BOMB!!

Jessica, Matt, me, Michael, Tali, Kika, Kina, Nia, Kalo

To top off the night, Wayne took me to see Twilight!! I was hooked on the books and had been wanting to see it since it came out. Final verdict? It was okay - didn't love it, didn't hate it. . . it left much wanting. . .But I'm glad I saw it. Thanks for watching Malia, Tali!

What a great Saturday!

girls just want to have fun!!

How do YOU unwind after a long week of kids, errands, housework, appointments, meals, walks, meetings and work? Me? I do a GIRLS NIGHT OUT!! woohoo!

This months GNO was co-hosted by Lene and me at the clubhouse. We thought we'd go back. . . waaaay back. . . back in time when I had braces, glasses and a crush on my biology teacher (can I get an amen Megan, Corinne and Kim? lol) Back in those days the only way to have a real GNO was to have a night of LIP SYNCS (girls know there's more than one use of a hairbrush). . . and that's just what we did!!

After eating, we randomly divided into two teams and picked Christmas songs to preform for the group. After 15 minutes the show began. It was the bomb! I was impressed with the creativity and coordination of ALL the girls, but ESPECIALLY the pregos who all ended up on one team . . . they could move!

The Pregos - Tina Jill, Candice, Elsie and Savani (the last two had pillows to help them fit in)

performing "All I Want for Christmas is YOU"

The 80's girls - Lolohea, Ula, Amy, Yolanda and Line

performing "Last Christmas"

Sei and I judged and the Pregos came out victorious. Thanks for the laughs girls. You brought back some good memories and I learned that pregnant women CAN dance. lol!

After, we had a white elephant gift exchange.

We set a $3 limit and the girls got creative. Elsie got a plunger, Candice got some waaay cute lingerie, I got some toilet paper and Ula got an organizer.

The most useful gift though, was Jill's - a pregnancy test! LOL

Can't wait till the next Girl's Night Out!

Jill, Yolanda, Lene, Tina, Ula, Lolohea, me, Candice, Elsie, Savani, Amy and Line

kina lately

Kina's eyes are stil light! I love it! She is gaining weight, filling out and getting cuter and cuter

white elephant at FHE

On Monday we had our FHE at the Hafoka's beautiful home. Because we are all poor and sad we are only getting coal this year for Christmas, we decided last minute to make it a white elephant party so we could all get a free gift. Because we are always hungry and in short supply of good food, we also decided to make it a potluck. Horaay! FHE. . .plus, PRESENTS. . . plus, FOOD!. . .yeah, it was a fun night!!

Wayne and I shared the lesson on gratitude. As part of it, we had everyone write a gratitude note to everyone else and everyone went home with a gratitude box full of the little notes. It was a fun activity and was nice to have an excuse to express my gratitude to such awesome people.

After the lesson, we got to dig into the potluck. I enjoyed Lines Korean chicken, Vika's curry, Tema's sweet bread and Savani's panipopo. YUUM!!!!

Lastly, we did the white elephant exchange.

The Hola's brought coupon-shopped AWESOME products and won a pretty purse for Tevita and the Hafoka's got a little romance starter with some plastic rose petals (the guys were jealous)

The clever Aupiu's beat the system and left with the coveted laundry detergent.

. . .and the Filimoeatu's hit it big with the gift they've ALWAYS wanted!

Yup, that's right, a signed picture of Wayne. Vika was SOO excited and EVERYONE was fighting over it. lol. . . uh. . right guys?

good times. good times.

malias new favorite thing to do

They say you don't know a man until you've walked in his shoes.

I guess Malia is getting to know her daddy.

congrats to the new mr. and mrs. kariya

Happy ONE WEEK Anniversary!!

Last Tuesday, Wayne and I attended the sealing of Brian and Samantha Kariya in the Bountiful Temple. It was a BEautiful sealing and, as you can see from the pics, they are a BEautiful couple.
Wayne and Brian are teammates and they've been good friends since their freshman year at BYU. I especially like Brian because he brought me flowers in the hospital when I was in there with Kina. lol. How sweet is that? The whole Kariya family is totally awesome (we're actually trying to hook one of his little brothers up with one of Wayne's sisters). We don't care which ones on either side. . .we just want to be related to them! :) Brian and Sam are such a cute couple and great examples to us. Congrats you two!

Sam made an absolutely beautiful bride. Wasn't her dress gorgeous?

We love Brian and Sam and wish them the best of everything in the years to come!

a little privacy please

We're going private!! It's a big move, but we knew we had to make it someday. Since I sometimes get down to the nitty gritty (or "neety greety" as Nacho Libre says) of our family, we think it would be best if it's people we know who can read it.

If you are a family member, a friend, an old classmate, a ward member, an acquaintance, a friend of a friend, or a friend of an acquaintance or. . .well you get the picture. . . if you KNOW us, PLEASE leave your email on my comments so I can send you an invite. We LOVE people visiting, we just don't want any of those wierdo scary people who you see on tv (you know who I mean). We will go private on January 1. Thanks!!

Oh, and if you're private and I haven't been invited yet (hint hint Jaici) my email is marylatu@gmail.com. lol.