Weekend in St. George

The kids and I are at my mom's house in St. George UT. I came down a few weeks ago with my sister for my mom's birthday. That was the logest I have ever been away from all my kids at once! (we were here 2 days) Anyway, my mom's horse had a baby the day before her birthday, so I wanted to bring the kids back to see her. We were going to come back the very next weekend after I got back, but Afa's aunt was going to be in town for a wedding, so we stayed to visit with her. Then the next week I had picked up shifts over the weekend. So we had to wait a few weeks, and now there are two baby colts! The neigbor's horse also had a baby from my mom's stalion.
It's Monday now, and we've been here since Friday. On Saturday we got to see my aunt and uncle (my mom's brother) who were here to see my cousin who lives in my mom's ward. My sister Genasee and her husband Rich got here Saturday night on their way home from Yuma, AZ, where they were visiting Rich's parents. Saturday was Genasee's birthday, so we made a birthday dinner and cake. Mostly we've just been hanging around at my mom's house. A few times my two brothers who live two blocks away came by.
Genasee and Rich left today, and the kids and I are going to be leaving in a few hours. Afa is very nervous about me driving, but he couldn't come with us because he has to work. He is now working in Jackson Hole WY, so he wont be home all week. Sometimes it's hard when he works out of town, but I'm happy that he's working. It helps a lot that his sister Fa'atonu is living with us, so I don't have to worry about the kids while I work.
I promise that I am going to post some pictures on here soon. I don't have my camera wih me, I just wanted to take advantage of the internet while I'm here.

Why Havn't I Updated This Thing??

Just a quick update to let you all know why I haven't updated in soo long. We got rid of our internet thinking we were going to change service. Well when I called to sign up with the company that I wanted, they said they don't have high speed in our area. My friend has the internet from that company, and she's only a couple miles away from us! Anyway, we decided to wait for a while. So when I have a chance I come to the library and check out everyone elses blogs, but these trips over here are so few and short that I haven't had time to let you know what's going on with us.
I have to go now, but I will try to post again soon, and include some pictures of the kids and my husbands new truck!

Anela, Anela and more Anela!!

Can you tell that she loves her tongue?!

Past due pictures of her blessing dress that mom made.

What a high tech world we live in when a 7 month old uses a computer!

Cute little bear. Snuggly outfit that aunty Fa'atonu got her for Christmas.

Daddy's girl

Anela loves her daddy. I just had to take pictures of her cuddling with him today. Every time she hears his voice she tries to go to him. It's so cute, except when I am holding her and she's trying to jump out of my arms to get to him!

Boys will be boys!

A few days ago, while I was at work, Gerry ran out of the house while Fa'atonu was busy with the baby. She called for him to get back in the house, but the next thing she knows Ariana is screaming that Gerry is bleeding. He had fallen down and hit his eye on the cement. Of course when Afa got home he was freaking out, and he wanted me to come home from work. But I know him too well to miss work for this, he thinks the kids need to go to the hospital when they have a cough, and he can't stand the sight of blood. There was A LOT of blood, but that's to be expected from a cut on the head. Anyway, he's fine, just a nasty owy and black eye. What would a boy be without battle scars?

Twilight!

Girls Night Out!

Yesterday my friend Kirah and I drove down to Provo to our friend Lauren's house. The three of us met in 7th grade when we were 12 years old, and still try to get together as often as possible. Lauren and her sister-in-law had gone on line and got a bunch of tickets to the November 20th midnight premier of Twilight, and she had invited us to go with her and a bunch of other friends. We went out to her house and hung out for a few hours while we waited for some of the others, then we all went out to dinner at Olive Garden. After dinner we went to the theater at Thanks Giving point to wait for the movie to start. The movie was very good, but not surprisingly it was very different from the book. They had to cut a lot out for time, and to my surprise they actually added in a few things that were not in the book. I know that sometimes they do that when converting a book to a movie because they have to take a lot out, so they add something in so it all still flows and makes sence. But there were a few things in there that just seemed completely random that didn't really need to be there. It didn't make the movie bad, just even more different from the book, and if they didn't add those things in, they wouldn't have had to take as much out. Over all I did enjoy the movie and I will see it again, but if I had not read the book I don't think I would have liked it. Of course like most book to movies, I like to book a lot better, but it is always fun to see the chatacters come to life. I will defenately be there to see the next three movies.
I had a lot of fun last night, not just because I was so excited to see the movie that I had been waiting so long for (I started the books over a year ago and have read them all several times) but also because it has been such a long time since I actally went out without the kids. I love my kids and have a lot of fun with them at home and taking them out, but it is so nice to have a whole night were I don't have to be a mommy or a wife, I was just one of the girls.

Sleeping In

The movie didn't start till midnight and was two hours and quite a ways from home, so by the time I got home it was 3:00am. I of course went straight to bed, but had to get right back up at 5:30am to take Afa to work since his truck isn't working and I need my car to get to work later today. So when I got home from taking him to work at about 6:30am, I of course went right back to bed. Then Ariana and Gerry got up at about 7:30 or so ( I was too tired to really notice the exact time). Being the good kids they are they let me stay in bed. Of course it wasn't really good sleep then knowing they were up, but I just couldn't drag myself out of bed yet. They knew that I was very tired so they said that they would just watch cartoons until I got up. When I did finally get up at about 10:00 am, I found Gerry cleaning the kitchen, of course it was a 4 year old's defenition of cleaning. He had gotten up to the sink and used the hose to spray A TON of water all over the floor, and was in the process of moping when I came in. He wanted to finish for me, but since he doesn't know how to rinse the water out of the mop, I told him thanks, but I would go ahaid and finish. So I spent about half an hour moping up the swimming pool that had been my kitchen. At least the floor is clean, but I have learned my leason not to try to sleep in when my 4 and 5 year olds are up! Usually they just try to make me breakfast and I get up to a ketchup and hunny butter sandwich, but I just stayed in bed way too long today! At least they are trying to be nice and help, I'm sure it could have been a lot worse.

Gerry's Birthday!

Today Gerry is four years old! We celebrated his birthday yesterday because Afa works this morning and I work tonight, I didn't work last night. Yesterday morning I made German pancakes for breakfast. Then Ariana and I went shopping so she could get something for Gerry. While we were out we decided to pick up pizza for lunch, I had told Gerry that he gets to have whatever he wanted to eat that day, but he couldn't decide. He was very excited about the pizza. By the time we were done eating it was about 3:00pm, Ariana was very excited to see what Gerry was getting and kept asking if he could open his presents, Gerry didn't ask once! I told Ariana that we had to wait for daddy to come home, so she called him to see if he was comming, or if we could just go ahead without him. I couldn't believe that she was so much more excited than Gerry. Afa wasn't able anwer his phone though, and by the time he called back he was off, so of course we waited for him. Gerry got a lot of games, Hungry Hungry Hippos (which they had both been asking for) Guess Who, Go Fish and Backyardigans Memory. He also got a couple of winter outfits, church shoes, sport shoes, a spider man back pack, lots of play doh with activity mats and a V-tech lap top. We all had a lot of fun playing games last night, and foud out that Afa is very good at Hungy Hungry Hippos, though I did beat him once! We didn't have any games before that we could all play together, so this was a lot of fun. We just need to teach Gerry to stop picking up Hippo marbles with his hands, and Ariana to be a good sport when she loses. The first game of Hippos that she played she only got two marbles, so she cried! After that Gerry kept saying, "It's not about winning, it's just to have fun!" as he's using his hands to get more marbles!! I'll post more pictures of them soon, I just wanted to let you all know about his birthday.

Side note: This has nothing to do with the post but I just realized something yesterday. As I was holding Anela and loving how cuddly and small she is I realized that when Ariana was this age I was pregnant with Gerry! I didn't know it for a few more weeks of course, but just remembering that I thought that I would go crazy if I were pregnant again now!!