2 lbs 16 ounces and still growing

Today I had a follow-up ultrasound.  6 weeks ago Dr. Cedars thought he detected a hole in the heart and wanted to re-check.  That's the problem with technology sometimes.  It can give you too much information, or false information.  But thank goodness, all was fine with the baby!  The heart looks perfect, as we suspected it would.  Here are a few pictures he caught before the baby moved too much to get a profile shot.

Roadtrip for Turkey Day - Phoenix here we come!

We drove all day wednesday, making it in time for a Thanksgiving feast on Thursday

We also celebrated the 2 November birthday boys with an onolicious suprise cake from Tutu and Lanndyn

We visited the Nation's Tallest Xmas Tree again, which grows at Anthem mall, just north of Phoenix

We visited opening night of Xmas lights at the Mesa Temple, with our friends the Vakameilalos. It was so amazing!

We moved!

Alani and Anu taking the tour before we moved in.

Check out the fridge - it has an ice and water dispenser!

Looking into the living room from kitchen

A view of the atrium from the dining room.  What, a dining room?

Looking into the living room and front entry.





Sacramento visit with Kois and Palus and Tulafales

Some of the Kois and Kiahas with Robb after the baby blessing for Elizabeth-Leina'ala Palu

Mana and Lina, the closest age girl cousins, doing some hand jives after church pau

Anu and Jesse, born only 2 days apart.  They are so similar in how they act. They are so cute.

Soy Un Hijo De Dios

At last, the video I have been waiting to post for a few months now, is here!

Robb and girls performance in 3 languages

Last July Robb and Kawai and Mana did a musical number at church.  We got a copy of the video from Jackye and are so happy because our video we made did not work out well.
This is the hymn I Am A Child Of God, arranged by Robb and Kawai and Mana into 3 different languages.
I was proud to hear them do this.

A peek at the baby

We had our ultrasound at 22.5 weeks.  We got to see this little guy's face.  We are so excited to meet him in March.  He was moving all around during the ultrasound.  I had no idea how active he is since I only feel kicks now and then.  He kept on opening and shutting his mouth and the bringing his hands up to his mouth.  It was cute.

Halloween wouldn't be complete without...

a visit to our favorite local pumpkin patch - La Familia Pumpkin Patch on Los Osos Valley Road.

Every year there is a fight over who gets to be what in this frame, but it always ends up with the youngest as a ghost.

This year most of the kids were brave enough to enter the JAIL - I wasn't though...too many real spiders for my taste

Taking a rest in the cornmaze...which way from here?

Alani the fearless leader will find the way out! And she did!

P.S. - I posted these photos and more a week or so ago and blogger was acting up and never saved my post - so, this is about all I can post at this point although there were a few more cute ones, but my patience with the uploader is not terribly long.

Halloween catch-up

Once again, it seemed like there were a lot more Halloween activities than just Halloween itself.  I think the kids actually dressed up for 3 different events within that week, including two Trunk Or Treats and then trick or treating in the Arbors neighborhood with the O'Neals.

Getting ready for Trunk Or Treat at church

Witch, Corella De Vill, Pepper and Salt (Kawai's friend Erin)

Our trunk decorated at Trunk Or Treat

Our 4 Jack O Lanterns - notice Anu's pirate on the right

Anu was a puppy, and on his own decided to be a Vampire Puppy - luckily he got a set of teeth while Trunk Or Treating, to complete his outfit!

The boys

When Robb and Anu ended up in matching Samoan outfits for church on Sunday, I had to snap a few photos of daddy and son.  Anu was acting a little shy in these, because he was waiting to run around on the rocks.

We love volleyball

The kids really like going to the CalPoly women's volleyball games.  It's really fun to watch and the girls love acting like cheerleaders.  Anu likes it because it involves hitting balls and there's lots of action.

The girls love to cheer for Chelsea, a native of Hawaii.  They were so excited to meet her and get her autograph.

Enjoying some time in Morro Bay

Respectful 2 times

Well the school called last week to say that we needed to come to the assembly to see Kawai get an award. Then they called a minute later to say Mana was getting an award. The way it worked out, I go to go see Mana's award, and then rushed back to work just as Robb arrived to see Kawai's award. I was curious to see if they would each get the same virtue. The two virtues for this assembly were "Respect" and "Good Listener".  It was funny to see how surprised the girls were when they saw us in the gym.

Duneboarding, kayaking, and hula

All summer Robb's band has been doing a lot of gigs.  The girls really enjoy dancing hula when they can.  They have been playing at the Back Door Deli every other Friday night, which is really fun and great food. It's also hard to photograph since it's nighttime.

We had a nice visit in early August with the Ganitch family from Canoga Park. We took them to a favorite spot on the Oceano dunes for some riding.

On labor day weekend Robb helped put on the annual Central Coast Kama'ainas labor day paina.  It's hard to believe this was the 7th year!  It's at a really fun place which has a man-made lake and beach, in the middle of Paso Robles wine country.  I was so busy with watching Alani and Anu in the lake I didn't get many photos, but I loved this ones of the girls in the kayaks.  There was great music and the best Hawaiian food potluck ever!

Darin and Robb attempt skateboard decks down the dunes

Go Darin, he made it down in one piece!

Kristin the trusty photographer

Our 2 families managed to fit around one table for Kawai's birthday dinner!

Somehow Darin got Anu comfortable in his arms!  That's unusual for our little boy. He must know it's his uncle.



Kawai had a lot of fun at Star Farms this year and was quite confident on the kakak



Kawai and Isabella as the sun was setting and the party was dying down.





Kawai and Maile starting a hula



Keanu is Two!

My little boy is officially two years old!  Anu had his 2 year old dr. appt. the other day.  He didn't grow much in the last 6 months.  I wonder how much of that was caused by the 3 weeks of Pulmicort (steroid) for his breathing problems. One of the side effects on the package says "please notify your doctor if your child stops growing".  I didn't think about that until after we had the Dr. appt so I didn't have the chance to run that by the Dr.

Height: 33 1/2 in (25%)
Weight: 24 lbs, 9.6 oz (11%)
Head circumference: 49 1/4 cm (70%)

Hair color: blond
Eye color: green? or blue with brown ring?
Hair length: never been cut

Anu at his first Cal Poly men's soccer game

Kawai decorated his icecream cake with a soccerball because he loves soccerballs.  Nevermind that it says "Keamu".

Anu's new trike.  Equipped with loud noises of Lightning McQueen.  I was hoping his feet would hit the pedals, but they don't.  Darn.

I didn't get any photos of what happened between eating his birthday cake and opening presents.  Robb managed to jab a plastic fake fingernail through his thick foot, while innocently walking across the living room floor, and blood started gushing all over the living room. The 3 girls were screaming about as loud as their dad, and I was sitting there trying not to feel sick.  We finally sent him to the E.R. after he noticed some of the plastic fingernail was missing and may be in side his foot.  The E.R. probed all around (without anesthesia) and couldn't find the micro plastic chunck, so they just cleaned it and glued it up.  The positive side to all that?  He didn't have to work for the next 2 days.  Lesson:  never buy dollar store fake fingernail set, no matter how much the child begs for it.

He's all boy

When I first had a boy, everyone was asking me if he was different than the 3 girls. For the 1st year I couldn't really say any differences.  But now that he is almost 2, I can say that for sure he's different.  His favorite things: soccer ball, basketball, baseball, football. Anything with the word ball in it.  He usually picks a tshirt only if it has a ball on it, especially a soccer ball. 

The other day he picked up a frisbee at the park and threw it to me perfectly.  He loves action.  Movement is what he loves.  He's recently taught himself to do a somersault and does them uphill even.  I recall a lot of time spent working with the girls to get a somersault perfected.  Not this kid.

Although he loves action, he also loves to draw.  He really enjoys making shapes on the page and seems pretty coordinated for a boy, but what do I know!  He also seems attuned to weapons.  We don't have weapons in the house but I predict it won't be long before weapons appear somehow.

His talking has advanced a lot during the summer. He went from words to sentences.  We pretty much communicate verbally with him about everything. He is so cute when he talks. We all love to hear what he says.   All the girls love their brother so much.

Anu peeking out the cabin window at Angora

Where has the summer gone?

I guess I failed in my attempt to update about each kid at the end of the school year. I guess I will forget that idea for now and just try to catch up with some of the fun summer things we did.  The biggest thing was taking the kids to Angora Lake in the Tahoe basin for a week.  Man did they have a blast. Since I hadn't been there in 5 years myself, I had forgotten how happy I am in the mountains, the smell of the pines, the cabin, everything!  It was a treat to spend a week with MorMor and Auntie Diana, since we don't usually spend that long with them.  The kids definitely got to know their auntie better.  The only bummer was that Robb couldn't get off work to go, so we left him at home in SLO doing minor house repairs.  He was amazing, he did all kinds of stuff, just in time to conicidentally put our house on the market!  That's right, we are giving in.  This 2 bedroom condo has been wonderful to us for the last 6.5 years, but with the way things have turned out, we are just paying too much money for a too small place and the bank offered us an option to shortsale, so we are going forward hoping that works out.

Mana was in heaven the minute we stepped out of the truck, and headed straight to the lake.

Kawai has vague memories from being 4 years old, and she was so happy to be back!



Anu went with the flow. Since his sisters were happy, he was too.  We didn't realize how much he likes water until he practically dove in off the rocks.



Alani was also in heaven, and her fear of the bears breaking into our van in the parking lot vanished as soon as she stepped foot in the lake.  thank goodness!  Because the whole drive up to Tahoe she was asking me to turn around and go back  home.  But the first day we were there she said this is the best place she's ever been.

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Kawai and Mana were so excited to befriend some really sweet teenagers at the resort and were having a blast rowing around the lake with them and getting to ride in their kayaks as well. Kawai and Mana both got rowing lessons from Mormor and by the end of the week, both were pretty confident at rowing the inflatable boats.  It was neat to see how independent it made them feel.