Fall Pictures

Just a few of my favorites. We went on the mountain one Saturday afternoon and took a few pictures.

Annie Bangs

It is a tradition for the kids in the 3rd grade to go on a field trip to Gooseberry every year. Annie Bangs lives at Gooseberry and she always pays a visit to the 3rd graders. It is so fun for the kids to prepare for this field trip. Well, this year Sipola's field trip was to Primary Children's instead of going to Gooseberry. She was so upset about missing the field trip. She told everybody about Annie Bangs and even had quite a few nurses come back the next shift and tell her that they had looked Annie up on the internet. Mrs. Bringhurst (Sipola's teacher) was so good and sent pictures and took video of the whole field trip so that Sipola could kind of experience it. Then she was so excited that Sipola was able to attend the Gooseberry assembly! She told me that she had never had a child so nervous about the assembly before. The reason for it was because all the other kids had got to see Annie on the mountain but Sipola didn't so she was nervous to see her at the assembly. It was so cute. They sang a bunch of songs and then Annie came and made her appearance. Sipola was so excited to see her! It was pretty fun. Mrs. Bringhurst even said that if Sipola wants to go next year she will let her. We will see if Pola will even want to!

Pumpkin Patch

In October Halamehi was able to go to the pumpkin patch with her class. She had a great time. Her teacher even let her hang out with her best friend! (usually she separates them so they don't talk)They picked out their pumpkins and then got to go on a train ride. She had a great time!

Football Season

Well, it is sad, but this football season has come to an end. Braxton's team had a great season. They didn't take the championship but they did play a good hard season! Tevita helped coach again and had a great time also. It is always bitter sweet when the season ends. We love football! Congrats on a well played season Brax!! Ofa atu

Thoughts

Sipola and I are sitting in the parents center at Primary Children's Hospital. She has been very sad this morning and so I just had to get her out of her room. She received an email this morning from her class so I thought I would bring her down to the computers so she could email them back. When we got here, we ran into a lady that I had met last week in the ICU. I still don't know her name. Her daughter was brought to the hospital last week the same day as Sipola. She was having seizures and was not doing well. When I talked to her she said they had put her daughter into a coma to see if they could stop the seizures. She said they are trying everything they can do but nothing seems to work. She said there is little hope for her daughter. As I sat and talked with this mom last week I thought how lucky I am to have a little bit of hope. Something that I didn't have any of last week. Last Tuesday or Wednesday (I can't remember) when I looked at the doctor and said, "please tell me my daughter will be coming home with me." and the doctor said, "we aren't sure that is possible right now. It is not looking good for her to ever make it out of the icu." I never thought I would be sitting next to her while she is emailing her class. I have a sister and sister-in-law that thought it would be helpful if they would put Sipola's name in every single temple in the United States and then called my sister-in-law and had her put it in the New Zealand and Tongan temples. I am not kidding you when I tell you that the very next day Sipola started to feel a little bit better. The doctors were dumbfounded. They had no idea what happened and how she was starting to get a little better. They went from talking about the mortality rate to saying, "maybe there is hope for this little one to go home." Oh, how blessed we are to have all these people praying for us. How blessed we are to have all these people fasting for us. Tevita told me that I really need to be strong and have faith. It is so hard when you look at your daughter and there is no life there. When she is struggling with every breath she takes. When she can't keep her eyes open for more than a minute. But the words of her blessing kept coming to me. Uncle Raymond told her in that blessing that her body would be made whole again. So after a couple days of hopelessness I decided that I would no longer feel like that and all I would do is think positive thoughts. I would only talk about her getting better and coming home. I wish that I could send some of those positive vibes to my ICU friend. As I sit and talk to her I just cry. She just cries. Today she said she will be clinging on to the hope that electric shock therapy will help her daughter. I asked her if she was LDS and she said yes. I asked if her daughter's name was in the temple. She said yes. So I told her to have faith and stay strong and we would continue to pray for her. She gave Sipola a hug and I told her that I hope one of these days soon she will be hugging her little one. Sipola is 8, her daughter is 9. I felt bad for running into her because my little girl is doing so much better and hers isn't. But I am SO THANKFUL that my little one is sitting here by me and not stuck in a bed. Today is sad for her but at least we have today. At least we have progress. At least she will be coming home sometime. I will NOT give up hope. I will NOT think negatively about her recovery. She has come so far and I KNOW that she will continue to fight so that she can go home soon. This morning she started crying and saying that she doesn't want to go on a mission. I told her she doesn't have to if she doesn't want to. She said, "well, I don't want Braxton to go either." I said, "why?" and she said, "I am going to miss him so much and I don't want to be away from him for that long." I said, "Sis, don't worry about it now. Brax is only 12." She said, "yeah, but soon he will be 13 and that is a teenager which then turns out to be 19 and then he will leave." This little girl has a heart of gold and I am so thankful that she is ok. We have a long road ahead of us and it is going to be hard. But we have a road and for that I am so grateful. To all our friends and family, I'm not sure how we will ever be able to repay you for all you have done. We will try though. Please keep praying for this little girl. I love you all and can't wait to see everybody again! p.s. If this doesn't make sense, I'm sorry. I just have so much stuff going on in my head and I just need to get some of it out!

This little boy

We have a block that has a picture of Jesus with some people with him. Tevon picked up the block and came and sat by me. He kept pointing to one of the ladies. Then he looked at me and said, "Mama with Jesus." He said it so clearly that it just amazed me. Sometimes I feel like the veil is so thin and this little boy truly knows my mom and I know that she is close and watching over him. Often times he will walk into my dad's house and say Hi to my dad. Then he goes over to the picture of my mom and he will start talking to her. Interesting though that we can't understand what he is saying to her but we can understand him all the other times he talks. He loves finding pictures of her and saying Mama Mama and then he will talk. It makes me so sad that she isn't here but I know she is close and watching over us. And as for this little boy, I can't imagine life without him. He completed our family and we are so thankful to have him! Ofa atu little boy!

Approval

Well, I went to the last of the county meetings on Tuesday. I was so nervous. Our lawyer wasn't there and Tevita wasn't there so it was just me. After 10 minutes the owner of our place showed up and he turned out to be very helpful. The commissioners were really nice and had a lot of nice things to say. They said they were happy that we were bringing our place here and that what we are doing is great. They told me that all I had to do was pay for our business license and we were good to go. So I went in and paid for the business license and now we will be working with the State. So, we are praying that it won't take too long and that we will get our business up and going quickly. It has been such a long process and at times I wondered if we would ever make it here but we did and now we need to work 10 times harder to make it through the state.

Lia's Faith

Yesterday Tevon was chasing Lia around the kitchen. Lia ended up falling and hitting her back on our metal cabinets. Then she fell all the way to the hard tile floor and really hurt her back. At first she couldn't put any weight on her left side so I had to piggy back her until Tevita could help us. She was using a rolling chair to help her get around. Then after dinner she just started crying saying how bad she hurt. So Tevita carried her to her bed and told her to lay down and hopefully it would feel better. When I got to her room there was my little girl on her belly with a huge football pillow and a blanket under her so that she could lay with her back up off the bed (kind of like stink bug position)and she was crying silently. She whispered to me and said, "Mom, I think I need Daddy to give me a blessing." I couldn't help but cry with my strong little girl. I had her daddy come in and he had a tough time seeing her in pain. He was able to give her a blessing and then offered to sleep in her room with her in case she needed anything during the night. As I sat and looked at her silently cry and try to hide how much pain she was in I couldn't help but think about when she was born and what a strong little fighter she was and how she fought to make it into this world. She is a rock. I am so thankful to have this beautiful little girl in my life. She is so strong. She has such a strength about her and I look up to her so much. This morning she came to me and said, "Mom, I know that Daddy's blessing and prayer is what made me feel better, it wasn't any of the medicine, the ice, or anything else. It was Heavenly Father watching over me." What a special little girl she is. I love her so much and don't know what I would do without her. I am so happy that she was able to ask her daddy for a blessing last night and that she is feeling better today. Hopefully no more accidents in our house for a while! Love you Lia!

Five Stitches

Yesterday, Wednesday, I was at Lia's friends house working on t-shirts. I got a call from Tevita saying, "Hey, are you in a position where you could come and take this kid to the doctor?" I said, "What?" and he said, "Braxton almost cut his finger off and needs to go to the doctor." So, I hurried and came and took him to the doctor.(So thankful for a little clinic in this small town!)He had sliced his finger down to the bone and it the Dr. said that he hit some arteries and that is why it wouldn't stop bleeding. He put five stitches in it and it has bled all night. This happened 4 days after his 4-wheeler accident. He is supposed to leave Monday morning for the 50 mile hike and I told him that if the leaders aren't CPR and First Aid certified that he can't go because he is so accident prone!I know that he will be ok but I just hope that he is careful. Oh by the way, he cut his finger while sharpening his knife to get ready for the hike!

Braxton

Yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from Braxton. He said, "Mom, I'm really sorry but I rolled the four wheeler. Don't worry, I'm ok. I'm so sorry Mom." Not exactly what a mom wants to hear. I was so frustrated. First of all, we don't own a four wheeler. He was driving somebody else's four wheeler. Secondly, I was so worried that he was really hurt and I didn't even know he was on the four wheeler. I told him to get to Heather's house and we would talk about it then. I went to Heather's to see how bad the damage was and I couldn't hold back the tears. I told Brax how upset I was and that it was a really bad thing to drive somebody else's wheeler. Heather cleaned him and bandaged him and we went home. I didn't discuss it anymore with Brax. He felt so bad and I didn't need to make him feel worse. Once we got home I went to the garden and out came my son. He wrapped his arms around me and held on tight and wouldn't stop crying and neither could I. He could have gotten hurt so much worse. I was so afraid for him and if I was so afraid imagine how he was as he was laying there with the four wheeler on top of him. He got some pretty good road rash on his arm, a pretty bruised and swollen leg and now this morning he can't move his head very much because of the neck strain. I feel so bad that he is in such pain. But I think we both learned a good lesson. The lesson I learned is that worldly things are just worldly things. They can be replaced. Our friends are good friends that would have let us make payments to them to pay for the damage. What was so important is that my son was ok and wasn't hurt worse. He was honest. He called even though he had friends telling him not to. He told the truth even though he had friends telling him to make up a story. As a parent you never want your child to get hurt but they are going to. I am so sorry that you are hurt son. I love you so much and hope that you get better soon!

Happy Father's Day

It is Father's Day today. It has been raining for most of the day. I was able to sit on the porch for a minute with my hubby and watch the rain. It was nice. He was bbqing steaks for his Father's Day meal. What a great guy. I made 8 pies today. I made two chocolate, 2 cheesecakes, 2 baked coconut, and 2 chocolate chip cookie pies. I was trying to get them all done so I could take some to my dad and his co-workers but the chocolate chip cookie one didn't get done in time. So I took my dad and his friends three of them and have the rest of them here. I asked Tevita if he wanted a piece of pie for Father's Day. He said yes so I asked him what kind. He replied, "I'll take one of every kind!" I was just getting ready to cut the slices when I got a phone call from one of our friends in the ward asking if Tevita could help him go give a family a blessing. He said that he just got the call from this family asking for a blessing and wondered if Tevita could help. What a blessing for him! It made me think how lucky I am to have a husband that is able to go at a seconds notice to help a family in need. Tevita is such a great daddy and husband. We are so thankful to have him! And we are all so lucky to have our dads! Both Tevita and I have wonderful dads that we love so much! So to all those daddys out there, Happy Father's Day!!!
P.S. I don't have a picture of Fine on this computer so that is why there is just one of my dad. I will put one of up Fine as soon as I get it transferred to this computer.

Summer Fun

Just some summer fun!

Sipola's Program

The last week of school Sipola participated in the 2nd grade singing program. She did such a great job! The songs were so cute and we loved watching her! Good job Pola Bear! Ofa atu

Honor Student

The last week of school we were lucky to go watch our son get a certificate for being an honor student. There are requirements to achieve this and there were about 26 students in the 6th grade that got it. They had to be in the Silver Panther club twice and they have to maintain a GPA of 3.8. We are so proud of Brax and hope he continues down this road!! Love you Braxton!

Volleyball

I have been so horrible at blogging. But I need to get doing it more. Anyways, here are a few pictures from Lia's first volleyball season. She actually did one team in Richfield and one team in Monroe. She learned a lot and did a great job!

Football Camp

This last Saturday we hosted a football camp here in Monroe. We are trying to open up a program for troubled youth focusing on the Polynesian population. We are waiting for the public hearing to get approval but while we are waiting we have started fundraising. So we thought a football camp would be a great idea. It turned out great for our first one. We had two coaches from Utah State, one from Snow College, and one former one from SUU. They did such a great job and were so personable with the kids. We had a great turn out and hope to keep doing this every year.

Change

I used to be so good at blogging. I need to get better and I am going to try. I just hate to blog without pictures. Anyways, a lot has been going on at our house lately. In March Tevita lost his job. They told him they were letting him go because of conflict of interest. I say Whatever to them and move on! A few years back Tevita talked to me about his prayers and the answers he was receiving. He said that he felt very strongly that we needed to open a home for Polynesian youth. He said that he wants to help the youth so they don't get in so much trouble. He was also contacted by some people up north asking for some help. So we started working on it back then and have been working on it for a while now. Well, now we are in the last stages of getting everything finalized. It has been such a journey. But our little family has been so blessed. I think that him loosing his job has been probably the greatest blessing for our family. Don't get me wrong, we are struggling. We are so poor. We don't have even a dollar to our name right now. But spiritually our family is being so blessed. We have had so many spiritual experiences that have brought us closer to the Lord. We know that Heavenly Father is not going to leave us stranded, especially when we know that what we are doing is what He wanted us to do. So on this beautiful Sunday morning all we can do is thank our Heavenly Father for all that he blesses us with and pray that our program gets up and running quickly. Oh, and thanks to Dad, Justin, and Jaquel for all they do to help us!!! We will never be able to repay you for all that you do for us but please know how much we appreciate you!!!

Chair Re-do

My sister-in-law has done a lot of chair re-doing. So, she got me interested in it and this is what I did. Ok, so she showed me and Tevita and Tevita surprised me by finishing it. I came home from work today and here is the new chair!!! Thanks Tevita!

Sleepover

This past weekend we were able to have our niece over for a sleepover. They are moving to California this weekend and we are sad to see them go but so happy for them to be with their daddy!! The girls had a blast playing with her!

Braxton's party

Here are some of the boys that came to Braxton's party. They were supposed to have a bonfire but as you can see in the picture it snowed. It was so windy and snowy that they all ended up in our basement and on the trampoline. Great times!

Braxton's present

Just a couple pictures of Braxton and his friends Morgan and Alec. They were so nice and brought these presents over to the house for Braxton's birthday.

Happy Birthday Braxton!!!

On this day 12 years ago I gave birth to the most beautiful little boy we had ever seen! He was such a pretty little boy. I don't mean that weird...he just had beautiful features. His eyelashes were so long, his skin such an amazing color, and his hands and feet were so cute. He was our first born. My parents first grandson. He was perfect! And now here we are twelve years later. This boy has a heart full of gold. He always puts others before himself. He hardly ever complains. He has broad shoulders and carries a lot on them. He lives by the belief that God comes first, then family, then school, and then sports. He loves giving. He loves when his cousins come over so he can send them home with something special. He has a couple boy cousins that he talks about often and loves to give them advice when they come over. This kid looks up to his dad and grandpa so much. He loves being around people. He loves to smile (even though he doesn't do it much in front of big crowds). He loves playing sports and dreams of playing in the NFL. He once said the first thing he would buy is a limo so the limo driver could pick up his family from the airport and he wouldn't have to!! ha ha. This kid loves his brother with all his heart. Don't mess with that little boy or this big boy will plow you down! He is also very protective of his sisters. His sister that is closest in age with him is truly his best friend. They confide in each other and always have each others backs. This boy likes to take drives and talk about his dreams. He works hard and people love being around him. This boy knows that right now we are struggling and said to us, "All I want for my birthday is my family. I don't need anything. I know you guys work hard and try to give me whatever I want but I just want my family." What a great kid. I could go on and on about this boy. He is turning out to be so AMAZING!! There is a reason he is our first born. So today I say HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRAXTON!!! You are one AWESOME kid and we love you dearly!