January 2017! Jaxon's 14th Birthday

Scripture of the Month: Moses 1:39

39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

1/1/ to 1/7: 

Church started at 9am for us and so it was hard to get up and go.  We celebrated Mums 76th birthday at 'Outback Steak House', I had an appetizer for my food wrong choice - raw fish ehh was ok. Then we took Mum to see Rogue One - Star Wars. Went to get mission clothes for Tyrell at CTR clothing in Orem. Got his suits and slack and shirts. We left the suits behind and had to go back and get them, blimin heck.

1/8 to 1/14: 

Took the kids to the Dentist for a check up.  Looks like Jaxon is ready for braces, so I made him an appointment to the orthodontist. And it costs about $2800 on our HSA card! He's excited to have straight teeth. Ended up going back to CTR clothing to exchange his shirts as they were too baggy. Then we found out the pants were too big so on the suits so we just returned them. Tyrell will look at other stores for suits.

1/15 to 1/21: 

Had Monday off for Martin Luther King Day but didn't do much. Tried to do taxes but didn't have everything I needed.

1/22 to 1/28: 

We heard that Uncle Alwood went to hospital for a stroke. It's not looking good and he may be brain dead or pass away soon. Had to make a decision to go to NZ quickly. Went to Scott's Monday to discuss as he is going. Decided to go and take Tyrell. Scott got our tickets while we were there. $2300 is the total for both of us and we paid him back. The NZ tickets were $855 each so not bad for this time of year. Tyrell is excited to go. Got a new suitcase and got things ready. We left Friday evening 1/27. Tyrone got the same flights as us which was nice. The cousins pitched in to get his ticket. We had a 2 hour lay-over in LA and boarded Air Tahiti at 10:45pm'ish. I was excited to be going and a little nervous at times. We stopped in Tahiti after a 8 hour flight. Could hardly get to sleep. Was in a half sleep state when I tried. The food was good. Tahiti was so hot and humid. The airport was small. I bought a pareo for Candi and a couple metal hooks with tahitian designs. It was a few hour wait before we got on. Tahiti was 2 hours behind LA so it was still 1/28. But when we got to NZ it jumped ahead to Sunday. The sound wasn't working on both seats I sat in so couldn't really watch anything.

1/29 to 1/31: 

When we landed in NZ Scott got his internet on his phone and we found out Uncle had passed away not long before. We thought we would spend time in the hospital with him but we'll have his funeral Wednesday instead. We got a rental car from Scottie's rentals and went over to Deb's home. Shaun was there already. We greeted everyone and relaxed a little before going to the cemetary to see where Auntie Paea is buried and other relatives including Loreen's girl. It was the first time Tyrone visited his mum's grave. We stopped for a pie and yum it was good! After we went back and then went to help dress Uncle at the mortuary. It's a maori custom for relatives to dress the dead. Edith's uncle Barney Silva is a mortician and stepped us through it. At first I was hesitant to assist as I thought I'd get in the way but it ended up being a really special experience. Barney stepped us through it all the way telling us what to do and made it feel really comfortable. With Uncle in the casket all ready we took him home for the first night. A lot of friends from Dion's Ratana church and Deb's ward came. Some neighbors too. They dropped off a lot of food. We talked and visited and ate. At night Scott dropped Tyrell and I off at Lian's home to sleep. It was a good sleep.

Monday 1/30 Scott took us to Mt Eden and we walked around and enjoyed the view. It was a mild summer day prob in the high 60's with a little breeze. We thought it was very hot for being in the middle of summer. After we stopped at the Manukau shopping center. We bought some feijoa smoothies and mad was is nice az! Then we went to get a fish and chip feed before going to help move Uncle's casket to the marae. We found an empty rugby park to eat our feed. Was nice az. Love it! When we got to the house they had already moved Uncle, we missed it. Edith was not too happy. Auntie Charmaine had to help and was struggling. lol. I said if Uncle was here he'd say nevermind let them have a feed. We drove to the marae in Panmure and hung out there. They had an evening service in the marae and they asked me, Scott, Tyrell and Uncle Don to give a short testimony each. Geez what an experience. It was full of friends from Deb's ward and Dion's Ratana church. Tyrell did well. Something he'd have to do on his mission. We slept there the night. I didn't get much sleep. A lot of night sounds coming through the wide open door.

Tuesday 1/31, Scott, Tyrell and I went to the Auckland Museum for a few hours. It was nice. We went over the Harbor bridge and enjoyed the view from right under it. We went back to the marae in Panmure. We went to some stores and got a drink and pie. They have a feijoa fizzy drink which is yum. We welcomed people onto the marae and listened to many koreros and had heaps of hongis. We tried to get out a few times before doing it all over again when more visitors came lol. We visited with Tracy Haraki and many more relatives and friends. Tyrell enjoyed the experience. We loved listening to the maori songs sung. We helped shell a big bag full of mussells at the back of the marae. They had another service at night. We missed most of it shelling the mussells but caught the end. A lot of people were there. Met Strantz and Vicki there. We slept at Lian's home again. Shannon's little baby is so cute.

December

12/1 to 12/10: 

Beginning of December we had tithing settlement with the bishop, kids were very honest in telling the bishop if they were a full tithe payer or not.  Very exciting on Thursday the 8th Tyrell received his mission call in the mail. I was still working when he received it, we had to make arrangements for family and friends to come over at 7pm.  I was so distracted by Tyrell's mission call that I messed up on a customers itinerary!   Since it was short notice for people to come over we just had a small group, Mum, Jody, Jared, Camila & kids, Rachel-Tyrells friend. We went live on facebook, which was funny!  Tyrell was calm his voice shaky a little, and then he announced he was going to 'NORTH CAROLINA'!  I was a little bummed, thinking whaaat? what happened to New Zealand or some other overseas country.  But we're relieved Tyrell has finally got his call and will be leaving on March 8th. On the 10th my sister Alison got married to her beau Ross Smith, I wanted to go but couldn't many reasons, cost too much, it was too close to Christmas and I had work..... The wedding looked beautiful and I was bummed I didn't get to be with everyone, I was the only sibling not there.
We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday the 10th and we love going to this, it's tradition, we eat our yummy breakfast and then have photos with Santa.

12/11 to 12/17: 

On Sunday the 11th we went to Jody's for Jonah's 10th Birthday, we had pizza and good times with family.  Jay and I have been shopping and preparing for Christmas, will be ordering mainly through amazon for the kids gifts. And I we have Jody's family this year, got them a gift card to Megaplex and then got small gifts for the kids and money for Josh.

12/18 to 12/24: 

Went and watched Wiramina sing in her School Choir at Taylorsville High School for their annual Christmas Concert. That's what our Family Home Evening was. Did our last minute Christmas shopping this week.

On the 22nd I was on my bed watching tv and Jay was at he desk on his computer, the girls came in they were both crying and Erana was saying that she cut her lip, and I said how'd you cut your lip and apparently Leila and Erana had been in the bathroom and had shaven the hair on their upper lip because they thought they had mustache's.  I was upset and told them off and said something like its gonna grow back long and thick.... but when they left Jay and I thought it was funny and we were cracking up, I took photos and messaged them to my sister and Grandma Barbara!

Christmas Eve we had dinner at home I was busy this Christmas eve that's because I was making Lobster bisque for dinner and I messed up by adding tomato paste to it and paprika... Long story short I had to make it again.  Dinner was good, we decided we liked shrimp soup instead of Lobster bisque! and we had crab wontons too. Ead read our Christmas story from the scriptures.  And the girls made sugar cookie men, because no one had ginger bread cookie dough, but that's ok they still had fun making santa's cookies.

12/25 to 12/31: 

Jay woke me up in bed saying he heard kids up, so we got up to film.  When I came down the time was about 7am and the kids were already dressed for church. We had the kids start on their stockings first and then their gifts, they didn't get alot this year just expensive stuff. Tyrell loved his new Piano and Mina her base guitar, and Jaxon his drone, Leila loved her stitch pillow from Mina and Erana put her red cowboy boots on to wear to church, they are just her! Our church starts at 9am this year, we had a speaker this year, it was kinda boring because we were missing Bro. Buys's Christmas program, a tradition that is sorely missed. 

We came home and enjoyed our gifts and I prepared our food to take to Scotts. At Scott's got there early and I carved up my pork roast and it was sooo yummy that whoever was there early got all the good juicy, crackle and bits! We ate good food and we traded gifts down stairs, after we watched a video that Scott made about our families to music.  We had Jody's family this year, got them a megaplex gift card and individual small gifts for the kids, tip-choco from NZ and sparkly for the newly married couples. 

December 29th Jay and I went to Hannah and Bubba's sealing at the Draper temple, there were alot of people and we had to sit two to a seat! We had a good seat though close to the bride and groom, front row. Then we, mum, Scott, Heather, Jared and Camila went and ate lunch at Chuckarama. 

New Years eve was at Scott's again we had a lot of yummy food again and then played a few games and then we had visitors from NZ show up, one of Scott's childhood friend and his family.  Reuben and Dwayne Harris Whanau.  

November

Scripture of the Month: Alma 37:35

"O, remember, my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth; yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God."

11/1 to 11/5: 

Candi spent the week taking Lian around to stores and stuff. They went to Gardner village Tuesday. Friday we took them downtown to see the SL Temple. We looked around the visitors center and City Creek mall. On the way back we stopped at the Chinese Gourmet for lunch. Skylar was homesick the first day but got used to us and enjoyed her stay. Leila and Erana love to play with her. She had her 9th birthday Saturday. We walked around Silver Lake that day. It had snow around it. Lian and Skylar took lots of pictures with the snow. They had a snow fight in the trees. We had a smores pizza for her cake. Also the All Blacks lost to Ireland for the first time ever since they started playing each other in 1905. The game was in Chicago, score was 40-29. They played really bad and made so many mistakes, dropping the ball all the time when the try line was open in front of them. Ireland played out of their skins and deserved it more. The day before the All Blacks were celebrating with the Chicago Red Sox at the parade for winning the baseball for the first time since 1908 or something like that so they jinxed themselves.

 

                              

11/6 to 11/12: 

Monday the kids went rock climbing at the Rec center. They saw it when they watched Leila play bball Saturday. Skylar wanted to try it. They also went to the zoo during the day and had a good time because they said all the animals were out and walking around and you could see them clearly instead of laying in caves and cages where you can't see them that they usually do whenever we go. Tuesday morning our wallboards were finally finished by Paul's floors. Lian and Skylar left to San Francisco at 11am. At night we watched the elections until about 11:30 and Donald Trump was winning by a lot before I went to sleep. In the morning it was official, he won. I was very happy. Hillary Clinton is one corrupt, lying, sleazy woman. I won't get into everything bad she has done but I'm glad she lost and good riddance. All the news were against Trump with the over-the-top bias and had her winning by a landslide. It was the opposite. She lost the electoral college by a landslide. So ahh, good job all you liberal, leftist, regressive, globalist news people and celebrities trying to sway the election for the Democrats. Now hopefully Trump follows through on his campaign promises to "Make America Great Again" because Obama has made things so much worse. The worst President in the history of this nation. Hopefully Trump undoes everything he did and relegates his legacy to the dust bin of history. I had Thursday off since Veterans Day was Friday and I have Fridays off anyway. Friday evening we went to the Veterans Day concert in the Huntsman Center at the U of U. Mina's school choir sang in it with some other schools. It was nice. A nice way to pay tribute to our Veterans. Tyrell didn't come.

11/13 to 11/19: 

This week was uneventful. For FHE we are learning another ponderize scripture. I think we may have done it before but oh well. Alma 37:35.

11/20 to 11/26: 

We had Thanksgiving at Tania's. We had a nice feed and watched the Cowboys beat the Redskins. The Cowboys are doing awesome this year so far. Only one loss. They have a rookie QB Dak Prescott and a rookie RB Ezekiel Elliot. Both are doing great.

11/27 to 11/30: 

Went to the Dentist Monday. No cavities!

October - Leila's 11th Birthday

10/1 to 10/8: 

We watched General Conference today. Took Leila to her basketball game at the Tville Rec ctr during the 2nd session. She scored 2 baskets and they won. She did good but is probably the shortest on her team. I also watched the All Black thrash Argentina when I got back. I watched priesthood in my room with Tyrell and Jaxon. There were good talks. Sunday we watched more GC. Monday I flexed because I'm working Friday. The kids came to my work Tuesday for a field trip the the Capitol building centennial celebrations. They walked in there but the loud echoing noise because of all the school kids was scaring Erana so they went out. I went and met them and walked around he Capitol with them and ate lunch in the cafe. I took them up to my office so they can see where I work. They went back into the Capitol as most of the school kids had left. Leila and Tyrell had a piano recital at night. They did really well. Candi started working at home this week, Wed, Fri and Sat. She has a desk under Mina's loft bed in the upstairs room. Saturday I took Leila to her bball game.

10/9 to 10/15: 

I had Columbus Day off Monday. I spent the time painting our walls outside and fixing the deck light. I replaced a gfc plug in the fixture but found out how to reset it correctly so the new one was unnecessary. I was trying to reset it with no power but it reset once the power was on. Oh well. Not much else going this week. Leila had practice and another game. She is doing ok but not really improving because she needs to go out and play at the playground on her own.

10/16 to 10/22: 

Played tennis with Mina and kids on Friday. I was rusty as. Mina beat me 4 games to 2. She is too good for me right now but a little practice and I'll catch up. Leila did some good hits and was beating Jaxon a lot. It was her first time trying her new racket her friend Jenna got her for her birthday. She and Jenna went to the Witch breakfast at Gardner's Village Thursday morning for Leila's b-day. Friday evening we watched Julia act as Jasmine in her Aladdin play in Draper. She was really good and sings very well. We got photos with her after.

 

10/23 to 10/29: 

Our baseboards were finished Monday. They are nice! Finally done. Tyrell started the mission class they wanted him to take. He is with 5 other people that have mental disabilities like autism and such and he feels a little awkward. It's such a waste of time but I said to stick with it as it's only 4 classes. Friday we played tennis again and this time I beat Mina in a set of 6 games. I was trying my best and she was kinda lackadaisical. Saturday Leila had a b-ball game. Then after Candi and I went to the mattress sale at Taylorsville HS for Mina's choir fundraiser. We ordered 2 twin mattresses for Laila and Erana. Mina will get to keep about $150 of that for her choir trip. We ate at Sizzlers for Leila's birthday. She got a new bicycle. It's a nice one. It's a coaster beach type bike with a rack at the back and a basket in the front. Leila loves it. I ordered off Walmart and had to put it together.

 

10/30 to 10/31: 

Candi's sister Lian and her granddaughter Sklar arrived Sunday evening. Their flight was delayed a few hours because of rain in San Francisco. She brought heaps of chocolate and some shirts. Sklar was a bit homesick the first night but got used it and plays with Erana and Leila. For Halloween we went to Jody's. We ate and then took the kids trick or treating. Well they went without me the first time but I went with them the second time. Skylar didn't go to any houses with spider decorations. She doesn't like them. Jaxon was Red Hood again. Leila was Batgirl, Erana was a leopard and Skylar was Harley Quinn. Mina was...I forgot. It was a nice evening, just a little cool when the sun went down.