Christmas Holidays & New Years

12/22/14
FHE message was from the New Era about Christ can sometimes be hidden during Christmas. Asked how does he get hidden and what we can do to make sure Christ doesn't get hidden. Talia was with us.

12/24/14
I took Christmas eve off. Slept in. Candi worked from 6am to about 2pm. My new pc came today, yay! I was going to open it Christmas morning but got bored and unpacked it to start setting it up. We had a family Christmas eve dinner. Candi went and got Dickey's BBQ and a KFC bucket. It was good. We read Luke 2 at the table. We watched a short video with a message about serving Christ. The Shoemaker. They decorated ginger cookies for Santa. Then we went to see the Hobbit: Battle of the 5 Armies. When we got home we told the kids not to stay up late. Candi and I got stuff ready that night.

12/25/14
We got up about 7am. I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep anyway. It had been in the 40's so far in Dec so no snow but last night it snowed for Christmas, not a lot but more came during the day. So we got a whit e Christmas. Gave out the gifts. The kids enjoyed themselves. Mina got a bluetooth speaker, skateboard, rock band (for Leila too), etc. Tyrell and Jaxon got an x-box one. Erana got a new bike, well one that Candi got from someone on ksl. They played with their new gifts until we went to Mum's/Scott's at 12:30pm. We ate and opened gifts, had dessert and went home about 5pm. Same old routine. Was quite chaotic giving out gifts. I worked on the new pc more and played Rock band some. Candi and I relaxed in the evening together. Another Christmas come and gone.

12/26/14
Slept in, ate leftovers, set up new pc, played around and generally didn't do a whole lot of anything productive. Ate lots of chocolates. Very nice day well until a fight that occurred outside our place. We heard a commotion of thumping and yelling. Candi yells out the windows that she's calling the cops. I get my gun in case I have to stop a murder or something. I go to the front door and the guy who got beat up thumps at the door and stumbles in all bleeding from the head and half conscious. He says some guys beat him up. I sit him down and got an ice pack and wet rag to wipe the blood. He had 2 gashes in his forehead. His friend comes in. They said they weren't visiting anyone but pulled in because some guys were following them? Mina heard the other guys mention why he was looking at his girl friend or something. They didn't stick around for the cops who were on the way. Two cops came and asked questions. One asked where we were from and liked our accents. They went and asked questions from the neighbors but without the victim staying to report they couldn't do much.

12/27/14
Saturday is clean up day. Malia got picked up. She stayed since Christmas. We blitz cleaned every level. Every one joined in the cleaning on each level and really dusted and stuff. We got a lot done. Then after we mucked around some more.

12/28/14
We went to Taylor Barlow's homecoming at 9am at her Suncrest chapel which is up the top of that hill that goes from Draper to Alpine. Never been up there before. It was snowy but the view of the valley was quite nice. She went to the Philippines. She gave a great talk about conversion. We ate at a club house after and talked with cousins. Left around 12:30pm. Candi went to work at 6pm instead of 2pm.

12/29/14
I took Monday off as well so I could have a nice long weekend. Slept in and worked on getting my old pc downstairs and my new pc set up most of the day. We took the kids to see Night at the Museum 3 which was pretty funny. Then ate at Arctic Circle. It snowed more and is very cold. Tyrell's car won't start so we called to have it towed to tunex.

12/31/14
I had to work today. Didn't do much. The party at our house started at 7pm. We had breakfast food again. It was good. Eggs, sausages, bacon, quiche, pancakes, crepes, doughnuts, cinnamon rolls and more. After eating we had a 2014 trivia game by Scott. I one with 20 out of 26. Jared had 22 but he cheated by using his phone. We had a couple other games then played Just Dance 2015. The kids and adults had a turn. I was with Jody, Jared and Scott. I chose 'Walk this way' by Run DMC. They thought I had practiced because I could do most of the moves and they couldn't. I had never seen the game before I just knew the dance moves because they were old school moves from the 80's that I used to do. They were just jealous of my cool moves that made them look like un-co stiffs. We had the count down then cleaned up soon after. It was a fun night. The year is gone and done. It was fast like every year. The kids are growing so fast. I resolve so never take them for granted and enjoy each day with them while I still have them. They'll be gone before I know it. I also resolve to love my wife more and more.

Uncle Mose's Funeral

12/1/14
During the day I walked down from my work to the church office building to see Tyrell perform with his school choir. They did some Christmas songs in the lobby. Went to see the Temple lights for FHE before it gets too cold. Parked at the mall then walked around Temple Square and the nativities at the church office building area. Listened to the one at the visitors center. After we went to Leatherbys and got cheese fries and sundaes for a treat. I love the cheese fries. I didn't get a sundae but there was enough left over from the others that I had some ice cream.

12/6/14
We put Leila in Rec center basketball and she had her first game today. Her team only had one practice before hand. Leila has already played it at our park so she knows how to dribble and shoot. I practiced some with her too. She is pretty good. They lost. Leila got 9 shots off but didn't get any but I was proud of her for playing well and not being afraid to shoot the ball. It's fun to watch. We had to leave our ward party early to get to the game. The breakfast was good. Love the fried bread and honey butter. We went back to it after to help clean but it was already done. They gave us lots of fried bread left overs.

12/8/14
For FHE we watched the church's video "He is the Gift" and had a lesson on Christ being the gift at Christmas and always.

12/13/14
Leila had her 2nd game. She played well and got 2 shots off but didn't get any in. Kage came with us to watch. The other team girls were good defenders so it was a tough game to get a shot off. Leila likes playing it.

12/15/14
FHE activity was going to watch Tyrell's choir perform Christmas songs at his school. Their were other choir groups singing. He is in the concert choir. He seems to enjoy singing even though I don't hear him sing a whole lot at home.

12/18/14
Thursday evening took Leila to her practice at 7pm. The 3rd Hobbit came out yesterday so Candi, Tyrell and I saw it at 10:30pm. I liked it. It was good.

12/20/14
Uncle Moses died this past week of age related complications when he got sick.  He was 80. He will be missed but I know he has had a happy reunion with his parents, brother (Dad) and sister (Waima) and son Jono Jay. We didn't go to his viewing Friday night but came to his viewing and funeral early at 9:30am at a chapel in Alpine. Vaughn's ward chapel. Got to see him in his casket. It started at 10:30am and was a nice service. Got to mingle with many relatives. We went to the internment at the Alpine cemetary. It was lightly drizzling rain and was about 40 degrees or something. His son in law read a jewish prayer, Uncle Don dedicated the grave, Nephi gave a maori tribute then we did the haka. I was trying not to cry during the haka and wept a lot after it trying to keep my composure. We went back to the chapel to eat. We mingled a bit then went home.

Cute Erana Sayings

• Erana was watching Mickey mouse in reading nook. The rest were watching Godzilla. She comes up to go to the toilet then says, "You kids will have bad dreams. Mickey mouse gives good dreams but this (pointing to the tv while noisy monster sounds are going on) will give you bad dreams." Lol. She said more that I can't quite recall exactly but she was so cute.
  

10/22/14

• Jaxon had hit Leila. He was in bed, Leila was crying quietly on her bed. Erana comes up and tells on Jaxon. She says to go down and make Jaxon cry. lol. I question Jaxon and then Leila. Erana climbs on the bed in front of me and says, "That's the truth." "Is that the truth?" "Looks at me with a big grin and puts a finger on her chin and says" Hmm". She is so funny. Jaxon cries when I smacked him. Erana is giggling and Leila is telling her to keep quiet, it's not funny.

10/23/14

• Just baked chocolate chip muffins, cause baby was asking for muffins yesterday & then this morning she's crying for muffins, but she was watching 'daniel the tiger' & they were talking about being 'fustrated' & she says to me 'Mum I'm so fustrated I want muffins' lol. She ate some and says to me 'mum your muffins are good'.
• Went to get Erana out of bath and i told her i burnt the muffins and she says 'Are you fustrated?' I said yup! then she starts singing 'when your fustrated Stop and ask for help' lol I said, 'no one can help those muffins their burnt. She said let's blow them, I said nope you can't eat them their black and hard lol.
  

11/20/14

• The room was dark and Erana on the sofa going to sleep. I open drawer to sneak some lollies. Erana says, "uh uh uh, you don't eat lollies, you need to brush your teeth."
  

12/1/14

• Erana: "mum I'm still hungry" she had for breaky about 2hrs ago, omelete, meat, pumpkin cake? Me: Your not hungry you just ate, your gonna get fat!  Erana: "Mum I just poop - food means poop"! lol

12/10/14

• Candi: Put your seat belt on. Erana: You do the honors

Thanksgiving & Wedding

11/1/14
The All Blacks played the US on the way to Europe in Chicago. It was on tv. They wasted them 76-6. Shaun and Jared went to the game. Shaun and Lawson went to their practice the day before and got photos with Julian Savea, Dan Carter and Liam Messam.

11/20/14
Went and saw Ariana perform as Epinine in her Les Miserables play at Jordan High. I had never seen that play. She did awesome. A very good singer and actress. But singing every word is just not my cup of tea.

11/22/14
Wesley got married today to Jenilyn a sister missionary on his mission. They came home on the same flight. Wesley had contacted her after and got to know her better. They married in the SL Temple. We went for the sealing. It was nice. We went to the reception in Lehi at 4pm. Mina and Leila did a tahitian dance for them. They did awesome. And of course we did the haka as well. Wesley led it, did a good enough job.

11/27/14
Thanksgiving was at Tania's as usual. Lots of food, kids, and smelly fumes from the couch (dog smells?). We ate around 1pm. The weather was in the 50's. The kids played outside a lot. We left around 5pm when it was obvious the Cowboys were going to lose to the Eagles. We had Julia and Talia stay the night and Mina stayed at Madi's and Leila at Kage's. Candi and I went to Target at 6pm to check out the sales. Ended up getting a few things from the kids Christmas lists. There were a lot of people but not too bad. Waited in a long line to check out.

Leila's 9th Birthday & Halloween

10/29/14
We had her birthday in the basement. She had Kage, Drey and Talia over. They went to a jumpy place while I was at work but was home by the time I got home. Candi and I had taken her to the Chinese Gourmet buffet for her birthday on the the Friday before, 10/24.

10/31/14
The costume theme this year was Dr. Who. Candi was the Tardis, Jaxon the 10th doctor, Leila a weeping angel and Erana a Dalek. Candi started planning and making the costumes in June I think. Spent forever making them the weeks and days leading up to Halloween. They turned out really well but I thought the whole effort was a bit overboard for the amount of time they actually used them. Halloween was on a Friday so I didn't have work that day which was nice. Got to Jody's home around 5pm. The backyard was covered in leaves so I raked them all into piles. We had lots of soups for dinner. The kids went trick or treating but didn't really last that long. Erana's shoes hurt her feet and Leila got tired. I picked them up in the van and took them back.

Lava Hot Springs

10/16-17/14
Went to stay the night at 'Lava Hot Springs'.  It took about 2hrs to drive there. When we got there we looked around a little and got some lunch from the grocery store and the kids played at the playground, went for a walk with Daddy. While Mummy had a nap in the van.

We checked in around 3:30pm, we were staying in a room attached to the arcade. It had 2 queens, and couch and we put the blow up bed on the floor. Connecting bathroom and a little kitchen. It was nice and clean. Went to sit in the nice hot 'lava hot pools', they were very hot. Erana found a little friend to play with.

We left and played at the arcade, played pool with Tyrell and Mina. Got some more food from the grocery store.  Kids had some hot chocolate and Cup O Noodles etc.  At night time, Jason, Tyrell, Erana and I went back to the hot pools and sat in it till it closed.

Ensign Peak

10/4-5/14

General conference weekend.

10/6/14

Went to the annual Ashworth Halloween party for FHE. Erana got her face painted as well as a temporary tattoo on her arm. They dressed up in costumes and had a good time. Jared and family came too.

10/11/14
We hiked up Ensign Peak today and took some family photos on the top. We're going to use some for the Christmas card photo. It was a nice day for a walk. It was the first time I went up there. Quite a nice view. Right after we went to Tania's so I could help fix a computer problem. They also showed us the Grantsville reservoir after. They were catching little crawdads under the rocks. Tania likes to eat them.

10/13/14

I had today off for Columbus Day. Didn't do much. Took the kids to Arctic Circle to get fries and shakes for a FHE treat.