Happy New Year....

...9 days late. But better late than never, right? YES! This year is already going by so fast. Yes it's only 9 days in, but where have these 9 days gone? Wasn't it just Christmas? CRAZY. Well so far the year has been great! We spent Christmas with family here in Texas, namely my grandma and aunt (plus fam) that I haven't seen in years! It was so nice getting together, and introducing MY little family to them! That's always fun!

So to be honest, for the first time, i didn't really come up with any "new years resolutions"... I mean I already have goals, but saying "my new years resolution this year is ___________"... nope, never happened. I guess i can think of a few now, right? Well first off, I want to try not to loose my mind this year... haha. But on a serious note, I just want to better myself as a mother. Yes, yes... and a wife as well. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I really do feel like i'm a great wife, kind of the best! I spoil the heck out of Saia with love and cake. Yes cake. He craves it constantly when i'm pregnant, so im coooonstantly in the kitchen for this guy! But nothing makes me happier. Happy and GRATEFUL husband = happy wife!


OMG.. DID SHE JUST SAY SHE WAS PREGNANT???


Sure did! Yes we are expecting baby #3! And no we didn't just barely find out ;) We've known for months, and im due at the end of March! We've told family and a few friends, but due to my inactivity on facebook, hardly anyone else knows. We are excited though. We are having another little boy (crossing fingers still that he comes out a girl haha) and are SO excited to meet him! I really did want another little girl, but healthy babies are blessings. PERIOD. I cant wait to see him and all his fuzzy hair! Im assuming he's going to have lots like Lyric and Luve did, due to the fact i have constant heartburn! It sucks.


So other than a baby, i've been busy this year just having fun with the kids and wasting WAY too much time on Pinterest. I LOVE PINTEREST. PIN-A-HOLIC i am! Tonight I made this DELICIOUS Chicken Enchilada soup. It is truly so so good.. i feel like it could be served in a restaurant! But other than the taste, I think im having some kind of allergic reaction or whatever to SOMETHING. Im assuming it's the jalepeno's. After i cut them, my fingers kind of started to burn, AND THEY'RE STILL BURNING. It's been like 6 hours by the way. I've washed and washed, and the only relief I get is from putting them in cold water. I feel like there is heat coming off of them. There is no redness or anything like that, but they just burn, almost as if I got literally burned by something hot. Hot as in temp not spicy. I think they did burn me. And after this blog post, im heading over to pinterest to see what kind of crazy concoction i can find to soothe this pain!


Anyway - this post is ALL over the place, but thats just where my brain is these days. So onto the next subject, LUVE turns ONE this saturday!! Jan 12th, my baby will be 1! It's so crazy to me. Where did the year go? I literally remember every detail from when i had him... from the castor oil shake to the yoga ball to my water breaking and putting a wash cloth in my pants to save our car's seats.. haha! Luckily the hospital is like a 4 minute drive away, and thats only because of stop lights and stop signs. So yes, he will be a year! I've always heard that boys are slower at developing than girls, but was SURE my boy wouldn't be! .....wrong. I was so wrong. Lyric at 1 was running, dancing, clapping her hands, etc. This little guy is still a baby! I mean, he stands on his own without support, and does other cute things, but he is NO WHERE near as "ahead of the game" as she was. No way near at all. I give it another 1-2 months before he starts walking. When he holds our fingers to walk, he does a good job and does it mainly on his own without using us too much for support, but he can crawl faster. He likes to be fast! He's SUCH a mommy's boy and I LOVE IT. Lyric has been all about her daddy from the start. Sure she loves me and kisses/hugs me, but she's not a cuddler or anything of that sort at all. But Luve? This little guy is all about ME! Well, until his dad walks in the room or comes home for work. They love their daddy and he adores them even more. I really am blessed. Life is great right where it's at. We are constantly progressing as a family (not just by popping out babies haha) and I just love it. I'm lucky.. a very very lucky girl.


SO I dont have much else to record (that i can think of at this moment), and I should probably go check on lyric since she's been in her bed yelling mommmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy for the past 10 minutes as i've written this post. That child thinks her bed time is midnight, i swear! She used to be SO good at going to bed at 8:30... then one day we had a late nap and she's been off track ever since! I'm working on it. Praise the Lord Luve has been an excellent sleeper since just a few months old. If he wasn't, i'd loose it. That reminds me, I was supposed to come up with a few new year resolutions, then got WAY off track. So here they are, to close the post :) 1.be a better mother 2.become more organized 3.stop giving a damn what other people think.. 4.and stop trying to impress anyone but myself and my family. THE END! ;)

Im so hungry!

Don't you hate being SO hungry, and having lots of food in the pantry, but NOTHING interests you? Me too. Thats where i'm at right now! But no, this isn't the reason for blogging. So lets get to that! Anyway, I've been making our yearly (this is only year two, but we have a zillion to go!) yearbook for Christmas time. Last year the book I made was specifically for Saia. It was ALL about him & lyric, and the words on the pages (that went along with the pictures) were the Lyrics to "In my Daughters Eyes" by Martina McBride. WHICH I LOVE. It turned out SO perfect, that I decided i'm going to make one each year! Not just for Saia, but for our family. The days of getting pictures printed to show off is LONG past. With all the social media sites that people are into these days, there's really no reason to go print a picture to show someone. They can just go online. Free and easy! And ontop of that, I cant tell you HOW MANY boxes my mom has of pictures of my brother & I aaaand they're just sitting there. Waiting for any natural disaster to come along and erase all of them! Pretty depressing. I love looking at old photo's from when I was a baby, though. And I remember bringing pictures to school when I was younger as part of a project or something having to do with ME! So these books just seem perfect. They'll always be kept out of reach of greasy little fingers and messy mouths :) So hopefully one day as my children get older, they'll enjoy looking at these "yearbooks" their mommy made! Ok.. moving along.. So as i was saying, i've been making this book and going through our zillions of pictures I have of Saia & I with our children. I LOVE IT. I love looking at pictures, but at the same time it's really got me wondering why time is flying by so fast! Not only that, but why are my babies growing right before my eyes and I'm not even really realizing it? I mean yes I realize it, but DANG have they grown! So here's a little trip down memory lane from just this year. From January until December. I love the changes in our family, and how much love we all share. I am reminded each day of how blessed I am to have such a loving and HARD working husband who supports our little growing family. He's the greatest.. and nothing makes me happier than him coming home from work and the kids running (and crawling) so fast, straight into his arms. That's their daddy! Their hero.

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

WHY ME!

OK.... have any of you ever gotten a hair cut that you hated?


.........lets start over...........


You know those stories you've heard about people who go in to the hair salon (or great clips, whatever fits your budget), and come out looking not so hot? Basically they ask for one thing and get another? Yeah, those stories are always so sad... but extremely hilarious. Well that was until today. Why you may ask?


IT HAPPENED TO ME.


So, my "salon" of choice was great clips. It fits in my budget! Not only that, but i just wanted something simple done, not anything too wild/crazy, nothing seemingly difficult, so great clips it was. I was ready! Bye Lyric & Luve, mama will be back looking FRESH!


Or so I thought.


So I walk in and was greeted by a nice young man. Typed in my phone # and said "Mrs Vainuku?" Yes thats me. Then a nice chubby lady said "i'm open, i'll do it!" (by the way, had my hair not come out the way it did, i wouldn't refer to her as 'chubby'.. but whatever. she deserves it!) Anyway - so I sit down and we start talking. I love going places with adults, because im able to have a nice sit down without kids everywhere, and enjoy some adult conversation. I let her know what i want done, and even show her a picture. "3 inches off the bottom, and lots of layers like this (shows picture)" Ok, sounds good! So she starts. She eventually says the length is all off now she will start the layers. She specifically said "it's going to look like alot of hair is gone, but dont worry, we're done with the length so no more of that will go."

EXCELLENT! She definatly knows what she's doing.

So we continue our conversation, she lets me know she graduated hair school in July.. July as in just a few months ago. *crickets* ok WHAT? Why would I get stuck with a lady who has been cutting hair for like 4 months? And my hair is as long as most peoples arms! Whatever, i told her "i have faith in you"... even though i was starting to sweat a little.

CHOP CHOP CHOP

And then "we're all done!" then she says "so alot of times once customers get home and dry the hair, it doesn't look how they wanted. It looks great while wet but different once dry, so if there is something you dont like, just come back in and we'll fix it." Hmm.. made me a little nervous! I figured id pay, go home to my babies and figure out if I liked it then. After all, if I didn't like it, what would I have said? You suck!!!! No, that's just uncalled for. Or so I thought at the time. So I pay, and go to pull my hair up to a pony tail, and "whoa whoa whoa.... something is missing... for some reason my hair is WAY light and feels really short." Is what was playing through my head. I walked out of there, got into the car and headed the whole mile and a half home.

I CRIED. I dried my hair, and CRIED! This trick seriously cut like 9 inches off my hair. YES my hair was super long and probably TOO long, but its my hair. I paid for something I was supposed to like, what I asked for. Well... lets just say i have alot less hair now. Im even too embarassed to put up a picture. It doesn't look HORRIBLE to most im sure, but it's horrible. Just trust me. It barely under my chest. Im sure that's long to alot of people, but not me. My hair is seriously my security blanket. I have had long hair since probably the 7th grade after i cut it to my shoulders and it looked like a witches broom. WORST. MISTAKE. EVER. (never to be repeated!) So ever since then, i've had luxurious long locks! Frick you GREAT CLIPS!!

UGH....


Next time maybe i'll just listen to my husband and let HIM cut my hair. Pretty sure it'd look better than what this lady did.

Respect.

I know, I know.... I just posted an entry maybe.... 30 minutes ago? If even that. I guess my goal to be a better blogger is taking full effect! Just kidding. Kind of.


Anyway - the real reason I had the desire to blog wasn't to update "whoever" on my kids/family. Though thats the best reason in the world! What prompted me to hop back on here, is really the fact that i had a zillion and eight things going through my head about a certain subject, and had no where else to dump. No facebook, no social life, etc. (jk on the social life - but again only kind of).


Anyway! Take a wild guess what that certain "subject" is.... are you guessing? Or did you just guess it's about my title? Well ding ding if you got it right. It's about respect. Respect has a whole new meaning to my life lately. I've always been taught respect, to respect others as well as yourself, but lately i've been seeing such a LACK of respect, and im going nuts! Let me explain.....


So a few months back, I got rid of my facebook. I was basically tired of people complaining, and of comparing my life to the shining moments of others. What i mean by that is if i was having a crappy day, I would see that someone else's day was fantastic, they recieved flowers, they won the lottery, etc. Whatever. In truth, people generally only post the positive things going on in their life. Or atleast they want to draw the most attention to it. GREAT for them. And for me, when i have great days. BUT what it doesn't show is their crappy days. Crappy just like the one that maybe i happened to be having at the moment. The internet lies, man. Haha - sounds crazy but that is (in a nutshell) why i decided to erase my facebook. I've been happy without it, too. Sure there are moments i miss seeing what everyone is up to, seeing my friends children growing, etc. But then i realize i am where i need to be. Spending more time with my kids, not competing online.


Anyway! So a while after my break up with facebook, i hopped on Instagram. It's fun, just a bunch of friends who post pictures. Friends and Kim Kardashian. Is it necessary for her to post so many pictures of her serious, non smiling face? Truth is I dont mind. It's kind of fun to "follow" a couple celeb's and see what they're up to. The girls from Teen Mom too! Yes im a guilty watcher. Sue me. So Instagram is where i've seen all this LACK of respect going on. 3 words for you...

I AM BAFFLED.

I dont even know if that makes complete sense, but thats about all i can come up with. There are so many celebrity's who post pictures online, and i CANNOT get over how negative people are. Like, unnecessarily negative. For example: teen mom Jenelle posts a picture of her new shoes. Cute. You expect people to respond with "cute shoes!" or "ehh.. not my fav"... whatever. What you DONT expect is for them to start bashing her life. "MAYBE you should be more concerned about your kid than your shoes"... another example - Snooki. Snooki posts a picture of herself and people respond with "dont you think you should be taking care of your kid rather than taking pictures of yourself? How do you have time to do all these things with a newborn" .... ok my argument or whatever right now seems pointless... just stay with me.... So anyway - those are rude comments and pretty unnecessary, right? Yes. Well THEN a little 15 year old comes in bashing the person who bashed the celeb with a "shut the (*^&( up you ignorant *&^*^ - go kill yourself"


WAIT.


She said... WHAT???????????????????


When the HELL did something like this become acceptable?? When did this start??? I honestly do remember bullies and being bullied a bit growing up. Sure. But to call someone out even just online, that you don't know, and not just that but to go so far to say "go kill yourself"?? I've at least come across that statement on Instagram over 10 times in the past week or so. And it's not like i fish through people's comments for it. It's just THERE. Everywhere. WHY are people so disrespectful and cruel? WHY and WHEN did a parent stop monitoring what their kids do? I would hope if these kids parents saw the way they were treating others, that something would be done. I know I am without a doubt NOT perfect, and I've said my fair share of mean things in my past. But go kill yourself?? Good lord. The majority of people i see saying this are females. Females to other Females. It happens with males too, but not as much (that I've seen). We've all heard of "cyber bullying" but i had absolutely NO idea it was this bad. I am sure 9 times out of 10 the person on the other side being called out doesn't care much, but what about the 1 person that does? What happened to respecting OURSELVES enough to not degrade someone? Where has society seriously gone? Other than "down the tubes" i have no way to describe it. What will it take for people to make a difference? Seriously. As a stay at home mom this makes me feel SO disconnected from Society, to be so shocked by something like this that maybe others just blow right past. But im SO glad I AM disconnected and not apart of it! I am ranting and raving it seems but it just makes me so sad. If females don't respect themselves and others, why would a man? I am terrified for my kids to grow up around all this garbage. I will be SURE to teach them right from wrong, respect, and will make SURE i am apart of their DAILY lives to not skip out on signs i shouldn't miss. I don't want my kids wrapped up in all the trash of today's world.


What happened to the world..........

Slow down, please.

Wow, has it really been over 9 months since i've updated? Im embarassed. Not because I write for anyone inparticular to read, but because this serves as a journal of some sort, and I haven't kept up with it. I haven't documented all the fun things we've done the past 9 months, haven't uploaded pictures, haven't expressed feelings, nothing! Sad. Well, as they say you cant change the past, but you can change the future. So here I am!! Well, where to start? The kids are seriously huge. Luve is turning 9 months in a few short days and Lyric will be 2 in about a month. WHAT?!?!?! Yes 2. I still remember her being born. I remember every single detail about her birth, my labor story, etc. I cannot believe my little diva is going to be two! Where on earth does time go? You know, i sat the other day watching TV or messing around on my phone and realized from what seemed like one second to the next, nearly 10 minutes had passed. It feels like time is going faster these days than it did when I was a carefree child. It scares me a little bit, because though I absolutely LOVE seeing my babies grow, i don't want them to grow forever. I want them to reach a certain age, then just stay there. All of us. I want to cherish every single second with them and our family in general. I don't want their lives to go as fast or even faster than mine did. I want this happiness to just last forever. I plan to make that happen. SO back to them being huge. Lyric is running, dancing, and singing all the time. She's our little diva, seriously. I love her personality and her love of what seems like everything. She is VERY independent, but has her moments of wanting to be snuggled (though they are rare). She is happy playing on her own but also loves other kids. She gets so excited just watching other kids in the neighborhood ride their bikes or interact with each other. She is truly heaven sent and I could never ask for a better little girl. She is perfect. I swear she's been this way since day 1! Luve, 8 months old, is ALL over the place. He crawls so fast and pulls himself up on everything! He is working on growing his 6th tooth! He loves eating, sleeping, being held and his sister. He seriously thinks lyric is THE funniest thing on earth. He's also extremely fascinated by our little dog who drives me insane. (that's a whole other story - we wont go there). Anyway - he is such a bundle of JOY! Generally a very happy baby, though he doesn't like when someone isn't paying attention. He's definitely not as independent as his sister, but that's just fine. He's perfect to us as well :) Saia & I just love watching them interact with each other. I love seeing them play and grow and cant wait for the years to come. Saia & I are both doing great. He is busy working and I'm of course busy with these two little characters. There are days I do go crazy and get stressed out, but then i realize I am extremely blessed to be home with them and be able to see all the fun things they do and learn. I LOVE being a stay at home mom! I wouldn't change it for anything in the world. Well one more thing, we just got our tickets to go back to utah for a little vacation and family time, and we are so excited! I know Saia is home sick so he needs a good dose of family (and tongan food! haha) every few months. I also love to have our kids around all their cousins. We dont have lots of family here, so it's a fun treat for Lyric especially to get to play with all her cousins on her Daddy's side. I also am looking forward to cooler weather! This 90 degrees business is just not ok in October! I want to see the pretty fall leaves that turn the mountains all kinds of colors. I miss all of that SO much. And snow. Im not asking for snow while we're in Utah, but I do know we will eventually end up living back there and I cannot wait. I grew up in Hot Texas and didn't get to experience snow until I was an adult. I want my kids to have it, though. I want the warm fireplace inside and the snow falling outside. I want them to have it all :) Anyway - that's our current life in a nutshell. We are happy and blessed, and there isn't much more we could ask for.