Where do I Begin???

It's been so long I think I've forgotten how any of this blogging stuff works!  It just took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to get a new background.  Anyway, I haven't posted anything on here mostly because our internet service has been TERRIBLE and it would take me 10 minutes just to download a picture.  So we have finally gotten a better internet service so I figured it was time to update.  I guess this is mostly for me - for journaling since I don't know if anyone even does this anymore.

I couldn't decide whether I go back & start from where I left off or just go from this point on....since I'm not feeling all that ambitious these days I will just go from now.  

Here's a very short recap of the past several months:
Maizi had a birthday in August - now she's 6 & in first grade.  She LOVES it!  I was a little nervous about her being gone all day, but it has worked out great & her teacher is awesome.  She just recently lost her first tooth & lost her second one a couple days ago....she's getting too old!

Soakai will be 5 in January, goes to preschool twice a week & is also becoming quite the "big" kid.  He is such a boy - likes to tease Maizi, play outside, ride his bike & loves anything related to superheroes.  He'd kill me if he could read this, but I'm afraid he's also quite obsessed with Justin Bieber.  He has Bieber Fever!!! :)

We just moved into a different house last weekend - finally! We'd been looking for something since July & just hadn't found anything we liked.  Our main focus being an extra room for our new baby boy coming in a short 5 weeks!!  We really like our new house & neighborhood & best of all, it's still very close to Sione's work and the school.

I think that's as brief as I could get the last 9 months - we are excited to be going home next week for Thanksgiving & of course we are SUPER excited for the baby to be here.  I still have TONS to do to get ready, but I guess I'll just have to take it one day at a time. :)

Emili & Raylon's Wedding

Our first visit back home was for Emili and Raylon's wedding. I don't know why I don't have any more pictures than these ones - it was super cute & lots of fun!! They did a great job with the reception - well done girls! :)

Gettin' Down & Dirty

So this is what happens when the kids got bored one day & I couldn't handle them in our little house anymore. They decided to turn the hose on & it turned into a mud bath. Of course, at first I was a little annoyed, but there was no sense in getting mad....so I took pictures. :) The only problem here is that the dirt is red & it stains EVERYTHING including their skin. So needless to say these clothes are now the designated "play in the dirt" clothes.

Kids Adventures

These are just a few pictures of some of our little outings with the kids - we've been trying to find things to do together as a family since that's all we've got here....each other. :)

Maizi's school had a carnival earlier this year & the kids chose to get their faces painted & Maizi wanted her hair sprayed different colors.

Soakai's class did some face painting at school one day & he chose Spiderman.


There's a really cute carousel in a park in downtown St. George that's pretty fun.


We had a first here....our very first babysitter that was not related to us! We have been getting our babysitter, Brooke so we can go on some date nights. She's Soakai's pre-school teacher's daughter - it has been such a blessing to have a good babysitter here. She's great with the kids & always does lots of activities with them. This is the first time we got her & the kids made masks - when we got home I went to check on them and this is how I found Soakai sleeping. :) (They were glow in the dark too).

Hiking

Here are a few pictures of our hiking adventure. We took the kids on their first hike in St. George - this is just by our house. Pretty, huh? They had a lot of fun-- Maizi did say that it got a little long so it was making her heart hurt. :)