Sometimes it's awkward...

So it's been a really really long time since our last update. Coming back to update the blog after such a long absence is like running into a good friend in the grocery store. You know, that one friend who is so thoughtful in keeping in contact with you, and you keep meaning to call them back, but like the slackers we often are, we never do. And you see them in the store and for a split second your face radiates the joy you feel in seeing them.....until your guilt kicks in a nano second later and your face freezes as you try to either backtrack and make excuses or hope they didn't see you and you can escape....while you promise yourself you'll call them AS. SOON. AS. YOU. GET. HOME. (But you won't. Slacker. lol)

Anyways, needless to say between the last post and today, there have been numerous funny, wonderful, enjoyable, remarkable things that have happened, as well as our fair share of frustrating, disappointing, stressful things. That's how it goes. We just hope we handle ourselves gracefully in times of stress, and remain good examples for our kids. WE HOPE.

We're celebrating Kaleineneke's 4th birthday this weekend. She is, at this very moment, walking around the house with a plastic serving tray on her head, practicing walking like a 'princess' in her not so humble opinion. She's even practicing saying "Your highness", if only to teach her sister Lehuakona how to say it 'appropriately'. (Insert big sigh here)

4 years went by quickly. Her vocabulary is impressive, as are her cognitive skills, but what amazes us the most is her creativity. She is a 4 year old weaver of stories. She creates these intricate stories starring the clouds she sees in the sky as we're driving. Her emotions are just under the surface, ready to burst forth through song, dance, explanations and stories. We walk the line with enthusiastically encouraging her without her becoming vain (which we're seeing traces of.).

As for Pumehana, well, she's going to be 18 years old this year. Rather than feel old, her daddy and I feel accomplished. This baby was deemed 'unsave-able'. Doctors and nurses told us she would not make it past the few minutes it w

ould take me to go from my hospital room to the NICU. Our entire 'ohana has poured aloha and positivity into her little body, and encouraged and prayed for her and with her every step of the way. Her spirit is tremendous and we know she is filled with the aloha of her ancestors. She is an amazing big sister.

Lehuakona, our 2 year old is a bundle of energy, enthusiasm, and wit. She is by turns hilarious and stress inducing. SHE makes me feel old. Her creativity equals that of Kaleineneke, it just takes a different form. She is physically creative. By this I mean that she finds numerous strange and alarming ways to express herself. Such as....a half gallon of milk poured on the floor, followed by half a box of Fruity Pebbles with her stomping on them. Why? Because, "Hey Mommy! It's CRUNCHY!" with a huge smile on her adorable (well not so adorable at that moment) face. To provide some context, five minutes earlier, she had decorated her sister Pumehana's bedroom wall with dark brown crayon. Which is what I was cleaning while she decided to play "Snap! Crackle! and Pop!" in the kitchen. Today she decided she would paint me a picture. Using toothpaste. On the bathroom cabinet doors. And floors. I'm laughing now, but you can bet I wasn't finding it so humorous this morning. Even when she smiled and said "Do you like the picture I made for you Mommy?"

Mr. Carden and I are getting better and better at rolling with the punches. There's a lot of laughter at the kids' antics when we're laying in bed and the girls are sleeping. We've been doing great at our resolutions which were to spend more time with just the two of us each day. My resolution to read 100 books in 2012 is going superbly as well. I'm currently on 19 books and it's only March 1st. Yes, I'm feeling pretty smug about it. I do intend to post on our blog more often, and while that's not a resolution, it is a goal nonetheless. Hopefully these posts survive in some fashion over the years so the girls are able to read it when they're older. Because I'm NOT writing all of this twice.

FEBRUARY!

Everyone says it, "Where has the time gone?" and we'll chime in right along side them, because we're amazed that January has passed so quickly!!! Our recent club gathering this past Saturday was fun, with everyone visiting and for those of us who aren't so great at making lei (read: TINA) still enjoying everyone's company. We have a fun, and different activity planned for February, we're just waiting on some confirmations and we'll begin letting everyone know.

We do have our Mainland Council Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs quarterly gathering in February, and we're looking forward to sharing time, space and mana'o with club leaders from across the Continental United States. We hav

e a grant "boot camp" workshop scheduled, which will hopefully enable us to secure funding to better assist in our people's and our community's growth.

We do want to share some of the amazing initiatives occurring in our community, especially the amazing work of `Anapesi Ka`ili, take a look at

the flyer below. It just can't get any easier to stay abreast of issues that impact us as Pacific Islanders!! Please help spread the word!!

Rolling on through January

Received a new planner for the year at work. Started out empty and in about five minutes flat, filled right up. Amazing how it does that seemingly all by itself. Geez. Then I realized, if I'm not careful, 2011 will be about crossing out each event one by one....versus living my life. Whew. Good thing I noticed that trend (it happened a lot last year unfortunately) early this time around.

So here's to 2011 being about not just going OUTSIDE of my comfort zone as much as EXPANDING it. Lots of things in the works for 2011....some of which may come as a slight shock to some, don't worry, it's a GOOD thing, and some not so shocking. Like you know, FINALLY getting Kalei and Lehua to COMMIT to toilet training. Because oh my goodness diapers (not to mention wipes, although I think we'll need those until they're much older...hands, faces, handprints...) are flippin pricey and for THREE kids?! GET. OUTTA. TOWN. Crazy expensive. We'll just have to keep at it.

BUSY WEEK this week! Ho`oponopono class, genealogy chant review, awa chants/ceremony, KALEA board meeting, Native Hawaiian Naming practices presentation with Hui Hawai`i O Utah, and ho`opuka...whew! But we do all these things so it's the "norm" for our girls, that they're raised being engaged in cultural practices and in the community. Trying to grow strong Native Hawaiian females, here people! LOL

COZY THANKSGIVING

As we come out of the food hangover, we're springing RIGHT INTO CHRISTMAS!!!!! Can't wait to get the house all dolled up for the girls! Here's some shots of Thanksgiving with our awesome `ohana!!!!

More photos via facebook, I'm still too lazy from last night...and leftovers to post them all here...lol

Happily UN-Frazzled!!!

So we have an event this weekend. And wonders of wonders, I'm not freaking out, I'm not stressed, my face isn't blotchy, no hives in sight, and my blood pressure isn't sky rocketing. No, I still have my OCD, it's alive and well, thank you. I'm fairly calm because my board ROCKS!!! My executive board for Hui Hawai`i O Utah Hawaiian Civic Club are doing an amazing, amazing, AMAZING job with all of the preparations for this weekend's event.

Not that yours truly hasn't been busy. I have. Extremely so. So much so that I walked past the calendar and saw that Thanksgiving was next week. Now, on a technical level, I did know that yes, Thanksgiving is next Thursday, but on a practical level? Well the whole idea seemed a little abstract to me. Focusing on Civic Club, and work, and stuff with the girls, shifted Thanksgiving OUT of focus, and put it into the "background". Walking past that calendar shifted the focus back, gave me a mini shock to the head and heart, and has now placed Thanksgiving smack dab in the foreground again. And just in time. Got the grocery list going, menu planning, decorations, and we're moving right along!

Even with our crazy lives, we receive gems from above every day. Lehuakona, our 19 month old has been happily starting to go potty all by herself! She's got the whole thing pretty wired, even if I say so myself. She'll strip off the bottoms and diaper, climb on the potty, balance, do her business, jump off, reach for the toilet paper, take care of things, flush and go to wash her hands. Mommy or Daddy are always there to supervise, but we just love her independent spirit! We'll get back to you when she's 15 and see if we're loving her independent nature then.

Kalei's creativity is growing by leaps and bounds. She now loves to draw and will make up little stories about what she's drawn, and she'll sit with a book and tell her sisters all sorts of stories about what she believes is happening in the book she's reading. Her memory retention is amazing. She's been able to pule in Hawaiian for a while now, she'll recite the whole thing, and is now moving on to teaching her sister Lehua, who can follow along with her. So cute. So humbling.

Pumehana is a typical big sister, gets after the babies when they're acting up, and hugs them tight when the crawl on her lap to snuggle. She's looking forward to watching Harry Potter this weekend, but I think it's more for the popcorn, which she loves. She loves taking the popcorn tub away from Daddy and putting napkins in his hand instead. Her way of saying "You've had enough dad." I guess. Kinda funny, because sometimes he doesn't even notice, especially if he's really into the movie, and goes to put the napkin in his mouth. You can't shut Pume up after that, she's laughing hysterically at that point.

David's been spending a lot of time with her, especially once the babies are calmed or sleeping for the night. He and Pumehana have Halo Reach disputes, with Pumehana always insisting she's winning, and that she has more "kills" than he does....then their teasing back and forth begins. Which Pumehana LOVES. All the while I get to get caught up on work, civic club, Kalea, community or household stuff. Lately I've been able to take care of all of that early in the week so amazingly enough I've had time to read. To the tune of 4 books since this time last month! I just realized that. Give me a moment to get over my shock. Ok pau. Mostly it's due to my amazing husband who will take care of the girls and stuff while I get work done. Leaving me time to read in the latter part of the week. So far, I've read "The Glassblower of Murano" - it was okay. "The Botticelli Secret" - it was better than The Glassblower of Murano, same author, "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" -pretty good once the story got rolling, and "Bed of Roses" pretty good, I was surprised I liked it. I'm now on "The Rossetti Letter" and so far so good.

Anyhow, that's our life as of this week. Holy moly that was a long post!!! Will have tons of pics to post after this weekend! Stay tuned!

Good Intentions

Again, I LOVE the fall season, there's so much fun going on! November, for our 'ohana is filled with birthdays, but the 1st of November is our anniversary! This November 1st will see us together for 19 years. Finally, something I can attach the saying "for more than half my life" to, and it's something beautifully positive.
But for right now, it's Halloween and the kiddies have finally burned off the enormous amounts of sugar they consumed today, and are now sleeping. Kalei, for whatever reason didn't want to wear her costume, so I have zero photos of her in it. Lehua on the other hand, was focused so intently on the candy, it was difficult to get a picture of her, but we managed to snag a few. In fact, I just realized that if you look closely, you'll see Kalei in the background, in her pink princess outfit.


I always have the best of intentions to do a weekly entry, and so far....it hasn't happened. I guess it's better that we're too busy to constantly update, versus too lazy to do so. This month, especially the latter half was so busy!!! We had an awesome time at the Las Vegas Regatta, it was so much fun! I continue to be excited and happy for David and Kaika who get to paddle again after being away from it for so long. KALEA did so well at the regatta!!

We are looking forward to the upcoming month, and while it will definitely find us busy busy busy, it will always find us together.

Fabulous life!

This past weekend we did a catering job for an assisted living center in Alpine. Alpine is a gorgeous area!!! So many beautiful views!! The catering job went well, the attendees had fun and the staff were great to work with! They're looking forward to us doing it again next year. MAHALO NUI to the favorites, Garin and Brianna, they are always so ready to help, I'm so thankful for them! And also to ka 'ohana Gaui, they are aaaaaaaaaaaawesome!!!!! We were too busy to take pics of the catering, and by the time things slowed down, we were too pooped!! Straight from there we picked Lehua up from grandma and headed over to the church to help Pili and Laura (this was about 9pm) and didn't get home til midnight. We didn't sleep until around 3 am due to cranky babies, and woke up at 6:30 am to head down to Lindon Harbor so David could paddle.

It was such a nice morning though. We got to talk story with everyone, Uncle Mike is so freakin funny, but what an awesome guy!!! David got to engage in something he absolutely LOVES, which is paddling canoe, and anything we can do to support and encourage that, we're all over it. Although in all honesty, evenif he wasn't interested, we'd still support and help the guys in any and all ways we could. They are an amazing bunch of guys.

After a short rest we headed over to Pili and Laura's wedding. They're such a great couple. Friday night was our first time meeting Laura and she's a doll. Pili, well he's always awesome. It was such a pleasure to help them in whatever small way we could. I was the emcee, and chanted their genealogy,and introduced the court, which was made up of the nephews and nieces.

Today was a much needed and well deserved day of rest. Aaaaahhhhhhhh. Got to sleep in. (Thanks baby!) Visited with family, and now having an equally relaxing night.

Now, the other weekend was one of the most fulfilling weekends we've had in a long time. We went down to Lindon Harbor so David could paddle, then we went to a great friend's house to ku'i kalo, and I started on making new kapa stamps, and a bamboo nose flute. So culturally engaging. It was awesome, David kept saying how great of a weekend it was, and coming from him, that's pretty high praise. I was able to get some shots of Kalei at the harbor, and of David pounding kalo, but didn't get any of the canoe.....YET.

E ola mau 'o Haloa

Lately I've been filled with thoughts of our elder sibling Haloa. My imagination has been fired with the myriad shades of green found on the leaves, and all the sights and sounds and stories he has to tell us from his countless experiences.

In thinking of our elder sibling, my mind sorts through the numerous challenges that face his growth. Adequate water, both in quantity and quality, it's prior uprooting in favor of rice, the introduction of foreign infestations and disease, GMO. And I start to process....adequate water, both in quantity and quality for Haloa = disconnect from land/place and practices for us, uprooting in favor of rice for Haloa = the English language instead of our mother tongue, introduction of foreign infestations and disease is the exact same for us both, and GMO for him = colonization for us. (I could go on and on...but won't)

Then I process even further. My kupuna would always tell me, "mimic, emulate your elder sibling." Where it was information for me then, it is knowledge for me now. I can say to my kupuna, "Maopopo au e tutu." Our elder sibling is firmly planted. It bends but never breaks. In times of difficulty (read: "bad weather"), it still manages to pull sustenance from our parent Papahanaumoku, and nourish the offshoots. Through all the many challenges there is never a complaint, challenges are faced and overcome, and continues to give. I got it now, tutu. "Mimic, emulate your elder sibling." Maopopo au e Tutu, e kulia au.