What Matters Most.

...spend time with, cherish, and express love to the people we hold dear.  To view this inspiring message just click on the yellow title above "What Matters Most".
E N J O Y!

We have a ONE year old in the house.

I'm behind on my blog posts but we celebrated our last birthday of the year:  Joshua turned ONE - August 14th.  We had a wonderful time as a family.  Out of our two boys, Joshua is the calmer one and the cuddliest too.  I love that in his eyes mommy makes everything better.  One day at church a friend extended her arms to hold him and he just slowly turned his head away and held tight.  My friend was ok with that and said he acted like a baby Koala.  Her description was perfect.  Below you'll see our cute little ONE year old in action.

Mommy couldn't find our 1st year banner so she had Tia and Jonathan make one just for me.

My family blew up all these balloons for me to play with.  Awesome!

Grandma "Snow" called to wish me a Happy Birthday but then I accidentally hang up on her...oops!
She called again and was able to finish singing to me, thanks Grandma "Snow". 
Thanks Grandma "Tahiti" and the rest of the islanders for the birthday wishes too.  LOVE YOU ALL.

What a HAPPY DAY!  I'm ONE!

Joshua gets the honors...Jonathan caught red handed sneaking some frosting.

I think he likes it!  MMMmmmmmmmm sugar!

...to the bath tub to clean up and get ready to open presents.

Big brother giving Joshua his first b-day present.

Wow!  What's this lovely blue thing?

Look at that HAPPY face - priceless!

I am partied out people!

Breakers Water Park '09

It's my understanding that Breaker's is the only water park in Tucson.  It was the boys and I first time there.  Jonathan was in play heaven!

Joshua was in splash heaven!
Check out our little WATER WIZARD!
Now say that really fast 10 times!


Love the spiky hairdo and that cute baby face!
How was your Summer?

Summer of fun!

So we got smarter this year!  Our kids participated in our local library's summer reading program:  read and get rewarded for it hey, that sounds good to me.  So the kids read like crazy to get small rewards along the way but the ultimate reward they were aiming for was FREE tickets to Breakers Water Park!  And they did it!  Last year we totally missed the program but Ty & I came up with our own reading program for Tia and then Ty took her.  I didn't go with them then because I was LARGE with child and really didn't want to "expose" my heftiness, my hugeness or my chunkiness (name that movie?).  But this time around we all went as a family and we had lots of fun!

It's Soccer time.

Jersey #8 is Miss Tia.

Get this their team is called the "Maneating chickens"??? so ferocious and manly...Tia wasn't to fond about that but hey that's what the majority voted for.  Last week a friend and Tia came up with names like the Grasshoppers, Green Gators, Grasshopper Divas, Recycling chicks?, Green Beans, Grassy girls...Ty and I liked the Grasshopper idea.  What about you?

Tia started soccer this month when the weather is cooling off.

She has soccer practice on Mondays and Thursdays and a game on Saturdays.

Saturday Sept.12 was their first game. 

Go "Maneating chickens!"

                               ...break time.

Strategy time...I don't think Tia is paying attention :)

The score was 2 - 0! 

So you would think by this picture that they WON alas the "Maneating chickens" got spanked!  And yes we reward LOSERS in our home.  After all it was their first game and she did HER BEST.

Friends.

This is a picture of a picture.  The original picture was taken by Jacob Larsen who I believe was 10 or 12 at the time.  This picture is one of our favorites.  Jacob and his family blew it up and gave it to us as a gift many years ago.  It remains on our wall not only as a reminder of love and family but also as a reminder of friendship.  We all have friends and they're very important and then there are those who are extra special because they touch ones life for the better, the Larsen family happen to be "extra special" to me.  They touched my life many years ago when I first met their parents who served (as temple president ) with my father in the Papeete, Tahiti temple.  A friendship developed between our families and that's what brought me to study in America.  Without coming here I don't think I would have met another "extra special friend" - Ty.

12 years ago...

We were married for Time and All Eternity in the beautiful and historical Salt Lake Temple in Utah. 
Our meeting was like the words to one of Ty's favorite U2 songs:
The Sweetest Thing "...Blue-eyed boy and this brown-eyed girl."  Lol.
I came to the US to pursue an education in Graphic Design/ Art (using computers) after being schooled in fine art by very traditional French art professors in Tahiti.  This was my first time coming to America. 
Ty and I met at a church dance.....oh the sweetest thing!  For the record, my sister and I love to dance and NO I was not "shopping" I was just merely having fun - dancing.  Back in the island days as soon as we were of age to attend church dances and friends "booms" we would faithfully go with a group of friends and dance the night away.  Fun times!
So I guess it was meant to be that I would meet my Prince at a "ball"....oh the sweetest thing!  According to Ty we met Friday Dec.13, 1996 (I still haven't verified that precious detail).  So Mr. Romantic thought it would be cool to remember that date and get married in Dec on the 13th....oh the sweetest thing!  However that date changed due to the fact that I had 2 other sisters getting married that same year '97.  One wedding in Tahiti and two in the US.  Financially we decided it would be best to have our wedding the week after my sister's so that my parents would be there and not have to go home and turn around and come back.  Plus the idea of a winter wedding was pretty but brrr cold for a surfer dude and an island girl!  Coincidentally the week after my sister's wedding was the 13th, may be not Dec.13th but Sept.13th so I guess 13 is our lucky number ;) 
...oh the sweetest thing!
Ty, thank you for being a wonderful friend, husband and father.  I appreciate our journey together.
Happy Anniversary to us "Blue-eyed boy and Brown-eyed girl!" 
I LOVE YOU!

PS:  this is a picture of a picture since I have issues with my scanner right now.  Enjoy.

Popsicles & Lemonade...

...well it's been more like a summer of Otter pops and homemade Limeade. I'm sure Miss Tia will not forget the summer of '09, the summer where she had a limeade stand, worked hard and made some serious dough. She sold Otter Pops, Air Head candy, rice crispy treats, Kool Aid and her signature drink: refreshing homemade LIMEADE. At the end of the day it was cute to see her happy face count her money (tips too) set 10% aside for tithing and then repay her loan (for ingredients and supplies). 
Many thanks to those thirsty customers, Dad for helping her set up shop and brother Jonathan for flying the flag and keeping her company during a very HOT Arizona summer day.