LONG TIME NO POST :(

I promise there will be an update soon and trust me there is a lot to blog about :)

Aliante Station

March 6th-8th - Happy Anniversary :) So...technically the cruise was supposed to be for our anniversary, but I decided to surprise Justin and get us a room at Aliante Station. I know it is really close to our house, but it's new, clean, and cheap...or so I thought. I am embarrassed to say that I have never booked a room or anything, so I don't really know how to "hussle" like my husband does. I usually just pay whatever they ask, Justin on the other hand makes sure to ask every time no matter where we are, "what deal can you give me?", "do you have law enforcement discount?", and what ever else he can think of. I am amazed how many times he has talked the people down on their prices. Anyway, I booked a room for the two of us for Friday night until Sunday morning, and I only paid for one night, the second night was free that's pretty good, right?? Wrong!! I did not know that there was an amenities fee for each day, which really stunk because we didn't even get to use any of the amenities. It was too cold to use the pool and the jacuzzi was freezing! (come to find out, they had the thermostat set at the wrong temp and just realized it the day we check out!) On a more positive note, the room was clean, I loved the decor, and we had a great view. Justin and I took Grandma Barton to dinner on Friday after we checked in. We went to Cici's (Grandma got to pick), it was actually pretty good and it was packed. Saturday, Justin had to help his dad so I hung out with his mom and grandma, went home and cleaned a little bit, and then picked up Justin and we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We were going to try one of the restaurants there, but they were crazy busy, so we went to Winchells. We spent the rest of the night relaxing and enjoying each others company. Sunday we went home and Kolby, one of Justin's best friends came over for dinner and even brought us chocolate chip cookies that his sister Holly made for us. They were delicious!! All in all it was a great weekend :)

So...I'm a little behind, but I will do my best to fill you in...

February 27th, 2009- Justin and I went to Buckingham Smokehouse BBQ. It is where we went on our first date. The food and service really is great there. Every time we eat there it we sit and reminisce about our first date and the things we talked about. We have both decided we were both pretty upfront/blunt about things, but I am glad that we were. It was nice to just be open and talk about things, even if it was the first date. After we walked over to Artful Potter and looked around and we both decided it was a little pricey and there wasn't anything that we really wanted or needed. So...we headed home and picked up a movie from redbox on the way. It's always nice to end the night in your pjs on the couch cuddling with the one you love :)

Update coming soon!

Okay, so I actually have a few things to blog about. They may not be super exciting, but, I never said my life was! I just need to get some pictures uploaded before I post anything. I have decided even if the post is boring it always better to have pictures. So...hopefully by next week they will be up! Have a great weekend :)

Candlelit Dinner Party

So... I meant to post this the other day and I totally forgot to! Justin and I have a couple in our ward that does a dinner party every month to get to know everyone in the ward. Awesome, right? Well...after being in the ward for almost two years Justin and I were finally invited. We were so excited to go and meet other people in our ward because we have been in nursery for a LONG time and the only people we know are the kids :) Jeff and Maggie Goebel were the hosts and they have different themes every month, this month was a "Candlelight Dinner Party". It was on February 20th at their home and the set up was beautiful!! There weren't any lights on, just candles, and it looked so cool and fancy. The women sat on one side of the table and their spouses sat across from them. We got to hear mission stories, dating stories, engagement stories and so much more. It was so much fun to get to know everyone. We had ham, funeral potatoes, salad, rice with alfredo sauce and sauteed onions, cheese covered veggies, and slush! Everything tasted so good!! Before dessert Maggie gave everyone a pen and paper and said to write a funny story from when you and your spouse were dating or from when you were first married. After we wrote them down she collected them and handed them out to different people to read and we had to guess who did what. It was hilarious! For dessert there were a variety of cheese cakes and white cake.

Here are a few of the funny things people wrote on their papers:
*One couple scheduled their first kiss in a day planner.
*One couple had a very awkward couples massage in Hawaii
*One couple took a 48 hr RV trip with 4 other couples during their 1st Anniversary
*One couple had a 10 hour first date. -This is what Justin wrote
*One couple got engaged over the Grand Canyon
*At the end of one couples first date she told him that she had done that same date earlier that day. That is also the place they got engaged.
*One husband while they were dating pretended to be proposing on her birthday and got on one knee and gave her a watch instead of a ring -This is what I wrote

Maggie told us that other dinner parties there was a husband who got a Jungle themed room for their honeymoon and dressed up like Tarzan and swung from a rope onto the bed. There was also another couple that got a hotel room on their honey room and when they got into the room there were two twin beds and when they asked the clerk at the desk why he had given them a room with two doubles, he said he thought they were brother and sister!

Justin and I had a blast! We would like to start inviting couples to our home now and getting to know them better. Thanks Jeff and Maggie for a great night :)

Happy Anniversary!!

Justin and I have been married for two years today and I can't believe how fast time has flown by! We have definitely had our challenges and have had to make adjustments, but it has been a wonderful two years of marriage and I can't wait to see what the future has to bring! I feel so blessed to have married such a wonderful man. He truly is my best friend :) Justin is very driven, hard working, thoughtful, giving, and he is always thinking about our future. He has done so well to provide for the two of us and prepare for our children. He is always willing to help around the house, he does the dishes, laundry, he'll vacuum, make dinner, go grocery shopping, takes care of the car maintenance, fills up my car with gas and anything else that needs to be done without being asked. Amazing, huh? Happy Anniversary Babe! I love you and I am so glad that I get to spend forever with you :)

John and Leilia's Wedding

Valentine's Day

Now…Justin and I aren’t really fans of Valentine’s Day, but we usually try to do something small for each other. Justin woke me up and gave me a cute note that he had typed up with the TOP TEN Things he loves about me. It was so cute and thoughtful. I got up and made heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and then we just cleaned and tried to get things ready for the next week. Since, we had both been off of work for over a week and away from home, so there were lots of things to do, like laundry and what not. Plus we agreed the cruise would be our Valentine’s and Anniversary present to each other and honestly that was the best present ever! It was so nice to have over a week to spend together without having to worry about work or anything. Anyway, my dad called me at about 4pm and said that my cousin John was getting married in a few hours and that we were invited. So, we got ready and got our church clothes ironed, and headed to my aunt and uncle’s house for the wedding. The decorations were beautiful and so was the bride. Lei and John have been dating for 5 years, so she was all ready considered family, but I am glad they made it official :) After the wedding we went to Scott and Nycole’s and talked for hours. Sorry that we never tried out your new game Scott! I promise next time we will, if you ever have us over again :) We’ll have to make it up to you and have you two over for dinner and dessert sometime. It was a good day! Nothing was really planned out, but we enjoyed it. And, let me just tell you…I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, having Justin home on the weekends. I hated that we only had Sunday together and that I didn’t get to see him every night when I got home. He is still adjusting to this schedule, but I love that we get to sleep together and eat dinner together every night :) I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day and that you were able to spend it with that “special someone” in your life.

Our Cruise :)

Justin and I had a blast on our cruise!! We left Vegas, Monday, February 9th, and headed to Long Beach. Traffic was awesome until we hit Prim. We were stuck in the same spot for over an hour!!! We turned the car off and ate some food until traffic picked up again. I was so worried that we weren’t going to make it to Long Beach in time. The cars finally started moving again and things are going well until Justin loses his contact. Now, this doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but he is SO BLIND!! He has got a stigmatism in one and a double stigmatism in the other, so that meant I had to drive. Now, my vision isn’t the greatest either and I didn’t have my glasses because I lost them, luckily we had our GPS to tell me when to turn because I could not see through the rain! We made it there safely and got on the boat; we took our stuff to our room and walked around the ship. I could not believe how many people were totally wasted and we hadn’t even left Long Beach yet. Anyway…we the first night we ate a lot and tried to figure out where everything was on the ship. Tuesday we woke up ate breakfast and then took boat to Catalina. It was beautiful there! There were a ton of shops, so we just walked around and checked them out. There were a ton of people that rented golf carts to drive around and we thought about doing it but neither one of us were old enough. Apparently you have to be 25 to rent a golf cart, but they’ll give a license to drive a car at 16??? I don’t know that just doesn’t make much sense to me. Cars can do a lot more damage than a golf cart. Moving on…Justin and I have always wanted to ride a tandem bike, so we rented one of those instead. It was so much cheaper and a lot more fun! After spending hours on Catalina Island, we decided to head back and eat. Let me tell you the food is AMAZING on cruises!! I ate like 50 times a day and Justin would just sit there and watch me pack it away. Poor guy!
We went to the Jacuzzi and watched the sunset and then we went to dinner. Every night on they have a few different shows and we really enjoyed them all. They had magicians, comedians, and musicals; Justin enjoyed the musicals the most. Which I thought was pretty funny because he hated the Phantom of the Opera and any other musical besides Newsies. Wednesday, we spent the day in Ensenada. It was different than I had expected. The first thing we saw was La Bufadora a.k.a. the blowhole, it was cool, but not as awesome as they make it out to be. Then we walked around the flee market, which is basically like a swap meet, except the vendors hover over you like your prey. It was horrible, they would seriously just stand there the entire time and if you touched something they would start yelling out prices and showing you the different styles and colors. It was kind of nerve racking, so I made Justin stand between me and the vendor , so that he could tell them in Spanish to GO AWAY! We bought some jewelry and vanilla. Justin talked them down to $4 for a liter of pure white vanilla!! I wish we would have bought more. I guess we will next time. Oh and we also ate at a little restaurant there that tacos el pastor. Justin had been looking for them all day and had finally found a place that had them and they were so YUMMY! Hopefully, we can find somewhere here in the states that sell them because they are his favorite. Thursday was our day at sea, so we played miniature golf, for about two seconds and then decided it was too windy. I don’t really remember what we did for the rest of the day, but after dinner we went to the show and Justin got called up to the stage to do the Macarena and it was hilarious!! We did try out the casino, don’t judge us, we lost about $40 in total and then decided that we are glad that we don’t gamble. We got back to Long Beach on Friday and headed back to Vegas. We unpacked and did laundry and went to visit Grandma Barton, who is recovering and doing so much better, and his uncle Rick. Then we went home and slept. If you haven’t been on a cruise…GO ON ONE!! They are the best!

Here are a few pics from our cruise

We're Back

Well...Justin and I got back Friday, February 13th from our cruise. We were sad it had to come to an end because we had so much fun traveling, relaxing, eating, and spending time together. Luckily we had all of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to spend together too! We definitely would love to have another 10 days off, but now that Justin's schedule has changed, I get to see him every night!!! So, it won't be as bad as last year. We get to eat dinner together and got to bed together and I am loving every minute of it! He's not loving it yet, because he hasn't quite figured out when to sleep, so we've had a few restless nights, but I'm sure we'll adjust to it sooner or later. Hopefully sooner than later :)I am just so glad that he took this schedule so that he could have the weekends off with me:) He is such a good husband and he makes me so happy! Anyway...a lot has happened in the last few weeks, so I will be sure to update you soon. Unfortunately, I don't have my pictures uploaded yet, so I'm not going to post until later this week. I hope all is well :)

Hooray!

After a month or so of stress and a lot of hard work, we are finally done signing papers and fixing up our investment property. Justin and his dad wired the whole house for ceiling fans; they put up some new lights, fixed the garage, installed a security door, installed blinds, got the water running and hooked up all the appliances. It only took a few days to get everything done, which was really nice, but we were worried about how long it would take to find a renter. So…I posted a few ads on craigslist and we were amazed at how quickly people started to respond with emails and phone calls. We had several people look at the house and were able to find tenants last weekend. They signed the papers and are moving in this week. We are so glad that we found some hard working, responsible people to rent from us and are a so relieved to be done.We're especially grateful that we found tenants before our cruise. One less thing to worry about :) Here are some pictures of the house. We are going to do the landscaping this spring and put in some more ceiling fans, but even without all of that I think it’s going to be a great home.

Congratulations to Tina and Asi, Lota and Talai, and Sana and Mike!

So...three of my cousins have had babies in the last month, like I said there is a baby race going on, and I am way behind!! There has all ready been three additions to the family this year and there are still more to come. My sister-in-law Bridget and my brother Kitita are expecting a boy in March, and my brother Anthony and his wife Stacey are expecting a girl in June. My dad is so lucky! He gets his a grandson and a granddaughter this year, and I get a new niece and nephew! Anyway...I just wanted to congratulate all of my cousins! Your babies are beautiful! I hope all is well!

Here is Tina and Asi's son, his name is Halatoa Blay Tuakoi



He weighed 5lbs 15oz and was 21inches long

Here is Lota and Talai's son, his name is Toa Maunaloa Elbert Tutusoa Leo



He weighed 7lbs 7 oz and was 19inches long


Here is Sana and Mike's son, his name is Pauleegale Monty Ika



He weighed 9lbs 1oz

Our Christmas at Home 2008

Justin and I spent our second Christmas as husband and wife this year and I think it turned out really well. Justin would probably say that it would have been better if would have stressed a lot less! I am going to be honest and say we still haven't quite figured out how to celebrate holidays with both families and not go crazy! It is so hard to juggle their schedules and our own, but hopefully we will figure it out soon. I must say that I do look forward to starting our own family traditions and doing things with our children at home. I will tell you one thing though this year I am seriously going to plan ahead and get Christmas done way before December. This year I planned way too many craft projects and didn’t give myself enough time! So, this year I am determined to not procrastinate!! We’ll see how I do. Anyway, Justin and I work up and had breakfast and opened our gifts. Then we got ready and had lunch with Justin’s parents, Betty Jo, Darin and their kids, Grandma Barton, and Angie. After lunch, we went to my parents and exchanged gifts with my parents, sister, and grandparents. We weren’t able to stay very long because Justin had to work, so we went home and he got ready to go to work and I just spent the rest of the day cleaning and relaxing. It was a nice Christmas! I think things will be much more exciting when we have little ones to wake us up early on Christmas morning, but for now I am just enjoying that time that we have together :)

Our Christmas at Home 2008

Christmas with the Tai Family

Justin and I spent Christmas Eve with my dad’s family and we had a blast! There were more than a hundred people there!! The theme was “Christmas around the World”, so every family had to pick a country and do a dance, skit, or song representing their country. Everyone did a great job! It was so fun to see what everyone came up with. We also played the newly-wed game, it was hilarious. My dad and his siblings and their spouses played the first round and I can’t believe how many of the husbands didn’t know when their wedding anniversary was or their youngest child’s birthday. My dad was probably the only one who knew out of all the men. My parents won the first round and Justin and I won the second. We played against my cousins and their spouses and the questions were actually really hard, but Justin did so well. I was shocked that we won because we’ve been married the least amount of time as everyone else who played. After the newly-wed game, Justin was approached by my cousin and asked to be Santa. My family has learned in the last few years that the kids are scared of a brown Santa, so Justin, being the only white male in the family was volunteered. He was such a good sport about and the kids reacted pretty well. There were still a few that cried, but overall it was better than the last few years. :) After the party we went to Sunset Park and looked at the lights, neither one of us had ever been and we couldn’t believe how many there were and how long the little drive was. It was a very entertaining and eventful day. I can’t wait to see what we’ll do next year :)

Christmas with the Tai Family

Christmas with the Berrett Family

We went to Justin’s parents on December 23rd and had a blast! It was so fun to spend time with all of the family. We ate homemade pizza under the Christmas tree, Santa came and brought everyone a present, we did the adult gift exchange, and then the kid’s gift exchange. After we were done with all of that, the kids acted out the Nativity. They all looked adorable! It was a great evening. We even got to stay and watch Julie and Mckae open their wedding gifts from their open house here. Thanks for a wonderful evening Connie!

Christmas with the Berrett Family