Happy Easter!

The kids woke up Easter morning and found their Easter baskets. Na'u was sooo excited. She said, "WOOOOOW mom! What is that?" But poor little thing had to pose with her basket when all she wanted to do was take everything out and play.


Iwi was very curious about the contents.


After our Easter lunch, the kids had an egg hunt. Every year we have a huge hunt that includes all the grown-ups but since it was raining and we didn't have that many adults, the kids (a total of 4) did an indoor hunt. Uncle David was giving them the hunt instructions. Each kid had their own color egg to look for so that everyone could find the same amount of eggs.


Na'u looked for the orange eggs.


Here great-grandma Julia is helping Na'u with an egg behind the picture. I thought it was so sweet.


Iwi looked for the green eggs. Na'u was such a good big sister in helping to find the oma'oma'o ones.


I was really bummed that we didn't have the BIG egg hunt. Monica (cousin-in-law) and I kept on bugging Uncle David to hide the golden egg again after the kids were finished with their hunt. He gave in when Cameron, Anthony, and Nickoma came over. When he gave the "ok" we all were running around the living rooms like we were kids again. We were crawling on all 4's, lifting heavy objects, and even digging in odd places. I'm happy to report that I found the golden egg. Uncle David was giving us hot and cold hints and it came down to Cameron and I. It was stuffed in a pack of unopened toilet paper, in the center of one of the rolls. I am going down in the egg hunt archives as the 2010 golden egg finder. They really do have a list of all the past winners that goes back to when Cameron was a little boy. I thought that that was really neat.

Yes...Na'u is playing "lip tick" with the candy she just found.


For dessert, I made this Easter cake.

It turned out a little different from what I originally thought but I like it. The eggs, flowers, and bunny are decorated sugar cookies. I wanted to refresh my decorating skills and this is what I came up with. I give so much credit to all those professional cake people for their artistic eye, intricate skills, and PATIENCE. Decorating a cake takes a long time...well for me anyways because I'm just a newbie but hopefully I can get more experience under my belt.

Although eggs and treats are fun, it is not the reason for this season. We are so grateful for our Savior and his Atonement. Without His love and sacrifice, we wouldn't have the chance to return home.
We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter with lots of food, family, and fun!

A Party Fit for a Princess

Last Saturday, Na'u was invited to go to her cousin Sarai's princess birthday party. Although we were planning to go a week or so in advance, I didn't tell Na'u until the day of. If she knows that she is going to do something fun she'll keep on asking again, and again, and again. She was SUPER excited to go.

Here is Princess Na'u and the Birthday Princess Sarai.


The living area was transformed to fit royalty. I just have to share this little story of the birthday girl. Chan...hope its okay. My sister-in-law wrote this and I thought it was the cutest thing. "My grandma had the kids while I set up for the party the night before...when Sarai came home and saw all her decorations and everything set out, she was SUPER excited. She was screaming and saying how I'm the best mommy and how she loves me soooooo much and she couldn't stop kissing me and hugging me." I know we live for those moments.

There were little stations set up all around where the princesses could play. I think Na'u was among the younger ones there. She saw all the big girls doing things themselves and wanted to do the same. I couldn't tell her "NO" so this is what I got.

Here's the nail polish area where Na'u insisted on using purple.


The make-up was a hit. She knows that eye shadow goes on your eye lids so that is where she put it while she closed both eyes...at the same time :).


The girls could also decorate cupcakes. There was purple and pink frosting and sprinkles. The sprinkles was Na'u's favorite part.

I have to confess...Chan, it was Na'u who accidentally put frosting ALL over the sprinkle container. Sorry!

Look at the birthday girl....pure happiness!


All the princesses who attended the festivities.


Aunty Ava was visiting for spring break and was the BIGGEST help with Iwi Boy. Na'u needed CONSTANT supervision.


Sarai...Hope you had a wonderful birthday! We love you so much! Thanks for having us at your party. Na'u cannot wait to see you again.

Chinese Celebration and Punahou Carnival

2010 is the year of the Tiger. This year, Chinese New Year was on Valentines Day but Chinatown celebrated the weekend before. I think it is so neat that Hawaii is so diverse. We are full of many cultures that we have adopted so many different customs.

This celebration downtown is like one giant block party. All the streets in Chinatown were shut down and lined with vendors and tons of people.


In the top left picture we were lucky to see those 3 dragons dancing in front of this store with VERY LOUD firecrackers going off. I heard that businesses will pay big bucks for them to come in for good luck in the coming year.

We were so happy that we got to spend some time with our friends Tau, Sarah and their cute son Noa in Chinatown. They were visiting from Utah. I think the last time we seen them was back in those pre-kid days and it was so much fun catching up.

The parade was the highlight of celebrating Chinese New Years. We saw tons of colorful dragons. Both Na'u and Noa fed the dragon their dollar. We are expecting good luck coming our way :). Maybe we should have been a little more generous but oh well.


Sarah (& Tau)...I just had to steal this picture from you. It was soooo CUTE! If you're wondering why we are holding the kids hands like this, let me tell you. Have you ever gone to a parade where they give out candy? The parade people only give candy to little kids and not adults so we figure...put the the kids to work :). Who could refuse giving these faces a little candy? Even my little teethless Iwi boy got some (YESSSS). After a while, the kids did it all by themselves. We taught them good.


After Chinatown, we went with our friends and saw the night show at PCC. The kids LOVED it! Thanks for spending time with us. Can't wait to see you next time!
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On February 5th, we went to the Punahou Carnival. We've been going every year since we moved back to Hawaii since it's so close to our house. This was also the first year that Na'u actually knew what was going on. She was too young last year to enjoy it so it was fun watching her get excited about everything that was happening.

Our biggest motivation for going is FOOD. Yes, they have rides and prizes and other carnival things but we LOVE the food. While we were there we had corn on the cob, saimin, fried saimin, teri burgers, cotton candy, and a gyro. We are not total slobs :)...we did share most of the food.


It was kind of hard to ride the rides because we didn't have any babysitters. If we did ride, we'd have to go alone while the other one watched the kids. It's NO FUN riding alone. Both Cameron and I have been on many rollercoasters and love the rush you get but lately, (I don't know if its because we're getting older) we get sick. Sad but true. Na'u on the other hand LOVED the merry-go-round. If you'd ask me, I think riding the rides was so expensive. It was $3 per person. Every "little" person needed an accompanying adult which had to pay full price too. I think the adults should pay less but thats just my opinion. Na'u went on with daddy but was so sad when it stopped. It didn't last very long. We paid $6 to stay on that thing for maybe 1 1/2 minutes. Of course she wanted to go again. We said no at first but who could say no to such a sweet face and a simple request. We gave in and I went around with her. She actually wanted to hold on all by herself.


The carnival had lots of other things including a plant sale. Cameron just couldn't resist buying a Samoan Dwarf Coconut Tree. I'm pretty sure that he bought it because it had "Samoan" in its' name but he says it's because it will stay close to the ground. It won't grow super high like regular coconut trees. Anyways, I hope it doesn't die. We're not very green thumby.


We had so much fun! We can't wait til next year.

My Mischievous Girl

Ah...my Na'ulei. Sometimes my sweet little girl can drive me BANANAS. Just by looking at alot of her pictures you would never guess the kind of things that she gets into. Sometimes I get mad but other times I just have to laugh. She definitely keeps me on my toes. Whoever made up the name "terrible twos", wasn't kidding. For those of you who don't have children yet or if your little one is still young, remember this...if you don't SEE them AND don't HEAR them, THEY ARE DOING SOMETHING THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSE TO BE DOING. Time and time again this statement is proved correct.

This one time I was watching tv and Na'u left the room. I heard her playing right outside my door, happily entertaining herself. After a few minutes, I realized that she had become quiet. I quickly ran outside to find her painting her nails with PINK NAIL POLISH. But with her only being 2, she also painted her potty, the carpet, and the bathroom door.

Here are some other things that she did. She tried to paint her nails with her GREEN PEN.

This made me laugh.


Here she is with one of my tips from my cake class. She discovered that there was frosting in it. I have a hard time practicing at home when both Na'ulei and Cameron eat my homework.


She knows exactly what she's NOT suppose to do but I think that she just can't resist. It's like this uncontrollable force that takes a hold of her. To try and limit these incidents, I always say, "Na'u, ONLY mommy makes it." This refers to things like nail polish or lotion or my lip stick. These are things that she LOVES. Lately she'll bring the item to me and say, "only mommy make it" and give it to me expecting me to give her some.

Na'u can drive me up the wall but I LOVE her SOOOO MUCH!

I LOVE both my monkeys!


They make me smile and warm my heart!

Happy L-O-V-E Day!

I woke up on Valentines Day with my two babies to find this on the kitchen counter. Cameron had already left for work.

Most nights I fall asleep while putting the kids to sleep. I then wake up 1 or 2 hours later to finish whatever needs to be done like putting food away or putting on the kid's pajamas. I usually find Cameron on the computer and make it a point tell him to "go to sleep already" before I head back into the room. Cam knew this so on Valentines Eve, he waited for me to wake up one last time before he set up my V-day surprise. Sneaky Cam :).

Daddy was soooo kind to get Na'u a little (BIG) chocolate bar too. Can you tell that she was SUPER excited?


This is what her message was. I thought it was so cute.
My pediatrition advises no nuts til age 3 because so many people are allergic. We've been telling and practically drilling into her (since she's been eating regular food) that she can't eat nuts. She has sneaked a few candies with nuts here and there. We know she isn't allergic so my doc says that its ok to eat it but it's too late. She doesn't like them because of us. Now she spits them out and says, "No nuts!"
Our bad.

Day after valentines, we ate dinner at a Korean Yakiniku Restaurant with our friends Aho and Gabby.

Among the meats on the grill was tongue....cow tongue. I wasn't going to try it but did. It tasted like regular beef. Plus too, it blended in on the "cooked" meat plate and we were all just grabbing and eating.

Thanks for the date night!

Having kids definitely makes things a little bit more complicated. I wanted to make a pretty cake for Cam and some chocolate dipped strawberries but that didn't happen the day of.

On Valentines Day, I baked the cake and frosted it but ran out of frosting to finish decorating it. By the time Cameron came home from work, he had a lovely white plain cake. I didn't get to finish it that day but I DID finish.

I'm taking a cake decorating class and I thought it was fitting to show off some of the things that I learned. I like the flowers the best.


I just got around to doing the strawberries. I had planned to get the strawberries on Valentines Eve but that didn't happen. Both my kiddies were tired and crying. There are just some things in life that have to wait :). Today is Friday and I surprised Cam when he got home from work. I guess you can look at it as celebrating Valentines Day the WHOLE week.

Milk Chocolate drizzeled with White


White Chocolate drizzeled with regular chocolate


I tried to do the bow tie version.

They were ALL so yummy!
Happy Valentines Day babe! Can you believe that this was our 8th Valentines together? I LOVE you MORE everyday! Can't imagine my life without you.

Valentines Day is also my mom's birthday and Cameron's grandpa's birthday. Happy Birthday! We LOVE you!

More DADDY Time, Please!

Since Cameron has started working at the Kalihi Police Station, his shift was from 2:00pm to 11:00pm. Everyday I would let him "sleep-in" til about 9 or 9:30am (I would be up with Na'u already) and he would get ready for work around 1pm and be gone @ 1:30pm. This schedule left us, his WONDERFUL family, with only 4-5 hours of daddy time. This was NOT ENOUGH.

Just recently, 2 weeks now, he switched over to the day shift from 6am to 3pm. I can already see a big difference. I LOVE it! When he comes home, there's enough daylight for all of us to do family stuff. Here are some of the things that we did.

We went to the park and fed some birds. They were pretty nasty and dirty but we only fed them. We didn't touch them.


This is a close up of #3. She threw bird feed in her hair sooo many times without even knowing it. She cracks me up!




We also went to Ala Moana to watch the pretty fish. We actually went to the mall because Cameron had to cut his hair. Watching the fish was a way that I could keep my kiddies entertained without working too much :). At one point, Na'u reached in the water to try and touch them. If she could, I bet she would be swimming with them.

Notice her "smile" in the upper left picture? This is the smile I get when she has been trying to smile for TOOOO long. I just COULDN'T get the picture I wanted with the "nice" smile but I do love this one.

With Cam's new scedule, he's there to play with us, help with bath time, eat dinner, and sleep with us. Did I mention that I LOVE IT :)? Na'u is still getting used to it. Before, when daddy was gone she knew he was at work. Now, she's not used to him being gone in the mornings and asks,"Where's daddy?" I'm looking forward to more family time with daddy.

Did you ever....

...sit on your breakfast?



I did!
I sat on my butter and cinnamon sugar toast after being distracted by my son who needed his diaper changed. Ah...the joys of motherhood!

2010, The New Year!..a whole month later :)

When we got home from Moloka'i, we had lots of cousins waiting for us. The Maui Tuitele's stayed with us and the Kaneohe Tuitele's came over quite a bit. It was so nice for Na'u to wake up and have playmates 24/7.

While the cousins were here, we HAD to go to the waterpark. Although it was a bit overcast and the water was cold, we had sooo much fun. Luckily we had some babysitters (thank you Aunty Sonya, Lia, & Nickoma) to watch Iwi boy. I remember those pre-kid days when we could go and do anything whenever we wanted. Now, we are limited to water as deep as our waist (the deepest parts) and kiddie slides.

Na'ulei really LOVES the water. It was hard to get her out.


We went outside for some pizza (yum). Here we have from left to right Na'u, Myla, Ka'ehu, Sarai, Kailea, Sina and Kayla (standing in the back).

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To welcome in the New Year, we had lots of family over for a nice dinner. After dinner, we enjoyed some fireworks, pop pops, and sparklers.

Iwi is not in any of our pictures because as usual, he was fast asleep. I didn't notice until this post that he had a stand in :). Na'u was carrying her baby around all night.

The biggest kids of all included Cameron, Anthony, and Jose...the adults who did most of the "popping". Here's Cameron helping light our big firework display that we have every year.


Na'ulei lasted for most of the night. Her little eyes finally closed at 11:30pm. I think that's pretty good for a 2 year old. Maybe next year.

I cannot believe that we are in 2010. I just got used to writing and saying 2009 :).
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Before the Maui Tuitele's went home, we had to get some Waiola shave ice. They have the BEST shave ice ever! It's the best because the ice is finely shaved and melts in your mouth, theres tons of flavors to choose from, and you can add different things like ice cream, condensed milk, li hing, azuki beans, custard or even chocolate. I'd recommend the ice cream and condensed milk but if you're adventurous, the azuki beans are ONO too.

Here are our Maui cousins enjoying their treat.




We had so much fun doing all these things. We (especially Na'u) can't wait til our cousins come and visit again. Maybe when we're all together again, Iwi will be big enough to play.

Happy Holidays from the Tuiteles!

We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season full of family, friends, fun, and ono food.



This year (2009) we went to Moloka'i for Christmas. Na'ulei got to open all of her AND her brother's presents. She was the best helper.



Na'u even showed him what he got.

Thank you for all of our presents mama and papa.

This visit we got to go into the forest with the Keanini's to ride 4-wheelers.
Here we are stopping midway up waiting for the 2 quads to catch-up.


I LOVE Moloka'i. It's so beautiful. This view from the lookout shows one of the valleys behind Moloka'i that is beside Kalaupapa. We had to bundle the kids up because it was COLD.




I have the best family ever!


Going to the beach is a MUST whenever we go home. Our normal beach, Make Horse, is on the west side of the island and this time of year, the waves are ginormous. They were way to big for a nice swim so we went to a beach on the south side. It's called Hale O Lono. I've lived on Moloka'i my whole life and have never been to this beach...how lame :). It's a beautiful place although, the part that we went to was full of rocks. We still had lots of fun!

Iwi loves the sand between his toes. He didn't make it in the water since he was taking his nap as soon as we got to the beach. Next time babe.





Another MUST for us is eating pizza at Moloka'i Pizza Cafe. Not to be biased or anything but they really do have the BEST pizza ever!


We need to go back...soon!