February.

February continued to be frigid! Looking back on it, were we really that broke that we couldn't afford to fix our heater? Absolutely. How did we make it? We pay our "fire insurance". haha. But seriously, I'm so grateful that we did...and that I didn't lose any limbs to frostbite ;)

February is blah. Not much happened. We did however, almost get attacked by potatoes. Around Christmastime, we inherited a huge sack of potatoes from a local business. I gladly accepted cause my hubby loves potatoes. I remembered that you were supposed to keep them in a cold, dark environment, so I put them under our stairs. When I actually had ambition to cook, I would send my hubby down to get a few and use them. A few? With how much your husband eats? Yes, a few. These were massive-sized potatoes. Then one day I sent Sio down again to get some potatoes and this is what he came upstairs with:

I have never seen such funky potatoes!

How on earth do potatoes get like this? They weren't downstairs for THAT long. Creepy! It could totally be a storyline in those old "scary" movies. Dun, dun, DUN!!

Funky potatoes aren't the ONLY exciting thing that happened in February (they came a close second)...we had another visit from the adorable Tongan twins! Remember them? This time they came with their little sister. 3 kids under the age of 2, YIKES!

Poor little thing had an allergic reaction to the baby lotion, but still SO adorable!

I can't even handle how cute they are. They were obsessed with my little wicker deco balls! They soon discovered that they could throw them down the stairs like a regular ball and loved it. I had to re-arrange most of my living room decor and put it up a few feet. Well noted for when I have my own little kids :)

Humongous eyes and the longest eyelashes, they are getting so big!

I love this picture. Sio absolutely loves kids and they love him! Don't they look good on him? I just wish they were ours. We did try to keep them, but there parents are a little attached.




And, of course, Sio and Fuapau had to get in some rugby playing somehow in February.

January.

Since I ended my blog in March about Christmas, I figured I better start it now in January...

Started January off with a great birthday! The big 2-5! Wowzer. That's so crazy that I'm so old. We didn't do anything too exciting for my birthday, that I remember. But, I am getting old, so maybe ... I did?? haha. We had the usual birthday party at the parental's house and I think Sio remembered what day it was :)

I do remember spending most of January stressing over how I was going to keep my husband in the country. It was that dreaded time, time to renew paperwork! I hate paperwork. Bleh. Even though this time around, it wasn't as bad as initially, it was still horrible and repetitive. But, I guess it's a small price to pay to keep my love here with me.

Paperwork aside, the hustling for money was another story! I asked about everyone I knew about 3 million times how I could scheme, steal, beg, or borrow $545. Coming out of winter, we were SO broke. Sio was working temp jobs, trying to get something permanent and it wasn't looking too promising. He was working so hard and then would go twice a week to donate plasma. I tried giving plasma too, but they rejected me! I was so upset, but I expected them to tell me I wouldn't be able to do it. I thought it would be for my health, not for having horrible and rolling veins! ha. Oh well, such is life.

To add to it, sometime in the frigid winter months, our heater broke (maybe it was in January?). We were so broke and ghetto, that we couldn't afford the $100 or so to fix it (cause we had to pay $50-ish for the service call, hoping it was something small). Needless to say, we spent the last few winter months with 1 electric heater on our main floor....with lots and lots of blankets! Then, when I was ready for bed, I would just take the heater upstairs with me and crawl into mounds of blankets. Eww. I hate snow and cold!

OH MY GOSH! I am such a horrible person. I was just looking through my pictures and realized it was a FANTASTIC birthday. My husband proposed! Gosh, see, I told you I was getting old!

Now, let me explain further. When Sio and I were dating, we were married 2.3 seconds later, almost literally. Because of the different cultures, SO many things are different...proposing being one of them. The proposal, if you could call it that, was him and I in our friend's kitchen. It was really early in the morning and he told me that he loved me and wanted to marry me. I FREAKED out. We had only been dating 4 or 5 weeks. Eek! Anyway, me answering his "proposal" was a week or so later, as I was leaving his house in Hyrum saying "we're getting married" ... then I had to leave like 2 minutes later. haha.

I always dropped little hints to Sio about never REALLY getting a proposal...or we would see cute proposals on sappy movies and I would make a big deal about it. First anniversary, nothing. Next birthday, nothing. Next Tuesday, nothing. I flat out told him I wanted a proposal, NOTHING. Men!

We were at my parent's house for my birthday shin-dig, etc. and Sio had disappeared. I had no idea where he went and didn't really think anything of it. He came back a little while later and was being kinda sneaky. I suspected flowers or some kind of gift because my sisters were whispering and kinda freaking out. He called me into their little "visiting teaching" room. There he had an absolutely gorgeous bouquet of my absolute favorite flowers, gerber daisies! He somehow got ahold of my wedding ring previously, got down on one knee, said something adorable, then asked me to marry him! Not the most romantic setting (cause I'm pretty sure I was still in my pajamas and looking a hot mess), but it was so beautiful and perfect!!! He'll get the romantic bug eventually :) He definitely has his moments and when he does, I cherish them.

First Step.

I have changed my background to fall themed.

Now, all I need to do is find something in my life to blog about.

Christmas

I just realized that I haven't blogged in forever! I didn't even post the fun pics that we got at Christmas with the family.
We ended up doing everything on Christmas Eve since everyone was there. It was lots of fun! I love my family!

Before the festivities, my sisters Stephie and Melissa
were getting all girlied-up, so I had them do me up too.

Finished product. Thanks Bah!



Isn't my husband a stud? I think so!



We act out the nativity scene in the scriptures
every year. I love my face in this picture,
looking up at Sio with googly eyes.



My bro-in-law, Jason, being "the angel." This is
an extreme improvement from years past when
he was wearing leopard underwear!



Just a great picture of my beautiful sister, Sarah



My nephew, Brayden as "Baby Jesus" (kind of
wrapped up like a burrito)



Oh man, my face is priceless!
And Sio posing like some male model
or something. hahaha : )



My Dad reading the story.
(my Mom managed to escape pictures since
she was the one behind the camera)



Stephie, Melissa, Me, Sarah, & Carissa (Josh's girlfriend)
I absolutely love this picture! My mom made us all
aprons for our presents. It was the best present
ever! She did such a good job and they fit our
personalities so well.



Josh, Sio, Scott (Stephie's boyfriend), Jason, & David
My mom also made all the boys some pajama pants.
They were all perfect and fitting as well!

Little known fact...

I'm on a blogging role! Somebody stop me!! (Name that movie...anyone?)


I was going through my pics and decided to do a post about a little known fact about me. I love sunsets! And I love taking pictures of them. If I'm driving or whatever, I have to stop if I see a beautiful sunset. I just think that they are a little bit of heaven's beauty, here on earth. So, here are some pictures that I have collected over the years...

I thought this was really cool when I was driving through the canyon. Probably not the safest, but thank goodness for digital camera's so that I didn't have to stick my eyeball in a little square to get the picture! :)

This was a HUGE rainbow that I discovered one day just outside my house.

Time Out For Women

At the beginning of November, I had the opportunity to go to Time Out For Women. It's sponsored by Deseret Book and they go around to different cities all over the place. They have speakers and singers on a Friday night, and Saturday all day. My favorite speaker/singer was Hilary Weeks. She was so freaking hilarious and has a beautiful voice and beautiful songs, you should look her up! It was very uplifting and an amazing opportunity to spend some time with all my sisters and extended family. We got to go to St. George and get away from the cold. The weather was so nice! We got to stay in an amazing condo and I can't believe that I didn't take pictures of it! Here is a shot of me and the girls in my family during one of the breaks:

Stephie, Sarah, Mom, Me, and Melissa

I think I skipped a holiday...

Oops! I skipped Thanksgiving. We just went to my parent's house again (obviously, since his family is a world away). We had a good time. I didn't get many pictures, but I did get a few of us making pies. The girls decided that we wanted to learn a few of mom's secrets, so she taught us how (and gave up some secrets) to make rolls, pies, etc. My little brother thought this apple slicer was the most amazing invention ever and kept going on and on about it, even though we have had it since he was little. It was funny.

I think my little brother's obsession was wearing off on my nephew...

And my husband... :)