📺 Info Siaran: Match Update & Schedules

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas!

It's been a crazy month and so much has been going on. We had Zana's 5th birthday a week ago and today was Zeth's first Christmas. Just prior to the big birthday/princess slumber party, to my horror I lost my camera's battery charger and was without a battery for a week. On Saturday 12/22 just as we were loading up to make the long trip to the store to buy a new $40 charger, a Christmas miracle occurred and the battery just popped out from under my car seat - which I had checked under twice before. What a relief. So just in time to let the shutter fly for Christmas, we are back in business.

Zana was so excited about Christmas this year. She finally really gets the concept of giving gifts and even reported a few Santa sightings of her own as gifts mysteriously kept appearing under the tree. She proved herself a worthy secret-keeper not even letting on to either of her parents that she knew of/about our gifts for eachother, which she did. She volunteered to open all of her little brother's gifts in advance. What a great helper. :)

For me, this has been a really sweet month of reflection, appreciation and awe. Having a baby boy for the first time during this season of celebrating Christ's birth has been humbling and wonderful. I love looking into this baby's face and seeing the sweetness of heaven there. I love having my arms filled with our 2 children and my loving husband and realize how incredibly blessed I am. I appreciate all the wonderful cards & gifts we received from so many people and apologize for not getting as much done as I'd have liked to in time for Christmas this year.

So many cute pictures from the past few weeks to share like Zana's Christmas morning anticipation...

Happy siblings

Cheetah-licious makeover

A darling little elf

The birthday gift tent suprise

The Princess Party

And finally, Zeth's fabulous funny face of the day

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Half-Half

It's been a quarter of a year since we adopted this cute little boy already. Our family celebrates (or at least recognizes) half-birthdays (6-months after your actual birthday) so on Sunday, my hubby mentioned it's Zeth's half-half birthday. What does all that mean? Well, nothing but if you ever get a birthday card from me, and it's late, consider it an early half-birthday card. :)

That's mah boys!

A few recent developments from the past week or so: Zana just sang the alphabet to us in reverse order tonight and it blew my mind how quickly and effortlessly she did it. She also updated us on her future career plans: "I wanna be a Doctor, a pop-star like Hannah Montanna and a Police Woman." Thank goodness "mermaid" dropped off the list - at least for now.

Zeth passed the 3-month mark, started sucking his thumb, quaffing down slightly larger (4oz) bottles and coincidentally started sleeping through the night. Yay!!! Zeth is a spiritual giant stuffed in a tiny body. Several times in the past few weeks while singing Christmas songs with him and even at a recent Christmas devotional, when the Spirit grows strong, it really affects him. He gets a really cute sad face with the furrowed brows and a big trembling lower lip then just cries this sweet sad cry like he really misses heaven or something. The veil between heaven and earth is still very thin with this baby.

We snapped a bunch of family photos last weekend to make into Christmas cards. The only one with everyone looking in the same general direction at the same time was not my best shot but I used it anyway. So while you're watching your mail boxes for that little treasure to arrive, here's a sneak peek at one where I look a little less constipated, "Ram" The Man is dashing as usual and the kids are cute too even if they are doing their own thing.

Mele Kalikimaka!

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Service

So this is not to brag or pat myself of the back but more to remind myself of a good thing that happened this past week. I have been reading some of my friends blogs and noticed how many service opportunities they've been having and started feeling (rather strongly) that I need to do some special service - outside of the regular service I am accustomed to doing. So with everthing else going on in my life, I started thinking on what I could do to satisfy this urge. It's December so there's no shortage of opportunities to help the less fortunate if I just look around - right?

So literally, it was Wed night I started feeling this and the very next night as I was rushing home from work through the rain with a trunk full of groceries and an aerobics class to get to in 15 minutes, the city bus stopped in front of me and off steps an elderly lady from my ward who I don't really know but recognized. The Spirit wispered to me, "here's your opportunity, how sincere are you?" So as the bus pulled away, I pulled over to where she was surveying how to cross the large puddle (it was more like a small lake), to walk up the road to her home. I offered her a ride and she was so grateful. I made it home, got the groceries unloaded, kissed the kids and hubby, changed clothes and dashed off to aerobics. By some celestial twist of luck, the teacher had been delayed and our class started a bit late so I only missed half the warm-up.

It sure feels good to recognize the promptings of the Holy Spirit and even better when I act on them. I realized that night that doing service doesn't mean you have to sign up for a committee or a large-scale event. I do some sort of service daily but I think I overlook a lot of it because it's with people I interact with regularly. Reaching out to a stranger helped me recognize that.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Thanksgiving

For much of our married life my husband's church calling has been serving in the bishopric of a campus singles ward and this year is no exception. So that means we spent our Thanksgiving this year with the single students in his ward in a large ballroom. Not a very traditional setting but at least there's turkey & stuffing - unlike the other recent years when our local Tahitian community used to all get together on Thanksgiving at a beach park and BBQ chicken & hotdogs.

It always broke my heart to miss out on my traditional US meal so a few years back I found a way around the problem. I'd take off early on Wed and make the whole meal for Thanksgiving Eve and invite our friends over to celebrate the night before the beach party bash. That way I was much more content to go spend the day at the beach enjoying chicken, Tahitian poe and salade russe while playing games and of course Tahitian music jamming and dancing.

Formal dining ... who needs it? Bring on the paper and plastic as long as the food's good, I ain't complaining.

We have so much to be grateful for - starting with 2 of the greatest kids EVER!

Sunday, November 25, 2007

All I want for Christmas

Hi, it's me, Zeth. It's November 25th and I guess all I really want for Christmas is for someone to put some clothes on me! I'm 2.5 months old and measure an even 2 feet long and weigh 12.1 pounds. I'm a big boy with a giant heart. I love chatting with people, doing pushups and squats but I especially love a nice bubbly milkshake. This week I gave my mom a sneak peak of the giggle I'm working on developing. She was delighted. My big sister loves making me smile and gets jealous if I don't smile at her. It's great to be so adored.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Turkey Trot

Having our first kid in Kindergarten this year, I just learned a thing or two about the local Turkey Trot tradition. These kids are serious! I think the parents must give them some pressure because there are actual prizes of turkeys and other stuff - hence the name (DUH!!! I get it now!)

Well, I thought our little Zana was a pretty fit and active little girl but I learned she just ain't a natural competitive runner. I was expecting her to be an average runner but not 2nd to last on the first leg of the race! To her credit, she has a very steady stride and paced herself so when her classmates crashed and burned on the first turn, she kept trotting along and ended up finishing in the mid-pack. Way to go Zana!!

Friday, November 16, 2007

Lions and monkeys and wart hogs - oh my!

We took Zana to see Disney's Lion King in Honolulu last night. It was such an incredible performance I'm so glad we did it. If it weren't so dang expensive, I'd love to go see it again. Someday I will. But after nearly missing out completely, because I was a Ticketmaster novice and didn't know how to work their search selections so that it would give me the most affordable tickets available and wasn't about to pay $150 for a ticket, I am glad a friend tipped me off and helped me find the more realistic price range for us.

We had to leave the baby home because even a 2-month old requires a full price ticket. I think that's the only legal way they can discriminate against children coming to the theater - I mean, who's gonna lay down that much dough for an infant to sleep through a performance really!? Zana wanted to sit on my lap the entire performance and although my legs were numb, it was so sweet to just be able to hold her and wax nostalgic about being a parent to such an incredible kid.

Confession time. Laugh if you must but I've always been a cry baby when it comes to large dramatic events. Fireworks shows, concerts, plays, watching children perform in May Day festivals... all make me choke up and get teary-eyed. Yes, I choked up last night when I saw the enormous elephant making his way up to the stage during the Circle of Life scene. Don't know what's up with that but now you know. If you ever catch me crying at a big event, I'll lie and tell you I have a headache because there's just no other rational way to explain the phenom.

If you ever have the opportunity to watch the Lion King live - pounce on it!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Two Months

Can it be that our little boy is already 2 months old? He certainly has grown out of his newborn phase and is filling out his 1-3 month wardrobe. I've been a shutter bug the past few days trying to capture the fleeting early moments I know we'll be looking back on in disbelief in no time. So here are a smattering of the many amusing faces of baby Zeth.

Things that still amaze me or that I want to remember - Zeth slept 6 straight nighttime hours twice last week. It's progress but he's still not quite making it through the night. Hence, we're still not making it through the night but I have to say my dear husband has been amazing about taking the early morning feedings recently. I tell myself I'm gonna be the one to wake and respond to the cry for food but he gets to it before I even come to full consciousness lately.

Holding Zeth on my shoulder today I put my hand under his feet to bunch him into a ball - to help him pass some gas he was crying about. It only took a few seconds before he had pushed himself up to a full standing position eye-to-eye with me and checking out the scene around him. He is just so strong and has been from the start. He could pull himself up using his arms and legs from about a month old.

He is drinking about 3.5 ozs every 3 hours during the day and usually goes a little longer at least once during the night. His tummy has really filled out this month so he's on an outward growth spurt currently. Details details.

This weekend was the FSA (Families Supporting Adoption) annual beach party/potluck. It was so good to see our local LDSFS adoption team all there to share our joy which is in large part a result of their efforts on our behalf, give us updates on what they've been doing all year and just to let the kids of adoptive families have a day where they are all in the majority as to their adoptive family status. We are blessed to have such a thriving community of adoption supporters here.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Melted by Chocolate

This is why leaving for work each morning is so hard to do.

How does a mom just walk away from those decadent chocolate eyes and his happy cooing voice to go sit in a cubicle all day??

It ain't easy but it makes coming home at night so sweet.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Halloween

It's about time I post some of our Halloween pix. For the first time that I can remember, my husband sort of got into the spirit of Halloween all by himself. He wore a loud shirt to work all day and threw on a wig to go trick-or-treating with the kids and I. I think having a son has changed him for the better. He's a much more involved daddy to both kids - not that he was neglectful with Zana - but he's really been wonderful since #2 arrived on the scene.

Nothing scores points and leaves an impression like having Kim Possible escort HRH Zana to Kindergarten.

The cutest little pumpkin spook you'll ever see.

Zana has a great sense of humor. Two days before Halloween she was begging me to let her wear her costume fangs to school. I told her she could wear them on Halloween if she wanted and she happily agreed. So here is our princess with bad dental issues in all her glory.

The stylish orthodontic fashion trend caught on as the night drew longer and the candy consumption took effect.

And disgression was thrown to the wind as I pucker up with Rufus the naked mole rat. I think that Kim Possible may have had one too many 3Musketeers bars that day.

Friday, November 2, 2007

In case of emergency, click link for cookies

Even though you could easily search for any of these, I thought this was a fun list to bookmark as the holidays are upon us. So here it is for posterity.

ookies

Friday, October 26, 2007

Life's a Beach - even in October

So we went to the beach as a family for the first time last weekend. Zeth got his inagural wet & sandy feet and seemed to really enjoy himself. Zana had fun making mini sand cakes.

Then it was more napping for baby and swimming for Zana with daddy. It was beautiful tropical October Saturday.

Two of the most sun-shiney kids you'll ever meet.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

The Birth Announcement

My dear sister made a very sweet musical montage of Zeth's adoption weekend for us. Even though it's a bit after the fact now for me to post this, it is about the best birth announcement I could imagine.

I have to admit as we were lounging by the hotel pool knowing that our birth mother was in her second day of hard labor a few miles away, I did have pangs of guilt that I couldn't be there to help share her pain somehow. But other than that and the bittersweet first moments when we received our precious son, the weekend was pretty amazing. The beauty of the island, the amazing sunrise on Zeth's birthday and the tender first few days with him were all masterfully captured in my sisters first attempt at a musical picture collage. Can't thank her enough for being such a wonderful sister and auntie. Enjoy**.

**I noticed a buffering problem when previewing this video on the blog. Hopefully it plays smoothly for you. There is a slightly different version on youtube that I could send you a link to if you're interested in leaving a comment.