Blog Hungry

Soooo many things happening at once. I keep doing things and I'm always thinking, "I need to blog about that." But I never get around to it. So, now that the kids are fed, washed and cleaned up for bed, I have their favorite Christmas movie playing, blankets and pillows on the floor and their popcorn popping.

Yep, I called a mandatory - Family Movie Night!

That's one of the ups of being a single mom. Whatever I call, goes. No negotiation, no having to hear out "that other persons" opinion. It's all on me!! =) Go me! lol Well, for now at least. Until these two grow older and understand that they have options, I will enjoy it.

Christmas is just around the corner and it's time for me to slow down. It's time to embrace it all and take it all in. Ever remember being a kid and literally counting down the days till Christmas? Singing Christmas Carols while looking out the window late at night staring at the snow falling. (ok, super soft? lol) Anyway, as much as I wish I could view this time of year as I did as a kid, I can only hope that Tamara and Henele can be the same way or better.

Tamara is full on potty trained! Thank You! I would have to say, most of the credit goes to her. I'm sure I could have been a far better trainer and I could have even trained her much earlier, but because she is the "go getter" type, using the toilet was a breeze.

Tamara speaks. And I mean, SPEAKS! She understands full on what I tell her and she communicates back to me and I can understand her full on. I would credit that to Mickey Mouse Club House, Super WHY and many other kid shows. Ya, the tv needs to be lessened a lot.

Tamara Dances. When she watches shake it up on Disney, ummm, Tamara takes it to a whole new level. It's quite hilarious. (tried to upload a video - major fail)

So in this pic, we are at instacare waiting for Uncle Willy to get his stitches taken out. Oh ya, Willy got stitches!! Kinda sad, long story short, Willy was at wrestling practice and yep, cut his head open. The end. And while we were waiting in the lobby, Tamara decided to do funny poses while I snapped pictures of her.

She's been very good lately. She's still her little bossy self, but she at the point where she's starting to understand being good versus being bad. She knows not to scream in the public, or even at home for that matter. She know's how to share, if who she's sharing with is super lucky. She's starting to count, and last I tested, she was able to count to 12. Woohoo! She knows the colors, pink, orange, blue, white, black. She mixes red with green and hasn't memorized the other basic colors.

Tamara is definitely what gangsta's say, "ride or die." Anytime we are at the store, Tamara knows to say, "excuse us!" and really loud, when we try and get by.

omg, that reminds me...

So at church, Tamara goes to nursery all by herself. She doesn't have a problem staying there while I go to class with Henele. The Nursery teachers have told me that she is really good in Nursery, but I think they are just being polite, cause lets be serious, Tamara? ya. I still was a proud mom as one of the leaders went on about how she's so good in class.

Now, when the 5 min bell rings, I usually will leave early so that the Teachers don't have to take her and come find me. I had left class and noticed they had already left class. So off to the sacrament room I went. I walked in and saw all the nursery leaders, but no Tamara. Finally, I turn and see Tamara running toward me. She had gone to sit on our chair, which has always been row 3 from the front in the center section for as long as I could remember. But all by herself, she sat and waited and I guess when I walked in, she saw me and came running.

Later to find out...

One of the moms that sits near us was sitting and was watching Tamara sit in our chair all by herself. A family (not in our ward) sat on our chair. And what does Tamara do? She turns to them and say, "Hey! this is my chair, not yours!" They moved. OMG right? My 3 year old needs a slap!! lol The mom that saw her do that laughed and relayed the story to my mom and then to me.

She's pretty much a great big present worth all the christmas' forever all wrapped in one, and to add to all that goodness, we have HENELE O'VIKSTER!!

Every time I take a pic of him, the first comment I say in my mind as I preview it is, "This kid." lol

He is just the kind of boy every mom want to have! The kind that makes funny faces, the kind that blows slobber bubbles in your face, the kind that hits your face, the kind that crawls toward you the second you stand up, the kind that laughs that laugh that makes you laugh, that kind that is simply genuine!

He's growing up everyone! Right before our eyes! I know you guys are thinking, he looks about the same size as a couple blogs ago, but let me tell you, he might have thinned out because of his full on crawling stage, but he is so much taller!! I'm a very short person, so if anyone knows what tall is, it's me! lol I guess that's unfair to say since my height is below average. Thank goodness they get their height from their dad.

I honestly can't believe that it's been a whole year with this stud muffin!! If I can say just one thing about him from this first year on this earth, I would say, "He's so good to me!" Seriously! When I'm teaching my english relief society class, he will just sit their and watch me teach. If he crawls around to the other ladies, he'll sit quietly with them. A lot of times when I have a lot on my agenda for the day, I think of having to take him with me as a hard task. But then when I have someone to watch him at home and I'm out and about with Tamara, I can't stand being away from him. So over time, I've learned that taking Henele, even with all his tasks to get him along board is far more better for me, then to leave him home with Grandma.

His attitude is a mix of Coco, Jay and Teta. I can totally see my 3 nephews in Henele. And if I havent already blogged about it, Henele is named after those three. =) The O' Vikster broken down is [O'] from Tangilot[o], [Vik] from [Vik]ita, and [ster] from Che[ster]. ya Jay's actual name is Chester, after his Dad, Which by the way is an amazing Dad! I'll have to blog about our "in laws" one of these days, caue they do play a big part in our lives.

 Here we are at Target. Not sure what Tamara was doing, or where she was even at. But anytime we go to Targer, he cries to sit in the cart so he can stand up this way. He's too cute!

Henele is at a point where all he looks for is fun and food. I'll be changing his diaper and anytime I forget to bring a new diaper with me and I have to run in the room to grab one, he crawls and hides from me behind the pillows. And as soon as I walk in he starts laughing and sticks his head behind the pillow. I'll walk closer saying, "Henele, I'm coming!" Then he laughs harder and tries to wiggle the rest of his body behind the pillows. It's funny. I laugh every time.

He pretty much incredible!! Every minute of him for me is like a day to a kid at Disney Land!! Speaking of which, we may be taking a trip there this next year. That plan is still under evaluation. Hopefully. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

See what I mean about funny poses. So I bought me them big fur boots and Tamara absolutely loves to wear them. So for the past month I've been looking online for a pair for her that's her size. But I just can't find them anywhere. And when I do find them, they are too small or too big. Sucks!

Looking at the picture, should I put her in karate? tai kwon do? She does have a mean punch maybe kickboxing? I've already told myself that she will either be in dance or gymnastics. I don't know. I'm afraid if I put her in something that I want, she won't pursue what she wants. I guess we can always change programs later on right? We'll have to see about that.

She is far stronger then me. I feel so bad sometimes cause I put a lot of my work on her. Like when Henele makes a big mess with something, I tell her to clean it up, or when I'm changing Henele's diaper and I'm too lazy to grab a diaper, I tell her to get it, when I can't find something I need, I tell her to help me find it. I really need to kick it back in shape. Thanks Tamara for helping mom! I really can't go a day without you. =)

So when the ladies in relief society give them sugar, guess what I get? SUGAR HIGH KIDS! lol Here we are setting up my class waiting for my class to head in. Like I said, Henele is good to me in class. When he turns that 18 month corner, were gonna test him in Nursery all by his self. Hopefully he'll be walking by then. When kids start to take their first steps, that's all they care about. They wouldn't care for toys or treats, the fact that they can now commute is all they want to do when it begins.

I'm not sure what it'll be like when he starts walking. I do think that they will start fighting a little more. Sometimes Henele will crawl to the tv and start pressing the buttons on the tv and it will either turn off, turn the volume too high or too low and it drives Tamara crazy. I've heard her say, "gosh, go away henele!" Things like that and then I'll go and pull him away and tell Tamara to not say those things. I know theyre just kids, but the last thing you want is for you to have kids that hate eachother. I definitely don't want that.

Here is a pic with 'most' of the Sistah Sistahs. Now on my moms side of the family, my mom comes from a family of 7 sisters, no brothers. Her sister consist of Lou'aki, Ana, Paea, Manongi, Sieli, and Sepi (who lives in new zealand and we've never met). And all the girls in the pic come from one of the 7 sisters. Yep, we are all first cousins or some girls are married into the family and married one of our brothers. But together we make the Sistah Sistahs and 4 times a year (every quarter) we get together for a lucheon or an activity day or just something. We call it the Sistah Sistah quarterly activity. Me and my sister hosted this quarter and held our christmas activity at Sweet Leilani's over on Redwood. Just down the street from Moki's. It was so much fun! Games, fun and food all mixed in with family is a recipe for A GOOD TIME. =)

 
And again. lol Last month sometime, I just decided to drop everything I was doing and take the kids out for Ice Cream. There was this pretty Christmas tree in the corner of Baskin Robins and Tamara asked to take a picture. So here she is, with yet another 'weird pose and the ice cream of her choice. I think is was chocola       te and bubble gum? Something like that. But I just remember her saying that she loved her ice cream. Henele and I shared rocky road and vanilla.

I told Tamara after this picture that we are going to start a new tradition. For just our little family. For the entire month of December, where ever we are, whatever we are doing, if we run into a Christmas tree, we have to take a picture by it. She said, "ok mom, lets go find another tree." lol

Well, with Christmas just around the corner, we have plenty to do. But for now, I'm gonna enjoy the kids, and have me some Tamara and Henele time.

In case I don't make it to blog before Christmas my little family wishes you all a

VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Oh ya, SHOUT OUT to my two readers in Russia! Thanks for the feedback loves!! =)