International 7's in Las Vegas

That guy is the Samoan Avatar (above)






























Kuso and Joe (friend from Cali and from the same Village back home.) (Above)















Kuso and Afa Aiono (plays on Manu Samoa...I'm sure they are related somehow.) (above)




The Manu doing the Samoan Haka at the after party Sunday night after beating the New Zealand All Blacks for the Championship! Oh Yeah Baby! (above)
















Kuso and Threton Palamo waiting in the Vegas Airport for their flight back to SLC. It was delayed more than an hour. He plays for the American team. He attends school at the U of U.

First Trip Out of Utah

Over Valentine's weekend, Kuso was going to Las Vegas to watch the The Rugby 7's World Cup. SAMOA WON! He was SO excited that he was able to be there for that. He already said I get to go with him next year....I'll have to get more info and pictures from him if he wants me to post more about it....anyway, back to my original post.

Because Kuso was going to be gone, and my parents were already headed to California to see my brothers and Michelle and Kiley, Leila and I tagged along. I was really nervous about how Leila would do in the car for that long. She was a rock star! The first night we just went to Cedar City. About half way there, she was getting restless. I turned on The Jungle Book and she loved the bright colors. The next day, she slept so much. She would wake up, look at me, see that I wasn't making any moves to get her out, then just go back to sleep. It could not have been better.

My niece Kiley is SO funny. She has her 2-year-old moments, but she said some funny stuff while we were there. When she met Leila at Christmas, she wasn't very fond of her. It took a long time for her to warm up. This trip, she loved Leila. She wanted to help grandma put lotion on her after the bath. She always wanted to give her toys, especially her binky. This is a picture of her reading the book to Leila. In one of the books was a picture of a lady bug. I told her it was a Leila bug. Now she calls it a baby bug. Valentine's day we went to the Wild Animal Park near San Diego. To be honest, I think our Hogel Zoo here in Utah is more fun and much cheaper, but it was still really cool to see some of their large animals roaming the hill side. Again, Leila rocked it just hanging out in her car seat. The zoo had a baby elephant born just 13 hours before we saw him. He was 220 pounds at birth! You can see his little bumb to the left side of mommy. That was worth the trip.

Valentine's Day also happened to be Leila's 5 month mark! She is so silly. That's all I can say about her. She spits and laughs all day long. On the left is a picture of her chillin while she watches the Olympics. The right, uncle Troy is playing with her. She LOVES to hang upside down. I'll post more about what she is doing at 5 months in a later blog.

Because I was so nervous about how she would travel, we booked a flight home to make the trip shorter. Again, she was a trooper. She is usually so wiggly and wanting to play. She just sat on my lap and entertained everyone around her. She didn't do anything. She just sat there being cute and everyone just stared at her!

It was a quick trip, but I'm glad we went. We got home early enough on Monday to spend a late Valentine's Day with Kuso.

They Finally Meet!

My cousin Ashley had a baby girl just 10 days before Leila. They are now 5 months old and are just finally having the chance to meet each other. Friday February 12th my parents and I were on the way to California to visit my brothers. Ashley was at work and she gets to take Rusti in the morning with her for a few hours. We stopped in so the little ones could meet. They were so funny. It was pretty much the first time for both of them to be around other kids their age. Leila sees other babies at church, but we don't really bring them together to play. As soon as we put Leila and Rusti face to face, they both reached out to touch the other one.

If Leila cried, Rusti cried. Rusti's cry is so much QUIETER than Leila's! Overall, Leila is a little bigger. They are both about the same height, but everything else, Leila is bigger. And heavier. And rolly-polly-ier. Rusti has some pretty chubby cheeks though!

It will be so fun to have these two little ones so close in age when we get together with my mom's side of the family for Easter and camp outs and any other time that we all get together.