Happy Birthday Aukuso!

Dinner at Red Lobster

Saturday December 20th was Kuso's 29th birthday! We started off the day with home made breakfast. Ham, Hashbrowns, Toast, Eggs, and Koko Samoa. Mmmmm.

Then Kuso opened his presents.

(notice the awesome U of U shirt he is sporting...)

Then we just hung out, did some shopping, and relaxed at home.

That evening we met up with my parents and older brother

for dinner at Red Lobster.

After dinner, we met up with Kuso's friends and family

Pasami, Laki, Apelu, Iafeta, and their wives to see a movie.

I tried my best to make it a special day.

I'm pretty sure I had success.

Contest...Go ahead and Vote.

So with Christmas coming, Gingerbread houses are a common tradition. Go ahead and take a look at the following two houses and make a vote on who's is better.

One of them I made. The other one was given to us by one of the Young Women in the ward.

Any of you who know me and my amazing talents, you will know right away which house is mine and which house was made by a 15 year old girl.

These houses are awesome!

Gotta Brag...

The past couple weeks we have found out some really cool stuff about some family members. Aukuso's niece, Tasha, is playing soccer at BYU Hawaii. We found out that she was named "Player of the Year" for the Pac 10 Conference! She is only a Sophomore! I don't remember the exact details, but I think I remember hearing that her coach is hoping that she can get drafted to go play in the South Pacific and get picked up by the Samoan National Team. How awesome would that be?

We also found out that Aukuso's cousin James Aiono will be playing football for the University of Utah next year! He will be a junior so he will get to play at least two years there. Let's just hope that they can keep up their amazing record!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Over Thanksgiving we went to St. George to have dinner with my mom's side of the family at my aunt's house. Our entire family was there except for grandpa, his wife, cousin Heather, her hubby and daughter and cousin Clint. Even my brothers from California were there!

It's been so fun to see them so much recently.

And my niece Kiley is getting funnier every time I see her! SO CUTE!

My goal was to learn how to prepare the dinner this year. I started with mixing the stuffing (not Stove Top) Wednesday night. That's about as far as I got. They started the turkey early. They started the homemade rolls and I wasn't aware...anyway, it was SO yummy. Maybe next time...


While dinner was being prepared, all the "kids" (ranging in age from 32 to 11) went to the church to play games. Even my cousin who I thought had ZERO athletic talent had fun.


Kuso's friend and classmate who lives in California was also in St. George for the weekend. So we got together with him and his wife. We went to see Madagascar 2. SO FUNNY!!!!
Then spent time at another house for HOURS just playing pool and talking.


It worked out well that Kuso's friend's wife was having a family reunion
and the friend wanted Kuso to dance with him at the talent night.
That was fun watching everyone's talents and dancing.


Sorry....left my camera home so there are no pics to add to this.
Boring. I know.
Hope you all had a wonderful holiday.


I'm SUPER excited for Christmas this year!

NKOTB Concert

Saturday November 15, 2008...was the coolest and/or the lamest thing I've ever done. Take it for what it is. Yes, I went to the New Kids on the Block reunion tour. Yes. I paid money to see the old men sing and dance.

I was at the Marriot Center in Provo in 1990, and I swore if they ever did a reunion tour, I would be there, so, I made it to the E-Center in West Valley in 2008.

Despite the notable bad hair dye jobs, lame dance moves, and wrinkles on their faces that DEFINITELY were not there 20 years ago, the boys still put on a good show. Kapeka said it best, "I can listen, but I can't watch." They sounded great. Maybe they should invest in dance doubles to make the visual part of the show more appeasing.

Left to Right Above

Jon, Joey, Donnie, Danny, Jordan

Yes. I still know all their names. True fans do.

We had awesome seats. I hardly had to zoom to get this pic.

See #43? That's Jon. I was pretty sure I was going to marry him when I was younger.

Now, he is old with a bad dye job.

My brother said he hated me a little bit for going to the concert.

Hate me if you will, but hate is also a form of ENVY!!!???!!!

Halloween Weekend

This weekend, my brother Shawn, his wife Michelle, their daughter Kiley and my other brother Troy came in to visit from California. They all came in Thursday night, but Michelle came in Friday. Kiley and my parents came to my work party which was Kiley's costume debut. She was not very happy and the costume lasted about 3 minutes. After taking a nap, Kiley was in a better mood and was such a good cooperative girl for Trunk or Treat with my parents ward. She left the costume on all night and didn't even try to take it off! My mom made the costume all by herself! Adorable huh? That's my mom and Kiley going trick-or-treating above.

Saturday night we went out to dinner to celebrate Shawn's birthday that was on the 30th. We spent the night laughing our guts out over the STUPIDEST stuff, but it was fun. Sunday, my mom made turkey dinner before everyone had to go home.

It was so fun to have all of our family together for the weekend. I miss having my brothers here. Come back and visit soon!

Shawn and Kiley Trick-or-Treating

The neighbor kids.

Bella and her doll were witches and little Max was a turtle.

The other neighbor kid.

A pirate obviously...with peg leg, hook, and eyepatch included.

This is my mom's favorite pose that Kiley does.

She calls it her "supermodel pose."

Hanging out with Uncle Troy.

Kiley and Grandpa Vic waiting for dinner at the Outback Steakhouse.

Happy Birthday Nicholas!

Today Nicholas Voa Aiono turned 3! This is Kuso's older brother Levi's son. Hard to believe he is only 3 because he is about the size of a 5 year old! His birthday party was at a park near his mom's house. BBQ and a Thomas the Train cake with actual moving train on top! We were so excited to go spend time with Nicholas. We don't get to see him often enough. He is a wild boy, but is SO funny to watch.

We bought him this truck you see in the pictures, some clothes, and some shoes. He opened the truck first and was SUPER excited and started yelling "TRUCK! TRUCK!" Then he opened the shoes which happened to be "Thomas the Train." He saw the box and got SUPER excited again. But when he couldn't get the box open, gave up and went back to the truck. Mom ended up opening the clothes because Nicholas just wanted to play with the truck and was not interested in opening any more presents. He played with it NON-STOP for an hour and a half. Then we left the park. Who knows how much longer he played with it when he got home!

Uncle Kuso showing Nicholas how the buttons work.

One moves it forward. One moves it back.

One honks the horn. One sets the alarm.

One plays "Cotton-Eyed Joe" and the truck "dances" by moving back and forth.

Nicholas got the hang of it quickly.

Not enough that he knew which buttons he was pushing, but as soon as he heard the back-up beepers, he knew he needed to turn it around to let it go the way he wanted it to go.

He didn't like it when the truck went farther than he wanted it to go, so he would run in front of it, or stand behind it and yell at it to STOP! It was hilarious!!!

Whatever just happened, he thought it was AMAZING.

Hence the "Oh" on his face. He is so dang cute!

After playing with it for a while, he decided it was cool to push the button, then lay on the ground and watch it go. After it would stop, he would run to the truck, push the button, then run back to his original spot on the ground to watch it again. Who would have thought that one truck would entertain a 3 year old for SO LONG!!!

We were all pretty entertained watching him be entertained.

By the end of the party, he would push the music button.

When the song played, he would get up and dance.

Happy Birthday Nicholas!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!