good times with friends & family

Our family friend Tinni is getting married to Filipo's cousin Liuaki on January 29th in the Hamilton, New Zealand LDS Temple. Before she leaves she wanted our families to get together so that we could just hang out and have a good time together. They decided that we would cook food and eat on Friday. Even though it was pouring rain and so windy (POURING RAIN + HIGH WINDS=FREEZING COLD POLYNESIANS!!) we still had our feed in the pavilion. It was too cold but we had a nice time just spending time with each other. Congratulations to Liu & Tinni and wish you guys all the best.
'Ofa atu ki he famili.

manuia le kirisimasi

Filipo talking to
his family on
Christmas Day

Tafa Christmas tree
Little Alani aka Vito
opening our gifts on Christmas

Alani opening his
"community christmas gift"
aka
shoes in Chris's size so he can wear them too
haha

Finau getting his present!
Diapers!!
Hallelujah, those things are expensive!

It was our first Christmas as a family. We've been talking so much at church about starting traditions with your family and I wanted to start some but it seemed like everyone was too tired to do anything, we all just wanted to catch up on our sleep. There's always next year though! I do want to make it a tradition to read the Christmas story every year, open one gift on Christmas Eve, and find someone/family to give gifts to for the holiday because giving is the best part of the holidays!

I caved in three days before Christmas and bought us a 2 ft. christmas tree. It was the perfect size and since it was so cheap I would even be okay with chucking it in the trash and getting a new one next year :) Well Finau got a lot of Yankee baby stuff, dad's starting him early!! They also bought our family a new camera which was nice because the other one had the lense completely fall out and shatter at Iona & Nio's wedding so we were happy about that! They gave us board games too. I got clue and I had to smile because when I was nine, or about that age, I made my own clue game with cardboard and made all the pieces. It was kind of sad but I used that to play clue for so long. My parents offered to buy me a real clue game but I became attached to the homemade one I had for so long, I kind of miss it now.

Filipo gave me a samoan turtle shell bracelet that I really wanted and I love it. I printed off a picture of his entire family a while back and finally got it framed, it looks really nice and he was so happy about it. The best present for Filipo was the camera from my parents, for Finau it was his Yankee baby pacifier (and I think Filipo loved that too cos he didn't have to buy one now) but the best present for me was my parents paying my medical bills for my present. Thank you mom & dad, I love you.

Finau knocked out after opening presents
&
one of the first pictures we took with
our new camera

Our first Christmas as a family was nice enough but I did miss being around family members. I missed opening presents with all of the family and starting from youngest to oldest. I also missed eating my grandma's great cooking especially since Kulisi said we were going to have a mean as feed at his house after pixies and they had no food, what a BASTOS!! haha....As a sidenote Alani drew my name for pixies and bought me a toaster. As we're leaving he says "That's really good for the bagels yeah? I'll come and use it some time." lol, gotta love those boys.....

Our little Christmas tree
that we love

A Special Thanks to my mom:
Just in case you read this I want you to know how grateful I am for you. For some reason I have been thinking a lot lately about when you and dad were here and we all went to PCC to watch Filipo dance at the night show. You paid the $20 for each of our tickets so we could sit in the very first row that night. Filipo asked me to record so I spent the first half doing that. I went to change Finau and ended up staying up at the top. Filipo wanted the show recorded so I asked you to take care of it. I am sorry that I was selfish and I didn't even think about how you had paid for the extra money to sit down there and I spent half the show sitting at the top. I am sorry that you were there to enjoy yourself and I made you spend the time recording the show for us. I hope that you had a good time anyway. I love you mom, you're the best and I miss you so much. Thanks to dad and you for all you do for us, we love you guys and can't wait to see you again.

Christmas Time!

Washington, D.C. Temple Christmas Lights

Gingerbread house Hawaiian Style

[Washington, D.C. Temple at Christmas Time]

I'm gonna miss being home this Christmas especially with my family!
Merry Christmas Eve Mom & Dad
We miss & love you guys.

'Ofa Lahi Atu

Enna took this picture of Finau at church a couple of Sundays ago.
WE LOVE OUR LITTLE BOY, FINAU LEKA.
He is the best thing we could have ever asked for.

mali lahi

Filipo & Aulelei Saipa'ia

"Love season is in progress..."
Ou te alofa tele ia te oe

December is definitely the time for weddings around here. So many students get married especially with the Laie, Hawaii Temple closing for taha.valu months. That is a long time and we're all broke so no one has money to go anywhere else, even to Kona. So several of our good friends are getting married. So here's some photos from Nio & Iona Laulotu's wedding which happened on 12 Dec 08. Massive congrats to my uso brookie & sam, they got married on 17 Dec 2008! Also congrats to Jay & Candace Iafeta whose wedding we just came from. Candace looked amazing in her dress!!

Nio & Iona Laulotu

[[Happy Anniversary to us too, 'Ofa Lahi Atu Filipo]]
20 December 2007
(One year down, an eternity to go & I can't wait)

Tonga Blowholes

as we go on, we remember...

GRADUATION
BYU-Hawaii
13.12.2008
Laie, Hawaii

CONGRATS TO ALL THE GRADUATES!!
[Enna, Tinni, Cayla, Lita, Crissy, Teena, Kalo, Ana, Papa]

Our family with Enna Taulanga (Tonga)

Allie & Cayla Ho Ching-Latu (American Samoa)

The Saipa'ia Boys with Tinni Bailey "Tupou" (New Zealand)

Finau leka with Viliami Toluta'u, our uncle
(Pangaimotu, Vava'u LAhi, Tonga)

Saipa'ia Family

He LOVES us, you just can't tell here
he was way tired

timu.timu.timu

The water was crazy outside...

& as the storm raged outside, Finau just slept with pooh

When I was a freshmen at BYU-Hawaii during winter semester it rained pretty much for 90 days straight. We got over 70 inches of rain during those three months. It was so disgusting because everything would flood and it contaminated the water and people were getting sick over in Waikiki because of the sewer going into the ocean and all of the polluted water that people were coming into contact with. Today was almost like reliving it all.

We're living on the bottom floor of our building. I had slept in the living room Wednesday night because Finau & Filipo were taking up the whole bed and I just could not get comfortable. I feel asleep but all night I heard it raining and people outside but I didn't really think anything of it. At 8 AM I was walking out of my door to go to work and my boss calls and tells me not to go to work because it is so flooded. An hour or two later there were so many volunteers sand bagging our houses and trying to get the water out. It's amazing to me how people come together in a crisis. So Filipo went off to take his final but then after the teacher told them they had to come take it he changed his mind. Filipo went out to help and I watched Finau. Around 1 we went to eat and then I spent all day/night working in the Emergency Shelter as a volunteer.

It was sad to go over to our old building. Those apartments are below ground level so the water rose to the tops of their windows and flooded in and there was at least 7 inches in their homes. It ruined so many things. All over Laie it was waist deep or higher and people were out in Kayaks and boats. The important thing was nobody got hurt & the things that got ruined are just that, things.

plus i got an extra day with my family, that's what matters most to me!

After it was all over...

Malimali!!

We have been so busy with school, work & everything else we have going on that I have not had time to get on here as often as I would like. I mostly just update this for my family that's not here in Hawaii so they can read what's going on with us but since I've been so busy I haven't been getting on every time something happens lately.

First off my old roommate & one of my best friends here at school (Aofia from Samoa) little sister Flora got married on December 6 in the Laie, Hawaii Temple. I really wanted to go to the sealing but Filipo went with some of the guys from night show since Sekati dances too. We went after and took pictures. Here is one of Sekati & Flora. (As a side note I just found out that Sekati changed his name in the school records to "ROCK" as in "The Rock"-Dwayne Johnson just because people think he looks like him when he does that side eyebrow raising thing, AiSEA!!?!?)

So Filipo's sister's husband's cousin, whew...is leaving for Vava'u this Sunday so we're trying to make all these DVD for them. After church finished we went to the temple to take pictures and video but Finau got restless so we only took a few, mostly of Filipo since he's the camera hog!


t
a
h
Finau is getting so chubby but he sure is cute, I love him so much. He's been doing a lot of things for awhile. He rolls on his side, not all the way over but just on his side and he'll stay like that. It's too cute. He's been smiling for awhile but now he smiles and laughs all the time especially when he's with Filipo. Finau loves him and the two of them laugh and laugh when they're together. We had to go into town to try and correct his insurance and while we were waiting here are some pictures that we took of him smiling and laughing, such a handsome little guy!!





Here are some pictures of Finau wearing the BYU shirt that Filipo bought him. This is also the shirt that he wore to the wedding with swim trunks hahaha....I won't even tell you what size this shirt was ;)

Happy 2 Months KiNG FiNAU LekA!!

Finau will turn 2 months old in exactly 2 hours. Well I would like to stay up and post this blog at that precise moment, I am dead tired and have had little to no sleep while taking care of my sick guy for the past two days. So I am going to sleep. I just wanted to wish my little guy the best & when he looks back on this I hope he knows how much we love him.

just born

1 month

2 months old
&
already a
t.a.m.a.s.i.i l.a.h.i

P.S. I did my visiting teaching tonight and the message is so wonderful about Christ. I loved it especially since little Rayden died and someone was telling me today how nice his tangi was. They said everyone was bearing testimony of Christ & the plan of salvation. How lucky we are to have the gospel.