birthday boy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FINAU JR!!

This is the most ridiculous dinosaur I've ever seen but everybody loved the cake...it was chocolate and vanilla cheesecake something....

This photo was actually taken in Pangaimotu when we visited Tonga and totally has nothing to do with this post but I forgot to include it with the last one. If you're tongan than you know that's Tinitini and that would be enough but since most of my family reading this isn't tongan....let's just say he's the funniest guy in all of Tonga and every single Tongan in the whole world knows him.....so naturally we had to get a picture with his brand new bus and plus Finau is wearing his Liahona shirt that the Tonga kids gave him...

Man our little man is not so little anymore. Every day I look at him and I realize how big he's getting and how sooner than we think he's gonna be off on his mission, getting married, and having his own kids. It really makes you treasure every moment you have with them and according to the doctor at Finau's current growth rate he's gonna be 6'8 by the time he's 18....must be from his real dad's side hahaha....kidding!! Everyone else wants him to be a rugby star or a football player for byu (seriously when we were at our family beach house one of our family friends every five seconds kept telling everyone they had to protect the future all star since he's gonna be the money maker in the future...it was funny at first but they said it ALL THE TIME) but my dad and I decided we're training him to be a future YANKEE! He loves baseball and plays every day so we're off to a good start.

This picture is of Lina and Finau. She's the daughter of Filipo's bishop from his home ward in Tonga and now they're going to school here at BYU-H....and Filipo loves it.

Onto the whole point of this post....Finau turned 2 on October 2nd! I told Lipo we weren't gonna do a big feed just a small cake and ice cream with us and one of our cousins but of course they had other plans. Filipo's cousins spent the afternoon cooking all of these different foods and I kept thinking it was too much but within three hours all 10 foil pans of food were gone. Never underestimate the tongan boys when they eat. Good thing they came over or else I probably would've thrown the leftovers out. We just had a cake from costco and since I don't have a camera these are the pictures that our friend took of Finau and his cake.

Manuia lou aso fanau to the main man in our life....love you long time finau leka

major slacking

Finau watching the butterflies in my parent's front yard

I have been sooooo bad about blogging for the last year. Actually I've been really good I just haven't been publishing my posts because what's the point without pictures??? Nobody wants to read through a novel.....anyway long story short most of our photos were on the laptop which just stopped working for no reason one day so I've been blogging but not publishing just so I'd have something to remember what we've been doing because keeping a journal has been so not happening this year. Anyway my family really wants updates on our life and have been bugging me about blogging so I guess old photos or cell phone photos are just gonna have to do for now. We haven't been up to much this year except beach, being so lazy and watching movies with friends all day for the first five months of 2010. In June we went to Tonga for a month and loved every minute of it! So good to see family again and give them a chance to meet Finau Leka(the most favorite and most handsome grandson in the entire family)
Here's a couple photos of Finau at school. He went the entire time we were in Vava'u and loved it. I can't wait to get back to the island cos he is going back to school pronto so I can get back to cleaning my house and not being lazy all day watching movies. It was sad coming back to hawaii because the lifestyle over there is so different but it's so easy to live the right way....I can't really explain it....I just love living in a place that's not so caught up in having material things and actually has a law that all the stores have to be closed on Sundays and everybody actually uses the day to go to church and spend time with family. Anyway it was a nice break and then it was back to reality, back to late nights with our sick little man, long days at the hospital getting asthma/pneumonia/flu treatments, just quality time with me and nau and filipo gone all day working hard to earn our rent money.

Filipo started school and then Nau and I got the best surprise of the entire year. We got to have a little vacay back to F'burg/Washington, D.C./New York City/Outer Banks/Palmyra, NY! It was so much fun and we loved every minute. It was hard not having Filipo there when Finau got sick but we had a blast just spending time with Mum & Dad, visiting all the tourist places back home, and living in a house WITH AIR CON and WITHOUT UKU's[the best part by far!!], cockroaches, geckos, biting ants, rats, wasps, bees, and every other thing we have hiding in our little tva apartment back home. My family is DIE HARD YANKEE'S FANS FOR LIFE so here's some pictures of our trip to the new stadium in the Bronx....loved it!! Thanks mom and dad for taking us and buying tickets!!!

After the game...Finau loved it

With our favorite pitcher, Mariano Rivera #42!

Even if you're not a Yankee fan you have to admit that's the best shirt....so cute

We spent most of the time at the house playing outside and going for walks or swinging on the front porch swing but here's a few pics of that:

At the National Zoo...which would have been better if they actually had some interesting animals but anyway....
Checking out his future house lol
Chasing the birds and trying to play baseball

After a month and a half of that Filipo said we had to get back to tva so back we went in time for Nau's 2nd birthday. Had probably the second most horrible day of my life due to Finau's illness and difficulties with flying [ask me about the rude swedish people on my flight...so irrits] and spent some time on Maui in the hospital and then got stranded there and had to call a cab and then when we finally got to oahu they lost our bags so we had to wait around for that too....it was a long journey back and sorta good/sorta bittersweet....
so now we're spending our days soaking up the hawaii sun during our beach sessions for the most part and for the other 75% we're at home watching movies...haha...just kidding....

Oh, Filipo will be graduating in December 2010 with a degree in Mathematics and Education from BYU-Hawaii. So we're spending most of our days lately filling out visa apps and hoping to have some of our tongan family over for a couple months...we'll see how that goes. So we'll be getting kicked out of tva December 20 and either moving to Tonga via New Zealand or heading to mainland for six months and then onto New Zealand/Tonga. Either way I'm going with Finau to New Zealand to get some kiwi chocolates....delishhhh well the licorice not so much the peanut slabs.....but i actually kinda like the meat pies now but still not a fan of meat.....anyway off topic but hopefully this suffices for my aiga and i'll try and keep all of my famz updated from now on.

Halloween Laie Style

MY SPIDER UKU BOY!! Love you Finau Leka!!

Kaloni in her Mulan outfit

Finau with the fighter pilot and Soni

The TONGA Family kids
Kaloni, Nelson, Dorothy

After a long night of trick-or-treat

Action shots...

SHERIFF FINAU

Before we started and we were still smiling
because our feet didn't hurt

Dorothy & Nacho about to fly away in the
tornado, look at that cape fly :)

Nacho & Mulan

Before the ward party

NACHOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I just thought this was a funny pose

Yes, that is Spider-Man & Jesus....lol
Malachi as a jedi and Finau as spiderboy

Everyone else got candy at the booth
but Finau got a whistle that we spent
all night whistling and annoying the
neighbors with

Finau celebrated Halloween for the first time today. Yesterday he wore his spiderman costume that Grandma & Grandpa Weber sent him to our ward party. He also wore it to the school activity they had. He was super cute. He ended up sleeping in it and when we went to town today we just woke him up and he wore it all day today. Everybody kept telling us he was so cute and they just wanted to eat him up. So for Halloween today Finau and I went with two of the Tongan ladies to a swap meet they have in Pearl City. I've never been to this one before and it's a good thing because I'd probably be broke. It's basically everyone coming and selling their stuff and most stuff isn't new like the one at Aloha Stadium. They had so many really cheap toys and clothes and so our friends bought Finau this little piano with a seat. I also spent some money buying Disney movies and a couple videos for Filipo. After the swap meet we went to Wal-Mart looking for a mat for our house.

As a side note the girls at night show that Filipo works with really wanted to dress Finau up as NACHO LIBRE. I ended up going around Wal-Mart getting stuff for his costume so I could sew it and he could wear it to our friend's ward party. Who knew finding baby blue tights and red socks would be so difficult. We also bought him some cowboy boots so he could wear those when we went around Laie in his Sheriff outfit.

We came home and I had to rush to pull Finau's costume together. It turned out alright for a last minute thing. He was so cute and EVERYBODY knew who he was. They kept asking to take pictures of him so I'm glad our last minute planning was a success. After the party we walked around Laie and went trick-or-treating with some of the tva kids. It was so long and we were so tired. I think if I take Finau in the future we're only going down one road and going home.

We had a lot of fun and I'm glad Finau had a good time with some of the kids even though he didn't really know what was happening. It was still a fun experience for him.

Happy Birthday BIG BOY!!

His birthday clothes from
his Aunties Krystal & 'Ana

The line for the food.
It was so good!!

Blowing out his candle in his tongan outfit,
thanks to Siutiti

Some of the TVA kids that hang out with Finau



The table with his birthday cakes from
Aunty Sheila & 'Ava

Turning one is a big deal in Polynesian Families....or so I've been told. I've seen a lot of Hawaiian kids having these huge parties with bands and music and feasts all for a little kid. I didn't want to spend heaps of money but everybody knows and loves Finau so I knew we had to do something even if it was just our family. Once everyone found out he was turning one they all volunteered to help out. There were so many people that helped so I don't want to exclude anyone but I do want to say thanks to Uncle Viliami for blessing Finau. He always takes care of Filipo since he's so far from home and he's the family member that we live closest too. When Finau was born he let us have a feed at his home and we're so lucky that he takes care of Finau the same way he does Filipo. I always want to thank all those that came and brought Finau gifts. He loved the toys and his dad loved the money so a big MALO 'AUPITO to all those that came! Like Filipo told me, "WE EITHER GO BIG OR DON'T HAVE ANYTHING AT ALL" That's basically the reason we had a big feed and it was nice spending time with all our friends and family. We love you Finau Leka and we're so lucky to have been blessed with a son like you. You're definitely the highlight of our day and our life, we love you heaps!!

Finau turns one!

October 2, 2009 Finau Falanike Saipa'ia celebrated his FIRST BIRTHDAY! He was so sick though that it's a good thing we're having his party next week so that hopefully he will be feeling better by that time. Filipo stayed home with him all day while I went to my classes and work. We went to the doctor and got some medicine for him and then we went back home. We finally got an air conditioning unit in our house but it doesn't even make the room cool so I'm going to take it back on Monday. If I'm paying $40 on my rent for the unit then it better work! After that we put a candle in a piece of cheesecake and sang Happy Birthday to him and then he blew out the candle. That night my aunt and uncle (my dad's little sister) came to visit. We all went on the Haunted Lagoon ride at PCC (not Finau since he was sick) and that was fun. It was nice to just talk and catch up since it's been a year and a half since I'd seen them last. They were really happy to meet Finau but he wasn't really happy to meet them. Once he's not sick they said they'd fly out to meet him for real since I told them he goes to anybody and then he'd go to them. After they finally left we met up with Filipo at one of the Tongan Families homes and ate cake and sang to Finau. Once I post the video everyone will be laughing. Finau was sleeping while we were singing to him and you can see him struggling to open his eyes to see what's going on. It was so funny. After that finished we came home but his breathing got worse. At 2 a.m we drove to Castle Hospital in Kailua. We went to the Emergency Room and spent all morning there and finally got home at 7:00 a.m. They had a little chair thing to take his x-rays and they said most babies cry but Finau loved it, he didn't cry at all. I think he was just too tired from crying to really do anything anymore. That was pretty much how we spent his birthday. I just wish it could have been a more pleasant experience for him instead of him being so sick. The good thing is this morning we took him to the Tonga Family so they could watch him while we slept. They gave him some Tongan medicine and he threw it all up along with all the mucus so now he's sleeping really well. Hopefully he's as good as new by the time his party comes around next Sunday. Thanks to Mom & Dad for his birthday cards/birthday packages and Aunty Kilo & Aunty Ana for his new clothes!! He loves it all and is so lucky to have all these people to spoil him!!

Haunted Lagoon

Going through the haunted lagoon ride
(Those five girls throwing up the shakas on the second to the last
row were the ones scared out of their minds and screaming
like little kids. Of course the guy next to Uncle Joel
kept trying to push him into the water because their little
kids were pushing into them.)

Right before we went on the ride

Yesterday my Aunt Susan and Uncle Joel came to visit from Virginia! It was so nice to see some family. Besides my grandma and parents they're the only ones that have visited me and it's been a year since family came so it was nice to see someone from home. They came over and were able to finally meet Finau. Since he was so sick he wasn't very happy to meet anyone but then again Aunt Susan said it's hard enough for them to get their own kids to come to them lol...Always the funny ones their family. So we chatted for a while at the house and then we headed over to PCC to go on the haunted lagoon ride. It was fun even though I thought the whole thing was kind of lame. I just kept thinking about how nasty the water is and I couldn't really be scared by anyone because I kept thinking how they're all gonna be in the hospital at the end of the month from skin rashes. We all wanted to sit together but they shoved us onto the small spaces they had on the ride before us. We all got separated and I was worried about the youngest girl. These teenagers were all sitting on top of her and they said the reason they were doing that is because they were "trying to protect her and keep her safe". I kept telling them to get off of her because they're just crushing her little body and not keeping her safe. Thankfully she didn't get too scared and was okay at the end of the ride. It was so good to have some family come for a visit and I was so happy to see them! If Finau was better he would have loved it too. Thanks for the visit!! Oh yeah they asked Nelson if he was named after Finau's great-grandpa Nelson Ellsworth and he kept saying "Yes!" So he was a definite winner with them!

CHEESE!!!!!!

Just a little photo of Finau and his teeth. He's got 8 right now and two more coming in & he sure loves to show them off since he's ALWAYS SMILING! Love you bubbaz!!