At Naomi's house the other day, I encountered my proudest moment as a Mother to date! My little Evianna appeared to me in this killer ensemble, compliments of Tia and Kalei. I got choked up within seconds of seeing her in this, and then she starts doing the hula! My camera was beyond dead, so I'm lucky I was able to get these four quick and blurry shots, but that's all I needed.

I realize not everyone knows this, but I've been a hula dancer since the age of 14. I convinced a BYU group to take me on while I was in Jr High and fell in love. The following year I was asked to join a "Professional" team (competitions & hired to perform at Luaus) We even performed for the 2002 Winter Olympics for fourteen straight days, all day long!

My last performance was an event in Orem when I was almost 3 months pregnant. For obvious reasons, I had to take a break and haven't been back since. I miss it so much!

Look at her hip action here! She's got it way out there. It's time I teach her first aparima, or by the looks of things, her first 'ote'a. (two styles of dances)

Ha, I never made that connection until this moment. 'Ote'a is the fast Tahitian dance where the girl's hips are swinging about at insane speeds. It's pronounced "Oh-teya" just like my own little oh-TEYA! Ironique, n'est-ce pas??

Our beautiful Teya Evianna finally turned two this month! I say finally, because she has been acting like a two year old for such a looooong time now, and we kept forgetting that she wasn't actually there yet. Teya honey, we love you so much that it's hard to begin putting it down in words. Where do I start? You're heart is so full of love and tenderness that you continually teach me how to be a better person. God was speaking of you when he admonished us to "become as a little child..." He was speaking of your kindness, thoughtfulness, innocence, willingness to forgive, unbiased love, meekness, and your pure soul. He was also speaking of the joy you are able to find in the everyday moments of life; you are able to see any object as one of beauty and inspiration.

(A picture of you on your birthday, wearing some big clip-on earrings and the necklace mommy wore on her wedding day.)

Your imagination is taking off right now. Your beaded necklaces have become snakes. An empty wrapping paper tube became your riding horse. There are friendly (and some scary) monsters living in our area... one in particular just outside your window likes to keep you up at night. Today your dry spaghetti stick started out as a sword, it broke and became a baton for leading me in song, broke again and became a pencil, even smaller now and it becomes a needle to fix mommy's arm, once again it breaks into a tiny little piece and it turns into a tool your Little Pony used to fix her car with.


Your smile has the ability to smother the worries that might be flying around in my head. Your smile reminds me of what's important and takes priority in life.



I still haven't had to seriously chasten you for being naughty, partly because you've figured out how to make me laugh while trying to be angry with you (without fail) and partly because you are so quick to see the error and willingly apologize for it. Your "softy-ness" may play a part too ;)

You're incredibly talented at copying anything I say or do. Your vocabulary matches that of most 3 and 4 year old vocabularies. You speak full complete sentences, always including new words from the day or one you have invented using a compilation of words. You must have the interest and passion for language just like your Mommy.

You love to sing! Your favorite song is "Trying To Be Like Jesus" which gets sung to you on average 30 times before you'll go to sleep every night. As a result though, you have a very cute and funny version you randomly sing throughout the day. Other favorites right now are: I Am a Child of God, Building a Birdie House, Twinkle, ABC's, Frère Jaques, Zipidee-Do-Da, and Punctuation. (Yes, you LOVE the Punctuation song ;)

It's hard to decide on my favorite thing about your little human self. I love your silky hair that falls into natural ringlets after the bath, no combing or styling necessary! I love your chunky legs and the one side of your toosh that is ALWAYS peeking out from your training pants...you still tear off all your clothes the minute we get back to the house. But mostly I love your big brown beautiful eyes. If I could create an impossible & perfect painting, I would do your eyes. They are telling and deep and intense; I can see the amazing woman you will grow to be by looking into your eyes.

Teya Nugget, I'm so glad you chose me to be your mom in this life. You're a blessing and a treasure. Thank you for bringing the strength of your soul into our home and for multiplying our joy immeasurably. I can't wait to see what this next year will bring and how you'll grow. Let the adventure continue....

This post is a tribute to all the maimed and injured fingers in the world. Over the course of one weekend, three friends, including me, destroyed one of our helpless little fingers.

Brandon, poor poor Brandon, with his hammer-smashed finger. Luckily they were able to glue the top back on at the hospital. Hopefully they don't mind the finger brace while he's filming in Portugal.

Sean, sweet innocent little Sean, with his razor-filleted finger. He was only trying to take out the trash, and that nasty tin-can lid had to tear his finger in half. But before you knew it, he was back from the ER at the Ward Party with a wrapped/braced finger ready to man the HD Photobooth.

Then Me, just me, foolishly rinsing off my new kitchen shears with my bear hands. Blegh! Just thinking of how to write the story gave me the gross chills as I relive that moment of slicing. In a flash my thumb had a cut down, well, pretty deep. In this case though, I didn't get the luxury of a hospital room and nurses catering to my side. Maybe it's just cause I am more manly or tough than the others, but a torn napkin and some scotch tape did the patching job just fine. This kind of bandaging doesn't last as long though, so it has to be replaced every few hours. In reality, it's because my injury was the least severe of all, and running to the ER sounded like more of a pain than it was worth. And those kitchen shears? I won them as the grand prize at Bunko last month ;)

So what have we learned from this treacherous weekend of finger maiming? Our fingers may seem tough, but they are really tiny and fragile. Treat them with care. It hurts when they get hurt. Use caution when hammering, trowing out trash, or cleaning knives. And play with your Bunko prizes gently & wearily. Here's to the wrapped bulky unusable fingers out there-- healing the wounds of life.
The ghetto bandage job. At least the tape was Scotch and not Duct... and I purposefully used my awesome pillow pattern as a background for the picture, to try and make it prettier.