Fa Family Reunion

This year the reunion was here in Mesa! The last couple times it was in San Fran and Oregon and we werent able to go. It was so much fun and great to see cousins and family that I havent seen in like 7 years! Not everyone was there... but I learned that with the 13 living siblings (out of 17 kids total) that my dad has, there are 56 grandchildren and close to 70 great grandchildren! Insane, right? And its all because of these 2:

Uaisele and Fangapulotu Fa

We started off the reunion with breakfast on Thanksgiving day. We came a little late and all the food was pretty much gone,except for keke (little sweet bread balls, deep fried..lots of yums) which are my favorite anyways. My parents and fam & aunt were in charge of food this day and they managed to produce ALOT of yummy food. I have never seen so many turkeys. Sorry about all the food talk but... reunion+thanksgiving weekend+tongans= a whole lot of food!

Here's the whole crew..

(dont look for me in here, we were riding the train when they did these pictures..but they waved to us! :))

FA 2nd generation

Thanksgiving night....

TALENT SHOW: These are my cousin Veni's daughters,

they are like incredibly gorgeous and they are great dancers. (look at that hair... jealous!)

my bro Vuna singing some Buble..

my nephews jamming it up ..jason mraz "I'm yours"

cute little evan

BBQ at the park on Friday...

cousin Veni, Evalesi, sister Ana Didnt my cousin Veni do an amazing job on the reunion shirts? He has twin boys that were born a month after my twins and so he made some shirts for Embry and Jasper. They took a picture of all the twins together but I dont have it.

my dad his siblings

(not pictured: Ane and Matui)

me, sione and my cousin Resa who I havent seen in forever! I love her!

2nd generation boys 2nd generation girls..

At the dance later that night.. me, Sione, George and Faron

I love how I didnt remember about the big turkey juice stain on my pants until after I re-wore these! my cute parents

Saturday morning was our last get together at my uncle Cary's house. They had a fry bread stand in their back yard and I mightve had a little too much. You gotta get a taco one and a honey one right?..no. I guess if you want 7 lbs in 3 days, which feels awesome by the way! This last meeting was SO much fun. They played a Fa trivia game 1st generation vs. 2nd generation and my aunties were cracking me up! The questions were like "What year did grandma and grandpa get married?" which I got wrong..It was 1940? I said 49..derr my dad was born in 44!

Anyways, afterwards my dad got up and was asking his own questions pretending he was going to give money to who answered right but really just wanted attention...so my dad! :) He was like "Who here has the most twins in the family...or who has the most grandchildren" which he doesnt. But then my auntie Betty got up and said "How many handicaps are in the family?" HAHA! And then my cousin said "Which uncle has had the most girlfriends?"(not my dad:) I was dying laughing! I guess you had to be there. But my family and cousins are hilarious, it was good times.

Here's a video of my cousin Sitiveni's daughters dancing...

embry's tv debut

Tonight as we were watching the Biggest Loser's "Where are they now" episode. It showed a flash of Embry! (eatin' watermelon)

He's kind of a big deal now.

I recorded it with my camera. I'm such a stage mom.

embry's girlfriend

Last night we watched my friend Amy's kids and I noticed Embry really does have a little crush thing going for Averie. He likes the polynesian girls, I guess. :) He never sits on the couch longer than 5 minutes usually. But he spent the night trying to impress her by jumping off the couch in front of her, finding someway to be close like putting his leg on her or sitting on her. What a flirt! My favorite part was how Averie just looked unimpressed with him the whole time.

Embry is so into thomas trains now. He loves these pj's and points to them and says "Poo Poo"

I'll say "Embry say Choo Choo" and he's say "no....poo poo"

(Heres a couple cute pics of Averie for Amy to copy:)

Jasper really is a vampire!

I heard two screams from the other room and in 5 seconds Jasper had bitten both Embry and Bastien! We got a little vampire on our hands. My mom said the only thing that stops them from biting all the time is to bite them back! ha!

(look at his arm) Poor Embs!

I found about 10 pictures of this ghostbuster dvd on my camera. It's funny how Bastien has little photo shoots like this.

We finally have a new addition to the Langford grandkids..and one that lives in AZ! Brian and Sarah had a little boy, Oliver last Wednesday. Bastien was so smiley when I told him he had another cousin.

edward lovin' is back.

one week, ONE week!

Edward still wins.

just some things....

These are just things the boys do lately that I dont wanna forget.

Embry and Jasper's bedtime ritual:

1. Put their zipper footie sleepers on backwards (the tape only worked 2 nights) So much for all their cute 2 piece pj's.

2. Fill their sippies with milk, find a binky for Embry.

3. Say "it's bedtime" and they actually both run to their room and start trying to climb in their cribs.

4. When I start to say prayers with them, they are usually laying down..but they both HAVE to sit up to fold their arms during the prayer. It's so cute. Jasper will even talk really cute like he's adding to the prayer.

5. Ever since I started tucking them in, they dont let me leave the room without doing it. Embry yells "Guck! Guck!" That's "Tuck" in binky language. And Jasper HAS to have the blanket tucked tightly under his feet before I can leave.

6. I used to try to get them to blow kisses to me when they were littler and now their cue to do it is everytime I start to leave the room. It's so cute how they BOTh do it at the same time, I love it! Usually during bedtime, I am just concerned with getting it over with so I can have ME time. Steven was in the room getting them to bed with me today and he pointed out how cute they were during bedtime. They are so dang cute! I need to stop and enjoy it more.

Bastien has had a few bad epsiodes lately with lots of meltdowns and just being plain grumpy to his friends. I dont want him to be a person who loses friends because he doesnt treat them right. And I dont ever want him to think it's okay to treat people like that ever. So I've been trying to think of things that might be causing him to be irritable (outside of the normal 4 yr old behavior)

And I know he can defintely eat better. He's the pickiest eater ever! It has been my hugest battle with him is getting him to at least TRY the food. He tells me everything is yucky. So I tell him well then you have to eat yucky food , because you cant eat hot dogs everyday. So I'm sure he could use a more well rounded diet.

Also I've noticed that he is mean to the babies mostly when he's watching tv and they disturb him, or when he just gets up from watching tv or playing on pbskids.org. Last Friday was so bad at the park with his friends. I wanted to cry. He was just constantly mean or would act out if someone had a toy he wanted, it was like constant. Usually it happens at least 1-2 times when we hang out with friends, but I had just reached the point where I was like, okay something HAS to change. A tempermental 4 year old is normal. But constantly being mean or grumpy is not. Especially when I know Bastien can be a great kid. He is awesome for me at home most of the time. He's sweet to his brothers and is such a big helper. One on one you would think Bastien was the sweetest thing ever, cause he is! And I want people to see that side of Bastien most of the time. Well I was trying to think if maybe I could cut out some things that trigger him turning into a grump. Like TV/computer time would be the main thing. Well, he hasnt watched tv since Friday and he doesnt watch alot of tv on the weekends anyways, but today he was mentioning it alot. So I told him there was lots of other things he could do like play with his trains or color and draw. Well it was his idea to start reading Stuart Little with me. I had bought the E.B White book at Bookmans a long time ago, planning to read it with Bastien, but we never did. It's a kid chapter book and it doesnt have alot of pictures. (I saw it was written in the 40's, so it's kind of weird and uses words we dont use anymore) But I was amazed at how long he'd sit there and listen to the story! I know its only been a few days but Bastien was SO nice to his brothers today. I didnt catch him hit or pinch them once and they played together for a long time, instead of him just sitting there watching curious george, Sid the science kid, super why..etc. I'm totally not saying that it's bad to have your kids watch cartoons. Hello I am the queen of turning on the tv so I can get stuff done. I'm just saying that maybe some kids cant handle it as well as others. Bastien being one of them. Now, TV and Movies are a big privelege and he has to earn it.

It's terrible when it's your kid who is the MEAN one and you try to think if it's something you are doing to make him that way. I dont have adult expectations from him, I know he's a 4 year old who will still probably have those days. But I just want people to know the Bastien I know! He's the best!

Trying to take a picture while watching tv...

...and not while watching tv:)

casa grande triathlon

Steven decided to sit this one out but brought all the kids to cheer me on. We woke up at 5am, it was that fun roadtrip kind of feel waking up all the kids. There were suprisingly alot of people there! The Payson tri was WAY smaller in comparison. I did this with my friend Nicole and a few other people in my ward were there. My brother Sione did the Dualthon (run bike run) since there were no more spots available for the tRi. The swim part was weird, people like 'snaked" through all the lanes, it was kind of good cause you felt like you had to keep up. But sometimes awkward to pass people, but good cause it kind of took my mind off how much more swimming there was to go. But bad because I gulped in a ton of water on my last 2 laps.

In a nutshell: good.akward.good. bad.

I was so disoriented getting out of the pool, and I was very aware of it, cause the audience was right there in front of me. My arm muscles were like jello trying to get out and I felt like someone should've yelled this.

"Summon the Kraken!"

Anyways, once I got to the bikes, I see that my lovely tire decided to go flat on me. It's one of those tires that needs an adapter for the pump, so I was looking everywhere for someone who had a pump with the tiny hole. I finally found one, pumped it up then wheeled it out..well I guess I did it poorly because before I could even get on my bike the tire was flat again. So I went back and pumped it up again really good. I was so nervous the whole time biking thinking the tire was gonna go flat, so it made me go as fast as I could the whole time just trying to get it over with before it did. Luckily it never did! The biking was so much better this time. No hills had something to do with it. When I was riding in I saw Steven driving and he was coming to make sure I hadnt gone flat. When I was done with the biking I thought I'm good I can so run right now. Then I got off my bike and my legs felt otherwise. They were like Insanely STIFF. Last time they werent this bad. Weird, too because the Payson biking was extremely difficult, but my legs felt okay when I was running. I just couldnt seem to get my legs to unstiffen the whole time. It felt like my legs wouldnt bend and I was going nowhere. I kinda walked/jogged the whole time. I havent really been running as much as I did before the Payson one. Not that I got a good time in Payson, but it felt easier to jog than today. When I was running to the finish, Steven yelled "Good job, and I didnt lose Jasper at all" I guess he lost him for a while and had to have the guy announce it. I'm glad I missed that!

Overall I had so much fun again. I still feel like i wasnt ready or any better than the last one. But it's fun to do something challenging. And it's fun to get a shirt! Especially a long sleeved one! :) Next time though I want to be way more prepared and feel like I did my best. And no more mountain bikes..I'm tired of you dumb roadies passing me! 'look at my tires, they're so skiNNy'

bIrThDaY

I'm 26! I dont want to be obnoxious and say I feel so OLD...but when I was 19 and first married, people who were around 26 seemed so much more mature (better word, right) than I was. And I dont really feel much older or mature. Anyways, my birthday week started on Halloween when Steven came home with these ugg boots for me! We can never hold out long enough to even wrap our presents!

I'm in love with these, I almost got them months ago. But it fell through and I had forgotten about wanting them. So it was a good surprise when Steven got them for me! Hopefully it gets cool again so I can actually wear them!

On my actual bday I went to Chandler Mall with my mom and sisters and we ate at Cheesecake Factory. I got the Chinese Chicken salad the 2nd time. It was one of those things that you see the waiter bringing to someone else, and you're like 'What is that, I want it?' But I never asked..so last time I ordered it and when it came to me, I was like 'this is that thing with all those white chinese noodles all over the top!' It was an exciting day.

Then Steven picked me up at my mom's and we got to start our date a little earlier than planned which is always fun. You better believe we went to Sprinkles cupcakes. I got a carrot, lemon and red velvet...greedy much? Yes, well I've been planning this for months. Then we walked around Scottsdale Fashion square mall. I scored some way cute necklaces at Claire's for 2 dollars each! And found this really cute Hurley sweater for 20, that was 60. I love finding things that you would actually want to pay full price for, but get them so cheap!

We closed up the night seeing this. It was pretty good. There were alot of cheesy parts. I guess I expected to laugh alot cause I love Jason Bateman and Vince Vaughn. I'd wait for DVD.

Oh and then I came home to a gift card to Victoria Secrets, from some awesome friends, thanks!

i aint 'fraid of no ghost

a ghostbuster ghost, a Ghostbuster, and a Staypuft Marshmallow man.

Steven thought that was Embry's real belly. I stuffed it. I shouldve taken a side picture.

We started the night off at the Berkey's house. We had mummy dogs for dinner. Nicole made a bunch of treats, pumpkin bread, caramel chocolate apples (yummm!), and we had some Witches brew out of a cauldron!

Then the kids played some games like:

mummify your daddy

and donuts on a string

Then we went Trick or Treating..and met up with some more friends!

Embry-staypuft, Averie-fancy bird, Lopaka- Plex from yo gabba gabba, Gunnar-storm trooper, Bastien-gB, Jorgen-pirate, Jappy-candy lovin ghost. ...look at Averie surrounded by all those BOYS!

So Jasper is a clingy kid. We know this. He's scared of mostly everyone. But as soon as he saw that these strangers were giving kids candy in their buckets....he was skipping around happily away from his mommy from house to house. What kids will do for candy!

After TorT we went to my parents house and hung out with the fam. They were all there, I love that!

So 5 of the boys in our family were ghostbusters, not planned.

Had to get a picture of the happy ghostbusters. Dont look too excited! It was cool seeing all of the variety of home made PROTON Packs.

Ana and Vuna did great jobs making theirs! They were so creative! Ana put packets that held "ghost slime" and put glow sticks in the guns to make them glow. and Vuna attatched ipod speakers to Wesley's so it would play the shostbuster song..cool huh?!

Cousins...Soakai, Lana, Tali, Maizi, and Ashley and Whitney

handsome little Peter pan

The twins were pretty pooped by the time we got to my mom's. And dirty! Embry mustve fallen in the dirt, street and rocks like 15 times while we were trick or treating. It started being hilarious when he'd fall because it was like every 10 seconds. (it didnt phase him..number one concern was More candy!)

By the end of the night Embry looked like a dirty, sticky roasted marshmallow.