Family. . . .Isn't It About TIME??

That's what this past weekend reminded me of. The commercial w/the punch line: 'Family. . . .isn't it about T.I.M.E??

My three little amigos earlier in the week getting their well checks

This is all Savou did @ the doctor's office. . .messed w/the door the WHOLE time. Lol

Sila all ready to get her well check before starting kindergarten :D

Baby Hoko being silly!! :D

With the craziness of school being back in session, this weekend was so nice to be able to wind down & enjoy the company of our families. Friday came & I was able to spend most of it getting things done for the kids. The younger three spent Wed & Thu @ my parents place cause I had class. I missed them so much, especially with Savou's new potty training adventure that he's been on. I had a feeling that Savou might go backwards on his potty training since he seems to have it set in his mind that he does whatever he wants when he's with grandma. So I was pretty worried. When we had to head to Salt Lake on Thu for the girls' dance practice, we picked up the three younger ones & came home with them since I didn't have class on Fri. I found them a pediatrician at McKay Dee Hospital where my OBGYN is located. I was on my way out of one of my check ups when I saw the sign & office for the kids. So I google'd it when I got home & called them up to see if any of the pediatricians were taking any new patients. And I got lucky cause out of the four there, only one of them was accepting new patients & it was only cause she's a new pediatrician herself. And they just happened to have an opening for Sila Friday morning.

Sila has had trouble hearing for a couple of years now. She had a hearing test done back in '09 & they determined that she had mild/moderate hearing loss. She needed to get tubes in her ears, but unfortunately we weren't able to at the time cause her Medicaid ran out & we didn't have any insurance. But she's back on it now so they were able to squeeze her in for an appt that morning so that she can get a referral from her pediatrician to see an ENT (ear, nose, & throat) specialist. By the time I got off the phone with the doctor's office, we had less than an hour to her appt. I was deep cleaning our home all the while making doctor's appointments on the phone so I hurried up & finished up my cleaning, rushed the kids through their breakfasts, & hurried them into the shower so we wouldn't be late. But we were still fifteen min late. Luckily they still took us. We got our referral & Sila now has her hearing test appt set for next week. Which right afterwards she will be seeing the ENT specialist. By the time we got home, I was ready for a nap. And so to my bed I went. But only for a short while cause the girls came home & we were off to Costco to get some CHEAP dinner. :D With all this EXTRA weight I've put on, it's no wonder I can't hardly keep my eyes open for long let alone be up & walking around much. Amazing what an extra thirty pounds will do to ya. Ugh. . . . .

With that said, I can't help, but throw this in on this post on how absolutely ANXIOUS I am to be in the last stretch of this pregnancy so I can finally get back on my workout routine. Being that I'm a student here @ Weber, I'm going to be taking FULL advantage of the fact that we have a state of the art fitness facility. And I'm going back to VARIETY. Swimming laps, water aerobics, zumba, running, weights & all that good stuff. :D I can't wait. Just talking about it makes me so happy & able to get thru the day. Especially with all the stair climbing I do on campus, it's quite depressing how out of breath it always leaves me. I'm not used to that kinda gasping for air. Lol. But I'm definitely gonna treat myself to a NICE pair of running shoes so I can make sure that I get the best results out of my workout sessions. :D

Anyways, we finally made it to my parents place. We weren't there too long before it was time to head out to my little cousin, Siale's, football game. He plays for Cottonwood High. It was so nice to be out. The weather was perfect. It was overcast & there was even a breeze that kept us all cool & made watching the game really enjoyable. The kids had a blast being out. We ended up leaving the game a little early cause Savou was ready to go. His two year old nature can't comprehend the MILLIONS of reasons why it's too dangerous for him to be playing on the bleachers so he found the exit & started heading for the van. Can you imagine?? An eight month pregnant woman trying helplessly to chase her two year old son down?? So not a pretty picture. But when he finally decided to stop, I caught up with him, walked back to call the rest of the tribe, grab our stuff & we were out. I told my parents that that was the LAST high school football game for us for a while. Little league we can do since they're always at a park on flat land. Much more safer for the likes of Savou. When we got back to my parents place, I was EXHAUSTED!! I had the kids change into their pj's, turned off all the lights, & we were all in bed ready to end another night. I can't even remember if we said prayer. I woke up to missed calls from Hoko that I didn't even hear, yet my phone was lying right by my ear & was NOT on 'vibrate.' Wow!! I was pooped, to say the least.

I did, however, wake up to Hoko's morning wake up call for me. Lol. He had to drive out to Atlanta to pick up a boat for work. It's about a two hour drive from where he's at now. And by the time he called me, it was 8 am my time & he was already on his way back to South Carolina. He said he figured that I was tired since I didn't answer the night before so he wasn't sure if I was up yet. But he knew that I needed to go cake shopping with my mom for Savou's birthday next weekend. So I got up & my mom was already up & ready. We headed out the door & my mom said for us to go by McDonalds so she can buy hot cakes for the kids to eat. She's seriously the BEST!! I love being with my parents. After we dropped off the kids breakfast, we headed to a bakery downtown. I don't even know what it's called cause it has a french name & it seems so fancy. But my mom loves going there for their variety of desserts they have available. We decided to have breakfast there & we were able to just talk about things that are going on in our lives. It was very refreshing. After that my mom asked which cake I wanted to taste test & I told her so she paid for a slice for the both of us to share. Which btw, we weren't able to finish even half of it cause we were so stuffed. But we made a decision on his cake & she ordered it & it'll be ready for pick up Saturday morning. Once we got back to my parents place, I had to run to Walmart to pick up a bday gift for my handsome nephew, Lucky. He was having a pool party right down the street from my parents house which was so convenient. We had such a blast celebrating his party with our families. I don't think my kids ever got out of the pool. Even Savou has become a pro at knowing that he can float with his life jacket in the deep end so he wasn't scared at all. He was floating from one end of the pool to the other. Paddling his feet & arms like he was a seasoned swimmer. :D And I was such a PROUD mom. I kept following him around everywhere & even got in the pool so I can swim with him, but he was not having it. He sternly claimed his independence & while it's the cutest thing in the world, it's also the saddest. :( He's growing up too fast. But I guess no complaining cause we do have another little one on the way. And I'm getting really excited for the arrival of our little boy. :D I can't say that I've felt that way the whole time. It's been quite the opposite. But I'm grateful to have been able to get thru my not so happy days & onto some brighter ones. Thanks to the eye opening conversations I've had with my husband on more than one occasion. :D

After Lucky boi's bday party, we made our way back to Ogden to prepare for the sabbath. And I don't know how it slipped my mind that we had stake conference. But it did. In a way it's kinda good that I forgot cause I probably would've taken advantage of the fact that there was no church & stayed at my parents house another night so I could relish in the fact that I wouldn't have to cook. And also that my kids & I can actually enjoy a home cooked meal since that term is pretty much foreign in my household right now. Which is pretty sad cause my kids are feeling the full effects of it. They are so not used to eating out or eating whatever's in the kitchen, ie., bread, saimini, cookies, crackers, nothing. . . . . .I think we're all anxiously anticipating the day I have the baby for our family lives to get back to some kind of normalcy. But we're also SUPER excited & can't wait to see what baby #7 looks like. :D

Things weren't looking too promising this morning when I woke up to the clock on my cell phone reading 8:00 am. I grabbed the reminder flyer that I got from church last Sunday to see what time stake conference was starting & it said 9 am. I was like, UGH!! We're not gonna make it. But then I heard a voice in my head saying to get the kids ready & go. You will be hearing from an apostle of God & you need as much instruction as you can get. Especially when it's specific to your stake. Take your kids. I immediately got out of bed & started waking the kids up. We quickly got ready & headed to the Browning Center at WSU where our conference was being held. We were about twenty min late, but we made it nonetheless. After treading the four flights of stairs, we finally got to our seats up on the balcony where they were sending all the late comers. I packed the kids' snacks, notebooks, crayons, pencils & pens so that they would be occupied while I tuned in to the messages that were being shared. And all was well for the most part. Until Savou got antsy & wasn't trying to sit still. So Aaliyah & I took turns taking him out for the last fifteen min or so. Not too bad. Once conference came to an end, I snapped a couple of pictures of the kids & then we headed home. The kids ate their leftover nuggets & fries from the night before & I headed straight for my bed for a nap.

A couple of hours later, I got a call from Hoko. He said that him & Norman went to visit Maile in North Carolina after church since he wasn't going to be coming home for Labor Day weekend. They spent the day out there with him & then he called me once they were back. We talked about everything that I got out of conference & he told me about their sacrament meeting. He said how it's the only day out of the week that he truly feels at home because of the fact that the church is the same everywhere. He loves being able to have that piece of home with him & it's his favorite day of the week. Wow!! Definite progress for us & I'm grateful to him for making these kinds of decisions in his life. I have to say that we've definitely come a long way & I know we've got so much more to go, but I'm so excited to be sharing this journey with the man of my dreams. He fulfills every need of mine & goes above & beyond the call of duty in his role as a husband, father, provider, priesthood holder, friend, brother, son, member of society & so forth. It's taken years of growth, trust & constant work to be able to get to this point in our lives & I love him so much. I really feel as if I'm able to overlook all the petty things, the judgements that used to come so easily are so foreign now & the absolute love I had for him in the beginning & all the good that made me fall for him in the first place are right in front of my face once more. And the thing that's stuck in my head is the constant reminder & evidence of the love between siblings. It never fails time & again the love that I see between my husband & his siblings. Every family has their ups & downs & this family is not an exception, but the love they have for each other is very much Christ like. When I see them interacting with each other, they overlook all the flaws & are able to see ONLY the good. And I love it. They remind me of how I should be. They humble me & help me to see my husband thru their eyes. Thru the eyes of the Savior. And I love them all the more for it.

Well, it's been a busy, but very fulfilling weekend. I'm grateful for all our families & friends in our lives. They are a great support system & we feel extremely blessed to be so close to them all. :D Til next time. . . . .